Blood and Kisses - By Karin Shah Page 0,17
Champion.
That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Spirit’s voice was gentle, but firm. I can tell you need another woman to talk to.
“What makes you say that?”
The way you blushed a little when I said Gideon’s name.
Thalia raised a hand to her unblemished cheek. “I didn’t think you could see red, and I didn’t blush.”
Hmm,” said Spirit. Of course not. He paused. I want you to find someone to love just as much as your mother and Lily did, but never forget what Gideon is. Even if witches and vampires got along, you can’t be turned. There’s no future in this. I’m afraid you’re going to get hurt.
Thalia set down her tea. It sloshed onto the table, leaving a dark brown puddle on the pale oak. “This whole conversation is ridiculous. Gideon would never be interested in me.” She attempted another laugh to lighten the mood, but it came out as hollow and bitter as an Easter candy made out of baking chocolate. “Besides, I am very aware of what he is.” Her words seemed to float over them for a moment. She bit her lip. No matter how attractive he was, she could never forget. Lily was dead because of one of his kind.
God, she missed her. And her mother.
Her mother would have skewered Gideon on the spot if she’d thought him guilty.
But this latest murder had occurred while they were together. He was innocent, at least in this. Relief untangled a knot in her stomach she hadn’t known was there.
Well, someone was guilty and another woman was dead. The thought brought Thalia to her feet. No more waiting for Gideon. She would interview the next person on her list on her own.
A knock at the back door spun her around. Finally.
She sucked in a deep breath and answered the door. As she’d hoped, Gideon stood on the porch. A brief irrational surge of happiness flowed through her.
“Ready to go?” His voice was brusque, and the feeling evaporated.
The temperature seemed to drop twenty degrees in a matter of seconds. She shivered. She’d expected it, deserved it really, but his anger was alarmingly painful. Ignoring the frisson of distress still burrowing through her chest, she nodded, then grabbed her suitcase and the newspaper. After a quick goodbye to Spirit, she followed Gideon out the door.
She slid into the leather passenger seat of his car and handed him the newspaper. He scanned the headline as she fastened her seatbelt, then threw the paper into the small backseat. “I know.”
Thalia searched his closed features. “Did you hear where she was seen last?”
Gideon nodded his dark head curtly. “The Tomb. That’s what kept me. The police tracked me down.”
Relief swept through her. He hadn’t stayed away because of the kiss. “At this time of night? Are you a suspect?”
“I don’t know. Am I?”
Thalia gasped at the sudden attack. “What do you mean?”
“If you didn’t believe I had something to do with Lily’s death, why did you search my home?”
His eyes gleamed in the reflected moonlight. Thalia almost thought she could read something in their liquid depths. Was it hurt? She looked away. It seemed impossible an insignificant creature like herself could injure such a powerful man. “All vampires are suspects.”
“So I am a suspect.”
“Before I found out about the other murder you were.” She put a hand to her forehead and ran her fingers through the strand of hair she’d left out of her ponytail, hiding her face “But you were with me last night. I can tell the police the same if you like.”
“Don’t do me any favors.” Gideon started the car. The large engine growled to life, echoing perhaps, the mood of the driver. He threw the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway. His anger simmered in the car like air rising off sun-scorched pavement.
“Gideon,” Thalia said quietly, dropping her hand and facing him. “I’m sorry. Lily was my best friend.”
The plea hung in the air for a moment, then he glanced at her and seemed to soften. “The coroner has narrowed Lily’s time of death to before I left the tavern that night. And since they believe both murders were perpetrated by the same person. . .”
“You’re in the clear.” The atmosphere between them lightened.
“For now. I may yet have to take you up on your offer of an alibi.”
The watcher drew back into the complicit shadows as his enemy and the Champion got into the flashy black car. The scent of their mutual attraction