Blood and Kisses - By Karin Shah Page 0,9
demon free reign. He sidestepped the youth and grasped him by the head. With a sharp twist, he snapped the revenant’s neck.
Thalia glanced over her shoulder to see how Gideon was doing, but it was over. Their attacker lay motionless on the ground, his head tilted at an unnatural angle. She stood stunned for a moment, letting the rain soak her hair and fill her fallen hood, until a dribble of cold water down her neck shocked her back to business.
She walked over, legs rubbery from leftover adrenaline, and crouched by the body. “God, he looks young.”
She wasn’t aware she had spoken aloud until Gideon said, “There’s no age limit for pawns.”
She looked up at him, shoved a strand of hair from her eyes. “What do you mean?”
He scrutinized their surroundings, as if looking for something, or someone.
“You think there’s someone else out there?” Thalia stood.
Gideon nodded. “This is a revenant. Just a husk, really, with some limited intelligence. Someone’s puppet.”
Thalia noticed the knife lying next to the revenant for the first time. A chill that had nothing to do with the rain rolled over her. “He didn’t have a stake.”
“That’s because it wasn’t me he was gunning for.”
The lights from the dashboard highlighted Gideon’s face from below, accentuating the hollows beneath his cheekbones. He looked every inch your not-so-friendly neighborhood vampire.
Neither had spoken since the attack. Thalia had been too absorbed in the implications of Gideon’s assertion. And heavens only knew what Gideon had been thinking.
She thought of the paper she’d found with Lily’s things.
Gideon might not be able to drain a witch’s blood, but if he wanted her out of the way...
She sighed. He would simply kill her himself. Why hide behind a revenant? It made no sense.
Gideon put the car into park, turned the key, and silenced the purring engine.
Thalia rubbed her fatigued eyes and gazed up at the red-brick Georgian mansion visible through the rain-spotted windshield. The driveway continued on to a large detached garage in the same style behind the house.“ Where are we?”
“My house.”
“Why?” The word escaped from her lips like a wild-caught bird from a cage.
“You know why.”
“Listen, I can take care of myself.”
He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes and raised an eyebrow. “If you thought you could handle this on your own, why’d you come to me in the first place?” That shut her up. She could hardly tell him the truth, after all.
He unfastened his seatbelt and left her alone in the car. The door thunked solidly as it shut. Seconds later, her door opened and he leaned over her. “Shall we?"
Thalia hesitated for a moment, then released her seatbelt and followed him up the curving walk to the brick steps leading to his front door. She could smell the lake and hear the soft rush of the waves as they lapped the shore. This must be one of the mansions that lined the lakeshore, probably in the town of Greece or on Beach Avenue in the city.
Gideon unlocked the door and escorted her inside. Wow! Thalia mouthed as he led the way into the vaulted entrance of his home. Everything from the oriental area rugs covering the glowing hardwood floors to the sweeping staircase showed affluence and exquisite taste. It seemed more like the lobby of an exclusive hotel than a private home.
“It’s beautiful,” she couldn’t help saying as they climbed the stairs.
Curiosity darted through her and she spoke without thinking. “You can’t make enough from the B.B. and C. to live like this?”
The broad back froze, and he turned around. His face shocked her as it always did. Lit by the soft light from the chandelier overhead, it had the stark beauty of a mountain landscape.
Her breath caught in her throat, a small animal captured in a trap, not sure whether to advance or retreat.
“When you’ve lived as long as I have, you accumulate many things. It’s important that the tavern be profitable because I hate to fail, but you’re right. I don’t need the money. I do however, need something to occupy my time.”
Thalia paused, stunned by the image his words evoked. What would it be like to live for hundreds, maybe thousands of years? To live longer than the people you loved, longer than civilizations? A wave of insight broke over her, and she sucked in a breath at the incredible loneliness she glimpsed behind his self-assured façade.
He wasn’t as invulnerable as he would like her to believe. That thought turned her