Vampires Are Foreve(99)

Inez picked up her purse and was putting the book in her bag when Rachel joined them to descend the stairs.

“I swear, Terri, you look like a Stepford wife in that getup,” Etienne’s wife said with a light laugh and then added, “A gorgeous Stepford Wife, but still a Stepford wife. Did Bastien ask you to keep the wig for later?”

Inez laughed at the way Rachel was wiggling her eyebrows as she asked the question, but laughed harder when Terri blushed and nodded her head.

“Do they have a bathroom in this place?” Terri asked as they stepped off the stairs.

“Yes. Just there,” Inez said helpfully, pointing out the door to the left of the stairs.

“Oh, thanks. I’ll be right back.”

Inez trailed Rachel to the counter as Terri moved off toward the door to the bathrooms.

“I wonder what their lemon muffins are like,” Rachel murmured as they waited for an older woman to give and collect her order.

“They’re quite good. Thomas and I had them the other day.”

“Hmm, maybe I’ll have one of those and a latte, then,” Rachel murmured.

Nodding, Inez glanced over the board herself, trying to decide what she wanted. She was still looking when the woman at the counter claimed her order and moved on, When Rachel gestured for her to go first, Inez shook her head and waved her on. “I’m still looking.”

Nodding, Rachel stepped up to the counter to give her order, and Inez turned to peer back to the board, but found herself continuing to turn until she faced the door, and then she was walking out of the café.

A silent scream immediately went off inside her head as Inez realized what was happening and that Rachel would be too distracted to notice until it was too late.

Inez had been so relaxed just then. Thinking it was over she’d dropped all her guards and hadn’t been prepared for this sudden hijacking of her mind and body. Her memories of being controlled last night had been fuzzy and fractured when she’d woken up on the couch and heard Thomas, Etienne, and Rachel talking. Little bits and pieces and flashes of fuzzy scenes and faint feelings were all she’d been able to grasp at, but as the terror of it all struck her anew, Inez recalled last night’s events with stunning clarity.

The terror of being controlled and made to do someone else’s bidding, the endless walk along dark streets in the cool night breeze, all the while wondering what her controller planned to do with her. The inability to do a single thing to stop what was happening or protect or defend herself in any way as he’d stopped and made her turn to face the river while knowing with every fiber of her being that he was about to kill her.

It was like that again now as she was made to walk once more up dark York streets to what she feared might, this time, be her death. As that thought struck her, Inez felt herself giving up and shrinking under the terror claiming her.

“Inez!”

Rachel’s voice was like a lifeline in the middle of an ocean. Relief pouring through her, Inez immediately began to fight, trying to regain control and battle the mind controlling hers. It didn’t work. There was no sudden stutter in her step, not even a miniscule movement of her mouth as she tried to cry out to Rachel. Instead, her body began to move more quickly, bursting into a run that sent her flying down the street at a speed Inez had never realized she had in her.

Rather than be alarmed at this, Inez took it as a sign that she might yet have a chance. Rachel must be in pursuit, and there was no way she could outrun her. The woman was an immortal and Thomas had said immortals had increased strength and speed. Inez was confident the woman would catch up to her quickly and she would be saved…so long as she didn’t have a heart attack and die first by the effort being forced on her, Inez thought with reawakened alarm as her body began to move even faster. Her arms and legs were pumping at an unnatural speed that she was sure her body alone could never manage and would not be able to sustain long. Her heart was already racing in a way she’d never before experienced as it tried desperately to supply the oxygen this race required.

A man suddenly stepped out on the sidewalk in front of her, and Inez’s eyes widened in horror as she recognized him. Tall, blond, bearded, and dressed all in black, he had a cold face without a drop of humanity or mercy in it. He had stepped out much like this last night, Inez recalled, though she hadn’t been running then. He suddenly reached out with one arm and snatched her up.#p#分页标题#e#

Inez would have grunted in pain as her stomach crashed into his arm if she could have, but the blond man was now running, moving faster than her body had been able to accomplish. She was being carried along, her upper body leaning slightly forward over his arm, her head turned by the impetus so that she could just see Rachel out of the corner of her eye.