"I only wonder if you truly have learned from your mistakes," he said.
"I've learned that I have rotten judgment when it comes to men."
"Or you seek out those who are destined to disappoint you so that you needn't worry about an emotional attachment."
"Oh God, please don't turn Dr. Phil on me," she grumped, not at all in the mood to consider he might be right. "The last thing I need is to be psychoanalyzed by a vampire."
He arched a raven brow. "It is the fact that I am a vampire that gives me some insight. You don't live among humans for four centuries without learning something of their peculiar habits."
"Well, you don't know anything about me."
"No?" His lips curled in a faint smile. "I know that you hate onions and tuna fish, that you consume your weight in chocolate every day without ever gaining a pound, and that you need a recipe to boil water. I know that you pretend to enjoy classical music but change the radio station to punk rock when you think no one is around. I also know that you hide yourself from the world and that you're lonely. You have always been lonely."
Abby dutifully tried to breathe. Unfortunately her lungs refused to cooperate.
Damn him. It was one thing for her to have spent the past three months watching him with covert fascination. After all, she had discovered nothing more intimate than the fact that he was shamefully gorgeous and possessed a haunting skill upon the piano. To think that he had seen so easily through her carefully erected barriers was more than a little unnerving.
"Fine," she muttered. "I have intimacy issues. Yadda, yadda. Now, can we get up?"
His smile only widened. 'There is no hurry. The sun is just now setting."
"Well, you could use a bit of sun," she informed him dryly. 'You are very pale."
'You would see me a pile of ashes, eh?" The silver eyes smoldered with a sudden fire. "And how would I protect you if—"
Mesmerized by his dark honey voice and the promise that softened his features, Abby very nearly missed the shadow that slowly rose up behind the raven head. But when it shifted and neared, her eyes widened and a scream ripped from her throat.
"No!"
Distracted by the sharp lust that so readily consumed him when this woman was near, Dante was unprepared when Abby's scream ripped through the air and she shoved herself upright.
Tossed onto his back, it took a moment to struggle with the blankets wrapped about him. A moment too long as Abby surged from the mattress and attacked the looming form.
"Abby, no," he commanded, flowing upright in a belated attempt to halt her impetuous assault.
He caught no more than a glimpse of a human male before she was shoving the intruder away from the bed and they both tumbled onto the floor. In a heartbeat, or what would be a heartbeat if he were anything but a vampire, Dante was lifting Abby away and crouching beside the unmoving body.
"Hold, lover, he is dead," he murmured, his gaze swiftly taking in the rotting black suit and gaunt hand that still clutched a wooden stake. A vampire assassin. "For the second time, if I don't miss my guess."
Holding on to her towel with the grip of death, Abby regarded the still form with revulsion. Not much of a surprise. Being attacked by a decomposing corpse tended to be a once-in-a-lifetime event.
"My God, what is it?"
"An abomination."
"What?"
"A zombie." His voice was edged with disgust. Even among the demon world, the use of such magics was condemned. To disturb the realm of the underworld was sacrilege. "A dead shell animated by powerful magic. More magic than most demons possess. It isn't alive or dead, which explains why I didn't sense it and how it managed to slip through Viper's spell of protection."
"Zombies." Abby gave a short, near-hysterical laugh. "Great. Just great. Now all we need are a few mummies and a werewolf to complete our official Hoyle deck of monsters."
Dante reached out to touch the cold body that had spilled face-first on the carpet. "Abby, I need you to tell me what happened."
"What do you mean?"
"After you saw the zombie, what did you do?"
He sensed her shift uneasily at his probing. "You were here. You know what happened."