would break.
Kneeling beside her, Edward brushed the hair from her face, gasped in horror as he saw the two telltale wounds in her neck.
Scrambling to his feet, he backed away from her, his hand clutching the cross so tightly it cut into his skin. "Who are you?"
She looked up at him through blue-green eyes that had no doubt once been beautiful, but were now empty of all humanity. And then, moving slowly, she rose to her feet and walked toward him, her steps stiff, like a robot's.
"No!"
He reached for the stake in his waistband. In a blur, she lunged toward him. Grabbing the stake from his hand with a strength that belied her slender build, she broke it in half and tossed the pieces away.
Terrified now, Edward struck out at her, his fist clipping her chin. With a feral growl, she picked him up and threw him across the room.
Ramsey cried out as his head struck a corner of the dresser. Ignoring the pain, he grabbed a chair and smashed it over the woman's head, once, twice, three times, driving her backward until she dropped to her knees, a horrible, inhuman sound emerging from her throat as blood dripped down her forehead into her eyes.
Knowing she would soon recover, he turned and threw the chair through the window. Grabbing his jacket and keys, he bolted over the sill into the gray dawn of early morning, grateful that he had insisted on a room at ground level.
He raced to his car, not daring to look behind him.
"Edward, what happened?" Marisa stood back so he could enter her apartment, then closed and locked the door behind him.
"I'll tell you in a moment." Breathing heavily, he staggered into the front room and collapsed on the sofa.
"You're bleeding!" Marisa exclaimed.
"No," he said with a gasp. "I'm all right. It's not... not my blood."
"Then whose?"
He held up a trembling hand to stay her questions. "Wait... just... wait."
With a nod, Marisa went into the kitchen and turned on the coffeemaker. A glance at the clock showed it was barely six a.m. She drummed her fingertips on the countertop, wondering what had happened to Ramsey. He looked as if he'd seen a ghost. Or a vampire... but it was morning. Surely Alexi was asleep in his coffin, wherever that might be.
The thought made her shudder. Thinking of Alexi brought Grigori to mind. He had told her he didn't sleep in a coffin, but she couldn't help picturing him laid out in a silk-lined casket, his arms folded over his chest, dead but not dead.
She closed her eyes against the nausea that roiled in her stomach. She had let Grigori kiss her, had kissed him back, had wondered what it would be like to make love to him. How had she even considered such a thing? How had she forgotten, even for a moment, what he was?
Pouring two cups of strong black coffee, she went out into the living room.
Ramsey smiled faintly as he took the cup she offered him. "Thank you."
She sat down at the opposite end of the sofa, cradling the mug between her hands. It was comforting somehow. "Feeling better?"
He nodded, then, using as few words as possible, he told her what had happened.
"But how could she be out in the daytime if she was a vampire?"
Edward shook his head. "She's not a vampire. She's a revenant. I suspect Alexi sent her."
"To kill you?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. I think she was supposed to take me to him." A sickly smile flickered across his pale face. "I have a feeling I was supposed to be dinner."
Marisa stared at Ramsey. It was too awful even to think about, yet she couldn't stay the awful images his words conveyed.
"A revenant." Marisa spoke the words aloud without realizing she had done so.
"Yes. Fearful creatures. I've only seen a few, but they are even more frightening than their masters."
"Grigori told me Alexi had turned Antoinette into a revenant. You don't think...?" She stared at Edward in horror.
"I don't know." He sipped at the coffee. "It's possible. But I just don't know."
"Did you... is she...?"
He looked up at her, his face ashen, his eyes troubled. "Dead?" Slowly, he shook his head. "No. There are only two ways to kill a revenant. Remove its head and heart, or kill its master."
"I feel like I'm living in the middle of a nightmare!" Marisa exclaimed. "None of this can be true. It's impossible."
"I wish it were."
"What are you going to do