Blood and Kisses by Karin Shah

evaporated.
    The temperature seemed to drop twenty degrees in a matter of seconds. She shivered. She’d expected it, deserved it really, but his anger was alarmingly painful. Ignoring the frisson of distress still burrowing through her chest, she nodded, then grabbed her suitcase and the newspaper. After a quick goodbye to Spirit, she followed Gideon out the door.
    She slid into the leather passenger seat of his car and handed him the newspaper. He scanned the headline as she fastened her seatbelt, then threw the paper into the small backseat. “I know.”
    Thalia searched his closed features. “Did you hear where she was seen last?”
    Gideon nodded his dark head curtly. “The Tomb. That’s what kept me. The police tracked me down.”
    Relief swept through her. He hadn’t stayed away because of the kiss. “At this time of night? Are you a suspect?”
    “I don’t know. Am I?”
    Thalia gasped at the sudden attack. “What do you mean?”
    “If you didn’t believe I had something to do with Lily’s death, why did you search my home?”
    His eyes gleamed in the reflected moonlight. Thalia almost thought she could read something in their liquid depths. Was it hurt? She looked away. It seemed impossible an insignificant creature like herself could injure such a powerful man. “All vampires are suspects.”
    “So I am a suspect.”
    “Before I found out about the other murder you were.” She put a hand to her forehead and ran her fingers through the strand of hair she’d left out of her ponytail, hiding her face “But you were with me last night. I can tell the police the same if you like.”
    “Don’t do me any favors.” Gideon started the car. The large engine growled to life, echoing perhaps, the mood of the driver. He threw the car into reverse and backed out of the driveway. His anger simmered in the car like air rising off sun-scorched pavement.
    “Gideon,” Thalia said quietly, dropping her hand and facing him. “I’m sorry. Lily was my best friend.”
    The plea hung in the air for a moment, then he glanced at her and seemed to soften. “The coroner has narrowed Lily’s time of death to before I left the tavern that night. And since they believe both murders were perpetrated by the same person. . .”
    “You’re in the clear.” The atmosphere between them lightened.
    “For now. I may yet have to take you up on your offer of an alibi.”
     
    The watcher drew back into the complicit shadows as his enemy and the Champion got into the flashy black car. The scent of their mutual attraction floated on the air. Neither looked up, apparently too absorbed in each other to detect his presence.
    He smiled. His enemy had become weak.
    The car peeled out of the driveway in a spray of gravel. As their headlights faded like dying embers in the distance, he burned at the delay. His human slaves were late.
    He sighed. He wished it weren’t necessary to use them at all. It was rather like playing with one’s food, but without an invitation, he couldn’t breach the Champion’s walls. His human puppets had no such prohibition.
    Dark shapes glided out of the depths of the night. His playthings had arrived.
     
    The rhythmic thump of the tires on the road along with the rumble of the engine filled the silence as Gideon subdued his rage.
    As unbelievable as it seemed, she was safer with him.
    But he had to keep his distance. She’d taken him into emotional territory he hadn’t charted since he’d been human. Dangerous territory. Territory that could get people killed. Perhaps when this was all over, he should move on. Find a less populated corner of the globe.
    He searched for the hard-won calm he had fostered over the millennia. He’d kept the beast chained for thousands of years; surely he could handle one small woman.
    “Tell me about vampires.”
    Gideon spared a glance at Thalia before returning his eyes to the road. “What do you want to know?”
    “Well, I thought vampires fell into a kind of coma