Enchant the Night. Amanda Ashley

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СКАЧАТЬ darted away from the edge of the bed, turned and left the room. If he lived, she would deal with him in the morning.

      And if he died . . . ? She didn’t even want to think about that.

      In her bedroom, she pulled off her jeans and sweater and crawled under the covers, only to lie there, staring up at the ceiling while a multitude of questions chased themselves around and around like hamsters on a wheel.

      Callie was on the brink of sleep when she remembered her grandmother’s words from the night before. Be careful, Callie. You’re on dangerous ground.

      Had Ava been warning her against Quill himself, or the danger that surrounded him?

      With a shake of her head, she flopped onto her stomach and closed her eyes. There was no way in the world Ava could have known Callie would ever meet someone like Quill.

      No way at all.

      * * *

      Callie’s eyes felt gritty from lack of sleep when she woke in the morning. Her first thought was for the stranger in the guest room. Tiptoeing down the hall, she opened the door a crack and peeked inside. From what she could see, he hadn’t moved a muscle since last night.

      Heart pounding with trepidation, she crept into the room. She started to reach out to touch him when she remembered how he had reacted the night before. Taking a deep breath, she placed her fingertips on the pulse in his neck.

      He didn’t grab her this time. Instead, he turned his head to look up at her, his eyes dark with pain.

      “You killed those two men, didn’t you?”

      He nodded.

      “Did you know them?”

      “No.” But he had known who they were.

      Callie worried her lower lip. Why had those men attacked him? And what had they used to inflict so much damage? She couldn’t shake the feeling that any other man would have died from his injuries. “Can I get you anything?” she asked.

      His gaze slammed into hers.

      Callie swallowed hard, afraid she knew exactly what he wanted.

      He smiled faintly as he reached for her arm.

      She turned away as he bit into her wrist. It had hurt last night. But today the feeling was oddly sensual when it should have been painful and repellant. He drank from her as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

      And she let him.

      After taking only a few swallows, he closed his eyes and released her arm.

      Callie stared down at him a moment, then hurried out of the room. After quietly closing the door behind her, she returned to her own room. Feeling a sudden need to get out of the house, she changed out of her nightgown and into a pair of jeans and a sweater, grabbed her wallet and her keys and left the house.

      After getting into her car, she drove aimlessly up one street and down the other. Seeing a market ahead, she stopped and bought a quart of milk, a loaf of bread, and a bunch of bananas. It felt odd to be doing something so normal.

      When she pulled out of the parking lot twenty minutes later, the realization of what she was doing sizzled through her like a bolt of lightning.

      She was hiding a vampire in her house.

      And he was feeding on her.

      * * *

      Later that afternoon, Callie spent several hours going over the photographs she had taken at the Nelson wedding before putting together a set of digital proofs. She felt a wave of pride when she finished. It had been a long shoot. She had photographed the bride while she got ready, the bride and her bridesmaids, the groom and his ushers. The wedding itself, of course. Then the family at the park. And, lastly, the reception. Counting the engagement photos and the ones taken at the reception, she had taken close to three hundred pictures.

      After uploading the proofs to a password-protected website, she emailed the password to the bride.

      Rising, she stretched her back and shoulders, and went through the clutter on her desk, tossing old store receipts and out-of-date coupons. She made sure her cameras were in working order before putting them away, then wandered around the room. She was stalling, she thought, reluctant to enter the guest room again, even as she wondered how her guest was doing.

      Her guest. Hah. Some guest. The man was a vampire.

      A vampire! How was that even possible in this day and age? Or in any age? Should she call someone? Ghostbusters? An exorcist? The police? Who would believe her? Still, if they could see him lying there, unmoving and covered in blood, how could there be any doubt about what he was?

      Gathering her courage, she tiptoed down the hall and peered into the room. She watched him for a few moments, then quietly closed the door.

      In the kitchen, she made a turkey sandwich and carried it into the living room, then turned on the TV. She was flipping through the channels when one of the stations broke in with the news that two dead bodies had been found in Hunter Park, accompanied by a warning to avoid the area until further notice.

      It was the top story on the news that night, as well.

      And none of it seemed real.

      * * *

      The next two days didn’t seem real, either. The vampire remained on his back in bed, unmoving. It was totally bizarre, knowing he was in her guest room. She wasn’t afraid of him, exactly. After all, he had never hurt her and he didn’t seem particularly menacing while he was just lying there like a . . . a dead man. She couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. What would happen if and when he woke up was something she didn’t even want to think about.

      There was a strange aura hovering over her house. She noticed that the birds who usually visited the feeder in the backyard stayed away. Her neighbor’s Siamese cat stopped using her flowerbed as his outhouse. Except for the mailman, everyone who passed by walked on the other side of the street. It was almost as if her house was invisible. Sometimes she felt like Sleeping Beauty, living in limbo while she waited for the prince to free her.

      And late each night, her guest drank a little of her blood.

      * * *

      Thursday morning, Callie woke early. She dressed quickly, wolfed down her breakfast, and left the house, certain that if she didn’t get out and see other people, she would lose her mind. She drove to the mall, thinking there was no other place where she would be surrounded by so many people. After leaving her car in the parking garage, she took the escalator up to the food court, where she ordered a hazelnut latte, then found a vacant table and sat down. It felt good to be in the midst of so many normal people doing ordinary things when her life was anything but normal.

      What would happen if she told Vivian that she’d been right, that the man who had bitten her really was a vampire? Would her friend laugh again and tell Callie she was crazy? Insist she call the police? Or demand to see him herself? None of those options sounded appealing.

      What if he got better and refused to leave? Who did you call to evict a vampire?

      After СКАЧАТЬ