always on his mind. Especialy at this time of the month. Tonight was a ful moon: he wouldn't be seeing B.J.
After two years he knew ... that she had her own moods - did her own thing, whatever it was - at the ful of the moon. She was a woman; it was al part of her cycle, Harry told himself. And every three-month without fail, he could guarantee she'd be off to her beloved Highlands for three or four days on her own. Climbing, and hunting, no mater the season. He remembered her promise: to take him with her one of these days. And, in fact, they had already set the date: just a month from today. Wel, at least it would be something to do, other than check the mail for endless negative reports on the whereabouts of Brenda and the baby. And so he looked forward to it -
- And yet, at the same time and without knowing why - he didn't...
... And neither did B.J.
But the two-year period of probation was up. She was satisfied that Harry had no ulterior motive, that he was under no other's influence. He was fuly trained in her climbing techniques; not that she believed he'd needed extensive training, but at least it had been an excuse to keep him from the most dangerous climb of al. .
. until now. For Radu had finaly decided it was time he met his 'Man-With-Two-Faces,' this oh-so-Mysterious One, in the flesh. Even knowing that this was not the safest of times, still the dog-Lord had insisted that B.J. bring Harry to the Cairngorms lair; and she knew that he'd ordered it in spite of the danger, because he now felt obliged to advance the hour of his resurgence.
Dangerous times, yes - for Radu, and for Bonnie Jean, and not least for Harry.
For Radu, because of his vulnerability. For B.J., because she suffered agonies of indecision, the frustration of her own burgeoning vampire, which constantly strove to defy and undermine the authority of her Master. And for Harry because he was the catalyst; several kinds of catalyst.
For one thing, Harry worked on Bonnie Jean. She was used to him now, wanted him for herself; she was unwiling to envisage a future without him in thral to her - and herself partly in thral to him? Wel, possibly. And for another he worked on Radu. For the dog-Lord saw Harry as his future; as an alternative to the possibility of a crippled, diseased, incapacitated body. And finaly he had worked, and was working still, on the Francezcis ...
Harry's 'watcher' had been seen again, indeed on a number of occasions over the last two years. Bonnie Jean had even seen him for herself; she had spied him one night through the gauzy curtains of her garret bedroom - an ominous shadow lurking in the dark doorway across the street, keeping his furtive vigil. And her girls had been folowed to and from their various lodgings, so that al of their comings and goings, the tracks and trails of B. J. 's smal pack were known.
Occasionaly one or another of the girls would report seeing a certain figure and face on a crowded street in the gloom of a warm evening. It was festival time, and the tourists were here in their thousands; the Castle on the Rock was lit like a Christmas tree. Normaly, it would be a good time for B.J. and the pack. This or that lone stranger could so easily disappear in the thronging night. Bonnie Jean's girls were good-lookers al. But now they were wary as never before. It was that face, that figure, that watcher whom they feared; for B.J. knew him. She'd seen him before - oh, ten, twenty, thirty years before.
Bright bird eyes in a rheumy wrinkled old face; eyes that one second looked grey and the next shone dul silver, like an animal's at night. B.J. understood that wel enough. For they were feral eyes - thral eyes! The heavily veined nose, flanged at its tip, and the too-wide loose-lipped mouth and aggressive jaws. And the grey, aged aspect of the face generaly. But just like herself he never changed or got any older, and until now had been cautious not to show himself too frequently.
She had passed on details of this suddenly increased surveilance to Radu, of course, which had perhaps determined him to accelerate his rising. And now he would examine Harry, find out if