The Vampire Voss

Angelica considered whether to tell her sister or not. Maia would be angry and worried for her if she learned that Voss had sneaked into her room, and she’d become even more managing and motherly and smother her to death.

But if she told Maia, then her sister would certainly tell Corvindale—likely in a high-pitched, demanding tone. And she was sure that the earl would make certain it didn’t happen again.

And that would make her sleep so much easier.

“I had a dream,” she said. Which was strictly the truth. She had been dreaming before he woke her. Perhaps she could weave fact with fiction.… “That—Dewhurst came into my chamber at night.”

“Darling, I’m so sorry. How terrifying it must be,” Maia said, stroking her arm. “I didn’t hear you cry out, although I heard something that sounded like you mumbling in your sleep. Or talking to someone.”

“It seemed so real,” Angelica said, continuing with the charade. “He…” He was so gentle. I was sleeping and then I felt him touching me and I wanted him to slide closer and take me in his arms. To be the man he’d been…before.

She wanted to say that. But she couldn’t. She hardly dared think those words, let alone confess them to Maia. Her sister would not understand.

Her sister, who did everything so perfectly and who always had the answer and who didn’t have to live with the demons of death that Angelica did. How could she comprehend the fact that Angelica was both terrified of Voss…and attracted to him, as well?

Or, at least, she had been attracted to him. Now, when she thought of him, there was little more than that heavy ball in her belly. He’d lied to her, he’d tricked her and he’d attacked her. All under the guise of protecting her.

“Sometimes dreams can be more frightening than reality,” Maia said. She sounded so certain, so sure. Just as she always did. Angelica thought it would be nice to be so certain about things. All the time. “And sometimes, they can be so much more…beautiful…than reality.”

More than willing to turn the subject from her experience, desperate to think of something other than the way she’d warred internally between wanting Voss to touch her and truly wanting to kill him, Angelica said, “What do you mean?”

Maia smiled in a way that Angelica had never seen before. A rather secret sort of smile, as if she were being coy or discreet. She fancied that if there were more illumination than the glow of a lamp in the corner, and a hint of moonlight outside, she might see the rise of a blush on Maia’s cheeks.

“Well.” Her sister sat up and pulled one of the two dozen pillows onto her lap, clutching it over her belly. Her face changed, becoming more reserved. “I don’t know if I should tell you about it. After all, you’re still unwed and —”

“And so are you.” Angelica was glad to have the spurt of annoyance to focus on, instead of her fingers that still trembled and the sealike pitching of her belly. Why had he come? Just when she was beginning to feel safer, to begin to forget him and think about other men. “You aren’t married yet, dear sister, and so you haven’t any more experience than I have.”

There was that secret smile again—so odd from her prim sister—and Maia looked up at her over the top of the ruffled pillow. “But that isn’t true, dear younger sister. Alexander and I have… Well, we are engaged, and Chas and the lady patrons haven’t been as vigilant as they were before our engagement was announced.”

Now it was Angelica’s turn to sit up straight and grab a pillow. She felt her eyes as if they were about to bug from their sockets. “You and Mr. Bradington have—”

“No, no,” Maia said. “Not exactly. Not precisely. But… Angelica. It’s quite…nice. Flossa and Betty are right. It’s very pleasant. And I think it gets nicer.” Her lips curved a bit.

“And what does this have to do with dreams being better than the reality? Or did you mean they were more frightening than reality?”

“Well.” She looked away, adjusting the pillow in her lap. Hesitating.

“What is it?” Angelica pressed, now morbidly curious, as this was a side of her proper sister she had never before seen— and had assumed didn’t even exist. Maia had an odd expression on her face—as if she were bursting to share the confidence, but at the same time, ashamed to do so.

“After your experience with Dewhurst, I had a dream. About…it.”

“You dreamed about Dewhurst?” Angelica’s voice might have risen, but not enough to be heard outside the chamber. She didn’t think. Although the door wasn’t shut tightly. She needed to keep her voice down or Mirabella would hear them.

And she was fairly certain that event would lace Maia’s mouth closed tighter than her smallest corset.

“Shhh! You’ll wake Mirabella! No, I didn’t dream about Dewhurst. It’s going to sound horrible to you, Angelica.” Now Maia’s eyes had lost that secretive look, and she shifted back as if to recant her words. “You’ll think me mad.”

“Not any more than I already do,” Angelica replied with a small smile. “Tell me.”

Maia smiled, too, but her fingers were plucking energetically at the fringe of lace on her pillow. “I dreamed that a vampire visited me in my chamber. But it wasn’t frightening. It was…like embracing Alexander, and kissing him.… But it wasn’t him. This was different. Better. And when the vampire bit me—”

Angelica gasped. “What?”

“In my dream, he bit me. Right…here,” Maia said softly, touching the side of her smooth, white neck just above the shoulder. “It didn’t hurt, in my dream. In fact, it was… It made me…”

That secretive smile was back, and Angelica could hardly credit her ears. “You liked it?”

But Maia’s eyes had widened in shock and she straightened up sharply, clutching the pillow to her bosom like a shield. “My lord.” Her words were shocked and prim with affront.

Angelica turned to look behind her, but she already knew that Corvindale had appeared there in the open door. Dark and shadowed, he stood like a sentinel. Nevertheless, the moon light caught him across the eyes, giving them a faint glint along with a white shine on the bridge of his strong nose.

Did he already know that Voss had sneaked into her chamber? Was that why he’d ventured to their floor? Should she tell him?

The earl seemed stiffer than usual, and for a moment, he didn’t speak. Then said, “My apologies, Miss Woodmore. Angelica,” he said. “I had just arrived home when I heard voices. I came to investigate.”

“Now that you’ve determined all is well, perhaps you would allow us to return to our conversation,” Maia said stiffly.

“Indeed,” Corvindale said, and then, just as he began to turn, he stilled. Raising a peremptory hand, as if to forestall any further comments from Maia, he tilted his head, and then turned back to them. Now his expression was intense and serious. “Someone is below. Stay here.”

And then he was gone, closing the door behind him.

Angelica bolted off the bed and went to the door, opened it and put her ear to the crack. Was Voss still about? Had she been wrong and he hadn’t left?

“Angelica,” Maia admonished in a low voice. “What are you doing?” But then there she was, crowding behind her. Perhaps the reprimand was meant to get Angelica to move and to give Maia the better spot, but she wasn’t about to do that, so her sister was forced to crouch and duck beneath her arm to listen. She was shorter than Angelica anyway, so it was only fair.

As they listened to hear if anything was happening below, Angelica whispered, “Did you really like it, in your dream? When he bit you?”

Maia stilled, her shoulder pressed into Angelica’s side. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she snapped back. “I wish I’d kept my mouth closed.”

They were silent for a moment as a single, soft thud from below reached their ears, then nothing.

“I cannot imagine finding it anything but horrifying,” Angelica said, her belly tightening at the memory. She’d tried to forget about that moment of soft, sensual kissing and Voss’s hands sliding over her breasts in a reckless but delightful way. She’d been flooded with pleasure and heat, and then suddenly…the pain. The surprise and the pain.

Never one to allow another to have the last word, Maia replied, “Even those stories Granny used to tell us,