A WHISPER OF ETERNIT

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"You knew how I felt!"

Dominic sat up. The blankets pooled in his lap.

Tracystared at him. He looked the same as always, yet different somehow. Even as angry as she was, she couldn't help admiring the width of his shoulders, his broad chest, the latent strength in his well-muscled arms, or the narrow line of black hair that started at his waist and disappeared beneath the blankets. She had a sudden, inexplicable urge to find her paints and draw him as he looked now. She would call itVampire at Dusk . …

She looked up at his face again. He was still watching her, his expression guarded.

She held out her hands, turning them this way and that, wiggling her fingers as if she had never seen them before.

She was a vampire. She said the words in her mind, trying to determine what she was feeling. Every sense she owned was alert and alive.

"I'm a vampire." She said the words aloud, surprised to find that the idea was not as shocking or abhorrent as she had expected.

Dominic rose and held out his hand. "Come with me."

She hesitated a moment and then put her hand in his. Wordlessly, he led her outside and into the gardens.

He made a gesture that encompassed the yard. "It is beautiful, yes?"

Slowly, she perused the grounds. Though it was dark, she could see colors as clearly as if it were midday. The bright pinks and reds and yellows of the roses were vibrant and alive in a way she had never seen before. She could see every thorn, the delicate veins in each leaf, in stark detail. The lawn was a deep emerald green. Each blade of grass was clearly defined.

And sounds.She heard the soft sighing of the wind though it was not strong enough to stir the leaves of the trees, the faint croaking of a frog, the flutter of a moth's wings, the shifting of a bird in its nest overhead.

She ran her hand over the back of one of the stone benches, her fingers suddenly sensitive to each tiny groove.

She twirled around. She felt better than she had ever felt in her life, knew that she could run or swim for miles and never tire. Knew if she but willed herself to do so, she could fly over the high wall that surrounded the estate.

Bemused, she stopped twirling to look at Dominic and found him watching her, his expression that of a proud father watching a childtake its first steps. And that was what she was doing, she mused, taking her first steps toward a new life.

He was waiting, she realized, waiting for her reaction to her changed condition, waiting to see if she would forgive him for what he had done, or curse him and flee his presence.