Dead After Dark (23 page)

He decided to let the letter dry before he put it into the envelope he’d addressed. He rose, gathered up the sheets, and staggered to the bed, rubbing his neck.

He’d had the oddest feeling all night that he was being watched. But he’d searched the house, all except the ruined
west wing, and no one could be staying there. He was alone here. The supplies in the kitchen and the banked fire must have been arranged by the agent as a welcome to his new home, or by Melaphont himself. He didn’t like to think that. He didn’t want to be beholden to that cur for anything. Whoever had left the supplies had been very thorough. The linen closet even held clean sheets. He was grateful for that.

It was too hot to put on the nightshirt. He piled the brocaded coverlet in the corner and put the sheets on the bed himself. He realized why the villagers thought the house was haunted. It had a kind of electric feeling, as though something important was about to happen. He grinned as he plumped the pillows. The beautiful young ghost was just wishful thinking. Though here in Cornwall the supernatural was always foremost in people’s minds. Pixies and ghosts were as real to the locals as Jesus and his disciples. Perhaps the two concepts were not so different. He’d lost all belief in God a long time ago. Bible stories were just tales these days.

He turned back the sheets and blew out his candles. Without more ceremony he lay out on the bed, naked in the heat, and closed his eyes.

Did he have to sleep naked? The parasite in Freya’s veins that made her what she was needed blood. It itched with anticipation. But the throbbing between her legs watching him all evening was unwelcome to say the least. She had banished sexuality the day she walked away from her duty to her kind, the day her only remaining sister died through her fault. Her father was angry. But she couldn’t do it any more. She had always done everything her father asked her. He was so old, so overpowering in personality. She had been tired, sick, her mind tattered after that day that changed everything. It was her achievement, or her failure, that she had not gone home to Mirso. She had come to Ashland to heal, away from what she had been, not sure what she ever would be.

But she couldn’t possibly heal if this naked man in her house aroused all the sexuality she wanted to suppress. She crept out of the dressing room as his breathing became regular. He lay across the bed, one hand behind his neck, his body casually displayed. She didn’t want to take blood from him this way. The sensuality of it prodded her most womanly parts even now. But she needed blood, and he was here, and her resolve was weakened by hours of watching him.

She glanced to the desk. He’d written draft after draft of something. What would such a hardened man write that he cared so much about? Cocking an ear for the rhythm of his breathing, she moved to the desk. The moon shone in through the open windows, laying a channel of silver across the letter. It was as clear as day to her, who never saw the sun.

My dearest Emily, if I may still call you that, I have returned at last. I know I was unworthy of you then. But I was not a thief. And in these years away, I have made myself into a man of means, one you will not be ashamed to claim as an acquaintance. I hardly dare hope to be more than that. If you do not wish to see me, I shall never approach you, on that you have my word. But if you will allow me to visit you, just once more, I should be honored and grateful. Send word of your decision back with the bearer of this message to

 

Your humble servant,
Andrew Cooper, now Carlowe

That such an active, virile man, who wore a carapace against feeling in his features, could write such a letter was . . . surprising. She glanced to his form, spread out upon the bed. His muscles, quiescent now, still spoke of latent power. Men were usually so wrapped up in themselves, especially men who looked like that. Yet this letter was tentative, utterly without pretensions. He must love this woman very much. She was lucky to be loved so.

Freya had never loved, not in all her long centuries. It was not allowed in one who made Harriers. Sex, yes, almost constant sexual stimulation of the Aspirant to bring out his power, but not love. She sighed. Best get this over with before she collapsed in self-pity.

She glided toward the bed, stopping when she was some few feet away. He was really quite a lovely looking man. She resolved to take the blood she needed, a cup or perhaps two in total, but that was all. She drew her power.
Companion!
she called to the thing in her blood, and it responded, sending a feeling of throbbing life up her veins. A matching throb in her loins was almost painful. When her Companion sent her power, the urge to life and to the sexual act was made stronger still. But she could resist. She must resist. The familiar red film oozed down over her field of vision. Her eyes would be glowing red now with her power. Time to wake him. She would feel his fear, fuel it by compelling his consciousness all during the time she fed from him, and then release him without the suggestion she usually left in their minds to forget what she had done. That way he would be able to spread the tale of his experience. He would scurry out to the stables and gallop away from her house. She wagered he would not even stop to put on his breeches.

“Andrew,” she called softly.

He was dreaming of Emily, her fine blond hair, the swell of her bosom under the crisp white lawn of her morning dress . . .

“Andrew,” she called and smiled at him. She had an accent. Eastern European?

“Andrew.” Louder this time, almost insistent, and he knew he was dreaming, but he didn’t want to leave this dream and Emily.

“Andrew, wake up!”

He opened his eyes, irritated.

There, standing near his bed, was what had to be the ghost. She had red eyes that glowed in the darkness, translucent white skin, and hair black as midnight. An ethereal white dress wafted around her in the breeze that belatedly coursed in through the open window. If one could call it a
dress. Two strips of diaphanous fabric hung from her shoulders and plunged to her waist, leaving her arms bare and a vee of white skin that revealed the swell of her breasts. The garment was bound by a jeweled girdle at her waist and fell in translucent layers to the floor. She was petite and beautiful. They hadn’t lied about that. They hadn’t lied about there being a ghost, either.

But he didn’t believe in ghosts. There was enough memory and regret to haunt one without the need for ghosts. So it must be a trespasser got up to look like a ghost. Though how one achieved those red eyes, he didn’t know.

He sat bolt upright. “You can leave off with whatever game you’re . . .” He intended to get up and loom over her and send her screeching from the room. But he didn’t move. Her eyes got even redder—almost carmine. They seemed to hold him. He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t move at all. He just sat, one leg stretched toward the floor, the other tucked up under him.

It was frightening, to be helpless like that. She moved closer. Her hair hung, unbound, over her shoulders and down her back. She wore no jewelry other than the girdle and needed none. Her features were fine, and her eyes, though red, were sad. She seemed to float as she moved toward him, but he could see her bare feet peep out from beneath the translucent dress that trailed on the floor. Now he caught her scent. Cinnamon, and underneath that something sweet. What was it? Ambergris. The combination made a heady perfume.

He realized that the electric feeling he had experienced all evening came from her. It was an expectant vibrancy. Had she been near all night?

She reached out one small hand and touched his shoulder. It was shocking—not shivering cold as a ghost’s touch was supposed to be, but warm and terribly alive. She recoiled and jerked back her hand, as though she felt a shock,
too. Her eyes faded a little. He squirmed, but then her eyes went redder again and all hope of movement was gone. She moved her hands over his chest and again the sensation shot straight to the core of him. Must she thumb his nipples? They peaked and tightened. The sensation found its destination and his loins grew heavy. He was getting aroused by a . . . a something who could hold him immobile while she touched him. The possibilities were frightening, and . . . exciting.

One hand moved over his hip, the other slid over his biceps, as all the while she stared into his eyes. She glanced down. He knew what she would see. He was fully erect—almost painfully so. He had been saving himself for Emily for months. He couldn’t be held accountable for his reaction to being touched by a beautiful ghost or trespasser, or whatever she was, while he was naked. Maybe the reason he couldn’t move was because somewhere deep inside he didn’t
want
to move.

She pushed him gently backward, his head on the pillows that still smelled slightly musty. She made a very unghostly dent on the bed as she sat beside him. One hand cupped the nape of his neck under his hair, the other still moved over his bare chest. Her palm across his nipples made him feel like jam inside. The hand moved lower. Was she going to . . . ?

It brushed across his cock. He arched involuntarily. Lord, in a few moments she had him in such a state he was like to spill his seed right on his belly as though this were a wet dream when he was fourteen.

Maybe this
was
a wet dream. How else could he explain the red eyes? But his wet dreams had been the usual male expressions of his burgeoning strength and power, noticeably lacking in this one. Still, the very thought that she could do anything to him while he was in this state was exhilarating as well as horrifying. He must tell her that he was
saving himself for Emily. He made several ineffective grunting sounds before she touched her finger to his lips.

“Shush now,” she whispered in that very attractive accent, “I won’t hurt you.”

That was a very strange thing for a ghost to say, even a ghost in a dream.

Why was she trying to comfort him? She wanted to frighten him. But the pounding of his heart against her palm could not help but bring a morsel of remorse. All the pain she and her sisters had given Aspirants, all the torment of raising their capacity for arousal and then suppressing their release, had become too much for her at the end. She didn’t think what they did was right. So the last thing she wanted was to feel the thumping of his heart in fear or see the very pronounced erection she had caused. He was definitely aroused.

As was she, if truth be told. She was unable to resist touching his body. How long since she had felt the warmth of a strong male form, its miracle of soft skin covering the hard muscle beneath? And this was a very attractive specimen. Actually it wasn’t just that he was attractive. This man had written
that
letter. She trailed a hand across his hip again, so near the delightful erection she had just caressed so lightly . . .

She must
not
succumb to her desire. Under compulsion, any kind of sexual dalliance with him was nothing short of rape.

She’d just take his blood and let him go. He had to be frightened enough to keep others away. There was no way around that. But she didn’t want him having some sort of apoplexy.

He was staring up at her as though he was the one who was hungry. But he wasn’t of course, not for the same thing she needed. She turned his chin gently to the side, baring the big artery under his jaw. She felt his heart gallop a little
irregularly as she leaned down, pressing her breasts against his chest. She kissed his neck, gently. His skin was salty from the heat, though the breeze had dried him. His smell, unique to each human male, filled her nostrils. His hips rose, his body arching as she murmured reassurances.

She let the power coursing through her veins run out her canines. She cradled his head in the crook of her arm and sank them carefully into the artery. He jerked against her, once. The twin circular wounds leaked sweet, copper-tasting life into her mouth, thick and satisfying. Her Companion practically purred. She let her canines retract and now there was only licking and sucking, making soothing sounds at him while she lapped. He did not relax as they sometimes did, though. Instead, his hips began to move against her in rhythm with her sucking. She could feel the hard rod of his erection pressing into her hip. How sexual this act was, for both the donor and the receiver of the blood, though normally she managed to control its effects. Not now. She fairly hummed with arousal.

The blood is the life
, she thought. It had been so for millennia, tied as her kind was to humans in this most intimate of bonding. They lived one to a city, so that humans would not know vampires lived among them. It was a lonely existence. The only place her kind could congregate was Mirso Monastery, for most of them a last resort when ennui or the insanity of eternal life had made them unfit for the world. She and her sisters had been born at Mirso, and lived out their lives making Harriers there. She had never lived in the human world until now.

She raised her head when she had taken enough. He watched her steadily as she licked her lips. “Thank you,” she said, sitting up. “For your generosity.” Even though he had no choice.

His eyes were big, dark blue in the moonlight, but they were no longer afraid. They were . . . speculative. That was
not good. Was he wondering if she was real? If he told people there was a real woman at Ashland who drank blood, they’d be up with torches to burn her out. He had to believe the place was haunted and there was nothing he could do about it except leave.

She rose. “You have been touched by the spirit world,” she intoned, and let her Companion make her voice echo. “You will go from this place immediately.”

She called for even more power from her Companion. The familiar whirling darkness started at her feet and began to rise up over her knees. He sat up now that she had released him. He was still erect. Two tiny rivulets of blood coursed down his neck. He stared in fascinated horror as the darkness engulfed her. His bedroom disappeared around her. One moment of familiar pain, and she popped into her own room. She hurried across the hall to look out the windows of a dank room whose ceiling was collapsed in one corner. It looked out to the stables. He was a brave man, and he wouldn’t leave a horse like that behind.