soft flesh of Silvano's throat as he fed a hunger that would have been growing for a hundred years....
"You're really serious about this, aren't you?"
Marisa's voice brought him back to the present. "Quite."
Marisa glanced around the room. The dead bolt on her front door seemed woefully inadequate; the windows made her feel exposed, vulnerable.
"Be sure to lock your door after I'm gone."
"Wait!" She didn't believe him, couldn't believe him. It was completely impossible. Yet she was loath to spend the night alone. "Please stay."
"You should be safe, so long as you don't invite him inside."
"Why? What's to keep him out? If all those chains couldn't keep him locked up, I'm sure the puny locks on my door won't give him any trouble."
"There are a great many beliefs about vampyres, about what they can and cannot do. Most of them are fables told to frighten children; a few are true. Alexi cannot enter your house unless you invite him inside. He must seek shelter from the sun, although, as old as he is now, he may no longer succumb to the dark sleep. A cross will offer only as much protection as the wearer's faith in it. Silver will burn his flesh, but he will heal quickly. He must have blood to survive, although he can go without it for long periods of time." He paused, as though considering what else to tell her. "Some vampyres have the power to change shape; others have the power to fly."
"What about crossing running water and not casting a reflection in a mirror?"
"Nothing but fables, as is the ridiculous notion that if you wrap a vampyre in a net or fill his coffin with seeds, he will be forced to untie all the knots or collect all the seeds at the rate of one a year before he can leave his grave."
"What about garlic repelling vampires?"
He shook his head. "It bothers them no more than you."
She looked at him suspiciously. "How do you know all this?"
He glided across the floor toward her. Standing there, he looked tall and dangerous and invulnerable. "I told you, I've been hunting him a very long time."
"Ramsey said - " She took a deep breath, wondering if she was making a fatal mistake. "He said you're one of them, a vampire."
"Indeed?"
She waited for him to deny it, her heart pounding fiercely. "Is it true?"
He considered the truth and opted for a lie. "No."
She laughed, tension flowing out of her. Of course he wasn't a vampire.
"Why don't you join up with Ramsey?"
Grigori's expression softened to one of wry amusement. "In a way, we are working together. He hunts the days, and I hunt the nights."
"Would you mind spending the night here? I really don't want to be alone."
Grigori looked at her for a long moment. She was a pretty woman, soft and curvy, beautiful in a quiet way that he found most appealing. "If you're sure."
She looked up at him, aware that he was little more than a stranger, and wondered if she'd done the right thing.
He sat down in the big, overstuffed chair next to the sofa and stretched out his legs.
His presence dwarfed the room, made it suddenly difficult to draw breath. Discomfited, she reached for the remote and switched on the TV.
"... bodies found earlier this evening in a ravine in La Habra Heights. Police are holding identification of the two women pending notification of next of kin. In other news..."
Marisa stared at the television screen. "No," she whispered. "Not again." She looked at Grigori. "It's all my fault."
"No."
She nodded, her eyes filling with tears. "It is," she said emphatically. "I know it is."
She waited for him to say something, hoping he could ease her guilt, but he wasn't looking at her. He was staring at the front door, his whole body tense, as if poised for flight.
And then she felt it, that same sense of evil she had experienced once before. "What is it? What's wrong?"
He rose to his feet in a single, fluid movement. "Lock the door behind me."
"Where are you going?"
"Just do as I say," he said brusquely, and then he was gone.
Heart pounding, Marisa locked the door, and then slid the safety chain in place. Too nervous to sit down and wait, she went from room to room, checking to make sure all the windows were closed and locked. She closed the curtains in the bedrooms and kitchen, drew the drapes in the living room, checked the lock on the front