Seduced by the Night (16 page)

Bethany
shook her head. "I don't know why I never saw it before, unless—are the fangs retractable?"

"No,"
Lanie
said with a chuckle. "You should have seen Mac and Dirk when their fangs first grew in. They had a hard time just opening their mouths without the fangs being obvious, much less trying to talk. Even now, they don't smile a lot."

Bethany
nodded because she had noticed that. "What about the eyes?"

"You mean, the way they glow red? I haven't figured out what causes that, but it usually happens when they feel extreme emotions."

Bethany
remembered the strange appearance of Dirk's eyes at the dinner table earlier that evening and it made her wonder. She shut off the thought before she jumped to any wrong conclusions. Instead, she turned back to
Lanie
. "I'm sorry about your father."

Lanie
gave a sad smile. "T
hank
s."

"Is he still…" She stopped, afraid her curiosity was making her insensitive.

Lanie
didn't seem to mind, though. "He's still alive— or rather still
undead
, as far as I know. There's an old legend about a village inhabited by vampires somewhere in the Amazon. He decided to go look for it."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"Back when all this first started."

"And you've not heard from him since?"

Lanie
smiled. "No, but he's been pulsing money from his bank account. I left it open for him. Still, I miss him."

Bethany
's heart went out to her. She knew the other woman must miss her father a great deal and it made her realize how lucky she was that her folks were both still alive. Just then, a flicker of movement off to the side caught her attention and she turned to see something gray huddled by the desk. "I didn't know you had a dog," she commented, wondering why she hadn't seen it around the house before.

"We don't."
Lanie
stood up and walked over to the desk where she picked up the small animal and brought it back to the sofa.

Bethany
stared in amazement. She'd never seen anything like it. It was gray-skinned with a round head and a slightly elongated muzzle. It stood on two larger hind legs and stared at her through enormous red glowing eyes. It could almost be considered cute, except for its two fangs, sharp
talonlike
claws,
and the row of fins running down its back.

"This is Gem,"
Lanie
said. "She's a
chupacabra
."

Bethany
stared
at the creature thinking that despite its strange appearance, she'd seen it before. Then she remembered. "She looks like that statue I saw Julia with earner today."

Lanie
stroked the creature's back. "Actually, she is the statue."

"I beg your pardon."

Lanie's
smile grew broader. "During the day,
chupacabras
turn to stone."

Bethany
stared at her, aghast. "
This
is the stone gargoyle that's always on Julia's desk?"

Lanie
looked troubled. "Yes. No matter how many times I chase Gem away from that desk, she keeps going back. There's something about Julia that she likes. I try to lock her in my room before the sun comes up, but she has a tendency to escape when Mac comes home from hunting because I get sidetracked and forget about her." She blushed, reminding
Bethany
that she and Mac were still newlyweds. She'd seen them together enough to know they were very much in love and a part of her envied them that. She couldn't see her and Miles ever being like that.

At that very moment, she heard the sounds of Mac and Dirk talking and knew they'd finished the task they'd driven off to do.

"I knew something was going on," Mac was saying. "It had to be the link."

"Maybe so. I'm just not sure what it means."

"Yes, you do."

When the men appeared, they wore equally grave expressions on their faces. Dirk's eyes immediately sought out
Bethany
and she offered him a tentative smile to let him know she wasn't going to bolt. Seeing it, Dirk's face relaxed and though his lips didn't part, he smiled back.

Lanie
got up off the sofa and went to Mac. "What are you two talking about?"

"Tonight, Dirk and I felt the link," Mac said.

"You did?"
Lanie
looked surprised and quickly explained to
Bethany
. "One of the side effects of the
chupacabra's
venom is that everyone attacked by the same creature shares some type of psychic connection that allows them to feel one another's emotions and thoughts. When the adult was dying, the link grew so weak that it became more or less nonexistent. We assumed that meant the adult
chupa
had died."

Lanie
glanced at both men and as each nodded
Bethany
saw the stunned look on her face grow. "But if you were able to feel one another's emotions and thoughts, if the link is still active…" She moved closer to Mac and he wrapped his arm around her. "Then she's still alive."

"Who's still alive?"
Bethany
ventured to ask. Mac and
Lanie
seemed preoccupied, so
Bethany
turned to Dirk, who answered the question for her.

"The adult
chupacabra
. The one we thought was dead."

"The one that attacked you?"

"Yeah."

Bethany
studied Gem prowling around the room. It was hard for her to be frightened of the small creature when the others weren't. Yet, when she tried to imagine a creature that looked like Gem, but bigger, she felt the blood rush from her head.

"Do you know where it is?" She didn't like to think of a creature like that wandering loose and killing people.

"We think so," Dirk said.

"Where?"

"Right here in
Washington
,
D.C.
"

Late the next morning,
Bethany
woke feeling drained and exhausted. She hadn't slept much, despite the hot soothing bath she'd taken. Her thoughts had whirled around in her head like a maelstrom until she'd wanted to scream. Nothing seemed normal to her anymore and she desperately longed to have her previous uneventful life back.

Going downstairs to the kitchen, she found Julia at the coffeepot, pouring herself a cup.

"Good morning,"
Bethany
said, walking in.

Julia's face lit up when she saw her, making
Bethany
feel welcome. "Good morning. Would you like some coffee?"

"Sounds wonderful."
Bethany
sat at the table and waited for Julia to pour her a cup.

"I'm surprised to see you up so early."

"I had trouble sleeping," she admitted, taking the cup Julia offered her. She took a sip, praying the caffeine kicked in quickly. "T
hank
you. I need this."

 Julia's expression turned sympathetic. "I spoke to Charles when I first came in this morning. He mentioned there had been some sort of attack on you last night. It sounded absolutely frightening."

"It was," she admitted. "But Dirk was with me."
Bethany
heard the reverent tone in her voice and prayed that Julia wouldn't notice. Unfortunately, she did and for several seconds she studied
Bethany
's face.

"He seems like a very capable young man," she finally said.

Bethany
couldn't help but smile at the understatement. "That he is."

"He and Mac are rather intimidating," Julia admitted. "I'm not sure they want me here."

The statement caught
Bethany
by surprise. "No, I'm sure you're mistaken. Everyone is very fond of you."

"Perhaps. However, I can't help feeling as if someone is purposely trying to make things difficult for me. For instance, I've asked repeatedly to have that statue moved from my desk, yet every morning, there it is." Julia looked away, shaking her head. "It's silly, I know. I should stop complaining and simply move the darn thing. It's not that it weighs all that much, but it's the principle, you know?"

"I'm sorry, Julia. I can't tell you why the statue is always there. I wish I could, but I do know that everyone here likes you and I don't think anyone's trying to be malicious."

Julia smiled. "I hope you're right."

Bethany
took another sip of her coffee. "I need to go into the lab early today."

Julia looked around. "Oh, are the others up? Perhaps I should make breakfast."

"No, don't bother. They're still asleep and I'll get something on the way."

She gave
Bethany
a concerned look. "You're going by yourself?"

"I'll be okay,"
Bethany
assured her, taking a last drink of her coffee before setting the empty cup in the sink. There was no way to explain to the woman why daytime was possibly
the only
time it was safe for her to be alone, so she walked out of the kitchen before Julia could say another word.

Forty-five minutes later,
Bethany
's taxi pulled up in front of the Van Home Technologies building. She paid the driver, climbed out of the car, and strode purposefully through the front doors. She nodded to the new security guard, unable to block the image of his predecessor from her mind, and hurried to the elevators. It felt good to be doing something routine again.

She spent the morning working on the plant extract and the more tests she ran, the more concerned she became. Too many aspects of the substance resembled illegal street narcotics and
Miles's
continued secrecy bothered her.

The one thing she refused to be was a party to something illegal.