A Vampire for Christmas - By Michele Hauf Page 0,80
happening?” she asked, but there was no fear or uncertainty in her voice, which surprised him.
“I’m not what you think I am,” he replied, the low growl of the demon threaded through his voice.
Her easy smile calmed him as did the tender caress of her hand at the spot over his heart. “I think you are a good person.” She stroked her hand over his heart again and continued. “I know your heart is true.”
He groaned then, with joy and pain. He had not been a good man and as a demon he had done things that sickened him. Despite all that, she still believed in him.
Emotion rose up in him, nearly choking him and breaking the control he had been exerting. A sharp burst of pain came as his fangs exploded, erupting beyond his top lip.
He expected her to scream. To rip her body from his and run away. But instead, she offered up another smile, a determined one this time.
Raising her other hand, she cupped his jaw and traced the line of his lips and fangs. Explored them with a mix of fascination and love.
“You are not afraid?” he asked, narrowing his eyes as he considered her reaction.
“I’ve always sensed you were different, and no, I am not afraid. I love you,” she replied, her answer clear and without doubt.
Inside him came a freedom and lightness of being he had not experienced in too long. Not since his mother had anyone given him love so unequivocally and so freely. As much as he feared that he did not deserve such love, because of the man he had been and the demon he had become, he would not cast such a gift aside.
“I think I love you, too,” Damien answered, his heart filled with joy at the admission.
No sooner had the words left him than he experienced a vicious jerk at his center. Panic replaced the happiness he had been feeling on that year-ago Christmas Eve.
He was leaving her again. Leaving the vision filled with their joy and love.
“No,” he shouted, but in his mind Angelina’s voice came instead, both soothing and punishing at the same time.
Maybe one lesson learned. I think. But not another.
Damien was painfully conscious of what would happen next.
CHAPTER SIX
WIND RACED PAST HIM as he once again flew from his body and departed the vision he had been reliving. Long moments idled while a whirlwind of images raced by.
His abrupt landing on the floor before the Angelina of the present rattled his teeth and painfully jarred his bones. But Damien had only a moment to recover before the walls of his bedroom transformed once more, becoming the calm waters off the Jersey Shore. He recognized the precise moment in time and that less than a dozen hours had passed since his lunchtime tryst with Angelina.
A schooner was sailing parallel to the beachfront during a dark moonless night that hid its passage.
Ramirez’s ship—although Damien hadn’t known it at the time.
Damien had been given the details for the rum pickup and the money to make the purchase. As always, he had set off down the river inlet to meet the ship, collect the liquor and return it to shore for distribution. He made similar trips once or twice a week, managing to avoid the Coast Guard and others intent on stopping the flow of alcohol to the many clandestine bars and speakeasies that had sprung up during Prohibition.
After motoring his skiff up to the Cuban rumrunner, Damien had been shocked to see a familiar crew manning the schooner. A familiar crew with an infamous captain.
Although the transfer of the kegs had gone smoothly, vampire strength making the movement of so many loads go quickly, Damien had understood that this would not be the last time he would see Ramirez. There was too much bad blood between them for the other captain not to take advantage of their chance encounter.
After loading the skiff and paying Ramirez, Damien had snuck up the river inlet to the scattered sandbars where the locals and the Newark bosses would come ashore for their deliveries. Damien kept one keg for the owner of the small tavern where Angelina worked. Her boss was expecting Damien to hand deliver that rum when he came in for a bite of food later that night.
But Damien had errands to run before that delivery. First, he had to quench his hunger. He secured the keg in his skiff before returning to the small dock adjacent to the tavern.