Page 9 of Bound By Blood

Of course, her people weren’t the monsters of myth and legend. They didn’t go around ripping out people’s throats or draining their victims dry. Back home, there were mortals who willingly offered their blood in exchange for food and shelter and a peaceful way of life in an Old World stone castle known as the Carpathian Fortress. She was certain that most ordinary people would find it appalling that men and women lived there by choice, but that was the way it was now that her father was the Master of the Coven. Before her father came to power, people had been confined in the Fortress against their will. Not mistreated, of course, but kept as a ready food supply. Once, her uncle Andrei had told her, in strictest confidence, that the captives had been called sheep.

Kaitlyn was glad that way of life was gone. She rarely hunted humans. Her need for blood wasn’t all-consuming, in part, she supposed, because her mother was mortal.

Kaitlyn smiled inwardly as she sat at the table. Years ago, when her father met her mother, it had been forbidden for vampires and mortals to intermarry, and rare for their union to produce children. Rare, but not impossible, Kaitlyn mused, sipping her drink. She was proof of that.

Even though it was extremely uncommon for Romanian vampires to mingle in society with humans, her uncle Stefan had fallen in love with a mortal woman, too, and gotten her with child. Sadly, the woman and her baby had died in childbirth. Her father said Stefan had never gotten over the loss. Years later, her uncle had left the Fortress and gone to America.

Frowning, Kaitlyn sipped her drink. Maybe she could hire someone to search for him, she thought, then shook her head. She had no idea if her uncle was still in the United States, or what name he might be using now. Still, trying to locate him was something to think about.

Rising, she rinsed her glass in the sink and put it in the dishwasher. It was Monday. Laundry day. In the bedroom, she opened a suitcase stuffed with dirty sweatpants, T-shirts, and shorts. She had been in such a hurry to get here, she’d just stuffed her favorite workout clothes into a suitcase to wash later. Gathering up her dirty clothes, she headed for the service porch. She dropped everything in the washer, added detergent and fabric softener, and hit START.

She stood there a moment, marveling at all the modern conveniences in America. Back home, in Wolfram Castle, washers and dryers, refrigerators and indoor plumbing were relatively new arrivals. Before her father married her mother, the castle had been positively medieval, with no creature comforts to speak of.

Kaitlyn couldn’t help smiling when she thought of her parents. She had never seen a couple so much in love. Even now, after more than twenty years of marriage, her mother and father behaved like newlyweds, at least when they thought no one was looking. But Kaitlyn had caught them in the midst of some pretty heavy-duty hugging and kissing on more than one occasion.

“I just hope that you and your future husband will feel this way when you have been married as long as your mother and I,” her father had remarked when she caught them embracing in the kitchen one night. Kaitlyn couldn’t have agreed more.

Thinking about hugs and kisses brought Zack Ravenscroft to mind. “Mrs.Kaitlyn Ravenscroft,” she murmured, giggling like a schoolgirl. “Mr.and Mrs.Zack Ravenscroft. Mrs.Zack Ravenscroft.”

Arms outstretched, she twirled around and around, wishing she could speed up time or twitch her nose and make him appear. The thought made her laugh. She had several inherent powers; she could run faster than the eye could follow, she could veil her presence from mortals, she could read their minds—well, most of them, she amended—but making people appear at will wasn’t one of her talents. Sadly, since she wasn’t a full-blooded vampire, she lacked her father’s ability to dissolve into mist, or to transport herself wherever she wished to be. He had told her to be patient, that those abilities might come to her when she was older, but he hadn’t sounded very convinced when he said it. Still, if she had to choose between being able to transport herself across great distances or being able to eat anything she wanted and being able to endure the sun’s light, she thought she would take the latter two. After all, how often did she need to zap herself to another location when she had a Porsche in the driveway and her father’s credit card if she needed to hop a plane?

With a shake of her head, Kaitlyn left the laundry room. As her mother had always said, the best way to make time fly was to keep busy.

Kaitlyn glanced at the clock. It was almost four. Plenty of time to fold the laundry, make the bed, vacuum the rugs, and make herself beautiful before her date arrived.

Zack rose with the setting of the sun. For the first time since he had built the casino, his first waking thought wasn’t about going to work, but about a woman. Kaitlyn. She had been foremost in his thoughts since the minute she’d walked into the club. Not that he was complaining. He was more than happy to have a beautiful young woman running around in his head. In fact, he’d be happy as hell to have her take up permanent residence there.

He grinned, thinking the lovely Kaitlyn must have bewitched him. Sure, he was crazy about women. Always had been, but he had always loved them and left them, never looking back, rarely remembering their names once he told them goodbye. But Kaitlyn, she was different. And even though all they had shared so far was one mind-blowing kiss, he sensed he would never forget her.

With a shake of his head, he left his lair and went up the private stairway to his apartment where he took a quick shower and changed into a clean shirt and a pair of pants. If he didn’t hurry, he would be late.

He was doing a quick walk-through of the casino floor, on his way out, when he had the sudden sense that he was being watched. Pausing near the dice table, Zack pretended to be interested in the game while he let his preternatural powers expand. Sounds grew louder, colors brighter, smells sharper and more intense.

He glanced casually around the casino, his gaze resting quickly on each patron. It was still early. The crowd was light. He had no sense of another vampire on the premises, no scent of werewolf, and yet he would have sworn there was another supernatural creature in the building, although there was no trace of it now. Had he imagined it?

He finished his walk-through, stopped to talk with a few of the pit bosses, conferred briefly with the head of security, and left the casino, bound for Kaitlyn’s.

She opened the door before he knocked, a smile of welcome on her face. Dressed in a pair of white slacks and a lavender sweater, her cheeks flushed with color, she was even prettier than he remembered.

“So,” she said, “what do you want to do tonight?”

“Take a walk?” he suggested. “Go for a drive? See a movie?”

“It’s a nice night for a walk,” Kaitlyn said.

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”

Kaitlyn felt the same peculiar sensation she had on other occasions when he took her hand in his. Not a chill, exactly, more like a warm shiver of awareness that she felt all the way down to her toes.

She pondered her strange reaction to him as they walked down the narrow, tree-lined path toward the lake. Maybe what she felt for Zack wasn’t all that extraordinary. He was an extremely handsome man, after all, and there was no denying that she was physically attracted to him. But then, what woman wouldn’t be?

The night seemed to close in around the two of them as they neared the lake, which gleamed like a dark mirror in the light of the full moon.

Zack paused at the edge of the water where someone had thoughtfully placed a wooden bench just big enough for two. He waited until Kaitlyn sat down and then sat beside her, one arm resting on the back of the bench. A warm breeze, carrying the fecund scent of earth and foliage, rustled the leaves of the trees. A fish popped up in the middle of the lake, sending ever-widening ripples across the face of the water.

“It’s lovely here,” Kaitlyn said. “Do you ever come here to swim?”

“Now and then. Do you like swimming?”

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