Enchant the Night - Amanda Ashley Page 0,35

winked at her, then left the room.

Callie stared after him. She was madly, deeply, in love.

With a vampire.

Chapter 13

Trey 95 stood in the shadows outside the woman’s house. It had taken only moments to obtain her address. His medallion told him the vampire was with her. He had already broken two of the cardinal Rules of the Knights by refusing to return to the Dark Wood when summoned and attacking a vampire when there was a human present. If he interacted with the woman, he would be breaking a third.

But he didn’t give a damn.

Thus far, confronting the vampire hadn’t been successful. In the meantime, his brother’s death went unavenged.

Attempting to destroy the vampire while he was in the woman’s house was a bad idea on several levels, the least of which was breaking another Rule.

Kidnapping the woman and forcing the vampire to come to him seemed like a better alternative. Although that option, too, would be yet another blatant violation of the Rules. Still, it would allow him the opportunity to choose where and when to confront the monster. Plus, it would give him time to prepare an effective attack, one with minimum risk to himself and, hopefully, the woman.

And if she didn’t survive? He shrugged. When one chose to hang out with vampires, one had to be ready to take the risks inherent in such a despicable association.

After leaving the woman’s house, he hitched a ride back to his quarters. He had a lot of planning to do.

Chapter 14

An hour before sunset, Quill left Callie’s house. After satisfying his thirst, he returned home for a change of clothes. He made his lair in the attic of an old two-story house he had bought when he’d first come to town. It was a grand old place, solidly built. The floors were hardwood, the furnishings sparse but of good quality, the colors the green and tan of a forest. He had lived there for the last ten years, but after the last two attacks by the Knights, he was beginning to think it was time to seek a new place.

While dressing, he wondered how Callie would feel about moving. No doubt she would be reluctant to leave her grandmother’s home, but it would only be for a while, until the Knights realized he had left town and they returned to the Dark Wood.

A number of his kind had left Hungary decades ago and taken up residence in a small town high in the hills of Northern California. The only humans who lived there were married to vampires. Occasionally, a tourist or two would pass through on their way to Oregon or Washington, but they were few and far between because the town didn’t show up on any maps.

He nodded inwardly. He would suggest it to Callie tonight.

* * *

“You want us to move to California?” Callie asked, frowning. “Why?”

“For your safety. And for mine,” Quill added with a wry grin. “The Knights know I’m in town. You and I have been seen together.” He draped his arm along the back of the sofa. “The Knights are sworn not to bring harm to humanity, but I can’t help worrying that you might get caught in the cross fire.”

From her place on the sofa, Callie glanced around the living room. This house was the only home she had ever known. She couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Everything she saw held a memory—sitting in her grandmother’s rocker reminded her of all the times Ava had told her stories or rocked her to sleep in front of the fire. When she used the cast-iron pots and pans in the kitchen, it reminded her of learning to cook at her grandmother’s side and made her feel closer to Ava. Sometimes she felt as if Ava were actually there with her while she baked the chocolate chip cookies, which had been Ava’s favorite. She would miss all that.

“Why California?” she asked.

“Some of my kind reside there, in a small town. It’s a beautiful place.” He had stayed there for a few years before moving here. “I think you’ll like it. The only people who live there are vampires and their human mates.”

Callie frowned as she tried to imagine that. And failed.

“It’s just like a regular town,” Quill assured her. “There are shops and a movie theater run mostly by humans—and a few vampires.”

Callie grinned at the thought of vampires holding down ordinary jobs.

“Except for the necessity of blood, my people and yours aren’t so different. We