LITMIR.BIZ

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for dinner.

      Besides, even cooked meat satisfied her need for flesh.

      The smells of bacon and fresh coffee wafted from the dining room. Times like this, ghouls had the edge over vampires. How Stella and the rest of them didn’t get bored to bellyache with their liquid diet she’d never know.

      “You’re looking remarkably chipper this morning!”

      Tom! Angela stared across the lobby. He looked anything but chipper. Scowling, surly, downright pissed off would all describe the vampire leaning against the oak paneling. Sexy and bedworthy were pretty good, too, but now wasn’t the time to think in that direction. Not after their argument in London. “It’s a lovely morning, and I feel great!” Perhaps not the most tactful thing to say, but drat it!

      The creases between his eyebrows as good as matched the linenfold paneling. “Where are you going?”

      “To have breakfast.” She nodded toward the open dining-room doors.

      “Fair enough.” He stepped forward. “I’ll come with you, and then as soon as you finish, you’ll get packed. I’m taking you back to town.”

      Good luck, Tom! “What makes you think I want to go to London with you?”

      “Look here, Angela!”

      “Good morning, Miss Ryan!” It was Sarah, the clerk who’d spent ages yesterday trying to find Mariposa in shopping guides and tourist pamphlets. “This gentleman was asking for you.” Her tone suggested Tom might look and dress like a gentleman, but she wasn’t too sure.

      “Thanks, Sarah. Tom’s joining me for breakfast.” He could hardly cut up rough in a public place, and what she was about to tell him wouldn’t improve his attitude. She was tempted to ask for a sunny table by the leaded-light windows, but outright provocation was not the best way to open negotiations, and Tom was going to have to shift from his you’re-coming-back-to-London-right-now position.

      He was charming to the waitress, refusing breakfast but asking for black coffee. Seemed he saved the snipping and snapping for her. But if he was prepared to act civilized, they might possibly have a conversation without arguing. She reached for the cream. “Did you have a good trip down? Did you fly?”

      “Knowing you lack the ability to transmogrify, I drove down, so I could drive you back.”

      He was single-minded this morning. “Before you, or I, go anywhere, I need to tell you what I discovered yesterday.”

      “That you came here on a wild goose chase?”

      For that she was half-tempted not to tell him anything. But he was strong enough to carry her off physically, and if he tried his vampire mind-control stuff…. She smiled as sweetly as she knew how. “Not in the least. I got a lead on someone who might know where Mariposa is, and I made a couple of interesting discoveries.”

      “You did?”

      He didn’t need to sound so blandly disbelieving. “Yes, I did. I’ll tell you about them after breakfast.”

      And damn the man! He didn’t even ask! Just drank two cups of coffee while she wolfed down bacon and sausage.

      Angela was just about bursting by the time she did tell Tom, which was most likely his intention. Vampires could drive you crazy with their blasted self-control.

      They left the Royal Oak behind and were walking along the river. The water ran high from the winter rains, and the island opposite was half-inundated. The overcast sky only added to the mood. They were going the opposite direction from Mr. Lee’s shop on High Street, but Angela wasn’t sure she wanted to go there with Tom anyway. If he was so dismissive of her efforts, she’d manage on her own.

      “What did you find out?” Tom asked, looking across the river. The winter bare trees were obviously a lot more interesting than anything she’d discovered.

      “There’s an old man, a shoe repairer, who’s been in business for years and knows all the leather places around,” she paused. “Plus, I can read cards.” That got a flicker of an eyebrow. “And when I get angry, my face changes.”

      That got his full attention. “How?”

      She told him.

      He was more annoyed than impressed. “You were reckless to do that to a group of mortals.”

      “Not as reckless as standing there and letting them have a go at me!”

      “If you’d stayed with me, you’d never have run this risk.”

      “You’re trying to tell me that a big city like London is safer than a small town like this?” She had her hands on her hips, and they were getting dangerously close to nose to nose.

      “You’d be safer because I’d see you were!”

      “Right, by locking me up!”

      “I never locked you up.”

      Okay, he hadn’t but…“Tom, you wanted to keep me in your house twenty-four hours a day, unless you went out with me.”

      “Angela, you have no idea what dangers lurk.”

      “I have a pretty darn good idea of danger after three nights on the streets of Chicago…” She broke off, her mind snapping in shock as it always did with these sudden memory flashes, but this time she shuddered with a cold wave of dread. “Tom!” Her voice came thin with fear. “How do I know it was three nights? And why is it so bad?” Remembered terror sent her shuddering, as his arms closed around her. Her tremors intensified before easing. It was the same fear that fueled the nightmares and woke her screaming.

      Tom tightened his hold, pulling her against him as he fought to brush her mind with reassurance. The horrors were stronger than last time. He tried to read what evoked such fears, but all he found was blind emotion.

      He wanted to kill by slow torture the creature who’d done this to her. He held her closer, willing calm into her fright-fuddled mind. Her sobs eased, and he handed her his handkerchief. She wiped her eyes, sniffed a few times, and looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Sorry, Tom.”

      He kissed her forehead, savoring the sweetness off her skin, but now was no time to indulge those appetites, not when she was halfway to falling apart. “Sorry for what? Ruining my shirt? Not to worry, the laundry can take care of that.” He tried for lightness, but missed.

      “Tom!” Her voice threatened to break.

      “Come on, love.” He moved so they stood side by side. “You need to sit down.”

      A few yards along the riverbank he found an empty bench. The day was far too cold for any but the hardiest mortals, but neither he nor Angela noticed.

      “Can you get any handle on the fear?” he asked after he tucked a wet and crumpled hanky back in his pocket.

      She shook her head. “I wish the hell I could. Just now it came stronger than ever.”

      His arm tightened around her shoulders. He wanted to wipe away her nightmare and sweep her up in his arms and carry her away where no one would ever harm her again.

      He remembered Justin’s words the previous evening. “What can I do to help, Angela?”

      That dried up her tears. “What do you mean?”

      He laced his fingers with hers. It wasn’t quite as reassuring as hauling her over his shoulder and taking her home, but under the circumstances it was probably more politic. “You’re hell-bent and determined on digging to the bottom of your past, no matter what. So why not do it together?” As she stared at him with reddened eyes, he added, “Having a vampire alongside might help. We have a few handy tricks up our sleeves.”

      A weak little chuckle curved the corners of her mouth. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

      “The realization you are going to do this and if I want to see you safe,

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