In the Blood

by Abigail Barnette

  As Zoe risks her life to give him back his death, she warms the soul Julian never thought he’d own again. And when he tracks down a devilish witch who can reverse the spell, immortality without Zoe suddenly seems like cold comfort…

  Warning: This novel contains sensual love scenes between a fashion-forward hero and a fashion-unconscious heroine, abuse of Italian loafers, and a few love bites. Don’t worry, freshly sharpened fangs don’t hurt. Much…

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Uncross My Heart:

  He even haunted her dreams.

  Zoe walked through a dark place where cold water dripped and unseen creatures scuttled around her feet. She didn’t scream in response to the brush of wiry fur against her bare ankles only because he was beside her, his hand on her shoulder, guiding her toward a safe refuge.

  “Where are we?” she asked, and her voice echoed.

  “We’re almost there. You have to hurry.”

  She obeyed him, picking up the pace through the grimy water that swirled around her feet, but the very atmosphere of the place seemed to hold her back. Each step sapped her strength and brought her no closer to her goal.

  “Don’t let them catch you,” Devlin told her. “Keep running.”

  She tried, but the harder she pumped her legs, the slower her progress became until she was certain she was moving backward. His warm hand slipped from her shoulder, and when she turned to look for him, he was gone, replaced by a looming, shapeless shadow that wrapped cable-like arms around her.

  A hand clamped across her lips, cutting off her air supply. Her lungs protested. She kicked and struggled and finally opened her eyes to find Julian Devlin hovering above her.

  “Don’t scream. I won’t hurt you.” Julian dropped his hand from Zoe’s lips and backed away from her bed, hands up, his movements deliberately slow and non-threatening.

  In the blue neon glow of her bedside alarm clock, her pale skin looked like alabaster, and her eyes were huge and terrified. Clutching a thin blanket to her chest, she scrambled to a sitting position amid the tumble of pillows that populated her bed. “How did you get in here? Are you insane? What if I kept a knife under my pillow or something?”

  “You don’t. I checked.”

  She squeaked in indignation. “You broke into my house.”

  “No. I let myself in with your spare key, which you obviously put back right where you got it from after we came in before. You know, you’re asking to be murdered in your sleep, or worse. It amazes me that a girl as trusting as you is still alive.”

  “You weren’t supposed to look.”

  “I looked. Sue me.” He shrugged. This had all been too easy. He’d probably be doing her a favor by draining her dry as soon as he transformed back. This blonde gypsy belonged in another era, a simpler time when people left their doors unlocked and everyone knew their neighbors. Either that or she needed a body guard twenty-four/seven.

  “What are you doing back here? Didn’t you find someone to help you?”

  He sighed. A lie would be easy, even if it did little to preserve the mere shred of dignity he had left. “It’s almost dawn. I needed someplace to go before sunrise, and I was kicked out of the bus station. They don’t allow people to sleep there anymore, I discovered.” Truth was, she was the only trustworthy soul he could find at this hour.

  She blinked at him. “Sunrise? Um…humans can go out in the daylight. Or have you been revamped already?” One delicate hand slid toward her slender throat. Julian watched the subtle movement with a mixture of amusement and—dear God—arousal.

  She’d traded her peasant blouse for a thin-strapped tank top. Clingy and white, it contrasted with her honeyed skin and did little to hide the sumptuous curves of her breasts, now peaked with taut nipples. Gooseflesh stood out on her bare arms. He wondered if she might be considering the possibility that he would lower his lips to her neck and drink…

  He blinked away the traitorous thoughts. “No. I’m still human.” He laughed. “I guess I’m so conditioned to avoid sunlight that it never occurred to me. Nevertheless, I need a place to sleep for a little while. I don’t have enough cash to go to a hotel, and if I use my credit cards, I could be leading Lambert right to me.”

  “Vampires have credit cards?”

  “We’re undead, not Amish. How else would one purchase Gucci loafers?”

  Warm yellow light illuminated her skeptical gaze when she switched on the bedside lamp. “Okay, silly question. I admit it, but give me a break. It’s four fifty-nine A.M., and I just woke up with a man’s hand over my mouth. You’re lucky I didn’t bite you.”

  He let his gaze roam her half-hidden curves again. She’d be lucky if he didn’t bite her one way or another. “I apologize for sneaking in…something I would not have been able to do if you had an ounce of common sense.” He tossed the spare key to her and, just as he’d hoped, she let go of her death grip on the blanket to catch it.

  Delicious. He’d have climbed into the bed with her if he hadn’t been so desperate to keep her trust for just a little longer. He needed this girl. And he hated needing her. “Do yourself a favor and hide that somewhere else. Better yet, give it to your boyfriend for safe keeping.”

  “I told you, he’s not my boyfriend.”

  Good. The thought crossed his mind unbidden, and he squashed it. “Can I borrow your couch? Just for a few hours?”

  Her lips quivered a bit before she responded. “Sure. I’ll get you a pillow and a blanket.”

  “No need to treat me like a guest.”

  “But you are one.” She rose, and Julian’s gaze traveled up and down her bare legs, pausing only briefly at the still-red scrapes on her knees. She’d hurt herself running from him and, for some inexplicable reason, he regretted that. He shook off the unproductive thought and took inventory of the rest of her outfit.

  Tiny panties rode low on her hips, leaving a band of naked skin beneath the hem of her skimpy top. Ah. The twenty-first century had so many advantages over the nineteenth. Each decade, it seemed women became less inhibited about their bodies. It made being immortal so much fun.

  She moved unselfconsciously now, and Julian followed her into the living room. When she bent over to retrieve a blanket and pillow from within the square hassock, he stifled an appreciative sigh.

  She tossed the items at him while he debated sinking his very human teeth into one creamy inner thigh. “Put your eyes back in your head, Romeo. I already told you, I’m nobody’s entrée. Now, go. Sleep. I’m going back to bed in my room behind a door that locks, and there’s no spare key above the frame, so don’t get any ideas. If you’re still here in the morning—the actual morning—I’ll think about cooking you breakfast, and we’ll talk about getting you a decent place to stay until your house is fixed, okay?”

  He stared for a full second, dumbfounded by her. One bite. Just one bite was all he wanted. “Okay.”

  She disappeared into the bedroom then, shutting the door firmly on any further comment or fantasy on his part.

  Disappointed but still oddly amused, Julian made himself comfortable on her couch.

  Zoe’s heart thundered in her shamelessly exposed chest. She’d just been parading around in her underwear in front of a lunatic—a drop dead gorgeous lunatic—who’d stolen into her bedroom in the middle of the night.

  Her face burned with shame and something else. He’d been looking, and she’d enjoyed letting him look.