Page 21 of Kiss of Light

“I should warn you,” he drawled, “I sleep naked.”

“Oh, um, good to know.” She averted her eyes as he loosened the towel. “Dawn’s in half an hour. Should I wake you at sunset?”

“No need.” He stretched languidly before sliding under the covers. “I will awaken automatically.”

“And until then, nothing will disturb you? Like, if I order food or watch TV?”

“Nothing, demon,” he said drowsily. “Play rock music if you wish. I will sleep like the dead.”

And he was still.

She bent over his face, snapping her fingers and blowing in his ear.

Nothing.

Curiously, she traced a finger along his cheekbone. His skin was cool and smooth, like silk. She stroked her thumb across his lips. His mouth was warm, she recalled. Warmer than the rest of his vampire body.

She looked again at the X, the top of it just visible above the edge of the sheet. It looked like it had been done with a branding iron. Definitely not a tattoo.

Frowning, she squinted at it more closely and saw there were tiny little sparkles in the burned skin.

Silver. So that’s why it hadn’t healed. But what did it mean?

She glanced at his face again, suddenly convinced his eyes were open and watching her. But he hadn’t stirred. Not even his chest was moving. She knew Vetali only drew breath once every twenty minutes or so, a gap that stretched to almost an hour during sleep. He was as still as the grave, and she envied him his ability to just switch off.

She dragged herself to the motel’s all-night diner and snarfed a burger and fries. The chef was thrilled to see someone in there at five in the morning. Doubly so when he discovered his customer loved dogs as much as he did. He regaled her with tales about his beloved terrier Charlie, and she told him all about her pet, ‘Fang’, who got cranky when he didn’t have fresh meat.

He was all too pleased to give the little lady a bag containing raw steak swimming in bloody juices for her dog.

Then she let herself back into the motel room and lay down on the other bed.

She watched Lemar sleep for a while. He was going to be furious when he woke up. It couldn’t be helped.

Hopefully the steak would appease him.

She set her alarm to go off in three hours. She would have preferred more rest, but she had no choice.

She had work to do.

Nine

Lemar’s dreams, as always, were disjointed. Though his sleeping body lay as still as death, his unconscious thoughts were a maelstrom of turbulence. A violent montage of blood and pain playing over and over. Things he had done which he could not undo.

He had long resigned himself to reliving his past every time he closed his eyes. He considered it his penance. It would not bring back what he had destroyed, but it ensured he would never forget his mistake. And never stray from his vow.

But this time it was different. This time as he relived his deepest regret, he smelledher. Dark amber and burnt honey. The scent washed over him, soothing him.

Arousing him.

He breathed her in, the strange demon who had found him. Her face formed in his mind’s eye. Sharp, focused, clear in every detail. Her ice-cold eyes saw him, saw right through him. She was leaning over him on the bed, her hair falling around them both to form a golden curtain.

She kissed his neck, his jaw. Her lips moved over his and he tasted her tongue. He felt his teeth lengthen with desire and tried to pull them back. She laughed, low and throaty, the sound sending quivers through his groin. Again, he felt that double heartbeat. That two-fisted punch against his sternum that told him she was his.

“Lemar,” she purred and kissed his chest. Then his ribs. Then his stomach.

The sensation was exquisite. Dimly he felt the bed rocking, a puzzling motion which he neither understood nor cared about. All he could concentrate on was this beautiful shaitun. Her achingly slow kisses down his body.

She reached his hips. He was hard for her, harder than he’d ever been. When she looked up at him, her eyes were no longer blue but blazing silver. She kept them locked to his face as she lowered her mouth again. Lowered it to his…

---