formed in her mind: tall and dark and undeniably sexy in a white linen shirt and long, flowing cape. "Maybe you do look like a... a vampire, after all."
He smiled, as if he knew her thoughts, and then, as a howl screamed through the night, he froze.
"What was that?" Marisa exclaimed. "It sounded like a wolf."
He looked at her indulgently. "There are no wolves in the city, Marisa."
"It's him, isn't it? Alexi?"
Grigori nodded. "He's calling me."
"You're not going?"
"Would you rather I met him in here?"
"Heavens, no!"
"You'll be safe enough. Just remember, he can't come in unless you invite him."
"That's not much comfort."
"It's the best I can offer you."
His dark eyes moved over her, deep, fathomless eyes that held secrets she didn't want to know. Awareness hummed between them, its heat licking against her skin, warm and rough, like a cat's tongue. And then, abruptly, he was gone.
Marisa blinked, startled by the sudden emptiness she felt inside, by the realization that he had not left the house by the door, but had simply vanished from her sight.
Maybe he really was a magician.
Chapter Ten
Grigori paused when he reached the sidewalk. He had been quite serious when he'd suggested that Alexi was playing games with them. No doubt the ancient vampyre found their helplessness amusing. And they were helpless against him, Grigori thought bleakly. Unless Alexi let his guard down, they had little chance of catching him. Kristov possessed the knowledge of untold centuries, the strength of a thousand years.
Grigori raked a hand through his hair. Maybe he was only kidding himself in thinking that he could keep Marisa safe. There was little he could do to protect her that she couldn't do herself. If she was careful to remain locked within her own house at night, Alexi could not reach her. But what kind of life was that, being imprisoned from dusk till dawn?
He laughed softly. What kind of life indeed, he mused. It was the life he lived, save that he was compelled to shun the light of day, to hide away in darkness when the sun was high in the sky.
The howl of a wolf interrupted his thoughts, and he spun around, his gaze probing the drifting shadows of the night.
"Still protecting the lady fair?"
Alexi's voice sounded behind him. Grigori whirled around, the fine hairs rising along the back of his neck, his hands curling into tight fists.
"Why don't you fight me, Alexi? Let us end it here and now."
"You don't think you could best me?" Alexi replied with unbridled amusement.
"Try me."
"Oh, I will, I will, have no doubt of that. But not now. I find your puny efforts to destroy me most amusing." Alexi crossed his arms over his chest and regarded Grigori through ancient gray eyes. "Tell Ramsey he need not change his sleeping place from night to night. All the locked doors and all the garlic and crosses in the world will not save him. In the end, he will be mine."
Grigori nodded. Ramsey had not stayed in the same hotel or motel since they'd arrived in the city, foolishly believing that Alexi would not be able to find him.
Alexi laughed, a harsh, brittle sound. "Tell him he is easy to follow. The stink of garlic trails behind him like the smoke from a funeral pyre."
"So, if you have not come to fight me, what do you want?"
"Why, just to say hello to an old friend."
Slowly, like a snake uncoiling, rage rose up within Grigori. "Friend! You dare call me friend after what you did!"
Alexi waved his hand in an elegant gesture of dismissal. "Don't tell me you're still angry because of the woman."
"She was my wife." Grigori bit off each word.
"How can you still be angry? You must admit, but for me, you would be nothing but a moldering corpse." He laughed softly. "I should think you would thank me. Because of your hatred, you have a gift thousands of mortals would kill for, yet you despise me for it."
"Thank you? You think I should thank you? You killed my children! My wife - "
"She is not dead."
"What?" Grigori froze, everything else forgotten. "What did you say?"
Alexi shrugged. "She is not dead." He smiled, a slow smile of such evil that it sent a shiver down Grigori's spine.
"Did you bring her over?"
Alexi shook his head, his expression one of boredom.
Grigori stared at the vampyre in horror. "You left her as she was all these years?"
"I have need of her from time to time."
"Where is