Worried about Sarah, Roland had elected not to pursue him.
If Sarah had known Roland was the one trailing her, would she have stopped or continued to run? He had seen the horror suffuse her face when she had realized what he was. It was the same he had seen consume Mary when he had mistakenly taken her into his confidence.
He barely knew Sarah, so it shouldn’t have hurt.
But it had.
“Arghhhhhhhhh!”
Roland stiffened when that male roar rent the air.
A warning? A charge sounded?
“What the hell happened to my car?”
Marcus.
Relaxing, Roland shook his head and started back to face his friend’s wrath, jostling his precious burden as little as possible.
He snorted, a sound rife with self-mockery.
Precious burden? Sarah didn’t mean anything to him. Never would mean anything to him. Never could.
It didn’t matter that she was one of the most intriguing women he had met in centuries. Nor that she had been all that is kind to him, laughed with him, teased him, slept curled up against him on her futon. So soft and sweet.
Now that she knew what he was, she would despise him.
And, knowing that, only a fool would allow himself to care for her.
Sighing deeply, the self-proclaimed fool trudged up the hill and forged through the trees.
Marcus paced back and forth beside his car in long, angry strides that would’ve been more impressive if they weren’t hampered by a pronounced limp. When the lead vampire had taken off after Sarah, Roland had quickly finished off his foes and followed, leaving Marcus behind to battle the half dozen who were left of the new arrivals. Not that he had minded. He could handle it and had, though not before a Marilyn Manson look-alike (why did so many new vamps find it necessary to submerge themselves in goth facades?) had shattered his right kneecap.
That particular vamp had then unwillingly supplied the blood that had healed his leg enough for Marcus to continue and eliminate all comers.
After which he had raced here and found this.
Freakin’ vamp would pay!
Swearing fluently, he stepped into the open driver’s door and, despite his wounds, effortlessly pushed the vehicle off the road. He wasn’t sure what was wrong with it beyond the obvious damage done to the body (it looked like someone had dropped a wrecking ball on it), but it wouldn’t start.
Slamming the door shut, he resumed his pacing.
He was full of rage and pain and adrenaline and hadn’t felt this alive in years.
Seven years to be exact.
And Marcus liked it.
A lot.
Which was why Seth was worried about him.
Seth must have intuited it. Marcus didn’t know how, because Seth had not hunted with him or witnessed the change firsthand. Yet Seth had accused him of taking unnecessary risks and being self-destructive before banishing him to small-town North Carolina, where vampires were generally fewer in number.
Marcus smiled grimly.
Ah, but Seth’s plan had backfired.
Tonight had been great. Tonight he had been presented with a challenge that could very well have defeated him. Tonight he felt alive.
The foliage on the other side of the car parted and Roland emerged, carrying a bloody and battered Sarah.
Marcus halted, thinking her dead until he picked up her racing pulse. “Is she okay?”
“She will be.” Roland glanced at the white Geo Prism parked several yards behind the Prius.
Marcus shrugged. “I thought we might need it to catch up with her if the vamp didn’t get her first.”
“Sorry about your car,” Roland muttered, heading for the Prism.
Marcus followed and opened the passenger door for him. “Don’t worry about it. I already called Reordon. He and his cleaning crew will take care of it.”
Roland said nothing, just eased inside the cramped vehicle.
Marcus watched his friend curiously. Roland wasn’t behaving in his usual irascible, distance-himself-from-everything-and-everyone manner. In fact, he didn’t seem to want to distance himself from Sarah at all, curtly refusing Marcus’s offer to take her until Roland was settled, instead tightening his hold on her and keeping her with him.
Roland’s touch was downright possessive as he cradled Sarah on his lap and arranged her just so, ensuring she would be comfortable. Under Marcus’s bemused gaze, he then gently cupped a hand protectively over her head and motioned for Marcus to close the door.
Marcus closed it, fascinated, and circled the rear of the car.
Who the hell was this woman and how had she managed to snare Roland’s interest so quickly?
Because she had definitely snared it.
Squeezing his long frame behind the wheel, he closed the door and turned the key. The engine sputtered to reluctant life. “Where to?”
“My place,” Roland said, not looking up as he carefully began to pick pieces of glass out of Sarah’s hair and drop them to the floorboard.
Marcus pulled onto the road and followed Roland’s directions. “Did the vamp do that to her?”
“In part. He jumped onto the hood of your car and brought it to a crashing halt.”
Marcus frowned. Judging by the way the tires had squealed and smoked as Sarah had sped away from the house, she had been going damned fast. “How did he catch her?”
From the corner of his eye, he saw Roland shake his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen a vampire move so swiftly. Fortunately, I got there before he could lay a hand on her and she ran away while we fought.”
“Did you kill the fucker?”
“No, Bastien chose to retreat.”
And Roland hadn’t gone after him? Very telling. “His name is Bastien?”
“That’s what one of his men called him. By the time I found Sarah, she had tumbled down a wooded hill and was racing across a field.”
Glancing away from the road momentarily, Marcus saw Roland tenderly smooth his big hand over her hair after the last particle of glass was tossed away. “Was she running from
Bastien? Or from you?”
Roland’s lips tightened. “Both, I think.”
“What did she say when you caught up with her?”
Roland’s eyes were grim when they met his. “She begged me not to kill her.”
Silently, Marcus swore and returned his attention to the road.
That did not bode well.
Twenty minutes later, Roland gently deposited Sarah on the dark brown sofa in his living room and placed a pillow beneath her head. That she was still unconscious worried him.
As he knelt beside her, he noticed the blood that coated his hands and forearms and turned to Marcus. “Get me a towel, will you?”
Marcus disappeared into the kitchen, then returned to the entrance and tossed Roland a towel. “What are you doing?”
Roland began wiping the blood from his hands. “She has a nasty head wound and some bad bruises and scrapes. I’m going to heal her.”
“Oh, no, you’re not. Not until you feed. You’ve lost a lot of blood and have much more severe wounds of your own. You know what will happen if you heal her without feeding first.”
“I’m not going to put my needs before hers, Marcus. She saved my life.”
“And you saved hers, so the two of you are even.”
“Hers would not have been in danger if she hadn’t found and helped me.”
“Oh, please. Do you really think that after babysitting you and watching the sun roast your hairy ass, Ren and Stimpy would have walked past her with a smile and a wave and continued on their merry way? She’s a lovely woman living alone in the middle of nowhere with no one nearby to hear her screams. They were stabbing you because they wanted to know what it felt like. What makes you think they wouldn’t have raped and tortured her just to see what that felt like? If you ask me, she’s damned lucky she did find and help you. So you can stop playing the martyr and feed.”