Ragnor was ready?stepping aside of the charge, and bringing his sword down on his brother’s shoulders as he raged past. As Hagan fell, Nari suddenly came to life, flying at Ragnor, and catching his arm.

“Ragnor, he’s your brother, and one of... us. You must stop, you can’t?”

“I can’t what, Nari? Both of you took swings at my neck, if you’ll recall.”

“But you can’t do this, I know you, and I need your forgiveness, and?” Nari was suddenly drawn from him. Wulfgar was there, shrugging. “No, no, my dear. The two of them must settle this alone.” Wulfgar had one of the iron collars the Normans had used on their slaves. He chained it around her neck, dragging her back to attach her to the heavy grate by the fire, even as another man snarled, snowing fangs, and leaped for him. Wulfgar was adept, shaking off the fellow until he had secured Nari, grabbing a log from the fire, and spinning with it before the man could attack again.

But then, Hagan had stumbled back to his feet, bleeding like a sieve, since he had glutted so heavily upon so many victims in the last weeks. Still, he smiled, seeing his brother. “Who wants to live forever, brother? I do.” And he came at Ragnor again, finding an incredible strength and lifting his heavy berserker sword with a vengeance.

Ragnor dropped his own weapon, ducking under the unstoppable crush of his brother’s sword so that it pinned Hagan to the ground as it fell. As his brother struggled to retrieve the weapon, he caught him from the rear and threw him once again.

This time, Hagan flew straight into the fire.

The logs crackled and then roared, and fire spewed everywhere, as if a burning comet had dropped from the heavens.

Ragnor stared at the rush of flame.

A hand fell on his back. Lucian.

“Out! We’ve got to get out!”

Wulfgar was there as well, taking his other arm, leading him toward the door.

Edgar the Saxon was standing by the door. “Wait!” he shouted. “The girl?the prisoner!” He rushed back in. The manor was ablaze then in every direction. Ragnor swore, breaking free of Lucian and Wulfgar to rush after Edgar. Where the room was not alight with fire, he was misted with smoke. He knocked against the table, found the woman by touch, dragged her to her feet, threw her over his shoulder, and rushed from the flames.

They burst out into the night.

As they did so, the roof caved in with a sound of thunder in the night.

They looked back to an inferno.

“Ragnor!”

It was Nari’s voice.

He looked down. He had not found the Saxon girl. He had saved Nari.

CHAPTER 20

Jordan dreamed. This time, it was Jared standing over her in his dottore costume. “Sorry Jordan, I’m sorry, so sorry...”

He pulled off the mask. The sight of him, eyes glowing a strange red, teeth glinting, glimmering, dripping, as if he was half creature from an Alien sequel. She watched the teeth, coming closer and closer ...

“No, Jared, no! They’ll kill you, don’t you understand, they’ll kill you!” The teeth were almost on her.

She must have screamed then because she was being shaken awake. She opened her eyes. Ragnor was there. Ragnor. A creature of the night. She’d been having a passionate relationship with the undead. She nearly screamed again.

“Jordan, there is no danger. You’re dreaming again.”

She sat up, blinking. He was beside her, sitting on the edge of the bed. She must be upstairs in the grand old mansion. There were windows that opened to a wraparound balcony.

They were closed, secured.

The bed was set in a cherry wood frame. There were matching dressers, a rocker by the windows, a hearth in which a fire burned, the embers low. Someone had given her a flannel nightgown. She didn’t remember changing, and she didn’t remember coming to the bedroom.

And now, as Ragnor touched her, she drew away, staring at him. He let go of her immediately. “I grew up with my grandmother,” she murmured. “She warned me about wild guys on motorcycles and dope addicts and married men. She never thought to warn me about vampires.” He ignored that.

“It’s important that you help us.”

“Of course. I’m bait.”

“It isn’t like that.”

“You said that you followed me, to find out what the contessa was up to.”

“At first.”

“Um. Then you fell head over heels.”

“I liked you,” he said. “I liked the fight in you. And ...” A small smile curled his lips. “I warned you about the vinyl. You were incredibly attractive.”

“And you needed to be close to me.”

“I was close to you. I became desperate to save your life.”

“Why is it so hard to believe you?” she demanded. And why did all this hurt so badly? She’d known all along that something wasn‘t quite right. And though she had known that, she’d still wanted him. And still did.

“I see, because then you fell for me, head over heels.”

“Something like that.”

“But you’re an enforcer. And the seventh son of the seventh son. A good bloodsucker. You know, I asked you again just who exactly you were? what exactly. And you told me that you were a man.” He lifted his hands. “I am a man. What exactly else? I don’t know. When I was young, there was an awe and mystique about the fact that I was the seventh son of the seventh son. That supposedly meant that I had a power. Maybe it was just a power for survival. A monk I met seemed to think that meant that I was innately bound to be merciful?a strange state of being for a Viking.”

“So you were a Viking?who never pillaged, ravaged, or fought?”

“I fought.” He studied his hands for a moment. “I have shed blood, yes. But there was ... that other power the monk claimed I had. When we tried to defend the last of a village against the vampires, it took many of their number to bring me down. When I thought the monk would end it all for me, he forced me to heal. And to take a vow.”

“A vow?”

He lifted a hand in the air. “To defend the persecuted and the hunted; never to shed innocent blood ...

that type of thing. I swore to Odin and to the Christian God ... so what am I? In a thousand years of existence, I haven’t quite figured that out. And now, I’ve told you the truth. I’ve admitted to you that I watched you at first because I had to know who was standing behind Nari. I know her, yes, I know her well. She’s a follower. The dottore is the man behind her. But I haven’t been able to get close enough to him yet to know who he is. There was a time when the rule was so strong that we could sense what was going on?”

“Lucian being the rule?”

Ragnor shrugged. “Lucian is still incredibly powerful. But ... in the past, more violence, more crimes against humanity were acceptable. Lucian was called the king, for lack of a better description, but he had his days of extreme violence as well. Maggie.. . Maggie was always different. She denied her fate from the beginning ... and she’s much younger.”

“Five, six-hundred years old?”

“Around three hundred. Maggie has always been exceptional. And even if you accept all this, don’t ever deceive yourself that either Lucian or I were ever as pure in spirit as Maggie. We both have blood on our hands. But even in the old days, Lucian kept order, for preservation, for balance. No one man among us can stop all violence or the natural hunger of predators, any more than a pope could make all Catholics good people who regularly go to church. Before . . . the lines were not nearly as clear. So there was a greater order. There were always rebellions, those who defied the rules. But things had to change. And in the last few years, those who jeopardize the entire society that has moved into the twentieth-first century, who have learned new ways of existence other than in terrifying a human populace and killing indiscriminately, have gotten bolder. They want to overthrow the entire order. But it will destroy us all if they succeed.”

“But if so many of your kind are capable of existing without killing, why don’t you come out in the open?”

He stared at her as if she were crazy. “Many of us remember the burning days?when totally innocent people were burned at the stake. If you were told that vampires?the real thing?were living in your neighborhood, would you just say, ‘Oh, how nice’? That would be like living by a lake or canal with an alligator in it. Maybe we aren’t man-eating reptiles, but how many people would calmly accept such beasts in their neighborhood?”

“So you could turn into a man-eating beast?” she inquired.

“I told you?I’ve done my share of damage.”

“You should have told me,” she said.

“Oh, yeah.”

“Before ...”

“Um. That’s always a great, intimate opener. Want to be with me? I don’t have any sexual diseases, but I am a vampire. Honest, I promise I won’t suck any blood while we’re at it?” He stood up suddenly. “You should get some more sleep.” He walked out of the room then, and closed the door behind him.

She was tempted to call him back. She wanted to forget all the confessions she had heard here. She wanted the strange man who had checked out her room at the Danieli; then held her through the night.

No strange sexual diseases.

He was just a thousand or so years old, and was a vampire.

And she wasn’t sure that it mattered at all. She just wanted him.

She lay back down. For once, she needed to be intelligent and logical. And keep her safe distance. She curled back into the bed. In time, she slept.

When she woke the next morning, she found that her purse and overnight bag had been brought into the room. She showered quickly, dressed, and started out the door.

From the staircase landing, she could hear them talking in the kitchen, and she paused, certain it was in her best interest to hear what they were saying before they were aware of her presence. From the long conversation last night, she could recognize the individual voices.

“I think that Jared Riley has gotten dangerous.” That?from Ragnor.