Vampire - Dead By Dusk Part 30

"Doug! Pay attention," Gema called with a pout.

He did. And she and her partner began doing things...

Gema, her hands still all over the other woman, turned to him. "You let me in once, Dougie. Come on... give me a nice, sweet, wet welcome!"

He was dreaming again, he realized. He needed to wake up.

Why wake up?

It was the most action he'd had in ages.

"Hey, baby, let the dreams begin!" he told Gema.

Suddenly, she was there with him. Just as she had been on the television. b.r.e.a.s.t.s... purely global. And that outfit... stiletto heels, tiny lace thong...

"Doug... I am just so hungry for you!"

"Come and eat me up then," he responded.

"Oh, I intend to," she whispered.

Once again, she was stalking him. Bring it on. He lay with his hands laced behind his head, a grin of pure, unadulterated pleasure splitting his features from ear to ear.

She came to him, paused near his feet, then lifted one long leg onto the bed, giving him a magnificent view.

A second long leg came up. She stood over him.

Then she dropped down, agile as a contortionist, spread-eagle over his hips.

Pure glory raced through him. She shook her hair teasingly over him as she lowered her face to his chest, kissing and nipping at the flesh. She inched against him, undulating like a pole dancer. Her lips found his while her hands zoned in, low on his body, gloving him, leading him deep into the heat of her body.Her lips... slid. Her hips moved.

He felt like an eighteen-year-old on a roller-coaster ride. She moved like a riveter, and it worked-Lord, yes, it worked-it was flying faster than an SST, and he was exploding like a teenybopper and he felt the magic work through his muscles, he felt it...

A p.r.i.c.k...

Not even pain.

Then he heard it.

A slurping sound. Slow and sensual as all else, and...

"You're delicious, Doug," she whispered, "and tonight, we've got all night. There's no one here to stop me."

She giggled.

"I can eat and eat and eat and eat and eat until... you die!"

"Stephanie!"

"Steph!"

"Stop!"

Stephanie jerked, as if she had just awakened. Something...

A noise.

Voices.

She wasn't sure who was shouting, or why.

She didn't even know what she had been doing, but it suddenly seemed as if there was a cacophony of voices coming at her, calling her name.

She blinked furiously, and she was terrified, because she didn't know what she was doing, or where she was going.

And she suddenly found herself on an outcropping surrounding a cliff. There was barely room for her feet. A frigging goat might have had a problem getting where she was.

"Stephanie, careful! Stay where you are."

Grant's voice. She blinked, oddly thinking that it was Grant who had gotten her here. She felt a surge of anger against him.

"Stephanie... stay still. He's coming!" Another voice, female... it was Liz.

There was no rain, and no lightning, but the ground fog had risen. Through it, to her right, she could see Grant hugging the cliff side, making his way to her.

She swallowed and turned. Clay Barton was coming from the other direction. She tried to look behind her.There was a sheer drop.

Fingers touched her. They were cold as ice. She had a vision again, bones rising from the ground, touching her with an icy blast.

She nearly screamed.

"Steph, it's me-don't jerk away!"

Grant had reached her. He sounded angry, but as if he were trying to control the emotion in his voice. "Take my hand-walk with me."

She balked.

"Steph!"

She swallowed hard, recent memory cascading down upon her. This couldn't be Grant's fault. She hadn't been with him. All right, so she had been looking for him, but...

How the h.e.l.l had she gotten here?

"I'm on your other side, Stephanie." It was Clay.

"Careful! All of you!" Liz called from down below.

"Slowly... the ground isn't solid," Grant warned. They were inching his way. Bit by bit. And he was right. She could feel the earth crumbling and giving way as they moved.

Her right foot slipped. She started to slide down. A scream escaped her.

Both men caught her by the arms, drawing her back up. Grant staggered backward against the cliff, crus.h.i.+ng her to him, pressing her forward, ahead of him, then. He turned to give Clay a hand-there was no footing remaining where she had stood. With Grant's hand, Clay made a leap over the gap.

His body crushed against hers as he pa.s.sed her, putting her between the two of them again. She closed her eyes, still trembling from the close call.

"It's widening... we're almost back on a trail again," Grant said.

She nodded. He was right. In another minute, they were on a trail. Two minutes after that, they were on a broad plateau that slopped gently downward, back toward the area of the dig.

That was when Grant let loose.

Swinging her around before him with barely controlled rage tightening his every muscle, he very nearly barked out his words.

"What the h.e.l.l were you doing?"

She didn't know herself. She was shaking and afraid, and therefore, defensive. And once again, it was slipping into the corner of her mind that it was somehow all his fault.

"You a.s.s! I was looking for you!"

"Against a sheer drop? What the h.e.l.l did you think-that I'd become part of the rock?"

"Hey, you two," Clay said, coming behind Stephanie."You, dammit, get the f.u.c.k out of it!" Grant all but roared.

"Grant!" Stephanie exploded, stunned.

Liz had run up to meet them by then. She was obviously upset. "Please, all of you, stop! Let's not say things we don't mean...

and, Lord! Let's not get violent, huh? Please?"

"Violent?" Stephanie should have kept silent, but she was still stunned by Grant's display of wrath, and his absolute rudeness and hostility toward Clay, who had risked his life for her as well!

"Actually, Liz, I wouldn't blame Clay if he slammed my very old acquaintance Mr. Peterson from here to China!" she said, staring at Grant.

"No one is decking anyone," Liz said, a prayer that it would be so in her tone. "Grant, please! You're scared because Stephanie could have been killed. You don't understand... it was like pea soup out here for a few minutes... we were all kind of wandering around like idiots. Please, all of you! Stop, think, cool down. I am begging you!"

She was right, and Stephanie knew it, and she didn't want Grant slugging Clay, or Clay slugging Grant.

She lifted a hand. "I'm sorry. Truly sorry. I feel like an idiot. I don't know how I got where I was, except... Liz is right. There was just... a fog. A mist. Something, I don't know. But I'm sorry. Really, really sorry, Grant. And both of you-you did save my. life. Or, at the very least, you saved me from a broken neck and crushed bones. So I thank you both. Liz, can we get back to the car now, please?"

"Yes, yes, let's get back to the car." She slipped an arm around Stephanie's shoulders and shot a glance over her head at Clay.

She sounded aggravated herself as she added, "We should never, never have stayed here after dark."

Neither Grant nor Clay said anything as they followed Liz and Stephanie back, so she a.s.sumed that, for the moment, neither one of them was going to cream the other.

They all reached Grant's rental car in stony silence and reclaimed the seats they'd taken for the ride in. No one spoke. Grant revved the car, and they began the drive back.

Stephanie looked out the window and s.h.i.+vered.

What the h.e.l.l had she been doing?

Lena and Suzette were seated at the table when Drew arrived. He was a little bit late, but they had waited for him and Doug.

Both women had ordered a gla.s.s of wine, but didn't seem to mind that they'd waited to order dinner.

"Hey, for a redhead, you're getting a nice tan," Lena approved.

He grimaced, taking a chair and waving to their waiter, motioning for a beer. The fellow grinned and nodded.

"Thanks. You are a kind woman, Lena, to call this rosy hue a tan. But I thank you. Maybe if I nurse it along, I can look good and buff by the time we finish our run." He frowned. "Did Doug say he was coming?"

"Oh, yes, he intends to join us," Suzette a.s.sured him.

The waiter brought Drew's beer. He drank it slowly, idly chatting with the girls about little improvements they could make in the shows, now that they'd gotten their feet wet and had a better idea of how it would all go. "We'll have to check these ideas out with Stephanie, though," he said.Lena waved a hand in the air. "Of course! But she loves it when people come up with ideas. I think that's why she's so good- she isn't afraid to let others have artistic opinions."

Drew shrugged. "Yeah, she's cool. She can even give up control to be able to get in a smoother flow with the rest of us as an ensemble. So... hey, what do you all think the story is between Liz and Clay?"

"They're sleeping together. Definitely," Suzette said sagely.

Lena arched a brow. "Hmm. I don't know. He has an interest in Stephanie."

"Well, we all have an interest in her," Suzette argued. "She's the boss."

"No, no, no, the way he watches her... he has an interest in her," Lena said.

"Ah, but there's Grant!" Suzette said.

"Um," Lena agreed.

"Did you have to make that sound as if the man were a rare filet?" Drew said, wincing.

"Sorry. There's something about him," Lena said, grinning.

"Yeah, yeah, and Clay, too, and I'm adorable. I don't know why I get into these conversations," Drew said. Then he frowned.

"Doug really should have been here by now. And he didn't look so good today. I'm going to run over to his cottage, okay?"

"You're right-that sounds like a really good idea."

Drew went to Doug's and pounded on the front door. There was no answer, so he hesitated, then went around back and climbed the stairs to his friend's balcony.

The doors were open. The draperies were blowing in the breeze.

"Doug?" Drew called carefully.