Love Me Forever. Rosemary Laurey

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СКАЧАТЬ both stared at her as if she’d sprouted pumpkins from her ears. She recognized that look in Christopher’s eyes. “We are going to do something, right?”

      Justin spoke first. “There’s nothing to be done.” He paused. “Not now. Maybe later.”

      “Later?” Dixie waited for clarification. She managed, but only just, not to fold her arms and tap her foot. This was an elder vampire she was dealing with, not a recalcitrant third grader.

      “Dixie, I know you’re thinking!” Christopher said. Unfortunately, that was completely true. She veiled her thoughts. Fat lot of good it did now as he frowned at her. “We can’t just barge in on his territory and offer them asylum. It doesn’t work that way.”

      “Okay, how does it work?”

      “Diplomatically.” Dixie raised her eyebrows at Justin’s reply. He went on. “Precipitous action, even if well-intentioned, would only backfire and result in the vampire equivalent of a territorial invasion. I just went to a lot of trouble to establish boundaries. They need to remain.”

      “And so those poor women remain too?”

      He shook his head. “For now, yes.” Okay, he’d pontificated before about time and immortality but even so. “It will be taken care of, Dixie. But not by us.”

      “Who?” She heard Kit gave a gasp of exasperation. Okay, maybe she was pushing it, but the thought of those two women in eternal bondage…

      “Someone who has influence with Vlad.” Justin paused.

      “Gwyltha.” The leader of their colony. The woman who’d broken Justin’s heart. “I’ll talk to her when I get home. She has even stronger feelings than you in this matter, Dixie.”

      “She’ll stop him?”

      “If anyone can, she will,” he replied.

      Dixie nodded. “I know.” Much as she hated to sit back and wait, she’d been vampire long enough to know Gwyltha’s powers far exceeded her own.

      “Let her handle it, Dixie. Don’t go rushing off on a rescue mission.”

      Christopher’s words irritated beyond measure. “I don’t rush off on rescue missions. I plan them in advance!” She stomped out into the kitchen and stared at the never-used stove. She trusted Justin. If he said Gwyltha would handle it, she would. But something burned deep in Dixie’s soul at the thought of those two ghouls…or were there perhaps more?

      The whole thing seemed preposterous. Okay, Vlad and Justin barely tolerated each other, but the two times she’d met Vlad, he’d not struck her as evil. Not as books and movies implied. Powerful, intense and stubborn as any other male on the planet, yes. But if Justin said he’d seen ghouls, he had. He’d been willing to deal with Vlad to ensure she and Christopher had safe territory. The least she could do was follow his advice.

      She’d let Gwyltha handle this. At least for now.

      “Are you all right.”

      Dixie turned at Christopher’s words. He stood in the doorway, arms folded, eyes dark with worry. “I will be.” She stepped closer and let him wrap her in his arms.

      “Sure about that?”

      She had to smile. He sounded so concerned. “Yes. I’m sure…Each time I discover the existence of another mythical creature, it gets easier to believe.”

      He stroked her head as he held her close. “Oh, Dixie, what did I drag you into?”

      She looked up at him. “By my reckoning, there wasn’t much dragging. I was the one chasing across England after you!”

      “But you had no idea what you were chasing after.”

      “I knew what you were. I knew you were in danger and I loved you.” She kissed him. “That was enough.”

      He kissed her back, his lips sure against hers as her mouth opened, his hands, in her hair and against her back, holding her flat against him. Her body responded as always, molding into his as if absorbing his old strength. “I’ll never get enough of you,” he said into her hair.

      “Good.” She grinned up at him. “I know Justin needs to feed, and hospitality and all that, but please don’t stay out late.”

      He grinned back. “As if I could, with you waiting for me.” His lips touched her forehead with a soft promise of later. “And Dixie…” He paused, smoothing her mussed hair. “Trust Justin in this.”

      She would, up to a point. “How different are ghouls from us? How can you tell one by sight?”

      “I’ve no idea, Dixie. I’ve never encountered one.”

      Not in four hundred years! “But I thought…” What did she think? “I mean surely…”

      “Dixie, when would I? Before I met you, I seldom strayed much beyond the colony, other than to make a presence wherever I lived. I never traveled except to change abode and the odd trip to see Tom, wherever he happened to be. We had reunions in Yorkshire every twenty-five years or so, or when a new vampire was created. But contact with other colonies—virtually never. We don’t permit the making of ghouls, so I never saw one.”

      “But Justin knew. At least enough to recognize one, or rather two.”

      “He’s been around longer than I have.” Right! Well over a millennium more. “You’re still worried about them.” It wasn’t a question. Christopher knew her too darn well.

      “I can’t not worry.”

      “Mom, please hurry up!”

      “I’m hurrying,” Stella replied. Heck, she’d already stabbed herself half-a-dozen times. She couldn’t sew any faster.

      “Everyone’s going to be out ahead of me!” Sam hopped from one socked foot to the other. The combination of vampire cape, white face paint, navy tee-shirt and Rugrats underwear was novel to say the least—almost worth a picture, but she doubted he’d cooperate for that one.

      “Give me fifteen minutes, Sam. Go set the timer on the microwave and I bet I’ll beat the clock.”

      He scampered off, obviously delighted to be the one timing her for a change, and Stella took the chance to sew in peace. She’d shortened the cape last week, but forgotten all about the pants which looked as if they had about four years’ growing room. Still, it was easy to pull in the elastic at the waist, and now she was tacking up the legs against the clock.

      It wasn’t the finest sewing job but Stella figured it would outlast the evening. “Come on, Sam,” she called, “want to go out?”

      He barreled into the living room, cape flying behind him, and had his pants pulled on in seconds flat. It took only a little longer to pull on his sneakers and snap the velcro tight. “All ready, Mom.” He grabbed up his empty pillowcase. “Let’s go!”

      She crammed her disposable camera into her pocket, grabbed her keys and followed Sam out into the evening. She could almost taste the excitement in the air. Knots of СКАЧАТЬ