Nightshifters by Tamelia Tumlin Page B

you.”
    “Why? You made it perfectly clear last night you never
wanted to see me again.” Rana’s nerves were already on edge and he wasn’t helping
matters standing in her shop exuding a supernatural aura.
    “You caught me off guard. I’ve had time to…” his gaze slid
over her … “re-evaluate the circumstances.”
    Wonderful .
    He’d re-evaluated, and she didn’t even have her slay kit
with her. Since she lived an hour from the nocturnal playground, she didn’t
need it at work.
    Until now .
    “Have dinner with me tonight.”
    “Dinner? Do you — I mean can you…”
     Alexandru laughed softly. “No. I don’t eat, but I can
sit with you. It’ll give us time to get reacquainted. There’s a great little
Mexican place around the corner.”
    “Mexican?” Rana bit the inside of her cheek.
    “It’s your favorite isn’t it?” The corner of his mouth
lifted into a rueful smile.
    “You remember?”
    “I remember everything about you. About us.” His words
dripped with soft seduction. Rana blinked. Her heart fluttered. For a moment,
he almost appeared to be the man she had loved. The man whom she had planned to
spend the rest of her life with, until that one fateful night that changed them
forever.
    Why? Why? Why? She wanted to scream. Why did he have
to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Her thoughts drifted to that night.
She couldn’t remember exactly what had happened, but she did remember the man
she had thought was a mugger. Instead, he had been Vladmir Gustovez, Master of
New Orleans Nocturne Society. One of the oldest, most powerful vampires in the
Crescent City. A man she had hated and hunted all her life, and that night he
had turned Alexandru into one of his kind. She should have killed Alexandru
then and there to put him out of his misery, but she had loved him too much.
Instead, she blacked out. When she came to, Vladmir and Alexandru were both
gone. Rana never went back to find the man she loved. She left the city and
started a new life for herself by opening the small bookstore. And guilt over
leaving Alexandru to deal with his own horrors alone nearly ate her alive. But
her guilt did not outweigh how much she despised vampires.
    Even Alexandru.
    “You’re right. You should have killed me then.”
    Rana gasped. She had been careless, and he was now in her
thoughts. Again. “I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”
    “I’ve adapted.” His smile held a hint of sadness. “Why
didn’t you come back to me? I searched for you for years.”
    Shame heated her cheeks. “I—I wasn’t ready. You’re a—”
    “A vampire. I’m well aware of that. Do you still hunt? Is
that why you’ve come back to me? To kill me?”
    Rana’s eyes widened. His blunt question startled her. “I—I …
No, I came to find you. I missed you.” That much was true. She did miss him.
Terribly. But that didn’t change what he was. Or what she had to do. Alexandru
stared at her. His eyes glittered in the moonlight streaming through the front
glass.
    “We have the same goal, you know.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “You are a Dhampir. Your job is to rid the world of vamps. I
may be an unwilling vampire, but I also try to keep the city safe. I won’t
tolerate unnecessary killing.”
    “You don’t kill?”
    Alexandru’s eyes shuttered for a moment. “No.”
    “But don’t you feed?”
    “Sometimes. Only when the urge is too great to overcome, but
I never take too much. Not anymore.”
    “But…” She swallowed hard. “You have killed?”
    Alexandru hissed sharply. Torment flickered in his eyes.
“Once.”
    The word tore from him in a guttural growl.
    “What happened?” Despite the horror of it all, Rana realized
that somewhere underneath the creature lay the man she had loved and trusted.
    “I was new. Had only just been turned for a few days. I
didn’t understand the hunger.” Self-loathing laced his words. “Didn’t know how
to handle it. I waited as long as I could before feeding.