Microsoft Word - The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance.doc Read Free

second to comprehend that it was my actual window breaking.

    14

    A man was climbing in through the broken glass, and another two coming in the door I’d left unlocked. I assumed they were men, larger than life in dark jumpsuits and helmets, faces covered with masks. Gas masks.

    Connor shoved me behind him as if about to defend me. I
    was  touched by the gesture until he fell at my feet. A heartbeat  later, my shouts of protest echoing in deep-throated slow  motion, I fell atop him and into the black fog of my own mind.

    I woke up in the dark. So dark I couldn’t see. I could feel that I was  in bed, in a cotton gown, but not my bed and not my gown. Hospital? I sat up. Hospitals had those infernal fluorescent lights, always on. I couldn’t see any cracks of light to indicate a window or a door. I inhaled, rubbed my arms, and discovered an IV jabbed into the inside of my left elbow.  Hospital, I reaffirmed, and tried to feel better about it.
    Hospital. I squinted into the darkness. Had I gone blind?  Panic set in. I was blind! Lord, I hoped it was only a temporary condition. I reached out at my sides, fingers meeting metal rails.
    “Hello?” If I couldn’t see, how would I know if there was
    someone in the room? “Hello?”

    No  answer. I sighed, reached over, and worked my hand up the IV tube to a box-like machine. My finger hit a button, something. A buzz went off, and stopped, followed by a soft whir, and what felt like a pulsing down the tube. Maybe I was getting more drugs, whatever had knocked me out. Maybe I didn’t care. But I did care. I struggled to remember what had happened, why I was here. And then my mind found Connor.
    I’m here . Connor Black’s voice in my head, as if he were
    speaking to me.

    15

Where?   Whether I was crazy, dreaming or drugged, what
    did it matter? I may as well answer.
    You have to find me , he said.   Find me .

    I preferred to find   me   first.
    Deductive reasoning had never been my strong point, which was, why I’d gone into teaching literature.   Teaching .   The  Shelleys. I’d been having wine with Connor. It all came flooding back to me a second later. Vampire? It couldn’t be.
    My blood pounded in my veins so hard I could practically hear it. I remembered the window shattering, three men in jumpsuits and masks, my falling at their feet, and the world fading to black. I sat up fast, the tubing ripping from my skin on a snap of pain that faded  as realization dawned. Hospital? Or had I been abducted?
    The world came into focus, a dim glow lighting the room, or were my eyes finally working? I squinted in the darkness until I realized that I didn’t need to squint. I could see everything fine,
    even  in the dark. The machinery at my side, a medical-looking  box with two bags hanging suspended  –  one as clear as water,  the other as opaque as blood  –  both feeding into the tube that  had been stuck in my veins. The bed, covers rumpled at my feet,  the walls covered in what looked to be watered silk, there were  gilded wall sconces, tasteful paintings of flowers in vases, two  dressers, a vanity with an enormous mirror, a chair, and doors  – a bathroom? Closet? Hall? No curtains, no windows. My bare  feet found the  soft, woven carpet, not exactly standard hospital  issue.
    The doors should have been my target. Which one to exit?  Where to call out? I headed for the mirror, my breathing suspended. I feared what I might, or might not see, but there I

    16

    was, bathed in a golden glow as if kissed by the dawn, lovelier  than I’d ever appeared. My hair hung in soft, honeyed curls to  my shoulders. I stroked my cheek, pale or simply an effect of  the darkness? My eyes glowed, cat’s eyes, predatory and  shrewd. Me, but not me. What had happened? Where was I?
    Again, I left the doors unchecked in favour of sifting through the dresser drawers. My favourite jeans, a not favourite sweater. My clothing was here, and what else? I