Deeper than the Night - By Amanda Ashley Page 0,37

me."

"Indeed? And who's going to protect you from me?"

"Do I need protecting from you?"

"What do you think?"

"Alexander, I'm sorry for what happened before. But you've got to understand. I mean . . ." She held out her hands, palms up. "You can't blame me for being a little shocked."

"And you're not shocked anymore?"

"I don't know. It's . . . it's just so hard to believe. Even after . . . after what you showed me."

He didn't say anything, just looked at her, his gaze shuttered and cold. She could feel the tension radiating from him, see it in the rigid set of his shoulders.

"Tonight . . . the fire in the hearth. It wasn't already lit, was it? You did it."

"Yes."

"How?"

"I don't know how to explain it to you, Kara. I think it, and it's done."

"Is that how you cut windows in the mountain?"

"No. I have some . . . some tools from home."

"Did you make the glass in the windows?"

"Yes."

"What other tricks can you do?"

"More than you want to know."

"I never saw you during the day. Why?"

"Earth's sun is much stronger than that of ErAdona. Even a little is like poison to me."

"So you sleep during the day and go out at night."

"Yes." He smiled enigmatically. "Just like Dracula."

"You said you came here over two hundred years ago."

"Yes."

He didn't look a day over thirty-five. Perhaps two hundred was considered middle-aged where he came from. "Do all your . . . Is it normal for your . . . your people to live so long?"

"No."

"Talk to me, Alexander, please. I want to understand."

She looked so earnest, Alex felt himself relenting in spite of his determination to keep her at arm's length.

"I don't know why I've lived so long. At home, a normal life span is a hundred and twenty-five years."

"Are you immortal, then?"

Alex shook his head. "I don't think so, but I must have undergone some sort of mutation. I don't know. I only know that my body's aging process has slowed. As near as I can tell, I've only aged about ten years since I came here."

Ten years in two centuries, Kara mused. It was incredible. Beyond comprehension. Imagine living for centuries instead of decades. Never being sick. It was the fabled Fountain of Youth, only there were no magical waters. The magic was in Alex's blood. And yet, for Alex, it hadn't been a miracle, but a curse. Two hundred years of loneliness, of avoiding the sun, of living in the shadows, on the edge of humanity. No wonder he wrote about vampires!

"Alexander? Why did you come here?"

His gaze slid away from hers. He was reluctant to tell her the truth, certain it would only make her more afraid of him than she already was. And yet, she had a right to know.

"Alex?"

"There is no war where I come from," he said, speaking slowly. "No crime as you know it. We have no need for locks or jails. Our society is one of total peace and tranquility. Before I was . . . before I left, there had been no crime for over three hundred years."

"That's amazing!"

"Not really. Punishment on ErAdona is swift and final. There are no second chances." His gaze met hers. "My distant ancestors were an uncivilized and warlike people. After centuries of bloodshed and violence, the women of my planet decided it was time for peace. They gathered their children around them and barricaded themselves in the cathedrals, refusing to come out until the men destroyed their weapons of hand-to-hand combat and swore to live in peace.

"In time, we invented sophisticated weapons of war to repel invaders, but there are no confrontations among our own people. It is not tolerated."

Alex inhaled deeply, then blew out a long, slow breath. "But even in the most placid of societies, there are occasionally those who refuse to conform . . ."

He paused and Kara sawhis hands ball into fists. Was he speaking of himself? "Go on."

"His name was Rell and he was the son of one of ErAdona's ruling families. He . . . he wanted a woman who belonged to another, and when she refused him, he took her by force. And then, when he realized what he had done, he . . . he killed her. He buried her body in a dry lake where he hoped it would never be found . . . ."

Alex's voice trailed off. He was staring at his hands, clenching and unclenching them, and Kara knew he was caught