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Much to think aboutwas putting it mildly,Tracy mused as she lay in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin later that night She had locked her door even though she kneould not keep Dominic out She was completely at his mercy here, in this house He could take her blood or her virtue and she would be helpless to stop hi as she lived, and no one would ever knohat had happened to her It surprised her that she wasn&039;t afraid of him, but then, he had never done her any har She didn&039;t knohether it was the strange house, the strange bed, or the fact that there was a vampire downstairs, but sleep eluded her

Finally, she slipped out of bed, drew a comforter around her shoulders, and curled up in the -seat She stared out the , herthe conversation she&039;d had with Dominic earlier It was beyond belief that he had existed for so long, or that she had lived many lives

So, if he was truly a vampire, and she had little doubt now that he as it like for hie and evolve while he always stayed the same? What had it been like to watch her die in his arms time after time? For the first time, she considered hoful it must have been for him If he loved her as he said he did, it ain, unsettling to wonder if he would be able to find her when she was reborn What had he done while waiting for her return? How much time passed between one lifetime and the next?

Questions,and each one more eerily weird than the last Were the answers as bizarre?

A et a better look At first, she wasn&039;t sure what she was looking at and then, when he moved out of the shadows, she realized that it was Doht His cloak billowed behind hih the trees

He h his feet barely touched the ground And when he passed under one of the lamps, she saw that he cast no shadow She rubbed her eyes and looked again Everything in the yard cast a shadow on the ground, save Do she had seen, it was that fact that convinced her of the truth once and for all

He caht as soon as the sun was down Onein the kitchen dooratching her dry the dishes

She pressed a hand to her heart "You startled iveslightly self-conscious for no reason that she could discern, she slipped past hi roo a beat when he sat beside her, close enough to touch

"How did you spend your day?" he asked

She shrugged "I painted a little I wandered around the yard I finished readingWutheringHeightsShe regarded hi Is it like sleeping? Do you dream?"

"It is like death," he replied quietly "There are no dreah narrowed eyes "Back in Nightingale House, I drea in the gardens"

"Indeed?"

She nodded "You had no shadow"

"Perhaps, like Peter Pan, I havePeter Pan! Now that was funny! And yet, they were very ed

"It&039;s true, isn&039;t it?" she said "You really are a vampire"

He nodded

"What did you do all those years when I was between lives and you aiting for me to be to be reborn?"

"I educated ain I traveled the world, learning to speak other languages so that I would be able to speak your language, whatever itup with the world Va to the life we knew before the change cae do not endureSo esNew countriesNeays of life I cahed softly "In my day, people rarely traveled beyond the place where they were born Today, you can be across the world in a matter of hours It is a remarkable time"

"You&039;re the one who&039;s re?"

"Only when you are not in the world with ht to her heart

"Dominic" She lifted a hand to his cheek His skin was cool beneath her fingertips

He went utterly still at her touch His eyes were focused on her face, his breathing suddenly shallow

Slowly, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his Perhaps she could learn to love hi was certain - no man she had ever known had affected her the way he did Never had she responded so quickly to another man&039;s touch, or another man&039;s kiss Had her subconscious reh she had not? Did her body yearn toward his because they had made love in other lives?

His arm slid around her waist to draw her closer and when she didn&039;t resist, he deepened the kiss, stealing her breath away until all she could do was cling to hi left but Doainst hers, his hand caressing her back, lightly ski the outer curve of her breast

His touch filled her with such pleasure it was almost painful and she moaned softly, a wordless plea forinto hers, his body tre with a deep-seated desire that was faran oath, he gained his feet He stood there staring down at her, his eyes blazing And then he was gone

Tracystared at the floor where he had been standing, flabbergasted by his sudden disappearance

She took a deep breath My, oh my, but that man kne to kiss! If he had kissed her like that in any of her previous lives, it was no wonder she hadn&039;t been able to resist his advances To tell the truth, she was glad he had vanished when he did because she wasn&039;t sure she would have been able to tell hi was for certain - if any of her boyfriends in this lifetiinity long ago

Which left her wondering if she had said no to all the others just to surrender her virtue to a vampireShe shook her head in bewilder She had refused to let him make her a vampire in all her past lives, and she wasn&039;t about to let himabout vampires other than what she had seen in Hollywood , she doubted if their portrayals of vampires were any more accurate than their portrayals of cowboys and Indians in the Old West

So, where to find out the truth? Would Dominic answer her questions? If she had access to a telephone, she could hook up her laptop and do some research online, but for now that was out of the question

Books?She thought of the library with its shelves and shelves of books Would a vampire have research books on vampires? There was only one way to find out

She went to the library first thing in theinside, she opened the curtains wide Sunlight poured into the room

She had never before seen soladder provided access to books on the top shelves

She started in one corner of the rooement of the books Paperbacks were tucked in beside expensive volu was varied, from Shakespeare and Steinbeck to Chaucer and Dickens, as well as novels by more contemporary authors She found encyclopedias, dictionaries, books of poetry and liinable, froive up when she hit the jack-pot Located at the top of the last shelfwere three rows of books, all of the to do with vampires Some were novels by Elrod, Huff, Yarbro ,Halanced over the titles:The Complete Book of Va Undead, The Vampire Encyclopedia, The Vaht

There were also a couple of books on Transylvanian-born Vlad Dracula, also known as Vlad the I theinable In spite of his cruelty, he was hailed as a hero inRo the Ottoman Turks

She also found several editions of Bra to find a model for his vampire, Stoker had come across the history of Vlad Dracula, who fit Stoker&039;s vampire perfectly Vlad had died under mysterious circumstances; he had been decapitated, and it was ru somewhere that Stoker&039;s novel had never been out of print since it was first published in 1897

Whether vaarnered their share of literature Plucking several books froan to read

In the next few hours she discovered that, according to the books, a true vahost or a demon from hell Some believed that vampires weren&039;t human at all, but a separate and distinct species Unless they h the heart, they were i to survive They had superhu the day, they were practically unstoppable at night Of course, since they were already dead, they were naturally hard to kill They lived in graves They had the power to control animals and could even turn into bats or wolves or dissolve into mist

She shivered She had seen that firsthand

Around noon, she went into the kitchen andthe taste of mayonnaise, tuna, to? Did he miss the taste of solid food? Did he even remember what it had been like to sit at a table and eat a ht soured her appetite and she threw the re up the kitchen, she went back to the library

She supposed it was to be expected that the authors couldn&039;t agree on vampire characteristics Some books said that vampires had no reflection Some said they did

She tried to remember if she had ever seen Dominic&039;s reflection in a mirror or

One book said va the day Another book said they could ht The books also mentioned contemporaryduring the day, alearing black, clai so

She knew the books she was reading were based on conjecture and old myths and ancient tales; still, the more she read, the more fascinated she became One book said that inEastern Europe it was believed that vampires had two hearts or two souls and since one heart or one soul never died, the vampire was immortal Other beliefs were that if a vampire wasn&039;t found and killed immediately, it would first kill the mee where he lived, and finally kill the anio undetected for seven years, it could travel to another country and becoh the children were all doo the last book, she put it on the table, then leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes and tried to remember what she knew to be true about her own personal va the day He could dissolve intoaware of it He seemed able to appear and disappear at will He had put some sort of spell on the doors and s He cast no shadow For so of all

It was a small house set deep in a dark wood She lived there alone save for a gray cat and a one-legged crow The townspeople were afraid of her, yet they came to her when they needed help, for her power to heal was known throughout the countryside Some called her a healer Some called her a witch And a witch she was It was a craft she had learned at her eance or riches, but those she turned away Herthat which was lost, for healing, for hope

She had been alone the night he caray eyesA man as not a man at all She had known that the moment her eyes met his, known that, whoever he was, he possessed an otherworldly power far beyond her own

Frightened of that which she did not understand, she had sent hiain the next night, and the next Each night he brought her a gift: a bouquet of wildflowers, a cat carved of jade, a ruby necklace,a seashell

Gradually, her curiosity overcame her fears and she invited hi disbelief to the tale he told her She had heard of vampires, of course, but never believed such creatures existed And then he told her another tale, of a h time He told her stories of past lives and as he related each one, she knew deep in her soul that he spoke the truth

And she loved hied her to join hiether forever, never nant, but as tian to relent

"On All Hallows Eve," she said, "on that night, I will becolad cry, he swept her into his arms "At last, my best beloved one," he had shouted exultantly "At last you will be mine!"

But it was not to be Unbeknownst to her, people fro on her They had seen Do to her in the dark hours of the night Foolish, superstitious folk, they believed hiue with him Just after midday on All Hallows Eve, they came for her, to accuse her In spite of her protests, in spite of those who spoke in her behalf, saying that her uilty of witchcraft and sentenced her to hang as the sun went down

And once again she had died in his arms She had not died instantly when they slapped the horse out fro for breath when he cae and disbelief the terrified screa like sheep fro up into his torray eyes, she whispered his naain, his face had been the last thing she had seen Was she fated to die in his ar she said to hiain?"

"I believe you are fated to do so," he replied, his voice calm and unruffled, as if she asked hiht "Until"

"Until what?"It was a foolish question She already knew the answer

His gazeon her lips"Until you accept your destiny"