"What happened?"

Sensory overload, Christopher told her. You're scaring her to death."I thought that was something I didn't have to worry about."

"Getting cheeky on us, are you, fledgling?" Justin smiled. "We can perish but it takes a lot to destroy us."

"No sunlight, garlic, fire, holy water, crucifixes, and wooden stakes."

"Old wives tales most of them."

"But, Christopher... in the sunlight!"

"I was weakened close to the time of my horning, pierced by a Druid blade, and I was naked."

Yes, he had been, his beautiful, lean body writhing against the bonds of human hair. Witch's hair, as Justin had explained. And the stench of combusting flesh. She shuddered, forcing the memory away. Far better to think of the weight of his beautiful body on hers, of the scent of his aroused flesh, the touch of his fingertips on her nipples.

Watch it, Dixie! Now you're shocking us!

She'd have barfed if her body still could. How could she cope knowing they knew every thought, shared each sensation?

"You'll learn to block," Justin promised, as the ambulance began to climb up an uneven road. "For now, lie down. We're almost there and my staff is mortal. They expect postoperative patients to be weak and groggy."

They also expected them to sleep on real linen, in wallpapered rooms with mahogany built-ins and bone china on the tea tray, and roses in every shade of pink and yellow in a silver bowl on the bedside table.

"Lovely, aren't they?" a soft-voiced nurse said. "They came earlier. Someone knew you were coming." After she tucked Dixie into a bed as tight as an envelope, she handed her the card. "Later and forever, Kit." Forever was the scary bit.

She couldn't sleep. That much was certain. As twilight settled over the moors outside, energy flooded her body, and by the time night fell, she felt able to grapple cliffs-even with a plastered arm and a plastic body cast. The door opened and her three men walked in.

Her three vampires might be more accurate.

Justin, still in a crisp, white jacket came first, with Tom somewhere behind. She barely noticed them.

Christopher.

h.e.l.lo, Dixie. The mattress sagged under his weight and he'd planted a gentle kiss on her cheek before she realized neither had spoken a word.

"This will drive me crazy. I'm not sure I want you seeing into my mind."

"Don't get your knickers in a twist!" His smile suggested what he would like to do to her knickers. "We're here to help."

"I'm glad of some company. I thought I'd be tired. I should be, after everything, but I'm wide awake."

"It's night."

"Oh! This will take getting used to.""You will. Just let your body take over. By dawn, you'll be sleeping the sleep of the undead. Does that scare you?"

"I don't think I know enough to be scared."

A rough, cool palm covered her hand as strong fingers twined between hers. "When you get the hang of things you'll realize not much scares us."

"And how long does it take to get the hang of things?"

His mouth twitched. "A couple of centuries or so." He smiled and warmth spread to her fingertips-and the rest of her.

"Enough, Kit!" Justin pulled a chair up to the side of the bed. "We didn't come to watch you seduce a fledgling."

"Why a.s.sume he'd be doing the seducing? This isn't the sixteenth century anymore." She forgave herself for smugness as Tom's eyebrows rose towards his hairline and a dry chuckle became a burst of laughter.

Christopher's hand tightened. She grinned up at him, thrilling at the heat in his eyes and the slow smile that warmed the c.o.c.kles of her heart. "It's not often you hear Tom Kyd laugh, and Justin's not that easy to shock either."

"But I will be if you keep ogling her like that. We came to teach Dixie mind blocking, not watch the pair of you ogle each other."

Justin snapped the seal on a deck of cards and handed them to Christopher. "You shuffle, then let Dixie cut." As she took the deck, Justin said, "Look at the card when you cut."

"Seven of clubs!" She almost dropped it in shock. She'd barely glanced at it but Christopher knew it.

"Try again." She did.

Tom said, "Knave of Diamonds," before she'd even looked up.

"So that's how you beat Sebastian at Whist. I'll remember not to play poker with you lot. Any of you been to Las Vegas?"

"No, but Tom made a respectable fortune in the gaming h.e.l.ls a century or so ago."

"You haven't done too badly yourself, Kit. I remember one game with John Sandwich when you-"

"Dixie doesn't want to hear tales of your misspent pasts."

On the contrary, she was fascinated, but she decided to get the details from Christopher later. "What's the point of all this? It must be more than parlor tricks or card sharping."

"Survival. Knowing what others think and s.h.i.+elding our own thoughts gives us a great advantage," Christopher said.

"And it goes even deeper than that." Dixie turned to Tom in surprise. He'd said little but now he'd taken the lead. She listened intently. "We share a blood bond, but we still want privacy. I don't need or want to know everything that pa.s.ses between you and Kit. Nor am I about to share my private life with everyone.

"You've only just met us. Not all undead are as civilized as we are. Vampires are drawn from humanity, ergo you get 'all sorts'

as the saying goes. Some congregations initiate just about anyone." He sounded a bit like a dowager lamenting the decline of polite society.

"Another thing," Christopher added, "there are mortals who are psychics, clairvoyants, mind readers. They possess limited abilities but can invade our thoughts. A little power is dangerous. We have to protect ourselves. Hence, we learn to read others and hide ourselves." He took the deck from Justin and cut it. "What am I holding?"

How on earth could she guess?

"Concentrate," Justin said, leaning forward. "Focus your mind on Kit's."

It was impossible.

It's not, Christopher replied without words. Just aim your mind at mine. He reached across the white spread and closed his hand over hers. "Focus!" he said aloud.

A deep breath might have helped. If she still had the knack of breathing. She looked up at his face, at the worried cast in his eye and the furrow between his brows. It mattered a lot to him that she succeed. She focused on the dark, leather triangle of his eye patch. One day she'd make him tell her the true story of that afternoon in Deptford.

"Not now." He grinned.

This was going to take getting used to. "Concentrate," he said.

This time she did. Her entire mind, being, and reason focused on the man behind the eye patch. She glimpsed a twisted gnarl of proud flesh she recognized as his ancient scar, then a ma.s.s of moving shadows and shapes where she glimpsed herself like a trace of happiness. And she saw. "Ten of Diamonds."

"Stay focused." Whether Christopher spoke or thought it, she never knew. He reached for another card.

"Seven of clubs. King of hearts. Two of spades." He drew cards in rapid succession and she saw every one.

"Now watch."

He held the five of hearts. That she knew the second he glanced down at his hand. Then nothing. She was focused as well as ever, better maybe, but faced a dark blank. For a second or two she saw it again, the five red pips as clear as the stars in the sky before facing the impenetrable wall of nothing. "I'm closing my mind to you. You'll learn, too."

"Try with me." She concentrated this time while Justin drew cards, and watched as he opened and closed his mind. It had been easier with Christopher. Repeating with Tom was even harder.

"Why?"

"The blood bond is much closer with Kit," Justin replied.

"Now, you practice it." Christopher squeezed her hand. "Find something that works. I use a slammed door. Tom stays in the theater and drops the curtain. Justin builds a wall as only a Roman could. Pick your image. Close your mind to me."

She remembered Gran's linen shades pulled down against the hot South Carolina sun and smiled. Slowly, with the weight of her mind behind her, she pulled the shade. With each turn of the wooden roller, she closed off her mind until she was safe, shut in and protected. She'd have bounced on the bed if she wasn't weighted down with the strapping and cast.

"It's getting near daybreak," Christopher said. She knew it. She smelled the coming dawn.

"Rest. You're safe here," Justin a.s.sured her.

"See you at sunset," said Tom.

And they left her alone with Christopher."I'll stay with you, love," he promised. "You've nothing to fear. Justin has this room protected and surrounded." He crossed to the window and drew down a thick, black shade and pulled the chintz curtains together. "The la.s.situde comes quickly. In time, you'll learn to recognize and prepare." He adjusted her pillow, tucked something flat and square under the edge of the mattress, and then she felt the bed sag as he sat beside her. His cool lips touched her forehead. "Rest, Dixie, until night."

She sensed his closeness, smelled the roses beside her bed, heard the rattle of a trolley outside her door, and sank into the peaceful and deep repose of the undead.

When she woke, she smelled the coming night through the dusk. Christopher was no longer beside her and she heard the whine of an electric saw.

Chapter Fifteen.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't worry," Justin replied, "we're all set to get you out of here."

"Where to? Where's Christopher?"

"Bringing the car around. He'll be here in a minute, but first we'll get that cast off."

She struggled up to half-sitting. "I've only had it on two days." Not even that.

"The last one you'll ever need. If you break anything now, just strap it up with sticking plaster, and let a day's rest heal it."

"This Wonder Woman lifestyle will take some getting used to."

She shocked him. "Please, Dixie, we're not cartoon characters. Living with popular fiction is bad enough." He placed a thick pad on the side of the bed. "Rest your arm on that."

She faced a surgical saw-wielding vampire and she hadn't even had breakfast. Would never eat breakfast again. That thought faded under the ear-sc.r.a.ping whine and a fine mist of white dust.

"There." He pulled the two halves apart with a minicrow-bar and eased them off her arm.

Flexing her fingers and stretching her forearm, she smiled up at Justin. "It didn't feel this good after I broke it playing softball.

You were right about instant healing."

"You were mortal then."

Yeah! Life, or rather death, had changed everything. She had a very different future now. As Christopher pushed open the door, a spate of warmth, longing and need roared up from her heart to flood her mind. She wished the others gone, on the far side of the moon if possible, but first she wanted the darn body cast off so she could wrap herself around him, feel his arms tight across her shoulders, and taste his lips, sweet and warm as a hot Southern night.

He crossed the room. "I brought your things," he said. "That woman was a suspicious soul. Had to have her call here to verify you were a patient before she let me have as much as a pair of knickers. You had a bunch of rather garish red roses, Previous Top Nextapparently delivered in person by your estranged fiance. He fitted Caughleigh's description. I told Mrs. Thirlwood to keep them."

She couldn't suppress a grin. "Why would I want them? I've got yours-definitely more tasteful."

"You're tasteful yourself. Very tasty, in fact." The heat in his eye made her wriggle, or as best she could in a body cast.

Justin interrupted. "Now you're back, you can help. Stop ogling her. She needs to be lifted out of the cast."

It took all of three minutes to release Velcro and s.h.i.+ft the plastic panels that held her no longer broken pelvis in place. Lord, she was ready to fly. "Would you both disappear so I can take a shower and get dressed?" She swung her legs over the side of the bed and willed them to make a gracious exit.

"It's not that simple." Christopher loomed over her, his hands on her shoulders, keeping her on the bed. "There's a difficulty."

"Don't tell me the running water stories are true or that vampires don't shower. I've got to wash my hair." It felt stiff with salt, dirt and blood, and smelled like seaweed and other less savory things.

"We shower but you'll have problems trying to."

Dixie glared. "What's this? Some male thing?"

He shook his head. "Not male-female. More like a Brit-Yank thing."

At that, her shoulders went back and her chin up. "I'll have you know we fought the Yankees."

"Great move," Justin said from across the room where he tidied up the instruments. "Stop confusing the poor woman and tell her straight, Kit."

Dixie folded her arms. "Right! Tell me straight-Kit."