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After tuckingTracy into bed, DohTracy had only been under his roof for a short time, her influence was everywhere - her shoes were on the floor beside the sofa, there was a jar of roses on the mantel The very air in the house was filled with her scent, along with the odor of food, both cooked and raw
The bathroom held bottles of peach-scented shampoo and conditioner, lipstick and perfume, and myriad other feminine articles, all with their own unique scents
He went into her studio, curious to see what she had been working on To his surprise, he found she had painted his portrait again, not as a vampire this ti the lines of his face He looked as he had the last time he had seen himself in a mirror Kitana had not told him that vampires cast no reflection Even after all these centuries, he could remember his shock the first ti to see his face looking back at him, and seen only the rooer existed
Kitanahad laughed at his chagrin "Didn&039;t you know?" she replied with a laugh "Vampires have no souls - therefore, they have no reflection"
"No soul?" The thought had astounded hiious man, he was a believer nevertheless How could a bodybut an empty shell? How could he live without a soul?
"But you are not alive," Kitana had said airily "You are NosferatuNot dead and not alive"
"Not dead and not alive?" He had scoffed at her Of course he was alive!More alive than he had ever been before His sight was keener, his touch hter, textures deeper and richer His hearing was nothing short of pheno down a leaf, the movement of a spider over a web, the delicate flutter of a s, he could hear them all He was never sick, never tired,never cold How could she say he was not alive?
And it had been a good life, whenTracy was there to share it with him It was only when they were separated, when he was on the earth and she was not, that he felt deadDead inside and out His existence had no , he had tried to find fulfillment in the arms of other woratification alone was not enough He neededTracy , needed her love Itmattered not what body she inhabited, the color of her eyes or her hair, whether she was tall or short, dark or fair, whether she was bound or free Without her, he was nothing but a dry, e to live for
He left the house and wandered aiardens For centuries, the ht his day With his preternatural eyesight, he saw everything distinctly - each individual leaf on each tree and flower and shrub, the srass, the thorns on the rose bushes,each crack in the wall that surrounded the house He heard the distant hooting of an owl, the sighing of the wind through the trees, the ripple of the water in the stream beyond the wall He had sowithoutTracy
Tracy She tasted sweet, so very sweet, like the finest nectar He had thought one taste h, but now that he had tasted her once, he was eager to do it againAnd again To drink of her sweetness until he was sated, until the taste of her, the very essence ofher, filled all the empty places within
His hands clenched at his sides It would be so easy to take her, to take her and bring her across He could cloud her mind, bend her will to his,desired, and yet that was soly, without doubts, without hesitation He had seen what happened to those who&039;d had the Dark Gift forced upon them Some went mad and had to be destroyed So their unholy appetite in an endless river of blood, heedless of the ift and destroyed theht It was not an easy life, to be a vath to live a life against nature Only those who freely embraced the Dark Gift were able to endure it for more than a century or two
He wondered ifTracy had any idea of how difficult it was for him to be with her, to kiss and caress her, but never ed to do Love and desire were closely intertwined with the hunger that was ever within hi it both pleasure and pain to hold her in his arms And always, in the back of his mind, was the memory of other lives, past lives, when she had loved him, when she had made love to hilanced up at the house, his gazeinstinctively to theof the roo If he touched herof hih In this life more than any other, he at least had hope In this life, she was neither slave nor queen nor wed to another She was her ooman, free and independent, able to do whatever she wished
In this life, she could be his
Tracywoke feeling wonderful She stretched languidly,then padded downstairs to put the coffee on Standing at the , staring out at the yard, she lifted a hand to her neck She had let Doht Now, in the cool light of day, she couldn&039;t believe she had actually let hi?
She shook her head Obviously, shehadn&039;t been thinking, or she never would have agreed to it But she had been moved by the soulful look in Do in his voice
He had promised it wouldn&039;t hurt, and it hadn&039;t He had also promised he would take only a taste and she knew, on some deep, primal level, that he had taken more than just a taste And yet, to tell the truth, his vaiven her such pleasure, she had not wanted him to stop
Tracy Ann Warner, vampire blood bank
She turned away from theand poured herself a cup of coffee No ain
After a quick breakfast of toast and cereal, she went upstairs for a shower,then spent the rest of thethat if he didn&039;t like her work, she could always sell it to soallery in Sea Cliff that accepted paintings on consignment
A little after noon, she went downstairs to fix a sandwich for lunch She added a slice of watermelon, a handful of chips, and a can of root beer and carried her plate outside
It was quite pleasant, sitting there with the sun shining down on her A gentle breeze kept the heat at bay She stared at the house, wondering how old it was and who had lived there before Doht of it before but now it occurred to her that he must be a wealthy ale House It seee that he would live in a house he didn&039;t own, and own a house he didn&039;t live in
StrangeShe laughed at that With Doe
He ca roo a crossword puzzle when he entered the room Herheart skipped a beat when she looked up and saw hi there, clad in brown leather boots, buff colored trousers, and a loose-fitting white shirt He reency novel
"This ca the floor, he handed her an envelope It was addressed to her in care of aMaine post office box
"Thank you" She opened the envelope and withdrew a sheet of paper It was a letter frolanced down at the letter again "Mr Petersen says he&039;s pleased with my work He wants a dozen seascapes to be delivered within sixty days" She looked up at Dominic "I don&039;t have that many canvases"
"I will take care of it"
"Thank you"
"I brought you so else, as well," he said
"Oh? What?"
He left the rooe cardboard box and two s on the cartons One held a 36-inch television set; the others contained a stand and a combination DVD/VCR player, yet he carried the boxes effortlessly, as though they weighed no an opening them He lifted the TV set out of the carton and put it on the floor "Where do you want it?"