A Whisper of Eternity - By Amanda Ashley Page 0,22

normal, she put the knife back in the drawer, dropped a tea bag in a cup, and filled it with hot water.

" Geez, girl, get a grip," she muttered as she stirred a spoonful of honey into her cup. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

But she couldn't shake the feeling that there was someone else in the house.Someone else in the kitchen.

Standing with her back to the counter, she slowly perused the room. Was that something there, near the doorway? She turned her head slightly to the right and from the corner of hereye, she seemed to see something shimmery , something in the vague shape of a man.

Fear congealed in the pit of her stomach. Her mouth went dry. She reached for the knife again, even though she knew that it would be useless against anything that wasn't flesh and blood. And that strange, shimmering, silvery image was definitely not human.

A ghost, perhaps?That seemed the most obvious. This was an old house. It was entirely possible that someone had died here, that some restless spirit haunted the rooms. Previous occupants had sworn the place was haunted.Tracy didn't believe in ghosts or goblins, but there was definitely an unseen presence in the room. The certainty of it shivered over her.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice shaking so badly she hardly recognized it. "Whatare you?"

There was no answer, of course.

And then it - whateverit was - was gone.

Dominic materialized in his rooms below the house. She had been aware of his presence, had known he was in the kitchen, but how? If he had taken her blood, they would have shared a telepathic bond, but he had never taken her blood. Time after time, in every life, he had ignored his ever-growing need and respected her wishes in that regard.

He paced the floor, his long, restless strides carrying him swiftly from one end of the room to the other. So, how had she known he was there? Did she possess psychic powers in this life? Or was it because their souls had been forged together in so many lifetimes through the ages? Perhaps now, at last, they shared a bond that not even her death could break.

Tracy. Her scent still filled his nostrils - warm and sweetly feminine. His hands clenched at his sides as he caught the faint scent of the boy she had been out with earlier. It would be so easy to dispose of the competition.So easy and so tempting. He could break the interloper in half with one hand, crush the life from his frail mortal body with nothing more than a thought.

But he would not. Closing his eyes, Dominic took a deep, calming breath. He was a civilized vampire now. He no longer killed indiscriminately or merely for the sheer pleasure of draining the thoughts, the wishes, and the life's blood of a mere mortal. These days, he drank no more than he required. He left his victims alive, though he wiped his memory from their minds.

Oh, yes, he mused, he was a civilized vampire now. But now and then he missed the old days, when he had been a young vampire, new in the life, when he had gloried in his newfound strength and preternatural power, when every night had been a new adventure and every mortal a feast for his relentless thirst.

Ah, for those nights when he had hunted at Kitana's side. They had swept through the tiny villages and hamlets of the Old Country like an invisible plague, gluttingthemselves on the warm, rich crimson that fell on the tongue like the finest of wines, smooth and intoxicating.

They had hunted throughout the cities and towns ofEngland andFrance ,Italy andSpain , sweeping through docks and dark alleyways, charming their way into fancy balls and masquerades, always leaving death behind. Kitana. That she had looked at him twice had been a miracle to him. Her body was as supple and slender as a willow tree, her dusky skin smooth and unblemished, her hair a cloud of thick auburn silk, and her lips... ah, her lips were like wild, sweet honey. She had fascinated him from the moment they met, captivating him, enchanting him, until he was hopelessly caught in the web of her supernatural power, and happy to have it so. When she promised him a way to stay forever young, forever at her side, he had agreed without a second thought. The loss of the sun had seemed a small price to pay for