Page 56 of Shadows of Eternity

Dammit, just do as I say. Go home and lock all the doors and windows. I’ll explain when I get there. Now, go!

Heart pounding, she stood and made her way to the aisle.

From his place behind the curtain, Rohan watched his sire to make sure he didn’t follow Leia out of the theater.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Leia drove like a maniac, fleeing from the nameless fear aroused by the urgency in Rohan’s voice. She made it home in record time. She parked the car, locked it up, and ran into her apartment. She set the dead bolt and the safety chain, checked all the doors and windows, drew all the curtains, then stood in the middle of the living room, her whole body quaking like a leaf in a high wind. If she hadn’t heard Rohan’s voice in her mind before, she would have thought she had imagined it.

What was going on? Why had he wanted her out of there? Did he expect something terrible to happen?

Too nervous to sit still, she paced the floor. The show should be over by now. She pulled her cell phone from her handbag and willed it to ring. What was keeping him? With his vampire powers, he should be here by now. Unless … She shook her head. He was a vampire, he had nothing to fear.

Nothing but a hunter.

She went into the kitchen for a cup of hot chocolate, but left it on the counter, untouched.

Where could he be?

Rohan and the rest of the troupe took a final bow to thunderous applause. In his dressing room, he changed into his street clothes, opened his senses one more time to make sure Leia had made it safely home and headed for the stage door, eager to get to her place and see for himself that she was all right.

“Hey, Rohan!”

He turned at the sound of Jay Deer Killer’s voice.

“We had such a great show tonight, we’re all going out for a drink to celebrate. Why don’t you come, along?”

“Not tonight,” he said.

“Come on,” Angela Gray Horse coaxed. “Just one drink.”

“I think all the applause he got tonight has gone to his head,” Charlie Lone Eagle mused. “Too good for us now, I guess.”

“Next time,” Rohan said. “I’ve got a beautiful woman waiting for me at home.”

Outside, he took a deep breath, drawing in the scent of cool, fresh air. He was about to give Leia a call to let her know he was on his way home when, too late, he sensed his sire’s presence. He swore under his breath as he felt his sire’s ancient, preternatural power wrap around him, binding him more tightly than any rope.Dammit to hell!

He swore again as his sire materialized in front of him. Wearing an expensive suit, his shirt collar open, he was taller than Rohan remembered, broad-shouldered, slim-hipped. He looked to have been in his early twenties when he was turned.

“All right, you’ve had your fun,” Rohan hissed. “Now let me go.”

“Just thought I’d check in with one of my fledglings, see how you were doing.”

Rohan snorted. “Right.”

“I must admit, you put on quite a show. Women in the audience were practically drooling. I overheard several of them wondering what kind of lover you were.”

“Jealous?”

His sire threw back his head and laughed. “Hardly. Although I wouldn’t say no to that pretty little filly sitting in front of me. She’s quite taken with you. And you with her.” A sly grin spread over his face. “Your scent is all over her.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Nothing. I was just bored. You know how it is. Every hundred years or so you feel the urge to do something crazy.”

Rohan grunted. “So you came to California to kill a few people and leave their bodies lying around? Good way to stir up the populace. Spread a little fear.”

His sire frowned. “You think that was me?”

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