Gail blinked up at the tall man standing on the porch. "Mr. Claybourne," she murmured. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, of course."

"Me?" Gail felt a twinge of apprehension as she stared at Alex. He loomed tall and menacing in the pale yellow glow of the porch light. Dressed all in black, with long black hair and penetrating black eyes, he was the perfect image of what she'd always imagined a vampire would look like.

"I thought I'd take you out for ice cream."

"Oh, I . . ." Gail licked her lips nervously, then glanced over her shoulder. Barrett was standing behind her, out of Claybourne's sight. "I can't. Nana needs me here."

"How is your grandmother?"

"Not very well."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Tell her I hope she feels better soon."

"I will."

"Good-bye."

"Bye."

Gail watched him walk down the steps, her mind churning with questions. Where was Kara? Why had Alexander Claybourne really stopped by? She wanted to call him back, wanted to run after him, but she felt Barrett's hand on her arm.

"Shut the door," Barrett ordered curtly.

Gail hesitated a moment, felt Barrett's fingers dig into her arm. Reluctantly, she closed the door.

"Who was that?"

"Just a friend of mine."

Barrett looked at her, his expression skeptical. "A little old for you, isn't he?"

"He's not a boyfriend," Gail said sarcastically. "Just a friend. He's a writer."

"Claybourne?" Barrett frowned.

"He writes horror stories," Gail said. "I used to think he was a vampire."

Barrett laughed as he pushed her toward the living room. "A vampire, huh? Very funny. Sit down."

Gail sat on the sofa and picked up the book she had been reading. It was one of Alexander's vampire books. She knew she wasn't supposed to be reading it, but there was no one there to stop her. Mrs. Zimmermann didn't know she wasn't supposed to read Claybourne's books, and Nana was too sick to care. Gail concentrated on the story. There was a lot of it that she didn't understand, but it kept her mind off Barrett and the other three men who had taken over the house.

She stared at the pages, silently praying that Kara wouldn't come home and that Barrett would get tired of waiting and go away.

Alex walked away from the house, aware that he was being watched. He had sensed someone standing behind Gail. Barrett, perhaps? There had been others in the house, as well. He had recognized Nana's scent among them. The others had been strangers.

He paused in the shadows beyond the house, wondering what their next move should be, wondering if there were more of Barrett's men keeping watch outside. He considered having Kara call the police, but they had no evidence that Barrett was doing anything illegal. And if Kara confronted Barrett in the presence of the authorities, Barrett would most likely inform the police that he suspected Kara was infected with a deadly virus and insist that she be quarantined in his care.

Alex grunted softly, thoughtfully. Barrett was a respected member of the medical community. Alex had no doubt that the police would accept the doctor's word over his, especially when a police medical examiner studied Kara's blood work.

Alex muttered an oath as he walked down the street toward his car. They'd have to handle this on their own, and in such a way that neither Gail nor her grandmother, nor Mrs. Zimmermann, was put at risk.

He had considered and rejected several plans of action by the time he reached the Porsche. For a moment, he stared at the broken window, refusing to accept the fact that she was gone.

Rage swelled within him, growing stronger with each passing moment. He took a deep breath, and the scent of her fear stung his nostrils.

Unable to contain his fury, he struck the fender of the Porsche with his fist. The metal crumpled as if it were made of tissue paper.

"Damn you, Barrett," he hissed. "If you harm a hair of her head, you'll regret this night as long as you live."

Kara hovered on the edge of awareness. Voices penetrated the darkness_voices that sounded loud, then faded away. She felt the sharp prick of a needle in her arm as someone drew blood. Her head hurt. Nausea roiled in her stomach. There was a bad taste in her mouth.

She swam through layers of darkness, but, try as she might, she couldn't open her eyes. She cried Alexander's name, but no sound emerged from her lips. And then she felt the sting of another needle and she was falling, falling into a deep black void . . . .

She felt better when she woke the second time. She took several deep breaths to clear her head, opened her eyes, and wished she hadn't.

She was in a stark white room. White walls. White floor. White sheets on the hard, narrow bed.

She tried to sit up, and realized her arms and legs were strapped to the bed.

"No. No!" She tried to fight the terror that rose up within her as she saw a rack of glass vials on the table near the door.

Vials filled with blood.

Her blood.

Kara closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to control the fear surging through her. Barrett had found her again. It all came rushing back. She'd been sitting in the car, waiting for Alex, when two men had appeared at the window. She had locked the doors, but to no avail. One of the men had calmly broken the window of the Porsche and unlocked the door, then held her immobile while the second man held a rag over her nose and mouth. She hadn't even had time to scream.

"Alex will find me. Alex will find me."

She murmured the words over and over again in an effort to shore up her flagging spirits. He loved her. He would find her.

Her hands clenched into fists as she heard footsteps outside the door, and then Barrett was striding into the room, his face a mask of annoyance as he pulled a syringe from his pocket.

Kara glanced at the numerous vials on the table. "Haven't you already taken enough blood?" she asked caustically.

Barrett glared at her. "What have you done?"

"Done? What do you mean?"

"Your blood's not the same as it was."

"I don't understand."

"That makes two of us, I'm afraid." He jabbed the needle into her arm, frowning irritably. "The last time I injected a little of your blood into a diseased lab rat, it recovered in a matter of minutes. This time there was almost no change."

"I should thinkthe answer would be obvious," she retorted with more courage than she was feeling. "Apparently the magic's worn off." Hope flooded her as she realized what that meant. If her blood had returned to normal, Barrett wouldn't need her anymore.

"Have you been sick? Had a high fever? Anything?"

"No." She met Barrett's gaze. "Can I go home now?"

"Not until I get some answers." Barrett withdrew the needle, then stood beside the bed, staring at Kara thoughtfully. "You said you'd given blood before and it was always normal, so whatever induced the aberration must have been caused by the blood you received while you were in the hospital."

He ran a hand through his hair, then began to pace the narrow confines of the room. "The blood you received in the hospital came from your grandmother and the neighbor woman," he said, thinking out loud. "I gave you a transfusion of their blood today while you were unconscious, but neither effected any change."

He stood beside the table, staring at the blood samples. "Did anyone else give you blood while you were in the hospital?"

"No, of course not. How could they?"

"Yes, how could they?" Barrett turned to face her. "You called for someone while you were unconscious," he remarked thoughtfully, and then he swore. "Alex. Alexander." He nodded, obviously pleased. "It was Claybourne, wasn't it?"

"Why would he give me blood? I hardly know the man."

"Your sister said she once thought he was a vampire," Barrett remarked, thinking aloud. "I wonder why."

"That's ridiculous."

Barrett shrugged. "Maybe. And, the lab technician. He said the man who knocked him out had superhuman strength, that he closed the door without touching it."

"You're a doctor. Surely you don't believe such nonsense."

"You'd be surprised at what I believe in," Barrett retorted. "That was Claybourne's car you were in when Kelsey found you, wasn't it?"

"No." Kara shook her head. "No."

"He's the key, isn't he? The missing part to the puzzle."

"No!" She pulled against the thick leather straps. "Please, let me go!"

"I think not." Barrett grinned at her. "We have ways of making you talk," he said, and then he laughed. "I've always wanted to say that."

Going to the door, he hollered for someone named Kelsey. Moments later, the man who had broken the window of the Porsche appeared.

"Prepare an injection of sodium pentobarbital."

With a nod, Kelsey went to do as bidden.

Kara stared at Barrett,hating him. Fearing him because he would soon have the power to make her betray Alex. She tried to erase his name, his memory, from her mind, but she knew it was impossible.

And then Kelsey was back, handing a needle to Barrett, and Barrett was inserting the needle in her vein, telling her to count backward from a hundred.

Knowing it was useless to resist, she did as she was told, and all the while, she prayed that Alex would understand and forgive her.

Mind reeling from what he'd heard, Dale Barrett leaned back against the wall, his arms dangling at his sides, as he stared at Kara Crawford.

Alexander Claybourne was from outer space.

It was incredible, preposterous, totally impossible.

And yet it had to be the truth. He had questioned Kara for over an hour, and always her answers had been the same. Claybourne was an alien. He had given Kara his blood, and it had wrought some sort of mysterious change that had, temporarily at least, endowed her blood with miraculous curative powers. She had claimed that he was sensitive to sunlight, that he drew strength from the moon.

It was inconceivable, and yet he knew it was true. It was the only answer that made sense.

Barrett wiped the perspiration from his brow, his mind whirling with unanswered questions.

Would the alien's blood effect the same change when mixed with other human blood types, or did the blood have to be A positive, like Crawford's, or did it have to be mixed with Crawford's specifically?

Was it necessary to mix human blood with the alien blood to achieve the desired result, or did the alien blood alone possess the same healing power?

And what about longevity? Crawford had said the alien was over two hundred years old. Would a transfusion ofalien blood increase a mortal life span, as well?

Questions, so many questions, and the alien held all the answers.

Barrett smiled as he pushed away from the wall. Finding Claybourne shouldn't be too hard, not when he had the perfect bait for the trap.

He had always dreamed of saving lives, but this . . .

He closed his eyes, his mind reeling with possibilities. And every one of them was wreathed in dollar signs.