The Perfect Kiss (24 page)

“I’ve seen you eat,” he denied. “We had dinner together just tonight.”

“Did you see me eat?”

“Well, of course—” He broke off, remembering Anya’s plate when Freida had cleared it away. He had thought at the time that she’d barely touched it. And come to think of it, she’d only taken a few sips of the soup. And then it hit him. Her terrible secret. Her guilty eyes. “Anya, are you…do you have some sort of eating disorder? A lot of models do, I’ve heard, but it’s nothing to be ashamed of. We can get you help—”

She laughed harshly. “An eating disorder? Oh, God, if you only knew!” Her eyes flashed silver in the firelight. “There’s no help for me, Zach. There’s nothing you can do or say that will change anything. Before I go on, you have to know that.”

“Then what is it, for Pete’s sake? It can’t be that bad.”

“It’s worse than anything you could imagine.” Anya crossed the room and removed a leather-bound book from one of the shelves, then came back and handed it to him. “Have you ever heard the German word,
nosferatu?
”

Zach gazed down at the book. The word was emblazoned on the leather in gold leaf. He thumbed through the pages, glancing at pictures that left him chilled. Pictures that belonged to a legend—or in a nightmare. “
Nosferatu
was the name of the club we went to in the city. It’s named after an old movie.”

Anya shook her head. In the dancing light, her hair shimmered with fire, and her eyes seemed even more silver now, even darker and deeper and more mysterious. Her lips, full and luscious, gleamed ruby red. As Zach watched, she moistened them with the tip of her tongue. “
Nosferatu
is a term that refers to a vampire.”

“Vampire? But what’s that got to do with…” He trailed off, then stood gazing down at her as though she had lost her mind. “You can’t be telling me…You can’t actually believe…” An image of Freida’s rosary flashed in his mind. Karl’s silver cross. The smell of garlic. And a woman who never ate and never showed herself in the sunlight. “Holy sh—” he cut himself off, tossing back the remainder of the brandy.

“
Now
do you understand? Do you understand why you can’t remain here any longer?”

“I don’t understand a damned thing,” Zach said, setting his empty glass on a nearby table. “This is ridiculous, Anya. Insane. Why are you doing this?”

“You wanted the truth.”

“The truth? Please, Anya. Give me a little more credit than that. If you’re trying to scare me off,” he said, his voice hardening, “it’s not working. In fact, you’re making
me more determined than ever to get to the bottom of your fear. So you might as well tell me straight out. Tell me everything. I’ve got all night.”

“Everything I’ve told you is true!”

Her scarlet lips trembled with emotion. Her eyes shadowed with despair. Zach thought that he had never wanted to take anyone in his arms as much as he did Anya at that moment, because he realized, with stunning clarity, that she
did
believe what she was telling him. Some way, somehow, she’d been made to believe that she was a—

How had she become so delusional? What had happened to her to make her believe such a sick fantasy? She needed help. He had to get her help….

“There’s no help for me, Zach,” she said. “Please. You have to understand that. I’m telling you that I’m a—”

“Vampire?”

“Yes. In a way.”

“In a way?” Zach narrowed his eyes. “You’re telling me that you bite people’s necks and drink their blood. Is that right?”

“No…I mean…I haven’t yet…but—”

He grabbed her arms and forced her to look at him. “Of course, you haven’t! I’ve seen
Dracula.
I know the rules. If you were a vampire, you couldn’t be photographed. You’d have no reflection. And what about all the crosses around here? The garlic? If you were a vampire, how would you be able to stand those?”

“I haven’t made the complete transformation,” she said. “But I could. Very easily. Sometimes the lure is almost…irresistible.”

He saw her gazing at his throat, and he put a hand up to his neck. “Damn it, stop it!” he said with a burst of anger. “My God, Anya, what has made you believe such a ridiculous story? What in the world possessed you to—” Zach
stopped short, remembering the man from her past she had told him about. The man who had hurt her. The man who had made Anya afraid to trust. Had
he
done this to her?

“Anya, that man you told me about. The one who hurt you. Is he a part of this?”

She cast her eyes downward, but not before Zach saw the shame glimmering in her eyes.

Anya had been young and impressionable, and somehow a madman had been able to manipulate her. The thought filled him with rage.

“Anya, listen to me. I don’t know what happened to you back then, but I know he hurt you very badly. Physically and mentally. Somehow that maniac convinced you to believe this bizarre story. Don’t you see? It was his ultimate way of controlling you, of keeping you under his power all these years. When I think of all the time you’ve wasted…that you actually believed…” He trailed off, trying to control his emotions. He took a deep breath. “There’s no such thing as vampires. You’ve only been made to believe it.”

She trembled in his arms and her skin felt like ice. Zach was chilled himself. To the bone. As though he might never again be warm. What in heaven’s name had that man done to her?

At that exact moment, Zach wanted nothing more than to meet her tormentor face-to-face. He wanted to take from him what had been taken from Anya. He wanted…

He released Anya’s arms and whirled away from her, his hands clenching into white fists of fury. “I’ll kill him,” he said. “So help me God.”

Behind him, Anya gasped. “No. You mustn’t say that. You mustn’t even think it. He’ll know—”

Zach’s voice conveyed his contempt. “You’re telling me he’s some kind of a goddamned mind reader? He’s just a
man, Anya,” he said. “You tell me his name, right here and now, and you tell me where I can find him.”

“His name is Gershom,” Anya said. “And he’s already found you.”

“He’s here?”

“Yes. After all these years, he’s come for me.”

“Then where is he? Why can’t we go see him? I promise you, I can break this hold he has on you. Let me see him face-to-face.”

“You still don’t believe me,” she said softly. “You still don’t understand.”

And who could blame him? When Karl and Freida had first told Anya in her hotel room that night what had happened to her, she hadn’t believed them, either. But the proof…the proof had already been placed before her. Gershom had drunk her blood and left his evil mark on her neck and in her soul.

And her life had been forever fouled.

Even if Dr. Traymore could find a cure, even if the bond could somehow be broken, Anya could never be with a man like Zach. He deserved someone good and pure and untouched by darkness.

“Anya.” Zach’s voice, more controlled now and oh, so gentle, whispered over her, melting her resolve, making her want to go to him even more. But after tonight, she knew he would never want her. Never again would she feel his warmth.

His eyes, deep and intense, gazed down at her. Light glistened in his hair. Anya began to tremble. He meant so much to her, and now he would be so disgusted by her.

But he didn’t look disgusted. He looked very, very concerned, and Anya’s heart began to pound in slow, measured beats.

“Tell me what happened all those years ago,” he said. “Make me understand.”

“I was young,” she said. “Only seventeen, but I’d been on my own for over two years. I was modeling in Europe that year, and very lonely. Very insecure. My grandmother had just died, and my parents had completely cut me out of their new lives. They’d both married again and had new families. There was no place for me. Modeling became my life. I loved the attention, craved the adoration, but even then I knew that love could be so fleeting. No one really cared about
me,
only my beauty. And what would I have when it was gone?”

“My God, at seventeen you were already worried about that?”

“You know how it is, Zach. You’re in the business. A model who is at the top one day is a has-been the next. And there were models hitting the scene every day who were even younger than me. Girls with faces that were newer, fresher, more beautiful than mine.”

The intensity of Zach’s gaze made her hesitate. Anya had to turn away. She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t bear to see when the light went out in his eyes. She took a deep breath.

“Gershom knew that about me. He knew all my weaknesses. He knew everything about me before I’d even revealed my name to him. I met him in a club in Bonn. There was—I don’t know—a sort of instant attraction between us.” Anya shuddered. “At least I thought it was attraction. He was older, smooth and sophisticated and very mysterious. He told me everything I wanted to hear.”

“And what was that?” Zach asked quietly.

“He told me he could give me eternal beauty. Everlasting love. I could be young forever.”

“I’ll just bet he did.”

“He came to me in darkness,” Anya continued. “We met by the river one night. It was very dark, very cold. When he came out of the woods, when he walked toward me, I think I knew at that moment who and what he was, but I didn’t care. I just wanted what he had promised me. I wanted to be loved.” She was trembling all over now. Zach tried to touch her, but Anya flinched; it was Gershom’s touch she felt now. In her memory, she could see his eyes glowing down at her, seducing her with the darkest vows of all.

“What did he do to you?” Zach’s voice had hardened. She could sense his inner rage, and it terrified her. What had she done? The truth should have made him run from her as far and as fast as he could, but Zach wasn’t running. She could feel his steadfast gaze on her, and Anya shivered even more.

“He…took something from me.”

She averted her gaze, but Zach grasped her arm. “What? What did he take from you, Anya?”

She lifted her eyes to meet his. Her voice quivered with emotion as her hand rose to her neck. “He drank my blood,” she whispered. “He drank my blood, and now I’m as evil as he.”

Zach just stared at her for a moment, as though he didn’t know whether to laugh or to rage at what she’d said. Then he turned away from her, scrubbing his face with his hands as he walked back toward the bar. “I can’t believe we’re actually having this conversation.” He pressed his fingertips to his temple as he swung back to face her. “Just tell me one thing, Anya. What does any of this have to do with that damned dog?”

“He
is
the dog.”

“You mean the dog is his.”

“I mean
he
is the dog,” Anya stressed. “Gershom is
very powerful. He has the ability to change forms. He’s weak now because of the journey over water and because he’s away from his home. It’s easier, more efficient, for him to travel about in the guise of an animal. Until he feeds.”

“Until he feeds,” Zach repeated dully. He looked numb, as though nothing could shock him anymore. “I must be going out of my mind. I’m almost starting to believe you—”

“You have to believe me!” Anya cried. “We can’t go on with the shoot, Zach. It’s too dangerous. He’s out there somewhere, stalking, waiting, watching for the right moment, the right victim to manipulate. He’s desperately hungry by now, literally starving. Anyone,
anyone,
caught in his path will die.”

“And so, because of this maniac, I’m to cancel the shoot. I’m to allow forty million dollars to go down the drain, just like that.” Zach paused, then continued almost fiercely, “I’m to allow you to go on living like this?”

“You saw yourself how dangerous he can be! Once he’s fed, his powers will build and grow until no one or nothing can stop him. He would have killed you earlier, if not for Karl and Freida!”

“So they’re in on this, too, somehow. I suppose
he’s
the one who arranged for them to work for you. That would fit. That would make his hold even stronger, wouldn’t it? Someone with you night and day to perpetuate his sick fantasy.” Zach shook his head helplessly. “That animal was nothing but a damned dog, Anya! Probably trained to attack. If this man—this Gershom person—
is
out there somewhere, if he’s as dangerous as you say he is and as insane as he sounds, then we have to call the police.”

Anya felt the color drain from her face. “You can’t. You can’t call the police.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’d have to tell them about me. What do you think they’d do to me?”

“Maybe they’d try to help you, just like I want to do.”

She shook her head sadly. “You can’t help me. No one can. The only thing you can do for me is to leave here. As soon as it’s daylight.”

“And leave you here alone? Leave you to him?”

“With you gone, the threat from Gershom is lessened. He’s jealous of you. That makes him even more dangerous.”

“Well, I can’t say I’m too fond of him, either,” Zach said. He turned and started toward the door. “And I’m feeling pretty damned dangerous myself at the moment.”

Anya’s heart leaped to her throat. “Where are you going? What are you going to do?”

He didn’t even look back. He shoved apart the doors. “I have to get out of here for a while. I have to have time to think.”

“You won’t—”

He did look back then. One brow rose in challenge. “Won’t what?”

“You won’t go outside, will you? Not until daylight?”

He laughed, but it was a sound totally devoid of humor. Anya winced at the harsh, brittle sound. “If I do, I’ll make damned sure I’m wearing my garlic. Maybe Freida will even loan me her cross.”

And then he was gone.

And the room became almost unbearably cold.

Anya heard Zach’s footsteps on the stairs, and knew that, at least for a little while, he would be safe.

She covered her face with her hands as bitter tears welled inside her, tears that would remain forever hidden—just as Anya would remain hidden from the world. Whether he
believed her or not, Zach would never want her now. Gershom had been right.

She would never know the love of a man.

* * *

Zach watched the sunrise. He’d been standing at the window for hours, ever since he’d left Anya earlier. He was exhausted and knew that he should go to bed, but there would be no sleep for him—not for a very long time to come.