Leaning forward, he pressed his face against her hair and took a deep breath. He almost groaned aloud again at her unique scent. He could live the rest of his life never seeing the sunlight again if he had this woman by his side.
She smelled of sunshine and wildflowers. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A field of tall grass and flowers filled his mind. He could see her wearing a white dress as she ran through the field. She looked back at him laughter on her face and a sparkle in her eyes.
That was what he was missing in his life. He missed the sound of laughter, his laughter. He watched Cherie as she ran through the field in front of him knowing that if he wanted to, truly wanted to, he could pour on his preternatural speed and capture her, but why spoil the fun of the chase?
Hunter didn’t even realize he sat rocking her until she stiffened in his arms.
“Stop rocking me and put me down. I’m fine.”When he let her go, she moved from his lap to the cushion next to him. “What happened?” She looked around warily.
“I have no idea. I stepped off of the elevator and you started to go down. I caught you so you wouldn’t harm yourself on the marble floor and I carried you over here.”
“Where you felt compelled to hold me in your arms, rocking me like a baby?” She crossed her arms and glared at him. “Seriously… what part of that did you think would be okay with me?”
“It was probably the part where I caught you and stopped you from cracking your head on the hard, marble flooring in front of the elevators.” He clenched his teeth. Was there no end to the rudeness of humans these days? They tried so desperately to be what they called politically correct when they merely needed tolerance for one another instead. “Perhaps you should spend more effort on being grateful that I caught you than insulted that I decided to hold you instead of resting your head on a couch that has seen over a thousand asses on it.” He stood and faced away from her, wondering how in the world he could have thought someone so rude could possibly be his mate.
“I—I’m sorry. I hadn’t thought of that.” She stood and moved to stand beside him. She reached out to him when she stumbled.
Hunter grasped her shoulders and held her to him, unable to ditch his upbringing no matter how much he wanted to do so at this particular time. His mother would have been appalled to even hear that he’d thought to let a woman fall when he could have caught her.
The scent of sunshine and wildflowers wafted up from her hair and his knees almost buckled. She had to be his mate. What other explanation could there be for his reaction to her?
“What happened?” His fingers tightened around her arms and she wobbled a bit. “What caused you to lose consciousness?”
It could have been her transition from one world to another. Something could have happened to cause her to pass out. A pressure change, perhaps, or a shift in the dimensional rift that brought her over could be the culprit. Somehow, though, he suspected it was something about their world that had shown her that he had been telling her the truth.
“I saw…something.” She frowned as she thought about it, before glancing toward the front entrance. “I could have sworn I saw something that can’t possibly exist.”
“The soothsayer?” he prompted, hoping to get her to elaborate so he could prove to her that she was no longer in the world where she had grown up.
“No.” She shook her head and moved away from him and toward the door. “It doesn’t matter. It can’t exist. I was seeing things, or imagining it.” She shook her head as though to clear it. “Whatever it was that I thought I saw, won’t be there now because you’re here.” She smiled, though he didn’t think she looked as confident as she wanted to appear.
After he delved into her mind, he knew it. She was scared spitless that she would see the dragon again. It wasn’t really seeing the dragon that had sent her over the edge into what she believed was a moment of madness, because, after all, anyone could make it appear as though a puppet was flying with strings and wires. It was impossible to make it belch fire without catching the thing on fire.
Hunter almost wanted to smile. He loved the fact that no matter how impossible the thing was that’s she’d seen, she was trying to reason it out instead of panicking. Even the fact that she fainted instead of running in the other direction showed she had courage, though he didn’t give a rat’s ass if his mate was courageous or not. His prerequisite for a life partner was that she be female. Period.
“Shall we go back and see if we can see this thing again? Perhaps if I see it as well, you won’t think that you have gone mad.”
“I haven’t gone crazy.” She pulled her hand from his forearm as though he’d burned her and thrust her chin in the air. “I had a rough night, being that someone kidnapped me and all.” She walked toward the front entrance and faltered when the psychic’s booth came into view.
Bending over, she rested her hands on her knees. “I’m not seeing this. I can’t be seeing this. It doesn’t exist. It’s some sort of trick. There’s no such thing as flying, fire-breathing dragons.”
Chapter Seven
Cold air hit Cherie hard as she approached the door and someone walked in. Cherie couldn’t take her eyes off of the thing in the front window. It couldn’t possibly be a dragon, but that’s exactly what it looked like.
The thing, toy, whatever, breathed fire again, roasting a marshmallow just before it dove down, landing on the stick that held the sweet treat. It devoured the toasted candy before flying back up to perch on the umbrella over the woman’s head.
“What—” Swallowing, Cherie cleared her throat and pointed at the creature. “What is that and where did it come from?”
“I have no idea where they come from, but that is a dragon. It’s a soothsayer’s link to the otherworld. The dragon flies from this world to the next and then back to the psychic who…” he left off with a smile. “…Isn’t really psychic and tells them what to say through some sort of mental communication.”
How did they get the thing to eat the marshmallow as though it was real? “Like I believe that,” she said with a snort. “Dragons don’t exist and if they did, I’m sure they wouldn’t fly from one dimension to another like some sort of strange messenger.”
Hunter walked to the door and opened it. “Why don’t we see what they have to say about you?”
“Okay. I’m game.” She shrugged. “While I’ll admit that it took me by surprise, it’s just a toy that someone managed to animate, making it appear real.” She’d seen enough of those at comic and anime conventions. The amount of people who spent hundreds of dollars on things like that never ceased to amaze her.
Cherie followed Hunter out onto the sidewalk, wrapping her arms around herself, trying to stave off the cold. Whatever made her think she would get anywhere with no coat, no money, with nothing but the clothes on her back and her house slippers? She looked down at her feet, realizing for the first time that she wasn’t wearing her shoes, but her little bootie slippers. While they kept her feet warm inside, they did little for her in the chilly outdoors—even in Virginia. It was still late December. She frowned. At least she thought it was still late December.
“Happy New Year,” Hunter said as he approached the woman. He glanced toward Cherie and pulled out his wallet. “The lady would like a reading. Could you do one for her, please?”
“Of course.” The woman looked at Cherie with a smile. “Would you like a one day read or something more comprehensive?”
“A one day read should do.” He folded a fifty-dollar bill and stuck it into the slot of a metal box the psychic kept on the table.
“Okay. A one day read it is.” She closed her eyes. “Samri, please tell me about this woman.”
The dragon hopped from its perch on the umbrella and sat on the table staring at Cherie. It moved its head back and forth the way she would expect a lizard to do while it twitched its tail behind it.
How the woman managed to control the thing so expertly while her eyes were closed, was a
mystery. She shouldn’t be sitting at a table on the sidewalk in front of a hotel. The woman was so good, she should take her act to the stage.
“Cherie Gardner is her name.” The woman rocked back and forth. “She comes from very far away.” She jerked in place then gasped. “Very far away.” Tears leaked from her eyes and ran down her face. “She has lost someone so very precious to her. Her sister, a child. She is so alone.” She shook her head. “No one should be so alone.”
At first Cherie had been certain that Hunter had filled the woman in before she’d awakened from her faint. After all, he could have told the woman to say she’d come from a faraway place. Even if he hadn’t, her accent would have pegged her as a northerner…had she spoken. Cherie bit her lip as the woman continued.
“She has traveled across time and space, through a dimensional rift into the world where her true love awaits.” She paused with a frown. “Here she will have a new life, a new love, a new sister.” With that, the woman opened her eyes and stared at Cherie while the dragon, or whatever it was, hopped back up onto the umbrella. The creature breathed fire on the metal piece between the rod and the material and settled on the glowing rod with a groan.
“Miss Gardner, you have been given a second chance.” She looked around and lowered her voice. “Your new love is a vampire, but he would never harm you.” She gave Hunter a telling look before turning her attention back to Cherie. “Treat him well. He would die for you.”
“This is ridiculous!” Cherie turned to leave.
“Samri!”
With that one word, the dragon came back to life, flew down and landed on Cherie’s shoulder. As soon as the dragon pressed his hot nose against her cheek, Cherie saw everything he supposedly had seen.
Hunter stood before her, his eyes glowing red as he positioned himself between her and danger. A shot rang out and a bullet lodged deep in his chest. He went down, but not before he lashed out and killed the man who would have killed her and Kaylee.
A new sister. Hope blossomed in her chest as she repeated the woman’s words to herself. A new sister. Could what the woman said be true? Could this really be a dragon on her shoulder, could she really have jumped from on reality to another and could her sister really be alive here in this world,or was she just so depressed that her mind made all of this up to make her feel better for a while?
What about what she’d said about a new lover? Was Hunter the vampire the woman talked about? If so, why did she call him a vampire? Everyone knew that vampires couldn’t go out in the sunlight. He should at least be inside, if not in some sort of coffin or crypt. Besides, there was no such thing as vampires.
Just like there’s no such thing as inter-dimensional travel and dragons, Cherie. Wake up! Reaching up, she pinched herself hard.
The woman laughed. “If you wanted to know if you were awake, I could have had Samri bite you.” She shrugged. “Or burn you. Either of those would convince you that you are very much awake, Cherie.”
“This can’t be happening.” She looked at Hunter who now looked at her strangely.
“Why aren’t you screaming?”
“Why should I?”
“You have a dragon sitting on your shoulder eyeing your ear as though it would make a tasty snack.” He smiled. “I wouldn’t make any sudden moves if I were you. I hear they like the taste of burnt cartilage.”
“Samri, leave the lady alone now. She is not your snack. I shall give you another marshmallow if you behave.”
The dragon growled and sniffed at Cherie’s ear before it jumped back onto the cold umbrella rod. Again, it breathed fire onto it and moaned as it curled up on the red-hot spot.
There was no doubt in Cherie’s mind that the dragon was real, now. Not only had it somehow shown her life before she came here, but it had shown her what was to come. If what she had seen was true, the utterly gorgeous man before her would be the love of her life…even if he was a bloodsucking fiend from hell.
Chapter Eight
Hunter almost choked when he read Cherie’s thoughts. Whatever gave people the idea that vampires were any different from them? Other than their dietary habits, vampires were very similar to humans.
No one was sure how they deviated when they evolved. They weren’t cursed as far as he knew—other than they were cursed with longevity and living alone until they could find a vampire or human that was compatible with them in every way.
Human’s could love and breed with anyone who was human. A vampire, while able to breed, on occasion, with humans who weren’t their mates, they couldn’t make a life with a human they could completely control.
While Hunter was sure it would be fun for a while, after a bit it would get boring to have a mate who would do one’s bidding without a fight. He didn’t want that. He’d never wanted that.
He wanted a mate he could talk to, one he could make love with that he wouldn’t have to force compliance or wipe their memory. That alone was why he’d been alone so many long years.
Hunter had tried living the lie once. Once was enough to convince him that he never wanted to try it again. After five years, he left the woman after wiping himself from her memory and replacing her lost time with false memories of a husband who died in the war of the time.
She went on to remarry a human and live a happy life. At least he hoped she’d been happy. He knew that he could never make her so. They couldn’t have children because he wasn’t compatible with her physically and she couldn’t live without them.
After marrying her human, Sara had gone on to have seven children and lived to the ripe old age of fifty-seven. Well… it was a ripe old age then.
Looking down at Cherie, he wondered if she really was the one he could make a life with. The seer hadn’t said that he was her lover. She’d only said that her love was a vampire. Hadn’t Arty said that those brought over usually ended up being vampire mates? Just because her mate was a vampire, didn’t mean it was him.
Why torture himself with hope? He stared at the young woman before him and wished the psychic had said his name. Why hadn’t she revealed who Cherie’s lover would be? It would have gone a long way to easing his mind had she said it was him.
Hunter jammed his hands into his pockets and headed for the door. He couldn’t bear to stay out here and listen to anymore. What if the woman did toss a name out and it ended up being one of his friends? Would he begrudge them a mate just because he had none?
His chest ached as he thought of the woman he found in his hotel room. She was so full of life and courage. He loved the way she stood up to him. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know he was a vampire. She knew he was stronger than her, just by human genetic make-up and still she stood her ground and argued with him.
Lifting his hand, he rubbed the center of his chest where it had begun to ache and wondered how many years the fates would force him to be alone before they finally sent him a woman to love.
Glancing back, he met Cherie’s gaze and wondered what she was thinking. He could enter her mind and take the information, but he’d never really liked doing that since Sara. It always seemed like a violation.
Oh, he would do it when the need arose and he’d already done it with Cherie, but it didn’t mean he wanted to repeat the act anytime soon. Besides, if he didn’t delve into her thoughts, he needn’t find out that the man who would be her lover for life wasn’t Hunter Vasco and he could dream for a little while longer.
“Wait for me.” She shook the woman’s hand before turning to run to him.
“I thought you wanted to leave.”
“Well…” She sighed. “I don’t have any money and I have nowhere else to go.” She tilted her head and looked up at him. “Can you help me?” She bit her lip, then looked down at her feet, which were sorely underdressed for the weather in a pair of thin slippers.
Even if he didn’t want this woman he would help her. It was what his mother had trained him to do—years before he’d become a vampire. Years before a lunatic changed his lif
e forever.
“Of course I will help you, Cherie.” He smiled down at the top of her head. “The first thing on our agenda will be to go to the mall and get you something to wear. You cannot continue to wear what you slept in and those slippers, while probably quite warm while inside, leave much to be desired as a street shoe, I would wager.”
He led her to the elevator. First things first. He’d need to call for his driver and find her something to keep her warm. Slippers, jeans, and a t-shirt just weren’t going to cut it.
The elevator doors opened and they entered the small enclosure. “Will you take me to see my sister? The psychic says she’s alive in this world.” She frowned. “Does that mean that the other me has died?”
“I have no idea, Cherie.” He shrugged. “It could only mean that you no longer exist on this world. Meaning that the other you has traveled to another world as you have traveled here.”
“That makes sense,” she said with a nod. She wrung her hands. “Do you think my sister is the same? Do you think she’ll know me? Do you think she’ll have her daughter with her?” Tears streamed down her face as she talked about her sister. “She’s gone in my world…”
He’d gathered that. He’d also guessed that was the reason she chose to believe the psychic so easily. What was it like to love someone so much you would believe anything if you could see them again? It had been so long for him he’d forgotten.
The doors opened on the sixteenth floor and he led her to his room. Sliding the key through the electronic lock, he opened the door and gestured for her to enter, closing the door behind him as he followed her into the suite.
He pocketed his room key and pulled his phone from his pocket. “Joseph,” he said when he heard his driver answer. “Please bring the car around to the entrance as soon as possible and call me when you’re ready. Oh, and pick up something to eat on the way, will you? Get enough for two. I won’t be alone.”
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