and tennis tournaments.
Her mother wanted to know if she had found anyone special yet; her father wanted to know how things were going at work. She promised to come for a visit over Christmas and hung up, then called her brother in Colorado.
Mike answered the phone, and they talked for a few minutes, catching up on each other's lives. Marisa talked to her nieces and nephews, asked Mike's wife, Barbara, what Nikki wanted for her birthday; then she went into the kitchen to fix lunch.
Humming softly, she mixed mayonnaise with a can of tuna.
She fixed a sandwich, then went into the front room and sat on the floor to read the paper.
VAMPIRE KILLER STRIKES AGAIN, DEATH TOLL RISES TO 13
That quickly, her sense of well-being was destroyed.
She read what was becoming a familiar story. The body of a young woman had been found in the foothills behind Griffith Park, her body drained of blood. There had been no sign of a struggle, no evidence of foul play save for two tiny wounds in her neck.
Her appetite gone, Marisa put her sandwich aside, hating herself for wondering if Grigori was responsible for any of the deaths.
She didn't like to think of the dark side of Grigori, didn't like to admit she was physically attracted to a man who wasn't even alive in the normal sense of the word. And yet he seemed so alive, so vital. And she cared for him far more than seemed wise.
She had held him in her arms last night, felt his grief and his pain as she comforted him.
She wondered where he slept during the day, if his sleep was interspersed with dreams, or if he was shrouded in the silent darkness of death.
She wondered what her parents would say if she told them she had met a vampire. Kissed a vampire...
She glanced at the clock. Almost two. She wondered why Ramsey hadn't called, and then shrugged. Even vampire hunters needed a day off.
Even as the thought crossed her mind, the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Miss Richards?"
"Hi, Edward. Are you all right?"
"Yes, fine." She heard him yawn. "I was out rather late last night."
"Did you find anything?"
"No. I guess you've heard the news?"
She glanced at the newspaper and shuddered. "Yes. It's awful."
He grunted softly. "I'll be over before dark."
"All right. Bye."
Edward showed up just before sunset. They shared a thick-crust pepperoni pizza; then Edward produced a deck of cards and they played canasta. Marisa kept glancing at the clock, wondering where Grigori was.
At ten, Marisa went into the kitchen and made a bowl of popcorn.
Sitting on the sofa, with the bowl between them, they watched the news. It seemed that the stories were always the same: trouble in the Middle East, increasing unemployment, politicians making promises they couldn't keep.
"And in local news, the bodies of two teenage boys were found in an oil field near Huntington Beach just moments ago, bringing the number of killings attributed to the vampire killer to fifteen. Police are asking for anyone who might have information relating to any of these killings to get in touch with them immediately by calling the number on your screen.
"Chief Harrison has issued a statement asking everyone to stay as close to home as possible between the hours of six p.m. and dawn until further notice. When asked if he believed the killings were the work of a vampire, the chief stated an unequivocal No, but said the department was working on the assumption that the person or persons perpetrating these crimes was quite possibly operating under that delusion. In other news..."
"This is all my fault!" Marisa exclaimed. Rising to her feet, she went to the window and drew back the curtains. He was out there somewhere, and it was her fault. Somehow, her blood had revived him, and now he was prowling the city, killing innocent people, and it was her fault, her fault....
A flicker of movement caught her eye. At the same time, she felt again that sense of evil that she had felt twice before, and with it the sense that someone was trying to reach inside her mind.
Marisa... open to me...
"No!"
"Miss Richards, what's wrong?" Edward bolted to his feet, and then he went suddenly still, his senses attuned to the knowledge that a vampire was near.
"He's out there!" She yanked the curtains closed, and quickly moved away from the window.
Ramsey went to the window and peered out, his gaze darting up and down the dark street. Was it Alexi, or Grigori, or perhaps another