Runaway Vampire by Lynsay Sands Page B

frowned and continued, “Look, he told me he’s working for a task force looking into a case where several young people have been disappearing from bars in the San Antonio area.”
    â€œYes,” came the calm response this time when she paused and Mary frowned uncertainly.
    â€œThat’s true?”
    â€œYes,” Lucian said again.
    Mary sat back in her seat. So that hadn’t been some sort of delusion of Dante’s. He really had been kidnapped while trying to find out who was kidnapping these unknown people in San Antonio, she thought, then frowned with confusion and said, “But you’re in Canada. Why would a task force looking into kidnappings in Texas be based in Canada?”
    There was a pause and then he said simply, “It’s an international case.”
    Mary waited for further explanations. For him to tell her that both the Feds and the Canadians were working the case together, that perhaps Canadians wereamongst those who had gone missing, but he didn’t say anything.
    Sighing her frustration, she shook her head, and then said, “Okay, so he really is helping out this task force, and he really was kidnapped and escaped his kidnappers. But the kid thinks he can control minds.”
    â€œHe told you that?” Lucian snapped, his voice so sharp and hard, Mary actually pulled the phone away from her face a bit.
    She peered at the broken glass of the phone face, her eyebrows rising slightly. That had certainly got a reaction. Putting the phone back to her ear, she said, “Yes, he told me that. Crazy huh?”
    There was another silence and then the man cursed on the other end of the phone and muttered, “He shouldn’t have told you that . . . and he wouldn’t have told you that unless . . .” Despite the fact that he’d spoken aloud, Mary suspected he’d been talking to himself. She doubted he even realized she’d heard what he said, but then his voice grew louder and he suddenly asked, “What else did he tell you?”
    Mary tilted her head, her gaze on the second half of the sandwich the fingers of her free hand were picking at.
    â€œNothing. What else should he have told me?” she asked quietly.
    The question was met with silence again.
    Sitting up a little straighter, Mary tightened her grip on the phone and said, “Surely you aren’t suggesting that Dante really can read and control people’s minds?”
    Rather than answer the man asked, “Why are you helping him?”
    Mary paused, nonplussed by the question, but after a moment, said, “Because I ran him over.”
    â€œSo, out of guilt,” he suggested.
    â€œNo,” she said quickly and then grimaced. “Well, maybe a little because of guilt. But also because he just needs help. I mean he’s being chased by kidnappers and he was bare arsed, and I could hardly leave him at the truck stop naked like that. Not that I actually wanted to help him to begin with,” she admitted honestly, aware that she was babbling, “but it was that or let him steal my RV, and no one is stealing my RV.”
    â€œCommandeering.”
    â€œWhat?” she asked with bewilderment.
    â€œDante would not have stolen your RV. He would have commandeered it for the purposes of aiding in the investigation. We would have seen to it that it was returned with compensation for its use.”
    â€œRight,” she said dryly. Taking it was taking it no matter whether you called it stealing or commandeering. It still would have left her high and dry in the middle of Texas with no way home.
    â€œSo,” Lucian said slowly, “You haven’t felt any sort of . . . er . . . compulsion to help? It was just out of the goodness of your heart?”
    â€œCompulsion?” Mary asked, eyes narrowing. “You mean like mind control?
    Silence was again her answer.
    â€œSurely you aren’t suggesting he really can control minds?” she asked