Amber counted her heartbeats, shocked when she felt Edge's hand sneak back to her hip, nudging her sideways until she was directly behind him.
"No need to get violent now." He didn't even seem rattled, just offered the woman his most charming smile. How any woman could withstand it, Amber couldn't figure. But this one didn't flinch.
"Come on, you might as well join your friends."
"Don't have any friends, love. I only came for the cheesecake."
Her eyes widened as she shot him a look.
"That is cheesecake I smell, isn't it? Don't tell me I'm mistaken."
"Move," she said, jerking the crossbow.
He moved, keeping that one hand behind him, on Amber's hip. Don't worry, kitten. We'll get out of this.
Who said I was worried?
He shot her a look, admiring and mildly amused.
The woman herded them through the house, into one of the rooms off the side, where Amber saw other women, armed to the teeth with various weapons, all of them pointed at Angelica, Rhiannon and Jameson. Amber and Edge were shoved into the midst of them.
"I think it's about time you told us what you're doing here," one woman said at last.
Rhiannon smiled at her. It was a smile that should have chilled her to the bone. "You would think a mortal woman would choose what might be her final words with a bit more care, wouldn't you?"
The woman faltered just a little. She swallowed hard. "You're the ones who broke into our home. You owe us an explanation."
"I owe you?" Rhiannon asked.
Amber put a hand on her shoulder. "I followed a woman here," she said. "Her name is Brooke, and she has something that doesn't belong to her."
From among the others, Brooke herself emerged. But this was a different Brooke. The big hair look was gone, her red locks smooth and slicked back now. She wore a no-nonsense suit and sensible shoes. She met the eyes of the woman in charge. "That's the one, Melina. That's her."
The one called Melina moved a step closer. But Edge stepped into her path. "Oh, no, you don't," he said, even as Jameson pulled Amber backward and the others closed ranks around her. "You're not getting near that one. Not without going through me, at least."
"Through all of us," Jameson added. He moved up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Edge.
Melina went still. "You've got this all wrong. We don't mean you any harm."
"Can't prove that by the lumps on my head," Edge said. "Or that cute little firepit you were holding the two of us in earlier."
Another woman entered the room. "The other girl is gone. I can't find her anywhere."
Melina nodded. "Alicia. Was she with you?"
"Never heard of her," Edge said.
She looked at him as if she knew he was lying, then turned back to the other girl. "What about Keisha and Kelly?"
"We found them locked in the storage room in the basement. We put them upstairs, in their rooms. They're hurting, but they'll be all right."
Edge nodded. "Those would be the two you had guarding us below. Of course they'll be all right," he said. "If we'd wanted them dead, they would have been." He reached into his pocket, and every weapon in the place jerked toward him. Then he held up a calming hand and took out a cigarette, stuck it between his lips. "Nervous bunch, aren't you?" He glanced at Angelica while digging for a lighter. Did you find out anything about them?
She kept her eyes on them as she replied. They call themselves Athena. Fancy themselves some kind of vampirologists.
An all-girl DPI? Edge asked silently.
"Not by a longshot," Melina said.
Amber sucked in a breath, and everyone stared at Melina.
She shrugged. "I'm a bit psychic. Clairaudient, to be precise." She sighed. "We don't hunt vampires, we study them."
"That would be a little easier to believe if you weren't currently aiming a small arsenal at us," Edge said.
She seemed to think on that for a moment. Then she looked at the other women in the room. "Lower the weapons."
"Melina, I don't think-"
"Lower them. Go on back to your work, and see if you can locate Alicia and bring her in to join us. Brooke, you can stay."
Slowly the weapons lowered, and the women filed out, though they looked unhappy about it. Amber breathed a sigh of relief and moved to a comfy looking chair to sit down. She heard Edge swear under his breath, and then he was tossing the unlit cigarette aside, kneeling in front of her, grasping her forearm.
"Damn thing is bleeding again." He looked toward Melina. "Can you-"
Before he finished the sentence, Melina was at the door, calling to someone to bring some bandages and ointment. A moment later she was passing a roll of gauze and some tape to Edge.
Amber sat still, surprised at this turn of events, as Edge tenderly wrapped her forearm, his face a grimace of shared pain and worry. "Got to thinking, I'll have to get used to not lighting up around you, won't I? Wouldn't be good for the little one."
She saw the looks her parents exchanged, and Rhiannon's raised eyebrows, though Edge didn't seem to notice.
"Can I get you anything else?" Melina asked.
"A pint of A-positive would be welcome," Edge muttered. Glancing up at Amber, he winked. He was trying, she thought, to lighten her mood.
"Perhaps an explanation would do just as well," Rhiannon said. "You, Brooke, or whatever your name is. What were you doing with Stiles?"
Brooke glanced at Melina. Melina nodded. With a sigh, Brooke said, "I was working under cover."
Amber was amazed at the change in her, not just her appearance, but in her voice and demeanor. She was no longer the bubblehead devotee of Frank Stiles. She seemed self-assured, confident, intelligent.
"We'd heard Stiles had developed a formula that imbued him with immortality. That he used the blood of... " She looked at Amber. "The Child of Promise to do it."
"And why was that of interest to you?" Rhiannon asked.
Brooke again looked to Melina. Melina said, "Because it's against the supernatural order. It couldn't be allowed."
"The supernatural order?" Angelica asked.
"Yes. Things that can't be explained are considered supernatural, even though they aren't really. They're perfectly natural, just beyond human comprehension." She sighed. "When mankind interferes, however, things... go wrong."
She glanced at Amber as she said it.
"Things... like me, you mean," Amber said softly. "I'm the result of man tampering with the supernatural order, after all."
Melina shook her head. "We determined that you could have been conceived with or without man's intervention," she said. "Your mother was artificially inseminated, but it could have happened just as easily the other way."
"So you decided to let her live, is that it?" Rhiannon asked.
"We're not killers. We're protectors. The Sisterhood of Athena has been guarding and protecting the supernatural order for centuries. Always secretly. We go unseen, unknown. We observe and protect, that's all."
"Then what were you planning to do with Stiles?" Edge asked.
She lowered her head. "Stop him. Destroy the formula, so no one else could ever make use of it. Keep him from creating any more, until he died a natural death."
Brooke nodded and picked up from there. "But when I learned of his plans for the Child of Promise, I decided I couldn't just take the formula and leave, as planned. I had to stay, to be sure he couldn't use her to make more."
Amber shot to her feet. "But in the end, you did take the formula and leave."
"Yes," she said. "Your rescuers were at hand. I slipped away as soon as I saw them gathering outside."
"What did you do with it, Brooke?" Amber demanded. "What did you do with the Ambrosia?''
Brooke looked at Melina, who looked at the floor. "We destroyed it. As well as all of Stiles's notes and computer files. Everything. It's gone."
"Oh, God. No," Amber whispered, sinking back into the chair.
Edge knelt in front of her, gripped her shoulders and spoke intently. "We still have Stiles, love. And I think between your aunt Rhiannon and I, we can convince him to talk." He turned toward Melina. "Thanks for the info. Since you don't have what we came for, we'll be leaving now."
Melina stepped in front of the door. "I'm sorry, but... it's just not that simple."
Rhiannon's eyes narrowed. Edge rolled his, rising slowly to his feet and turning to face the woman fully. "Why am I not surprised?"
"We're a secret society," Melina said. "Your kind must never know of our existence. We can't function effectively if we become common knowledge."
"It's a little late for that, don't you think?" Angelica whispered.
Jameson closed his hand around hers. "If you wanted to keep us here, you probably shouldn't have had them put the weapons away."
"You're very untrusting, aren't you?" Melina said softly. "Though I don't suppose one can blame you for that. I was only going to ask for your word that you will keep our existence to yourselves. That's all we want. Just a simple promise."
Edge stepped forward. "No."
"Edge, what harm would it do to-'' Rhiannon began.
Edge held up a hand toward her, and she stopped speaking. "I was thinking more along the lines of a trade."
Melina frowned at him. "What kind of trade?"
"We'll keep your secret... if you'll keep ours." As he said it, he looked at Amber. "The only person outside this room who knows about Amber's condition is Stiles. I think it would be best to keep it that way."
"On that, we're in agreement." Melina turned to Amber. "I'd give my right arm to know how it happened, whether it can happen again."
"We don't know that ourselves," Amber said softly.
The other woman nodded. "I hope... it goes well for you."
Amber tilted her head to one side. "I think I believe you."
With a sigh, Melina moved aside from the door, reached for the knob. "Will you... let me know?"
"Probably not," Edge said, taking Amber's hand in his, and walking her toward the door. "Nothing personal, though."
Melina nodded rather sadly. "I'll walk you out." She started to pull the door open, but just as she did, something hit it from the other side, slamming it open wide.
And there in the doorway stood Alicia, with a shotgun the size of a small cannon pulled up to her shoulder.
"Nobody move!" she shouted.
Brooke and Melina shot their hands skyward and stood motionless, while the others stood there gaping at her.
"Come on, you guys. Let's go!" Alicia said.
Rhiannon lowered her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. Edge looked at Amber, grinning broadly.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Come on, I'm busting you out!"
Amber laughed out loud then, even got up and went to gently take the gun from her friend's arms. "It's okay, 'Leesh. They're not trying to keep us here."
"They're not?"
Melina and Brooke lowered their arms as Amber leaned the shotgun against the wall. "God, where did you get that thing? It must have been all you could do to hold it up."
"I found their weapons room." Alicia shrugged, then smiled a little. "Thought I was finally going to get my chance to play hero."
Amber looked at her dear, dear friend. "Anyone with half a brain would have been long gone by now. You really thought you could take on an entire houseful of armed women? One little mortal with a shotgun?"
She shrugged, looking a little sheepish, then sending a meaningful glance at Amber's midsection. "I had to try."
"Do you have any idea how much I love you, 'Leesh?"
Alicia met her eyes and smiled. "Me, too."
Amber turned to the others. "Let's get out of here." She slid an arm around Alicia's shoulders, waited for Melina to lead the way to the front door.
As they filed out, Edge turned around. "Don't forget our deal now," he told Melina. "You don't want me to have to come back here."
She held his gaze, nodded. "I never break my word."
They walked to the front gate, all of them, and no one followed. No one. The gate swung open at their approach, then closed behind them after they walked through. Amber looked up at the concrete owls perched atop the gateposts. Then, finally, she lowered her head and gave way to the tears of disappointment.
Edge squeezed her shoulder. "It's going to be all right," he promised.
"How? They destroyed it, Edge. They destroyed everything. And it was Will's only hope."
"Not exactly," Alicia said.
Everyone looked at her. She smiled and pulled something from a pocket. A tiny glass vial, with a clear liquid inside.
"Guess I get to be the hero after all," she said, handing the vial to Amber.
"Is this... but... how?"
"I found it hidden in Brooke's bedroom, along with this computer disk," she said, pulling the disk from another pocket. "She must have given them all of the serum except for this one vial. And if my guess is right, she kept a copy of some of Stiles's pertinent notes, as well."
Edge muttered, "That two-faced little-"
"Don't be too hard on her, Edge," Angelica said. "Immortality is a very tempting thing."
Amber took the vial, looking at it. "This is the old stuff, the last of his original batch of Ambrosia-Six. Stiles said he had only one dose left." She narrowed her eyes.
"She must have turned over the newer batch. But she kept the last vial of the old one."
"How can you be sure?" Edge asked.
"He was calling the newer batch Ambrosia-Seven," she said, tapping the label with her fingernail. She frowned. "I suppose we should probably let Melina know that Brooke is less than trustworthy."
"We do that, we'll also have to tell her what we did with the formula," Rhiannon said. "And who knows what her little gang of women might do if they suddenly deem Willem to be in violation of their precious 'supernatural order."'
"You think they might harm him?" Jameson asked.
Rhiannon sent a narrow-eyed look back at the place. "I don't trust them."
"Any reason for that, or is it just a gut instinct?" Edge asked her.
She met his eyes. "They're mortals. That's reason enough." Then she bit her lip and shot a look at Alicia. "I've met very few of them who are trustworthy. Even fewer who are as exceptional and brave as our dear Alicia," she added quickly.
Alicia lowered her head, her cheeks blushing red.
"We have to get this back to Willem," Amber said.
"Half of it," Jameson said. "The other half should be in Eric's lab, so he can duplicate the formula. Otherwise, we'll be right back where we are now when this batch wears off."
"How can we know half is enough to keep him alive," Amber asked.
"We can't," her father told her. "We can only hope."
Alicia tucked the diskette back into her pocket. "I tried to open this to get a glimpse of its contents on the computer in Brooke's room, but it's password protected."
"Can you get to it, Alicia?"
Alicia nodded. "If I can't, Morgan can. We should get this to her in Salem, then we can e-mail the file to Eric."
"Guess it's time to split up," Amber said. "So who's going where?"
Rhiannon's Mercedes still sat where they'd left it, and Alicia's Corvette was parked nearby. Edge stepped up beside the 'Vette and stiffened his spine in preparation for a battle, though he hoped like hell it wouldn't be necessary. He said, "Nice little car, Alicia. Bucket front seats, no rear." He held her eyes. "No room for passengers, though. It only holds two."
The little blond mortal seemed to pick up on his meaning immediately. She pulled a set of keys from her pocket and tossed them to him. "Why don't you and Amber take it?"
Jameson opened his mouth to object. Edge saw it clearly, then saw, too, the way his tender little wife put a hand on his shoulder, silencing him. "I think that's a good idea," she said, before anyone else could object. "The rest of us can fit quite comfortably into Rhiannon's Mercedes."
"Good, then," Edge said. "We'll take the half that's going to what's-his-name's lab."
This time Jameson did speak up. "I'd prefer you take the dose of serum to Will in Salem. I don't want Amber within reach of Frank Stiles."
Edge lifted his brows. "I have unfinished business with Stiles. And believe me, I'm not going to let him get his hands on Alby again."
Amber cleared her throat. "Is everyone conveniently forgetting to ask me what I prefer to do?"
They all looked at her. Rhiannon seemed to be restraining a smile.
"I think Edge is right, we should go to the lab. Eric and Tamara, Donovan and Dante, and even Roland are there to back me up should Stiles try anything. And it's imperative I be on hand as Eric runs his tests." She nodded at the vial. "This is the last of Stiles's original batch. We need to know how to duplicate it, and my blood is the key ingredient."
Edge tipped his head to one side. "You make a good point."
"Yeah. Way better than your petty need for vengeance," Amber told him. "You're going to keep your hands off Stiles until I say so. If you won't agree to that, here and now, you can just leave and I'll go alone."
One corner of his mouth pulled into a grudging grin. "You'd turn me out, here, on foot, alone?"
"So fast it would make your head spin."
Edge sighed, turning to face her father. "As I think you can see, your daughter and I have some things to work out." Then he wiped the smirk from his face, turning serious. "You can trust me, Bryant. I won't let any harm come to her."
"I believe you, Edge." Jameson sighed. "Just remember, if you do, you'll answer to me."
"Understood."
Amber looked surprised, maybe because he didn't reply to Jameson Bryant's threat with sarcasm or lip. Actually it surprised him a bit, as well. But he understood the man completely, even respected him for his devotion to Amber Lily. He opened the car's passenger door for Amber. With thinned lips, she got in, pulled on her seat belt and slammed the door.
Jameson handed him the vial. He'd already sucked a portion into a syringe he'd found in Rhiannon's emergency first-aid kit, in the trunk of the car that had everything, to take to Willem Stone. "You're hauling precious cargo, Edge. Don't forget it."
"Not for a minute." He took the vial, held the man's eyes for one extended heartbeat. Something passed between them. They understood each other, Edge thought. Then, finally, Edge turned and went around the car to the driver's side. There he glanced at Alicia, offered her a warm smile. "Thank you for this," he whispered.
She nodded. "Be worth it, Edge."
He got in, started the engine and pulled the car into motion. And all of a sudden, the notion of several long hours alone with Amber seemed less appealing than it had before. She was angry, though he was uncertain why. And he had no idea what to say to her.
She finally looked at him after the first few miles of silence. "Well?"
"Well, what?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes. "You obviously wanted to get me alone so you could talk to me. So talk."
He slanted her a look. Smiled a little. "Now when did I ever give you the idea that talking would be my reason for wanting to get you alone? Hmm?"
Her face colored a little, and she looked away.
"Don't pretend to be offended, Alby. You've never played games with me before, don't start now."
"I'm not playing games. And I am offended if you think anything could be more important than-than what I'm facing right now."
He reached out to trail the backs of his fingers over her cheek. "What we're facing, you mean."
She shook her head slowly.
"What, you don't believe me? You think I'm going to take off and leave you to it?"
"Not until you get what you want," she said softly.
"And what is it you think I want?"
She frowned at him. "You've been pretty up-front about what you want all along, Edge. At least, once you decided to stop lying about it. You want Stiles. You want your revenge on him. That's all you ever wanted."
"No," he said. "Not all." He drew a breath, sighed deeply. "I don't suppose I get any points for leaving Stiles and coming after you when I thought you might be in trouble?"
She said nothing.
"Come on, please? Just enough to cancel out the black marks I earned for choosing to go with him rather than you in the first place?" He turned those eyes on her, flashed that blasted dimple. "It was a stupid mistake, Alby. I knew it the minute I was away from you, and I've been kicking myself for it ever since."
"When are you going to get it through your head that I don't care what you do?"
"When it's true, I suppose. It isn't. Not now, at least."
She shrugged. "It's going to be daylight long before we make it all the way to Wind Ridge."
"Yeah, well, I've got no intention of getting into the trunk again, lady." He eyed her. "Besides, you look exhausted. When's the last time you slept?"
She thought about it, realized she didn't remember. "I don't know. Since before we left Stiles's place."
"Curl up, love. Take a nap. I'll drive until I have to stop."
She blinked slowly, shook her head. "You don't even know where we're going."
"You can tell me before you rest."
She flipped open the glove compartment, took out a pocket-sized road atlas, flipped pages. He watched her. Not her finger, tracing a path along the map. But her face, as she frowned in concentration. The little lines between her bent eyebrows and the shape of her nose. Her tongue as she licked her full lips.
"You can pick up the highway about fifteen miles ahead. You'll probably have to stop before we need to turn off."
He nodded, only half listening, darting quick looks at the road ahead. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
She looked up quickly, startled, perhaps, by the abrupt change of subject. She mulled for a moment, then shrugged. "All right, I suppose."
"You're as pale as alabaster."
"You should talk." She said it with a slight smile.
He grinned back at her, relieved to have her teasing him. It was, he thought, a good sign. "Well, I have reason to be."
"So do I, although the way I've been feeling, I would think green would be a more accurate skin tone than alabaster."
His smile died. "That bad?"
"I can't be more than a few days pregnant," she said. "I can't believe it's already giving me symptoms. And when I'm not queasy or puking, I'm eating everything I can get my hands on. I seem to be getting fat just for the hell of it." She looked away, seemed suddenly nervous, and spoke rapidly. "I mean, it has to be from all the food I've been shoveling in," she said, her hands on her belly. "It can't be the baby. It's only been a few days."
"Just gives a man more to explore, love."
She looked away. "I've begun to wonder if... maybe there's something about me that makes things happen... sooner. I know it seems farfetched, Edge, but I suppose Eric could confirm that, with a few tests and-''
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," he said quickly. He frowned at her, searching her face. "God, you're still thinking I don't believe you."
She didn't look up, kept her eyes focused on her hands in her lap.
"Alby, look at me."
Licking her lips, she forced her head up, met his eyes.
"I have no idea in hell how this could have happened. No more than you do. But I don't for one minute think you're lying about it."
"I'm not sure I'd believe it, if I were in your place."
He sighed hard, hit his hand on the steering wheel. "This is about my initial reaction, isn't it? Hell, Alby, naturally I assumed the child wasn't mine. As far as I knew, there was no possible way it could have been. And you didn't tell me differently, don't forget. You didn't give me a chance."
She shrugged. "So you really don't... question this?"
"Of course I question it. I question how the hell it happened, why it happened, whether it's something about my body chemistry, or something about yours, or some chemical reaction that happens when the two meet. God knows there's something pretty damned explosive between us, after all. But I don't question you, Alby. I won't. And I don't need your friend the science geek running any tests to prove it, either."
She stared at him, her eyes wide, for the longest time.
She didn't say anything, just stared. He glanced at her a few times, but every time, it was only to see her staring back at him.
He drove on in silence for several hours. Eventually Amber tipped her seat back as far as it would go and curled onto one side, still facing him. He was beginning to wonder if he'd sprouted a second head or something by the time he looked at her to find her eyes had closed at last, dark, thick lashes resting on her cheeks. Her lips, full and moist, were slightly parted. Her breaths flowed in and out of her like waves rolling up onto the beach and then slowly back out to sea again.
He knew the instant she fell into a deep sleep. He felt the shields she'd erected around her mind slowly dissolving. The resistance melted away, and he could not quite resist the urge to tiptoe through her mind, to look in on her dreams. It wasn't ethical, but he'd never been the most upstanding citizen of the dark realms, anyway.
He slowed the car to a crawl, so he could focus more easily on her, on her mind, on her dreams. He saw it unfold, all of it... so clearly in her mind's eye.
He saw her lying in a large bed, her hair tangled, her face damp with sweat. He saw himself, on the other side of a strange bedroom, picking up a small, ornately carved wooden box, carrying it toward her.
He could feel her whispering in her mind, No, no, please, I don't want to see this again! And yet the dream unwound, unfurled, spun its images for both of them to see.
His dream self brought the box to her bedside, lowered it toward her, and then he could see, through her eyes, what was inside. A tiny, beautiful baby, with stunningly dark lashes and eyebrows and pale golden hair. It was still, still and white as porcelain.
A black veil slammed down on the dream images, but he could still hear Amber's thoughts swirling through her mind.
I'll lose the baby, she whispered, frantic, panic-stricken. And even if I could bear it, it's only the beginning, because I'll lose him, too.
He frowned, jerking his attention back to the road, realizing he was sending up a cloud of dust, having veered onto the shoulder.
I can't love him. I can't love the child. I can't let myself hope, because none of it matters.
"Dammit, Alby, that's just not true."
A car blew its horn, snapping him back to reality. Edge jerked the wheel, pulling back into his own lane and narrowly avoiding the oncoming car. Amber sat up straight, startled wide-awake.
He got the car stopped safely on the shoulder of the road. Amber sent him a questioning glance. "It's all right," he said. "I... I just got distracted for a minute."
She blinked at him, and he could see the trauma in her eyes, the grief, the worry. But then she went cold, pulling that curtain down over her emotions, over her feelings. And he understood it now, that sudden pulling back, the distance she seemed determined to put between them. He understood it-but he was damned if he knew what to do about it.
She looked past him, toward the sky, then turned to scan the area where they'd come to a stop. "At least you picked a good spot for it," she said.
He was so distracted that he didn't get her point, until he followed her gaze to the wooden sign, swinging in the breeze.
"Haven Inn, Bed & Breakfast," he read aloud. Then he lifted his brows. "As good a place as any, I suppose."
"If the room's too sunny, we can always stick you under the bed, or in a closet or something."
He smiled at her. "Gee, thanks. That sounds so inviting."
"Doesn't it?" she asked, slightly teasing.
His spirits rose, because hers seemed to be a bit lighter. "I can only hope they have room service."
"Going to order up a pint?" she asked.
"I was thinking more of just eating the waiter."
She sent him a smirk, and he smiled at her, then pulled into the driveway and up to the inn. Aside from the imitation gas lamps outside, the place was pitch-black. "I hope we'll be able to rouse the innkeepers before the sun rises," he muttered, killing the engine and headlights, getting out of the car.
Amber got out her side. "Worse comes to worse, there's always the trunk," she told him.
He shot a look at her over the top of the car, then hit the lock button on the keyring. "You are feeling a little better, aren't you?"
She averted her eyes, shrugged. "Let's get inside,
Edge."
He nodded, and when she came around the car, slid his hand around hers and walked with her to the door.