Free Blood Eternal by Marie Treanor Page B

olive tree and some nice rosebushes, as well as some dry, scrubby-looking plants and a kidney-shaped swimming pool.
    “The owners are British,” István explained as he unlocked the front door. “They rent it for most of the summer. Fortunately for us, they had a cancellation.”
    “Best of both worlds,” Elizabeth observed, looking around her at the curving marble staircase before wandering into the open-plan living area, where rugs were scattered across the ceramic-tiled floor and red plush sofas faced the bay window and a large television. Beyond was a dining area and a well-appointed kitchen with a washing machine and dishwasher. “Turkish style and British convenience.”
    István took her upstairs, where there were three bedrooms. “Share with Mihaela if you like—there are two beds in there—or there is a large attic room upstairs. The ceiling beams are too low for me. I got bruises just looking at it.”
    “It’ll be fine for me,” Elizabeth said quickly, and went on up the staircase. Right now she suspected Mihaela needed some space between them. And besides, there was Saloman. . . . Her desire for him was like a pain, mocking her anger.
    “Hungry?” István asked, laying her bag on the double bed while Elizabeth took in her spacious surroundings. There was even an en suite bathroom. “There isn’t much in, but the village shops are open late. Or we can go out when the others come back—there are a couple of decent restaurants.”
    “Whatever you guys want to do,” Elizabeth said, and he left her to shower. She wasn’t hungry. She felt too churned up with Luk and Tsigana, with Saloman and sex. Standing under the shower, her body still tingled with remembered pleasure, with excitement, because at last they were in the same country again. And yet it had been too quick, too much taken for granted by Saloman, and too easily welcomed by herself. It wasn’t the steam that made her body flush when she remembered what they’d done almost within spitting distance of the hunters who were searching so anxiously for her. “What the hell is the matter with me?” she whispered, letting the water into her mouth and blowing it out again.
    The same thing that had always been the matter, ever since she’d first wakened Saloman from his three-hundred-year sleep. Lust.
    And he knew it, as he’d always known it. He didn’t need even to crook his finger, it seemed. He just had to approach her and she opened her legs like a bitch in heat. He’d taken his pleasure without any lead-in, and left immediately about his own business, as if she were no more than a convenience. Which was what she’d made herself, when in fact she wanted to be so much more, to be to him what he was to her. Everything.
    She turned off the shower and reached for the towel. She’d never been ashamed of sex before. Not with him.
    Emptying her bag, she found some clean underwear, an old skirt, and a loose top, and dressed. Then, while she combed out her hair, she examined the views from the two large windows in her room. Both opened onto balconies. One looked onto the village and some holiday apartments beyond, the other onto the swimming pool and the majestic hills. It was beautiful at night. She stepped out onto the second balcony to appreciate the sights and sounds of a new country and breathed in the fresh, calming air.
    When she walked back inside, Mihaela stood by the bedroom door in white cotton trousers and a red top. Elizabeth paused, hating that she no longer knew what to say to her once-close friend. Saloman stood between them now, a beloved barrier she couldn’t remove if she wanted to. And yet it was through him, and the hunters’ determination to exterminate him, that she and Mihaela had met in the first place. At that initial encounter, Elizabeth had thought them either pranksters or nutters. There was no way she could have known then how much the hunters—or Saloman—would come to mean to her.
    “You okay?” Mihaela