“Please,” she whispered, just like she had in the black market, the exact same way that made Dante’s blood still. It had the same, soothing effect on him, even now. “I wasn’t supposed to bring you here, please don’t come any closer.”
“Where’s here?” He stilled.
“It’s the Black Moon.”
Puzzled, Dante looked up, peeking between umbrellas of fir. The moon was full, far from blending with the black vastness of space. “What are you so afraid of?”
She pointed through the trees. “Head due east.” Warm currents in her voice wrapped around him, tugging him into compliance. “When you come to a series of warm springs, turn and head north. Within a half-mile, you’ll come to a meadow with two large boulders leaning against one another in the middle.” She whispered now, leaning forward out of the shadows. “Touch them with the palms of your hands and think about where you want to go.” She turned.
“Wait,” Dante said, keeping his voice low, though he didn’t have a goddamn clue why. “At least tell me your name. It’s not like I’m ever going to see you again anyway.” The words stung, although he knew they were the truth.
The slight curve of her mouth lifted into a coy smile that flipped Dante’s stomach. “Ariana.” She glanced over her shoulder. When their eyes met again, the smile was gone. “My name’s Ariana. Seekers are coming. Go.”
The air between them rippled with such intensity, Dante thought he was dreaming, although he’d never actually had a dream to measure it against. His mind couldn’t seem to grasp what he was seeing. He could make out Ariana through the fog of air circling her—her mahogany braid tied with a pale blue ribbon, draping down the front of her cloak, her expression downturned—though she was fading. Wavering. Shifting as the air shifted.
Dante reached out, his fingers sinking into the cool air as if it’d transformed into some kind of portal. Then, with a rush of winter wind that howled through the trees, she was gone. The air stilled behind her.
Just when he was about to shadow her footsteps and stand where she stood on top of the ridge, two words echoed through the forest. They reverberated from the soiled earth, the starless sky, off the tall and stoic trees. They came from everywhere, yet nowhere at all.
Thank you.
Dante stopped in his tracks, absorbed with the feeling the words were for him. Feeling somehow vindicated, he smiled and slowly turned down the hill, in no hurry to get back to the monotonous life he dreaded living.
He took a single step in the direction Ariana had pointed, when the branches above him rustled with movement. He glanced up. Falling from the sky, right into the open palm of his hand, was a baby blue satin ribbon.
The one Ariana had tied around her braid.
A smoldering inside him—a knowing—told Dante he’d meet Ariana again. Someday he’d find his way back here, wherever here was, and get the explanation owed to him. As he wrapped the ribbon around his wrist and looped it into a knot, he wondered how she made an impression on him so quickly. And why she made him feel like there was more life to be lived in one curl of her lips and one melody of her voice than thousands of days and nights on this earth.
About the Author
Kristin Miller is the author of Dark Tide Rising, a romantic suspense novel, and the Vampires of Crimson Bay, a paranormal series featuring a blood war between vampires and shape-shifters from Avon Impulse. She lives in Northern California with her family.
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By Kristin Miller
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Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
VAMPED UP. Copyright © 2011 by Kristin Miller. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition December 2011 ISBN: 9780062105219
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062133304
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