CHAPTER ONE

Peggy landed hard on what felt like nylon carpet, so rough it burned the heels of her hands as they broke her fall. The van's rear doors slammed behind her, leaving her in total darkness.

It took her a second just to get her wind back. She could still feel, in her nerve endings, the press of a hand tight over her mouth, where one of the guys had muffled her scream while the other pinned her arms. She'd barely grasped what was happening before they'd thrown her in here like a sack of rocks.

The only thing weirder was the fact that they'd left her in here alone, and not climbed in behind her. Maybe she could at least be grateful for that.

She found the doors again, hammered them with her fists and kicked them with her running shoes. "Hey!" she screamed, figuring the two guys must still be outside. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

No answer.

She banged harder, and used language she usually kept in check, even around campus. After all, she reminded herself, she was still in the parking lot of the Capitol Centre in Maryland. The place was crammed for a rock concert, and since it was intermission, there were lots of people around. How could these two jokers expect to get away with such a stunt?

Maybe they could, though. The other people hanging around were blasting music, drinking and shouting to each other. Even if someone did hear her screaming, they might not take it seriously. Damn, she thought. Even if someone had seen those two guys in heavy-metal, black-leather gear wrestle her into the van, they might have thought it was just horsing around. Who would suspect, after all, that Peggy had only met the guys a few minutes earlier, and that they were actually...

What? Kidnapping her?

But why? If they were going to attack her, wouldn't they be in there with her now? Or was the parking lot too crowded for what they had in mind? Were they going to drive away, somewhere secluded, then...

Suddenly, Peggy's fear cranked up to a whole new stomach-turning level of terror. For the first time, she realized her very life might be in danger.

She still heard nothing from outside the van, not even conversation, but that didn't surprise her, considering the general din of the parking lot. More conscious now of how high the stakes might be, she tried a different, conciliatory approach. She rapped more politely on the van door and called, "Real funny, guys. Okay, so you got me. Now come on, let me out! I don't want to miss the rest of the show."

Still no response.

Peggy started to fume again. If she got out of this—no, when she got out of it—these guys would be in deep trouble. They had no idea who her father was!

No, this couldn't have anything to do with him. If anybody were going to kidnap her to demand a big ransom or something, it probably wouldn't be a couple of long-haired metal-heads hanging around an arena rock concert. Peggy felt pretty sure these guys had grabbed her at random. And all because she'd been tempted by their offer of a joint, which they said they had to get from their van. She didn't even smoke pot often, but she'd been in kind of a wild mood tonight. That would teach her!

The black humor didn't help.

Frustrated and confused, she sat on the cheap, scratchy carpet and tried to look around. She could hardly tell that her eyes were still open, it was so totally dark. They must have painted the windows, or taped some kind of material over them. You'd think they went around doing this kind of thing to people all the time.

In the blackness behind her, she heard a noise. A kind of scuffling sound, made by something that moved.

Something alive.

Peggy had not thought she could feel any more frightened, but the realization that she was not alone taught her otherwise. She jumped to her feet and swung around, desperate to see what was there and half afraid to.

She saw something, but it didn't make much sense at first. Two small red dots, maybe a few inches apart, glowing in the dark. Just a few feet above the floor of the van, or where she imagined the floor must be.

The kind of steady, pinpoint lights you might see on an instrument panel.

Peggy let out her breath. Maybe the guys had some kind of stereo equipment back here, or even a music board. They had looked like amateur rockers. That might even explain the unexpected sound

The lights moved.

They rose, slowly, to a spot just above Peggy's head, although they still seemed to hover several feet away.

She realized they were eyes.

With a whimper, she backed until she hit the doors of the van, then flattened herself against them, as if she could somehow melt through and escape.

The two red spots kept coming toward her, silently—so silently she heard only her blood pounding in her ears. She tried wildly to comprehend what kind of being would have eyes like that. And what it might do to her when it reached her.

As Peggy fixated on the red dots, however, another strange thing happened. She started to relax.

She knew she had every reason to be scared witless, but all the fear began to drain out of her. It reminded Peggy of her wisdom tooth operation about a year earlier, when the oral surgeon had given her sodium pentathol. Afterward, even though she still knew the procedure to come would be painful, she didn't care anymore.

Her trembling had eased considerably by the time the cool hand touched her face.

"That's better. See? Nothing to be afraid of."

The male voice sounded low and rich, but also fairly young. Under other circumstances, she might have found it sexy. She still could see nothing of him besides the red pinpoints of his eyes, but oddly enough, she imagined he was good-looking. In her nineteen years, she'd noticed that men with those kinds of voices generally were.

The cool hand stroked her cheek, and she no longer minded so much. "Peggy, is it? You're a cute one. Eddie and Roy made a good choice this time."

She wondered vaguely how he could tell she was cute in pitch darkness. But she supposed with those eyes, he might be able to see her, even if she couldn't see him.

"Did you come here to get high, Peggy?" She heard amusement in the voice. "That's how they usually get a girl to come with them. Well, you won't be disappointed. I can give you a high like you've never had before!"

A fresh gust of fear temporarily blew the cobwebs from Peggy's brain. She found her voice. "No...I don't...I just want to go..."

"Where? Back to school? You won't find the answers there. I can give them to you—answers to questions you never even thought of asking! Of course, you have to give me something in return."

She started to protest, but became drawn even more deeply into the flickering lights of his eyes, like someone hypnotized by staring too long into a flame.

"It won't hurt much, I promise. And then you'll be on your way to a whole new life. You'll feel things you never felt before...know secrets no one else knows. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Bogus as it sounded, Peggy found herself nodding.

He had told the truth in one way—she felt only a pinch, the way the doctor's needle pinches when he's already numbed the spot with alcohol. Then came a rush of wild, clashing sensations. Exhilaration and weakness; yearning and fear; a desperation to cling to life and sanity, and a languorous urge to let go of both.

Above everything, the drumming of her heart. At first fierce and rapid, then slower and more feeble.

Peggy supposed she blacked out. When she came around again, briefly, she still lay in darkness on what seemed like a bare mattress. At least it felt better than the carpet. She grew aware of the van moving fast, with an occasional jounce over what must have been a rough road.

She drifted back out of consciousness, the motion rocking her into a particularly deep and forgetful sleep.