In spite of her determination, she couldn’t help her melting response. She was happy. She had never really experienced happiness. It sounds like definite trouble to me. But she wanted to go with him. It would be fun sitting in the theater pretending they were a regular couple madly in love and wanting to sneak a few moments together in a dark corner. But I’ll go with you.
I think Velda and Inez are on to something here. Maybe we ought to pick up the chocolate, after all.
She loved the teasing note in his voice. I’ll let you surprise me. She loved sharing with him. Reaching for him and having him be there with her.
“Are you listening to me, Destiny? Dealers are dangerous criminals. They think nothing of killing people. You can’t do things like that, even for a good cause.”
Destiny turned her attention to her friend. Friend. She savored the word. When she had first encountered Mary Ann, it had never occurred to her that she would one day be in her office, perched on her desk, teasing her. “Let me take a look at what you need. Fund-raising is my particular forte.” She reached casually across the desk and snagged the offending book, quickly scanning the open pages before MaryAnn could snatch it away.
“No, you don’t. You’re impossible. Do you really like to go to movies?”
“It’s my favorite thing,” Destiny admitted. “I’ve gone to every vampire movie made. The old ones were very cool. I found them in a small theater that seems to be geared mainly for cult movies. It got to be an addiction. I’d go through every single newspaper looking for what was playing. Sometimes I’d sit through the movie twice.”
“Is that where you got your fear of garlic and churches?” MaryAnn teased, pleased to turn the tables.
“Since we’re talking about it, why did you accept my being different, a vampire… well, a Carpathian… so easily?” Destiny demanded. “It really bothers me that you have no sense of self-preservation, MaryAnn.”
MaryAnn threw back her head and laughed. “Easily? You think I just accepted the existence of vampires so easily? You forget I couldn’t leave the church. I sat there all night long. Praying. Screaming. Crying. Wanting to run for my life. In the end, I realized that you seemed different.”
“I still don’t understand why you accepted me, MaryAnn?” Destiny insisted. “You should have condemned me. You should have hidden yourself from me.”
MaryAnn shrugged. “I already knew you. I’d looked into your eyes. If you were going to hurt me, you would have done it a long time ago. Your eyes were…” She broke off, searching for the right description. “Haunted. Your eyes were haunted, and I didn’t want to turn my back on you no matter what you were.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. Thank you, MaryAnn.” Destiny was humbled by the truth. She couldn’t imagine MaryAnn turning her back on anyone.
Even as they were smiling at one another, the dark shadow of violence slipped into her mind. She sighed, slid off the desk, turned toward the door, all too aware of the man hurrying toward the office. “Stay behind me, MaryAnn.” Her tone had changed completely, was authoritative and firm.
Before MaryAnn had a chance to respond, the door smashed open, bouncing against the wall, splintering the door frame. John Paul stood in the doorway, breathing hard, his breath coming in hard gasps, his eyes wild, his huge, hamlike fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.
“John Paul,” MaryAnn said quietly, “what can I do for you this evening? It’s after hours and I was just leaving with my friend.”
John Paul didn’t even glance at Destiny. His glassy stare was fixed on MaryAnn as he shuffled closer. “Where is Helena? I need her, MaryAnn. Give her back to me.”
Destiny touched his mind. It was filled with his intense resolve to get to Helena. He had no real plan, no idea of what he would do when he found her, only a deep need to find her. She could sense the shadow of violence embedded deep in him, but there was no taint of the vampire. No surge of power, however slight, that might indicate he was a puppet of the undead.