Night's Illusion Read online

  “Johnny? Oh, Johnny.” Trembling from head to foot, she threw her arms around him.

  “I’m here, love,” he murmured. “No one will hurt you while I’m here.”

  “Don’t leave me.”

  “No, never.”

  Lifting her onto his lap, he whispered to her mind, his voice lulling her to sleep, telling her there would be no more bad dreams that night.

  Propping his back against the headboard, he held her in his arms until the sun chased the moon from the sky.

  * * *

  Cassie slept late the next morning. Reluctant to face the memory of what had happened the night before, she pulled the blankets over her head. But, try as she might, she couldn’t get back to sleep. Johnny had killed six men that she knew of. All because of her. If she stayed with him, would he have to defend her again and again, adding more deaths to his conscience?

  Did vampires even have a conscience?

  There was so much about Johnny that she didn’t know. Things she might never know. Things she might be better off not knowing. Had she made a mistake in telling him she would be his wife?

  Sitting up, she glanced around the room. For the first time, she wondered if this had been his room before she moved in. He was such a nice guy. She could easily imagine him giving her the biggest bedroom. Johnny. She loved being with him, loved the sound of his voice, the pleasure of his kisses. She hadn’t known him long and yet, already, she couldn’t imagine her life without him. He made her feel wonderful, as if she was someone special and not just some girl who was so unlovable even her parents hadn’t wanted her.

  Flinging the covers aside, she glanced at her arms. There were no scars, no sign that she had been hurt at all. Amazing.

  Picking up her phone, she looked at the time. It was too early to call the Winchester, she thought. But that was a good thing. It would give her more time to come up with a plausible excuse for missing work last night.

  Rising, she pulled on her robe and padded barefooted into the kitchen. She had finally learned how to set the coffeemaker so that coffee would be hot and ready when she woke in the morning. She popped two slices of bread into the toaster, then sat at the table. She wondered about the vampire he called Mara, the one who had lived during the time of Cleopatra. What were the others like? And how many were there? Did he see them often? If they married, would he expect her to entertain them? How did one entertain vampires? Offer them a bite?

  Grinning, she shrugged her worries about the future aside. She loved Johnny. For now, that was all that mattered.

  Chapter 24

  Alric stormed through the night, his rage at being lied to still fresh in his mind. With his emotions running hot, he preyed on every mortal he found, killing some, leaving others alive, doling out life and death with no rhyme or reason.

  He had contacted old friends, but no one knew where to find Mara. How was that possible? She was a powerful vampire, true. But she wasn’t invisible. She had to be somewhere. He had searched the Internet. He had mesmerized a cop and compelled him to search every database available to law enforcement, but to no avail.

  Maybe she was invisible. Or, more likely, living under an assumed name. Or perhaps out of the country altogether. Dammit! Where the hell was she?

  “You can’t hide forever,” he raged. “I’ll find you sooner or later, if it takes a year or a century!”

  No sooner had he spoken the words than his ire cooled as he remembered the force of her power moving through his mind. The gut-wrenching fear. The sheer agony she had inflicted upon him.

  A hunter, he thought. What he needed was a hunter. Let someone else run the risk of her wrath.

  And once he’d settled his debt with Mara, he would teach his fledgling to have a little respect for the man who had sired him.

  Chapter 25

  Late that night, after Cassie had gone to bed, Giovanni went for a stroll through the town. The scent of fresh blood assaulted his nostrils, leading him from one body to another. Men and women alike, some dead, some barely breathing. Each victim carried the lingering scent of his sire.

  Giovanni shook his head. Unlike Alric, he had never enjoyed killing for sport. He hadn’t taken a life in centuries save for Lynx and the other five men he had killed recently. But he felt no guilt or regret for those six deaths. The victims had laid hands on his woman and the penalty would always be death.

  He was turning away from a corpse when he heard the wail of a siren coming from the direction of the last body he’d found. In minutes, the screech of a dozen sirens filled the air.

  Dissolving into mist, Giovanni willed himself to the next city.

  Damn Alric. Why hadn’t he done his killing somewhere else instead of the town where Giovanni and Cassie lived? By tomorrow morning, the front page of every newspaper would carry a lurid story about bodies drained of blood. In no time at all, the media would make the jump to vampire and before long the talk shows would pick up the story. It was only a matter of time before the town would be crawling with reporters from the major networks.

  And most likely a hunter or two.

  * * *

  Cassie’s eyes widened as she read the morning headlines on her phone. There had been a rash of killings from one end of town to the other. The dead had been drained of blood. The survivors, too, had been drained of blood, though not to the point of death. When asked if they had seen their attacker, men and women alike remembered nothing but hideous red eyes. Some of the reports put the blame on a maniacal killer. Others mentioned puncture wounds and hinted at vampires.

  Surely Johnny hadn’t committed these atrocities. She knew he was capable of it. He had killed half a dozen men that she knew of, but only to save her. Who knew how many other lives he might have taken in his long existence? She shook her head. He’d been a priest. She couldn’t imagine him killing anyone in cold blood, refused to believe it. There were other vampires. Mara. Johnny’s sire, Alric, and who knew how many others?

  Deeply worried, and more than a little apprehensive at the thought of another vampire in town, she went through the house, making sure all the doors and windows were locked.

  It didn’t help. She felt vulnerable, uneasy at being alone in the house even in broad daylight. For the first time, she wondered if there were other creatures out there. If there were vampires, why not werewolves, demons, and zombies?

  As always, when she was upset, she cleaned house. Not that there was much to clean, with just the two of them living there. But she dusted and vacuumed with a vengeance, refusing to think about bodies drained of blood.

  She prepared an elaborate dinner for herself, something she rarely did, not because she was hungry, but because it kept her hands and mind occupied.

  She had just sat down at the table when Johnny materialized in the room. Sometimes being a vampire seemed as if it might be fun, she thought. He could zap himself wherever he wanted to go. What would that be like? What else could he do?

  She put the question to him when he sat down across from her. “So, how many other supernatural powers do you have?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never taken the time to count them. I have the strength of thirty men. I can levitate off the ground. I can dissolve into mist, though I must tell you, that takes a lot of concentration and is more than a little frightening the first time or two. I can shape-shift, which is also a little disconcerting.”

  “Wow. You should do a magic act. I’ll bet you’d make a fortune. No one would ever figure out how you disappeared or did any of those other things.”

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” he said with a wry grin. “I’ve spent centuries learning not to draw attention to myself. Although Rane Cordova, one of the vampires in the family, spent some time doing just that. He went from town to town for years, doing magic shows under various names.”

  “I guess it’s like they say, there’s nothing new under the sun.” And then, without meaning to, she blurted, “You didn’t have anything to do with all those
dead bodies that are on the news, did you?”

  The look of disappointment on his face made her instantly regret asking the question.

  “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I know it wasn’t you.”

  “But you still felt the need to ask.” Why wouldn’t she? He was more than capable of it and she knew it all too well.

  Cassie looked away, cheeks flushing with shame.

  “It’s all right,” he said quietly. “I can’t blame you for wondering. Alric killed them.”

  “Why?”

  Johnny shrugged. “He likes it.”

  She shuddered with revulsion. How could anyone enjoy such wanton killing? Hoping to take her mind off her morbid thoughts, she said, “I’m off tonight. Do you want to go do anything?”

  He shrugged. “Nothing in particular.”

  “Maybe we’ll just stay in then.”

  She was afraid to go out, he thought. Well, what normal human woman wouldn’t be apprehensive after reading about last night’s bloodbath? “Cassie?”

  “Hmm?”

  “You haven’t changed your mind about marrying me, have you?”

  “Not exactly, but . . .”

  “But you’re having second thoughts.”

  Rising, she put her dishes in the dishwasher, then gestured for him to follow her into the living room. She sat on the couch and he sat beside her, afraid of what her answer would be.

  “Cassie?”

  “There’s a lot to consider, you know? Don’t be mad, but I think I need to give it a little more thought. My feelings for you haven’t changed,” she said quickly. “But . . .” She lifted a hand and let it fall, not knowing how to explain.

  “It’s all right, Cassie. I understand.”

  “Do you?” she asked tremulously.

  He nodded. “Marrying a vampire is a big decision. You shouldn’t rush into it.” He wouldn’t blame her if she changed her mind. But it hurt like hell, just the same.

  Sensing that she was cold, he concentrated on the hearth. A moment later, a fire sparked to life.

  Wide-eyed, Cassie looked at him. “Did you do that?”

  “Yeah,” he said with a grin. “I guess I forgot to mention that particular talent.”

  He really was a remarkable man, she thought. What was it like to summon fire at one’s command, or turn into mist? “Do all vampires have the same powers?”

  “As far as I know, although it wouldn’t surprise me if Mara has a few that no one else has or even knows about.”

  “Tell me about the vampires you call family.”

  Settling back on the sofa, he hesitated a moment, then slipped his arm around her, pleased when she didn’t pull away. Maybe there was hope for them, after all. “Well, there’s Roshan. He fell in love with the photograph of a woman who was burned at the stake as a witch back in the sixteen-hundreds. I’m not sure how he did it, but he time-traveled back to the past and brought her to the present. Turns out Brenna Flanagan really was a witch.

  “They adopted Cara, who eventually married Vince Cordova. I told you about them, remember? He married Cara and she gave birth to the twins, Rane and Rafe. The boys were human until they reached puberty and then they morphed into vampires.”

  “No way!”

  “Way. Rafe married Kathy McKenna. Rane married Savannah Gentry. Rane and Savannah had Abbey Marie by artificial insemination. Abbey married Nick Desanto, one of the ancient ones.

  “By a strange twist of fate, Mara’s son, Derek, turned out to be vampire on his mother’s side and a werewolf on his father’s. Derek married Sheree Westerbrook.”

  Cassie shook her head. “That’s some unusual family, to say the least.”

  Johnny nodded.

  “And now all the women are vampires.”

  He nodded again.

  “And none of them are sorry they gave up their humanity?”

  “As far as I know, they have no regrets.”

  She made a soft, contemplative sound.

  “I promised I wouldn’t turn you, Cassie. And I meant it.”

  “But I’ll get old. And you won’t.”

  “Let’s not worry about that now.”

  Easy for him to say, she thought, somewhat glumly. He wasn’t going to get all wrinkled and gray.... She smiled faintly. He was already gray at the temples. But on him, it looked good. Maybe someday she would ask him to make her what he was.

  Maybe.

  Someday.

  Reaching up, she cupped his face in her palms and kissed him. “I love you, Johnny.”

  “You don’t have to marry me, Cassie,” he said quietly. “I’m happy just having you in my life for as long as you can stand me.”

  “Stop talking and kiss me,” she murmured.

  He crushed her close as he rained kisses on her cheeks, the tip of her nose, her eyelids, before teasing her lips. And she forgot all about vampires and everything else except the magic of his kisses, the way his touch made her melt like butter left too long in the sun. Wanting to be closer, she slipped her hands under his shirt, reveling in the way his muscles flexed at her touch. His power surrounded her, heightening every sensation, making every touch, every kiss, more intense, more pleasurable.

  Feeling bold, she ran her tongue along his lower lip before delving inside.

  He gasped in surprise as her tongue dueled with his.

  The next thing she knew, they were lying on the sofa, their bodies pressed together as their hands went exploring.

  Cassie was panting when he suddenly bolted upright, then stood.

  “What . . . what’s wrong?” she asked. And then, seeing the faint red glow in his eyes, she knew. He had warned her that his hunger and his desire were closely woven together, the one spiking the other.

  Heaving a sigh, she sat up and straightened her clothing. Smiling seductively, she murmured, “Maybe we should get married real soon.”

  “Cassie!” His gaze searched hers as hope sprang to life inside him. “Cara mia! Do you mean it?”

  Batting her eyelashes at him, she murmured, “I think it’s the only way I’ll ever get you into my bed.”

  Lifting her into his arms, he swung her around and around.

  “Johnny! Stop,” she said as laughter bubbled up inside her. “You’re making me dizzy.”

  Setting her on her feet, he said, “You make me dizzy with happiness. You mean more to me than you’ll ever know.” Tilting her face up, he kissed her ever so gently, both prayer and promise. He grinned inwardly, eager to tell Mara he was getting married. But just in case Cassie changed her mind again, he decided it might be best to keep the news a secret until his future bride actually set a date.

  Chapter 26

  Alric strolled through the town. He loved everything about this new century! He had quickly adapted to the wonders of computers and cell phones. He loved the soft, supple clothing, the way the language had changed, the pictures that moved. Cars and airplanes fascinated him.

  He loved the big cities like Seattle and San Francisco and Los Angeles. Thousands of homeless people lined the streets, a veritable smorgasbord for a hungry vampire. Easy pickings for his kind. When one of them disappeared, there was no family to raise the alarm.

  He loved that you could find anything you wanted on the Internet. He had hired a private detective to locate Mara, and a vampire hunter to destroy her. It wouldn’t give him the same satisfaction as killing her himself, but it would be the next best thing. And a hell of a lot safer!

  And once Mara was out of the way, he intended to go after Pearl and Edna.

  And the priest.

  Chapter 27

  In the morning after breakfast, Cassie drove to the next town. She had told Johnny she would marry him and for that she needed a dress.

  She parked in front of Barbara’s Bridal Shop, took a deep breath, and hurried inside. There were racks and racks of gowns—long and short, white and pink and blue and even black. She grinned, thinking ebony might be the perfect color for a vampire wedding. What would Johnny
think?

  She looked through the dresses and found three that she especially liked–—one mermaid style, one princess style, and an A-line. They were all so beautiful, she thought with a shake of her head. But black just didn’t seem right for a bride.

  She walked across the aisle and looked at the white ones. In the end, she chose a lace and tulle mermaid confection with sheer, three-quarter-length sleeves and a short train. The matching veil was so delicate she was almost afraid to try it on.

  It would take her months to pay for the dress, she thought, but it was worth every penny. It didn’t need much in the way of alterations, which, thankfully, were included in the price.

  She smiled all the way home.

  * * *

  “You’re looking very pleased with yourself this evening,” Johnny remarked when he arrived at home that night.

  Cassie looked up from the book she’d been reading. “Do I?”

  “Indeed.” He smiled as he sat beside her and kissed her cheek. “Might I ask why?”

  “You may.”

  “I’m asking.”

  Laying her book aside, she said, “I went shopping today.”

  He arched one brow.

  “And I bought a wedding dress,” she said in a rush. “It’s going to take me months to pay for it, but wait until you see it!”

  “And where did you find this remarkable gown?”

  “At Barbara’s Bridal Shop. It’s so beautiful!”

  “And I’m sure you look beautiful in it.”

  Her smile stretched from ear to ear. “I hope so.”

  “I know so.”

  Holding her close, he pressed his lips to hers in a long, lingering kiss that stole her breath away and made her heart beat faster. Somehow, they were lying on the floor in front of the hearth, their bodies pressed intimately close together. Without conscious thought, he tucked her beneath him as desire rose hot and swift within him. Her hands slipped under his shirt to move restlessly up and down his back.

  He groaned when she moved beneath him. “Cassie,” he gasped. “Please set a date now! I don’t think I can wait much longer.”