“MaryAnn,” Nicolae said. “The gentleman asked you to call this number if the woman showed up here asking for help?”
MaryAnn smiled with the innocence of a child, nodding her head. “It was strange. Afterward I wondered why I hadn’t thought of Destiny. She doesn’t fit the description, but she is talented. I thought it strange that she didn’t come to my mind.”
The protections held, Nicolae observed with some relief. There was a certain underlying arrogance in his tone. Destiny glanced warily at him, aware on some level that there were many things Nicolae was capable of that she was not. His hand slid down her arm, a gesture of camaraderie. I am an ancient, my love, and your protector. There are many things I have learned over the centuries.
I’ll just bet there are.
“MaryAnn, tell us something about the woman this man is seeking,” Nicolae prompted.
MaryAnn frowned again. “He gave me a photograph of her, a reprint from a computer. That’s how I knew it wasn’t Destiny.” She rummaged through two drawers, confused that she couldn’t remember where she had placed the picture. She found it in her notebook, pressed between two pages of writing. “This is the woman. Do you know her?” In spite of Nicolae’s persuasive commands, MaryAnn handed the picture over almost reluctantly.
The woman could have been anywhere from twenty to her mid thirties. She had a lush, full figure and a mass of dark hair falling in a cascade of loose ringlets. She was looking back at the camera, and there was a hunted, anxious look in the depths of her eyes. Destiny felt an instant kinship with her. She knew what it was like to be alone and hunted. Whatever the woman was running from, a violent boyfriend or husband, she now had much bigger problems with a vampire tracking her.
“What is her talent?” Destiny asked.
“She can hold an object and know who has touched it and the past history associated with it. A wonderful gift, and very rare.”
He asked her if she knew of any other people with such a gift. Why is the vampire more interested in the talent than the woman with the talent?
Destiny could feel his confusion. The vampires were not acting in expected ways at all.
MaryAnn swept her hair from her face and smiled at them. “Velda can see people’s auras. Did you know that? We don’t talk about it, of course, because no one would believe us, but she knows about me and I know about her.”
“What about you, MaryAnn?” Destiny asked curiously. “What talent have you been gifted with?”
She smiled innocently, without any guile whatsoever, still completely under Nicolae’s compulsion. There was no way to hide the radiance of her inner heart. “I have a small gift, one barely discernible to most people but useful when clients need help. I know when a woman is telling the truth. Like poor Helena. I know John Paul did attack her. And I know she loves him more than anything on earth. When women come here seeking refuge, I screen them. More than once, a woman has come for the wrong reasons. And worse, there have been a few who took money to act as a spy to find another woman already in a safe house.”
“This gentleman who came to see you, MaryAnn—what were his specific instructions?” Nicolae asked quietly.
Again she frowned slightly and rubbed her brow. “I am to call him at once if she comes here. A reasonable request. He wants to help her. The research center has money and counselors, and they are very willing to hide her from anyone wishing to harm her. He says her talent is valuable, and the center will do anything it can to help her. He believes she is trying to find an underground avenue to South America.”
She cannot tell us anything more. I cannot see even a hint of what this vampire looks like.
Pater? Could it be Pater? Destiny stared down at the face in the picture, the haunted eyes. What are we to do for her?
She must be found and protected. There is no other choice. She will be found.