Page 19 of Shadows of Eternity

“I don’t like you driving home alone at this time of the night. I’ll come back and get my car later.”

She smiled up at him. “Macho man.”

He grunted softly. “You have no idea.”

Leia handed him her keys, waited while he opened the door for her. Settling in the passenger seat, she watched him stride around the front of the car to the driver’s side. Lordy, he was gorgeous. He walked with the same lithe grace he displayed while dancing.

She watched him as he started the car, backed up, and pulled out of the parking lot. There was something about him tonight, she thought, something she had never noticed before. A kind of … of what? Danger? Wildness? Whatever it was, it excited her at the same time it frightened her.

She gasped when he looked at her. His eyes … were red! She blinked and the illusion was gone. Chiding herself for imagining things, she told herself it was just the reflection of the traffic light.

“Would you like to come in?” she asked, when he pulled into the apartment parking lot.

“Not tonight.”

“Oh.”

He didn’t miss the disappointment in her voice. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“All right.”

He walked her to her door, dropped her keys into her hand, and gave her a quick kiss good night. “Sweet dreams, Princess,” he murmured.

Leia watched him walk away until the darkness swallowed him up.

Confused, her body still hot and tingling from his kisses, she went inside and locked the door behind her. Suddenly, she felt like crying though she wasn’t sure why.

Rohan prowled the night like an angry tiger. He cursed himself for his lust. It had come on him all of a sudden, unexpectedly, and more than a little troubling. Had that couple not come along when they did, he would have made love to Leia there, in the parking lot, her back against the car, her legs around his waist.

Taken her like some horny teenager with his first woman. Taken her sweetness, her body, her blood, and very likely her life.

What the hell had happened to him? He had been on the verge of completely losing control. Why? Was it the admiration he’d seen in her eyes while he danced for her? He had felt her desire for him, knew she thought he was sexy as hell, but so what? Lots of women looked at him like that. Was it the wildness of the war dance that had somehow fired his lust? He had danced for her in a way he had never danced before, every movement sensual, suggestive.Shit!He’d be surprised if he didn’t get complaints from the management. Until tonight, the show had been rated G.

A few minutes later, he came upon a woman walking home alone. The temptation to drink from her, to drink it all, was almost overpowering. Muttering an oath, he willed himself to hislair. At the moment, he was no fit company for man nor beast, and especially not for a vulnerable woman.Dammit!Did he dare see Leia again?

Chapter Eight

When in Los Angeles, Rohan made his lair in the top floor apartment of a hotel that had been built close to a hundred years ago. The clientele tended to be men down on their luck, the rent was cheap. But everything worked and over the years, he had made a lot of changes and accumulated an eclectic assortment of furniture. All four rooms were painted the same shade of pale gray. He had replaced the old brown carpet with a plush dark blue. The fireplace in the living room was red brick, the sofa dark-brown leather, the round coffee table an antique he’d picked up somewhere in Italy. A state-of-the-art TV hung on the wall across from the sofa. The kitchen was empty, as he had no need for appliances. The bedroom was large and held only a king-size bed and a five-drawer dresser, also an antique. He’d had the bathroom redone with all the latest fixtures. He hadn’t bothered to ask the management for permission for the upgrades, and since he’d paid for all the renovations himself, he figured the owner would have no reason to object to the improvements.

His lair in California was the closest thing he had to a permanent home. He had no need to own a house or much of anything else. Since joining the Native dance troupe, he had spent nine months of every year traveling from state to state and city to city. He bought new garments as fashions changed anddiscarded the old ones. He had nothing to tie him down. The clothes in his closet and his car were the only things he owned.

Now, reclining on the sofa, he let his mind wander to the distant past, when his people roamed the Great Plains and there were few whites west of the Mississippi. Life had been good then, the summer days spent hunting the buffalo, exploring the Black Hills, fighting their enemies, the Crow and the Pawnee, stealing their horses and their women. It had been a good life, until he tracked the white man who had killed his best friend.

He had intended to kill thevehoewhen he found him, but things hadn’t gone quite the way he’d planned. The man had turned out to be a vampire. Rohan would never forget his shock when he’d plunged his knife into thevehoe’sbelly and the man had laughed in his face. Shock had turned to terror when thevehoe’seyes went red. But the worst was yet to come. The vampire grabbed him by the arm and sank his fangs deep into Rohan’s throat. That was the last thing he remembered until the following night, when he woke in a cave. Pain had ripped through him. Certain he was dying, he had stumbled out of the cave, driven by an urge he didn’t understand.

It had taken several agonizing nights before he realized what his body was crying for. And then he’d come upon an injured fur trapper. One minute he was staring at the blood leaking from the man’s arm. The next, he was lapping it up and when that wasn’t enough, he had buried his fangs in the man’s throat and drained him dry.

Horrified by what he’d done, he had vowed never to do such a thing again. It was, of course, a vow he couldn’t keep. With time, he had learned he didn’t have to kill. Just as he had learned he could do some truly amazing things. He had discovered he could simply think himself wherever he wanted to go and he was there. He could move faster than the human eye could follow, jump great distances, climb a wall like a spider.He learned that he healed almost immediately, that he was incredibly strong. He also discovered he could call his prey to him, that he could mesmerize them with a look, compel them to do his bidding.

Of course, early on, he’d left the tribe, not trusting himself to be near those he cared for. Those had been long, lonely years, when he hid out by day and hunted by night.

Years had turned to decades.

Decades turned to centuries and he didn’t change, didn’t age, while the world and its people evolved. And he had evolved with them. He learned to move among humans, to control his hunger, how to blend in with humanity, how to handle cash and drive a car, use a cell phone.

He had thought himself content with his existence, until the night Leia came to the stage door and changed everything.

Chapter Nine

---