Deeper than the Night - By Amanda Ashley Page 0,69

of it.

She heard Barrett leave the room, and she opened her eyes again, her gaze resting on Alexander's face. How did Barrett know how much of a sedative to administer to Alex without killing him? What if Alex was allergic to the tranquilizer? What if a second transfusion of his blood didn't produce the desired results? What if it did? Would the two of them spend the rest of their lives locked in this room while Barrett grew rich off their blood?

She felt a hysterical urge to laugh. Talk about vampires!

"Alex? Alex, can you hear me?"

Restless and afraid, she glanced around the room. They'd moved the two of them while she was unconscious, she noticed absently.

She frowned as the room began to grow brighter. And then she felt her breath catch in her throat as she spied the long, narrow skylight directly above Alex.

The sun was rising.

Morbid images filled her mind, images of Dracula slowly aging and disintegrating when exposed to the sun. But surely things like that didn't happen in real life.

"Barrett! Barrett!" She screamed his name again and again, her voice echoing off the walls, ringing in her ears, but no one came to answer her cries.

She stared at Alex, saw his hands clench as a narrow ray of golden sunlight streamed through the skylight to rest on his face. He groaned softly, his head turning from side to side in an effort to avoid the light.

"Alex? Alex, can you hear me?"

He turned his head toward her, regarding her through eyes clouded with pain. I . . . hear. . . you. . .

"The sun, what will it do to you?"

It. . . weakens me . . . negates. . . my powers . . .He drew a deep breath in an effort to fight off the darkness that hovered around him.

"It won't . . . It isn't. . . ?" Unable to voice the thought aloud, Kara licked lips gone suddenly dry. What if it killed him?

Not fatal,Alex said, perceiving her thoughts. Only painful . . . like fire . . .Unless he was weakened by an excessive loss of blood. Then the sunlight could be lethal. But he couldn't tell her that, not now, when her eyes were filled with fear.

Kara gazed deep into Alexander's eyes, and suddenly she felt his pain as if it were her own, felt the sun burning his skin, felt it draining his energy, his will to live.

"This is all my fault," she whispered brokenly. "If I'd been stronger . . ."

No . . . my fault . . . should have expected. . . He closed his eyes as a violent tremor wracked his body. He could feel the sunlight warming his blood, making it flow hot and heavy through his veins. His skin felt tight and dry, like charred paper.

"Alex? Alex, answer me!"

The sound of her voice speaking his name soothed his torment, but he lacked the strength to form a reply. As from far away, he heard the sound of footsteps. Barrett's voice giving orders. The sting of a needle pricking a vein in his arm, the sensation of blood being drawn from his body.

Summoning what little energy he had left, he turned his head to the side, saw his blood flowing through a long narrow tube into a vein in Kara's arm.

The sight, its significance, sickened him. Filled with regret for the misery he had caused the woman he loved, he closed his eyes again and plunged into the waiting darkness.

He regained consciousness slowly, and with the return of awareness came the knowledge that Kara had betrayed him. No one else knew the devastating effect the sun had on him. No one else knew that he was inhuman, or that his blood was different from that of anyone else on the planet.

Too weary to open his eyes, he let his senses probe the room. Even in his weakened state, he knew that he was alone, and that it was night. The metal table beneath him was cold; his skin felt blessedly cool.

Time passed. After a while, he opened his eyes and glanced around the room. It was stark and white, bare of furniture or decoration save for the table on which he lay and a metal cart that held a number of needles, swabs, a scalpel, and several other instruments. The room had a single door, no windows save for the skylight over his head.

A sigh of resignation escaped his lips as he gazed at the skylight.