Dust to Dust by Heather Graham Page A

tomorrow.”
    â€œSeriously?” Zach said. “That’s where Scott is going.”
    â€œYou don’t happen to be on the Delta non-stop, do you?” Maggie asked.
    Scott’s gaze shot to Melanie’s face and stayed there.She didn’t look happy. In fact, she looked very unhappy. He felt a smile coming to his lips for some perverse reason. “Yes, that’s the exact flight I’m on.”
    â€œQuiet, the movie’s starting!” someone nearby called.
    Melanie came to life. “Sorry, guys. Come on, let’s get back. Nice to meet you all,” she added politely.
    As the others said their goodbyes, Scott couldn’t help himself. He caught Melanie’s arm. “Are you an—earth sign, by any chance?” he asked her.
    She stared back at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.
    Whatever else she was, she wasn’t a good liar. His smile deepened. “You are, aren’t you? I’ve been looking for you.”
    â€œThe movie is starting—I have to go,” she said, and stared down at his hand on her arm. “Let go. We’re in a public place.”
    â€œSo we are.”
    She gave him an icy smile. “Don’t make me kick the crap out of you, right here in front of all your friends.”
    He laughed. “Is that a dare?”
    â€œA friendly warning,” she told him.
    He released her, still smiling. “It’s all right. We have a twelve-hour flight tomorrow to get to know each other.”
    â€œSorry, I’m in first class.”
    â€œPerfect. So am I.”
    â€œShush!” someone demanded off to their left.
    Lucien set an arm around Melanie’s shoulders. “Scott, see you when it’s over. We’ll have a drink.”
    â€œSure,” Scott agreed, not seeing any way out of it, and curiosity getting the better of him.
    â€œAnd yes,” Lucien said, drawing Melanie away. “She is an earth sign—Virgo.”
    Â 
    Melanie didn’t begin to understand her own fear of getting to know Scott.
    There was her original question, of course: who or what was he?
    The man Lucien had seen in a dream. A dream of the catacombs and the long dead.
    A man capable of blinding speed and an extremely effective fighter.
    But what else?
    The answer to that question couldn’t be discovered unless she got to know him. As she watched the images on the wall of the mausoleum, and accepted wine and cheese from Judy, she tried to understand her own dread of what was to come. She had accepted and even embraced what she had thought was her place in the world, all made easier because of Lucien, first, and then Maggie, Sean, Jade and the many other members of the Alliance. But Scott wasn’t one of them. Scott didn’t know about the Alliance, and he certainly wasn’t part of it. She wondered if, for the first time, she was afraid of someone discovering the truth about her—and loathing her for it. Admittedly, plenty of people would loathe her for what she was, but the truth was that they would never find out. And even if they did, they might not believe, and even if they did believe, she wouldn’t really care what they thought of her.
    It was all so complicated. Blake Reynaldo knew there was something different about her, but because he was her friend, he didn’t really question it. He accepted her and worried about her, and that was nice. She couldn’t really remember her own father, it had been so long since she’d lost him, but he had been kind and moral and strong like Blake, so in a way Blake compensated for a loss in her world. She loved animals, loved her work, and as for going silently to the rescue in small ways, there was no place better than L.A.
    Scott—and the drawings she had been doing—seemed to threaten the level of comfort she had found.
    There was applause all around; people were rising, talking. The movie had come to an