Enchant the Night - Amanda Ashley Page 0,5

meet him in the park after sundown.

She was becoming obsessed, she thought. Obsessed with a shadow man.

As the sun set, she pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweater, stepped into a pair of boots, and headed for Hunter Park. She told herself she must be crazy, going to meet a stranger in the park at night.

But it didn’t keep her home.

* * *

Anticipation flowed through Quill as he watched the woman enter the park, a wary expression on her face as she strolled along the winding path that led to the fountain in the center. How long had it been since he had known this sense of excitement? A hundred years? Two? It pulsated through him, making him feel vital and alive again, as if he were a young man filled with the juices of life.

She was incredibly lovely, her figure slender and ripe, her skin glowing with good health.

She came to an abrupt halt when he stepped out of the shadows. Eyes wide and afraid, she stared up at him.

“Callie.”

She swallowed hard, then nodded. It was him. She would recognize that deep, whiskey-smooth voice anywhere. He wasn’t a figment of her imagination, after all. He was tall and broad-shouldered and exuded an air of strength and power that was frightening in its intensity. Why had she come here? Everything within her urged her to turn around and run from his presence just as fast as she could, but she seemed unable to move. She could only stand there, looking up at him, feeling small and helpless as his dark-gray eyes moved over her. Questions tumbled through her mind, but she couldn’t find the courage or her voice to ask them.

A wry smile turned up one corner of his mouth. It sent a shiver of awareness down her spine as she remembered the feel of his lips on hers when he’d kissed her. It had only been a dream, she reminded herself, but it had felt so real.

She flinched when he reached for her, yet seemed incapable of resisting when he drew her into the circle of his arms. He held her lightly, his hand idly stroking up and down her back.

“You needn’t be afraid,” he murmured. “I won’t hurt you.”

At his words, all the tension drained out of her. She had no idea why she believed him, yet she was no longer frightened. Feeling as if she had come home after a long journey, she closed her eyes. A sigh escaped her lips when his tongue laved the skin beneath her ear. She clung to his shoulders when he bit her ever so gently.

He’s drinking my blood.

The thought should have frightened her. Repulsed her. Instead, it filled her with a sense of peace and a familiar wave of sensual pleasure.

Her eyelids fluttered open when he lifted his head.

“Meet me here again tomorrow night, my sweet Callie,” he whispered, his breath warm against her ear.

And then, between one heartbeat and the next, he was gone.

Callie glanced around the park, but there was no sign of him. How had he disappeared so quickly? She lifted a hand to her neck. If not for the faint tingling where he had bitten her, she would have sworn she’d imagined the whole thing.

Lost in thought, she turned and headed for home.

* * *

Curled up in the easy chair beside the small, brick fireplace, Callie tried to make sense of everything that had happened earlier, but to no avail. Feeling suddenly weary, she closed her eyes, felt her body go limp as long-forgotten memories of her childhood paraded through her mind.

Things like her paternal grandmother, Martha, telling six-year-old Callie that her parents had been killed in an auto accident and that she would be going to live with her maternal grandmother, Ava.

Grandfather Henry refusing to hold her or let her visit them because she was left-handed and he believed that was a sure sign of a changeling child. He claimed her presence in their house would cause some terrible catastrophe. Callie had never seen her paternal grandparents again.

Her maternal grandmother, Ava Langley, making a mystical sign of some kind over Callie each night before she went to sleep. Ava and three of her cronies had performed strange rituals in the light of a full moon. Sometimes Callie had been included; sometimes she watched in secret from her bedroom window. She had vague memories of Ava whispering in her ear that she would understand everything when she was older.

Callie had grown up firmly believing