disbelief. One minute the woman had been standing not two feet away, and the next she was gone in a swirling iridescent black mist.
Muttering an oath, Navarre swept Adrianna into his arms and carried her to the sofa where he sat down and cradled her against his chest. "Are you all right?"
Adrianna nodded.
"Does your head still hurt?"
She shook her head.
"Dammit, Adrianna! Say something."
"Is she the vampire who made you?"
"Yes."
"She's very beautiful."
"Yes. And very selfish. And cruel. And self-centered."
"She loves you."
"She doesn't know what love is."
Adrianna shrugged. "And she wants you."
He couldn't argue with that. Shaylyn had sought him out from time to time through the centuries, but after the last time, he'd thought himself free of her. He knew now that he had been wrong, that in Shaylyn's mind, at least, he would always be hers, subject to her beck and call.
"Adrianna, I want you to go away for a while. Take a vacation. Go see your parents."
"Because of her?"
Navarre nodded. "I'm afraid for you, afraid of what she might do."
Adrianna smiled wryly. "You mean a woman scorned, and all that?"
"Laugh if you want, but Shaylyn has always been very possessive of those she's made. She's angry with me now, and I don't want you to be caught in the middle."
"I'd like to say I'm not afraid, but I am."
"You'd be a fool if you weren't."
"I may be afraid, but I'm not leaving."
"Annie..."
"No! I'm not going to run away and let her have you."
"Annie, in spite of what I said, I belong to her."
"What do you mean?"
"It's her blood in my veins, her lifeforce that made me what I am."
"That doesn't mean she owns you."
"No, but she's a very powerful vampire. No one knows how old she is, or if she can even be destroyed. Some say that she no longer has to rest during the day, that she's immune to the deadly effects of sunlight."
"Is that possible?"
"I don't know." Navarre frowned. It had taken him almost two thousand years to be able to endure the sun for short periods of time. Shaylyn had existed longer than any vampire he knew. It was possible that she no longer needed to seek shelter during the light of day, which made her all the more dangerous to him.
Adrianna glanced over her shoulder, as if she expected to see Shaylyn hovering nearby.
"She isn't here," Navarre said.
"How do you know?"
"Vampires can sense the presence of one of their kind."
Adrianna made a sound of disbelief. "If she's immune to the sun, maybe she's also able to conceal her presence."
Navarre frowned. He, too, had thought of that, and it worried him. The only edge he had was being able to perceive when she was near.
"She wouldn't hurt you, would she?"
"She can't hurt me," he replied, "at least not much."
"But she could destroy you."
Navarre nodded. There was no doubt of that, especially if she was able to move about when the sun was high in the sky. His only hope was to find a new place to rest until Shaylyn lost interest in him and left town.
"Navarre?"
"What?"
"Do you like being a vampire?"
"Does it matter?"
"Would you go back to being a mortal, if you could?"
"I don't know. Why do you ask?"
"What if there were a cure? Would you use it?"
"Adrianna, what are you talking about?"
"I found an old book up in the attic at the store. It was calledThe Handbook of the Undead . There was a recipe for a cure."
A cure! Navarre stared at Adrianna, wondering if such a thing were conceivable. In two thousand years, he had never considered the possibility of being mortal again. And even as he considered it, he knew it held no appeal. He had no wish to grow old and die, no wish to give up the wondrous powers he possessed, especially now, when those powers seemed to be expanding, when he was able to see the sunrise and walk in the morning light. Who could say? Perhaps in another hundred years, it would no longer be necessary for him to hide away during the long hours of the afternoon. Perhaps he'd even be able to overcome his need for blood and be able to partake of mortal food again, live a normal life...
Normal. Never, since the day of his birth, had he been normal. Even before he was born, Fate had decreed that he would not live as others lived. He had been brought into the world for the sole purpose of being sacrificed to Shaylyn. It was a Fate