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around that dandy's throat and squeeze.
"I don't want another death on my hands," she warned, as though she knew what he was thinking. Her
voice was small, but firm.
Stephan sighed. The image of Van Helsing gasping vainly for breath receded. He put the letters on her
night table. "I don't need to kill him. He is a coward. He thinks you are friendless. When he sees you are
not, he will cease to be a problem."
She didn't look like she believed him. "What& what of you?"
Ahhh. What of him? That was the question, wasn't it? He would do his duty by his kind. He could have
no role in this woman's life. He was vampire. She was human. But he said the weak thing. "I will come to
London when I can." He looked away when he said it.
Ann looked up at Stephan Sincai as he stared at her bookshelves, unseeing. Did he mean what he said?
Would he come back? Did he& feel for her? The emotions churning in her had no name. Fear, yes,
sympathy, of course, but also longing&
The room wavered around her as the pieces fell into place. She understood him like no other man. He
was complex and difficult. He was good and had done bad things and was planning to do more in the
name of good. He suffered and was strong. He could be tender and fierce. She liked him intensely. And
then there was the longing to be with him, and the other longing that came in erotic dreams so strong she
had had her first climax, sterile though it was.
My God! The conclusion was inescapable. She loved him. That was what this feeling was! She had
known him only a few days, and yet she had known him for millennia.
She took in a breath and let it out. Could a man like Stephan care for her? She searched her memory of
him. Some new recollections dropped into place; an interlude in Lapland fighting for the Danes, a vision
of the translucent towers of Mirso Monastery along with the despair in Stephan's heart as he headed
down the mountain toward it.
And then the memories from Mirso bubbled to the surface. Rubius, his daughters, the terrible suffering,
the sexual use, the punishments, the pressure to eliminate emotion& Her mouth opened. Breath hissed
into her lungs. They told him such torment was the price of entry to Mirso? This was the power they had
taught him, this fierce sexuality unconnected to any emotion? Horrifying!
More horrifying still was the fact that he had let them do it. He had submitted willingly. Such was his guilt,
his desire to atone. For what? He had let Asharti go in an act of forgiveness and charity. For this he had
been so punished? For this he should be treasured. Yes, Asharti was evil. Yes, she had created vampires
willy-nilly and made them into an army that threatened the world. They should have monitored her better.
Rubius could have done that. Why blame Stephan? Why did Stephan so blame himself?
He tore his gaze away from the bookcase and gave her a smile he meant to be reassuring.
But Ann's mind was awhirl. How could he want to return to Mirso where he had suffered so? Would
Rubius and his daughters ever give Stephan peace? They had made him into a killer that they could use
again and again. Stephan thought his nightmare would end with Kilkenny and company. Ann wasn't so
sure.
And she wasn't sure a man who had been through suffering like that could ever truly love her in return.
He had been capable of love once. He had loved Beatrix. But now? He was examining her, uncertainty in
his eyes. He must see she was in turmoil. She wanted to know what he was thinking more than anything
else in the world. There was no way to do that. But she could feel what he felt about the experiences he
had had since the night she had touched him in the cave.
It might kill her.
She didn't care. Before she could change her mind, she reached out and covered his hand on the
counterpane with hers. He looked up, shocked. She braced for the shattering shower of experience.
It didn't come.
She felt his shock at her touch. She experienced his meeting with two of the Daughters. She realized he
had washed his blood off her and been aroused by her naked body. She got a dose of his growing feeling
for her. But his dismay at that emotion came through clearly, as well, his fear that his caring for her would [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]