The image of sapphire-ringed eyes rose in her mind, and she shivered. If Monica's killer and her own hunter were one and the same, what would she do?
"You'd better come around here and have a look at what I've found,” Michael commented softly. His face was emotionless, giving no indication of what to expect. She rose and walked around to his side. “Look at what?"
"Her wrist for starters."
He pointed to Monica's wrist; a two-inch cut marred her skin. But the pale color of the scar indicated the wound was at least a week old. She couldn't see how it was related to Monica's death. “And?"
"Now look at her neck."
She squatted by his side. Two small puncture wounds spoiled the white skin. Dried blood ran a dark trail from the wounds and disappeared behind Monica's pale blonde hair. She froze.
Michael had commented earlier that Monica had died from blood loss, yet there was very little blood near the body and no other obvious sign of injury apart from the wrist and these two wounds. Wounds that looked an awful lot like bite marks. But not from an animal. Not from anything she knew. She closed her eyes, unable to voice the fear in her mind.
"From a vampire,” Michael finished for her.
A fear as ancient as time itself rose, threatening to overwhelm her. She took a deep breath and tried to control the turmoil running panicked circles in her mind. It couldn't be true. Vampires didn't exist, damn it! They were a product of fiction and imagination, not reality.
"Just as psychic powers don't exist?” Michael said, voice gentle. She glanced at him sharply. There was an odd expression on his face, as if her reaction was important in some way. “That isn't the same thing!"
"Why? Many people believe psychic powers to be in the same reality as vampires. Does not believing in them make them any less real?"
"No. But vampires?"
"Look at her neck, Nikki. Remember the man she was with, remember his evil." She didn't need to remember. All she had to do was close her eyes and his image was there. “Being evil doesn't necessarily make him a vampire."
"No. Drinking blood to survive does that."
She shuddered. Monica looked so young, so peaceful. So very dead. But if what Michael said was true, she would soon become a vampire. All it had taken was one little bite.