know the rules. I was here first. If you want to stay, you'll have to convince me to leave. Or destroy me."
"You think I won't?"
"I don't know. But I do know you hunted in my territory. And then, when you let the woman live, you didn't even bother to erase her memory of what happened. I can't afford mistakes like that in my terrain, Shaylyn. I don't hunt in Moreno Bay, and I don't want you hunting here, either. I don't want you here at all."
She stood up, her dark eyes blazing with anger. "How dare you speak to me like that!"
"I have every right, and you know it."
"If it wasn't for me, you would have rotted away centuries ago."
He stood to face her, hoping to intimidate her with his size and physical strength, even though he knew her powers were still superior to his. "If it wasn't for you, I might have had a home and a family."
"A home!" She spat the word. "A family! I gave you immortality, and now I want a small part of it."
"I can't give it to you."
"Can't, or won't?"
They glared at each other for stretched seconds, and then, as one, they whirled around.
"Adrianna!" Navarre exclaimed softly.
She started to run to him, and then she saw the other woman. Saw her, and knew that she was a vampire. Lifting a hand to the recently purchased cross that rested beneath her blouse, Adrianna murmured a quiet prayer, hoping that the crucifix did, indeed, possess the power to thwart a vampire. And then she glanced at Navarre, wondering if he had invited the woman here, and if so, for what reason?
She didn't care for the answer that came quickly to mind. Still, Adrianna couldn't help wondering if the other woman had been invited for dinner, and if she was intended to be the main course.
She took a step backward, her gaze fixed on Navarre's face. "Did I come at a bad time?''
"So," Shaylyn remarked, "this is the reason you have no time for an old friend." Her gaze moved over Adrianna in cool assessment. "Does she know what you are?"
"She knows."
Sensing Adrianna's inner distress, Navarre crossed the room and placed a protective arm around her shoulders.
"I see. Aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Adrianna, this is Shaylyn."
"So nice to meet you, my dear," Shaylyn said, her voice laced with venom.
Adrianna pressed closer to Navarre, every instinct, every sense of self-preservation urging her to run for home as fast as she could. She looked up at Navarre, her gaze pleading for assurance that he could protect her from the latent fury in the other woman's eyes.
"Have you nothing to say?" Shaylyn demanded.
"It's... it's nice to meet you, too."
"I'm warning you, Shaylyn, leave her alone."
Adrianna cringed before the wrath in the other woman's gaze. Never had she seen such anger, such jealousy.
"Send her home, Navarre. You may go back to her in a few days, after I'm gone, but for now, I want your time. All of it."
"You're no longer a goddess, Shaylyn, and I'm no longer your slave. I have my own life now, and you have no part in it."
"I'd choose my words more carefully, if I were you," Shaylyn said sweetly, and before he could stop her, she fixed her gaze on Adrianna, her devil-black eyes narrowing with the intensity of her hatred.
With a gasp, Adrianna pressed her hands to her head as a terrible burning pain filled her skull. A low moan rose in her throat as the pain increased. Lights danced in front of her eyes; the strength went out of her legs and she would have fallen if Navarre hadn't caught her in his arms.
"Shaylyn, stop it!"
"As you wish."
Once she was freed of the vampire woman's hold, the pain receded, leaving only a dull ache. Adrianna looked up at Navarre, her eyes filled with fear. She tried to tell him she wanted to go home, but the words wouldn't come. Panic engulfed her, and she raised a hand to her throat, her lips moving, though no sound emerged.
"Dammit, Shaylyn, enough!"
"Oh, very well." With a wave of her hand, Shaylyn broke the spell. "Puny mortal. She has no resistance at all to the power of suggestion."
"Nor has she had thousands of years to learn to be cruel."
"And you, my fine fledgling, have lived long enough to know better than to speak to me like that. The day will come when you will regret those words."