“Lorena, I’m a witch.”
That made her face him again. “What?”
He scowled. “It’s true. I have been all my life. I was born that way into a long line of them. And my family’s not the only one. There are several families with powerful abilities in this area. Our ancestors immigrated over from Ireland together centuries ago to escape persecution for their abilities. We call ourselves The Clann, the Irish Gaelic word for “family”, and each member is called a descendant. When we hit puberty, our powers start to develop.”
“And that’s why you’re able to create fire…”
He nodded. “I can create fire in my hands with a single breath, or form water from the air to put it out. There’s a bunch of other stuff we can do too. But the first thing we learn is to hide our power. You know the kind of world we live in, how people react to anyone with scientifically unexplainable abilities.”
She gave a grim nod. The existence of vampires might be an accepted bit of lore nowadays, but that didn’t make it any safer for them to individually come out of the closet. Too many fear-driven vigilantes threatened their survival. She could only imagine how those same people might react to members of The Clann.
He closed the distance between them again. “My point is…you and I are more alike than I realized. Before I met you, I believed what I was taught, that vampires were the enemy because of the way they’re drawn to The Clann’s powerful blood.”
So that’s why his scent drew her like no other human’s before. “The only reason I feel…drawn to you is because you’re descended from a family in The Clann?”
His slow grin was unexpected. “You feel drawn to me? Right now?”
She nodded and gulped. She’d never wanted to kiss someone so badly in her life.
He cupped her cheek, his smile widening. “Tell me, exactly how do I make you feel?”
She closed her eyes. “Like if I don’t kiss you, I’ll never be able to think straight again.”
He chuckled, and his breath puffed against her lips. She licked them. “Lorena, I should also mention…I found this spell after you left my house the other night.”
His words bounced around inside her fuzzy mind, almost lost beneath the need rising inside her for him. “Hmm? A spell?”
The tip of his nose brushed hers once, twice, nuzzling her, tempting her to tilt her head to once side then the other for him. “Yes. This spell was very interesting. It’s supposed to block the energy flow between two people.”
Block the energy flow. “That’s…a good idea.” Her hands drifted up to grip his shoulders against her will.
“And it has an interesting side effect. It makes a sort of shield around people with powerful blood, so gorgeous vamps like you won’t be attracted to our blood.”
“Oh. That would be a good one to try.” She sighed, liking how the muscles in his shoulders bunched beneath her fingers.
“I already did. I’m carrying the charm now.”
Chapter 10
It took a few seconds for his words to penetrate her foggy senses. When they did, her eyes snapped open to meet Conor’s grinning eyes. “You…you’re using this spell now?” Which meant she wasn’t attracted to him just because of his blood now? “How can you be sure it’s working?”
Because she definitely still wanted him.
“Well it certainly seemed to knock a few years off my life, if the new gray in my hair’s anything to go by.” His eyes flicked upward, drawing her attention to his hair. For the first time tonight, she noticed his hair now laced with fine lines of gray.
She frowned. “It took years off your life? Why?”
He shrugged as if it didn’t really matter. “It was an ancient spell from the old ways, ways The Clann doesn’t use anymore, probably because it required a sacrifice instead of simply rerouting the earth’s natural energy according to our willpower like the form of magic we do now.”
“A sacrifice?” Her eyes widened still further.
He chuckled. “Relax, it was only a personal sacrifice of a few years of my life. No goats or other animals were involved. And I’m sure I wouldn’t have missed those years anyway.”
Her gaze dropped to his chest where she could hear his heart pounding steady and calm. Strangely she didn’t feel the urge to listen to his blood surging through his veins. Instead, she felt much more drawn to those gorgeous lips of his.
She licked her own lips. “What if the spell simply changed the blood lust instead of blocking it completely?”
“Let’s try it.” He took three long steps away from her, and she sighed at the loss of his warmth. He reached into his pocket and withdrew two items…a glossy black stone, and his Swiss Army knife keychain. He tossed the rock onto the fake bed a few yards away, and immediately his tantalizing aroma hit her full force, making her stumble toward him. She gasped.
“Oh God, Conor…” She held her hands out palm up as if that would somehow stop her from lurching toward him. Desperate to stop herself from the unexpected craving that raked at her stomach, she closed her eyes and her knees collapsed, dropping her onto the edge of the bed behind her. Never before had she lusted after someone’s blood so much. Even the first night they’d met, the blood lust had come upon her gradually enough that she’d been able to brace herself for his nearness. This time, the blood lust had hit at full volume without any warning at all, leaving her stunned by the impact.
His footsteps moved away, and after a few seconds, she heard a creak from the bed. And just like that, as if someone had turned the dial down on its volume, the blood lust faded away. Shaken but at least able to think clearly again, she opened her eyes.
Conor sat on the edge of the bed beside her, the black stone in his hand, his eyes gentle. “Better now?”
She nodded. “That was…intense. I wasn’t expecting it to hit me like that.”
“What about now?”
Horrified, she couldn’t speak as he quickly pressed the tip of his knife against his left index finger. A single bead of blood welled up on his skin.
And yet…the blood lust didn’t return.
“Still okay?” he murmured.
“I…yes.” Hope, something she hadn’t felt in so long she almost didn’t recognize it, rose inside her. Could it be true? Could controlling her cravings be so easy as a simple spell?
His eyes darkened with desire again. “We should test it a bit more, I think.” Slowly, he grinned and crooked his cut finger, beckoning her to come to him.
But it wasn’t the blood that made her take those steps toward him until she stood between his knees. And it wasn’t the blood lust that made her hands reach out to cup his head as he looked up at her.
“We should superglue that rock to you somewhere,” she muttered, feeling her rational thoughts fading away under the pull of his gaze.
His grin widened. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.”
She ducked her head, hesitating as their breaths mingled, wondering if the charm would truly protect him from her dark abilities. Only one way to find out. Their lips met, drew away, met again. The need to kiss him worsened. But this kiss was different. The light and warmth that filled her up wasn’t like drinking down the sun this time. It was more like she’d become the sun somehow, and she was radiating her own heat.
She pulled back and searched his face. “How do you feel?” she whispered. “Dizzy? Tired? Drained?”
His hands slid up the outside of her thighs to grasp her hips, lifting and turning her until she straddled his lap. “I feel like you’d better kiss me again. You know, just to be sure that charm’s still working.”
Laughter, a long lost friend, bubbled up out of her as he nudged her backwards onto the bed. He stretched out beside her, one knee finding its way between her legs until she wrapped a leg around his hips. He kissed her harder then, his tongue delving into her mouth, their hands briefly colliding as they struggled to stroke and caress every inch of each other’s bodies. She felt like a mad woman as she tugged his cl
othes off, then her own. But she felt like a woman, not a vampire. When his mouth moved over her skin, the moan that came out of her throat was a woman’s, and she remembered who she used to be before her life had changed and darkened.
He braced himself over her, that black stone clenched in one hand by her shoulder as he used his other hand to guide himself inside her.
And then he was filling her up, but with an all too real hardness, not some invisible scent. He pulled out, then thrust in again, and she gripped handfuls of the comforter in an effort not to hurt him as the intense sensations drove her hips up to meet his. Intense sensations that were real and normal and as human as they could get.
Need grew within her, and she froze, examining it, checking for the return of the blood lust.
“Okay?” he asked, grinding out the word as if holding his hips still took every bit of effort he had.
But the need had nothing to do with being a vampire, and everything to do with being a woman.
Smiling, she nodded. “Very okay.”
He circled his hips once then found his rhythm again as his mouth captured hers, as if he were the one drawing sustenance from her kiss.
All too soon, the need exploded inside her. Despite opening her eyes wide, darkness filled her vision. But even this darkness was different, filled with tiny pinpoints of light like miniature fireworks. She cried out his name, and his voice was right there beside her ear, murmuring her name over and over like a spell as he came.
While the rushing of their blood calmed, she listened to his breathing, harsh at first, then gradually slower. She couldn’t seem to stop smiling. It had been so long, too long since she’d felt like the woman she used to be. Since she’d felt normal.
Then her smile slipped away as she once again became aware of the bed beneath them. She opened her eyes only to see the fake trees around them that were supposed to simulate a secret wooded glade for the ballet’s forbidden and doomed lovers to spend their one and only wedding night together within. Both the bed and the plywood-framed canvas walls of painted-on woods had been built to be easily rolled onto and off the stage, and eventually loaded into a truck when the ballet moved on to its next performance location.
Whatever this was that Conor and she were building between them couldn’t even become as solid and lasting as these stage props. Her dance company would be moving on soon, and her and the stage props with it, taking her from the only man who had ever made her feel even more alive than dancing could.
How would she ever go back to her previous life when her two remaining weeks here ended?
Chapter 11
They spent every free moment together during the next two weeks. Chrissy was thrilled to have Lorena over for dinner each night, peppering her with dance-related questions and begging her to tell stories about what it was like to perform on tour.
And on the weekend nights, when Chrissy stayed over at friends’ or her grandmother’s, Lorena reveled in the new kind of craving Conor’s deft fingers and lips and body created within her.
Though their time together grew shorter every day, neither said anything about her impending departure until their last night together. She would be leaving tomorrow with her company for the next stop of their tour.
They made love that night, and yet even after they both cried out with their climaxes and the afterglow forced a calm over their bodies, she could still feel the desperation like a heavy blanket draped over them. How had this man become so essential to her happiness? Her life had been so empty before him, so cold and devoid of any joy beyond dancing, even before she’d been turned into a vampire.
“Lorena, stay with me.” Conor’s murmur was quiet in the darkness of his bedroom, but his words were so unexpected that she jerked in surprise.
“You mean…don’t leave with my company tomorrow?”
He nodded, raising up on his forearms at either side of her shoulders so he could stare down at her. “I’d go with you if I could, but I can’t until Chrissy goes to college. So stay. Stay with me, and give us a chance.”
Stay here…and give up her dancing?
“You wouldn’t have to quit dancing,” he said, his voice steady and calm. But the look in his eyes was something else. Something that bordered on fear. “You could teach at your friend’s studio. Or even start your own dance school if you preferred.”
She eased out from beneath him, sitting on the edge of the bed as her mind and heart raced. Part of her bubbled with joy that he wanted her to stay and that he trusted her to teach others’ children now. And she could see the future he was suggesting, staying here to teach others the thrilling happiness she’d found in dance. Maybe she could even create her own professional ballet company here. The idea had crossed her mind more than once this month.
But was this what she really wanted?
And because she didn’t know, she couldn’t stay. Not yet. Not until she was sure.
* * * * *
Four months later...
After four months of touring…four long months of forcing herself through the motions on stage after stage for audiences that would never care as much as Conor did, she knew.
She still loved dancing. But it was no substitute for love.
She didn’t call before she showed up at his doorstep, didn’t know if he’d even be home on a Friday night. Though they’d stayed in touch by phone, she still couldn’t shake the small, dark fear that he might have changed his mind, might have found someone else who was like him. Someone with whom a romance wouldn’t be nearly so complicated.
But he was alone. And when he opened the door and saw her, he didn’t hesitate before wrapping his arms around her so tightly she would have choked if she’d been human.
Home. She was home.
“What about The Clann?” They weren’t the words she’d planned on greeting him with. But they were among the first on her mind. She couldn’t see the other local descendants being quite so eager to have a vampire take up permanent residence in their town.
“They’ll come around once they get to know you,” he promised, though the growl in his voice made it sound more like a threat.
Her mouth twitched against his shoulder with the urge to smile.
“What made you change your mind?” he whispered against her hair, his hand stroking her back and making her shiver with need. But a good need.
“Before I met you, dance was all I had. It was all I lived for.”
His hands grew still on her back. “And now? Is dancing still all you care about?”
“No, it’s different. I’m different. When I’m performing on stage, I’m thinking about you, wishing you were out in the audience watching me. When I’m rehearsing, I’m wondering what you’re doing and when I can see you again. I thought that would change after I left. But it’s been four months, and it’s only getting worse. What good is the dancing if you’re not there to see it?” She shrugged. “Besides, I am immortal, after all. It’s not like my body’s going to wear out if I take a break for a few decades.”
His chuckle warmed the top of her head. “So then you wouldn’t mind spending a few decades with me? As my wife?”
It was her turn to grow still. She let the idea sink in, but found only a warm glow flowing over her in its wake. “You want…to marry me?”
His hands resumed stroking her back and hair, which she’d left down for him. “I should have told you before you left. But I didn’t think you’d believe me then. Not after knowing me for only a few weeks.” He leaned back to look into her eyes as his hands slid down to hold hers. “Lorena, I love you. More than I’ve ever loved anyone else. And even the last four months apart with nothing but phone calls and texts and emails have still been better than anything that happened in the the entire four years before I met you. There’s no real magic in my life without you. Please say you’ll spend the rest of your life with me, or at least that you’ll think about it.”
A smile formed on her lips. “No.”
“No?” A
stark bleakness immobilized his features.
She shook her head. “I don’t need to think about it first. I know what I want, and it’s right here in front of me. But I can’t promise to spend the rest of my life with you.”
He stared down at her, his gaze searching hers. “You can’t?”
“No. I’m immortal, remember? But what I can do is promise to spend the rest of your life with you.”
His grin was slow and sexy as it grew. “That’s good enough for me.”
THE END
Also by Melissa Darnell
Out now from Harlequin Teen in multiple languages in both print and ebook formats in Melissa Darnell’s Clann Series (Teen):
Savannah Colbert has never known why she's so hated by the kids of the Clann. Nor can she deny her instinct to get close to Clann golden boy Tristan Coleman. Especially when she recovers from a strange illness and the attraction becomes nearly irresistible. It's as if he's a magnet, pulling her gaze, her thoughts, even her dreams. Her family has warned her to have nothing to do with him, or any members of the Clann. But when Tristan is suddenly everywhere she goes, Savannah fears she's destined to fail.
For years, Tristan has been forbidden to even speak to Savannah Colbert. Then Savannah disappears from school for a week and comes back…different, and suddenly he can't stay away. Boys seem intoxicated just from looking at her. His own family becomes stricter than ever. And Tristan has to fight his own urge to protect her, to be near her no matter the consequences….
Also out now from Harlequin Teen in Melissa Darnell’s Clann Series (Teen):
Read their sample chapters, playlists, and more at
www.MelissaDarnell.com