"thanks." her current suffering was actually declining. jack's foot massage was doing wonders. he could

do more than your feet. she chased that errant thought away. thank god he wasn't reading her mind right now. "i was in a coma for a week. they didn't think i'd make it."

jack continued the massage. "you're a fighter. i admire that about you."

he admired her? that felt even better than the foot massage. and the massage was damned good. "the accident changed my life. it nearly killed me, but in a weird way, it was the best thing that could have happened to me."

his hands stilled. "how can that be?"

she gave him a wry smile. "it ruined my mother's plans for world domination. she wanted me to be miss louisiana, then miss usa, and then of course, miss universe."

he resumed the massage. "that's not what you wanted?"

"i didn't know any better. as soon as i could walk, my mother was entering me in pageants. at the age of four, i won the prestigious title of little miss mudbug."

he grimaced. "mudbug?"

"it's a crawdad." when jack still looked confused, she waved a hand in dismissal. "it doesn't matter. suffice it to say, my mom is crazy. she's fifty-two years old and still entering pageants. if she can't find one to enter, she invents one, like miss nola plus size. she'll actually wear a sash and tiara to go shopping."

"how... odd." jack slipped a hand into her loose cargo pants and massaged her calf.

lara sighed with pleasure. her legs had been sore ever since the fbi had tried to kill her with marathon exercise sessions. she wondered why she was telling jack her life story, but he was such a good listener, not to mention massage therapist, that she didn't want to stop.

"mom was so excited when i won miss teen louisiana. but after fourteen years of entering pageants, i wanted to quit. mom would go ballistic every time i even mentioned quitting. so i made sure my pageant career was ruined."

jack switched to her other calf. "what did you do?"

"when i was nineteen, i was a finalist in the miss louisiana competition. they did the part where they ask you a question onstage. it's usually something like, what change would you like to see in the world? and the usual answer is, 'world peace.?

jack smiled. "what did you say?"

"that i wanted to increase the use of capital punishment. i thought it would be great fun to bring the whole community together for a nice, old-fashioned hanging."

jack chuckled. "naughty girl."

lara grinned. "you should have seen the judges' faces. my mother actually screamed. obviously, i placed fifth out of the five finalists. my mother was hysterical. she insisted it was too embarrassing to be seen at the hotel. so we drove home that night."

jack's hands grew still. "is that when it happened?"

lara nodded. "it was dark. and we were so busy arguing, we didn't see the truck." she closed her eyes, thankful she couldn't remember the actual accident.

the bed jiggled, and she opened her eyes.

jack was settling on the bed beside her. "it must have been terrifying."

she nodded. "mom had multiple fractures. i broke an arm. and i took a bad blow to the head."

"i'm so sorry." jack stroked her hair that now covered the scars.

lara's eyes misted with tears. "the first thing i heard when i came out of the coma was my mother talking to my dad. she said thank god it was my head that was damaged and not my face."

jack sucked in a sharp breath. "cara mia, that is terrible."

"i knew right then that i could never enter another pageant. i wanted to use my head and not my face." lara blinked back the tears. "unfortunately, my head wasn't working too well. i couldn't remember how to read and write."

jack leaned closer. "you had to learn all over again?"

she nodded. "latoya was sharing the hospital room with me. that's how we met. she'd been working at a convenience store when an armed robber came in. she took a bullet to the shoulder. we were already in physical therapy together, so we decided to exercise our minds together, too. her reading skills weren't so hot, but they were a lot better than mine, and it made her feel good to help me. and she said if i could work my ass off, then so could she."

jack smiled. "that's how you became best friends."

"yes. we worked together every day, and after a few months, we were reading nancy drew books to each other and solving the mysteries. then we progressed to harder and harder books, till finally, we decided we wanted to be detectives and catch the bad guys. make the world a better place. so here we are today."

"you're amazing," jack whispered. "i've never met a woman as amazing as you." he took her hand and kissed it.

her skin tingled where his lips had touched. he turned her hand over and kissed her palm. the tingles spread from her hand up her arm to her breasts.

when he lifted his gaze and met hers, his eyes were brown and warm with love. no gleaming gold flecks, she realized. no vampire power being used to lure her in. only love.

and she wanted it so badly.

his gaze lowered to her mouth. if she didn't stop him now, she'd never be able to resist.

she pulled her hand from his grasp and scooted to the edge of the bed. "well, i think we did enough for the night. my head's too sore to do any more."

"i understand." jack stood and slowly put his jacket back on. "i'm honored that you would share your story with me, but i have to wonder why. maybe you didn't realize it, but it makes me want to be with you more than ever. did you mean to encourage me?"

she gulped. "i-i think we could be friends. maybe."

"you could be friends with a vampire?"

she looked down and plucked at the chenille bedspread. "i don't want to be... judgmental. you don't seem like a very bad vampire."

"gee, thanks."

her cheeks grew warm. "it occurred to me that you might have been attacked and changed against your will." she glanced at him with a hopeful look. "is that what happened?" please tell me you didn't want to be a monster.

he dragged a hand through his hair. "i'd rather not talk about it, but yes. i was attacked." he shifted his weight. "shall we continue tomorrow night?"

he'd changed the subject. maybe he was trying to spare her some gruesome details. after all, she assumed he must have been murdered. sorta. she wasn't quite sure how vampires were made. but she was fairly certain it had not been at all pleasant for him. poor jack. "yes. let's meet tomorrow night. i think we made some progress."

he smiled. "yes, i think we did." he disappeared.

lara sighed. the man was far too tempting. but far too different. did she really want to be a part of his world? did she want a boyfriend who was dead during the day and could live forever without getting older? where would that leave her? as far as she could tell, she had two options with jack. she could grow older and end up alone, forgotten, and heartbroken. or she could stay with him forever as a vampire.

she shuddered. how could she do that? how could she be a police detective if she was a vampire? how could she give up daylight and good food and chocolate? how could she tell her family? how could she have a family?

no, she was going to have to be sensible about this. jack would make an interesting friend. but no more than that.

she would have to love him at a distance.

chapter 20

jack arrived at romatech in a good mood. lara had heard his psychic voice, and she knew that he still loved her. the meeting had started off a bit awkward, but by the end of it, she'd allowed him to touch her and comfort her. she'd shared important moments from her past. she'd offered her friendship. that had to mean she was willing to trust him. in time, their relationship could grow into something deeper. she was such an amazing woman. so strong, brave, clever, and beautiful. there was no doubt in his mind that lara was the one for him.

but she was still in danger. his happy mood evaporated as he strode toward the mackay security office. a month had gone by with nothing to show for it but one botched attempt after another to find apollo. jack's muscles tensed and his hands curled into fists. when it came to his work as an investigator, he was not accustomed to failure.

he grudgingly admitted that so far they had failed to find casimir. but the wily malcontent leader stayed constantly on the move. this apollo had a base. he was staying put. it was ridiculous that they couldn't locate the bastard.

jack entered the office and found phil sitting at the desk, studying something on the computer. "where is everybody?"

phil didn't even blink at the anger in jack's voice. "i guess your meeting didn't go well?"

"it went fine, but we're running out of time. where is everybody?"

"robby's still chasing leads in europe. he said he'd probably crash at your place."

"fine." jack always offered his palazzo as a sanctuary for vamp friends who were traveling. "and connor?"

"connor and phineas are investigating a place in ohio," phil continued. "and i've been scouring the internet for any place that mentions apollo or a sun god."

jack paced across the office. "how many false leads have we followed?"

"over a hundred," phil muttered.

jack slammed a fist against the chain-link cage that housed their weapons. "it shouldn't be this damned hard. there are vamps all over the world. why can't we find this one sick bastard?"

phil leaned back in the chair, frowning. "i have a theory about that."

"to hell with theories. i need results!" jack paced toward the door. merda. he needed to get a grip. anger was not going to help lara. "okay, what's the damned theory?"

"well, now that you ask," phil began with a wry twist to his mouth. "i've noticed over the years that vamps tend to live in well-populated areas. of course, in the past, you probably wanted to be close to your food source, and the more people who were available to bite, the less likely you were to be noticed."

jack kept pacing. "go on."

"you like to hang out with each other, too. and party a lot. it's been hard on jean-luc, going into hiding in the countryside. i think he'd be crazy by now if it weren't for heather and her family. i know it's been tough on robby."

jack nodded. "and your point is?"

"if apollo's resort is far away from any city or towns, then there aren't any vamps around to notice it. not many mortals around, either. that's why apollo kidnaps people. he has no other food supply."

jack sighed. phil was probably right, but it made their chances of finding apollo sound hopeless.

phil leaned forward, propping his elbows on the desk. "now shifters are completely the opposite. they avoid civilization. we enjoy roaming the more remote areas of the world."

jack halted. "you think a wolf pack could find apollo?"

"i think it's worth a shot. i could ask the pack masters across the country to help us." phil frowned. "i offered to do it last night, but connor didn't like the idea. he didn't want to involve the werewolves in vamp business."

jack resumed his pacing. he understood connor's reaction. for centuries, the vampires and shape shifters had coexisted with a tense attitude of mutual distrust. they stayed away from each other, wary that another species knew of their existence. angus had tried to breach the gap by offering shifters high-paying positions of trust.

even so, jack knew that most of the shifter employees at mackay s & i were considered traitors to their own kind. howard fared better since male bears tended to be loners. but phil was a wolf and expected to be a member of a pack. a rogue wolf was a bizarre and dangerous phenomenon.

"would the werewolves help us?" jack asked.

"they might." phil dragged a hand through his shaggy brown hair. "the truth is, they would like to have you indebted to them."

"ah." that was why connor had refused. he didn't want to owe any favors to a pack of wolves. but jack was desperate enough to make a deal with the devil if he had to. "ask them to help. any debt incurred will be mine."

"can you hear me now?" jack asked again. it was wednesday night, and this was his third session with lara.

"just a few words here and there." she sighed. "this is so frustrating."

"tell me about it," jack muttered. he'd had high hopes for the meeting on tuesday, but it had ended after only ten minutes because it made lara's head hurt too much. he knew she was in pain, for he could feel it, too, and he hated being the one who caused it.

"do you need an aspirin?" he asked.

"i took one before you came." she massaged her temples. "it's either kicked in already, or i'm getting better at this. the pain is not as bad tonight."

"that's good. your brain could be adjusting." he settled on the bed beside her. she didn't give him that wary, skittish look, so he took that as another good sign. she was adjusting to him, personally.

he believed he was slowly regaining her trust. he wanted more. he wanted her love, but he could be patient.

he had a few new leads to check out later tonight. a western wolf pack had spotted two isolated mortal compounds in wyoming and utah. he doubted either place would pan out. they were so far away, and they'd been described as log cabins. but still, he was desperate enough to look anywhere.

"i can't let you do this, lara. apollo could teleport you anywhere, and i'd never be able to find you."