giving the wheel a hard twist, she sped past the freeway on-ramp and headed for the one man who might be able to help her.

the sound of someone knocking on the front door roused erik from his daytime slumber. a deep breath brought a familiar scent to his nostrils, and a smile to his lips. daisy was there.

and then he frowned. what was she doing here in the middle of the day?

rising, he hurried to the front door.

"erik!" daisy stared up at him, her eyes wild. "i need help!"

"sure, honey, come on in."

"it's not for me." she waved a frantic hand toward the car parked at the curb. "it's alex!"

erik swore softly as he glanced at the stretch of sun-dappled sidewalk between his house and the car. "wait a minute."

turning, he grabbed a long leather coat from the rack just inside the door. pulling it over his head and shoulders, he moved with supernatural speed toward the car. one look at daisy's brother and he feared the man was beyond help. he was bleeding from numerous wounds; his face was deathly pale, his lips were turning blue.

erik muttered an oath as the sun's light warmed his back. any further examination would have to be done inside. his skin tingled uncomfortably as he pulled the unconscious man out of the car.

draping daisy's brother over his shoulder, he transported himself back into the house.

shouting, "close the damn door!" he carried alex up the stairs and into the bedroom adjacent to the one daisy had used not so long ago.

daisy was right behind him. she pulled back the covers, then hovered beside erik as he lowered alex to the bed. blood immediately soaked into the spider-man sheets.

"what the hell happened?" erik asked. "he looks like he's been through a meat grinder."

"we were hunting vampires...hunting rhys."

erik leaned over alex, his nostrils flaring. "and you found him," he muttered, disbelief evident in his tone. "how the hell did you do that?"

"just by chance," daisy answered. they had found rhys and lived to tell the tale. she swayed on her feet, feeling suddenly light-headed.

erik's gaze swept over her. "are you okay?"

"yes, don't worry about me."

erik shook his head. he had once warned rhys that he needed more security for their meeting place, but rhys had shrugged it off. he had always been arrogant to the point of carelessness. there had been times when erik wondered if rhys kept such an easily breached establishment because he was tired of his existence.

daisy tugged on erik's arm, drawing his attention back to the matter at hand. "please, do something."

erik studied daisy's brother. alex's heartbeat was slow and erratic, barely discernable. the scent of his blood teased erik's nostrils, tempting him to take what little blood the man had left.

"erik?"

"i warned you to stay away from rhys."

"you can lecture me later," she said, choking back her tears. "right now, alex is dying. but you can save him! i know you can!"

"you want me to save a vampire hunter?" erik exclaimed. "dammit, daisy, if he had come here alone, he might have taken my head."

"he's my brother. please, erik, i'll do anything you want!" tears welled in her eyes and dripped down her cheeks. "please! you can't just let him die!"

erik waged a silent war with himself. it went against the grain to save the life of a hunter, yet what else could he do, with daisy standing there, tears streaming down her face?

"get him out of those clothes."

she didn't argue, didn't ask for help, but erik gave it anyway. moments later, alex lay on the blood-soaked sheets, stripped to his briefs.

"you might not want to watch this," erik warned.

"i'm staying."

"he's pretty far gone. there's no guarantee my blood will save him. if it doesn't...?" he left the question hanging in the air between them.

"don't ask me that," she said, her eyes wide. "i can't make a decision like that for him."

with a curt nod, erik bit into the deep blue vein in his left wrist. dark red blood oozed from the two shallow wounds. using his fingers, he smeared his blood over alex's injuries.

daisy watched in fascinated horror as the gashes on her brother's body began to heal, all but the one in his stomach. she looked up at erik.

"lift his head a little."

"you're not going to turn him?" she asked, horrified by the idea.

"no. i'll just give him a little drink, to strengthen him."

swallowing the urge to vomit, daisy folded one of the bed pillows in half and put it under alex's head. she looked away when erik held his bleeding wrist to her brother's lips, only to glance back as some shred of morbid curiosity got the better of her. a small trickle of blood flowed from erik's wrist into alex's mouth, and then, incredibly, alex took hold of erik's arm, suckling as though it were mother's milk. within moments, color returned to her brother's waxen cheeks.

she glanced at the wound in alex's stomach, her eyes widening with amazement as the ugly wound began to knit together. she had known vampire blood had miraculous qualities. didn't it say so on her web site? but she had never actually seen what it could do, never really believed a few drops of undead blood could work miracles.

she was a believer now, and even as the thought crossed her mind, the room began to spin out of focus. "erik..."

"steady, girl."

his voice curled around her like loving arms, holding the dizziness at bay.

a moment later, he lifted his arm and licked the bloody wound in his wrist.

revulsion swirled in the pit of daisy's stomach, and then the world went black.

erik caught daisy in his arms and carried her into the room she had occupied before. what the hell had alex been thinking, to take his sister with him when he went to hunt the most dangerous vampire on the west coast? and what had daisy been thinking when she agreed to go with him? and how the devil was rhys? had daisy and her brother destroyed him?

dammit!

he removed daisy's shoes, then tucked her under the covers. he gazed down at her a moment, thinking how right it felt to have her under his roof again. too right.

muttering under his breath, he returned to her brother, who was still unconscious. lifting the man with one hand, erik stripped the ruined sheets from the bed, noting that the mattress was ruined, too. he dropped the bloody sheets on the bathroom floor, along with alex's navy blue briefs, and turned on the shower.

fully clad, erik stepped into the stall with daisy's brother cradled in his arms. erik shook his head. if anyone in the vampire community discovered what he had done, he would have no defense. in the world of the undead, it was vampire against mortal. there was no neutral ground.

erik glanced at alex. even the cold water had failed to revive him. perhaps his efforts to save the man had come too late.

once the blood had been rinsed away, erik turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. after wrapping alex in a towel, he carried him down the stairs to the guest room. he hesitated a moment before opening the door, then chuckled softly as he imagined alex's reaction if he regained consciousness. erik had wondered, on more than one occasion, what kind of people had owned the house previously, and if they had been color-blind. three of the walls in this room were painted a virulent shade of orange; the fourth wall was decorated with pink, yellow, and magenta flowered wallpaper.

pulling back the matching spread on the twin bed, erik tucked alex under the covers, then left the room. what the hell was he doing keeping a hunter and a blood thief under his roof? dammit, there was no way he was going to get any rest with the two of them in his house. and no way he could explain their presence to the master of the city.

and what about rhys?

he cursed softly. another two hours until sunset. there were times, like now, when he hated the weakness that kept him trapped inside until sundown.

after changing into a dry t-shirt and jeans, erik found his cell phone and dialed the number of the vampire who had been his best friend for the last two hundred years.

he feared the worst when there was no answer.

chapter 19

daisy woke with a start, surprised to find herself in erik's house. what was she doing here? and then, all too vividly, she remembered going hunting with alex, finding rhys, although they hadn't known it was rhys at the time. she would never forget the sight of rhys hovering over her brother, never forget how she had doused the vampire with holy water before driving a stake into his chest. and missing his heart, she thought bitterly.

swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, daisy hurried out of the room. alex. she had to find alex.

her heart seemed to stop beating when she opened the door to the room where he had been. last night, she hadn't paid any attention to the room's decor. now she wondered how she could have missed the garish green paint and jungle wallpaper.

she moved toward the bed, only then noticing that it was empty. the sheets had been stripped from the mattress; the mattress was stained with blood. she peeked into the bathroom, but it, too, was empty.

where was alex?

and where was erik?

she stared at the door at the end of the hall. if she opened it, would she find alex or erik inside?

she stood in the hallway, listening to the house. it sounded as dead as its owner. as dead as her brother? no! she couldn't think that. alex had been alive when she saw him last, alive and drinking erik's blood.

"your brother owes me a new mattress and a set of sheets."

daisy whirled around, her hand at her throat, at the sound of erik's voice. "where is he? where's my brother? what have you done to him?"

"i haven't done anything to him. he's downstairs, still unconscious. i don't imagine he'll be waking up anytime soon."

daisy stared at erik, hurt and confused, trembling now. she hated him because he was a vampire, because one of his kind had almost killed alex and yet, if it wasn't for erik's vampire blood, alex would be dead now.