Night Flight Part 4

"Afraid?" He sounded hoa.r.s.e. "Good Lord, your eyes s.h.i.+ne red. No way-I am not seeing this."

She knew she had to erase his memory. But not here-back at the cabin, where he'd feel safer and she would have time to work on him. "I won't hurt you," she tried again. "Let's go back and...talk." The excuse for delay, she realized, meant she didn't want to make him forget. She enjoyed the idea of his knowing the truth.

"Talk," he said. "You bet we will." The fear he radiated ebbed as she stepped closer to him. He swept the flashlight over the ground while they strolled toward the cabin. "You bit that deer."

"I was hungry."

She sensed a renewed shock jolt through him, but he didn't show any signs of panic. "Either I'm crazy, or you aren't human.

And I don't believe I'm crazy."

So far, he was taking the revelation better than she'd feared. "You're not."

"Let me get this straight. Wings-fangs-drinking blood-you're a vampire, right?"

Gillian suppressed the impulse to laugh. "This is one time I can be thankful for all those dumb movies. They save a lot of explanation."

"That explains the night-owl habits and the picky eating. If you sleep in a coffin, you forgot to bring it along."

She gave her head an impatient shake. "I didn't say the movies were accurate. I'm not supernatural. I don't sleep in a coffin, and I reflect in mirrors. We're another species, not undead."

"I saw you transform from a monster with fangs and wings to a human-looking female. That's not supernatural?"

"It's a kind of psychic power. We can s.h.i.+ft into an ancestral form stored in our DNA. We don't think of it as supernatural. It's part of our biological inheritance."

"Oh, man, what zoologist wouldn't kill for a chance like this!" He added with a sidelong glance, "Not that I'd publish anything.

Who'd believe me? And a headline in the National Enquirer would wreck my chances at tenure."

"Then you don't want me to leave?" she said as they reached the cabin and climbed the stairs to the deck.

"h.e.l.l, no! I want answers."

"How did you find me, anyway? And why?" He shrugged. "I was worried, after you ran off that way. You weren't exactly hiding your tracks. Broken underbrush, not to mention this." She realized he was carrying her discarded T-s.h.i.+rt. "Uh...you might want to put it on."

"Why? You've already seen me."

He blushed and averted his eyes. "Humor me."

So she pulled on the s.h.i.+rt and followed him into the living room.

"Don't know about you, but I need a drink." His heartbeat spiked, and he threw her another dubious look. "Guess you already had yours." Detouring to the kitchen, he returned without the flashlight and with a gin and tonic on the rocks. "First question, just to get things clear. You don't do to people what you did to that doe, I hope?"

"I feed on human prey. I have to, two or three times a week, to stay healthy. But it's a small amount, and I don't kill them. They never know it, in fact."

They sat down at opposite ends of the couch. He gulped a swallow of his drink, obviously gathering courage. "Never know?

Okay, next question. Have you done it to me?"

She nodded, igniting a spark of anger in his aura. "Once. Last night."

"I don't remember a thing. Well, except for a kiss. And a dream-a pretty hot dream." He scowled at her over the rim of his gla.s.s. "You caused it, right? You hypnotized me."

"That's what we do." Would he change his mind and throw her out now?

"Just routine, huh? So I'm just a snack?"

"No, Paul! We're friends."

She edged toward him, and he recoiled. "That's what I thought...until now. Friends don't do what amounts to rape."

"You're angry."

"d.a.m.n straight!"

"But you did enjoy the-dream. And you still desire me."

His face flushed a deeper red. "Now what, you're reading my mind?"

"Just your emotions."

Putting the gla.s.s down, he bowed his head in his hands. "Good G.o.d, this is worse than I thought."

"I don't understand what's so horrible. Now that you know the truth, I won't mesmerize you again without your permission."

"So you expect me to just let bygones be bygones? Oh, and have you pick up every feeling that pops into my head." The sarcastic edge in his voice stung her like a razor cut. "What did you expect me to do?" she snapped. "Explain what I am and what I wanted? As if you would've believed me."

"You could have trusted me!" he yelled.

"Oh, you wouldn't have called the police or the men in white coats when I asked for a little sip of blood? Or thrown me out into the street, at the very least?"

He sighed. "You have a point. Truth is, I don't know what I would have done. And it's too late to find out now." The crackle of static in his aura quieted. "Trust me now. Why did you really ask me to bring you here? What are you hiding from?"

"A man actually is stalking me. But it's a little more complicated than I implied."

"I'd have thought you could protect yourself against any ordinary man."

"This isn't an ordinary man. It's one of us. As I said, it's a complicated story."

"We've got plenty of time, right? Tell."

"First off, I'm part human. You see, there aren't many of us, fewer than ten thousand worldwide, and our fertility rate has declined over the past couple of centuries."

"Are you immortal, like in the movies?"

"Movies again! Not exactly like that, but we do live a very long time and never die of old age."

"Interesting." He no longer emitted either fear or anger. "Then it would make sense for your species to produce very few offspring."

"Yes, that's how it works. Our females go into estrus only once every few years, and they don't ovulate every time. Males aren't fertile at all, except when stimulated by a female in estrus."

"That fits. Typical K-selected species."

"Say what?"

"Extended lifespan, only one or two infants per conception, long gestation, heavy energy investment in the young." The technical discussion seemed to calm him down.

"Uh-right. The trouble is, more often than not, heat periods are barren. The elders say it's been getting worse recently."

"So your population's declining-even if you don't die naturally, some of you must get killed."

Gillian reflected that Paul's doctorate in zoology saved a lot of time in explanations. "Right. Our Prime Elder got the idea for a breeding project, revitalizing our gene pool with human DNA. That's where I come in, being one -fourth human. He thinks I probably have hybrid vigor and might even be fertile at my first heat, which normally never happens. So he picked a mate for me."

"One that you didn't want." She caught herself baring her teeth at the memory of Luciano's arrogance. "Not only is it our traditional right to choose our own mates, I can't stand this person. He doesn't like me, either. He's just trying to score points with the Prime Elder. I needed a refuge he wouldn't know about. Someplace to hide until I get through estrus."

"After that it won't matter, because you won't be producing the pheromones anymore. Is that how it works?"

Relieved at not having to spell out the details, she nodded.

"Okay, I admit I'd have thought you were putting me on or out of your mind, if you'd tried to tell me all this before. But now that I know, of course I want to help." Once again the blood suffused his skin, and his aura dimmed with embarra.s.sment. "One thing, though...female animals in heat usually, uh...suffer."

"I had a theory that since I'm part human, it wouldn't be as severe. I thought if I stayed away from male vampires, I might be able to get through it on my own."

"You thought?"

"Well, it hasn't worked out quite the way I hoped. And would you please stop blus.h.i.+ng like that?"

He picked up his half-empty gla.s.s and took a long swig. "It's not like I can control it. Anyway, why do you care?" His tone roughened with a blend of defiance and desire.

"The dilated capillaries and the rise in your skin temperature...watching that makes me thirsty, if you must know."

"Oh. Should I worry?"

"My self-control isn't totally shot!"

"Glad to hear it. Anyway, if you didn't rip out my throat before, when I was totally off guard, you sure won't do it now that I know about you." His eyes s.h.i.+fted away from hers and back again.

"Then what's wrong?" she said.

"I want to ask you something, and I'm not sure if it violates some vampire etiquette rule. I'd like to watch you change. I didn't get a good look out there in the woods."

Having expected something worse, she said, "Sure, I can do that, if you promise not to freak out."

"Freak out? Perish the thought. Cool, a.n.a.lytical man of science, that's me."

She stood up and peeled off her s.h.i.+rt.

Paul's eyes widened. "Do you have to do that?"

"I'm too young to include clothes in the change. What difference does it make, now that you've already seen me half-naked?"

"Nudity has emotional significance for human males. You must have figured that out by now." She nudged her sandals off but didn't remove her jeans, in consideration for his obvious uneasiness. "You're not just any man, though. And what's the big deal about showing my b.r.e.a.s.t.s? I've seen those pictures in Playboy, and I don't come close to the American erotic ideal."

"Not all men have mammary obsessions, not even American men." He scanned her body, then hastily looked away. "And I like your b.r.e.a.s.t.s." The dilation of his pupils and the flare of red in his aura confirmed that claim.

With a sigh of pleasure, she unleashed the change. Again the silken fur, fox-red like her hair, spread over her body like flame over dry gra.s.s. Cream-colored, mothlike wings unfurled. She felt the tingling eruption of fangs and claws. The sensations eased a little of her tension.

Stunned, Paul gaped at her. After a brief silence, he stood up. "You can't fly, can you?" His hand reached for hers but dropped halfway. "You're too heavy for those wings to lift."

"We levitate. The wings provide balance and steering."

"Levitate." He shook his head. "Another psychic power, like hypnosis and shapes.h.i.+fting? Sure looks supernatural to me."

Gillian reined her irritation. With so much to take in at once, he had an excuse for thickheadedness. "Our powers evolved like any other animal's special abilities."

Gathering his nerve with obvious effort, he circled around her. "May I touch?"

"Go ahead." Exactly what she wanted but knew she ought to discourage. "Take it easy, though. We're sensitive in this unstable condition."

When his fingers skimmed her wings, the membrane quivered, and she drew in a hissing breath.

"Sorry...does that hurt?"

"Not hurt," she breathed.

His hands swept over the curves of the wings. He stroked down her spine between them. The heat of his palm made her back arch. "Like velvet," he murmured. He repeated the caress. She responded with an involuntary growl-purr.

"Kitten." He clasped one of her hands and fingered the claws. "Tiger kitten." His other hand reached toward her cheek.

She grabbed his forearm.

He winced, though not in fear. "Good Lord, you're strong."

"I didn't mean to hurt you." She unclenched her grip. "You shouldn't touch my-teeth." Her jaws already ached. She couldn't rely on her self-control if he teased her there. His tangy scent and the pounding of his heart made her dizzy. The waistband of her jeans constricted her breath. She normally transformed completely nude.

"I thought I could handle this. Maybe not." She slithered away from him and melted into fully human shape. Her clothes still felt tight enough to make her stomach cramp. She fumbled at the snap and zipper, wiggled out of the jeans, and kicked them away. Paul's breathing quickened when she stood before him in nothing but bikini pants. "What do you think you're doing?" Though his voice held an edge of anger, the emotion he radiated felt more like desire.

"I couldn't stand it anymore-my skin's crawling..."

"Look, you can't just strip naked in front of a man. Not even a close friend." She felt him tremble with the effort of staying motionless. "It's not fair."

"Then I'll get out of here." She didn't turn to leave the room, though.

"Don't do that. I mean..." He raked his fingers through his hair. "You're driving me crazy. Do I have to say straight out how much I want you? How beautiful you are?

Would he l.u.s.t for her, though, if she were only human? Gillian knew perfectly well that her figure didn't match the Barbie doll ideal. "That's an illusion," she said. "It's the vampire allure you're responding to, not the way I look."

"Hold it-you aren't hypnotizing me right now, are you?"