Winter Born by Sherrilyn Kenyon

bands were displaying their wares and talents. Dante seemed to have a knack for finding really good performers who were excited about being offered money to play in his club in Minnesota.
    â€œHow long have you had your club?” she asked as he bought three CDs from a band called Emerald Rose who had been playing earlier outside the conference rooms at the Hyatt.
    â€œAlmost thirty years now.”
    Wow, that was a long time. Dante looked good for a man who was more than two hundred years old.
    Really good.
    â€œAnd the humans don’t realize that you’re always there and that you never age?”
    He shook his head. “When they leave the Inferno, we tamper with their minds a bit. Even if they come in every night, they never remember those of us who don’t age or change.”
    â€œThat must be nice. In my…” She hesitated to say “pack” since they had thrown her out. “In my world, we stay away from the humans as much as possible.”
    â€œSo what’s the future like where you live, anyway?”
    â€œNot that much different from this. Haven’t you ever been?”
    â€œNot since I was a cub. When I first got control of my time-travel powers, I hopped around quite a bit. But after a while, it got boring. Things and places changed, but the people didn’t. So I decided to stay with my pack in Minnesota and not worry about the past or the future.”
    She would love to be able to time-jump like that. It was true freedom and that was one thing she’d never known.
    â€œCan you teach me how to use my powers like that?” she asked.
    â€œOf course.”
    She smiled. None of her sisters who had been sent into this time period had been taught anything. The Katagaria hadn’t allowed them to develop their powers for fear they would leave. Some of them had even been forced by the Katagaria to wear metriazo collars to ensure that none of them would ever be able to use their magic.
    It was harsh and cruel.
    â€œIs it hard to time-travel?” she asked.
    â€œNot now, it’s not for me. But I’ve had centuries to perfect my powers. When you first start it can be … surprising. Last time I left Leo and Mike at home, they time-jumped from Minnesota 2002 to the Aleutian Islands 1432 instead of New York 2065. It was a bitch trying to find them and get them home again.”
    â€œI’m surprised you went after them.”
    â€œYeah, well, they annoy me, but I understand they’re just cubs who will eventually grow up … probably to annoy me even more.”
    She laughed at his offbeat humor as they drifted through the strangely garbed crowd. She had to admit that Dante was a lot of fun once he got used to you and stopped being so feral and snarling.
    â€œYou do have a heart, don’t you?”
    â€œNo, Pandora,” he said, his blue eyes scorching her with their intensity. “I don’t. I only have responsibility. And I have a shitload of it.”
    Maybe, but she wasn’t quite so sure. For one thing the arm he had draped around her shoulders didn’t say “burden,” it said “protective.”
    And she wanted to pretend it said something even more. Something like friendship.
    Maybe even love.
    Dante paused at a dealer’s display case. A tiny smile hovered at the edges of his lips as something caught his eye. He motioned for the dealer to come over.
    â€œCan I help you?” the older woman asked as she approached them.
    Dante pointed to something under the glass. “I’d like to see that.”
    Pandora didn’t know what it was until the woman handed it to Dante and he turned toward her. She couldn’t help laughing at the gold pendant in the form of a panther wrapped around a sapphire as he fastened it around her neck.
    Pandora held the pendant in her hand so that she could examine it. “How unusual.”
    â€œYes, it is,” the woman said. “That’s a