Moonlight (15 page)

Adrianna went to work, not only because she was in desperate
need of something to occupy her mind, but because the bookstore was, after all,
her only means of support.

Thursdays were usually quiet, and today was no exception.
Her regulars came in for coffee about ten-thirty, then browsed through the
racks for half an hour or so.

During a lull, Adrianna went up into the attic and opened
one of the boxes that held the books left behind by the previous owner. She
grabbed a couple and carried them downstairs, not looking at the titles until
she was seated at her desk.

The first book was an old reference book on medieval
castles. The second was called
THE HANDBOOK OF THE UNDEAD
.

Adrianna stared at the title, her heart pounding
erratically. After a moment, she opened the book and began thumbing through the
pages. There were sections on how to prevent a vampire, how to recognize a
vampire, how to destroy a vampire.

She felt a sense of excitement as she turned to the index in
the back of the book. And there, under C, she found
Curing the Vampire, How
to
, on page 386.

Was it possible, she wondered. Could Navarre be cured? Her
gaze skimmed the instructions. There was a recipe for a potion that must be
mixed during the dark of the moon and consumed by the vampire the moment he
woke from his rest. A note at the bottom suggested that, for best results, the
potion be mixed by a Transylvanian gypsy, preferably a virgin.

Adrianna grimaced, wondering where they’d find a gypsy of
any kind in Moreno Bay.

She ran her finger over the ingredients for the potion: a
smidgen of mugwort, a pinch of larkspur, a dash of foxglove, a touch of yarrow,
a generous helping of cinquefoil, hyssop, rue, and a hint of garlic.

Adrianna frowned. The dark of the moon. Transylvanian
gypsies. It sounded ridiculous, and yet, what if it would work?

Her romance book club ladies came in at four, laughing and
talking about the latest novels they’d read. They met at her store every week,
to talk about the book they’d read the week before, and to pick a new one for
the coming week. Adrianna was a big fan of romances, and she usually sat in
with them. But not today. She was too immersed in
THE HANDBOOK OF THE UNDEAD
,
and so she just waved and bid them to help themselves to coffee and cookies.

The book was fascinating, though she found it hard to
believe anyone could take it seriously. In the Philippines, a vampire called an
aswang
was believed to be a beautiful female vampire, who was able to
marry and have children; however, at night, it flew to other houses to drink
the blood of its victims.

In Bulgaria, they believed that a vampire could be destroyed
if it could be forced into a bottle, then thrown into a fire.

According to the book, those who were likely candidates for
vampirism were those who were born with a red caul, with teeth, or a red
birthmark. The seventh son of a seventh son was also likely to become one of
the undead, as were those who died without benefit of baptism. A vampire might
be made from a corpse if a cat jumped over the body, or the deceased died by
drowning.

She frowned when she read that vampires must rest in a coffin.
Navarre slept in a bed, just like anyone else.

Much was made of the fact that vampires could be held off by
a cross, or other holy relic. Adrianna didn’t know if that was true. Anne Rice’s
vampires had been unaffected by the sight of a cross. Still, on the off-chance
there might be some truth to that theory, she made a mental note to buy herself
a crucifix before the day was out.

Holy water was also considered to be powerful against
vampires. It was said to burn the skin of the undead like acid. It could also
be used to detect the presence of vampires. If poured on ground that was under
the evil influence of a vampire, it would boil and smoke. Pouring holy water
into an empty coffin would seal it against future habitation.

Vampires were also believed to be unable to swim or cross
running water, as water was a purifier that would wash away evil and sin. In
Greece, those believed to be revenant were banished to a small island, thus
isolating them and keeping them from preying on the living. Sometimes, if a body
was thought to be possessed, it was put in water. If the body floated, it was
believed to be a vampire.

She grunted softly as she read the ways to detect a vampire:
red eyes, fangs, long nails, pale skin, aversion to bright lights, no appetite,
never seen during the daylight hours, reluctance to enter a house without an
invitation…

The description fit Navarre perfectly, except for the part
about the daylight hours. She remembered his hesitance to enter her house the
night he had come to see if she was happy with the bed.

He really was a vampire. She’d known it before. Believed it.
But somehow, seeing the paranormal characteristics he possessed in print made
it even more real. More frightening.

According to the book, vampires were able to create other
vampires, to fly, to dissolve into mist, change size or dimension, and
transform into animals. They were also said to be able to control the elements
and animals, to scale walls with ease, and to hypnotize mortals.

She felt her gorge rise as she turned to the section on
destroying the vampire. Staking, beheading, piercing with a sword, extracting
the heart… She shuddered at the gruesome images such methods invoked.

It was after six when she closed the book and put it aside.
She glanced outside, surprised to see that the sun was going down. Dusk. The
time when the undead began to stir, when evil made itself known…

She switched on the lights, then hurried through the store,
making sure the back door was locked, checking the windows. She collected the
day’s receipts and locked them in the safe in the back room.

As she stepped outside and locked the door, she had the
sudden, uneasy feeling that she was being watched. Panic rose within her even
as she tried to convince herself she was being foolish, that she was just
overreacting, that her imagination was working overtime because she’d spent the
afternoon reading about the undead.

But she couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom as she
unlocked her car and slid behind the wheel.

She was afraid, and yet her first instinct was to drive out
to Cliff House, to see Navarre, to curl up in the sure protection of his arms,
to tell him she might have discovered a cure.

She didn’t like the thought that niggled at the back of her
mind, the insidious notion that he liked being a vampire, that he had been
playing with her all this time, lulling her into a false sense of security
before he buried his fangs in her throat and drank her dry.

Navarre woke with the setting sun. It was going to rain, he
mused as he went downstairs to shower and dress. He could smell the storm in
the air, and even as the thought crossed his mind, he heard the first distant
echo of thunder.

Moments later, dressed in a heavy white sweater and a pair
of faded blue jeans, he settled down to wait.

She didn’t keep him waiting long.

“Shaylyn.” He murmured her name as she swept into the
parlor, looking every inch the goddess she had once pretended to be. A sleek
black gown clung to her voluptuous body. Her hair fell over her shoulders and
down her back in lush black waves.

“Navarre.” She paused inside the doorway. He could tell, by
the rosy hue of her cheeks and the brightness of her eyes, that she had just
fed.

She crossed the room and sat down beside him, one hand
resting possessively on his right thigh. “I’ve missed you,
mi amour
,”
she purred.

“Have you?”

She ran her hand up and down the length of his thigh. “The
centuries have been kind to you, Navarre.”

“And to you.” He met her gaze, his face impassive as her
fingertips dug into his flesh. “Why have you come here now?”

“I told you. I missed you.” Her hand glided along the inside
of his thigh, her touch familiar, intimate. “Haven’t you missed me, even a
little?”

“No.”

“You could have lied, Navarre.”

“Would you prefer that to the truth?”

She drew her hand from his thigh, the movement tense and angry.

“So, tell me,” she said curtly, “what have you been doing
with yourself since I saw you last?”

Navarre shrugged. “Living one day at a time, like everyone
else.”

Her laugh was dry and bitter. “But you’re not like everyone
else.”

“Thanks to you.”

“Indeed.”

“What do you want?”

“I want you,” she replied. “I want to stay here for awhile,
and I want you to show me around.”

“No.”

She went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “I’ve never spent much
time in America, you know. I thought it would be fun to take a vacation and
renew our acquaintance at the same time.”

“No.”

“You dare refuse me?”

“I want you to go, Shaylyn. There isn’t room enough for the
two of us here.”

“And what if I don’t want to go?”

“You 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, 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 weren’t for me, you’d 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 weren’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 it 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, herself, 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. She’s here on vacation.”

“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 just 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.”

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.”

“Shaylyn!”

But it was too late. She was gone.

Adrianna blinked in disbelief. One minute the woman had been
standing not two feet away, and the next she was gone in a swirling, iridescent
black mist.

Muttering an oath, Navarre swept Adrianna into his arms and
carried her to the sofa where he sat down and cradled her against his chest. “Are
you all right?”

Adrianna nodded.

“Does your head still hurt?”

She shook her head.

“Dammit, Adrianna! Say something?”

“Is she the vampire who made you?”

“Yes.”

“She’s very beautiful.”

“Yes. And very selfish. And cruel. And self-centered.”

“She loves you.”

“She doesn’t know what love is.”

Adrianna shrugged. “And she wants you.”

He couldn’t argue with that. Shaylyn had sought him out from
time to time through the centuries, but after the last time, he’d thought
himself free of her. He knew now that he had been wrong, that, in Shaylyn’s
mind, at least, he would always be hers, subject to her beck and call.

“Adrianna, I want you to go away for a while. Take a
vacation. Go see your parents.”

“Because of her?”

Navarre nodded. “I’m afraid for you, afraid of what she
might do.”

Adrianna smiled wryly. “You mean a woman scorned, and all
that?”

“Laugh if you want, but Shaylyn has always been very
possessive of those she’s made. She’s angry with me now, and I don’t want you
to be caught in the middle.”

“I’d like to say I’m not afraid, but I am.”

“You’d be a fool if you weren’t.”

“I may be afraid, but I’m not leaving.”

“Annie…”

“No! I’m not going to run away and let her have you.”

“Annie, in spite of what I said, I belong to her.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s her blood in my veins, her life-force that made me what
I am.”

“That doesn’t mean she owns you.”

“No, but she’s a very powerful vampire. No one knows how old
she is, or if she can even be destroyed. Some say that she no longer has to
rest during the day, that she’s immune to the deadly effects of sunlight.”

“Is that possible?”

“I don’t know.” Navarre frowned. It had taken him almost two
thousand years to be able to endure the sun for short periods of time. Shaylyn
had existed longer than any vampire he knew. It was possible she no longer
needed to seek shelter during the light of day, which made her even more
dangerous.

Adrianna glanced over her shoulder, as if she expected to
see Shaylyn hovering nearby.

“She isn’t here,” Navarre said.

“How do you know?”

“Vampires can sense the presence of one of their kind.”

Adrianna made a sound of disbelief. “If she’s immune to the
sun, maybe she’s also able to conceal her presence.”

Navarre frowned. He hadn’t thought of that, and it worried
him. The only edge he had was being able to perceive when she was near.

“She wouldn’t hurt you, would she?”

“She can’t hurt me,” he replied, “at least not much.”

“But she could destroy you.”

Navarre nodded. There was no doubt of that, especially if
she was able to move about when the sun was high in the sky. His only hope was
to find a new place to rest until Shaylyn lost interest in him and left town.

“Navarre?”

“What?”

“Do you like being a vampire?”

“Does it matter?”

“Would you go back to being a mortal, if you could?”

“I don’t know. Why do you ask?”

“What if there was a cure? Would you use it?”

“Adrianna, what are you talking about?”

“I found an old book up in the attic at the store. It was
called
THE HANDBOOK OF THE UNDEAD
. There was a recipe for a cure.”

A cure! Navarre stared at Adrianna, wondering if such a
thing were conceivable. In two thousand years, he had never considered the
possibility of being mortal again. And even as he considered it, he knew it
held no appeal. He had no wish to grow old and die, no wish to give up the
wondrous powers he possessed, especially now, when those powers seemed to be
expanding, when he was able to see the sunrise and walk in the morning light.
Who could say? Perhaps in another hundred years, it would no longer be necessary
for him to hide away during the long hours of the afternoon. Perhaps he’d be
able to overcome his need for blood and be able to partake of mortal food
again.

And yet…he stroked Adrianna’s cheek, thinking how wonderful
it would be to spend his life at her side, to father her children and watch
them grow.

She was watching him, her eyes wide with apprehension and
hope. “You don’t want it, do you?”

“I don’t know.”

“We could be so happy together if you were…”

“Human?”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said quickly, though they
both knew it was. “It’s just that we can’t have a future together now, I mean,
maybe you don’t even want to have a future with me, but, oh, Navarre, I love
you so much!”

“And I love you.”

“I’m afraid of her.”

“So am I,” he admitted softly. And he knew that, even if he
wanted to, there was no way he could possibly try Adrianna’s cure. Not now,
when his strength as a vampire was all that stood between them and Shaylyn’s
wrath.