Free After Midnight by Colleen Faulkner

set a signal with the lantern. One of me brothers will leave a rowboat on the shore of the far side. They never liked the thought of a MacReed keeping house for a vampire."
    She returned her attention to the book. She was using her razor blade to try and separate pages. Something seemed to be stuck between two, but so far she'd not been able to pry them apart. She glanced up at him again, feeling badly about sending Angus into the rough seas in a rowboat. "Perhaps I could row him to the island. I'm strong for a woman."
    "Nay." Angus swallowed. "He wouldn't allow it. I must do this for my master myself."
    Emily didn't argue because she understood. Because of his relationship with Ruth and Gordon, Angus seemed like a brother to her. She knew he felt the same pain she felt. The same fear. "See it done, Angus."
    "See what done?" Emily heard Gordon's agitated voice behind her.
    She turned in her chair. "Angus is going to
get
the boat."
    "Hurry, man," Gordon ordered as his manservant took his leave. "There's little time left. If I'm not gone from here I don't know what you'll do… I'll do." There was a tremor in his voice. It seemed to Emily that he was battling now, Gordon the man against Gordon the vampire.
    "We've plenty of time, Gordon," she assured him. Then she returned to the book and the knife.
    "I don't know why you don't give up with that." He paced behind her. "There is no answer, I tell you. Let me die."
    "I won't give up on you."
    He halted behind her and she felt his hand brush her shoulder. She felt a tremor of desire… laced with fear.
    "No. I doona suppose you will, my sweetness." He lifted the hair from her back and placed a kiss on the nape of her neck. She closed her eyes; her heart raced. His kiss made every fiber of her being tingle. It made her warm in the pit of her stomach. It made her burn with desire for him.
    I could surrender, she thought, lightheaded. Give myself to him… save him.
    Then she realized what he was doing… drawing her into the spell. It was the evil inside him overcoming the good. "No, Gordon." Though it took every ounce of her resolve, she pulled away from him. "Don't touch me. Go back to the library. I have work to do."
    He let her hair fall to cover her neck. "You do not ken what you're missing," he said huskily in her ear.
    She held perfectly still, fighting her desire for him, knowing that if she gave in, she would be giving up her soul. "Go."
    His footsteps echoed hollowly in the great hall as he retreated. Emily drew an oil lamp closer and hunkered down over the vampire book. She had to find the answer…
     
    More than two hours later, Gordon appeared behind her. This time she never heard a sound until he was there. "It is time."
    She started. "Not yet. Not so early." She turned in her chair to look up. "Not—"
    Who she saw, what she saw, so astounded her that she couldn't finish her thought. It was Gordon, yet it was not. Even in the last two hours he had transformed more profoundly. His face was gaunt, his eyes ringed with black shadows. Those were definitely fangs she saw now.
    She rose from her chair but stepped away from him, rather than toward him.
    "Close your eyes, Emily," he whispered. "Let me leave with the memory of days past. Not now, not this way."
    She closed her eyes, a sob rising in her throat.
    Gordon put out one finger and touched her lips. She kissed his finger.
    Emily opened her eyes to see Gordon stride toward the door, his black cape fluttering behind him.
    Ruth appeared in the doorway and handed Angus his cloak. "You're really going to go through with this, aren't you, Angus? You're going to row out into the middle of this. With any luck at all, you'll both drown." She crossed her arms over her chest, obviously perturbed, but also concerned for his welfare.
    How could she still not believe, even seeing Gordon like this? Then Emily wondered if everyone could see this transformation or just some people.
    Ruth stepped out of the way to let the men pass.