A WHISPER OF ETERNIT

Page 148



His arms tightened around her, drawing her body close to his as his mouth covered hers. For that moment, she forgot everything else except how much she had grown to love him.
She felt bereft when he drew away. "Be careful."

His gaze moved over her, warming her, and then he was gone.

Judging by the crowd inside The Catacombs when he arrived, Dominic figured that word of his meeting with Kitana must have spread like wildfire through the community of vampires. There was an air of tension in the room when he stepped inside as all eyes swung in his direction. He nodded to those gathered in the room as he made his way toward the bar.

He had dressed with care for this meeting. He wore a blindingly white shirt, black trousers and boots, and, for effect, a long black cloak.

The crowd parted for him as though he were Moses crossing theRed Sea .

At the bar, he asked for a glass of wine, fully aware of the conversations going on around him as the vampires speculated on the outcome of the meeting between Dominic and the oldest of their kind.

He knew the moment Kitana entered the room. A rush of preternatural power moved over him, tickling the hair on his arms, raising the hair at his nape.

Slowly, he put his glass down on the bar.
Slowly, he turned to face her.

She was as beautiful as he remembered. Slight in build, no more than five feet tall, she was nevertheless a commanding presence. She wore a long white gown and a cloak of midnight blue velvet lined in blood-red silk. Her hair fell over her shoulders in a fall of bright auburn that shimmered in the candlelight.

She smiled when she saw him. "Dominic. It has been too long."

He closed the distance between them and kissed her cheek. "I bid you welcome, Kitana ."

"Such a quaint little place that you have chosen for your own. I would have thought the cities ofEurope would have been more toyour …" She smiled broadly."Taste."

Taking her hand, he led her to a booth in the back of the room, sat down only after she was seated.

For a moment, they regarded each other across the table. Dominic wondered if she was remembering the years they had spent together, as he was.So many good years. She had taught him the ways of the Undead, and so much more. She had taught him to read and write,given him an appreciation for art and music, schooled him in deportment and etiquette, turned him from an ill-mannered lout into a gentleman. For better or worse, she had truly made him the creature he was tonight.

"They were good times, were they not?" she remarked.