Much Ado About Vampires - By Katie MacAlister Page 0,4

love life."

"You'd be surprised what it could do," she said with a little smile of her perfectly plumped lips.

She glanced at me as we bounced our way to a halt at the side of the monstrous old Victorian house. Once, perhaps, it had been the home of a lumber baron or railroad magnate.... Now it was falling down, its wood weathered and mottled with peeling paint, the windows boarded over, bits of shingles from the roof scattered around the unkempt and overgrown grounds.

"Don't believe me?" Diamond asked.

"Fraid not."

Her blue eyes narrowed on me. "You're not one of those skeptics, are you? The people who don't believe in anything supernatural?"

I clamped my lips together to keep from laughing hysterically. Part of me, what my mother used to call my little devil, wanted to tell her that anyone who had a shape-shifting sister married to a vampire could hardly be a skeptic. I squelched my devil and just smiled. "Not particularly, no."

"Oh, good. I know I should be more tolerant, but really, how people can close their minds to the wonders of the world is beyond me. My great-grandmother once told me that a closed mind would be the death of me, and do you know, she was right? The only time I closed my mind to the possibilities, I died."

I stared at her as she got out of the car, wondering if I had heard her correctly. "You . . . died?" I asked, getting out, as well.

"Yes. I got in trouble with - " She shot me a quick, unreadable look. "Well, let's just say I got in trouble, and I paid the price for it. Although the near-death experience was very interesting, I learned my lesson, and ever since then, I've kept my mind open to everything and everyone, humans and other beings." She hoisted her bag and pulled out her camera, giving the house an assessing look as she jangled a set of keys. "My, this is a big one, isn't it? There should be four floors. How about you shoot the basement and first floor, and I'll do the second and attic?"

"That's fine. Er . . ." I followed after her as she tripped lightly up the front steps to the big double doors. I picked my way carefully, not trusting the half-rotted boards of the steps and porch to hold up under my more substantial weight. "When you say other beings, you wouldn't happen to include vampires in that, would you? Or, what do they call them . . . er . . . ?"

"Dark Ones? " She unlocked the door, pausing on the threshold to close her eyes and breathe deeply. "I always try to attune myself to the house before entering. It gives me a better idea of what sort of family would be perfect within its walls. How very odd. This house feels like someone of a dark nature was here a long time ago. . . . Hmm." She entered, tossing me an amused look over her shoulder. "Of course I believe in Dark Ones. I haven't met one, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Are you interested in them?"

I thought of the large, blond, extremely deadly man my sister had married just a month before. I thought of his bigger, more deadly brother. I thought of the dark-haired murderer of my dreams. "Kind of. Not really, no. In a way."

She laughed and waved me forward into the house. "I don't blame you. They're fascinating, aren't they? Much more so than movies and books lead you to believe. Dark Ones are . . . ooh, so many things. Sexy. Mysterious. Sensuous. You know about Beloveds, don't you? How there's only one woman to redeem each Dark One, and they have to go through seven steps to save him, and that once they do, they're bound together forever and ever?"

"Yes," I said, my devil once again prodding me to do more than smile. "I know about Beloveds."

"Isn't it just the most romantic thing ever? I wonder what it would be like to have one as your lover. Wouldn't you think they would be intense? Kind of overwhelming, but in a good way?"

I remembered how Avery seemed wholly absorbed in Jas. "I think 'intense' is a good description."

"And then there's the bad-boy image. Who doesn't love a bad boy? Who doesn't want to redeem them, make them whole again, show them the power of love?" She sighed, then giggled and poked me on