Authors: Tanya Huff

4 Blood Pact (43 page)

“I wasn’t able to until just recently—things were a little chaotic at first. And then . . .” She rubbed a pale finger along the edge of his kitchen table, glad she’d lost the ability to blush. “And then, I was afraid.”

He’d never heard her admit to being afraid of anything before. “Afraid of what?”

She looked up and he found his answer in the desperate question in her eyes.

“Vicki . . . ” He made her name a gentle accusation.
Couldn’t you trust me?

“Well, I’m different
now and . . . What are you laughing at?”

How long had it been since he laughed like that? About fourteen months, he suspected. “If
that’s
all you’re worried about; Vicki, you’ve
always
been different.”

The question faded, replaced by hope. “So you don’t mind?”

“I’d be lying if I said it won’t take getting used to, but, no, I don’t mind.” Mind? There wasn’t much he couldn’t get used to if it meant having her back beside him.

“It won’t be the same.”

“No shit.”

“Henry says it can be better.”

“I don’t care what Henry says.”

“It won’t be settling down and raising a family like you wanted.”

He slid off the counter. “Don’t tell me what I wanted. I wanted you.”

She opened her arms, her teeth a very white invitation against the curve of her mouth.

He met her halfway.

They hit the floor together.

Two hours and twenty-three minutes later, Vicki pillowed her head on his shoulder and stared up at the kitchen ceiling. She’d thought that over the last fourteen months she’d come to terms with what she’d become—vampire, child of darkness, nightwalker—but she hadn’t, not really, not until her teeth had met through a fold of Mike Celluci’s skin and she’d drawn his life back into hers. She licked at a drop of sweat and could feel his breath, warm against the top of her head, his scent wrapped around her.

“What’re you thinking of?” he asked sleepily.

Vampire. Child of Darkness. Nightwalker.

Reaching up, she brushed the curl of hair back off his forehead and smiled. “I was just thinking about the next four hundred and fifty years.”