Page 55 of Shadows of Eternity

Rohan met up with the other dancers at the theater. After exchanging greetings and the usual teasing banter, Jay Deer Killer said, “Glad you could join us.”

“Happy to do it, but next time, it’ll cost you extra.”

“Uh-huh. Listen, I know you usually perform two solo numbers, but you are the main attraction … ”

Rohan grinned as Angela Gray Horse said, in a teasing voice, “Teacher’s pet,” which made the rest of the company laugh.

“As I was saying,” Deer Killer went on, “I’d like you to do a third solo after intermission.”

“Anything in particular?” Rohan asked.

“Whatever you like.”

“Maybe a strip tease,” Angela suggested, waggling her eyebrows.

Rohan grinned at her. Angela was young and single and sexy as hell. They’d had a brief, torrid affair that had flared like a 4thof July firecracker and lasted about as long since neither of them had been looking for any kind of lasting commitment.

“Shoot, he’s almost naked now,” Charlie Lone Eagle muttered with a grin. “If that breechclout was any smaller, we’d be raided.”

Rohan laughed along with the rest of the company.

“All right, people, enough chit-chat,” Jay Deer Killer said good-naturedly. “Let’s get to work.”

Two hours later, Rohan headed back to the hotel. He found Leia asleep on the sofa. An empty candy wrapper sat on the table beside the couch. The TV was on. For a moment, he simply stood there staring down at her, wondering where their relationship was going. She was having second thoughts again. What would he do if she decided to leave him? Beg her not to go? Mesmerize her so she would believe she wanted to stay with him even if she didn’t? Or just let her walk out of his life?

Bending down, he brushed a kiss across her cheek.

Her eyelids fluttered open, a soft smile playing across her lips as she pulled his head down and kissed him.

Lifting her into his arms, he carried her to bed and stretched out beside her. Only half awake, Leia clung to him. She sighed when he caressed her, closed her eyes as he undressed her, then shucked his own clothes and gathered her into his arms.

“Leia?”

“Make love to me,” she murmured, her voice husky. “I don’t want to think about anything else.”

He wasn’t sure she knew what she was asking, wasn’t even sure if she knew he was really there, or if she thought she was dreaming, but he didn’t care. She might decide to leave him tomorrow, but for now, she was his.

Rohan had snagged a front row center seat for Leia. She sat there now, glancing around, listening to a couple of Native singers chant softly before the show started. There was something about the music that spoke to her, though she couldn’t say what it was. She didn’t understand the words, had no idea if the chanting even meant anything, and yet it called to something deep within her.

She felt a thrill of anticipation as Jay Deer Killer took the mic to announce the first dance. She had seen the show often enough to know that some of the dances and the costumes were new.

She held her breath as Shadow Dancer took the stage. The lights dimmed, the drumming began, soft and low at first, becoming louder and faster as his steps grew quicker, more intense, more intricate. His skin glistened in the light. Muscles flexing, rippling, his long, black hair whipping around his face and shoulders, he was all man. A warrior from another time. She could imagine him riding a painted pony across the Plains, his handsome face streaked with war paint, an eagle feather fluttering in his hair, a lance in his hand as he swept her off her feet and carried her away.

When he finished, the applause was deafening. Leia smiled when he winked at her.

Rohan exited the stage but lingered out of sight, all his senses alert as he peered through a narrow opening in the curtains, searching the faces in the crowd.

His sire sat in the second row, right behind Leia. Though Rohan hadn’t seen the man in hundreds of years, he still recognized the face of the vampire who had made him.

A muffled oath escaped his lips. What the hell was his sire doing here?

The next dancer had just taken the stage when Leia heard Rohan’s voice in her head.Leia, take my car and go home.

Home? To L.A?

Yes!

What? Why? Are you all right?

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