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"Ann!" she heard Stephan shout in a voice drawn out into an impossibly low rumble. She pushed up
against the struggling mass of bodies and reached for that hand.
"Stephan," she shouted, or maybe she didn't. His touch almost burned her. She poured all her love into
that connection, all her regret, but also all her will. She saw his eyes widen. It was as if they stood there,
connected, and the man who twisted his head, and the one who raised the knife, and the other, attacking
from the rear, weren't there, or if they were they didn't matter. It was only Stephan and Ann, joined by
the touch of their hands. It didn't matter that the grip was slippery with blood. Their gazes locked on each
other. Ann felt him open to her. Love, fear for her, anger at his enemies; all of it washed over her. Then
she felt his power surge up and it was her power too, incredible, invigorating. It was Stephan and
something else she felt, something that sang in his blood and rejoiced in living. She wanted to shriek in
laughter or in ecstasy.
Stephan began to glow.
There was no other word for it. A faint outline of white surged out from his figure. It enveloped her hand
in a tingling flow of life and energy. She had never felt so alive. The eerie white corona bathed the scene
in light, making the blood shine black and the eyes of his attackers glow more purely red. Ann felt the
power course through her and down, out into the earth. Indeed she seemed to feel a kind of rumble in the
ground that echoed in her lungs.
Stephan swept the three vampires from him with one hand, the other still firmly joined to hers. They
struggled up as he drew her into his body. The wound at his neck seemed to be closing, for the blood no
longer spurted, but his body was still slick with it. The glow enveloped her and she felt strong, stronger
than she could ever imagine. He looked down at her, tenderly.
"Ann." She heard the name echo, almost as though they were in her cave. The three vampires lunged.
Stephan tore his gaze away from her and turned it on his attackers.
They stopped suddenly. For one long instant, their faces were frozen in surprise and horror. Then the
power in the air ramped up. The corona expanded. A tearing shriek that was not made of human voices
rent the air, and the three bodies& exploded. There was no other word for it. One moment they were
lunging forward, and the next moment a shower of unrecognizable matter was shooting outward from the
portico.
The glow faded. Shadows crept into the clearing again. The life and ecstasy faded, leaving Ann hollow.
Stephan sank to his knees and she followed, leaning heavily against him. Blackness ate at her vision and
she fought against the desire to gag or faint. Her stomach churned. Around them a semicircle of& of red
slime radiated in stabbing rays like a sun. She saw Kilkenny beyond it with a horrified expression on his
face. He fell to his knees, retching. Ann heard nothing but the ringing in her own ears. What had
happened here?
Minutes passed. Ann shook her head and her senses rattled back into place. Stephan's chest heaved
against her side where he cradled her against him. Somehow they had both collapsed on the stone of the
portico. He hung his head. His dark hair curtained his face. The wound in his belly had nearly closed. The
stab wounds were in various states of repair, from still bleeding to faint pink weals on his flesh "What&
what happened?" she whispered.
He raised his head. His eyes still looked distant. His shoulders sagged. "I think you were right," he said in
an exhausted voice.
"Has that ever happened before?"
"No. I melted glass once." A long pause. "I cracked stones and& " Another pause. "I lit a fire in some
leaves and broke some rock." Silence. "But not this."
Footsteps sounded, muffled, in the damp earth. Ann looked up. Kilkenny stood there, his heavy
seaman's sword drawn. He looked as white as his cravat. He raised his sword. "I dispatch the evil one, in
the name o' the future o' our kind." His lilting Scottish burr was raw.
Stephan raised his head. "I'm not the one making vampires, Kilkenny." He was exhausted. Ann realized
there would be no repeat performance of his power tonight, with or without her help, even though his [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]