He wanted his mortal life back.
5
Maia awoke with a start.
She hadn’t realized she’d finally fallen asleep, worried as she was about Angelica and Chas, but she must have done, for the world had become dark and silvered blue with moonlight.
Her heart was racing, and her skin warm and damp. Sitting bolt upright, she reached to touch her shoulder, the side of her neck, her throat. Her pulse pounded furiously as she looked at her reflection in the mirror across the room.
Nothing. There was nothing there.
Her shoulder and neck reflected back at her, pale and almost ghostly, shadowed where her clavicle rose, but unblemished. The long braid of her hair hung over one side, making a darker stripe down over her pale pink night rail.
Maia’s eyes looked like wide dark circles and her mouth a paler one.
It had seemed so real. The burn of his mouth, sliding over her lips, tasting and sucking on them…the heat had been intense, undulating through her so that the nightgown clung to her damp skin. His lips moved to her jaw, to her ear, down to the soft, hidden curve of her neck…and then the flash of pleasure-pain when his fangs penetrated her skin and released the blood pulsing in its channel. She remembered the dream, remembered arching, sighing, feeling the shimmering warmth draining from her veins as his hot mouth closed over her skin, and sipped. Licked. Nuzzled.
She touched the side of her neck again, and pulled away, looking at her hand for the blood that wasn’t there. Her fingers brushed over her lips in an echo of the kiss. Her heart still pounded and her chest felt flushed and full. And down low, an insistent throbbing, a hot reminder of the intensity of her dream.
It put her in mind of that shocking interlude with the Knave of Diamonds…so warm and liquid like. Intense.
Maia didn’t need to throw back her covers; she must have kicked them off during the dream. She dropped her feet to the floor, relieved to feel the relative cool of polished wood beneath them. During the summer, she had no need of a rug to warm the floor. Her night rail fell in a light cloud to just over her feet, loosening and allowing a bit of air to relieve her heated skin.
She couldn’t banish the dream; and in fact, Maia realized she clung to the memories that were now sliding into mere wisps. She’d never seen his face, the shadowy man who came to her, whose weight she’d sworn had been pressing her into the mattress only moments before. She still felt his imprint on her body. Heavy. Hot.
But she was clearly alone. Clearly the victim…or perhaps recipient was a better term…of a mere dream. A most realistic one, but a dream nevertheless.
And why she was dreaming about phantom vampires visiting in her chamber when she’d received such happy news today, Maia couldn’t understand. At last she’d gotten word that Alexander was coming home and should arrive within a week. Perhaps sooner.
Before she opened the letter from him, she’d been over come by apprehension. She’d nearly put it aside to open later, at night, when, if the news was bad—if he’d changed his mind or wasn’t coming back—she’d be able to stay in her chamber alone with it for a bit. The last thing she wanted was for Corvindale to see her humiliation or grief.
She’d held it, looked at the crinkled envelope, folded and a bit dusty and stained from its long journey, and considered how she would react if it wasn’t good news. What she would do to hide her pain. And then Maia had to wonder why she was so worried about it. Alexander had never given her any indication that he didn’t hold her in high esteem. Certainly there’d been the faintest whiff of scandal attached to her after the Incident with Mr. Virgil, but she’d been so careful and had acted the epitome of propriety since. Alexander had come on the scene more than a year later and if he’d heard whisperings about it, the incident hadn’t seemed to bother him.
But if he were to call off the engagement…Maia’s stomach twisted. She’d lost her parents, too, and although this would be nothing like the pain she’d experienced then, it would be devastating. The announcement had already been made. It would be a scandal if her engagement was broken, for what ever reason. A terrible scandal.
When she opened the letter and read his brief note, her fears had ebbed.
That made it sound as if he’d missed her, didn’t it?
Just then, she heard a new sound on the moonlit street below. It sounded like a carriage door opening, and Maia rushed to the open window when she heard voices. Had Angelica returned?
She looked down and saw a hooded and cloaked female figure climbing up the front steps as the carriage rumbled off.
Maia didn’t hesitate. She slipped quietly out of her chamber, heedless of her bare feet and flowing nightgown, hurrying silently down the corridor to the stairs. But by the time she got halfway down the angular staircase, pausing on the landing at the second floor, she recognized the voices below.
Not Angelica.
A door closed on the lower level, and she heard the businesslike tread of solid footsteps coming from the corridor where the earl’s study was located. The last person she wanted to encounter was Corvindale, so Maia turned and started to climb back up. Worry and disappointment replaced the momentary surge of hope, but then she heard something that made her pause.
“—from Dewhurst,” wafted up an unfamiliar feminine voice.
“What is the message?” Corvindale replied, his words rising clearly.
Maia crept back across the landing and started down the next flight, aware that her feet would be in view of whomever was in the foyer should they look up.
“He bids you come retrieve the girl,” said the woman, who was obviously the messenger. “From Black Maude’s.”
Corvindale’s curse was sharp and vulgar. “She’s at Black Maude’s?”
Maia saw the top of his head as he whirled and started off, presumably back down the corridor in preparation for leaving.
“Wait!” Maia said, surging faster down the steps.
He turned up his face and their eyes caught as she hurried down, and for a moment, Maia felt the breath knocked out of her.
No, impossible. She forced herself to breathe, to pull her attention from his glittering dark eyes. He was dressed in a white shirt that sagged and a loose neckcloth, as usual.
“Miss Woodmore,” he said, but his voice wasn’t nearly as cold as it usually was. “I presume you heard the conversation.”
“I’m going with you,” she said.
“No,” he began, but she interrupted.
“Yes. She’s my sister. She might need me. Who knows…”
Her voice threatened to break, a combination of desperation and fear weakening it. “Who knows what he’s done to her.”
Corvindale held her gaze for much too long and then snapped, “You have three minutes to dress yourself appropriately.” He turned away and stalked off.
Maia looked down, having momentarily forgotten her state of dishabille, and realized that the moonlight streaming over her had highlighted the flimsy fabric of her summer gown and her bare feet.
Three minutes wasn’t nearly enough time, but she would manage it. She had no doubt that Corvindale would leave without her.
Dimitri hadn’t expected the ever-proper Miss Woodmore to meet his deadline, so he was surprised and annoyed when, precisely three minutes later, she came tearing down the stairs. That was the thing about her. She
