Sex and the Single Vampire

And how did you get out of there so quickly? Wait a minute—answer my last question first: Are you a vampire?'

His eyes glittered mahogany and gold at me, but other than the slight incline of one eyebrow, he didn't look at all perturbed to be having this conversation. 'I am Moravian, what is commonly referred to as a Dark One.'

Well, that was a big help. 'So you're a vampire?'

His fingers made an elegant gesture that left the question unanswered.

'Okay, let's try this: Do you drink people's blood to survive?'

He sat extremely still. 'Yes,' he finally answered, the velvet of his voice giving the word a power I'd never felt before.

'Are you immortal?'

Again the hesitation. 'I can be killed.'

'Most living beings can. Let me rephrase that—what year were you born?'

His gaze never left my face. 'In the year of our Lord eleven hundred and twelve.'

I did a bit of quick mental subtraction. 'That sounds pretty immortal to me. Do you burn to a crisp in the light of the sun?'

A slight smile played around on the corners of his lips. I suddenly wanted to be that smile. 'Burn to a crisp? No, but I do not find sunlight particularly healthy.'

'Fine. So you'—I ticked the items off on my fingers—'drink blood to survive, are more or less immortal, and avoid sunlight. Well, you know, that sounds like a vampire to me!'

'Dark Ones are frequently referred to as vampires,' he allowed.

'I hear a 'but' in there.'

The smile grew, making me feel a bit too warm in my comfy sweats. 'The mythology of vampires and the history of Dark Ones is similar, but not identical.'

'Oh. So you're like, what, a benign vampire? A quasi-vampire? Vamp light? Do you go around doing good deeds? Or are you merely a vampire with a really big chip on his shoulder who likes to push people around and slice himself up for fun and profit?'

He actually had the nerve to look martyred at my words. 'You are the most irreverent woman I have ever met.'

'And you're changing the subject.'

'I shall do so again: Why do you have the spirit of a cat in your hotel room?'

'Can you think of a better place to keep it?' I asked, then immediately regretted the retort. 'This room is supposed to be haunted. I was trying to Summon the ghost who resides here, and got her cat instead.'

'Is that what you were doing last night at the old inn?'

'You haven't finished answering my questions.'

'I believe a conversation is traditionally made up of give and take. I have given; now I expect to take.'

It was the way he said it that made me feel both extremely turned on and furious at his high-handed arrogance. I stood up and fisted my hands on my hips. 'Yes, I was at the inn last night to Summon ghosts. It's what I do, I'm a Summoner. I didn't have any success, if that is your next question. This cat is the sum total of all the ghosts I've managed to Summon, so I'll thank you to be a bit nicer about him. He may not be great, but he's all I have. And besides, I've tried to send him on, but something's screwed up in my Release invocation.'

He smiled again, and once again my body (pro-Christian) warred with my mind (definitely anti-Christian). 'So you couldn't have Released me last night had I been a soul in torment?'

I threw my hands up, then let them fall to my hips. 'How do I know? I haven't tried to Release a human spirit! Now, I've given; it's your turn again. What were you doing there last night?'

The smile faded as he got to his feet, taking two steps until he was close enough to me that I could feel the heat from his body. He pulled my dark glasses from my face, examining first one eye, then the other; then his finger traced the line of my jaw. I wanted to pull back, to move away from the strange attraction that he held for me, but I couldn't. His eyes were warm and dark on mine, his finger stirring little frissons of fire down my neck, blossoming out to every conceivable part of my body.

'Joy believes you are my Beloved, the woman who is meant to spend her life with me.'

'Oh,' I breathed, not wanting him to stop touching me, but not allowing myself to fall under his spell. I knew what it was to give power over oneself to a man; I'd never make that mistake again. With an effort, I stepped back. His eyes were shuttered as he dropped his hand.

'I think Joy has the wrong woman.'

He looked at me strangely for a moment, then nodded. 'I believe you are correct. I would know my Beloved the moment I saw her, and she likewise, yet I have no awareness of you unless I am in your presence. I fear I must disappoint Joy with the truth.'

'I'm sure she'll recover,' I said, my voice a bit hoarse. 'I know I will strive to.'

The half smile reappeared on his lips again; then suddenly I was in his arms, pressed up against his chest, his thighs hard against my legs. 'Then it cannot matter if we put the question to a brief test, can it?' he asked just before his mouth swooped down to capture mine.

I will say one thing for the man: living more than nine hundred years had taught him how to kiss. His lips started out all hard and domineering, then suddenly turned soft. His tongue probed, then slid in, doing things I'd never imagined a tongue could do. I let him kiss me for about a minute before he pulled away enough to speak without his tongue in my mouth.

'You are not helping?'

'Give the man a cigar.'

He pulled away even farther so he could glare into my eyes better. 'You are attracted to me; I can feel it. You enjoy looking at me. Your heart rate speeds up when I am near you, yet you do not allow yourself to take pleasure in a simple kiss?'

'Look, Romeo, I'm attracted to a lot of men, that doesn't mean anything other than that I have a healthy libido. And I doubt if anything, even a kiss, is simple where you're concerned.'

He looked oddly pleased with that statement. 'We will try it again, and this time you will join in.'

I stepped back. 'Thanks, but I think you've checked my teeth aplenty tonight.'

His eyes turned ebony.

'Oh, stop doing that, you big show-off!' I pushed him back and went to get a few tools from my bag. If I was going to have to entertain a vampire in my hotel room, the least I could do was take some readings on him.

That was what I told myself. My brain, however, knew that I needed to put some physical distance between us before I threw myself on him and kissed the fangs right out of his head.

When I turned back to him he was leaning against the wall, one long finger rubbing against the lovely curve of his lower lip. My mind rebelled for a moment and flashed glorious Technicolor, wide-screen memories of what it felt like to have those lips caressing mine. I told my mental projectionist to take the evening off, and started checking out Christian's ion levels.

'Why do you wear the clothing of a man?'

I ignored the question and switched on the thermal-imaging recorder.

'I do not want my woman to ape masculine habits. Women should be feminine, soft, giving. It is your role in life, yet you are none of those things.'

'Which is probably why it's a good thing I'm not your woman,' I answered, giving more orders to my mind to stop imagining what it would be like to be with him. He might be sexy as hell, but he was also domineering and arrogant, two traits that can be very dangerous.

'I said that you were not my Beloved; I said nothing about you not being my woman.'

I shivered at the undertone of dark promise in his voice. I thought I remembered reading somewhere that vampires could seduce with their voices alone—of that I had no doubt. I clicked on the digital voice recorder. Maybe someone back at the UPRA offices could analyze his voice and see what made it so beautiful and evocative. 'So were you born this way, or did another vampire snack on you and turn you?'

'You are also too independent and obstinate, and you lack self-confidence.'

I ground my teeth and turned on the EMF counter, making notes of the readings. I would not let him goad me into—Hey! I squinted my eyes at him in the meanest possible manner. 'Obstinate?