Prince of Twilight (11 page)

And she didn't feel alone, even now. She felt watched.

The sky was dark, and she was disoriented. She'd slept for what felt like hours in the cozy bed. Slept like
the very dead. But she didn't know whether morning had simply not yet arrived, or whether the day had passed and it was night again.

She wanted to call out for Vlad. And even as she told herself how ridiculous a thought that was, she knew that didn't change it. She craved him like a drug. Or maybe Elisabeta did. She only knew she wanted him, there, with her, right then.

And then, suddenly, he was.

His hands closed on her shoulders from behind. He turned her slowly to face him as his probing, unreadable eyes searched her face. “Tempest?”

Her throat tightened. A sob tried to rise, and she clenched her jaw, closed her eyes tight to prevent the tears, and held her body stiffly.

“I woke to find you gone,” he said softly. “What happened? How did you get here?”

“I don't know,” she whispered, and it was an effort to get the words to pass through her constricted airways. “I just…I don't know.” And then she lost it. She couldn't hold herself stiff and strong for another second. She let her body go, let it do what it was longing to do: fall against his strong chest, rest in his powerful arms while her own wrapped around him and held on hard. She lowered her face to his shoulder, and she let the tears come.

 

As the memory faded, Stormy struggled to wake up but found it impossible. She knew on some level that she wasn't really trapped in some dark nightmare in which she was imprisoned in a lightless, airless tomb.

The tomb was her own body. The cold stone walls were keeping her from the controls in her own mind. She couldn't hear or see or move. But she sensed that her body was moving, awake and walking around just as if everything were normal. Except someone else was behind the wheel.

Elisabeta.

Bitch. Give me back my mind!

She fought, strained against the darkness. And it seemed to give. Elisabeta must be weakening. But she was fighting, too, and she was stubborn. Stormy pushed harder, clasping a shred of control and then holding on for dear life.

The darkness gave way all at once.

It was like breaking through the surface of a mirror-still lake. First there was nothing, and then, everything. All her senses came to full, screaming life at once. She could suddenly see through her own eyes and feel her own limbs, and for a moment she had no balance or sense of orientation.

Stormy found herself standing near the windows
of her room in Athena House, wearing only her robe, her knees weak, her body lurching a little as she sought balance. She blinked her vision into focus. What she saw stunned her to the core.

The large, sparkling ruby ring. She held it in one hand, poised on the tip of her finger, and even as what she was seeing hit her, she was sliding the ring on farther.

She went motionless and stared at her hands, willing them to stop moving. She was holding the oversized ruby stone in her right and was about to slide it onto the forefinger of her left.

A scream was ripped from her chest as she flung the ring across the room. It hit the wall and then the floor, bouncing, tumbling, then coming to a stop, its red stone facing her like some demonic eye.

Her bedroom door crashed open. Melina lunged inside. “Stormy! What's wrong? What happened?” She scanned the room, wide eyed, as the sounds of others pounding down the hallway toward the room reached them.

Stormy gasped for breath, wondering what the hell to say, how to cover, when Melina spotted the ring and gasped. “Is that—”

“Jesus,” Brooke muttered from the doorway. “Where the hell did that come from?”

“I don't know. I don't know!” Stormy's knees buckled, and then Lupe was beside her, sliding an arm around her waist before she could sink to the floor. Stormy hadn't even realized Lupe had come into the room. She was strong, way stronger than Stormy would have guessed from looking at her. She supported her firmly, and moved Stormy backward until her legs touched the bed. Stormy sank onto it gratefully, her entire body trembling. Lupe stayed close, her eyes sharp, missing nothing.

“Was it the Impaler?” Melina asked. She didn't look at Stormy as she spoke. Instead, her eyes remained riveted to the ring. “Has he been here?”

“No. Of course not,” Stormy managed to mutter. It was a lie, but what was between her and Vlad was none of their business. She dragged her gaze away from Lupe's then and frowned as the raging waters of panic began to calm. “Why would you jump to that conclusion?”

She noticed Melina and Brooke and then Lupe looking toward the French doors, which were not quite closed. A breeze came through the gap, fresh and cold, pushing the curtains with its breath.

Slowly Melina turned to face Stormy. “It makes sense, doesn't it? Vlad needs a body for his dead
bride to come into. Maybe he's chosen yours,” she said. “Are you sure he wasn't here?”

“I think I'd know if Dracula had paid me a nocturnal visit, Melina. That's not the kind of thing that could exactly slip by me.” She was careful to keep the left side of her throat away from their prying eyes. His marks would still be there, would remain until sunlight touched her skin.

“He's powerful enough to make you forget,” Brooke said. “From what I've read, he can shape-shift, and his thrall is impossible to resist.”

“Not for me. I've been working with his kind for sixteen years, don't forget.”

“Where did the ring come from, then?” Brooke asked. “How did it get here?”

Stormy let the defensive attitude slide off her shoulders. “I…I don't know how the ring got here. I woke up and it was here, that's all.”

“On the floor?” Melina asked. She was moving toward the ring now, reaching for it, and it took everything Stormy had not to knock her aside and snatch the ring before she could. She knew that urge wasn't coming from her own mind, not entirely. It was also coming from Elisabeta's. She flinched forward as Melina closed her hand around the ring and picked it up.

“In my hand,” Stormy said. “I was sleepwalking or…or something.”

Lupe's eyes narrowed at the “or something” part, but she didn't make any comment.

“When I woke, I was standing, and the ring was in my hand.”

Lupe muttered in Spanish and crossed herself.

“That must have been terrifying,” Melina said.

“Someone must have brought the ring,” Brooke said slowly. “You didn't see anyone? Hear anything?”

“No. Nothing,” Stormy insisted.

Brooke thinned her lips. “It didn't just appear here all by itself.”

“I didn't say it had.”

“Get off her, Brookie,” Lupe snapped, stepping closer to Stormy in a way that was almost protective. “Maybe we should search the grounds,” she said, possibly in an effort to change the subject. “We can check for signs, make sure whoever it was isn't still here. Give Stormy time to gather herself. I'll brew some tea. Chamomile, some valerian, maybe a little lavender, and we can talk.”

Melina nodded. “You're very wise, Lupe. Safety first, analysis later.” She turned to Brooke. “Rouse a handful of the girls and search the house, top to bottom. I'll take another group and search the grounds.”

“I'll get started on the tea,” Lupe said. And then she moved closer to Melina and held out her hand. “Maybe I should hold that for you until you get back. Just in case you run into…whoever.”

Melina opened her palm and eyed the ring.

Brooke met her eyes. “I can hold it, if you want,” she said.

Melina shook her head. “Lupe's right, it'll be safer here with her while we search. We'll decide what to do with it later.” She handed the ring to Lupe, who closed her fist around it, nodded and dropped it into her bathrobe pocket. Then she turned to Stormy. “You should come to the kitchen with me. You shouldn't be alone right now.”

“Thanks.”

The four of them walked into the hallway. Melina and Brook headed down it in opposite directions, each intent on gathering troops to conduct a search. Stormy wasn't worried. Vlad was long gone by now.

But had he been the one to leave the ring with her? How else could it have ended up in her bedroom?

A voice inside asked if she needed to be hit over the head before she accepted the truth. He'd released her from his thrall and kept making love to her, knowing full well that would rouse Elisabeta to
life. And then he'd given her the ring to put on. To drive Stormy out, to kill her.

He wanted her dead.

Why did she still want him so much?

She moved as if her legs were made of lead, down the stairs beside Lupe, who glanced nervously behind them and then said, “They know about you, Stormy.”

She was so stunned she almost stumbled. Lupe's strong, tanned arm shot out to steady her. Stormy swallowed and gripped the railing. “They know what?”

“Come on.” Lupe closed a hand around her forearm and picked up the pace, leading her to the bottom of the stairs, then through the mansion and into the oversized kitchen in the back. She ran water into a metal teapot and set it on a burner to heat. Then she reached into a glass cabinet and took out a china teapot, cups and saucers.

“What is it they supposedly know about me, Lupe?” Stormy asked.

“They know about you and Vlad. That he abducted you sixteen years ago, held you for a couple of weeks—time you don't remember. And…” She met Stormy's eyes, searching them and seeming hesitant. Then she gave her head a shake, went to a cabinet and flung
open the doors. It was filled with jars, all of them labeled and packed with herbs. She scooped herbs from several of the jars and poured them into a cheesecloth sack with a drawstring closure.

“And what?”

“I'm getting to it, okay? This isn't easy. Saying it out loud sounds freakin' insane. But…they think you're the one. Elisabeta Dracula. Or her reincarnation or something.”

“They think?” Stormy sank into a chair, shaking her head. “And what do
you
think, Lupe?”

“Damned if I know.” She yanked the drawstring tight and dropped the sack of herbs into the china teapot. “I've seen the portrait—photos of it, at least. In our file on Dracula.”

“You have a file on him?”

She shot Stormy a look that clearly said she wasn't supposed to have revealed that and wasn't going to elaborate. “It would make sense. Him abducting you, I mean. If he thought you were her.”

Stormy lowered her head, shaking it.

“That's why Melina hired your firm to find the ring. She knew she would have a better chance of finding it if you were helping. You have a connection to it. A special interest in it. It's yours, if their theories are true.”

“I promise you, Lupe. I am not Elisabeta Dracula. I'm Tempest Jones.”

“Yeah?” She sighed. “So then how did you get the ring?”

“I don't know.”

The teapot whistled. Lupe grabbed it and poured the steaming water into the china pot. The fragrance of the herbs wafted into the room with the steam. “Okay. So what's on the videotape?”

Stormy's head shot up, her gaze snapping to Lupe's.

“I saw it on the night stand. What is it, anyway? Did it get there the same way the ring did, or…?”

Stormy held up a hand. “I don't know if I want to discuss the tape. Not…yet, anyway.”

“You don't trust me.” Lupe shrugged. “Can't say I blame you. I mean, you don't know me. And you don't have any clue what I risked to tell you what I just did. If they find out…”

“They won't.”

She smiled a little, lowered her head and put the china cover onto the teapot. “It needs to steep for a while.” Then she met Stormy's eyes. “You've got more right to this than anyone else,” she said, taking the ring out of her pocket and holding it up.

Stormy shook her head. “It's safer if you keep it away from me. At least until we destroy it.”

“Oh, we can't destroy it,” Melina said from the doorway.

Both women jerked in surprise and turned her way. Stormy had no idea how long she'd been standing there, how much she might have overheard, nor did Lupe, judging from the look on her face.

“But you told me the ring was dangerous,” Stormy said. “That if it fell into the wrong hands…”

“It
is
dangerous. But legend has it Elisabeta's soul is somehow bound to that ring. If that's true, we have to set it free. With the ring, we can perform an exorcism. And then we can destroy the ring once and for all.”

She reached out a hand, palm up and open. “Until we can do that, I think it best we put it into the vaults.” She slid her gaze to Lupe's, then back to Stormy's, and it was open and reassuring. She fingered a chain she wore around her neck, tugging it from beneath her blouse. There was a silver key at the end. “I'm the only one with access, Stormy. Nothing will happen to the ring there. I promise.”

Stormy thinned her lips, and finally she nodded. “All right.”

“Good.” Melina kept her hand out, and Lupe put the ring into it. “I'll take it to the vaults right after dawn.”

“Why after dawn?” Stormy asked.

Melina licked her lips. “Just as a precaution.”

That wasn't entirely true. Stormy knew it wasn't. Someone must have seen something. Someone knew Vlad had been there, or maybe Melina was as adept at spotting a lie as Stormy was. Either way, they knew there had been a vampire around, and they were not going to risk him seeing where they put the ring.

“Call us when the tea is ready,” Melina said. “I need to check in with Brooke's group.” She left them, taking the ring with her.

Stormy started to follow, but Lupe stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “You have some time,” she said. “There's a VCR in my room, if you'd like to use it. No one has to know.”