The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2 (34 page)

Tina gestured to the living room. “Look around you. You haven’t cleaned your house in weeks, have you?”

Anna blinked, taking in the discarded clothing, newspapers and take-out food containers. The room was littered with trash and clutter. And she hadn’t noticed.

“And what about Emerson? This cat hates me normally. What the heck is he doing to my leg? Are you spending any time with him at all anymore?” As if to lend emphasis to Tina’s words, the tabby cat was rubbing himself all over Tina’s legs and feet, purring, then stood on his hind legs and batted at her knees, begging for attention. His eyes rolled back into his head with pure pleasure as Tina rubbed him behind his ears.

A pang of guilt swept over Anna.

“And beyond all that,” Tina continued. “From what I gather, you haven’t left your house except to go to work since this whole thing started. And I’ll bet your work progress is less than stellar right now.”

Anna frowned. Tina was right.

Tina scooted closer to Anna and wrapped one arm around her shoulders. “Sweetie, I am really worried about you. You’re obsessed. You’re never going to find love again this way. And this is not healthy. You yourself know that it’s not good for you, don’t you?”

Resigned, Anna nodded. “I need to end it.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll go back to see him tonight and tell him it’s over and then—”

“No,” Tina interrupted. “You should not see him again. You need to quit. An alcoholic does not allow himself just a little drink to remind himself not to drink.”

Disappointment rained over Anna. Tina was right. She was completely right. And Anna hated that her friend was right. She already felt a pang of despair at the knowledge she’d never see Aether again.

“Okay,” Anna agreed.

“Okay, what?”

“I’m done. No more astral travelling. No more sexy dream guy.”

Tina hugged her. “Good. And this weekend, we are going out and you are going to meet a real, live hot-as-hell man, and you’ll allow him to sweep you off your feet and live happily ever after, right?”

Anna allowed herself a small smile. “If I must.”

After giving Emerson one more quick scratch behind the ears, Tina rose and headed toward the door.

“Tina, what do you think Richard meant?”

Tina paused with her hand on the front door handle and thought about the question. “I think he was trying to lend you strength so you could move on, that’s what I think.”

“And the whole ‘love is in the air’, thing?”

Tina shrugged. “Wasn’t he always writing you bad poetry? Perhaps his talent hasn’t improved much in the afterlife.” Tina’s grin was infectious.

Anna returned the smile. “See you later.”

“See you this weekend,” Tina insisted.

“I agreed, didn’t I?”

Tina lifted her eyebrows as if to say she wasn’t sure Anna’s word could be trusted. Then, she gestured toward Emerson who had followed her to the door. “And pay attention to that cat, will you? I’m no good as a stand-in. I can feel my allergies acting up already.”

To show his gratitude for Tina’s concern with his plight, Emerson promptly coughed up a fur ball on to her foot.

True to her word, Anna did not attempt another meeting with Aether. She forced herself to accompany Tina on at least one night out on the town per week. They frequented places Tina strategically chose for man-hunting potential. Anna actually found herself having fun during these outings. She flirted, got flirted with and gave out her phone number a time or two. She even entertained the idea of returning the phone call of a handsome lawyer who’d called.

Her house was clean, her work was caught up and Emerson was happy to have regained his side of the bed. But late at night, when she was supposed to be sleeping, Aether filled her thoughts. And a fierce, aching need swept through her.

Then, one Friday evening after a long, gruelling day at the office – an evening when Anna really would have rather backed out of Date Night with Tina – something truly magical happened.

Anna stood next to the bar in the latest, hippest club, watching people in various modes of attire get their groove on atop the strobe-lit laden dance floor. She sipped a glass of Pinot Grigio and waited for Tina to return from the restroom. Just as she was finishing her last swallow of the wine, a very broad shoulder bumped her arm. She glanced up into familiar green eyes – and choked.

“Are you okay?”

The man who’d bumped her patted her lightly on the back. When she’d calmed down and gathered herself, Anna wiped the wine from her chin and nodded.

Same wavy, jet hair, same chiselled features, definitely the same arresting gaze. How could this be? Was she losing her mind?

Say something,
she told herself.
Say something, anything.
But she could barely breathe, let alone speak. The man didn’t seem to notice. He was studying her, too.

“You seem familiar,” he said. “Do I know you?”

She opened her mouth to answer but then his hand touched her arm and shivers of delight burst over her skin. She stifled a moan of pleasure.

“I’m so sorry about bumping you. This place is really crowded tonight.”

Anna swallowed and finally found her voice. “It’s okay.”

If he only knew just how
okay
it was.

“I haven’t seen you here before. Are you local?”

“I live just a few blocks from here,” she told him.

“Really? Me too.” He tilted his head to the side. “Man, I could swear we’ve met before. What’s your name?”

“Anna,” she said. “And yours?”

He stuck his hand out. “Aether. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Anna.”

Anna’s pulse sped and her legs grew weak. It was him. She wasn’t crazy. It was really him. “Aether?” she repeated, incredulous.

He gave her a shy smile. “What can I say? My dad is a professor who specializes in Greek mythology and my mom is an artist. She even painted me once as the Greek god, Aether.”

“Greek god?” Anna repeated, realizing she was starting to sound like a broken record but unable to stop herself.

“Yeah, you know, the god of Air?”

And suddenly everything made perfect, beautiful, crystal clear sense. Her sudden interest in astral travel, meeting Aether and their intense connection. And especially, Richard’s message on the bathroom mirror.

Moisture welled in Anna’s eyes. Her heart swelled with elation.
Richard, you truly are the most wonderful man. I will never forget you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for looking out for me.
The words whispered through her mind, unspoken. Somehow she knew that wherever Richard was, he heard her.

“Let’s go get you a new glass of wine, shall we?”

Anna smiled. “Thank you.”

“It’s the least I can do.”

He took her hand and led her toward the bar. Anna happily followed him, suddenly aware only of the tall man in front of her, of the feel of his large hand covering hers, of the scent of his woodsy cologne. She tuned out the other people pushing in around them and the loud music blaring through the space.

When they reached the bar, Aether quickly made his order, then placed a fresh glass of wine into Anna’s free hand. Tingles spread from the hand Aether held and travelled up her arm. A current of delicious, sensual heat followed.

Aether sucked in his breath and glanced down at their joined hands. Then he smiled at her, flashing straight white teeth and a set of dimples she hadn’t noticed during their nocturnal meetings.

“Let’s go sit outside where we can talk. It’s too noisy in here.”

“Yes,” she agreed, “Let’s.”

They wound their way to the exit. The tables scattered around the outside eating area of the restaurant-turned-nightclub were full. Anna’s heart sank. Then a couple to their right vacated their table, and Anna and Aether quickly snatched it up.

Once they were seated, Anna expected Aether to release her hand but he did not. Instead, he turned his hand palm up and traced a lazy pattern over her fingers. His gaze sparkled with mischief.

“Anna, I’m almost positive we’ve met before.”

She smiled a mysterious smile. “Perhaps.”

He chuckled. “Well, I want you tell me everything about yourself. I want to know all there is to know about you, Mystery Lady.”

Anna’s brows rose. “That could take awhile.”

Aether pressed a soft kiss on her hand. A jolt of desire shot through her.

“I’ve got a lifetime.”

Karen Chance

Chapter One

The sound of a key turning in the rusty old lock had everyone scurrying forward with hands outstretched, begging for food, for water, for life. Gillian didn’t go with them. Trussed up as she was, she could barely move. And there was no life that way.

The burly jailer came in carrying a lantern, with two more dark shapes behind him. To her surprise, he didn’t immediately kick the women aside with brutal indifference. Instead he let them crowd around, even the ones who had been there a while, whose skeletal hands silently begged with the others.

“This is the lot, my lord,” he said. “And a sorry one it is, too.”

“Why are some of them gagged?” The low, pleasant tenor came from one of the shapes she had assumed to be a guard. The speaker came forwards, but she couldn’t see much of him. The hood on his cape was pulled down and a gloved hand covered his face, probably in an attempt to block the stench.

She smiled grimly and let her head fall back into her arms. It wouldn’t work. Even after two days, she hadn’t become inured to it: the thick, sickly-sweet odour of flesh, unwashed and unhealed.

“Some are strong enough to curse a man to hell otherwise,” the jailer informed him, spitting on the ground.

“Show me the strongest,” the stranger said, and Gillian’s head jerked back up.

The jailor grumbled, but he ordered his men to drag the bound bodies that had been shoved to the back of the room to the forefront. The stranger bent over each one, pushing matted, filthy hair out of their eyes, as if looking for someone. Gillian didn’t watch. She concentrated everything she had on biting through the remaining mass of cloth in her mouth, her eyes on the open door behind men.

The guards came only once a day, doling out water and a thin gruel, and she didn’t know what kind of shape she would be in by tomorrow. Even worse, she didn’t know how Elinor would be. She glanced over at the child’s huddled form, but she hadn’t moved. Not for hours now, a fact that had Gillian’s heart clenching, part in fear, part in black rage.

If those whoresons let her daughter die in here, she’d rip this place apart stone by stone. Her arms jerked convulsively against the shackles, but they were iron, not rope. If she couldn’t speak, she had no chance of breaking them.

It didn’t help that she hadn’t had water in more than a day. The guard assigned to that detail last night had been one of those she’d attacked on arrival, in an aborted escape attempt. He’d kicked her in the ribs as he passed and waved the ladle under her nose, but not allowed her so much as a drop. If he’d followed orders, he might have noticed what she was doing, might have replaced the worn woollen gag with something sturdier.

But he hadn’t.

“That one’s dead,” the jailor said, kicking a limp body aside. He quickly checked the others, pulling out one more before lining up the remaining women at the stranger’s feet. Most were silent, watching with hollow, desperate eyes above their gags. A few struggled weakly, either smart enough to realize that this might be a way out, or too far gone to understand what was happening.

“What about this one?” A hand with a square cut ruby ring caught Gillian’s chin, turning her face up to the light.

“You don’t want her!” the jailer said, aiming another kick at her abused ribs.

“The agreement was, ‘in good condition’,” the stranger said, blocking the booted foot with his own.

Gillian barely noticed. Up close, it was obvious that she was in even more trouble than she’d thought. The fact that the stranger was dead wasn’t a good sign. That he was still walking around was worse.

Vampire.

They stared at each other and he smiled slightly at her start of recognition. He had a nice face – young, as if that meant anything – with clear, unmarked skin, a head of dark brown curls and a small goatee. The last would have been amusing under other circumstances, as if he was trying to make his pleasant face appear more sinister.

She wondered why he didn’t just bare his fangs.

“I don’t see as it makes a difference, if you’re aiming to feed off her,” the guard said, angry, but smart enough not to show it.

Those liquid dark eyes swept over her. “What I do with the woman is my affair.”

“Ahh. Some sport beforehand, then. I’d not risk it, meself. One of my men tried the night she was brought in and the bitch cursed him. He’s in a bad way, still.”

“How tragic,” the vampire sounded amused.