Free Amanda Ashley by After Sundown Page A

yet she was eager for more. Chiavari had told him that vampires required less nourishment as they aged. It was not hunger that drove Khira, he thought, but the love of the hunt, the chase. The kill.
    Hunt. Chase. Kill. It was easy to get caught up in the excitement of it all. Khira made it seem like fun, hunting the dark streets, chasing her prey. She was the perfect predator. She was not troubled by matters of conscience, didn’t worry about right and wrong. Her eyes glowed a clear, bright blue during the chase, glittered a hellish red as she sank her fangs into her prey.
    Her eyes blazed like sapphires in the lovemaking that came later, a fierce and tumultuous coupling that burned between them when a different kind of hunger claimed them....
    Later, when their passion had cooled, she smiled at him, rather like a well-satisfied cat.
    “You were as hungry as I,” she said softly. “You must have been a long time without a woman. Though not as long as I have been without a man!”
    “I will not discuss that with you,” he said flatly as, unheeded, an image of Katherine rose in his mind. Katherine, young and innocent, a victim of the kind of monster he himself had become . . .
    “Shh . . .” Khira placed a finger gently against his lips, and he knew she was reading his thoughts. “We have all had losses, mi amour . The Dark Gift never comes without its price.”
    Her gaze turned inward, and something like regret crossed her flawless features. Then she smiled again, and he wondered if he she was capable of feeling anything other than a lust for blood. And flesh.
    And then she fixed him with her glowing gaze. “The first thing a vampire must learn is to dispose of the remains. You were careless with that kill. The one reported in the press. Did you learn anything from tonight?”
    Ramsey met her harsh gaze with one of his own. “Far more than I ever wanted to,” he said grimly.
    “Ahh . . .” A long sigh escaped her lips. “Do not spoil this moment for us. Who knows when, if ever, it will come again?” She stared at him, her expression speculative. “While you struggle with your quite active conscience, pay attention to what I say. A careless vampire is a danger to us all, Edward.” She ran a long, bloodred nail down the side of his neck, the implied threat very clear. “Do you understand?”
    Ramsey nodded. “It won’t happen again.”
    She kissed him lightly on the lips, then rose from the bed, graceful as a cat, to slip into her carelessly discarded clothing. “See that it doesn’t,” she whispered—and vanished from his sight.
     
     
    The girl, Kelly, was awake when he got back to his house. Though it had grieved him to do so, he had tied her hands to the bedpost to ensure that she would be there when he returned.
    She stared at him through frightened green eyes when he entered the bedroom. “Where am I?” she asked, her voice weak. “Who are you? What are you going to do with me?”
    “You have nothing to fear.”
    She tugged on the rope binding her wrist. “Don’t I?”
    Moving to the bed, he released her hands, knew a moment of guilt as she massaged her wrists. The skin was red and slightly swollen.
    “I’m sorry,” he murmured.
    “You’re not an angel, are you?”
    “A dark angel, perhaps,” he remarked, his gaze meeting hers. “Are you strong enough to stand? I’ve brought you something to eat.”
    “Who are you?”
    “Edward.”
    She looked at him warily when he offered her his hand.
    “You have nothing to fear, Kelly,” he said, and hoped it was true.
    She hesitated a moment more, then placed her hand in his and let him draw her to her feet. He led her down a dark hallway, through a living room furnished with a black leather couch and matching chair. The end tables were also black. There was no light in the room save that provided by the fire burning in the hearth. The kitchen was painted white. The appliances were mirrored black and looked new. A covered tray waited on a