Night of the Vampires

And he had fallen for the plea of the hungry, thirsty, desperate new vampire despite all that he knew.

They needed to be doubly wary now.

He found Cody, Brendan and Megan still with the officer who had been charged to deal with the current, imminent danger.

He found himself looking at Megan, who was politely thanking the officer and apologizing for the time she had taken. The man was smitten, of course. The officer was young, and the war had probably taken him far from those he loved. Having a pretty young woman like Megan needing his attention was probably something he would remember and dream about in the long days and nights to come.

Poor boy. He didn’t know.

Megan turned to look at Cole as he arrived among them. He felt a slight trembling in his length, a heat, a tension in his body.

She was a stunning woman with her perfect face and mesmerizing golden eyes. And she, perhaps more so than even Lisette Annalise, was quite an amazing actress.

That, he told himself, was something he was going to have to remember at all times. Especially now that she seemed to be doing such a superb job of joining in with them.

Especially now that it seemed Cody had accepted her, and even Brendan seemed to be falling for the beauty and sweetness of her spirit and…

Facade.

CHAPTER FOUR

MEGAN STOOD IN the middle of the cemetery, feeling the faint stirring of the breeze and looking around, wondering where to begin. The cemetery was relatively new. And yet, it was new at a time when the death toll was staggering. Across the country—or both countries—women waited at railroad stations for the post to come in, to read the lists of newly fallen, and pray that their beloved husbands, sons and brothers were not on those lists.

Many injured returned home. And died.

Disease was rampant.

Prospect Hill had been created when the law had stated that new burials must take place beyond city boundaries for such reasons. Technically, it was owned by the Men’s Evangelical Society of Concordia Church; it had been consecrated in 1858, and it officially opened the following year. It wasn’t a soldier’s cemetery, but since Washington had been the staging ground for the First Battle of Bull Run, as the Union called it, the First Manassas, as the Confederates called it, many local sons had died very early on.

Now graves were dug in expectation, but those who had been destined to reside within them might never do so. Exigencies meant that far too many men had to be buried where they fell. Some remains would be retrieved at later dates; some would remain where they had fallen forever.

She was alone with Cole on the mission; the day was not long enough for their small party to cover the many places that came to mind after they had attended to the victims who had been murdered during the night. It had been Cole himself who finally realized that they needed to split up, and since it seemed most prudent that she and Cody be split—since they could easily endure the bite of a vampire and return to tell any tale—he had either begun to trust her, or he’d still rather risk himself than Brendan Vincent.

“Where do we begin,” Cole murmured at her side, looking out across the vast and lonely expanse of the grounds.

“I think we need to wait a moment. There are several families here—look, just behind that little hill. There are people at that grave.”

He nodded. “It’s very new. No marker as yet.” She was startled when he suddenly took her arm. “Let’s stroll. We’ll appear to be seeking the grave of a father or brother.”

She nodded, surprised to feel a sensation of quickening within her, and aware of the warmth in his form, the strength of his hold.

“So,” he said. “Not long ago, I wouldn’t have believed that I could ask such a thing, but…did you always know that you were a vampire?”

He asked the question lightly, as if it were casual conversation.

“To tell you the truth, I’m not sure exactly what we are, Cody and I,” she replied. “I can be injured, and I do age. I heal overnight when I am injured, that’s true. And I have survived when I should have died. But I have a heart that beats, I breathe.”

He paused, looking down at her, and she was surprised that he almost seemed to be smiling. “That’s—wonderful. But it’s not the answer to my question.”

She shrugged. “Well, I don’t remember my infancy. I remember that I was always extremely fond of a rare steak, and that my mother always had me drink a strange concoction. I suppose the day she actually talked to me was when I was very young and had been punished at school.”

“For what?”

“Samuel Reeves.”

“You were punished because…”

“Samuel was a bully. He was always teasing my friend Sally, who limped. She’d been born with one leg a bit shorter than the other. Samuel teased her horribly. And he was cruel to her. He’d walk by and make her drop her books. He’d trip her.”

“Ah. Not at all a gentleman,” Cole noted.

“One day he sat behind her. He didn’t just dip her hair in an inkwell—he managed to jump up and dump the entire thing all over her. He pretended it was all a massive mistake and he didn’t even get in trouble. So, when we were out playing and he started calling her Blue Face, I charged him. He and I started to fight and there were kids all around us, cheering for one or the other of us. He started to take a real swing at me and I ducked and then…”

“And then?”

“I bit him.”

“And what happened? Children do bite when they’re tussling on the school grounds.”

She shook her head, looking straight before her, and then meeting his eyes again.

“I liked it. I liked the flow of his blood into my mouth, and I didn’t want to let him go. Our teacher had to get help to drag me off him, and when my mother came for me…she was horrified and upset, and she sat me down that afternoon and told me about my father, but she said that he was a good man, and that…I had to use my powers for good, as well.”

“You believe that your father is a good man—still?”

“You don’t—do you? Nor does Cody. But I believe it with all my heart.”

“Why?”

“Because my mother was a good woman, and she wouldn’t have lied to me.”

Cole lifted her chin, and his touch was gentle. He stood there, studying her eyes.

“You believe in Cody, don’t you? I believed in him before I met him. When I read the articles in the papers about the outlaws in the West—I knew that Cody was the son my mother had told my father about.”

Cole laughed. “The name Cody Fox didn’t tell you that?”

“Fox is a common enough name,” she said.

Cole still seemed to be wearing a dry half smile. “What happened to Samuel Reeves?” he asked.

“Nothing. He stayed home from school for a few days—sick. I was punished for the rest of the year—I wasn’t allowed to play with the other children. But, Samuel never teased my friend Sally again. Ever.”

“And did you bite anyone else? Ever?”

“Only when I’ve had to—and only in self-defense, and only vampires.”

“They’re leaving,” Cole said, pointing ahead. Visitors who had been praying at graves were heading for the gates.