Rayne realized that Anton DeVeau was insane. There could be no other explanation for such wild imaginings. Ever since she had discovered the truth of her family history, through her great-grandmother's diary, she had not wanted to think about where she had come from. Her life began with her grandmother, Maile, and her grandfather. Before that, nothing mattered. She had powers that she had been taught from her first breath to keep secret, and not reveal. Suddenly her life was unraveling and it appeared there truly was nothing she could do about it.

Breeding little psychics with this man was a nightmare of an idea. It was as crazy as this man was. And one that she could not allow either of her sisters to face. In that fact, this man was correct. When she looked at him, he no longer looked in the least bit attractive. Foremost in her mind was concern for her sisters, and Sean. It didn't seem at all fair that she was losing him. Not that she had ever really had him, but sitting on her sofa while the crazy man walked around, she realized that she loved Sean MacDougal. He'd gotten past her fences and around her walls. G.o.d! She wished he were here right now- Abruptly she stopped that thought. She didn't want to take the chance that Anton might take a peek at her thoughts and be alerted. Her fear that he might harm Sean shocked her. It was hard to think at all, between her fear for Jezermiah, Carmella and now Sean. How could she protect them? Killing herself would only turn his attention toward her sisters, and she wasn't a quitter. She stopped thinking as she realized Anton was speaking again.

"We will take these photos with us, the ones of your grandmother as a child. And the one you have of Tyrea when she was younger. They will all prove archival when it comes time to record our royal history. Our children will appreciate knowing where they came from, of course."

Rayne felt her stomach cramp, hearing him talk so nonchalantly about the future and children. She'd never give birth to a child of his. But the truth was hard to face that she might not have a choice. He could force himself on her and impregnate her against her will. From the sound of the council, there already existed a network that would be working toward these goals. Finding help once they left here could very well be impossible.

When her stomach cramped again, Rayne stood. Anton turned immediately to look at her. "I'm hungry. I sometimes get low blood sugar. I'm going to make myself something to eat."

Anton nodded once. "Good idea. After that we will go to bed and get started on business. I'm looking forward to sampling your treasures. From what I've seen so far, you have a great body. I've always been a t.i.t man, and you have some pretty fine b.o.o.bs from what I've seen so far."

His coa.r.s.e words were like a slap across her face. It reminded her of what she was up against, alone. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. "Have a seat and I'll make us something to eat then."

"Don't bother trying to run, Rayne. I could easily catch you. My skimmer is close by."

"Don't worry. I believe what you've said, and I don't want my sisters to be hurt. I won't run, I promise. Just sit down and I'll get busy in the kitchen."

Anton nodded and moved over to the sofa. He sat down, putting the gun on the empty sofa seat beside him. Rayne turned and walked into the small kitchen. Quietly she began preparing a large meal. Pausing partway through the preparations, she went back into the living room, offering Anton a gla.s.s of sherry. She went to the pantry, and put the food just inside the door, leaving the door open a few inches.

In the living room, she found Anton lounging on her sofa, with the gun still beside him. "The food will be ready in about ten minutes. I need a shower to clean up first."

Anton nodded, his eyes watching as she walked down the short hallway. In the bathroom, Rayne quickly stripped her clothes off. Stepping into the shower, she slid the door closed. Turning on the water, she began scrubbing her skin, wanting to remove Anton's presence, if that was even possible. Rinsing her hair, she then turned off the water. Opening her eyes, she shrieked as she saw that Anton was standing in the bathroom door, watching her. In horror, she wondered how long he'd been there. It made her feel sick inside to realize he had seen her like this. Worse though, she now saw that she had to open the fogged door to get her towel.

He was smirking as she slid the door open, reaching for the towel. He was holding it so she had to open it all the way. Shame filled her as he saw her naked body, and she had no way to hide.

"A shaved p.u.s.s.y! Now that is something I was not antic.i.p.ating, Rayne. You are just full of surprises, eh?" He chuckled as she jerked the towel away from him, wrapping it around her body. "There I was admiring your big b.o.o.bies bouncing and jiggling while you are washing your hair, and all the while the best treat was still to come."

Rayne pushed past him, but not fast enough, because he still managed to briefly cup her a.s.s. Hurriedly she ran into her bedroom, and heard him enter the room a few seconds later. If this plan didn't work...quickly she stopped her thoughts, not wanting to betray herself too early.

"Put on something s.e.xy," Anton told her a moment later. "I'd like to see you wearing something hot while we eat. Not that I need to work up my desire. I'm already hard and h.o.r.n.y for you. I can't wait to plant my meat in your shaved c.u.n.t. A few rounds of hide the sausage, as my naughty German uncle used to say, and you'll be nicely f.u.c.ked, and much more malleable."

Rayne shuddered at his coa.r.s.e words. Perhaps the sherry had done its work better than she might have hoped. "I don't have anything s.e.xy."

"Sure you do, all women have s.e.xy clothes." He walked over to her closet. A few seconds later, he pulled out a white, wrinkled, cotton waist-length top and short skirt. She hadn't worn it since moving here, and it was too tight. "Wear this, and skip the bra and panties. I'm going back out for another gla.s.s of sherry. Come out when you are dressed." He walked to the bedroom door and then turned to look over his shoulder. "Put your hair up as well."

Rayne pulled the small top on, which strained across her chest, and ended only two inches below the full underside of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The skirt fit a little better, but it was still too tight. Putting her wet hair into a topknot pulled the shirt up, and she had to tug it back down before going back out.

"I'll bring the food out here," she told Anton on her way to the kitchen.

Chapter Eleven.

"G.o.d d.a.m.n it all! What the h.e.l.l is going on here, Bob? I can't believe this s.h.i.t! We just get the irrigation pipes fixed and now someone calls and says my prize bull is heading toward town! This is unreal. I think this goes beyond normal happenstance and things going wrong."

"It does seem strange, Sean. But Colleen took the call. They said there was a hole in the fence." Bob paused, taking out his handkerchief and wiping off his forehead. "Even Colleen said she thought it seemed too weird. She tried the main phone lines, which connect the barns and outlying buildings. When the phone didn't work, she walked outside and found the lines had been cut-and in two places. I could see wear and tear, but not twice on the same phone line."

Sean rubbed the bridge of his nose. He could feel a headache coming on and didn't think it was going to get much better anytime soon. Last night had been pretty much a sleepless one, and his thoughts kept returning to Rayne. There was no doubt that he'd not handled the whole situation very well. Blurting out he was going to marry her had to rank near the top of the ten most stupid things to say to a woman you'd met just a couple of days earlier. The truth was that nothing about their time together could be called normal.

All morning he'd felt the need to see Rayne, and talk things over with her. First he would apologize, and then he would tell her that everything was going to be fine. Last night he'd put a call through to Shannon Riedel, the Agency Director. After giving a verbal report on Rayne, he asked for her to run a check on the man at her place yesterday. He was relieved to hear that her sisters were both fine.

"I'm confused, Bob. If the phone line is dead, how did Colleen hear about the fence?"

"The call came in over the radio. Then she called me on my cell phone. I was planning on taking Bill with me to catch the bull, and I've already got Jack and Johnnie working on the fence."

Sean nodded, wondering if it was safe to take off for Rayne's now or not.

"We'll be fine if you want to work in the office, or maybe go check on something, or someone else."

Sean turned slowly from his perusal of his land to look at his brother-in-law. He smiled ruefully as he saw Bob's grin. "I'll take my cellular phone. Call me if you need any help. I think I'll grab a quick shower and then drive over."

Bob started the engine of his truck as Bill climbed in beside him. "That sounds like a good idea. You might want to snitch a few flowers from Colleen's garden as well."

"Get out of here!" Sean told his brother-in-law with a grin.

Twenty minutes later he was halfway down the gravel lane to Rayne's when he saw the skimmer pulled to the side. A sick feeling came over him and he gunned the engine, speeding the last one hundred yards to the house. The truck skidded as he slammed on the brakes. He saw Rayne sitting on the gra.s.s, surrounded by her menagerie. Since she was facing her field, he couldn't see her face. As he came closer, she still didn't turn around to look at him.

"Rayne? Are you all right, sweetheart?"

The dogs had come to alert positions, moving behind her, facing him. They weren't growling, but he could tell that all of them were on edge. "Rayne?"

The dogs moved, preventing him from coming any closer than six feet. There was another animal, but he couldn't tell what it was from this position. "Honey, please call the dogs off. I need to talk to you."

"Sit!" Rayne commanded the dogs.

Sean came quickly around the side but stopped abruptly as he saw the huge animal with its head on her lap. He'd never seen one of them outside a zoo but he was sure he was looking at a white tiger. Most disturbing was the blood on Rayne's white top and skirt, and it was also on her arms and the animal's coat. Within a second he was down on one knee beside her.

"Rayne? Are you hurt? Where did all this blood come from?"

She didn't look at him as she answered, which only served to heighten his fear.

"I'm sorry, Sean. I was going to contact the sheriff soon. I had to do it. I didn't have any other options. I had to protect my sisters, the world."

Sean knew something awful must have happened. Why in the world would Rayne be thinking about the world, or how anything she might do actually have a worldwide effect? "Your sisters? Are they here? Has something happened to them?"

"No, Sean. He chose me because he knew I would give in to his demands. But I wasn't going to let him touch me. I couldn't bear the thought of him..." Her voice broke and she sobbed soundlessly.

Sean knew she'd feel better if she broke down and started to cry. This tenseness and self-control didn't seem at all natural, or healthy, following a crisis. His second thought was what the h.e.l.l the crisis was? And foremost, what "him" was she talking about? Could that Anton guy have come back? There hadn't been information on him yet when he'd last checked in at the Agency.

"Rayne, honey, I need you to focus and tell me what is wrong. What happened? I pa.s.sed DeVeau's skimmer on the gravel road. Is he here? Where is he now?"

Rayne took a deep breath, but it seemed to rattle in her chest as she exhaled. "He's on the sofa...or I guess, part of him is still on the sofa."

"s.h.i.t!"

Sean took off running for the house. He vaulted up the front steps and almost pulled the screen door off its hinges. Whatever he'd thought he might find, it couldn't have prepared him for what he did find. There was a lot of blood, and Anton DeVeau, or rather part of him, was on the sofa. One glance told him the man was dead so his first call on his cell phone was to the Agency.

"Agent 0010," he told the operator. "Special Red Alert call to security. Code three-three-alpha-two." He waited while his call was immediately patched through to Shannon. "I need an emergency clean up out here, Shannon."

"What happened, Sean? I had just received the information you had requested and was going to have my a.s.sistant fax it to your home. DeVeau is the grandson of Marcel DeVeau. He was an overlord closely tied to Tyre Leyton. Our Paris branch has been tracking increased psychic activity throughout Europe and the African continent. Anton was sighted in Paris, following his grandmother's death. He obtained a number of items from a lock box at her bank. Unfortunately, he seemed to have gone back underground shortly after that. Rumor has a.s.sociated him several times with the Psychic Continental Council, but nothing definite could be found."

"Well, you don't have to worry about him anymore, Shannon. The Paris branch can mark him off their watch list."

"d.a.m.n! You mean he has shown up there? Does this mean the sisters are aligned with the council? You know what that would mean."

Sean didn't need to be reminded of what the directive from the Agency had been. If proof had been discovered showing the subject was indeed linked to the council, he had been sanctioned to eliminate the threat. After meeting Rayne, the thought of losing her had nagged at him for a short time. All doubts were dispersed after she'd come to his home for dinner. And the more time he'd spent with her, the more he knew there was no way that Rayne would ever a.s.sociate herself with the psychics who had formed the council.

"There is no connection whatsoever, Shannon. I am a hundred percent certain of it. You know me, and I've hunted and investigated a lot of psychics for the Agency. Rayne would be happy as a hermit, living with her menagerie of weird animals."

Sean was immediately aware of the heavy pause before Shannon answered him.

"Rayne, is it?"

Sean was sure she was smiling, despite her words. "Yeah, it's Rayne. I plan on marrying her, Shannon. You always told me some woman would knock me on my a.s.s one day. I've met her."

"Ha! Now this woman I look forward to meeting. I'll let all the women on my staff know you have lost your bachelor status. I'd better send out for more Kleenex."

"Yeah, right. Anyway, I really need a clean up out here fast. I'm going to take Rayne to my place, and then I'll be back here to wait for the crew to arrive. It is a level three job, by the way."

"All right, Sean. I'll await your report and send the crew. Don't forget to send me my wedding invitation!"

"I'll send the report tomorrow, through the encoded channel. And if you can't make the wedding, I'll expect one h.e.l.l of a big gift."

"You bet, you dog! Thanks for taking this last job, Sean. I owe you one."

"Clean this up for me, Shannon, and we are square. I'll be in touch."

It was nearly three in the morning the next day before Sean finally got back home. His first stop was his bedroom for a shower. It was more than twelve hours since he had carefully encouraged Rayne to help him pen up the "tiger-cat." He tied up the dogs, giving them plenty of food and water. The only pet that went with them to his place was Homer.

Colleen had immediately taken charge of Rayne, taking her away within a few minutes of their arrival. Sean put Homer in his gilded cage on the front porch. He gave him some food and fresh water before going to find Bob and let him know that he must go back to Rayne's and wasn't sure what time he'd return. The crew had arrived within thirty minutes of his return. It never failed to amaze him how quickly they could get somewhere.

He had pretty much stayed out of their way, other than directions on making sure certain things would have to be cleaned to a near-normal state. Sean had been determined to make this the least traumatic to Rayne as possible. About two hours after the crew had arrived two other men had arrived with a large truck. Once he had signed some forms, the two men had departed to transport DeVeau's skimmer. Already there was a crew working on his hotel room and erasing his presence there.

Twice while the cleaners worked, he had gone out and watered Rayne's field. Using his computerized communication device, he had connected with the wireless remote to the Agency's database. He had searched and finally discovered what Rayne's secret plant was that she kept hidden at the rear of the field. They would definitely have to discuss the safety of growing this little flower, he decided with a wry smile.

Remembering how he had described Rayne to Shannon, he wondered how they would make a life together. With a deep sigh, he acknowledged that if she preferred to live at her house, then that is what they would do. That would eliminate the need for Bob and Colleen to build the small house they had planned to start a few months after the baby came. His sister and brother-in-law could stay in his huge, nearly perfect house and he would stay with Rayne.

Of course, there were a lot of improvements he could make at Rayne's place. And if he made them slowly, he was pretty sure he could talk her into accepting them. First, would be irrigation installation. Next, he'd see about making sure the house was sound. It probably needed a new roof. The shed she used needed a lot of work, and the truck he had seen looked like it came from the previous millennia rather than the past decade or so.

The whole time he spent watering Rayne's plants, his thoughts roamed freely over just about everything except DeVeau and the way the man had been mauled to death. He doubted the big cat was normally like that, but he'd have to talk to Rayne first before its future could be determined. She might raise a stink about it, but if the animal was turning predatory then neither she nor her other pets would be safe around it.

Walking from the shower into his bedroom now, he consciously told himself to stop thinking about the past, or what he'd seen today. Focus on just now, he told himself silently while he idly dried his hair with the towel. He stopped in front of his dresser to comb his hair before applying some after-shave lotion. His thoughts on Rayne, he considered going to the guest room tonight, or just calling it a night and going to sleep.

Rayne watched Sean as he combed his hair in front of the dresser mirror. She was quite sure that he had not yet realized that she had snuck into his room and climbed into his bed while he was still in the shower. Admiring his muscular back and tight, hard buns, she knew she was in love with him. It really had nothing to do with his attractive body. The scales had tipped when he had taken charge today.

She had no doubt there would be lots of questions to answer, and his anger to deal with when he learned of Anton's plans. But it had been rather nice to be taken care of today. The shock of killing a man had pretty much worn off by early evening. She was by no means a callous person, but it had been a matter of survival. If she had left her home with Anton, the opportunity to thwart his crazy plans might never have come again. Today, they had been alone in her house.

She had carried the food on a tray to the living room, and Anton had eaten l.u.s.tily. He had complimented her cooking abilities.

"I am surprised to find that you can cook."

"My grandmother taught me when I was quite young. Living alone gives one lots of opportunities to improve."

Anton had smiled at her. "Well, you won't have any of these daily drudgeries once we get to Paris. My family is quite wealthy and we will have servants to take care of these things." He had dabbed at his mouth before continuing. "In fact, all you will have to do is breed and breastfeed. I should imagine one child every two years would be best. I'll admit, my dear, I am quite looking forward to breeding you. Of course, you lack culture and education, but these faults can be corrected. The thought of plowing your belly was rather depressing, until I saw you. I'll enjoy f.u.c.king you several times a day until you are pregnant."

Rayne had shivered in disgust at his coa.r.s.e words. His confidence had cemented her decision. If she didn't want to end up living her life on this man's terms, the time for action was now. Standing when they were finished, she had told him to stay seated.

"I'll just set these in the sink. I have some nice liqueur for after dinner, if you would like."

"That sounds good. I doubt it will be as good as I am used to, but it will probably help relax you."

Rayne had nodded and taken the tray into the kitchen. Turning on the water of the sink, she had let it drown out the soft clicking noise she made with her tongue. The pantry door then opened and Mohan had walked toward her silently. Holding the tiger's gaze, she had paused to pray for forgiveness. Softly, her words distinct as she had practiced, she directed the wild animal that lurked below the surface of the domesticated cat.

"Mohan, intruder," she lifted her hand to point, and then gave the command. "Kill, Mohan!"

She had run out the back door, unable to listen to the sounds. Exhausted and stunned, she had collapsed onto the lawn, covering her ears with her hands. How long before the dogs came, followed by a blood-covered Mohan, she had no idea. Cradling the big cat's head on her lap, she had spoken softly, trying to soothe its frazzled nervous nature. Her guilt was ma.s.sive. There was every chance Mohan might have to be put down after this. Once she'd gotten the taste of the kill, it might be impossible to keep her as a pet.

At one point, she had lowered her head to rest on the cat's b.l.o.o.d.y coat. Had she done the right thing by risking her beloved pet's life to save her own? She had murdered a man in cold blood, even if it had not been by her own hand. She would have to decide whether she was going to call the sheriff or take a chance and bury Anton's body. And she would have to get rid of his skimmer as well. Even though she had not seen it, she was sure it was parked only a short distance away. Also he might have rented a room in town. What if someone there raised an alarm and started inquiries? Or perhaps the council Anton had mentioned would send someone to find him.

When Sean had shown up, she hadn't known whether to be relieved or fearful. But then he had taken over and relieved her of any decisions. He had brought a change of clothing out, and then together they had gone around to the outdoor shower. As directed, she had gotten under the spray with her clothes on, and then removed them. Mohan had wandered back with them and even stood under the spray without any kind of fuss.

Colleen had made a fuss over her, but not asked any questions. She had taken a few aspirins along with a gla.s.s of milk. The sound of the door shutting on Sean's truck had awakened her. Quietly she had walked the short distance to the room Colleen had discreetly pointed out when she gave her a brief tour. Inside the room, she had heard the shower running and sat on Sean's bed to wait for him.

"I'll answer your questions now, if you want."

"What the f.u.c.k!" Sean spun around in surprise. He had no idea that he wasn't alone in the room. Ever since he had met Rayne he'd had reason to doubt his own psychic abilities. Shaking his head slowly, he walked over to the bed. "I don't have any paper with me at the moment, Rayne."