Free Chained In The Vampire's Dungeon by Neneh Gordon Page B

there? My
brain ran away with all sorts of scenarios that a woman on
her own tries not to think about. I didn’t want to look, but I had to.
I’d spend the whole night imagining the worst if I didn’t go to the window. As
I got closer to the glass, a cold settled over the room and I shivered. I
glimpsed something moving out there. It was too big to be a bird, but what else
could it be at my first floor window? Stepping closer, I held my breath and
peered out into the gloom.
    Something flashed past, inches away from the glass, making
me squeal in surprise. I wasn’t imagining things. There really was something
out there. I stumbled backwards and told myself it was just an owl or a bat,
but the explanation didn’t sink deeper than the surface of my mind. I wanted to
believe it, but I didn’t feel the truth of it. What I did feel scared me.
    A face glided into view and hung at the window. Pale and unmistakably masculine. The same
slicked back hair and pale grey eyes that I’d been imagining for so long. I tripped on the edge of the rug and fell to the floor. Panic made me scrabble
for the shelter of my bed and I crouched behind it. I was seeing things. I was
lonely and I’d spent too much time on my own. It explained everything. I’d been
fantasising for so long that I’d lost my grip on reality.
    But I knew what was happening now. When I looked up over the
top of the bed, there’d be nothing at the window. I’d finish my bottle of wine
and the alcohol would let me escape into sleep.
    I kneeled up, my heart beat deafening.
    He was still there. His gaze pierced the glass and drove
right into the heart of me. My vampire lover had come for me after all these
years. The rational part of me dismissed that as nonsense, but I found myself
getting to my feet anyway. I went to the window, pulled in by the cold fire in
his grey eyes. Standing at the window, I stared at him, soaking up every
detail. There was nothing about him that was any different from the vamp in my
head. He looked at me with the same hunger I’d seen in my dreams.
    “Invite me in.”
    His lips didn’t move. I heard him speak inside my head as
clearly as if he’d been standing beside me. I turned the catch and pushed the
sash window up to let him in. Cold night air poured into the room. I crossed my
arms to offer some protection against the wind, but my teeth chattered anyway.
He hung in the air outside, not moving a muscle.
    “Come in.” I’d forgotten. I had to say the words before he
could enter.
    He rushed in through the open window with such speed and
fluidity that I didn’t see him do it. I jumped as the window fell closed by
itself, banging loudly in its frame.
    I didn’t have time to recover. He spun me around and took me
into his arms. I had to look up to meet his gaze. The power in his eyes sent a
shockwave all the way through my body and started a flood of moisture between
my legs. I belonged to him. He didn’t have to say another word. I was his to
handle as he saw fit.
    Standing in his embrace was like standing in front of an
open refrigerator. The cold insinuated itself into my flesh and bones, raising
prickles on my skin and making my nipples stand up hard against his chest.
    With incredible speed, he lifted me, opened the window and
flew me through it.
    I clung to him as the cold night air hit me and he took us
higher. My towel fell off and I watched it fall far below us, tumbling in the
dark until it disappeared from view. Only his arms stopped me from going the
same way. I tightened my hold around his neck, shivering as I clung to him.
    We flew on over the streets I knew so well and out into more
unfamiliar territory. It wasn’t long before the noise of the city was behind us
and we approached a huge old house on the boundary where urban became rural. It
was beautiful. The moonlight shone down on the limestone mansion, turning it into
a shimmering dream house. It was his. I knew it as surely as I knew my own
name. I longed to see