Insatiable

next door to it—were scrambling to get to their battle stations. Meena had never seen so many

crucifixes in her life.

“Alaric,” she said breathlessly, trotting after him. “ Please just let me call Lucien. I have

to talk to him right now. He’ll stop them. He’s their prince. They’ll listen to him.”

Alaric let out a grim chuckle, apparently at Meena’s naïveté. “Haven’t you been

listening? No, they won’t. Not if they’ve launched an all-out rebellion against him. Which,

trust me, they have. In fact, now that I think about it, that’s what the bodies of those dead girls

were probably all about in the first place.”

“What do you mean?” she demanded.

“Bait,” Alaric said enigmatically.

Meena shook her head. Really, he was so frustrating sometimes. “I don’t know what

you’re talking about. Yalena said something about bankers—”

“Bankers?” Alaric kept striding through the rectory, dodging nuns with crossbows.

“Alaric,” Meena said, shaking her head. “Where are you going ?” This question was

seconded by an all-too-familiar voice behind them.

“Wulf!” Abraham Holtzman yelled. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Alaric froze, causing Meena to ram into him.

Slowly, he turned in the hallway to face his boss, who was leaning out of a doorway.

“I’m going,” Alaric said with deliberation, “to get the dog.”

“Dog?” Meena turned her head sharply to look up at him. “But—”

Abraham Holtzman cut her off, annoyed. “You can’t be serious, Wulf. We’re in the

middle of a battle zone here. We need you! Besides, it’s a fool’s mission. You’ll be walking

into a trap.”

“I’m used to that,” Alaric said. “And you have more trained fighters here than you need.

Sister Gertrude could kill a Dracul with her eyes closed. Father Bernard took out a half dozen

after last year’s Christmas pageant with the angel off the top of the tree.”

“That’s not the point, Wulf,” Abraham hissed, lowering his voice when one of the

novices tittered upon overhearing this. “Don’t go playing the hero just to impress the girl.”

Meena, realizing she was the girl he was referring to, wanted to point out how badly

Abraham was misjudging the situation. Alaric Wulf hated her.

“You’ll only end up getting yourself killed.” Abraham went on. “And we actually need

you here, in case you didn’t notice.”

“I’ll be back with the dog in less than an hour,” was all Alaric said, and then he

disappeared through yet another swinging door.

“Stubborn fool.” Abraham rolled his eyes and disappeared through his own doorway.

Meena, looking from one doorway to the other, realized belatedly that she’d made an

even bigger mess than the gasoline bomb had. How did she keep doing this?

She was after Alaric like a shot.

“Wait,” she called.

He was in the rectory’s foyer, buckling on his scabbard. He didn’t appear, from the look

he threw out at her from underneath the hunk of blond hair that had once again fallen over

those blue eyes of his, excited to see her. She didn’t blame him.

“What do you want?” he asked.

She suddenly felt aware of his size, which was enormous. His hands, his feet…all of him

was big, just huge. When he came into a room, he didn’t just come into it, he lumbered, he

banged, he swaggered into it.

She couldn’t count how many times she’d wished over the past twenty-four hours that he

had never showed up at her door.

And yet now that he’d saved her life—twice—she couldn’t find the words to express

how glad she was that he had. And she was supposed to be a dialogue writer.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean I wanted you to go,” she finally settled for saying, reaching out

to lay her fingers across one of those huge, almost ungainly wrists. “You don’t have to do

this.”

His hands, busy working the buckle to keep his sword in place, stilled. “Yes,” he said to

the threadbare, flowered carpet. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have forgotten the dog.”

“But you didn’t know, Alaric,” Meena said. She curled her fingers around his wrist. His

skin felt warm in all the places, she now remembered, Lucien’s had always felt so strangely

cool. “You didn’t know any of this was going to happen. How could you have?”

“ You knew,” he said, throwing the words at her almost accusingly. And now, she saw, he

was looking at her, those bright blue eyes searching her face. “ You know everything before it

happens.”

“No.” The directness of his gaze unnerved her. “Not everything. Only…well, you

know.”

“Right,” he said, dropping his gaze again. “Only how people are going to die. Not dogs,

though.”

She shook her head. “No. Not dogs. Only people. Look—” She lifted her chin,

attempting a brave smile. “Forget what I said before. Jack Bauer will be all right. You said

yourself, he’s a vampire dog. He’ll be able to take care of himself. So stay here. Really. I want

you to stay here. I’m going to. I’m going to stay. Please stay with me.”

He lifted his gaze to meet hers once more, narrowing his eyes at her. “You don’t need to

worry,” he said. “Holtzman will protect you while I’m gone.”

“ Me? ” She realized he didn’t understand what she was trying to say to him at all. “I’m

not worried about me .”

Now he looked confused. “But I’ll be all right,” he said. “And you want the dog.”

“Alaric.” Her chin was starting to tremble, and she was aware that her brave face was

melting. “You may not be all right. And even though I really do love Jack Bauer, in the end,

you’re a person, and he’s just a dog.”

His gaze was unreadable. “How?” he asked her curiously.

Now she was the one who didn’t understand. “I beg your pardon?”

“How does it happen?” His fingers were busy again, working his belt. “My death.

You’re seeing it, aren’t you? You think if I go, I’m going to die. So how does it happen this

time? Not in the pool. Is it still with the darkness? And the fire?”

“No,” she lied. “Not at all. I see you living a really long, happy life and dying of old age

in a resort community of some kind. Florida, maybe. Palm Beach?”

It was too late. He’d seen the tears in her eyes. His broad shoulders tensed, and he turned

away from her, reaching for his black leather trench coat, which hung on a rack by the door.

“You’re lying to me,” he said. “I would never retire to Florida. Majorca, maybe. Or

Antigua. But never Florida. You shouldn’t lie to a guardsman to protect his feelings. The

information you are able to provide to us before a mission could save our lives.” His coat on,

he looked down at her with those amazing blue eyes. “Never lie to me again, Meena. Swear to

me.”

She blinked away the tears that still clung to her eyelashes. “All right,” she said hoarsely.

“I swear. I see a death filled with smoke and darkness and fire for you. There. Are you

happy?”

“Oh,” he said, brightening. “See? This is good to know. I like this.” He reached out to

tap her roughly on the collarbone, then struck his own. “We need to learn to communicate

more like this if we’re going to be working together in the future.”

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