Bloodline by MAGGIE SHAYNE Page B

you. There are the Bloodliner assassins, trained vampires so loyal to the DPI that they’d kill us as soon as look at us. That woman, she said they would find you soon, though she wouldn’t tell me how. And besides all that, there are mortals who don’t even know we exist but would try to exterminate us if they ever found out. Just where in the hell do you think you can go where you’ll be safe from all of that?”
    â€œIf you were so concerned about my safety, you’d have come back for me. You’d have found a way.”
    â€œI intended to, Lilith. I did. As soon as—”
    â€œWe’ve wasted enough time talking,” she said, the words landing like a slap to his face. “That woman hada photo of me and she knew my name. She’ll be back. She’ll bring others.”
    â€œI told her I’d never seen you. I willed her to believe me.” She frowned, and he went on. “It’s one of our powers. She won’t come back, I promise.”
    â€œDoesn’t matter. I’m not going to run like you did.” She leapt easily onto Scylla’s back.
    â€œWell, do you mind telling me just where you’re going?”
    â€œIt should be obvious. I’m going back.”
    â€œBack?”
    â€œTo The Farm.”
    â€œWhat?” Even though it was precisely what he had expected her to do, she couldn’t have angered him more if she’d tried. “Why the hell would you want to go back? ”
    Turning the mare to face him, she said, “To do the right thing. To rescue the others and put this obscenity to a stop, of course.”
    He shook his head. “Don’t you think if that were possible, I’d have done it myself?”
    â€œObviously not—since you didn’t.”
    â€œLilith, you can’t do this. Not if you want to live.”
    â€œI have to. How could I live with all those prisoners on my conscience?” She frowned at him, tipping her head to one side. “How have you? ”
    * * *
    I sat there, astride the mare, watching him wrestle with his ego. His conscience, I thought, had long since been beaten into submission.
    â€œDo you remember that place?” he asked me at length. “Do you remember what they did to you there?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDo you even remember where it is?”
    â€œI’ll find it.”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œThe same way I found you, I imagine. I was drawn here, probably my…vampiric brain felt you, knew you were here. You said yourself, we can sense other vampires.”
    â€œThere are other vampires everywhere. You’d have to be the luckiest person on the planet to just happen upon The Farm.” He lowered his head, shaking it. “You’ll never find it, Lilith.”
    â€œThen tell me where it is,” I said.
    â€œSo you can go there and get yourself killed?” He shot his eyes to mine. “I couldn’t live with myself if I did that.”
    â€œYet you could live with your own escape, leaving me and the others behind. Believing I was probably dead by now. God, Ethan, you’ve thought I was dead this long without remorse. How is this different?”
    He closed his eyes. “Not without remorse, Lilith. Never without remorse. Your face, your spirit, have haunted me ever since I left. Why do you think I bought that painting? It was to remind me, in case I should ever forget. I look at it to punish myself for saving my own life and claiming my own freedom.”
    â€œAnd yet you didn’t come back for us.”
    He drew a deep breath, squared his shoulders. “I intended to. But not just yet.”
    â€œIf not now, then when?”
    â€œWhen I find my brother.”
    I frowned, searching his face. “Your…brother?”
    â€œJames. He was there with me, ever since we were kids. I think he was five and I was three when they tookus to The Farm. Our parents had been killed. We both had the