8

Chapter Two

Brenna Cahill pulled her rented sedan to the shoulder of the road and checked her directions once more. That afternoon at Merlin's Attic finding her way to the Blake estate seemed relatively simple. However, now with dusk edging its way on the horizon she wasn't as sure. By day the coastal town of Kent was charming and quaint, yet now with the black of night consuming the surroundings Brenna was filled with an eerie sensation.

She reviewed the detailed directions Ian Blake had written for her. Brenna had followed them to the letter and still she was lost. She let out a frustrated sigh.

She turned on the car's headlights and guided the sedan onto the road again. Her intention was to retrace her steps. Brenna swung the car wide in the road. In doing so the halogen beam skirted across a small road marker that she had missed the first time. Drennen Road Private, she read. Brenna brought Ian's directions to her eyes again. Make a left on Drennen road was the final line.

"How did I miss that?" she asked herself.

Brenna turned the car and followed the narrow winding road to its peak. She was amazed at the sight that met her eyes when she reached the end of the road. If she hadn't known better, she would have sworn she had never left Ireland. The Blake estate rivaled many of the castles that she had toured there. It was difficult to imagine Ian Blake living alone in such a massive home.

She gathered her purse, notebook and cassette recorder from the front seat and made her way to the entrance. She heard the faint crash of the waves on the rocks below. In the moonlight the massive turrets cast shadows on the ground beneath them. Brenna imagined what a spectacular sight the estate must have been by the light of day.

She was so preoccupied with studying the architecture of the building that she was oblivious to the man attempting to make a hasty exit.

"Excuse me," the husky voice said as Brenna's belongings went sailing into the air.

She was caught off guard for a moment unable to speak.

"I'm sorry I was just..." Suddenly Brenna Cahill lost her voice again. The minute her eyes locked with the hypnotic ones of the man bending down to help her retrieve her things she was at a loss for words.

"I didn't see you. I am the one who should be sorry." He handed over her notebook as he spoke.

Brenna would have given anything at the moment to utter even one syllable but each time she opened her mouth nothing happened. The butterflies in her stomach were doing somersaults.

"Thank you," she was finally able to eek out as she reached for her cassette recorder laying in the palm of his hand. The minute her skin touched his Brenna felt a surge of electricity she had never felt before.

Unable to help herself, she studied his features. They were chiseled, almost statue like. Brenna felt as though his smoldering dark eyes were boring deep within her soul.

"Huh?" she mumbled as his words broke through her trance.

"Are you lost?" he repeated his question.

"No she's not." Ian Blake magically appeared behind the pair. His sudden presence startled Brenna enough to make her jump. "I see you have had the pleasure of meeting my brother, the disbeliever," Ian said with a devilish smile. "Brenna Cahill, Aaron Blake."

"Nice to meet you." Aaron offered his hand to her while he narrowed his eyes in anger at his elder brother.

"And you," Brenna smiled graciously as she enjoyed the feel of his skin against hers again.

"Didn't you have some things to attend to at the shop?" Ian asked tersely.

Aaron hesitated for only a moment before answering. "Yes, yes I do." Aaron turned his attention back to Brenna. "So, you are interested in vampires?" He couldn't keep the question from passing his lips. He was curious why a woman so full of light and energy would be fascinated in something so dark.

"I am doing research for my magazine."

"I see."

"There seems to be such an interest in vampires now a days that my editor thought it was time we jumped on the bandwagon."

"Um..."

"Aaron, your relics are waiting," Ian stated his irritation getting the better of him.

"Again, it was nice to meet you, ah...?"

"Brenna." She supplied him with the word he was searching.

"Brenna." He repeated and offered a slight smile.

Ian gently touched Brenna's arm and showed her inside the mansion.

***

Aaron had been sitting at the worktable in the back room of Merlin's Attic for over an hour now and had yet to accomplish anything. He wasn't able to erase Brenna Cahill's face from his memory. Her flaming red hair and bright green eyes danced before him. Never before had such a brief encounter stirred such sensations in him. It had been many years since he had had the company of a woman. So many in fact that the feelings that were now forcing their way to the surface were foreign yet oddly familiar. Aaron did his best to squelch them as he busied himself with his work all the while he was unable to stop his mind from wandering back to Brenna Cahill.

It worried him that a creature as beautiful as Ms. Cahill was alone with his brother, but what frightened Aaron even more was why he cared.