Keepers of the Flame (Trilogy Bundle) - By Melissa F. Hart Page 0,6

had changed completely then. I focused on what we'd been discussing. “So her powers had somehow drawn the attacks,” I said.

She nodded. “Yes. It was like a beacon to them. As soon as the magic had become active, the attacks started. They'd begun in her dreams. She'd go to bed just fine, then have a nightmare where she was attacked and would wake up bleeding.” She shook her head at the thought of it. “I can't really give you full details about that because she kept a lot of them from me. Luanne is a very private and sensitive girl, so you'll have to get the details from her.”

Right, I thought in my mind. Like the little rich girl I'd seen just now would volunteer any information. I instinctively knew that getting anything from her would be like trying to pull out healthy teeth … from a lion.

“But the attacks recently became physical, right?” I asked.

“Yes, they did. The other day she was shot at with a silver bullet. Yesterday they tried to snatch her in broad daylight, in a crowded area downtown.”

“They want her alive and they're getting desperate,” I quickly surmised.

She looked at me with approval and I felt a few inches taller. “You're a smart one, I'm impressed.”

Something warm trickled down my chest and I quickly stifled it. I had gone this long without praise from anyone and I wasn't going to let one kind phrase turn me into a sissy.

“What about the dreams. Are they still recurring?”

She shook her head sadly. “My granddaughter is a wonderful girl and we have a great relationship, but she doesn't always confide in me. I want to believe the dreams have stopped since I no longer see any injuries on her, but I really don't know. It's something you'd have to find out from her.”

“But why are they so insistent on getting her?” I asked, perplexed.

She was silent for a long while and I was beginning to think she wouldn't answer my question, but then she did.

“She has something they want,” she said with a heavy voice.

“What?”

“She has the flamma petraus.”

I felt my eyebrows rise of their own accord. Okay, this was way beyond what I could possibly have imagined. I mean, the flaming stone! Did that even exist? It was reputed to be the power source of the Born vampires, a stone which consumed all who touched it. And the lovely Katrina wanted me to believe that her granddaughter had it? How on earth was that even possible?

I shook my head to clear the confusion, not that it helped. “I'm sorry ma'am, I don't get this. You're saying the stone is in her possession? How did she get it? How many days has she had it?” Because even one week was too long to keep that stone, if she really did have it.

Katrina lifted a hand in a universal sign and I knew she was asking me to hold it with the questions.

“The stone came to her on her thirteenth birthday. Her parents, being protectors, knew instantly what it was and that was why they had the vault made.”

“Are you telling me she's had that stone for over three years?” This was too much to take in. This was a stone that destroyed an entire race of born vampires in Southeast Asia because it had been brought into the community. It had disappeared and hadn't been heard of since then.

“The only explanation the elders have is that she's a Keeper.”

***

I sat in the guest room contemplating the conversation I'd just had with Katrina Kylor. If what she said was true, and I had no reason to doubt that it was, then her granddaughter was in grave danger. Academically and a half I pulled out all I knew about the Keepers from my memory.

There was only one Keeper in every generation and the last Keeper had been heard of five hundred years ago. As a matter of fact, that Keeper had been brutally murdered, which had led to the destruction of the vampires in Southeast Asia. I was beginning to understand why I'd been brought onto this case. It was time to pay the little Princess a visit.

Chapter Four

I paced around my room, back and forth. My hands were clenched and if I'd kept my nails long, they would've been digging into my palm. My hands weren't the only part of my body that were clenched. I could feel my teeth grinding away in fury. How could Katrina do this