Man, he should have taken a bite of her neck when he'd had the chance. He still wasn't sure why he hadn't tasted her blood. No doubt it would have kept him warm even now.
Oh, well. Chalk it up to another regret he had on an infinite list of them.
His thoughts returned to her…
Sunshine had shown up unexpectedly at hisNew Orleans town house while he had been waiting for Nick to take him to the landing site to leave.
Her black hair had been braided and her brown eyes had held a friendship in them that he'd never seen before when someone looked at him.
"I can't stay for long. I don't want Talon to wake up and find me gone, but before you left I had to thank you for what you did for us."
He still didn't know why he'd helped her and Talon. Why he had defied Dionysus and fought against the god while the god had sought to destroy the two of them.
For their happiness, he had consigned himself to death.
But as he had looked at her yesterday, it had seemed somehow worth it.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) And as he allowed sleep to overtake him, he wondered if he would still think it was worth it when the Squires found his cabin and burned it to the ground with him inside.
He snorted at the thought. What the hell? At least he'd be warm for a few minutes before he died.
Zarek wasn't sure how long he'd slept. By the time he awoke, it was dark again.
Hopefully, he hadn't slept so long that his snowmachine would have had a chance to freeze. If he had, it would be a long, cold hike into town.
He rolled over and grimaced in pain. He'd been lying on his laptop. Not to mention the phone and MP3
player that were biting into something even more uncomfortable.
Shivering against the frigid cold, he forced himself up and grabbed another parka from his wardrobe.
Once he was dressed for the weather, he went outside to his makeshift garage. He put the laptop, phone, and MP3 player into his backpack and slung it over his shoulders, then straddled the snowmachine and unwrapped the engine.
Luckily it started on the first try. Hallelujah! Maybe his luck was turning after all. No one had toasted him while he slept and he actually had enough gas to make it intoFairbanks where he could get some hot food and thaw out for a few minutes.
Grateful for small favors, he headed across his land and turned south for the long, bumpy trip that would take him into civilization.
Not that he minded. He was just too damned grateful there actually was civilization now to head into.
Zarek arrived in town shortly after six.
He parked his snowmachine at Sharon Parker's house, which was walking distance from the town's center. He'd met the ex-waitress about ten years ago when he'd found her inside her broken-down car late at night on the side of a seldom-traveled back road in North Pole.
It'd been close to sixty below and she had been crying, huddled under blankets, afraid that she and her baby would die before help arrived. Her seven-month-old daughter had been sick with asthma andSharon had been trying to get her to the hospital for a breathing treatment, but they had refused her admittance since she didn't have any insurance and no money to pay.
She had been given directions to a charity clinic and had gotten lost while trying to find it.
Zarek had taken them back to the hospital and paid for the baby's care. While they waited, he'd found outSharon was being evicted from her apartment and couldn't make ends meet.
So he had offeredSharon a bargain. In exchange for a house, car, and money, she provided him with someone friendly to speak to whenever he came intoFairbanks , and a few home-cooked leftovers or meals—whatever she had lying around.
Best of all, in the summertime when he was completely locked inside his cabin during the twenty-three and a half hours of daylight, she would swing by the post office or store and bring him books and supplies and leave them outside his door.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) It had been the best deal he'd ever made.
She'd never asked him anything personal, not even why he didn't leave his cabin in the summer months.
No doubt she was just too grateful to have his financial support to care about his eccentric ways.
In return, Zarek had never taken any of her blood or asked her anything personal. They were just employer and employee.
"Zarek?
"
He looked up from plugging in his block warmer on the snowmachine to see her sticking her head out of the front door of her ranch-style house. Her dark brown hair was shorter than it had been a month ago when he'd last seen her—she had a blunt cut that swung around her shoulders.
Tall, thin, and extremely attractive, she was dressed in a black sweater and jeans. Most any other guy would have probably made a move on her by now, and one night about four years ago, she had insinuated that if he ever wanted something more intimate from her she would gladly give it, but Zarek had refused.