Tempted in the Night by Robin T. Popp Page A

side to side, checking her neck. He didn't think Brody had reached her, but he had to make sure.
    "I'm taking you back to the admiral's," he said finally, closing her door and going around to the driver's side. He climbed in, started the car and headed down the driveway, glancing over at her occasionally as he drove. He didn't like her ashen pallor. "You don't look so good—I thought you fought vampires all the time. You should be used to this."
    She turned to him slowly and he saw sparks of anger. "I usually have a weapon."
     
    Sheldon Harris raced after Brody until he lost him in the woods. There, he stopped and stood very still as he stretched his range of awareness, using his vampire senses to pick up clues from his surroundings. From the direction of the main road he heard the sound of traffic, and from the direction of the funeral home came the sound of the detective's car driving off. Harris hoped he hadn't made a mistake by revealing himself to the detective back at the funeral home, but they were bound to run into each other eventually. The detective had been looking for him, specifically, for weeks now, and Harris had to admit a certain curiosity about the man who seemed to be unusually tolerant of his latest kills, which had all been individuals deserving of death. It might not have been his place to make that determination, but a year and a half ago, Harris had been forced to the harsh conclusion that life wasn't fair.
    Harris brought his thoughts back to the present and scanned his surroundings with the trained eye of a former SEAL. Brody had been this way, headed for the main highway. Once he reached it, Harris knew the trail would end, so he turned his thoughts inward, searching the psychic link he shared with Brody, who was his Progeny; the vampire that he, Harris, had created.
    He brushed across Brody's mind. Chaos reigned as the new vampire struggled to make sense of what had happened to him, yet Harris caught the distinct thread of delight over having killed. It was disturbing.
    With dawn so close, Harris knew he had to abandon his search for tonight. He hoped Brody would get caught out in the sunlight, turn to a fragile type of stone that would blow away with the first good breeze, but knew he wouldn't get that lucky.
    Tomorrow night he'd start his search all over again, but for now he headed back the way he'd come. The body of the night security guard still waited for him behind the funeral home where Brody had left him. Harris had to finish what the detective had interrupted before he could go home to his hidden chamber inside the sewer. He supposed he could find a nicer place to sleep during the day, but this place was secure—and sadly apropos to his current life.
    ----
Chapter 5
     
    Mac swore. "You should have told us earlier."
    "I know," John admitted. He and Jess were back at the mansion with the others, sitting in the living room where John had just finished telling them what happened at the funeral home, carefully omitting the part about his personal conversation with the
Thompson
Park
vampire. He wasn't sure why, but he wasn't ready to share that just yet.
    "It's too close to dawn for us to go searching for him now," Dirk said. "We'll start again tonight."
    "What time should we meet?" Jessica asked, drawing everyone's attention to her.
    "
We
?" Dirk asked, looking pointedly at first Jess and then John. "Mac and I will take care of this. You two stay out of it."
    "No way. I'm going with you," John argued, hurrying to make his case before either of them could tell him otherwise. "I know this guy better than anyone. I've been studying him for over a year."
    "You think you know where he'll go hunting for food?" Mac asked.
    "Yeah, I do." He didn't even have to stop to think about it. "The university." He quickly explained Brody's penchant for female college students, and the two men agreed that the university sounded like the most likely spot.
    "I don't believe this," Jessica said heatedly,