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lips. She glanced down, frowning. What if you hadn t bitten me that night at
my clinic? Without the blood bond, would you still...
?
Love you? he finished for her, lifting her chin so that she could see the
truth of it in his eyes. It s always been you, Tess. I just didn t know it
until that night. I had been searching for you my whole life, connected to you
by the vision of what happened today.
He smoothed her mussed hair, letting one of her honey-brown waves curl around
his fingers. You know, my mother swore by destiny. She believed in it, even
though she knew her own destiny held bitter pain and loss. I never wanted to
accept that belief for myself, that anything was preordained. I thought I
was smarter than that, above it. But it was destiny that brought us together,
Tess. I can t deny that now.
God, Tess... have you any idea how long I ve waited for you?
Oh, Dante, she whispered, blinking away a stray tear. I wasn t prepared for
any of this. I m so afraid...
He gathered her close, sick for everything she d been forced to endure because
of him. He knew the trauma of what happened today would stay with her for a
long time. So much death and destruction. He never wanted her to feel that
kind of pain again. I need to know that you are somewhere you ll always be
safe, Tess. Where I can protect you best. There are places that we can go,
safe houses within the
Breed. I ve already talked to Chase about securing a place for us in one of
the area Darkhavens.
No. His heart sank as she carefully extricated herself from his embrace and
sat on her knees beside him on the bed. She shook her head slowly. Dante,
no...
God help him, but he couldn t speak. He waited in agonizing silence, knowing
that he fully deserved her rejection. He deserved her contempt for so many
reasons, yet he d felt certain she cared for him. He prayed she might, even
just a little bit.
Tess, if you say you don t love me
I do love you, she said at last. I love you with all my heart.
Then what is it?
She looked at him searchingly, her aqua eyes moist but resolved. I m tired of
running. I m tired of hiding. You ve opened my eyes to a world I never dreamed
could exist. Your world, Dante.
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He smiled at the beauty sitting next to him. My world is you.
And it s all of this too. This place, these people. The incredible legacy
that you re a part of. Your world is dark and dangerous, Dante, but it s also
extraordinary like you. Like life. Don t ask me to run away from that. I want
to be with you, but if I m going to live in your world, then I want to do it
here, where you belong. Where your family is.
My family?
She nodded. The other warriors here and their mates. They love you. I saw
that today. Maybe in time they might love me too.
Tess. Dante pulled her close, embracing her with a full heart and a
gratitude that soared into his chest like it was borne on wings. You would
want to be with me here, like this, as the mate of a warrior?
As the mate of my warrior, she corrected, smiling at him with love shining
brightly in her eyes. I can
t have it any other way.
Dante swallowed on a throat gone dry. He didn t deserve her. After all they d
been through, after all his ceaseless running, his heart had finally found its
home. With Tess. With his beloved.
What do you think? she asked him. Can you live with that?
Eternally, Dante vowed, then pulled her back down onto the bed with him and
sealed their pact with a passionate, endless kiss.
Read on for a preview of
Lara Adrian s next novel in her pulse-pounding
Midnight Breed series...
Midnight Awakening
by
Lara Adrian
On Sale
December 2007
Midnight Awakening
On sale December 2007
CHAPTER One
T
he scent of blood carried on the thin, wintry breeze. It was faint, fresh, a
coppery tickle in the nostrils of the vampire warrior who leaped soundlessly
from the roof of one dusk-shadowed building to another.
Snowflakes fell around him like floating white ash, blanketing the city that
spread out beneath him some ten stories down.
Tegan crouched at the ledge and surveyed the tangle of bustling streets and
alleyways. As one of the
Order a small cadre of Breed vampires engaged in war against their savage
brethren, the Rogues
Tegan s primary nightly objective was dealing death to his enemies. But down
to his marrow, he was
Breed, and there were none among his kind who could ignore the call of newly
spilled human blood.
He curled back his lips and dragged the cold air in through his teeth. His
gums tingled, an ache
blooming where his canines began to stretch into fangs. His vision sharpened
beyond its preternatural acuity, pupils narrowing into thin vertical slits in
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the center of his green eyes. The urge to hunt to feed
rose up in him swiftly, an automatic response that even he, with his
disciplined, iron self-control, was powerless to suppress.
All the worse for him, being of the first generation of vampires spawned on
Earth. Gen One appetites
physical, carnal, and otherwise burned the strongest.
Tegan crept along the edge of the building, then leaped down onto the roof of
another, his eyes rooted on the movement of people below, searching for a weak
member in the herd. But he didn t comb the crowds merely for his own needs:
find a human with an open flesh wound, and he knew for a fact that any Rogues
within a mile radius would not be far behind.
Except now that he was zeroing in on the source of the blood scent, he
realized that what he smelled had an increasingly stale edge to it. It was
spilled blood, not fresh at all, but several minutes old.
Following the metallic odor of it, Tegan s gaze lit on a short, slight figure
in a long, hooded parka who was hurrying up the main thoroughfare, past the
train station. There was an anxious clip to the person s gait, an obvious
desire not to be noticed in the low tilt of the head as it cut away from a
crowd of pedestrians and headed for an empty side street.
What the hell have you been up to? Tegan murmured under his breath.
Male or female, he couldn t be sure under all that dark, quilted down. Either
way, the human was about to get some very unwanted company.
Tegan saw the Rogue an instant before it came out of hiding near a Dumpster
several yards ahead of the human. He couldn t hear the words being said, but
he could tell by the vampire s swagger and glowing amber eyes that it was
taunting the person just having a little fun before it made its move. Two more
Rogues came around the corner from behind now, hemming the human in.
Damn it, Tegan growled, rubbing a hand over his jaw.
He d never had much use for the shiny brand of honor that demanded his kind
act as unsung saviors to the humans who inhabited the planet with them. Even
half-human himself, as was all of the Breed, Tegan had long ago given up
needing to be the hero. He d seen too much bloodshed, too much senseless
slaughter and tragic waste from both sides. His purpose now and for the past
five hundred years since the brutal torture and death of the only woman he d
ever loved was simple enough. Take out as many
Rogues as possible, or die trying.
But there was an ancient part of him that still bristled at the thought of
grossly unfair odds, like the situation taking place on the street below.
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