Free Bound to the Vampire by Selena Blake Page A

her in a large doorway and the light hit her just so—”
    “They don't want to hear all this. It's ancient history,” Valencia inserted. She smiled at her friends again but the gesture didn't meet her eyes. It was a cold smile, prefab, practiced, and emotionless. Then she lifted the goblet to her lips and took a long swallow. Was she fortifying herself?
    Why?
    Why didn't she want to remember that night?
    “Are you going to tell the story, Val-dear, or am I?” he murmured. Her eyes widened and for the briefest moment, the blue swirled to silver.
    No, she was not as emotionless as she wanted him to believe. Not by far. She could no more separate sex and emotion than she could butter from a croissant. Both were important ingredients.
    “Continue,” Izzy urged.
    He inclined his head slightly. “She was a long way off.”
    He held out his hand and looked off into the distance.
    “I wasn't sure I could trust my eyes. Maybe she was just a ghost, but I was curious.”
    “Always curious,” Valencia inserted and this time when her lips twitched he knew they did so with good humor.
    “I told my coven mates that I would meet them at home and I kicked my horse toward the old monastery. We picked our way through quite a bit of rubble and by that time, I'd lost sight of her. So I dismounted and followed the moonbeams—”
    “And then he found me. The end.”
    He gave her a stern look and the others laughed. Even though she angled her chin up at him ever so slightly in that classic 'Valencia Fabelle' fashion, she leaned back in her chair and sipped her wine, sighing with resignation.
    “So I enter the ruins and there's no sign of her. I search and I search and ultimately decide that she must be a ghost.”
    “You did not believe in ghosts,” Valencia said.
    “I was just about to return to my horse when something caught my eye. I looked up and there she was, sitting atop what was left of a wall, staring down at me.”
    Izzy and Ceara sighed.
    “He forgets the part where he arrogantly marches up the stairs and–”
    “I was concerned for your safety,” he cut in.
    “You told me it wasn't safe out there for a woman.”
    His lips twitched but he held in the smile. Damn he'd missed their sparring matches. He missed her. Had missed her every day no matter how hard he tried to deny it.
    “You were right you know,” she murmured.
    “Was I now?” He leaned closer.
    “There was evil in those woods. I met you.”
    Dameon threw his head back and laughed.
    “Some things never change, Val-dear.”
    “Your evil ways?” She quipped and took another sip from her goblet.
    “Your impeccable sense of timing.”
    “We will let you guys discuss this privately,” Izzy said abandoning her glass. Shade stood up next to her and Ceara and Maxim followed suit. Coco and Grayson stood and Coco stared at them with curiosity and concern.
    “Please don't let us run you off,” he said, rising. “Valencia and I haven't seen each other in a very long time I'm afraid.”
    “Then you have lots to catch up on,” Shade said with a smirk. With an arm around Izzy's shoulders, he led her toward the hotel. Ceara offered them a quick smile, grabbed her beach towel and reached for Maxim's hand.
    Dameon watched the other two couples walk away before he took his seat again.
    “Moonbeams?” Valencia scoffed.
    “Isn't that the kind of language you ladies love?”
    She murmured something under her breath.
    “What's that, Val-dear?” It wasn't like her to mumble or hold her tongue but he was realizing that though she shared the same face and the same body, she was very different from the woman he'd known two centuries ago.
    “Not from you.”
    “From me?”
    “That's not what I want to hear from you. We had our moonlight and roses. Our honeymoon time, as you call it. It didn't end well.”
    Whose fault was that? Was there any fault to be had? Many sleepless days he’d wondered if perhaps they just hadn't loved each other enough or trusted each