Deeper than the Night - By Amanda Ashley Page 0,65
head, you'll regret this night as long as you live."
Kara hovered on the edge of awareness. Voices penetrated the darkness voices that sounded loud, then faded away. She felt the sharp prick of a needle in her arm as someone drew blood. Her head hurt. Nausea roiled in her stomach. There was a bad taste in her mouth.
She swam through layers of darkness, but, try as she might, she couldn't open her eyes. She cried Alexander's name, but no sound emerged from her lips. And then she felt the sting of another needle and she was falling, falling into a deep black void . . . .
She felt better when she woke the second time. She took several deep breaths to clear her head, opened her eyes, and wished she hadn't.
She was in a stark white room. White walls. White floor. White sheets on the hard, narrow bed.
She tried to sit up, and realized her arms and legs were strapped to the bed.
"No. No!" She tried to fight the terror that rose up within her as she saw a rack of glass vials on the table near the door.
Vials filled with blood.
Her blood.
Kara closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to control the fear surging through her. Barrett had found her again. It all came rushing back. She'd been sitting in the car, waiting for Alex, when two men had appeared at the window. She had locked the doors, but to no avail. One of the men had calmly broken the window of the Porsche and unlocked the door, then held her immobile while the second man held a rag over her nose and mouth. She hadn't even had time to scream.
"Alex will find me. Alex will find me."
She murmured the words over and over again in an effort to shore up her flagging spirits. He loved her. He would find her.
Her hands clenched into fists as she heard footsteps outside the door, and then Barrett was striding into the room, his face a mask of annoyance as he pulled a syringe from his pocket.
Kara glanced at the numerous vials on the table. "Haven't you already taken enough blood?" she asked caustically.
Barrett glared at her. "What have you done?"
"Done? What do you mean?"
"Your blood's not the same as it was."
"I don't understand."
"That makes two of us, I'm afraid." He jabbed the needle into her arm, frowning irritably. "The last time I injected a little of your blood into a diseased lab rat, it recovered in a matter of minutes. This time there was almost no change."
"I should thinkthe answer would be obvious," she retorted with more courage than she was feeling. "Apparently the magic's worn off." Hope flooded her as she realized what that meant. If her blood had returned to normal, Barrett wouldn't need her anymore.
"Have you been sick? Had a high fever? Anything?"
"No." She met Barrett's gaze. "Can I go home now?"
"Not until I get some answers." Barrett withdrew the needle, then stood beside the bed, staring at Kara thoughtfully. "You said you'd given blood before and it was always normal, so whatever induced the aberration must have been caused by the blood you received while you were in the hospital."
He ran a hand through his hair, then began to pace the narrow confines of the room. "The blood you received in the hospital came from your grandmother and the neighbor woman," he said, thinking out loud. "I gave you a transfusion of their blood today while you were unconscious, but neither effected any change."
He stood beside the table, staring at the blood samples. "Did anyone else give you blood while you were in the hospital?"
"No, of course not. How could they?"
"Yes, how could they?" Barrett turned to face her. "You called for someone while you were unconscious," he remarked thoughtfully, and then he swore. "Alex. Alexander." He nodded, obviously pleased. "It was Claybourne, wasn't it?"
"Why would he give me blood? I hardly know the man."
"Your sister said she once thought he was a vampire," Barrett remarked, thinking aloud. "I wonder why."
"That's ridiculous."
Barrett shrugged. "Maybe. And, the lab technician. He said the man who knocked him out had superhuman strength, that he closed the door without touching it."
"You're a doctor. Surely you don't believe such nonsense."
"You'd be surprised at what I believe in," Barrett retorted. "That was Claybourne's car you were in when Kelsey found you, wasn't it?"
"No." Kara shook her head. "No."
"He's the key, isn't he? The missing part to the puzzle."