The Last of the Red Hot Vampires - By Katie MacAlister Page 0,34

about something."
Chapter 8
"It was just a kiss."

"You said that three times already. Would you turn off that light?" Sarah plumped up a pillow behind her, and tucked the coverlet firmly over her legs before sitting back.

"A perfectly innocent kiss!"

"Honey, there was nothing innocent about that kiss," she said with a knowing look.

I stomped over to the light she had left burning on the desk and turned it off, feeling awkward and unsure of myself. I don't know why I felt compelled to explain that the kiss Theo and I shared was not what it seemed, but there I was, wringing my hands as I tried to sort through my emotions and thoughts.

"I find him physically attractive even though he's got some issues," I explained. "There's nothing wrong with a healthy libido."

"Nothing at all, especially when the recipient of your attentions is a gorgeous angel. I looked up nephilim while you were occupied with Theo. That's what a nephilim is, you know. Kind of a sub-angel, the result of a union between - "

"Oh, I know all about that," I said, waving my hands around for a moment before I was aware of what I was doing. I am not at all the hand-waving sort of person. "It's part of this tale he spun me. That's neither here nor there - what I want to know is what is going to come of a relationship with a lunatic!"

"I thought you said it was just your libido?"

"It is!" I shoved the chair aside just because I could. "But you know me - I don't do casual sex, so if things progress beyond kissing, I'm going to end up in a relationship. With a madman!"

"Theo isn't a madman," Sarah said calmly, picking up the book she'd brought to read on the vacation.

"Well, maybe not mad by the strictest definition of the word, but you have to admit that he's not normal."

"Of course he isn't. He's immortal. Are you done trying to convince yourself that he's not handsome as sin, and twice as delicious?"

"I did not - oh, you're impossible!" I said loudly. "And speaking of that, you sure changed your tune quick enough."

"What do you mean?"

"Yesterday you were positively drooling over Theo."

Sarah looked surprised for a moment. "Don't be ridiculous - I'm happily married, which you know."

"That didn't stop you from ogling Theo yesterday." I refused to examine why it bothered me that she had ogled him. It couldn't possibly be important.

"Oh, that was before," she said, returning to her book as she waved a dismissive hand toward me.

"Before what?"

"Before Theo explained he wasn't for me."

I sat on the chair, staring at Sarah, confused by her calm acceptance of the short-lived lust she had felt for Theo. "Aren't you the least bit disconcerted about the fact that Theo interested you? Should happily married women feel that sort of thing?"

"They should if the man in question is a nephilim." She sighed at my puzzled look. "I thought you knew about nephilims? Didn't Theo tell you that they have an effect on mortal women?"

"No, he didn't." I frowned.

"Ah. Well, that's why I initially fell victim to his attractive self. He dismissed the effect once he realized I was being affected by it."

I shoved myself out of the chair and stalked to the far side of the room. "He didn't dismiss it for me!"

"That's because you weren't affected by him in the first place. That's interesting, actually. It could mean he's the real deal, at least so far as you and he are concerned," she said, looking thoughtful.

That was a thought. I considered that for a moment, then decided it was yet another distraction I didn't need in my life. I wished Sarah good night, and left her to her book.

I slept poorly, waking up roughly every hour to find myself wrapped in vague remnants of nightmares. The unease caused by the nightmares hung over me all day, leaving me feeling itchy and nervous even though we spent a delightfully normal day touring a nearby castle, during which no ghosts, ghouls, specters, or phantoms of any sort manifested themselves.

"It was nice to have a day where the oddest thing we encountered was that woman who insisted on bringing her parrot on the castle tour," I commented at dinner that night.

Sarah glanced toward the door of our private dining room, nodding. "Although I could have done without you expounding at length about how much force would have to be supplied to rip someone's limb off while on