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After eight days and nights of "should I or shouldn’t I," Vickie called Gus and quit her job She withdrew her savings from the bank She called the utility coas, water, electricity, and the phone She didn’t tell Bobbie Sue where she was going for fear that her friend ht talk her out of it

She closed up her house and then, without a backward glance, she hopped into her car and went in search of her vampire

Chapter 38

Antonio prowled the eed beast He had done as best for Victoria, that was the ih his heart had been torn froiven up his best reason for existing He loved her with his whole being and because he loved her, he had let her go In tihed harshly, hu he had in abundance, it was time And never had it passed so slowly Every day without Victoria see, or in feeding He had growled at Lady Kathryn so often she had gone into hiding, leaving hie, he thought, he had lived for centuries cloaked in the shadows of the night, but he had never realized how dark his life was until the light of Victoria’s love was no longer there to illuminate his heart and soul

Victoria Her scent filled every rooht He started to go after her a hundred tiretted letting her go, it was for the best

He swore under his breath Whose best? Not his! Never his

Did she ever think of hiainst the wall Pain vibrated up his arain, breaking through paint, plaster and ain, when he heard a knock at the front door

Frowning, he glanced over his shoulder Who would be cohed hu to call on hiry words dying in his throat when he saw her standing there He shook his head, unable to believe his eyes He had drea, he was sure his lonely heart had conjured her ie An indrawn breath carried her scent to him

Still unconvinced, he stroked her cheek Soft feminine flesh, ith life

" Victoria?" She wore a pair of jeans that clung to her like a second skin, a black knit sweater, and a pair of fur-lined boots Her hair fell over her shoulders in shi chestnut waves In six hundred and twelve years, he had never seen anythinghere?" He drank in the sight of her What difference did it make why she was here? She was here, and that was all thathi to invite me in?"

He stepped back "You need no invitation You will always be welcome in my home"

She crossed the threshold, and he followed her into the parlor His hungry gazetoward her "Is so?"

She turned to face him "That depends on you"

He shook his head "I do not understand"

"Do you love me, Antonio?"

"You know that I do"

"Then you know that I love you, too"

"We have been through this before"

"I want to spend the rest of ht of a hundred reasons why he should send her away, but when he tried to put theer made sense

"Will you share your life with s of his own heart any longer, he nodded Right or wrong, he wanted her, all of her, for however long she illing to put up with hi me across"

Her words slah the heart He stared at her, too stunned to speak Opening his senses, he searched for some hint of supernatural power To his relief, he found none

Vicki shrugged "He wouldn’t do it"

"Why?" he asked incredulously "Why on earth would you ask hi?"

She looked at hiht "Because I want to be what you are, of course Because it’s the only e can ever truly be together"

"He was right to refuse you," Antonio said "A decision like that-- "

"He said you should do it"

Antonio stared at her, not knohether to laugh or cry

"Will you? Or will I have to search the world for a va ?"