Lyra was still weak as Sav carried her into the living area of the castle, followed closely by Phil and Kevan. Cyra’s head snapped up as soon as she felt them and she rushed to Lyra’s side, looking to Kevan as she asked, “What happened?”

“Morgan set Clark out to kill her,” Kevan said softly.

“WHAT?” Vivian said, jumping to his feet. “STEVE did this to her?”

“No,” Lyra murmured. “Lisa or whatever her name is did it. She just used Steve for it. He’s not in control of his own mind right now, Viv. She is.”

“Bloody hell,” Joe muttered, putting a protective arm around Lily. “Why’s she doing this? Some kind of revenge against vampires or just a hatred of them? I mean, is she going to come after anybody else?”

Sav bit back a snarl of a reply, but only just. The look he shot Joe seemed to burn as Joe stared back at him. How could Joe so obviously only be worried about himself and Lily when Steve was the one in real danger with this witch?

Joe froze as soon as he saw the look on Sav’s face. His eyes hardened as he realized Sav wasn’t letting go of their angry exchange when Sav had woken up. Damn him anyway, Joe thought. The sorry bastard just couldn’t see things had changed in the time he’d been away. Kevan interrupted Joe’s train of thought as he said, “No, Joseph, she’s only interested in Steve. As long as he’s alive, she doesn’t need any of the rest of us.”

“What does she need him for?” Phil asked, not noticing the tension between Sav and Joe as he worried about Steve.

“What Morgan’s wanted for two decades,” Kevan whispered quietly. “Immortality.”

Lyra sat up against Sav, peering at Kevan as she asked, “What do you mean? She wants...”

“To become one of us,” Kevan answered before Lyra could finish the question.

“What?” Cyra said in astonishment. “How does she even know about vampires?”

Kevan took a deep breath and said, “This is going to be a bit of a story, so settle in, kiddies.” Looking around at the vampires arranged around him, he let out another sigh, then started his story.

“For the last couple of centuries, I’ve been living in Egypt. A lot of my time has been spent with people who have a certain type of power, known commonly as witches. Some of them, well, they came to me just to learn the restraint that such power required to live peacefully among other mortals. I was well known as a long lived teacher and nothing more to these individuals. Personally, I’d never shown sign of having any such powers, but I had vast occult resources and the patience of a true born teacher. Most of my students were told that a witch generations ago had worked a charm on me to keep me alive and young so that I could share the wisdom I’d gained in my life. I’m able to walk in the day again, so that was never an issue with them. Anyway, that was fine for nearly three hundred years. Then, about four decades ago, I made a horrifying mistake.” Silence closed in on the room as Kevan stared at the floor. Finally, he looked up at Cyra and whispered, “I fell in love with one of my pupils.”

“We’ve all fallen in love, Kevan,” Cyra said, trying to comfort her old friend. Taking Rick’s hand, she said, “Sometimes we’re even lucky enough to be loved in return.”

“I wasn’t,” Kevan answered in a harsh whisper of a voice. “Only I didn’t see it at the time. Morgan was young and reckless. Her mother had recognized her gifts and sent her to me to try and get the girl under control.”

“How did her mother...” Sav started.

“Her mother was a witch as well,” Kevan sighed. “Morgan came from a very old witch family, one I’d been in contact with for nearly one hundred fifty years. I’d taught several of her mother’s sisters and brothers how to control the powers they possessed. So, as soon as Emily realized that Morgan had inherited the family’s gifts, she started to watch the girl. It didn’t take long for the problems to start once Morgan realized what she could do. By the time she was ten years old, she’d been expelled from four schools. But what finally got to her mother was when she nearly killed her younger sister in a fight at the dinner table. Emily could barely stop the child with a spell of her own. Morgan was using nothing but her mind to choke the life out of her sister because the girl had refused to hand her the noodles they were having for dinner!

“That night, Emily called me in tears, wondering what she should do. The next day, I flew in and met the girl in person. To be honest, I was in awe of her from the start. Here she was, eleven years old and in possession of power I’d only see a few times before. And witches only get stronger with age. Anyway, Morgan was terrified about being sent away with a man she didn’t know and tried one of her spells on me to prevent it. Emily was screaming at her to stop, but I managed to silence her just as Morgan sent a knife flying in her direction. Stepping between them, I took the blade in the chest and Emily let out a gasp. I’m sure she wondered if she was going to see me die right there in front of her. But I just pulled the knife out and looked sternly down at the little girl. It was to be one of the few times I ever managed to overawe that girl. She couldn’t understand how I was still alive and looking at her like she was simply a naughty girl. After that, Morgan was very easy to handle. At least, for a while.”

“I took her back to Egypt with me and everyone was amazed by her. She became the darling of the coven there and I guess they spoiled her a bit, to be honest. Learning how to twist adults around her little finger was easy for her, especially when she seemed to know exactly what they were thinking. I was the only one she couldn’t get a bead on. I was the teacher and it was my place to hand out discipline when she misbehaved. Soon, I thought I’d gotten through to her, because her temper seemed to be under control and she stopped asking for those things that she wasn’t permitted to have.” Shaking his head, Kevan wondered aloud, “How could I have let her fool me so easily?”

“Anyway, by the time she was twenty, she became more and more curious about my lifespan. She started asking pointed question, like how was that spell performed and who had done it. For what purpose had my life been prolonged in this manner? At first, it seemed natural curiosity and I was hoping it would just run it’s course and she’d move on to learning the lifestyle the others accepted. Instead, it became a silent obsession for her. She stopped asking questions and started watching my every move, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time. And she put every effort into winning me over to her. After seeing me with other female witches, she knew I was, well, active sexually. For years, she’d believed I’d lived a monkish existence and now she knew I did have that weakness after all. She started out with coy flirting and I figured the girl was just trying out the new feelings that were emerging in her body. Then she moved up to pressing her body against mine every chance she got.” Kevan let out a sigh and said, “If you’d have seen her then, you’d realize just how hard that kind of temptation can be on a man. She was beautiful in every physical sense of the word.” He cocked an eyebrow at Cyra and said, “And Si, you know how easily a beautiful woman can win me over.”

Cyra shook her head and let out a small chuckled, saying, “If I’m remembering just correctly, a beautiful woman was why you stopped traveling with Connor and I in Russia!”

“But this was different,” Kevan said sadly. “I’d helped raise this child, so I tried to keep myself under control. Every time I rebuffed her, though, she became more determined. She knew just how to play the role of the perfect young woman to me. She hung on my every word, making me believe I was some kind of, I don’t know, perfect instructor for her. That kind of, well, power over a woman, it can be intoxicating. We took to spending hours alone as she got older. I guess she was about twenty seven when I finally couldn’t do it any longer. I feel helplessly, hopelessly in love with her. That first night, when we...” Kevan paused, not wanting to go into details that none of the others needed to hear. “Anyway, after the first time we made love, I was completely hooked. I found out later that my darling Morgan had more to do with my condition than just being what I thought was a wonderful woman. She’d cast a spell on me called a Soul Net. It’s the same thing she’s using on Steve, most likely. The only difference is, she didn’t want the others to know just what she’d done, so she didn’t tighten the net too closely on me. Pulling just enough to keep me with her while she discovered my little secret was all she needed. After nearly three months together, I let it slip. I was so stupid! I should have realized it! As soon as I told her what I was, the look in her eyes! It was triumph, I swear. After that, she was extra hot for me. I didn’t get a moments peace, I tell you. She was all over me, pampering me while she begged me to bring her across. It was a constant plea from her. She tried anger, threatening to leave me if I didn’t. And she cried a river of tears, pleading for the chance to stay with me forever.

Unfortunately for Morgan, a Soul Net doesn’t last forever. The tighter the net is pulled, the faster it’s hold breaks. Which is why I don’t think she has very long with Clark. If she’s controlling him enough to force him to try to kill Lyra, it’s taking everything she’s got. Once the spell’s hold fell away from me, I did still honestly love her. But I started to see her for what she really was, too. It broke my heart, I’ll tell you. What finally made me see everything was the night I heard her whispering to one of the other students I’d taken in.

She was telling the other girl some lie about getting “the gift of eternal life” from me, then taking on the world. There were lies, or maybe they weren’t, about bringing this girl along with her, saying she had a long list of paybacks to deliver once this life was hers. How she’d been so wronged by so many people, she couldn’t wait to see their faces when she killed them. Plans to make people suffer! When the other girl asked her about me, Morgan laughed and said I was an old fool in a young one’s body. That she only needed me to give her life, then she’d leave me behind.

All along, I’d held her off with promises that maybe someday, when she was much older, I’d bring her over as a vampire. But that night, I made the decision to leave her alone from that moment on. When she came to bed, I was waiting for her. Telling her that I’d made mistake, I said she could never be a vampire. Not so long as I lived. That the “old fool” had gained enough wisdom to see she’d do nothing but destroy people if she became what I was. Morgan was furious. She stormed around the room, throwing precious objects and tearing apart everything I’d once cherished. But her betrayal had destroyed the need for such things in me. Life was like dust in my mouth. Part of me knew I shouldn’t let her leave the room alive that night, but I still cared to much about her to be able to kill her. She tried to destroy me with a spell, but I’d gotten a charm that blocked just the sort of black arts Morgan was so fond of. In the end, she left Cairo and I haven’t heard anything about her in five years. Until now, that is.”

“Why can’t she just force Steve to bring her over while he’s under her control?” Cyra asked quietly.

“Because, while she’s got him under such tight control, she can’t be sure what he’ll do,” Kevan answered patiently. “When he drains her to the point she can be brought over, her hold on him will slip away. And if he should remember just what she’s forced him to do, it’s quite likely he’ll just let her die. So, first she’s got to try to brainwash him into believing that he really does love and need her. That could take quite some time, so I can only hope her power over him fades before she manages to accomplish that. If she does get him to that point, there may not be any hope for Clark. The man you’ve known won’t truly exist anymore. He would be her creature, body and soul. And, if I know Morgan, that will mean two rogue vampires out there, killing freely.”

“How the hell are we going to find her and stop her?” Sav said, jumping to his feet.

“I’m pretty sure I know where Morgan is,” Kevan sighed. “She’s always felt most at home in Egypt, so I’m betting that’s where she’s got Clark now.”

“How can you be so sure?” Sav asked worriedly. “I mean, even if she does have him there, Egypt isn’t a small place.”

“Morgan used to tell me just how she wanted me to bring her over,” Kevan said. “Back in the days when she thought she had me convinced she should cross. Under a full moon and the shadow of the pyramids of Giza. If I know her, that’s exactly what she’s going to try for when she’s ready.”

“Wouldn’t it be stupid of her to go to all that trouble?” Cyra asked cautiously.

“Yes, it would,” Kevan said, allowing himself a small smile. “But who ever made the mistake of thinking Morgan is rational in the least? If she’s gone to all the trouble of kidnapping and entrapping a vampire, do you really think she’s completely sane anymore? In truth, I don’t know that she ever was sane. But the pyramids are an obsession of hers, so I’m sure she’ll be there.”

“Then we’ll take off tomorrow evening,” Cyra answered. Kevan nodded, then set about laying out his plans to capture his former lover and bring Steve back home to the coven.