Free Deadman's Blood by T. Lynne Tolles Page B

filled his glass again, looking for confidence. He didn’t say anything for a long time then answered, “I will admit the chase has been titillating, Jules, but that’s not why I keep coming back.”
    “Really?” Jules said cynically.
    “Really. And I think if you would just get past this anger and cynicism, you might see that we have a lot of things in common.”
    “How’s that, rich boy? You come from royal blood and born into vampirism, I was a poor girl, made into a vampire, then cast away like a rag doll. I’m 400 years old you are what? 100? 125? How on earth or any other realm do we have anything in common,” she said rudely then filled her glass again.
    He stared at his glass. Her eyes burned a hole in the side of his head as he continued to stare at it and slowly graze his right thumb over its smooth, cool surface.
    “You’re right, Jules.” He took a sip of his blood wine then set the glass down on the table. “I’m a born vampire, and you are a made one, but it wasn’t me that hurt you so badly that you can’t even enjoy the company of someone who thinks you are worth an effort to get to know. The little boy, you seem to like to refer to me as, has learned his lesson. I never intended to pursue you as I have, but when we were locked in that elevator not so long ago, I felt a connection with you I’d not ever felt with anyone else. A kindred spirit maybe. One who, like me, had been brutally hurt by a loved one. But you’ve made it perfectly clear that you don’t…or is it you can’t, let anyone anywhere near your heart.”
    He stood up, leaned over, and kissed her hand. “I’m sorry, Julianna D’Angelo, that I couldn’t know you for who you really are, because I think under all that anger, there’s someone, like me, that would like to find love again.”
    Anton turned and walked to the front door, opened it, and then turned back once more and smiled at her. Julianna sat sadly and somewhat dumbfounded on the couch as he exited the house and headed for his car.
    Anton was crushed. He was so sure that if they could just have a little alone time to enjoy one another’s company, he could melt the iciness she surrounded herself in, but obviously he was wrong. Whatever happened to her had blackened her heart to any pursuers. He walked around the car to the driver’s side and inserted the key into the door, when Jules instantly appeared between him and the car.
    Looking up at him in the dim light from the streetlight, she said, “I’m so sorry, Anton, I’ve been absolutely horrible.” She took both of his hands into hers, then stretched up in her bare feet and kissed his cheek. “Please forgive me and join me back in the house?”
    Her auburn hair framed her pale face in the moonlight. Her sapphire blue eyes pleaded with him to agree, to which no mortal or immortal man could possibly refuse. He silently agreed by nodding and she held his hand as she led him back into the house.
    Once there, she handed him his discarded glass, and she lifted hers. “A toast?”
    “To what?” he asked.
    “To love and friendship. May we both find our fill of both,” she said.
    “Okay. I’ll drink to that. To love and friendship.” They tapped their glasses together and each took a sip of the tasty blood wine.
    Over the next hour or so, they talked pleasantly as Jules consumed the majority of the blood wine. For the first time, Anton saw her at her most relaxed and the conversation was easy and pleasant. Her posture had softened. At first she had been stiff and guarded, whereas now she hugged her knees on the couch as she talked. She talked about her childhood, her mother dying after the twins were born, and how she had been thrown into the role of mother for them, a story that she had told him before. But this time she went further and told him a story of anguish, heartbreak, and pain that Anton would never forget.
     
    *****
     
    Julianna was a woman of twenty-four in the 1600’s, and was more or less