Have you talked to her?
Briefly. She wasnt in much shape to answer questions.
Yeah, well, unfortunately, she doesnt have a choice.
Why dont you do it? Gabe suggested, eyeing him slyly. You always have such a charming bedside manner, Slade. Ill talk to the old guy.
Slade nodded, then glanced around, letting his shielded gaze roam over the backyard. The two officers were still hanging around, shuffling their feet and trying not to stare at the body. The medical examiner would be here soon, the CSU team, someone from the D.A.s office. The yard would become a circus, and what he and Gabe had found wouldnt be a secret for long.
Then what?
He could already feel the heat coming down from the commissioners office. This is your province, Nick. Your specialty. Hunt him down, quickly, before questions begin to surface. We cant have a vampire preying on innocent young women. Do what you have to do, but get him off the streets.
Yeah, this was his province, all right, and Slade had every intention of doing what he had to do to stop the killing. After all, as the commissioner liked to remind him, vampires were his specialty.
He glanced at the sky and saw that the darkness had lightened almost imperceptibly. Behind the sunglasses, his eyes burned slightly with warning. It would be daybreak in a few hours. So much to do and so little time.
With an inward sigh, he headed across the yard toward Erin Ramsey.
* * *
He came toward her out of the mist, moving like a shadow, gliding with the darkness as though he were somehow a part of it. A breeze caught the hem of his long black coat and blew it back, so that it trailed behind him like wings made of leather. He looked hugetall and broad shouldered, with dark hair cut very short, in blatant disregard for the latest fashion.
But what caught Erins attention, what held her gaze in fascination was the fact that he wore sun-glassesat night. The yard was dark and misty, but he hadnt once removed his sunglasses since hed arrived.
A chill of apprehension crept up Erins spine as he stopped before her. Shed seen the way the other police officers had deferred to him, subtly keeping their distance as they filled him in on the details of the crime.
Now she understood why.
Erin could feel his stare, as keen as a razor, but because she couldnt see his eyes, the sensation unnerved her even more, made her want to run and hide from this man who looked very much like a phantom from her imaginationor her nightmares.
Im Detective Slade. His voice was like liquidnot warm and comforting, but cold and smooth, like an icy stream in the dead of winter. Erin shivered, wishing she had her coat. Im very sorry about your sister. I understand you were the one who found the body.
He propped a booted foot on the bottom step and leaned forward so she didnt have to look up very far to see him. Strangely, his features stood out prominently in the darkness. She could see him clearly, the well-defined angles of his handsome face, the nose that was a little broad but well shaped, lips that were full and sensuous but unsmiling. His cheeks were roughened with stubble, giving him a dangerous, almost sinister quality. He looked pale in the moonlight, but somehow undiminished, somehow vitally alive.
Erin shivered again and looked away, clutching the silver cross more tightly in her hand. Too late, her mind screamed over and over. Too late, too late, too late. Why hadnt she come sooner? Why hadnt she been here when Megan had needed her the most? Why hadnt she sensed something was terribly, terribly wrong?
She had. She had sensed it. She just hadnt wanted to believe it. Hadnt wanted to be lured back here, to this city, to this very apartment, where her nightmares had first begun.
Erin felt something touch her shoulders, wrap around her gently, like an embrace. Hed removed his leather coat and tucked it around her, and she thought how strange that he would be the one to perform such an act of kindness. He seemed so distant, so emotionless, but perhaps that was the way he handled his job. He probably saw bodies every day.
But not her sisters body. He didnt see her sisters body every day.
Trembling, Erin wrapped the coat more tightly around her shoulders. Detective Slade stared down at her with his protected gaze and said, Would you like to go inside? We can talk there.
I cant, she whispered. I cant leave her.
You cant help her now, he said, not unkindly. Youll only make yourself sick if you stay out here.
When will they take her away?
In a little while. The CSU guys have to get here, and someone from the M.E.s office At her blank look he stopped and clarified. Crime Scene Unit and someone from the medical examiners office. You dont want to be here for that.
Im not leaving. Erin knew she sounded obstinate, but she couldnt help it. There was no way she could leave Megan again. Not until she absolutely had to. Where will they take her?
The morgue.
Will there be an autopsy?
Slade hesitated, as if weighing how much more she needed to know. Then he nodded and said, Yeah in that same cold, expressionless tone.
Their eyes met in the darkhers exposed, vulnerable; his hidden, masked. But Erin had no doubt that he was looking at her. She could feel the power of his gaze all the way through her, and it made her shiver all the more deeply.
The wind picked up and tossed a dead leaf across the sidewalk in front of them. Erin stared at it, saw it swirl across the yard toward her sisters body and settle against the silent form. For just an instant, the leaf clung to Megans stilled body. Then, on a fresh gust of wind, it blew away, lost in the darkness like her sisters soul.
I want to cry, Erin thought. I want to cry so that Ill know I can still feel. But the tears wouldnt come. The tears had all been used up long, long ago on cold, dark, terrifying nights such as this one.
She tried to tell herself that at least now Megan was finally at peace, but when Erin thought of death, she could only think of darkness, eternal night. That was what hell was, she thought. Not fire and brimstone. Just cold, mind-numbing blackness.
Detective Slade settled his long frame on the step beside her. He wore jeans, she noticed. Very faded and very tight. His dark sweater blended with the night and his black boots were trimmed with silver. The dark glasses made him appear aloof and mysterious. Dangerous.
He didnt look like a cop at all. He looked more like a demon. A demon lover shed conjured up from the deepest recesses of her black imagination.
Erin realized she was verging on hysteria, focusing on the man beside her so she wouldnt have to think or feel or remember. She wanted to forget, even for just a second, that her sister was dead.
With something of a shock, Erin felt the cold moisture streaming down her face. So there were tears left, after all. She put her hands to her cheeks, trying to stem the flow, but more and more came, like backwater seeping through floodgates.
Lets go inside. The deep voice spoke beside her. She felt his hand on her elbow, felt herself being propelled upward as if by sheer force of will. Suddenly she had no strength to resist. More people had arrived on the scene. They were all standing around or kneeling beside Megans body, and Erin couldnt stand it. She wanted to scream at them to go away, to leave her sister alone as she had done years ago when the monsters had threatened them both.
But it was too late, she thought sadly. Too late now for anything but remorse.
Without looking back, Erin turned and allowed Detective Slade to lead her up the steps and into the gloomy hallway of her sisters apartment building.
CHAPTER TWO
The apartment was dark. Erin reached inside the and flipped on the switch. Bright light spilled into the hallway, and she saw Detective Slade flinch.
When did you first get here? he asked with a grim edge to his voice.
About two hours ago.
He strode past her, and Erin felt the hair at the back of her neck rise as his arm brushed against hers. There was something so unsettling about his touch, something so daunting about his presence in her sisters apartment.
He walked slowly around the room, not touching anything, but Erin had the distinct impression that nothing missed his scrutiny. He paused beside a vase of wilted roses. One fingertip stroked a shriveled petal as he frowned pensively. Then his gaze returned to her, and Erins heart began to thump inside her chest.
Howd you get in? His voicethat deep, cold, spine-tingling voiceshattered the illusion of calm in Megans apartment.
I have a key, she told him. I let myself in. Megan wasnt here. I thought perhaps shed gotten bored waiting for me and gone out for a while. I was supposed to have been here hours ago, you see, but the flight was late leaving Los Angeles. It was after midnight when we landed at La Guardia. Then I had to get my luggage and find a taxi, and even at that time of night, traffic was horrendous. It took forever to get here. She trailed off, glancing away as if realizing shed revealed more than shed meant to.
So the guilt had already set in. Slade pitied her for that. Hed lived with that same emotion for eight long years, knew how deadly and destructive it could be. He took her arm and steered her toward the couch.
How did you happen to go out into the yard? he asked her as they sat down.
I heard voices. I think I must have dozed here on the couch for a little while. I thought I was dreaming at first. Then I opened my eyes and realized I was awake and the voices were coming from below. The window was open.
She tilted her head toward the French doors that flanked one side of the fireplace. Her black hair, pulled smoothly back and knotted, rippled with iridescence in the light. Her skin was as pale and soft as moonlight, her features delicate, almost fragile.
But her eyesher eyes were the contradiction. In their violet blue depths, he glimpsed the soul of a woman who could write novels so terrifying that they sent shivers along his spine.
She might be in shock now, but Slade knew she wouldnt accept a simple explanation for her sisters murder and then allow herself to go quietly away. Instinctively he could tell that she would want it all. Every last detail. Her guilt would demand it. He just hoped to God shed be able to live with the facts when she learned them. If she learned them. He would do his damnedest to see that she didnt. That was his job.
Abruptly he got up and walked over to the window. He knelt and examined the latch. Did you leave the door open?
No. It must have been that way when I came in. The latch on that door sometimes sticks. You think its fastened, but its not. Its always been that way.
Slade glanced up. Youve been here before then?
Something flickered in her eyes and then disappeared, but Slade thought again of the horrifying stories she so aptly created. I lived here as a child, she explained quietly. My sister and I own this apartment. We grew up here. Megan probably didnt get the lock fixed becauseshe wanted to prove she wasnt afraid of the dark anymore.
Lots of things in the dark to be afraid of, Slade murmured. He stepped out onto the balcony and looked down at the yard. The body had already been placed in a bag, but there were still several people milling around in the yard. One of the officers laughed. The sound carried easily to the balcony. Slade glanced back inside, glad suddenly that hed persuaded Erin to leave the scene below.
So you heard voices, he said, walking back into the apartment and closing the door to block the sounds from the yard. Did you recognize them?
Erin looked up at him. I thought I heard Megans voice. I thought I heard herlaughing.
A chill seeped through Slades skin, accompanied by a cold, dark suspicion. Did you recognize anyone else?
Erin shook her head, wrapping his leather coat more tightly around her shoulders. I think I heard a mans voice, but Im not sure. It was more like alike a whisper, and yet I could hear it all the way up here. When I looked out the window, all I could see were shadows. I called to Megan, and I heard her laugh again. Thats when I went down to the yard to find her.
What did you see when you got there?
She gazed at him reproachfully as if to say, the same thing you saw, Detective. But he hoped she hadnt. He hoped to hell she hadnt seen the same thing he had.
Her bottom lip trembled with emotion and she bit it. Slade could almost taste the blood on her tongue. He took a few steps toward her. What did you see, Erin?
The sound of her name seemed to startle her. She stared at him as if seeing him for the first time. He moved to the couch and sat down beside her again. The warmth of her presence filled the emptiness inside his soul, and for the first time in eight years, Slade felt a yearning deep inside him. She looked so vulnerable, soinnocent, but he suspected in reality she was neither. And somehow that notion excited him even more.
Back off, he warned himself. Shes not for you. But at the moment, all he wanted to do was wrap his arms around her slender shoulders, draw her close to him and protect her from the evil that lurked in the darkness.
The evil that was part of himself.
Erins eyes widened as if she recognized the danger. Her fingers wrapped around the silver cross that hung around her neck. I saw Megan lying on the ground, she said. And I sawsomething in the darkness.
Slades heart jumped into his throat as he stared at her. Are you saying you saw the murderer?
Im not sure what I saw. I didnt see a face, no definite form, but there were theseeyes. Silver eyes. And they wereglowing in the dark. Her words trailed away as she met Slades stare. She couldnt seem to take her eyes off his dark glasses. For endless seconds, their gazes clung. Slades pulse quickened as he recognized something in Erin Ramsey that scraped along his nerves and left him oddly shaken.
Then the doorbell sounded, breaking the spell, and Erin started to get up. Slades hand shot out and touched her arm briefly. Her gaze dropped to his hand as if shed felt the same tiny jolt he had. He heard her gasp softly when she saw the scars. Her gaze flew back up to meet his, and he let his hand fall away from her.
What else did you see? he demanded.
Nothing, she whispered. That was all.
But that was enough, Slade thought grimly. In fact, too damned much.
Erin Ramsey had seen silver eyes glowing in the dark.
* * *
Erins hands trembled as she crossed the room to answer the door. She didnt like to admit that Detective Slade had left her so shaken, so uncertain of her own emotions. Shed never met a man quite like him before.