Lover's Bite by Maggie Shayne

Author:Maggie Shayne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2008-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

Jack felt a little bit unwanted, like an outsider, an interloper. The others were like a family as they embraced her and all talked at once. He was unreasonably relieved when he heard someone say that Ilyana and Briar were inside. They were outsiders, too. And in fact, of them all, he thought he would be happiest to see Briar again. So he headed into the cabin marked with the green 2 in search of her, and left the little group to catch up in their sappy way without him.

The cabins were made of adobe, forty by forty or so, with two stories each. They all looked pretty much the same; full front porch, big windows on either side of a red door, clay pottery overflowing with exotic-looking plants, and rattan lawn furniture on each porch.

Jack opened the red door and stepped into the large living-dining area, and looked around. He didn’t see anyone, but he could feel them. Ilyana, the newcomer to the group, was mortal. One of the Chosen. Her energy was impatient, frustrated, a little bit afraid. She was nervous around vampires. She had every reason to be, having served as Gregor’s bedtime snack for God only knew how long. She was presently in one of the rooms off to the right of this one. A kitchen, he thought.

Briar’s energy, on the other hand, didn’t even feel like her. It was dull, and had a sickly element to it. It was contained, reserved, quiet, withdrawn. None of it was Briar. At least, not the Briar he remembered.

He followed his sense of her energy all the same, up the stairs to the second floor and along a hall with four doors, stopping at the third. The door wasn’t locked, and he didn’t bother to knock. He had let her feel his approach, so she knew he was coming.

He opened the door and let his gaze sweep over the small bedroom. She sat on the bed, knees drawn to her chest, eyes on him. “What do you want?”

Jack lifted his brows and went inside, leaving the door open. “Nice to see you, too, Briar. I’ve been fine, thanks. How about you?”

She didn’t react, aside from the slight flaring of her nostrils as she exhaled.

“I can see you haven’t been fine at all,” he said.

“What is there to be fine about?”

He shrugged, crossing the room. “I don’t know. We’re alive. Eternally strong and young and powerful.”

She turned her head slightly toward the window, and he followed her gaze to the small group gathered on the lawn. “What good is it? This world isn’t worth living in. There’s nothing good about it.”

“Never knew you were so into goodness.”

She shot him a look. “What good is strength if you aren’t allowed to prey on the weak? What good is eternal life, when it’s only filled with people who’d just as happily kill you as look at you?”

He sighed. “You trusted the wrong guy, Briar.” And it occurred to him that he could say the same words to Topaz, and they would be just as true.

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