10

REVELATION 2:2

And thou hast tried them . . . and hast found them liars.

~ * ~

Anyelet's face was a collage of fury and amazement.

"She didn't want to stay," Vic repeated. His arms were folded defensively across his chest; the other vampires were wearing shocked expressions and backing uneasily out of Anyelet’s reach. Even Rita, whose mind had crumbled since the gunshot wound to her face, had stopped hissing and babbling about revenge and retreated to a far corner to stroke the suppurating flesh of her face and mumble quietly.

"And so you granted her permission to leave," Anyelet said slowly.

"No," Vic replied patiently. "I didn't. But I didn't have the right to forbid it either."

"But you DID have that right!" The larger vampire stood his ground as Anyelet strode around the room. She spun back to him. "Tell me where she went!"

"I don't know." Vic kept his gaze carefully directed at her chin.

Her hand streaked forward and she slapped him, a blow that would have snapped the neck of a normal man; his solid body didn't quiver. In the recesses of the room, Gabriel, Ron, Jasper, and Warner, a young man pulled. From guarding the outside to replace Gregory, cringed and sighed.

"I don't know," Vic insisted. "She wouldn't tell me.”

“Then let me show you how you should have gotten the information!" Before he could jerk away, Anyelet wrenched his face up and snagged his eyes. Then she vas in him, searching, reading, demanding, and it was incredible how strong Vic's mind was, because even now he could feel him desperately trying to push her out. She gave an ugly mental chuckle as she found something, a tidbit to be saved for later, but the laughter died when she discovered he really didn't know the woman's whereabouts.

A fraction of a second after she pulled out, the cords of Vic's neck muscles relaxed and recognition flowed back into his eyes. "You, you—" He struggled with the words.

"Fool," she sneered. "Did you really think you could fight? Your bumbling alone should have told you to leave her to me." She pushed past him. "Stay away from me tonight, Vito. My patience is at an all-time low. And besides," her eyes glittered dangerously, "if something should happen to you, who will take care of Hugh?"

~ * ~

Anyelet paced angrily around her room. With Rita gone mad and Vic untrustworthy, she no longer had anyone who could be trusted to follow orders or with whom she could intelligently discuss her plans for rebuilding. All that effort to create an army and companions and she'd ended up alone anyway. She plopped onto her bed and tugged at her hair in irritation. This woman, Deb, made her nervous. Vic was an amateur at forcing his way through someone's mind, but once there it should have been impossible to hide anything, and the kind of willpower it took to resist was astounding. Weariness settled over her and she sighed and climbed under the comforter. Outside the sun was rising, bringing bright death to more of those traitorous fools who had once been her soldiers. In spite of her fury, she smiled; it took more than willpower to survive. No doubt the outcasts had finished off the inexperienced woman as she'd wandered the streets of the city.

Nightsleep took her.