Golden Vampire by Thomas-Sundstrom Linda

Author:Thomas-Sundstrom, Linda [Thomas-Sundstrom, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy & Futuristic, Romance, Vampires, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Contemporary Fiction, Series, Harlequin Nocturne, Contemporary, Paranormal, United States, Fantasy, Literature & Fiction
ISBN: 0373618573
Publisher: Harlequin Nocturne
Published: 2011-04-02T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

A bombardment of sensory input rushed at Jesse as she stepped across the castle’s threshold, best summed up in stunted, singular adjectives. Ancient. Cold. Freaky. Frightening.

Chilled to her marrow and beyond, she was too frozen to shake warmth back into her cramped muscles as she soaked in the details of her surroundings. Her nerves were on full alert.

She stood in a vaulted hall composed of bare stone walls and stone floors, all that rock probably whitewashed at one time and now aged to a gray patina. Funny color, she thought, for vampires who can’t stand silver.

She had expected years’ worth of dust and piles of rubble, and found neither. The place was empty. There wasn’t a stick of furniture in sight. No paintings, rugs or drape of fabric warmed the place, providing an inkling of someone in residence. That’s because someone wasn’t.

Something was.

In testament to that, she saw no windows in the great hall—no big surprise—though light slanted downward in ribbonlike streams from somewhere high overhead. Candles hung from sconces attached to the walls around her, if not exactly mimicking hazy daylight, then producing a similar effect. The result of all this dim, drafty bareness seemed as imposing to Jesse as the castle’s fortresslike facade. Neither of those things compared with the problem of facing the creature who reigned here.

As her unearthly host walked past her, Jesse rode out another chill. She remained just inside the hall with her back to the door, ready to run if the need arose. Working to quell her rising panic over being alone with this creature in his windowless lair, she studied more details of this vampire prince and his nightmarish palace.

As on the first time she’d laid eyes on him, he wore a white untucked shirt, this time over dark, loosely fitted pants. He wore the black knee boots. Once again, he seemed impervious to variations in temperature, and even more inhuman for it, up close.

The icy breath Jesse had been holding hurt her throat. A nerve-racking, sharp stab of anxiety dissected her emotions—no help at all in warding off her body’s continuous quaking.

What would this creature do now? Would her life continue or not? Facing those possibilities, she had to admit, reluctantly, that the bastard across from her was nothing short of stunning.

The bleak gray surroundings made him stand out even more than usual, and quite exotically, as if a set designer had created this scene for him to star in. The black pants, white shirt and unblemished ivory skin, when contrasted with the starkness of the silver-gray room, made him seem almost colorful, and definitely the center of attraction. His blond curls that she’d likened to a halo gleamed here just as unnaturally in the candlelight.

Jesse swallowed her fear, refusing to address the disturbing words gathering at the back of her mind. If only he were human.

“It has been a long time since I told a lie,” he said, halting on a stone step, expecting her to follow as his

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