A WHISPER OF ETERNIT

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You must drink now.

Mesmerized by her gaze, he had opened his mouth and swallowed the thick, red fluid, felt it burn a path down his throat, felt it spread through his body like liquid fire. He had grasped her wrist and sucked greedily, hissed at her when she tore her arm free.

He remembered little else of that night. She had carried him to herlair, let him spend the day in death-like sleep at her side.

When next he opened his eyes, the land lay shrouded in darkness and he was a full-fledged vampire.
Chapter 7

Tracywoke slowly, the memory of last night's dream still vivid in her mind. She had been a slave in a grand house in ancientRome . Her master had been a senator, his wife a stern woman with no compassion for those beneath her. It had seemed so real, not like a dream at all. She had felt the cold tiles beneath her feet, smelled the scents of food and wine at the marketplace, felt the sting of the whip on her flesh. Her name had been Nysa back then.

She whispered the name aloud, shivering because it sounded so familiar on her tongue. She had dreamed of the days Nysa had spent avoiding the wrath of her mistress, the nights when she had used her wiles to avoid the advances of her master. In many ways, it had been a good life. Unlike the poor citizens ofRome , she'd had a roof over her head, enough food to eat, a soft bed to sleep in. Still, it was hard to be grateful when she had no life of her own, when her every moment was spent in servitude to a cruel mistress.

She had been in her early twenties when her master decided to breed her to one of the other house slaves.

Tracyshuddered with the memory. When she refused to cooperate, she had been beaten by her mistress. She had run away that night.

It had been a man who looked very much like Dominic who had found her cowering in the ruins of an old burned-out barn. Could it have been Dominic? His name had been the same. He had taken her to his home and given her shelter. Her new owner had kept strange hours, never rising until after sunset, always disappearing before the dawn. He made no demands on her save that shebe in the house when he arrived. He provided her with the best food the city had to offer, though she never saw him eat. He clothed her in silks and fine linen, treated her as the mistress of his house rather than a runaway slave. And when he took her in his arms, she offered no resistance.

Days became weeks, weeks became months,the months became a year. And in that year, she convinced herself that there was nothing odd about him, that he simply preferred to sleep during the day and pursue his life in the evening.

It was during that year that she fell madly, desperately, in love with him.
It was during that year that she discovered what he was…

Feeling a sudden chill,Tracy wrapped her arms around her middle. Was it possible that she was truly