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sign of Connor, but I knew the baby had been a girl, and this had been her room, next to her mother’s. It must have been a lovely child’s room, all pink and lace, but it hadn’t translated well to a young woman’s private domain. A do-not-disturb sign hung from the knob, heavy-metal posters  on the back of the door of Van Halen, The Who,  AC/DC. Maybe some of them were vampires. Who knew?  The fact that Connor didn’t believe in Luke’s mission meant that
    there were probably plenty of vampires out there, feeding
    among the masses, spreading their disease.

    32

    “Our blessing,” he said, muffles but distinctly out loud.
    I looked around. “Where are you?”
    “Open the closet. I’m locked in. It opens from the outside.”
    I opened it quickly. Connor squinted into the night. “Thank  God, you finally found me. It’s  like a coffin in here. I can hardly move. Lend a hand.”

    I helped him climb out of the empty, rectangular darkness.  Much like a coffin, I agreed. Only he’d been left standing up.  “Poor thing. Can you walk?”
    He stretched, squatted down on his haunches and  stood back up again. He wore the Stones T-shirt and the same jeans I’d been ready to slide off him on that fateful night in my apartment. The night we’d both been taken. Taken, I realized at last. No one had asked my permission.
    “I can walk.” He took my hand. “Come on. We have to
    move fast. I know where we can find a boat.”
    “A boat? You think we should just leave?”
    He turned to me, such a look in his eyes. “I haven’t exactly been kept in luxury accommodation. I have a house in the Keys.  We could make it  by daylight if the weather cooperates.”
    “Daylight,” I echoed following after him to the next room. I  tugged him back. “Why don’t we go out a window? We’re on  the ground floor.”
    He gestured to the windows. Barred. Apparently, Connor wasn’t the only one to  be held against his will. “Oh. God.  Why?”

    33

    “Later. Come on.” He led me back to the lab where I’d
    come in. He helped me through the window first, then followed
    me out. “Down the beach. There’s a boathouse.”

    He moved faster than I could have imagined, as if he had wings on his feet. What should have been more surprising was that I’d kept pace with him without losing my breath. But I pulled back as we neared the boathouse, a small storage area with a dock at the end of the sand.

    “No. He’s there.”
    “Luke?” Connor looked at me with concern. “How do you
    know?”
    “I can feel him.”
    “Like you can feel me?” He seemed to be hurt, as if he  hadn’t even considered the possibility. I hadn’t realized it  myself until now.
    “The same way.”
    He dropped my hand as if scorched. Luke appeared in the
    doorway.
    “I thought you were going to stay?” He ignored Connor in
    favour of questioning me.
    “I thought I was free to make up my own mind.” I could  imagine how he must have looked as Goldbeard, terror of the  sea. The firm line of his jaw and the fire in his eyes made me  afraid I’d be forced to walk the plank, and  then glad of it. Better  to face the sharks than to have a go with an angry Goldbeard.
    “You are free. I’m asking, not demanding. Please stay.”
    “What about Connor?”

    34

    Connor  laughed. “He’s not about to challenge me now that  I’m not locked up. I’m taking a boat and I’m going. Are you staying or coming with me?”
    I looked at Luke. Was it true? He wouldn’t challenge  Connor? Fight him? Force him to stay? The men looked at each other as if they would gleefully go at it to the death. Perhaps they had, and more than once. Perhaps that’s why neither one of them made a move now. “I’m not sure.”
    “Christ,” Connor swore and looked at the heavens.  “Miranda, look at me. You know we belong together.”  Something in his gaze made me certain he was right. But  something about Luke made me wonder if I should stay. I