Page 60 of Shadows of Eternity

“Gotta give the crowd something new every once in a while,” he said, with a wink. “In the old days, I would have kidnapped you and carried you away to my lodge and made you my woman.”

“Would you?”

He nodded. “You would cook for me and bear me strong sons, and every night you would share my blankets and tell me you loved me.”

“I do most of that now,” she said with a grin. And knew she wanted to do it every night for as long as she lived.

“Leia.” Just her name, but there was a wealth of emotion behind it.

The five-minute bell sounded just then.

“You’d better go get your seat.” He kissed her cheek. “I’ll be dancing just for you tonight.”

Feeling her heart glow with love, Leia hurried out of the dressing room and into the theater. As usual, they had a packed house. The other dances all ran together in her mind and then he took the stage, looking magnificent and proud. She had grabbed a program and she quickly scanned it when she didn’t recognize the dance. It was one he hadn’t done before. The Eagle Dance. The description said that this dance was a prayer toWakan Tanka,the Great Spirit of the Lakota. In it, the dancer asked for a blessing on the People as he imitated the soaring flight of the eagle, which was a symbol of the Great Spirit. From time to time, he blew on a whistle to imitate the eagle’s piercing cry.

It was the most beautiful, powerful dance she had ever seen. For some reason, it brought tears to her eyes.

“Quite amazing, isn’t he?”

Annoyed, Leia turned toward the man sitting behind her, intending to ask him to be quiet. She gasped when she recognized the man as the one she had seen the night before.

The vampire who had turned Rohan.

She pressed a hand to her heart. Why was hehere again?

Rohan sensed his sire’s presence before he saw him. What the hell? Fear and anger rose within him when he saw Josiah leaning forward, talking to Leia. It was all he could do to keep from leaping off the stage.

Another few steps and the dance ended. He took a bow and hurried into the wings. He peered through a narrow gap in the curtains, ready to spring into action, if necessary, but when he looked, Josiah was gone. Relief washed through him when hesaw Leia. What the hell was his sire up to with his little game of cat and mouse? Was he just amusing himself at Rohan’s expense, or seriously plotting to steal Leia away from him?

Magdalena stood in the shadows at the back of the theater. She had been following Josiah for days. When she was human, he had vowed that he loved her, promised they would be together forever. After he’d turned her, he taught her the basics of what it was to be a vampire and then left her a week later without so much as a word of farewell. What she intended to do about it, she had no idea. But once she’d seen the Lakota warrior known as Shadow Dancer, she forgot everything else. What was a vampire doing dancing with a bunch of humans? He was magnificent. Never had she seen a man move with such masculine grace, such self-assurance. He was the very epitome of what a Lakota warrior should be. What would he say if she introduced herself to him? They were, after all, related by blood.

Leia waited in Rohan’s dressing room while he changed, then followed him down the narrow hall to the stage door. Dozens of admirers—all female—were waiting for him. She fell back as they gathered around him, calling his name, thrusting souvenir programs at him to sign, elbowing each other out of the way as they tried to get closer to him, eager to touch him, to get a photo of him or with him, to tell him how wonderful he was.

She grinned inwardly, thinking how jealous they would be if they knew Shadow Dancer was hers.

She glanced at the dark-haired woman standing a little apart from the others. She was pretty, exotic, with copper-hued skin and black eyes. Was she Indian? Leia frowned when the woman glared at her. Odd, Leia thought, and then forgot all about the woman when Rohan glanced her way and shrugged, as if to say,What can I do?

Eventually, the crowd drifted away, all but the dark-haired woman who had looked so menacingly at Leia.

Disconcerted, Leia moved to Rohan’s side. “Why is she looking at me like that?” she asked. “I’ve never seen her before.”

“She’s a vampire.” Rohan inhaled sharply, then wrapped his arm around Leia’s shoulders as he recognized the scent of the vampire who had done the killings in L.A. She didn’t look like a savage killer, he thought, as the woman approached them. She was petite and pretty. And dangerous as hell. “What do you want?” he asked brusquely.

“To speak with you. Alone.”

“There’s nothing you can say to me that can’t be said in front of my woman.”

“Then I will tell you another time,” she hissed, and was gone before he could say anything else.

“What was that all about?” Leia asked.

“I don’t know, but I sense something familiar about her.”

“Oh?” A sharp stab of jealousy speared through her. Was the woman a former lover he had somehow forgotten?

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go home.”

In a matter of moments, they were standing in her living room. “What do you think she wanted to tell you?” Leia asked as she kicked off her shoes and settled on the sofa.

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