Embrace the Night

Page 218



"To see Giselle." She shivered as the words whispered past her lips, as though someone had walked over her grave.

Gabriel nodded.

Sarah stared up at him, her expression one of disbelief and astonishment. "You took me riding on your horse. You sent me to France to be a ballerina. You saved my life when I was burned…"

He nodded again, his heart pounding as her memories surfaced.

"It was me. I was the one buried alive."

He saw the horror in her eyes as she recalled that night. Thinking to comfort her, he took a step forward, his hand outstretched.

"No!" She recoiled from his touch. "You're… you're a…" She shook her head, refusing to believe. "No, no, it can't be. This is all a dream, a nightmare."

His hand fell to his side. "Sometimes I wish it were." He let out a long, shuddering sigh. "The word you can't say is vampire. And it's true. It's what I am."

She shook her head again. He could hear the thundering beat of her heart, smell the fear that rose from her skin.

"You weren't afraid of me before," he remarked quietly. "Once, you even gave me your blood."

All the color drained from her face as she stared down at her wrist. "I remember." She spoke the words as though they had been forced from her lips. "You were in the cellar of an abandoned cottage and couldn't get out."

She lifted her gaze to his, but he said nothing, only stood there, his face impassive. She had never seen such stillness in another human being… only he wasn't human.

Vampire.

The undead.

Every Dracula movie she had ever seen rushed to the forefront of her mind. Will you be my slave or my equal? Did she really have any choice? If there was any truth to the movies, to the books she'd read, he could hypnotize her into doing whatever he wished. And now, with her gaze caught in the web of his, she believed it.

"Sarah, I'm not going to hurt you." He turned away, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his trousers. "I admit I brought you here tonight to bring you over… to take you by force if you wouldn't come willingly."

"Bring me over?"

"Make you what I am." Even though he wasn't looking at her, he could see the horror reflected in her eyes, feel the increased rhythm of her heart as fear swept through her. "You needn't worry," he said