"I don't understand," Madison mumbled, still scanning the horizon. "Why haven't the vampires come?"
Something happened with the mystery man. It was a minute, subtle change, but clear as day to Abigail. His shoulders suddenly seemed broader, and his head tilted ever so slightly. Had he somehow heard Madison? Impossible! They were two floors up.
He turned and peered up at Madison. He had heard her! And his face. His entire face was visible now.
"Wow," Abigail whispered.
His gaze immediately shifted to the side.
Straight at her! Good Lord! Abigail gasped and scrunched deeper into the shadow. How could he hear a whisper? And how could he possibly see her in the dark?
She waited. Any second now, his gaze would shift back to Madison. Men always looked at Madison. She was standing beneath a porch light, her blond hair gleaming, her pink dress glittering. She was the princess of the White House.
Abigail struggled to catch her breath. He was still looking at her. Oh God, she was feeling light-headed, like she might faint. Don't be silly. You never faint. You're a scientist. This was nothing more than a chemical reaction. It had never happened to her before, but she understood the process. Her brain was simply releasing dopamine. By the bucketful.
She edged around the back of the column. She was good at disappearing. After all, she was the forgotten daughter, and that was the way she liked it.
She waited while seconds ticked by. He would have given up on her by now. He'd be focused on Madison. She peered around the column.
She gasped. He was still looking at her! She pressed a hand against her chest. Good Lord, her heart was going crazy.
And then he smiled. A slow, devastating one that curled to the left in a lopsided fashion before transforming into a full-fledged smile. With dimples.
She slumped against the column. Dopamine overload. Skyrocketing tachycardia. Okay, now you can faint.
Chapter Six
"Come on!" Abigail rushed toward the staircase.
"What's the big hurry?" Madison struggled to keep up with her. She passed her dog bag to Josh. "I can't run in these heels. I'm afraid I'll fall and hurt Dolly."
Josh's jaw shifted slightly, his only sign of annoyance, but Abigail noticed it.
"I'll take her." She grabbed the dog bag and ran down the stairs, quick and nimble in her athletic shoes.
"Not so fast!" Madison yelled. "You'll scare Dolly!"
Abigail glanced at the bag. Dolly was poking her head out and grinning like she did whenever she was in a car. "She's fine!"
"What about you?" Madison's voice filtered down the staircase, along with the clunking sound of her heels. "Why are you acting so weird?"
Good question. Abigail paused when she reached the ground floor. It wasn't like her to fixate on a man. "I . . . want to know who he is."
"Who?" Madison clambered down the last of the stairs with Josh beside her, making sure she didn't fall.
"The guy who got out of the limo." Abigail started down the Center Hall and called back over her shoulder. "There was something different about him. Don't you think?"
"I didn't get a good look at him. I was too busy looking for - Oh my God." The sound of Madison's footsteps stopped abruptly. "You think he's a vampire?"
Abigail blinked. Did she? No, of course not. Vampires weren't real. She glanced down at the bag in her hand, and Dolly tilted her head, regarding her curiously. "That would be crazy, wouldn't it?" she whispered.
Dolly yipped in agreement.
"The voice of reason." Abigail continued toward the West Colonnade. She'd seen the hysteria all over the Internet. She'd even watched the video that claimed to show a vampire being beheaded. It had looked like a movie clip to her, starring a kilted Scotsman as the hero, killing his foe with his mighty claymore. The guy he'd supposedly decapitated had turned to dust, but that was easy enough to fake with special effects.
As soon as she entered the West Colonnade, the toy poodle began to bark. Abigail stopped. She'd never seen Dolly this agitated. The dog was scratching at the sides of the leather tote bag, her yipping growing more frantic.
Madison ran to catch up with them. "Abby! What did you do to my baby?"
"Nothing." Abigail winced when Dolly tried to leap out. She quickly set the bag on the floor.
Dolly jumped out and scampered into the West Wing. Abigail chased after her, then halted at the doorway that led into the waiting room outside the Oval Office. Madison and Josh stopped beside her. Two Secret Service agents were stationed across the room, just outside the door to her father's office. Her heart stuttered when she spotted the mystery man halfway across the room, seated beneath a painting.
Dolly advanced toward him, growling and baring her sharp little teeth. He stood, his attention focused entirely on the dog. Abigail opened her mouth to tell Dolly to stop, but the dog suddenly collapsed onto the carpet, limp and silent.
"Dolly!" Madison ran to her dog and fell to her knees.
She lifted her dog's head. "Dolly, speak to me! Oh my God, what's wrong with her?"
"She's fine," the mystery man said, glancing back at the pair of Secret Service men, who remained quiet and expressionless. "I think she's . . . sleeping."
"Sleeping?" Madison repeated, her eyes wide.
Josh leaned over to inspect the dog. "She's okay. She's still breathing."
"Oh." Madison pressed a hand to her chest. "Thank God." She peered down at her pet with a perplexed look. "Poor baby. She must have worn herself out."
Abigail watched silently from the doorway, her gaze darting back and forth between the limp dog and the mystery man. A strange thought seeped into her mind, that somehow he had shut the dog up and caused her to fall asleep. She opened her mouth to question him, but then his gaze shifted to her.
And she forgot how to talk.
She'd almost fainted before from seeing him at a distance. Now that he was close, she could hardly think. Hardly breathe. Her heart pounded, and her mouth grew dry. She licked her lips, and his gaze flickered to her mouth, then back to her eyes.
His eyes were green, she noted. A grayish-green that reminded her of green moors shrouded with mist. Beautiful, but mysterious. And potentially dangerous.
He inclined his head, never taking his eyes off her. "How do you do? I'm Gregori Holstein."
Gregori? He pronounced his name in an Eastern European fashion, but his accent seemed American. Abigail bit her bottom lip, not certain how to proceed with him. Could he possibly possess some sort of strange psychic power?
"I'm Madison." Her sister scrambled to her feet, cradling Dolly to her chest and apparently unaware that Mr. Holstein had not been talking to her. "Josh, would you be a dear and fetch the dog bag?"
Josh glanced at the other two guards, then strode from the room to do Madison's bidding.
Abigail eased into the room. It was decorated in typical White House fashion: uncomfortable chairs grouped around antique tables, expensive draperies, paintings and ornate mirrors on the walls. She looked about nervously, pretending not to notice that the mystery man was still staring at her. But she was aware. Skin-tingling aware.
Madison eyed him curiously. "Did you say your last name is Holstein?"
"Yes." His gaze flicked to her, then back to Abigail.
Madison sidled close to her sister and whispered, "He can't be one of them. No self-respecting vampire would ever be named after a cow."
He grinned.
Good Lord, his smile. Abigail's pulse jumped into warp speed, but then she blinked and narrowed her eyes. His canine teeth looked very pointed. And his hearing was extremely good. "You - you saw us on the balcony?"
He nodded, his eyes twinkling with humor. "The next time you try to hide in the shadows, you should take off the white lab coat."
Oh, of course. Her cheeks grew warm. That was how he'd managed to see her. Although she could have sworn he'd been looking at her face.
"Are you a doctor?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"You are too," Madison whispered, then raised her voice. "She has a Ph.D. in biochemistry."
His eyebrows lifted slightly.
Abigail couldn't tell if he was surprised or impressed, but he was certainly watching her closely. That alone was enough to make her pulse jump to warp speed six. "You seem to have excellent vision and hearing."
The corner of his mouth curled up just enough to show a dimple. "How kind of you to notice."
"Excuse us a moment, please." Abigail pulled her sister outside the door and glanced back at him. He turned politely away to study a painting, presenting her once more with a devastating view of his profile. Good Lord. No man should be that handsome.
"Do you realize he fits every item on your checklist?" she whispered to Madison. "Expensive taste, pale skin, extremely attractive?" She spotted his grin once again. Blast him! "His sense of hearing is downright scary."
Madison sighed. "I can see where you're going, but that guy's not a vampire. He doesn't sparkle. And he didn't fly here as a bat."
He turned toward them, chuckling, and Abigail ignored his dimples to zero in on his canines. His extra-sharp and pointed canines.
He squelched his smile.
Interesting. She strode back into the room. "There's a rumor going about that the Undead will be visiting the White House. What do you think, Mr. Holstein? Do you believe vampires could be living secretly among us?"
His eyes narrowed, and she felt an invisible crackle of tension as if the air between them had suddenly turned electric.
Warp speed seven. She lifted her chin. "Are you living a secret life, Mr. Holstein?"
His eyes gleamed a brighter green as he stepped toward her. "What about your secret life, Abigail?"
She blinked.
"You are Abigail Tucker, aren't you?" He stepped closer. "Why do you hide from the cameras?"
"I don't want attent - " She did a double take at the mirror on the wall. She was reflected, but he wasn't! With a gasp, she glanced back at him, but he'd moved out of the way. Very quickly.
Had she imagined it? It had all happened so fast. She looked at the mirror, briefly noting her own pale and shocked expression. Madison was also reflected. And her Secret Service man, Josh, who had just returned with the dog bag. They were too busy lowering Dolly into the bag to notice anything amiss.
She cast a nervous glance at Mr. Holstein. He was frowning, his mouth thin with annoyance. He adjusted his tie with an angry jerk.
"You could use the mirror to fix your tie," she suggested quietly.
He clenched his fists tight, then relaxed them.
He was nervous, she realized. He didn't want to be . . . discovered.
She gasped. His gaze cut immediately to her, the green of his eyes growing more intense.
Warp speed eight. Her heart thundered in her ears. Could it be true? No. She was a scientist, and all her years of study were clamoring in her head screaming no! She could not accept this.
"I don't believe it," she whispered.
He remained silent as he fiddled with his cuff links.
She moved in front of him. "You can relax, Mr. Holstein. I'm not going to accuse you of something that's not scientifically possible."
He arched a brow at her. "And what is scientifically possible, Miss Tucker?"
"Facts. What I can observe or measure."
"And what about the intangible? Do you believe in feelings? Anger, fear, love?"
"Of course. Love is actually scientific." She stuffed her clenched fists in the pockets of her lab coat. "It generally begins with physical attraction which triggers a chemical reaction that releases dopamine into the bloodstream - "
"Is that why your heart is racing?"
Her heart lurched. Warp speed nine. "I don't know what you're talking about. My pulse is perfectly normal."
His mouth curled into a slow smile. "Tell me, Abigail. Why does a beautiful woman like you hide in the shadows?"
She froze. If he was trying to throw her off her guard, he was certainly succeeding.
He moved toward her. "Do you go by Abby? Or Gail?"
"I - " Good Lord, she could hardly remember her own name with him so close. She lifted her chin. "Do you go by Greg? Or does Gori suit you better?"
His mouth twitched. "Do I seem gory to you?" He leaned in close enough she could feel his breath against her cheek. "Is that why your heart is pounding? Do you think I'm frightening?"
Could he actually hear her heartbeat? She swallowed hard. "I'm not afraid."
He moved back, his smile fading. "Maybe you should be."
Her skin prickled with goose bumps. "Who are you? What do you want?"
His eyes narrowed, glittering with green intensity. "I'm not so different from you. I want to be left alone to live in the shadows."
A shiver skittered down her spine. Warp speed ten. Had he just admitted to being one of the Undead?
No! She refused to believe it.
The door to the Oval Office opened, and a voice called out. "Mr. Holstein, the president will see you now."
Gregori inclined his head. "Abigail." He turned and strode into the Oval Office.
She watched him go, her heart still thumping, her head still echoing with the soft way he'd said her name.
"Abby?" Madison sidled up close. "What was going on? Was he trying to pick you up?"
"No." She eyed the closed door.
"Are you sure?" Madison whispered. "It looked kind of intense to me."