“You’re very pale, Shea. You need to feed,” Raven said carefully, knowing from her own experience what a touchy subject it could be.

Shea swallowed hard. She was dizzy with weakness. Maybe that was what was wrong; maybe it had nothing to do with Jacques. “I know. I just can’t face it yet. I know I have to come to terms with it eventually, but it’s still all too new.”

“You can’t see yourself biting someone’s neck, is that it?” Raven laughed softly. “I can’t do it either. Yuck. Well...” She blushed, a faint pink stain spreading across her creamy skin. “Mikhail has a way of making it...” She trailed off.

Shea found herself blushing, too. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Jacques seems to have that same way about him.” Her hand curled around the stock of the gun again, and she tried to quiet the pounding of her heart. Her mouth was dry with fear.

Shea stole a glance at Raven. She was curled up peacefully, almost serene. Silently Shea cursed. Something was terribly wrong; she knew it deep within her, yet she couldn’t explain it adequately to herself or to Raven. “Have you ever tried to leave Mikhail?”

Raven glanced up, startled. A soft smile curved her mouth. “You can’t leave your lifemate. One, he knows what you’re thinking, and two, he can find you wherever you are. Besides, you can’t be away from him for very long—it’s too uncomfortable, both physically and mentally. If you left Jacques, what you’re feeling right now would not stop, it would only get worse. You can’t leave him, Shea. You have to learn how to live with him.”

“I know. I don’t really want to leave,” Shea admitted. She was close to tears. The feeling of dark malevolence was becoming stronger, yet she still couldn’t explain it. She felt very mixed up. She wanted Jacques close to her, but this world was so frightening and bizarre. She was completely out of her element.

Raven immediately jumped to her feet and put an arm around Shea, misunderstanding her distress. “He doesn’t hurt you, does he?” She was examining the faded bruises and wounds on Shea’s neck. “He did this, didn’t he?”

Self-consciously, Shea put a hand to her throat to cover the marks. “He didn’t mean to. He doesn’t always know what he’s doing. But he isn’t the type of man to abuse a woman. I’m in his mind enough to know that. I’m not a woman who would take it, either,” She let the other woman hug her, needing the comfort.

“It’s just that I’m afraid all the time. Afraid of everything. That isn’t like me at all. And I cry. I never cry.” Whatever was stalking them was very close now. She wanted to scream for Jacques.

“You’ve been through a traumatic time, Shea, and so has your body. You’re worn out, and you need sustenance.” Raven released her and took a step away. “Gregori is a great healer. I know you think he could be the vampire—it’s there in your face when you look at him—but he would give his life for you, for me, for Mikhail. He’s a great man. He could help you so much if you’d let him.”

“He’s the scariest man I’ve ever met,” Shea admitted. “If I had a child, a daughter, I would not want that man to be her husband.”

“But then, you don’t know that much about lifemates. If my daughter is his lifemate and chooses him—and it will be her choice, despite what my husband and Gregori think—she’d be the safest woman in the world. And once she learned to manage him, the happiest.”

“You have more faith than I do.”

“That’s because I’ve known them longer. Give yourself some time, and for heaven’s sake put that gun down. There’s nothing out there,” Raven admonished. “You’re just nervous because Jacques isn’t with you.”

Lightning crashed close, and the cabin shuddered beneath a deafening roar of thunder. Raven swung around and paced to a chair. “Something’s going on for sure. That’s one of ours doing that.”

Shea’s hand went to her throat. She could not shake the feeling of impending doom. She turned to Raven. “What do you mean, one of ours?” Why had she agreed to stay and protect Raven? Something evil was watching them, and she couldn’t ferret it out. Jacques, where are you?

“The lightning and thunder,” Raven replied easily. “One of our males is upset.”

“Great. Tantrums, that’s all we need,” Shea said moodily. Jacques hadn’t answered her. Where was he? Couldn’t he feel her need?

Raven laughed. “They are great for that, aren’t they?”

The door banged open, the wood, so recently repaired, splintering. Shea swung around, instinctively taking a stride to place herself between the entrance and Raven. Framed in the doorway was Don Wallace, a scattergun in his hand, an older man behind him. Shea heard the maniacal laughter of the two men and saw the malice and loathing in their eyes.

Jacques!Shescreamed his name even as the orange blossom burst from the muzzle of the gun. The wicked stings hitting her arm and shoulder spun her around, and she reeled into Raven. Raven took the main burst of the gun and was flung backward nearly into the wall. Shea landed in a pool of blood. It was everywhere, beneath her, on Raven’s chest and stomach, leaking onto the wooden floor. Raven was still and lifeless, her face white, her pulse nonexistent when Shea tried to find it.

Don Wallace seized her by her hair and dragged her away from the body. He was laughing as he contemptuously kicked Raven’s leg out of his way. “I knew I’d get you, Doc. Small world, isn’t it?”

Jacques! My God, he ‘s killed Raven! Gregori! I’m sorry, I couldn’t save her.Shea was fighting, kicking and punching, and didn’t even realize it until Wallace hit her repeatedly in the face.

“Shut up! Stop that screaming or I’ll knock you out.” He hit her twice more. “Damn vampires think they’re so smart. It was so easy, wasn’t it, Uncle Eugene?”

Shea was sobbing uncontrollably, almost immune to the pain of Wallace dragging her by her injured arm. Warmth stirred in her mind. Shea ? We need you to look at the man holding you, look around the room slowly and picture everything exactly the way you see it.Jacques’ voice was calm and unruffled, no hint of rage or anger, simply a cool wind of logic. We are all three linked and can aid you.

Raven is dead! They shot her!shecried hysterically in her mind, afraid to move or call further attention to herself, lest she endanger Jacques in some way.

Just do as I tell you, love. Look around the room. Study your enemy and picture every detail in your mind so that we can see him.Jacques was tranquil, breathing steadily and slowly to help her control her own breathing. Blockout everything else. What they say does not matter. What they do does not matter. Give us the data we need.

Shea took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and tried to do as Jacques had instructed. It was difficult to overcome the horror of Raven’s violent death, the loss of the all-important baby. She blocked out the sounds of the malicious laughter, the sexual threats and innuendoes. Wallace was standing over her, one hand twisted in her thick mane of hair, the other hand deliberately digging into the bloody wounds in her arm. She pushed aside the pain of her injuries, the throbbing in her face.

Shea opened her eyes and looked first at Raven’s broken body. The blood lay like a thick red pool around her. Her blue-black hair lay across one cheek like a shawl. Shea made herself move on. Her gaze swept the room, settled on Eugene Slovensky. He was kneeling beside Raven, examining her to assure himself she was dead. He stood up, backed away two feet, cleared his throat, and spat at the body. He reached behind him for a canvas bag and yanked it open. Gleefully he seized a thick, pointed stake and held it out for her to see.

“Spawn of the devil,” he whispered insanely. “Bride to the one who killed my brother. You die this day while he sleeps unaware. I am fortunate that the Vulture hates you and the one that created you as much as I hate you both. I don’t know why he wants the other female alive, but again, our wishes coincide.”