He halted with a jerk.
Darcy stopped. "What's wrong?"
He stood there, unable to answer. All the air had been sucked out of his lungs. All the blood leached from his head. The ground swayed, and he stumbled to the side.
"Are you all right?" She reached out to touch his arm.
He lurched back. No, this couldn't be true. He glanced down at the ground once more. His shadow was there, alone, mocking him for being so blind. Such a stupid fool.
"Adam?" She looked so worried. Hell, why was she worried about him? She was the one with the problem. Darcy Newhart had no shadow. She was fucking dead.
"Are you all right?" she yelled over the noise.
He swallowed hard. "Go on without me. I–I'll make sure we didn't leave any clues behind." Or proof that he'd been there, consorting with the enemy.
"Okay." She ran to the stairwell and went inside.
The door banged shut and he stood there, staring at it while the damned helicopter whirred overhead. His stomach churned. Holy necrophilia. He'd made out with a dead woman.
Slowly, he realized the helicopter was moving away. He scanned the pool area and noticed his flipflops by a patio chair. He grabbed them and paced across the roof. The half-moon shone down on him, taunting him with the evil truth. Darcy was a creature of the night.
"No!" He hurled a flip-flop at the moon. It flew over the wall and disappeared. He ran toward the wall, throwing the other flip-flop. "Dammit, no!"
He ran down the stairs, then realized he couldn't bear to spend the night in the penthouse. Not with all those vampires. Not when his own Darcy—
He took the elevator to the ground floor, then ran outside onto the sidewalk. He ignored the grit of cement against his bare feet. He kept running 'til he reached Central Park. And still he ran. He ran until he was sweating and gasping for air.
He slowed and collapsed onto a bench. Dammit to hell. There was no running from the awful truth.
Darcy was a vampire.
"I think I made a terrible mistake." Darcy stood in Vanda's bedroom, shivering in wet underwear and a towel.
"Here." Vanda tossed her another towel. "Dry off while I find you something to wear." She rummaged through a dresser drawer. "These should suit you." She picked out a pair of white cotton panties. "What kind of mistake?"
"I got overly friendly with Adam in the hot tub."
Vanda's eyes widened. "Oh. In that case—" She dropped the white panties and picked up a red silken thong. "This is more like it."
With a snort, Darcy grabbed the white panties and pulled them on. "I shouldn't have done it. I had to be out of my mind."
"It's called lust, dear." Vanda tossed her a T-shirt and some pajama bottoms. "Nothing wrong with it."
"It's very wrong!" Darcy pulled on the T-shirt.
"He's a mortal. It could never work." She slumped on Vanda's bed.
Vanda sat beside her. "You have feelings for him?"
Darcy's eyes filled with tears. "I tried to fight it. I know any kind of lasting relationship with him is impossible."
"With love, anything's possible."
Darcy shook her head. "Not this."
Vanda stood and paced across the room. "Did I ever tell you what happened to me?"
"No." Darcy wiped her face. Vanda was always supportive, but she rarely confided anything personal.
"I came from a small village just south of Krakow. We were a large family. Very poor. When my mother died in 1935, I became a mother to my younger brothers and sisters."
"That must have been difficult," Darcy murmured.
Vanda shrugged. "The worst was yet to come. When the German tanks moved toward our village, the men prepared a resistance. My father begged me to escape with my two younger sisters. I packed some food, and we fled south to the Carpathian Mountains. I… never saw my father or brothers again."
Darcy blinked to keep from crying. "I'm so sorry."
"The trip was very hard on my thirteen-year-old sister," Vanda continued. "By the time I found a shallow cave, Frieda could barely walk. I gave her the last of our food and water. My fifteen-yearold sister, Marta, left to get water and didn't return. I wanted to search for her, but I was afraid if I left Frieda, she would die. Finally, though, I had to go. I found a stream and filled our water bags. I was headed back to our cave when night fell. When Marta stepped from the shadows, I was so happy to see her. But she just stood there, so pale, with an odd look on her face.
"She swooshed toward me so fast, I didn't realize what was happening. She knocked me down and sank her fangs into my neck. I was barely conscious when she carried me—she was suddenly very strong—to a deep cave and introduced me to the vampire who had transformed her. Sigismund. He transformed me that night."
Darcy shuddered. "I'm so sorry."
Vanda sat on the bed. "The next evening, I rushed back to my little sister to see how she was. She had died. All alone."
"Oh, no. How awful." Darcy touched Vanda's shoulder.
Vanda's eyes glimmered with unshed tears. "I found a good purpose for the hunger that plagued me every night. I fed off Nazis and left many of them to die in southern Poland."
Darcy swallowed. "I'm sorry you've suffered so much."
Vanda snorted. "You think I told you all that for pity? What I want to say is I would go through all the pain and horror a million times over if it could only bring my sister back. If you love this Adam, you should embrace the feeling, no matter what. There is nothing more sacred than love."
At noon the next day, Austin wandered into the penthouse kitchen and found Emma heating up some Chinese food. He passed her the anklet. "We need to get this analyzed."
"No problem." She dropped it into her tote bag and looked him over. "You look like shit."
"I feel like shit." He sat at the table.
She spooned some sweet and sour shrimp and fried rice onto a plate and set it before him. "Feel like talking?"
"No." He motioned to a black and green bruise along her forearm. "What happened to you?"
"A bit of a tussle. Nothing I couldn't handle."
He narrowed his eyes. "You went hunting again, didn't you?"
"Eat your food before it gets cold."
"I told you not to go hunting alone."
She rested a hand on her hip. "And who would go with me when you and Garrett are on assignment here? Alyssa isn't up to it."
"Wait until we're done here. It'll only be a week or two."
Her mouth thinned. "I don't like to wait. Besides, I managed just fine on my own."
"You killed one?"
"Killed what?" George wandered into the kitchen.
Emma smiled. "I killed a roach in the laundry room. But don't worry. When I come back, I'll bring some insecticide."
"Good." George heaped his plate full. "I hate roaches."
"I cannot abide any sort of pest." Emma gave Austin a pointed look.
Pest. She would add Darcy to her list of pests. Holy shit. What was he going to do? How could he add Darcy to his list of vampires? It would make her a target for termination. Wasn't getting murdered once in her life enough? He recalled all the tapes he'd enjoyed watching. She'd been so clever, so happy, so full of life.
"You're not eating," Emma reminded him.
"I lost my appetite." I've lost my heart. Holy shit. Reality had become a nightmare. Did it feel this awful for Darcy, too?
With help from her cameramen, Darcy set up the obstacle course in the greenhouse.
Bernie added some potting soil to the puddle to make it muddier. "Guess what, Miss Newhart? I got that aerial footage you wanted." He exchanged a grin with the other cameraman.
Bart snickered as he moved potted plants away from the puddle.
Darcy watched them both carefully. They didn't glance her way at all. "You managed to get a helicopter that fast?"
Bernie snorted. "The guy told me he was booked solid for three months. But after a little mind control, he was much more helpful."