Free Vacation with a Vampire & Other Immortals by Maureen Child, MAGGIE SHAYNE

completely shut out the daylight, assuming she didn’t already know?
    Her essence led him into the kitchen, where she had opened every cabinet and the refrigerator, too. Had she noticed the lack of food? Had she gone looking for what really kept him fed? He’d removed his bags of cold, clean human blood from the fridge only a few hours after he’d brought her here. He’d waited long enough to put warm, dry clothes on her, to cover her in blankets and build a fire nearby, to make sure she was going to live, then removed his stores of blood to the cooler out in the workshop.
    Not finding Anna in the kitchen, he surged up the stairs, pausing where she had at his bedroom door. He felt the energy of her hand hovering near the doorknob and lowered his head in disappointment, before he realized that her essence ended there. She hadn’t turned the knob or opened the door. The sense of her went no farther. She had not intruded into his bedroom. And not because he’d taken the precaution of locking her out. No. She hadn’t even tried the door.
    He felt a smile tug at the corners of his lips, felt the tension slowly ease from his body. His feelings of violation and resentment evaporated, and curiosity replaced them. What had stopped her?
    And then a sneaking suspicion arose that caused the smile to falter. Had she simply run out of time? Had she heard him coming and had to scamper away, giving up on her day of prying into his shadows?
    He lifted his head, turning and sensing her nearby, in the large bathroom that took up the other half of the second story. The door was ajar, far enough for him to see a naked, water-beaded knee in the tub. It wasn’t moving. He stepped a little closer and saw more of her revealed. Her thigh vanished into the water, the sight of it blocked further by the tub itself. Her arm dangled over one side, long and slender and surprisingly toned for one so thin. But she’d been alone at sea for over a month, hadn’t she? That would firm a person up, even a sick one.
    And she was sick. He’d seen it before, the ravages of the antigen going to work on a mortal. Not in himself. He’d been turned before it got that bad, but he’d seen it in Cassandra. It was what had made him want to save her.
    He banished that memory from his mind and moved a little closer, pushing the door wider now, but not quite going inside.
    Anna was leaning back, her head tipped to rest against the edge of the tub. Her eyes were closed, mouth slightly open, hair bundled on top of her head, with curls cascading around her like a waterfall. As he stared, she inhaled and snorted a little.
    His smile returned. No artifice there. She wasn’t faking. She was truly asleep, and judging by the stillness of the water, the Jacuzzi jets, that ran for fifteen minutes before shutting themselves off and requiring you to hit the start button again, had long since gone silent. She’d been there awhile.
    And that told him all he needed to know. She hadn’t gone into his room because she had chosen not to. As curious as she must be, she’d chosen to respect his privacy.
    For the first time, he considered that maybe she was genuine. Not a liar, like Cassandra. Not a user. Not a cold, calculating thief out to steal eternal life under false pretenses.
    Maybe she was for real. As sweet and wonderful as she seemed.
    And if he took one more step closer, he thought, he might see a whole lot more to like about the woman. But since she’d respected his privacy, though she obviously hadn’t wanted to, he figured he ought respect hers in turn.
    He backed out of the bathroom without so much as peeking at her body. Besides, he’d already seen it when he’d stripped off her sopping-wet clothes and dressed her in his own. And it wasn’t a sight he was likely to forget. Not only because he hadn’t glimpsed a naked woman in years, but because she was a beautiful specimen. A tempting one.
    But he wasn’t going to let his mind go in that direction.
    He pulled