Alexandria sat for a long time, her hands folded in her lap. Aidan would be all right. He would have to be. And he would bring Joshua home to her. She believed it because she had to believe it. When she tried to get to her feet, she found herself shaky, her legs weak. It took determination to find and pull on her jeans. It was difficult to believe that just last night Aidan was making love to her, and now he was out fighting a monster.
She made her way slowly along the tunnel, holding on to the wall, her hand trembling as she opened the entrance leading to the kitchen. She could hear Marie’s quiet weeping, the low murmur of Stefan’s voice as he attempted to comfort her.
The couple was on the sofa in the sitting room, Marie’s head on Stefan’s shoulder, his arm around her. They both looked older somehow. Alexandria knelt in front of them and put a hand over their linked ones. “Aidan will bring Joshua back. He knows where he is and managed to weave some kind of protective spell for him. We both think another hunter is in the area and will come to Aidan’s aid if need be.” Her voice was pitched low and was compelling. “I believe in Aidan, and you must, too. We won’t lose either of them tonight.”
She could feel the power of what she had become rushing through her. Despite the fact that she was weak and pale and needed to feed, she still felt the power. Her mind was strong, and she had assets she had never dreamed of before. They could be used for good, as now, to ease the suffering of the loyal older couple. Stefan and Marie had grown to love Joshua, and both believed themselves to be in some way responsible for his abduction.
Stefan’s large frame shuddered. “I’m sorry, Alexandria, we let you down. The attack was so unexpected, but I should have been with Joshua, kept him by my side.”
“I thought he was safe while he was in the house,” Marie moaned softly, lifting her apron to cover her face.
Alexandria pushed the apron down and circled both of them with her slender arms. She could hear the blood pumping through their veins, the ebb and flow of life. The scent of nourishment beckoned, but she knew now that she could control herself, trust herself. “No one is to blame for this, Marie. Not you and not Stefan. We’ll get through this thing together, as a family. You two and Aidan and Joshua and me. There can be no blame.”
Stefan’s hand came up to touch her hair. “Do you mean that, Alexandria? It’s what you really feel inside?”
She nodded. “Joshua belongs to all of us. It was wrong of me to try to hold him to myself. Now, when he is in danger, we all blame ourselves. Aidan does, because he thinks he failed me. I do, because somehow I let all this happen. You do, because Joshua is a little boy and didn’t do as you instructed. The truth is, what happened just happened. And Aidan will bring our boy home to us.” She said it with absolute conviction.
Stefan’s faded eyes held hers steadily. “And if... if something goes wrong?”
She felt the blow in the pit of her stomach but didn’t visibly react. She kept her sapphire gaze locked with his. “Then we will all deal with it together, won’t we?”
I will not fail you,cara.
Aidan’s voice in her mind, the reassurance, brought her a measure of comfort. Don’t think about me right now, Aidan. Be careful. I will be here, merged with you, if you need to draw on my strength. And she meant to monitor the skies for him. To ferret out any trap the vampire had laid. Aidan would not be alone in this. If something went wrong, he would not carry the load on his own shoulders as he had done for so many centuries. She was determined to share it with him.
“You’re very weak, Alexandria,” Stefan said softly. “If you’re to help Aidan, you must have something to...” He trailed off.
For the first time, Alexandria smiled. “It’s all right, Stefan. I’m not going to be so silly as to fling myself out the door again.”
“I would willingly volunteer,” he offered.
She was already shaking her head when a black fury swirled in her mind. Aidan’s resistance to the idea had more to do with jealousy than with his vow never to use those who served him, she realized. Alexandria tucked that knowledge away for examination at a better time. “I could never, Stefan, but thank you.”
“Aidan keeps emergency supplies. He gave you some once. It is not as good, but it would help.”
She shook her head. “Not that yet, either. If there is great need, I will take it. For now, tell me of the others, the guards. Aidan is quite worried about their well-being.” She had picked it out of his head, his anxiety for Vinnie and Rusty.
“Vinnie was hurt badly and lost a lot of blood. He had well over a hundred stitches in his neck alone. Rusty fared a little better, but both will be out of commission for a long while,” Stefan answered. “I saw to it that they obtained the best doctors available, including a plastic surgeon for Vinnie. I assured both men we would pay the medical bills and compensate them handsomely for their lost time.”
Alexandria squeezed Marie’s hand gently. “Thank you both. You make things so much easier for us.” She slowly got to her feet and made her way to the recliner, where she curled up, drawing her knees up to rest her chin on them. She closed her eyes and allowed the room to fall away so that she could merge herself completely with Aidan. It was where she wanted to be. Where she belonged.
Aidan was well cloaked in the fog Gregori had produced. The dark healer had such an impressive command over nature. The heavy mantle of fog blocked the sun’s rays, enabling Aidan to travel without discomfort and to gain an advantage over the vampire still underground until sunset. Most of all, a terrible weight had been lifted from his heart. Alexandria was with him, accepting of him, of all of him. She could clearly see the beast roaring for freedom, struggling for control, and she didn’t back away from him in horror. She didn’t blame him for the vampire’s desperate challenge or the way Joshua had been abducted. She was afraid for Joshua and for him, but she was not falling apart. She had done as he had asked and tried to reassure and comfort Stefan and Marie. Alexandria was becoming his partner, truly his partner.
As he sped through the fog, he realized he loved her unconditionally, too. He had never known such a deep, passionate emotion. She had crawled so deeply into him, he was totally lost. He was hopelessly, completely, shamelessly in love. In his wildest fantasies, he had never imagined it would feel this good. He sent up a quick prayer that everything would go as he planned, that the safeguards he had woven around the boy would hold until he could destroy the vampire.
Aidan was moving swiftly, attempting to race the setting sun. The fog had given him a fighting chance, a head start, and he was determined to make full use of it. He streaked through the sky, streaming through the clouds, disturbing a flock of birds and sending them wheeling sharply away from the iridescent light. Gray shaded the trees below, indicating he had only minutes before the sunset. The old hunting lodge was in sight now, deep in the shadows of the tall pines.
Chapter Eighteen
Aidan knew the instant the vampire rose. Earth and rock and moldy wood spewed upward in a geyser through the thick, soupy fog. Rats squealed, racing to abandon the rotted timbers. Cockroaches boiled from the decaying wood, a moving carpet swarming over broken planks. The dilapidated building shuddered. Evil incarnate burst into the air, screaming hatred and defiance, laughing horribly as it sped to the car and its waiting prize.
The shimmering rainbow glittering in the white fog slowly took the shape of Aidan’s tall, powerful frame striding through the mist.
The vampire leaned over the trunk of the car, prepared to grab the sleeping child. He stopped abruptly, suddenly wary, his thin lips drawn back in a snarl, exposing long, yellowed fangs. His head undulated back and forth on a skinny, wrinkled neck like that of a reptile. His cold eyes suspiciously examined the trunk, then the blackened ground. He followed the trail of charred bits of flesh. A long, slow hiss of foul breath escaped his mouth, and his red-rimmed eyes swung to take in Aidan’s approach.