Kitara glanced down to the ring on her finger. The small
band of gold with channel-set diamonds and sapphires had only adorned her
finger for six months. She remembered the day Jeremy got down on one knee and
proposed. He’d told her he was the luckiest man alive to have found her and
that he’d do everything in his power to take care of her.
How could all that have changed in such a short time? What
had the Saints done to turn his affections? For that matter, what other lies
had the Saints told Jeremy?
After becoming a Saint, Jeremy had said vampires and all
other supernatural beings were depraved creatures. That had been the start of
the end for their relationship. She’d been labeled one of the unnatural
creatures for the way she prayed under the light of the full moon.
She’d believed that other creatures could be evil, but not
her. She wasn’t a witch or anything like that. And vampires, sure, they would
most certainly be on the list of bad things. But now that she’d met one, she
wasn’t so sure she agreed with that assessment any more.
Despite his abrasive attitude, that vampire – Nicholas – had
showed more humanity than the jerk she’d met at the bar the previous night.
He’d saved her not once, but twice, albeit in the most aggravating way
possible. He hadn’t tried to bite her either. Though now that she thought about
it, his mental attack on her at the club might have been exactly the kind of
thing Jeremy had warned her about. Thankfully she’d been able to ward him off.
The echo of a headache still remained, a subtle reminder that if she chose to
fight a mental attack, she could do it. She’d just need to make sure she could
find a safe place to weather the aftereffects.
Perhaps not all Jeremy had told her had been true, but there
were kernels of truth there that had her questioning everything she had known.
Vampires were real. She’d just met one in the flesh. And
though she hated to admit it, his flesh wasn’t all that bad either. She’d
expected to see sallow skin and a gaunt frame, something out of Nosferatu.
Maybe even some crazy looking fangs. Nicholas was nothing like that. Despite
his abrasive attitude, he was attractive and muscular, his dusky blue eyes were
mesmerizing, and his teeth… sharp, but very discreet. She’d only really gotten
a good glance at them when he smiled. And though it made her stomach turn at
the idea of what he did with those fangs, she felt a twinge of excitement
seeing them. A small thought crept into her mind. What would it feel like to be
bitten? As soon as the thought took form, she pushed it away. That was exactly
the kind of thing that invited trouble. She’d already had plenty of that.
The reality of this new information was unsettling. Vampires
were obviously real. Witches were real. Jeremy had accused her of that more
times than she could count. And if all of what Nicholas had said was true, and
the Saints were killing all things unnatural, then she was a target herself.
That couldn’t be right. No. There was no way Jeremy, the
same man who once filled the entire room with candles and red rose petals,
could kill her in cold blood.