Page 36 of Incandescence

I ran a hand over my abs, both exhilarated and mystified as to why I’d not once felt the sharp stomach cramps of blood hunger. I’d become so conditioned to being permanently hungry, it was almost a high to feel so normal. I only hoped that when the pains came once again, I’d be able to handle them.

What if you never get them again?

My breath hissed, my mind spinning with possibilities. What if the vampire had kept me under control by giving me only a few drops of blood to have me craving more, when a decent amount of his blood would have satisfied my body once and for all?

I pushed onto my feet and walked out of the bedroom. I guessed that time would tell if my assumptions were anywhere near correct. I wasn’t going to jump to any conclusions if it meant huge disappointment in the not too distant future.

My thoughts evaporated as I stilled at the visual of Charley on her knees, rumpling Jasper’s ears and crooning to him as if he were her baby. My heart skipped a beat as yearning for a family and a normal life with someone like Charley filled my head.

Be honest, you only want Charley.

She turned then, her smile gleaming and her eyes bright. I swallowed. She looked for all the world as though we weren’t running from the most powerful being on the planet and there was nothing more to worry about than what to get on the next grocery order.

“Alexander, hey. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

I shook my head even as I tried not to overthink things. “No. Actually, I never meant to fall asleep.”

She smiled. “It’s been a rough couple of days. Little wonder your body—and your mind—needed some rest.”

I stepped forward and crouched in front of her, Jasper panting happily as he watched us. I cupped her chin and used my thumb to brush gently back and forth across her softer-than-soft skin. “Making love to the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever known might have something to do with it too.”

Her lashes fluttered and her cheeks heated. “So I’m not just another woman in your bed?”

I leaned forward and caught her mouth under my own, a tender scrape of lips that instantly heated my blood and made me want to possess her yet again. I leaned back, my eyes catching hers. “Not a chance. You know as much as I that we share something more than amazing sex.”

She looked down, everything about her demure and self-conscious. “Yes, I wasn’t sure if you felt the same way.”

I tilted her chin back up so that her gaze again met mine. “I’ve never felt anything like this before with a woman...not even my wife.”

She gasped sharply, her eyes widening. “I... I don’t know what to say to that.”

I smiled. “Then don’t say anything. Let’s just enjoy the rest of today.”

She nodded and I straightened before I strode to the back door. Pulling it open, I noted the sun heading fast toward the horizon, casting long shadows across the ground.

Jasper sniffed my hand and whined, and I gave him an absent pat even as dread slowly built. “Not long now before nightfall.”

I sensed Charley behind me even before she spoke. “The bloodsucker will be out looking for us again.”

I turned to her. “Without a doubt.”

She didn’t appear to be nervous. In fact, her tension leaned more toward pent-up excitement. “I want to show you something.”

She pivoted and I locked the back door before I followed as she strode to the end of the hallway. She reached up and pulled a cord from the ceiling, and a ladder clattered downward.

“An attic,” I murmured as I looked up. “You’ve already been up there?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

I drew a hand across my brow. I must’ve been dead to the world to have slept through the racket of the ladder dropping down. Bloody hell, some protector I made. The vampire could have brainwashed any number of people to come find us, then take us to his nest...and I wouldn’t have even heard them break and enter the house.

While I stood there with thoughts chewing up my head, Charley climbed the ladder and disappeared into the attic. I sighed and followed. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, she flicked on a switch and the whole attic lit up like an inferno.

“Holy shit,” I rasped, shielding my eyes while staring up in awe at the thirty or forty light bulbs that shone hot and bright on us. “They’re infra-red lamps.”

She clapped her hands and giggled. “Flick these on and the vampire might think twice before trying to capture us.” She turned and plucked a compound bow hanging from the wall. She nocked an arrow and drew it back on the bowstring like someone who knew their way around the weapon. “And this shoots wooden arrows.”

“You look like an archer.”

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