"Banks, L A - Vampire Huntress - Between The books 1-14" - читать интересную книгу автора (Banks L. A)

Between Books: Volume One
After The Hunted, Before The Bitten
September 2004

Carlos followed the curve of Damali’s nude hip with his hand, and stared down at her as she dozed. Ten fantastic nights, and in twenty more, he’d have to leave her to go handle his business down at Council. Dawn approached, and were it in his power, he’d stop time. He allowed his fingers to play along the caramel softness of her flesh and finally sighed. He had to let her go this morning like all the others before. It had become their routine. She needed fresh air, sunshine, and real food… people… all the things that she’d be denied if she stayed locked within his lair all day.

He kissed her gently to rouse her. She had to go now, if she wanted to spend the day in the sunlight.

“The beach is calling your name,” he said softly. “In a half hour, the lair will seal, but I’ll come get you later on tonight.”

She yawned and stretched. “I don’t feel like sunlight today,” she murmured, leaning in to kiss him. “I’m so beat, I could sleep until you get up.”

While it was a pleasant thought, her comment slightly disturbed him. He didn’t necessarily want her to see him regenerate. What if she panicked when his breathing stopped and he became ice cold, and turned into what he was during the day, a corpse? There’d be no way to open the lair for her to escape. He’d torch.

Carlos smiled and played off her request with a casual shrug. “After about two hours, once your batteries recharge, you’ll be in here fussing and stomping your feet and complaining, girl. Go on, now, and put on some clothes and I’ll send you down to the beach.”

“After messing with you all night, all I want is some sleep, brother.” She offered him a mischievous smile. “And you’d better keep your hands off me, too. I’m starting to get friction burns.”

“Then sleep in a lounge chair, sip some daiquiris, get something to eat, go shopping or sightseeing, and then I’ll see you tonight. Cool?” He would not be moved. She had to go.

She made a face and sat up slowly. “The sun hurts my eyes and is too hot. All the noise and confusion on the beach with tourists and whatnot gets on my nerves, and I’m dead tired, Carlos. C’mon, baby, just let me sleep… especially after last night, I’m beat. For real.”

She flopped back on the pillows and stretched out. It was so hard to argue with her when she just sprawled out in his bed like that. He watched her breathing become so shallow that it suddenly made him come near her to check it.

“You hungry?” he asked, feeling her forehead and unmasking her throat wounds to study them. She was cool to the touch. Mild panic coursed through him as he felt her body temperature and studied her complexion. He’d scored her throat so badly on one side that he immediately resealed it, ashamed at the deep punctures that had black and blue swollen tissue around it. “You definitely need to eat. You’re blood sugar is low.”

“I’m starved,” she said in a lazy, sated tone.

“I’ll put some fruit on the—”

“How about a steak?”

Again, he just stared at her for a moment. “You’re vegetarian.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that’s what I have a taste for.”

“How about if I put out a fruit platter, some wine, some bottled water, juice, some stuff to make a salad, since you’re being obstinate and won’t go before the grates come down?” Truthfully, he didn’t want her to leave, but this was a bad idea.

She sighed. “Leave the water running and the bathroom working,” she said, drifting off. “In case I have to get up, later. Maybe leave the fireplace lit so I can reheat the steak. Oh yeah, and a pan and some flatware wouldn’t hurt.”

“Any more requests, Princess Richards. You’re seriously high-maintenance, D. Did I ever tell you that? Leos!” He laughed and shook his head.

“Can a sister get some TV up in the joint, too, since you’re gonna be knocked out for—”

“See, girl, this is what I’m saying. It takes energy to keep all the amenities going while I’m…”

“In state?” She smiled with her eyes closed. “I hear you. Chances are I won’t get up during the day.”

He didn’t like the sound of that at all. Besides, she couldn’t fathom what he had to do while inside a lair by day. All the silk sheets and plush room appointments and torches, all of it, drained his energy. That was the sole reason he’d purchased real clothes for her when they’d gone out at night, so that he didn’t have to maintain multiple illusions through daylight hours. She simply didn’t understand, even after all they’d been through that, the reason Master vampire lairs only had plain marble slabs and rocky granite interiors when opened by vampire hunters during the day was, the Master in repose was saving precious energy for the night. Last night, whatever he’d had left in him, was reduced to fumes.