Page 23 of Shadows of Eternity

Later, lying sleepless in her bed, she remembered the nightmares she’d had of a dark, handsome vampire bending over the slender throat of some helpless woman clad in a flowing white nightgown. Had she known, on some deep, instinctive level, what he was even then?

She had the same dream that night, only this time, she was the woman in the nightgown.

Leia would have called in sick in the morning, but it was the last day of school. Feeling numb inside, she showered and dressed, combed her hair, brushed her teeth. She didn’t feel like eating. She carried the cookies and brownies out to her car, went back for her keys and her handbag, stopped on the way to school to pick up some milk and donuts.

Maybe she was losing her mind, having hallucinations. Or maybe it had all been a horrible nightmare. Of course, she thought. A nightmare. That had to be it.

She nodded to some of the other teachers as she walked to her classroom, hoping none of them would stop by later. She wasn’tin the mood for idle chit-chat. Didn’t have the energy to pretend everything was all right.

At the end of the day, standing by the door telling the last of her students goodbye, she couldn’t remember anything else she’d said or done.

She quickly gathered up her things and hurried out to the parking lot, grateful she didn’t see anyone on the way. She didn’t feel like going home. With no destination in mind, she slid behind the wheel and pulled onto the freeway.

Rohan was a vampire. She knew it. She accepted it. She loved a vampire, or thought she did. She tried not to think about him, about what he was, but it was hopeless. She loved everything about him, but it didn’t matter now. She was angry because he hadn’t told her the truth sooner, and angry because he’d told her at all. She’d been so happy when she didn’t know.

How could it be true? And yet she knew it was. He had done something to her to make her accept it so calmly. Feeling a headache coming on, she stopped at a fast-food place for a cup of coffee. And then another.

It was near dark, her gas tank dangerously close to empty, when she finally turned around and headed for home. Like the freeway, her life stretched before her. It took her a moment to realize she was crying. Tears blurred her vision and she pulled off the freeway onto a side road as her tears came harder and faster.

She didn’t see the low concrete wall until it was too late.

And then she saw nothing at all.

Chapter Ten

Rohan had just finished his last dance of the night when he sensed Leia’s panic. A thought carried him to her location. He felt a rush of fear when he saw her car. The front end had been destroyed. The air bag had failed to deploy but the seatbelt had kept her inside the car. She lay slumped against the steering wheel, bleeding profusely from her forehead and numerous minor cuts from broken glass on her face and arms.

From where he stood, he couldn’t tell if she was injured anywhere else.Dammit!She could be bleeding internally.

When the door wouldn’t open, he ripped it from the hinges. He checked her over quickly, his preternatural senses assuring him that the worst of her injuries was the deep gash across her forehead.

After unfastening her seatbelt, he took her in his arms and willed them to his lair. Moving with preternatural speed, he pulled back the blankets, laid her gently on the mattress, and licked the blood from her forehead. His saliva sealed the wound more effectively than sutures or bandages. When that was done, he carefully picked the tiny particles of glass from her arms and cheeks, then licked those cuts as well.

He peeled her out of her blood-stained clothing, eased one of his tee-shirts over her head, and drew the covers up to her chin.

Lastly, he bit into his wrist and held it to her lips. “Drink, Leia.”

It was an order she couldn’t refuse.

He watched the color slowly return to her cheeks, listened to the steady beat of her heart, and breathed a sigh of relief. She would be all right.

Leia woke in a strange bed in a strange room. Her head ached and she was sore all over. She sat up slowly, her gaze darting around the room. Where was she? How did she get here? She searched her mind, trying to remember what she’d done last night. It came back to her in bits and pieces—learning that, impossible as it was to believe, Rohan was a vampire. She should have been horrified but all she remembered feeling was a sense of sadness and disappointment. She had gone for a drive … She lifted a hand to her forehead and flinched.

She remembered now. She had crashed into a retaining wall. Where was her car? Someone had obviously rescued her, but why hadn’t they taken her to a hospital?

She sat up slowly, only then realizing she was wearing a tee-shirt. A man’s tee-shirt. An indrawn breath told her it was Rohan’s.

Alarm skittered down her spine. She had never been afraid of him before. Even when he told her what he was, she hadn’t feared for her life. He’d done something to her, she realized, exerted some sort of supernatural power over her that had muffled her shock and filled her with a kind of calm acceptance.

She glanced around, her stomach knotting with fear. She was in his house. Alone and helpless.

She searched for her cell phone but it was nowhere in sight.

Overcome with a growing sense of panic, she scrambled out of bed and ran to open the door. She paused in the hallway. Where was he? She glanced back at the window. It was daylight. If the legends were true, he was probably sleeping in his coffin.

She hurried down the short hallway, through the living room, to the front door. But when she tried to open it, nothing happened. She tugged on the handle, twisted it back and forth, but it refused to open. Moving quickly across the floor, she pulled back the heavy drapes and tried to open the window. But, it, too, remained stubbornly closed. Just as well, she thought. It was a long drop to the sidewalk below.

Shoulders slumped in defeat, she sank down on the leather sofa and buried her face in her hands, more frightened than she had ever been in her life.

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