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careful. Only when she withdrew did she realize that Andrew
had been stroking her hair. She liked the physical contact,
and bathed in it. His fingers were gentle, barely touching her,
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just enough so that she felt them. He treated her like
something to be cherished. The memory she had witnessed
made her think he really did have some feeling for her. Maybe
he was as floored to have found her again as she was to have
met him. She could have fallen asleep in his lap if she knew
him better. Amara was aware that her entire being was a
sponge, especially when she was starving. She looked up
finally and could barely meet his eyes from the
embarrassment raging through her.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Andrew caressed the side of her face. His finger trailed
down toward her neck, but he stopped and pulled his hand
away. She noticed his eyes settled on her pulse point. His
skin glowed in the morning light, but she assumed that he
was hungry since she had tapped into him.
"You should get some sleep. I'll watch out for you as I did
when you were a human child."
Amara paused and saw the serious smile on his face. Yet
his eyes reflected something else. He knew she had gotten a
glimpse into his mind. She shook her head because she
wasn't going to be the one to bring up the subject. "When we
get to a rational place in this whole scenario, we have to
talk."
Andrew laughed. She crawled up to the pillows. Before she
knew it, sleep encompassed her. Her mind filled with dreams
that were not dreams, memories that she had thought were
only part of a crazy imagination. She was something else,
someone else, centuries ago...
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Chapter Eight
Jacquelyn opened her eyes. She was in the castle, the very
place she had run away from. Damn him. Damn Andrew. She
had wanted to be rid of him for good. He had condemned her
to a life of eternal darkness and she hated him for that. He
had promised her a life without pain, a way for her to heal her
wounds and live forever. He never spoke of the
consequences, turning her into a creature shunned by the
sun. Besides, Crimson, the vampire who owned the castle,
couldn't stand her because she whined about her existence.
For a long time, Jacquelyn had shared her room solely with
her creator, but twenty years ago she had requested one of
her own. It was bad enough she couldn't go for a walk
without him following her, in the jealous fear she was going
to choose a human over him.
She barely connected to humans anymore. They were like
cows or pigs, only they were food with thoughts. How could
she relate to them when she had moved beyond the mortal
coil ages ago? She wanted to put the last two centuries
behind her and make a fresh start. It wasn't until recently,
she had accepted, she had to hunt for blood. Before that,
horrible pain and cramps had engulfed her being and her
mind was nearly crazed until she fed. Even though she had
done this for years, Andrew would find her. She felt it was
better to die than to take a life from the race which had
spawned her. Now, she had learned there was more to the
night than feeding. Darkness enticed her. It spoke to a part of
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her it never had when she was human. There was no fear of
wandering out under a moonless sky and being taken by
woodland sprites. She was a cut above mortality and she had
only begun to see why the others enjoyed being the creatures
they were. That didn't mean she wanted to live with Andrew.
God, I hate men, even if they are vampires. All males of
the species are assholes.
She slammed her fist on the window, considering jumping
out, at least that way freedom would be hers. Andrew would
find her no matter where she escaped to. They were
connected through the blood he had given her when she was
dying of pneumonia. With each passing year she hated him
more, even though a piece of her yearned to be his slave.
She hated that weakness. A slice of her loved him and longed
to be in his arms for eternity, shy away from the sun for good
even though she could walk in it. Jacquelyn had more
tolerance than most of her kind. It was one of her oddities,
like her ability to set things aflame if there was fire in her
vicinity. Certain abilities traveled down through bloodlines.
Andrew had neither of her gifts, but someone in the line did
and he envied her for those. He longed to be her lord and
master, even though she could take care of herself. Andrew
might have bestowed life in darkness on her, but he was not
going to tell her how to live. She despised that her family had
perished and she had seen enough seasons to watch three
generations live and die. That hadn't fazed Andrew.
Jacquelyn was coming off her last bout of starvation. It
was an unpleasant way to die. She was tired of suffering the
self-inflicted torture. She even ate more human food than the
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others did because she needed the nourishment. Her body
could handle some food and she rather enjoyed it. What the
others didn't understand was that she was lonely to her very
soul and needed someone else to confide in, someone who
would understand her.
Andrew be damned. I don't care what he or Crimson want.
This is my life.
The two of them kept telling her one day it would dawn on
her that the night was beautiful, there was more to it than
supping off the living. For the first fifty years or so she had
truly enjoyed her death with Andrew. He taught her to read
and write. She understood more of the world by being able to
read. Then he showed her how to master her abilities at the
hunt. At first, it had been fun moving through the woods at
inhuman speeds. Andrew had shown her wonderful things she
could do with her body. At first she had been fearful, but he
assured her he would never hurt her. He had broken that
promise many times.
Jacquelyn loved him. Part of her would love him forever
because he had been with her since she was a child. He had
watched over her. Andrew had prevented her father from
nearly killing her. He gave her everything she had ever
wanted because her parents were peasants. She never
understood why he had chosen her. He told her she was
special, beautiful and he wanted her with him forever. At
twenty-four, she had been dying of pneumonia. When he had
come, she'd known death was imminent. The shadows were
closing in around her. It was cold. She remembered floating
in-between life and death when she sensed him enter her
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room. His voice and his presence brought her back from the
brink. Her mind heard him whispering and she loved him so [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]