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Leigh&039;s head was throbbing It felt like so her skull Slowly She&039;d never experienced pain like this It was accompanied by a bad case of cotton mouth and stomach cramps like she&039;d never known Basically, she felt like hell

A groan started to slip from her lips, but the pain it caused in both her dry throat and her head made her abruptly cut it off She tried to blink her eyes open, but the sudden assault froht ain

This was bad Very bad She hadn&039;t felt this bad since well, ever, she realized She&039;d had broken bones, colds, flus, chicken pox, and every other childhood ail like this

After severalto ease her pain, Leigh decided she&039;d have to get up and find so And water She was so dehydrated her tongue felt like sandpaper It would also -- she hoped -- help re herself against the coain as the pain in her head ratcheted up a notch

Aspirin, she reminded herself And water Just a dozen steps to her bathroo there without opening her eyes She&039;d lived in her little house for two years, surely she could find the bathroo her eyes? If I can walk, she added, as worry claiht be too weak to get around

Leigh took a deep breath, then ed to sit up on the bed The s and breathless Oh, this can&039;t be good, she thought vaguely, then beca on her arm every ti the tape wrapped around her arm, she blinked her other eye open in surprise and stared with confusion, then noted the tube sticking out of it and followed that up to an e was empty, but there were traces of a red liquid pooled in the bottoe O and Rh positive under it

Blood?

Her head turned slowly as she examined the room, and she realized with dismay that it wasn&039;t her cozy bedrooly This was a rooe blue roo area to one side that included a couch, a coffee table, and chairs There were a set of double doors, obviously to a closet, and two other doors besides

A prickly sensation of fear crept up the back of her neck, and she began to recall so her on a dark street Her anger with hi control of her body, and then Morgan

Leigh stiffened as she recalled hi her blood in the back of the van The van had stopped at an ugly old house that seean carried her inside and downstairs into a cold damp basement She&039;d stared in horror at the coffins there, and the pale, hard-faced people, then he took her into a tiny roo over her, telling her everything would be all right He&039;d chosen her They would live forever

She reet past the pain throbbing in her teone on about vampires and eternal life She hadn&039;t listened to : she knew she had to get out of there

And she had, Leigh recalled With Morgan gone, she&039;d had control of her body once ed to stay conscious despite the pain and weakness that assailed her, and suspected Donny had unintentionally helped her He&039;d been as solicitous as a lover, covering her with a blanket as he prohts in their own little coffin built for two

Every word he&039;d said had fueled the fury burning in her, so that when he finally left the rooain her feet and stumble to the door to make her escape She&039;d made it all the way upstairs and into the kitchen without interference

But what happened then? She had a vague, fuzzy dreanized two of theht that week, eating at the bar because they showed up so late The third od come to life

It ood-looking

She glanced around the rooain Had she escaped from that house? Perhaps she was still there, but in a different room She had no idea, except that this wasn&039;t her own rooh started to rise, only to pause at another pull on her arave an i as the tape ripped hair froainst the sting, she ly In the nextunder her

"Dammit, Julius! Get down! You&039;ll h raised her head to peer over the bed and at the door across the room It was closed at the moment, but she heard a noring the pain in her arm, she ducked instinctively to hide behind the bed, her body see to make the decision before her mind had processed her options In the nextunder the bed on her stomach Once in the center, she stilled and held her breath, her eyes finding the door through the crack between the floor and the ruff around the bed

A pair of bare feet and the bottom hem of what looked like black jeans appeared as the wooden panel swung inward

"Stupid dog," the man muttered as the bare feet h bit her lip A dog Her hiding space suddenly didn&039;t seelanced to the side as the bare feet stopped beside the bed, then moved forward to the headboard There was the clatter and clink of glass as so -- the tray he&039;d mentioned? -- was set down on the bedside table, then the bare feet moved away, toward one of the other doors in the rooainst

"As if I don&039;t have enough to do with you wrecking the house at every turn and s," themuch attention to hi Rather than follow thethe end of the bed, and she had a sinking feeling her hiding spot wouldn&039;t last long

Ignoring her various aches and pains, she glanced around wildly, looking for so, not even a dust bunny under the bed If this were her room and her bed, there would have been clothes, shoes, possibly a hanger or two Shoes, or even a hanger,under this bed The space was as barren as a desert

"When I getnow "He&039;s deliberately not answering his phone because he knoant hilanced to the side, to see that he&039;dto the closet doors Curiosity got the better of her then and she reached out with her sore arh to see him

Her eyes widened He was barefoot, as she&039;d known, but also bare-chested, or mostly bare-chested The flowered apron he wore covered part of a very muscular, very naked chest and skirted over his black jeans A kerchief was tied around his face, covering his mouth and nose like a bank robber of old Another coveredin waves away froloves on his hands, then her attention was diverted as he opened the closet door

Leigh grie wall closet They omen&039;s shoes, maybe half a dozen, and every one sported a pointed heel A lot of good they did her there, she thought irritably, then glanced sharply toward the end of the bed as a rustle caught her ear

Much to her horror, the dog had found her He was now on his stoan to scooch his way forward under the bed Eyes widening, Leigh scooted back as far as she could until her feet hit the wall at the head of the bed, but the dog just followed, dragging hi noises that she thought ht be meant to reassure her that his intentions were friendly

Leigh&039;s eyes widened in growing amazee, his head a big square that could have passed for a s the bed each tie! He could eat her for dinner and probably still e a snack afterward

"I don&039;t need this I -- Julius? Where the hell did you go now?"

Leigh tore her eyes away frolanced toward the bare feet as they moved to the door where they&039;d entered The , and for a ht leave the room in search of the up her cheek

Blinking, she turned to discover that the dog had reached her Fortunately, his intentions didn&039;t see a taste before he bit, his greeting seeh Relieved that she needn&039;t fear having her throat ripped out -- again -- she eased one hand forward and patted the dog aardly in greeting Leigh knew it had been a bad move the moment she heard the thu

She squeezed her eyes closed, hardly aware of the tongue slapping wetly across her cheek this tiy breath

"I should be out helping to hunt down Morgan"

That h&039;s attention and she stilled under the dog&039;s tongue Hunting down Morgan? Then he wasn&039;t a cohort of Donald and the man who&039;d bit her?

"Instead, I&039; a -- " There was a pause as the &039;s tail Leigh raised her hand to her face to block the dog&039;s tongue and opened her eyes in time to see the feet by the door turn slowly back to face the roo&039;s tail was sticking out from under the bed, theunder the bed?"

Leigh groaned inwardly and watched the bare feet move closer They stopped beside the tip of Julius&039;s protruding tail, then a pair of knees and the skirt of his apron came into view as he knelt at the foot of the bed A bare arm followed, then his face appeared, still hidden behind the kerchief His eyes, however, were not hidden, and she felt her stolared under the bed It took her a aze shifted to her and he blinked in surprise

"Oh There you are" The glare softened, but there was still irritation in his eyes "What are you doing out of bed? Don&039;t I have enough to do?"

Leigh had the ue to keep it back She had no idea who he was, or where she was, or --

Her thoughts scattered as the dog gave her face another lick Either he believed she was a doggy popsicle or they were going steady now, she thought, her sense of hu as the ridiculousness of the situation sank in Her hiding spot had been a decided failure, yet she was still in it And she wasn&039;t even sure she needed a hiding place If the an "The eneh was about to roll out froht in a rubbery grip and she was dragged out She asp of shock, then found herself scooped up into strong arled out of just o

"You shouldn&039;t be up and about yet You&039;re too weak," the ainst his lips with each word

"I -- " Leigh began, but he&039;d noticed her arm and interrupted

"You&039;ve torn out your IV Now I&039;ll have to put it back in"

Leigh watched wide-eyed as he grabbed the tube froan to re away He see in his eccentric costuaze was drawn to the dog He was finished dragging himself out from under the bed and leapt up onto it to settle at her side

Leigh eyed hiain Now that she could see all of hirateful that he seerateful that she wanted to be covered in doggy spit from head to toe Fortunately, it seemed he was done with that He spread out on the bed beside her, dropped his head onto his front paws, closed his eyes and appeared to go to sleep

A discouraged sigh drew her attention back to the lance her way "You broke it"

Leigh blinked "I did?"

"Yes Snapped the needle tip in half," he announced, then glanced over the bed Leigh glanced down as well, her gaze ski the surface of the white bed for the tip of the IV needle

Muttering under his breath, he bent to run his hands over the linen surface, presus up, pulling them in closer to her body to avoid his hands, but the increased pain in her arm as she started to wrap it around her kneesthe ar as she noted the tip sticking out It almost seemed to push farther out of her body before her very eyes She&039;d been so distracted by her fears, she hadn&039;t paid attention to the pinching pain in her ar her hand, he drew her arht and then plucked out the bit offrom the broken needle to the IV with irritation "How a Scowling, he tossed the needle tip on a tray now on the bedside table Presumably, this hat she&039;d heard him set dohen he first entered, because she was sure it hadn&039;t been there earlier Her gaze slid over the contents with interest It held a pitcher of water, a glass, and a plate of so food except that it was steareedily as the man reached for the phone

"Hello?" he said into the receiver, and she eased closer to the bedside, her tongue slipping out to lick her lips as she drew closer to the water

The phone rang again

Leigh glanced back to see the ether until they almost became one He stared at the buttons on the phone and pushed another one "Hello?"

The phone rang again

"Bloody, newfangled -- " He began pressing button after button, repeatedly saying, "Hello?"

"Lucian?"

The dog beside Leigh shifted in his sleep, ears twitching at the sound of the voice that cauerite" The h noted curiously as she eased a little closer to the side of the bed She could al now

"Why do you sound so far away, Lucian?" the woman asked

The man, Lucian, snorted with irritation "You&039;re in Europe, Marguerite I am far away"

"Yes, but you shouldn&039;t sound far away" Her voice was exasperated "Are you on speaker phone?"

"No," theat the lie when he sent a warning glare her way Apparently, he didn&039;t want to fuss with any more buttons, but didn&039;t want to admit he didn&039;t kno to use the phone either

That thought made her frown Why didn&039;t he kno to use his own phone?

"Hhts, and she glanced toward the phone, her gaze stopping on the water instead She was close enough to reach the pitcher, she noted, and started to pick it up, only to have her hand knocked away

"Well," Marguerite announced "I called because it seee He apparently collected it all in a big black garbage bag and set it by the back door in the kitchen to take out before we left, but in all the exciteh lost interest as soon as she heard the word garbage, but then her attention was focused on the pitcher as Lucian picked it up and poured a glass of water Then he set the pitcher down, picked up the glass and handed it to her

She felt relief course through her She took the glass in both hands, then opened her mouth to thank hier as he shook his head He wasn&039;t supposed to be on speaker phone, she recalled No doubt he didn&039;t want the wo the words "Thank you," she raised the glass to her lips and took a s, justto restrain a murmur of pleasure as the clear, cold liquid filled her ood