Immortal Sins (18 page)

“I am sorry for what happened between us,” he said again.

A single tear dripped down her cheek. “I spent three hundred years trapped in a painting because of you. Everything I knew, everyone I loved, is gone,” she said, her voice growing softer and more plaintive. “Everyone but you.”

The last three words were barely audible, but Rourke heard them clearly.

With a sigh, he drew her into his arms, one hand lightly stroking her back. “I am sorry,” he said again. “It was wrong of your father to punish you for what I did.”

She sniffed, her arms slipping around his waist as her anger drained out of her. “I, too, am sorry,” she said. “It was not all your fault.”

“Karinna found a coven not far from here,” Rourke said. “She wrote to ask if they would take you in.”

Ana Luisa looked up at him, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “You are sending me away?”

“Just for a little while. They can help you adjust to life in this place, teach you to use your magick. Protect you from your father.”

“But I want to stay here, with you.”

“I know, but it isn’t possible, not now. I do not want you to be alone during the day.”

“Karinna…”

“She has to go back to work soon. And I cannot protect you when the sun is up.”

“What if they do not want me?” she asked tremulously.

“We will not worry about that now,” Rourke said, and taking Ana Luisa by the hand, he started walking back toward Karinna’s house.

The beauty of the night surrounded him. It was good to be free, he mused, to feel the breeze on his face and the ground beneath his feet, to be able to come and go as he pleased. There was much to see and learn in this new land, but he had to admit that life in his painted world had been far less complicated.

Kari sat at the kitchen table, a cup of hot chocolate cradled in her hands as she wondered if her life would ever return to normal. It wasn’t bad enough that she had a vampire sleeping in the shed out in the backyard, now she had a witch staying in the guest room. And she had to be back at work on Monday. Not that she minded having Rourke here, she admitted. She cared for him far more than she should, knew that, in spite of everything, she was falling in love with him.

Love…Could she really be in love with a vampire? Just thinking about it made her feel hot and achy all over. Heck, she thought with a grin, maybe she was just coming down with a bad case of the flu!

She sighed, thinking that her life had turned into some kind of bizarre fairy tale filled with witches and wizards and one unbelievably sexy Undead guy.

Rourke and Ana Luisa had come home late last night. It was obvious that Ana had been crying. The girl had gone straight to bed without a word to either one of them.

When Kari had asked Rourke what had happened, he had simply shrugged and said Ana Luisa was having a hard time adjusting to her new life. Kari would likely have asked him a few more questions if he hadn’t taken her into his arms. One kiss and she had forgotten everything else. They had made out on the sofa until it was almost dawn, and then, with one last kiss that had left her breathless, he had gone to seek his rest out in the shed.

Kari shook her head as she recalled the hours she had spent in his arms. If she could bottle whatever it was that the man had in such abundance, she could make a fortune!

She was trying to decide if she was hungry enough to make breakfast when Ana Luisa entered the room. Even sleep tousled and clad in a pair of Kari’s pajama bottoms and a T-shirt, the girl was gorgeous. With her pouty pink lips and rosy cheeks, she looked like a fairy-tale princess awaiting love’s first kiss.

“Good morning,” Kari said, pasting a smile on her face.

Ana Luisa nodded at her, then sat down at the table, her expression bleak.

“Are you hungry?” Kari asked. “I was just thinking about making some French toast.”

“I do not know what that is.”

“Well, it’s bread dipped in eggs and fried, I guess you’d say. It’s very good with butter and syrup or jelly. And I think I’ve got some bacon.”

“Thank you,” Ana Luisa said politely.

Kari glanced at Ana surreptitiously as she busied herself preparing breakfast. It was easy to see that the wizard’s daughter was unhappy. There were dark shadows under her eyes, as if she hadn’t slept much. Kari supposed she couldn’t blame the girl. She was pretty sure she would be just as depressed if she suddenly found herself in a time and place that was completely foreign to her.

A short time later, Kari placed two plates on the table. “I’m having coffee,” she said, “but I’ve also got orange juice or grapefruit juice, or I can make you a cup of tea, if you prefer.”

Ana Luisa shrugged. “It does not matter.”

Since it didn’t matter, Kari poured the girl a cup of coffee and then sat down. Wanting to spare the girl’s feelings, Kari concentrated on her breakfast.

The kitchen was silent until Ana Luisa asked, “Are you in love with Jason?”

“I don’t know,” Kari said honestly, “but you are, aren’t you?”

Using her fork, Ana Luisa drew lazy eights in the leftover syrup on her plate. “I thought I was, until last night.”

“What happened last night?”

“I found out that he is a vampire. Did you know that?”

Kari nodded. She refused to feel guilty for not telling the girl the truth. If Rourke had wanted her to know, he would have told her. “He should have told you before,” Kari said. “It was wrong of him to keep that a secret from you. But it was his secret to keep.”

“Yes.” Ana frowned. “Although I knew there was something different about him. Now that I know the truth, I am not sure how I feel about him. Or about Ramon.”

“Ramon?” Kari put her cup on the table and leaned forward. “Who the heck is Ramon?”

“Another vampire. I met him last night.”

Kari stared at Ana Luisa, her mind whirling. Another vampire? Good grief, the city was crawling with them!

“When I found out that Ramon was like Rourke, I was upset and I sent Ramon away, but now…” She smiled a dreamy smile. “He is all I can think about.”

Kari stared at the girl, speechless. One minute Ana Luisa was in love with Rourke, and the next she was mooning over a man—a vampire, no less—she had just met.

Ana Luisa dropped her fork on her plate and looked at Kari. “I wish I knew where to find him,” she said plaintively.

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t help you there.” Kari carried her dishes to the sink, rinsed them and put them in the dishwasher, then poured herself another cup of coffee before sitting down again. “Maybe Rourke could help you?”

Ana Luisa shook her head. “They do not like each other.”

“That doesn’t mean Rourke won’t help you,” Kari said. “After all, he cares about you and wants you to be happy.”

“No. He wants to send me away.”

“But only because he’s worried about you,” Kari insisted. “I can’t stay here and look after you during the day, and neither can he. You need someone to help you find your way around, someone who…well, someone who’s a witch, you know?” Kari shook her head in exasperation. “I’m not saying this very well. And you won’t have to stay with them if you don’t like it there. There’s a lot to learn about life here, you know. Like how to drive a car, and how and where to shop for things you need, and how to use our currency…. It just seemed like it would be easier if you stayed with someone who can help you find your way around. Do you know what I mean?”

“Yes,” Ana said in a small, faraway voice. “Perhaps you are right.”

After breakfast, the girl carried her coffee cup into the living room to watch TV. While she cleared away Ana’s dishes, it occurred to Kari that she should probably teach the girl the rudiments of twenty-first-century housekeeping, at least the simple things, like loading the dishwasher. Of course, if things went as planned, Ana wouldn’t be here much longer and someone else could teach her how to do her laundry and run a vacuum and use a phone. And probably how to read and write, as well.

After wiping off the counter and the table and running the garbage disposal, Kari went upstairs to change the sheets on her bed. If she didn’t hear from the coven, she was going to have to go to work on Monday and leave Ana Luisa home alone. Of course, the girl seemed to have become a couch potato overnight, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Ana Luisa probably wouldn’t even notice that she was home alone. Still, Kari didn’t like the idea of leaving the wizard’s daughter alone in the house. She had visions of the girl trying to cook something on the stove and burning the house down, or forgetting to turn off the water in the tub and flooding the house, or going outside and getting lost. Who knew what havoc a frightened young witch might inflict on the city.

Maybe she was just overreacting. Then again, it was always better to err on the side of caution.

After putting clean sheets on her bed, Kari changed into a pair of jeans and a comfy old sweater. She gathered up her dirty sheets, carried them downstairs and dumped them into the washer, then went into her office. Sitting at her computer, she pulled up the file she had been working on before leaving for Romania. So much had happened since then, it seemed as if months had passed.

As always, when her creative juices were flowing, the hours flew by like minutes. It wasn’t until her stomach growled that Kari glanced at the clock, surprised to see that it was after three. After saving her work, she went into the kitchen, wondering if Ana Luisa was as hungry as she was.

Kari made tuna sandwiches for lunch. She added some potato chips to the plates, along with a slice of cantaloupe. When everything was ready, she carried the plates into the living room.

“I hope you’re hungry,” Kari said as she entered the room, then came to an abrupt halt when she realized the TV was still on, but the room was empty. “Ana?”

Frowning, Kari put the plates on the coffee table, then went from room to room, but there was no sign of the girl. She went upstairs, thinking Ana might have gone up to take a nap. The nightgown Ana had been wearing was on the bed but there was no sign of the wizard’s daughter.

“That’s just great,” Kari muttered.

She hurried downstairs and went outside, but the girl wasn’t in the front yard or out in the back. Kari paused by the shed, wondering if Rourke would hear her if she knocked on the door, but what was the point? Even if he heard her, he couldn’t leave the shed until the sun went down. What would he say, what would he think, if Ana was still missing when he woke?

Blowing out a sigh of exasperation, Kari walked around the block, pausing to ask anyone she met if they had seen anyone answering Ana’s description. No one had seen the girl. It seemed she had just disappeared into thin air.

Kari grunted softly. Maybe, like Samantha on
Bewitched,
the wizard’s daughter had simply twitched her nose and taken flight.

After returning to the house, Kari stared at the phone. Was it too soon to call the police? Even though that seemed like the wisest thing to do, she dismissed the idea, afraid that trying to make a missing persons report on a three hundred–year–old witch who didn’t have any identification would only cause more problems.

There was nothing to do but wait, she decided. Either Ana would return or she wouldn’t.

The wizard’s daughter was still missing when Rourke appeared on Karinna’s doorstep that evening.

“I don’t know where she went,” Kari said. “One minute she was watching TV and the next she was gone.”

“It is not your fault.”

“Then why do I feel so guilty? I should have made her feel more welcome. I should have…”

“Shh.” He drew her into his arms. “Do not worry. I will find her.”

“If anything happened to her…”

Closing his eyes, Rourke rested his forehead against Kari’s for a moment, then muttered an oath. “She is with him.”

“Him?”

“Vega.”

“Ramon Vega? The vampire? How on earth did she find him?”

“I am thinking he probably found her.”

Out of the frying pan and into the fire,
Kari thought. “Are you going after her?”

“Yes, in a moment.” Rourke’s gaze held hers. “But not yet.” He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her, tenderly at first and then with deepening intensity.

As always, his kiss drove everything else from Kari’s mind. She leaned into him, wanting to be closer. Her pulse raced, then slowed as her heart beat in time with his. Her tongue dueled with his, then carefully explored his fangs, wondering how they could appear and disappear so quickly, wondering if it caused him pain when they popped out. She wondered about so many things….

She moaned a soft protest when he drew away.

“I will not be gone long,” he promised. One more kiss, and then he was gone.

Not in a puff of smoke, exactly, but one minute he was holding her and the next he was nowhere to be seen. She wondered how he did that, too.

Rourke had no trouble finding Ana Luisa. He wasn’t surprised to find her in Vega’s house—he had expected that. He was surprised when she refused to heed his call.

“Ana Luisa!” he shouted, his frustration and rage evident in his tone. “Come to me.”

“Go away. I do not want to go stay with a coven. I do not want to live with people I do not know, people who have no reason to care for me, or protect me. I have decided to stay here, with Ramon.” Her voice softened. “He said he will look after me.”

Cursing softly, Rourke studied the vampire’s house. It was a single-story dwelling made of solid red brick. From where he stood, he could see that there were iron bars on all the windows. The front entrance was protected by a wrought-iron security door. Not that the barred windows and door would keep him out, but the threshold, that was another matter. He had never tried to enter the home of a vampire uninvited, had no idea if the threshold of one vampire would repel another.

Angry and curious, he gained the porch and yanked the security door from its hinges, but when he tried to open the front door, he was repelled, not only by the preternatural wards set by the other vampire, but by the sharp sting of witchcraft.

Rourke took a step backward, surprised by Ana Luisa’s power. He had misjudged the girl, he mused. She was stronger than he had expected.

“I am sorry,” Ana Luisa called, “but I feel safe here. With the wards around the house, my father will not be able to find me.”

“I found you,” Rourke reminded her. Of course, it was possible that the blood link he shared with Ana was stronger than the bond she shared with her father; then again, maybe not. Still, Vilnius might be able to track her using his magic. At the moment, it was a moot point.

There was a moment of silence, leaving Rourke to wonder if she was reconsidering.

“Thank you for helping me,” Ana Luisa called. “I can never repay you for coming after me, but I am staying here.”

Rourke muttered an oath. Right or wrong, he felt responsible for the girl. He had freed her and brought her to this country. It galled him to leave her in the care of another, but he couldn’t force her to leave with him. She had most assuredly proved that.

“Very well,” Rourke said. “Have it your own way.” Raising his voice, he said, “Vega, if any harm comes to her, if you turn her against her will, I will know it, and you will answer to me.”

Rourke waited a moment, and when there was no reply from the other vampire, he turned away from the red-brick house. As the saying went, Ana Luisa had made her bed; now she could lie in it.

Karinna was waiting for Rourke in the living room when he returned.

“Did you find her?” she asked. “Is she all right?”

He grunted softly. “I found her,” he said, “and she is all right, though I cannot say for how long.”

“What do you mean?”

“Vega has already worked the Dark Trick on three humans. Two of them are female.”

“Oh. Oh! You don’t think…. He won’t make her a vampire, will he?”