touch of the fingers trailing along the back of my hand told me that the young man had more than just appearances in common with Tom. I leaned towards the shadowed face, slowly, giving him the chance to back away, and brushed my lips across that pouting mouth, feeling the quickened breath. The young man pulled away for a second, then returned the kiss vehemently, his pointed tongue driving deeply into my mouth, his hands tangling in my hair. I gently caught his hands in mine and lowered them to rest on the slab between us, wincing at the pain that shot through my shoulder as I moved. I softly kissed him before trailing my lips across the youth’s throat. The young man moaned as my needle-sharp teeth pierced his pulsing vein, then shuddered in ecstasy, drooping against me. I took what I needed, feeling the vitality flow into me with his salt-sweet blood, and returned what I could, under the circumstances and in my weakened state.
When the young man raised his head, his eyes shone in the moonlight, and his voice shook. “My name is Roger, Roger Randolph,” he said breathlessly, and waited for me to reciprocate.
“Go to sleep,” I whispered to the boy, exercising the power that Geoffrey had taught me, the power of control over any from whom we drink. I suggested that, while waiting for the friend who never came, he fell asleep and dreamt of a mysterious stranger in the deserted cemetery, and that he tell no one about it. The youth woke and wandered away, unable now to see me in my sanctuary between the frowning yews.
Chapter 11
“Were you mad, Robin, to send William on such a delicate errand?” Northumberland paced the room behind the settle, able to see no more than the back of his companion’s head, and his long legs stretched out to the fire. “I—we—need the man alive! William would as soon kill a man as a fox! I’ve heard tales of some of his doings out there in Devon!”
“Lies,” Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, said uncomfortably. “He vowed he’d be discreet,” he added.
“Discreet! He had four or five friends with him, each with no less than a brace of grooms. Discreet?” Northumberland continued pacing and fuming until Essex sat up suddenly and flung his tankard into the fireplace.
“Leave off, Harry! It’s done, and I cannot undo it. My cousin is dead, shot down like a dog on the road by that, that gipsy, and I can do nothing,” he ranted, then stood so suddenly that Northumberland fell back a step. “I shall sleep here tonight, if I may, and leave in the morning.” Northumberland nodded absently and rang for a servant to show Essex to bed. He was not overly concerned with the death of Robin’s kinsman—but one of those fools had shot an arrow—Jesú! If it had hit the vampire’s heart, Montague had told him, he would die like any other man. Northumberland broke into a sweat at the thought. He would never be able to lure any of the others into his grasp—it had to be the young one, the flawed one. Somehow, somehow, he had to find the key, the bait that would entice the young vampire into his toils. He was still pacing when the dawn light colored the eastern windows.
Chapter 12
It was after midnight and the moon rode high in the south when I became aware of a sudden hush, and little unnoticed noises became abruptly conspicuous by their absence. Even the night breeze vanished. I stood slowly, tense and straining for sounds, and the violent crashing in the hedge behind me seemed louder than thunder, causing me to whirl and drop a hand to my sword, only to remember, cursing, that I had left it behind in the crypt. The pistol on the tomb behind me might as well have been in Egypt. I stumbled backward and my cursing turned to laughter as the loups-garous bounded up tome, jumping and pouncing, their tails wagging furiously. I found a seat on the tomb; my knees were threatening to give out. The larger wolf backed off and quickly resolved into Jehan.
“My lord? We should not have . . . we did not mean to startle you,” he said remorsefully. He dropped down to study me.” You look better!” I opened my mouth to explain, but the thudding of hooves and the ring of bridles shut it again. I looked questioningly at Jehan, who nodded and