More of Janet’s memories filled his mind. The image of the red-haired vampire stuck with him as recognition finally settled over him. He withdrew his fangs and staggered away.
Janet moaned and crumpled to the floor, unmoving.
He wiped the excess blood from his mouth and loomed over Emily, who had managed to push herself into a seated position. Squatting beside her, he cocked his head and grinned. “I know who you are now. You’re that Enforcer bitch’s mother.”
The distant wail of a siren shot a flood of adrenaline into his system.
Emily smiled. “Time’s up.”
The first siren was joined by others and their cries grew louder. “You called them.”
“Don’t be stupid. You had Janet check me for phones. She didn’t find any.”
“Yeah, but she’s also a fucking liar.” He leveled the revolver with Emily’s chest and used his other hand to quickly inspect her pockets. Somehow either she or Janet must have contacted the police. He was certain of it.
His search revealed nothing, just as Janet’s had, until he shoved his hand down her shirt and felt the hard sleekness of a cell phone nestled between her breasts. Her defiant stare never wavered as he pulled the phone from its hiding place.
Kirk checked the display, saw the counter ticking away on an open call, and growled. He pressed the button to end the call and touched the barrel of the .22 revolver to her forehead. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.”
She met his gaze with pure amber eyes. “Go ahead,” she murmured. “Kill me. Kill Janet. You’ll be dead before you can even set a toe outside this house.”
Tires screeched and sirens and shouts erupted from outside. Cursing, Kirk pulled the revolver away, rose, and ran for the windows in the living room that overlooked the front of the house. He cautiously moved a section of the miniblinds and assessed the situation.
Uniformed human officers were busy setting up barricades in the street. Others were ushering neighbors across the street out of harm’s way or telling curious gawkers to move back inside their homes. In the center of the action stood a tall, dark-haired vampire and even from a distance Kirk could see the burning gold of his eyes and the rigid set of his jaw.
Kirk let the blinds fall back into place and returned to the kitchen.
Emily now sat beside Janet with a towel pressed firmly against the unmoving girl’s neck and shoulder. “She’s badly hurt. She needs help.”
“Sew her up like you did me.”
“It won’t work. She’s lost a lot of blood and she’s human. The wound is too deep. You have to let me take her out of here.”
Kirk shook his head and checked the revolver’s cylinder. Only five bullets remained. Not nearly enough to shoot his way out. “Move her to the living room and do what you can for her if you must, but you may as well settle in because this could take a while.”
“She’s going to die if you don’t let them help her.” Emily gestured to the front of the house with a bloodied hand.
He snapped the cylinder into place once more. “No one leaves.” He strode toward the front windows again, throwing his final words over his shoulder. “Not without a tag on their toe.”
seventeen
PETER HID IN A CORNER OF THE SHADOWLANDS ROOM he’d constructed to detain Alexandra’s consciousness while he worked to sever her blood-bond with Varik. He remained motionless, watching, learning, and waiting.
She lay curled on the floor with her back to the video monitor. The chains binding her wrists and legs weren’t true physical restraints but they were restraints nonetheless. Only he could release them, and he wouldn’t until the bond was broken.
The monitor behind her continued to play scenes from both hers and Varik’s pasts, with the attack that had forged the blood-bond repeated frequently. Reliving that moment was eating away at her willpower. Soon it would be easy to snap the bond and then she’d be wholly Peter’s. That same memory was playing even now. Her pleas for Varik to stop turned to strangled gurgles followed by sharp snarls as Varik savaged her neck.
He watched as she fingered the scar that remained. It was time to show her something of what he could offer her, and he focused on the monitor.
One final soft plea to Varik played over the monitor before the sound of a heavy foot crashing into a door filled the room. Peter shouted his rival’s