Brad said behind her. “I’ll have it brought around right away.”
Okay, maybe it just wasn’t nice enough to leave right in front of the house. But I didn’t give anyone my keys, Barrie thought uneasily. Instead of saying it aloud, she thanked him and walked down the stairs to the curb to wait.
The door closed at the top of the stairs, and darkness surrounded her. The estate was remarkably quiet; she could hear the rustle of wind through eucalyptus leaves and night bird sounds in the tops of trees, and there were stars, actual stars, appearing in the sky, not something anyone saw too often in the city.
She heard a flipping and splashing somewhere nearby, and turned to look. Beside the roundabout of the drive there was a large pond, apparently stocked with fish; as she watched, she saw one leap, glimmering briefly in the moonlight before it splashed back into the water.
She walked closer to the pond and looked down at the moon on the water, and thought back over the strange interview.
DJ’s feelings toward Johnny could at best be described as ambivalent; even fifteen years dead, Johnny obviously still inspired some serious jealousy. It couldn’t be easy for an actor to still be trying to compete with a tragically dead young star.
But could DJ have killed him? Would he have?
At the time of Johnny’s death, DJ had been only sixteen years old himself. Sixteen-year-olds were capable of murder; gang shootings proved that far too often. But movie stars rarely killed other movie stars.
Most movie stars aren’t vampires, either, she reminded herself. And just as she thought it, she felt the brush of air against her face as something swooped by her.
Something huge.
Barrie stumbled and spun in a panic, her breath catching in her throat as she stared up into the dark night.
The stars glittered above and the wind was light and teasing, but her bloodstream was flooded with adrenaline, the ancient fight-or-flight instinct. She wasn’t alone. She could feel someone watching, could feel eyes on her skin as if she were being watched from a high vantage point.
She turned to run back toward the house, but the invisible creature whooshed at her again, a large, live, breathing force, this time barely missing her.
Barrie didn’t think, didn’t scream, she just ran. She felt the push of air beside her again, this time accompanied by the warmth of breath on her neck, such a crawly feeling she would have screamed if she weren’t so intent on fleeing.
Her winged attacker circled, forcing her away from the house, toward the eucalyptus grove.
She ran and threw a look over her shoulder, her heart plummeting as she saw her pursuer for the first time, a big winged thing, an enormous dark shadow like an ancient pterodactyl.
Vampire.
Barrie felt low desert scrub scratching at her bare legs, drawing blood as she ran.
So not good, she realized; the vampire would only be more aroused by the scent.
She ran harder, heels pounding in the sand, scanning the dark frantically for someplace to take refuge. To the right of her there was a gulch, an amazingly authentic desert ravine, with sandstone cliffs and a dry riverbed, saguaro cactus and the towering shadows of Joshua trees.
She knew she had to shift, to buy herself some time with camouflage, but it was hard enough to shift or even glamour when you were standing still, much less when you were running for your life.
Still, she forced herself to focus on her astral body, fixed the image of a moth in her mind, something small, insignificant to the huge creature pursuing her....
And as she was concentrating...she ran straight into someone who grabbed her with strong arms.
Mick.
He pulled her down against the nearest boulder, shielding her with his body.
Barrie could feel the warm sand under her legs and hands, and Mick’s strong body tense beside her, protective and pissed.
She leaned into his shoulder, gasping for breath, and looked up into the sky, scanning for the vampire. The night was black and the stars were bright, and the wind flowed and whispered around them, but she could see nothing, hear nothing. Mick’s arms were tight around her, and she could feel his heart racing against her back.
“I don’t...see it,” she whispered. He rested his chin on her head and said nothing.
But after a prolonged moment of silence, he unfolded himself to stand, pulling her up with him.
“Out of here. Now,” he ordered. He pulled her along the boulders in the direction of the front drive,