The Last of the Red Hot Vampires - By Katie MacAlister Page 0,16

purpose. His skin was darker than that of an Anglo-Saxon, a warm, rich color that hinted at an exotic heritage. Gleaming black hair swept back from a widow's peak that no doubt had women swooning to run their fingers through the silky black curls. For a moment my fingers itched to do just that, but the thought died just as quickly as it had been born.

"If I answer your questions, will you leave?" I asked with a resigned sigh.

"Portia! You don't have to be rude!"

I gave her a look that should have made it clear what I thought of such a ridiculous statement, but years of close acquaintance have made Sarah immune to such things.

"I begin to think that there might be more here than I anticipated," the man answered. "But I will swear to you that I mean you no harm."

I hesitated a moment, weighing my options. It was true that the noise from the busy pub below would drown out any screams for help that we might make, but we weren't completely helpless. There was the fact that we were two against his one. If push came to shove, I could fling myself at the man while Sarah made her escape to bring help...except I wasn't so sure that in her present hypnotized state of mind she would run for help.

Clearly, the solution lay in a peaceful resolution of the situation. After we got the man out of my room, I'd call the police and they could deal with him. I'd give him a few minutes of twenty questions to lull him into a sense of control, then persuade him to exit the room.

"All right, I'll answer your questions...er...what is your name?"

"Theo North. When did you last see Hope?" he repeated.

"What a nice name," Sarah said with perky cheerfulness. "Theo. Warm and friendly. Short. A little different. I like it."

I did too, as a matter of fact, but I wasn't going to let him know that. "I saw Hope for the first and only time about two this afternoon, for approximately five minutes. At the time, I was under the impression - yet to be disproved to my satisfaction, given that lab tests can be mixed up, altered, or deliberately changed - that Hope was part of my hallucinations."

"Hallucinations?" He subjected me to a searching look. "Are you prone to them?"

"She thought the magic at the faery ring was due to mushrooms," Sarah said quickly. "She is an unbeliever, you see. You believe in the power behind faery rings, don't you?"

"Of course," he answered, making me want to scream.

The look of triumph on Sarah's face was directed solely at me. "There, you see? Even Theo believes in faery ring magic! And he's a...a...er..." She looked back at him. "What exactly do you do, if you don't mind me asking?"

He cast her a quick glance, but for the most part kept his attention on me. "I'm a nephilim. What did you do at the ring to summon Hope?"

This was torture, sheer and utter torture, so I figured I'd get it over with as quickly as possible. Although Sarah had heard most of it, I described how I had sat in the faery ring and muttered aloud some of the spells on her photocopy.

"Hmm," Theo said when I was done. He stroked his chin, a perfectly normal gesture, but one which held some bizarre fascination for me. It drew my attention to the lines of his jaw, and the sweet curve of his lower lip...good gravy, what was I thinking? Just because he was a handsome devil didn't mean I had to think about his lips and his jaw and that hint of manly stubble that seemed to hold an unholy fascination for me.

I realized that both of them were looking expectantly at me.

"Sorry, I was thinking about...er...did you ask something?"

"I asked you why Hope said she responded when you summoned her."

"I didn't summon her." I frowned for a moment, remembering something the hallucination woman - not a hallucination if the man in front of me was to be believed - said when she popped through those funny lights in the air. The lights themselves gave me no trouble: they were clearly pollen in the air, which I in my half-sun-blinded state interpreted as sparkling. Hope was a bit less easily explained, but no doubt she had been hiding behind a tree, and took advantage of an inattentive moment to make her appearance. "She said something about being glad I