Burning Read Free Page A

lump next to me in the eye and said, “Relax.  I’m nothing to be afraid of.  You won’t even remember me after you get off the plane.” 
    He blinked a couple of times and repeated robotically, “I won’t remember you.  I’m not afraid.” 
    Good, my influence worked—or as Anita liked to call it, “mind mojo.”
    My hunger had been stronger since my injuries last November.  It took a long time to heal from the severe burns I’d received being stranded in the light.  I needed a lot of blood, but I didn’t have to kill to get it.  I could consume bagged blood; I just needed a lot more of it. Most vampires were more dangerous while they were healing from this type of injury. However, I was a very old vampire, and I was able to control my hunger. 
    My desire for Chloë was a different matter entirely.  I must not give in to my love and lust for her.  She loved me—of that I was certain—but I wasn’t her destiny.  Chloë was content to waste time with me—not that she would have described it that way.  I never would have grown sick of her.  There was no point where I would have wanted to get out. 
    Chloë would be completely immortal as long as she lived to gain her full powers.  So mortality wasn’t a problem.  The issue was that she was alive and I was not—not in the same way.  She was everything that was beautiful in this world, and that beauty belonged in the light, not hidden in the shadows. In a few years, she would feel the desire for children like most women do.  I couldn’t give her a family.  Eventually, her longing to have a family would overcome her feelings for me.  She would leave me, and I would be destroyed. 
    A stronger man would have enjoyed the time she had given me and remembered it fondly once she’d left.  I had planned on doing just that, except that every day with her had pulled me in deeper.  I’d had to let her go while I’d still been able to, before my love for her destroyed me, before my need to keep her destroyed her.  Now my only fear was whether I could be near her without breaking or begging her to take me back. 
     
    Anita
     
    I could feel Dean getting closer to the house.  My skin felt hot, and my heart was pounding an uneven rhythm in my chest.  I hadn’t said anything to Chloë or Dean, but I’d felt sick with him gone—like actually sick.  Suddenly, I felt like I was trying to pull something towards myself.  My body knew it was Dean.  My muscles were releasing tension, my heart rate was slowing, and my body felt slightly cooler.
    “Are you ok ay?  You look flushed,” Chloë commented, placing her wrist against my forehead. 
    “Yeah, I’m fine.  I…uh…guess I overdid it with the cleaning,” I lied. 
    Chloë cocked her head sideways, studying me. 
    “What?” I asked annoyed. 
    “You little liar,” she sang.  “Dean is almost here and you are getting all hot and bothered thinking about it .” Then she winked at me.
    I huffed out a frustrated sigh.   Then I started to giggle, and so did Chloë.  “Yeah.  God, Chlo, I’m so… You know.  I hated that he was going to be gone for so long, but I hoped that this sexual tension would ease off a bit.  At least as long as Dean insists on getting married first.” 
    “Can I ask you a question?” Chloë began tentatively. 
    I shrugged my answer. 
    “Why don’t you want to marry Dean?” 
    “I… Well, what I’m trying to say is… Shit, it does seem like I don’t want to marry him, doesn’t it?” Chloe nodded.  “I do want to marry him, but at nineteen?  What’s the rush?” I shrieked. 
    “You could ask yourself what you’re waiting for,” Chloë responded.   “I mean, if you aren’t sure he is the one,” she added.
    “Of course he is the one.  I can’t imagine ever wanting anyone else,” I answered. 
    “Then what is it?” she pressed. 
    “I don’t know.  I mean, what will people think if we get married now?” I freaked out. 
    Chloë