Колин Глисон - The Vampire Narcise

“The Silver Chalice. Whatever you wish,” Giordan said, sliding his muscular leg between hers. “I don’t mind a good fight myself, once in a while.” He smiled, showing his fangs.

Neither of them would turn away from a fight—as long as it wasn’t violence for the sake of violence. Or death. Narcise had learned that she, too, could only feed from those who consumed only sustenance without violence. Moksha was a powerful thing.

And Giordan had given it to her.

“I’ll take you to visit Cezar whenever you like,” he said, sliding those sharp fangs along the sensitive column of her neck. She shivered, then pulled away as her veins pulsed and throbbed in anticipation.

“It won’t bother you…after all that’s happened?” she asked, now watching him closely. “To see him?”

He shook his head, mashing those thick dark curls against the white pillow. “Not now that I have you. It was all for you, Narcise. I could live through anything, knowing I had you on the other side of it.”

She squeezed her eyes closed again, the welling of guilt and misery strong and hard, knotted in her belly. “I wish I had been different.”

But he shook his head again, and touched her face. “Do you not see? It was only because of what happened that I was able to change…to find that peace. And then, when you were ready, I gave it to you. If you’d left with me that day…after I was with Cezar, we wouldn’t be here now, marked by light instead of dark.”

Narcise sat up suddenly, the heavy weight of guilt and shame sliding away like a dark cloud. “Do you truly believe that?”

“But of course I do,” he said, looking up at her. “It’s often only after great despair and sacrifice that one finds what one really needs. And in an immortal life, ten years is hardly a breath.”

She smiled and felt as if the warm blast of the sun had just entered the chamber. “What an amazing man you are, Giordan. I love you…forever.”

“I’ve loved you from the moment I first saw you. There’s no one I want to spend immortality with besides you, Narcise.”

“How about a child?”

He stilled, looking at her with shocked, wide eyes. “But you cannot…”

Her smile grew wider. “I happen to know that something else about me has changed…and I think it’s possible now.”

“Then I suggest we begin attending to that right away,” he said, sliding over on top of her. “Then I’ll have two females I love to spend eternity with.”

“What if it’s a boy?”

“It won’t be. I know these things… remember? I was almost an avatar .”

As always, I have many people to thank for helping to get Narcise out of the cobwebs in my head and onto the shelves, not the least including Emily Ohanjanians, my hardworking and attentive editor, and the entire team at MIRA. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to launch this series, and I’m especially grateful to Diane Mosher and Katherine Orr for their team’s support.

I’d like to thank Erin and Devon Wolfe and Gary and Darlene March for the late-night boat ride that helped me to crystallize exactly how things could work out for an immortal vampiress. I’m not sure if it was the wine or the combined brainpower, but you all got me thinking on the right path, and herein is the result. Extra hugs and kisses to Darlene and Erin for doing early readings of the book to check my work as well!

Thanks to Holli and Tammy for helping me muddle through yet another book, and for your thoughtful and supportive feedback. I am so very grateful to the two of you that I celebrate Thanksgiving every single day!

I owe my brother Sean big thanks for his expertise with arson and fire—not only for this book, but for every other book that I’ve ever written that has a fire in it. And there are many.

Also, great big hugs to Robyn Carr for too many reasons to list, although I’m pretty sure you know them all. But I’m just going to say one word: sushi.

I also really appreciate the time given by Maggie Shayne, Heather Graham, Lara Adrian and Jeaniene Frost to read from this new series. I can only guess at how busy you are, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the support from such talented, generous women. Thank you.

I would also like to thank Marcy Posner for being a wonderful business partner and support over the last seven years. I will always appreciate everything you’ve done for me.

And last, but never least, I must express my deep love and gratitude to my husband and our children for really understanding how my deadlines work, and why there are times that I just can’t sit in on family movie nights. Also special thanks to MusicMan for all those lunches and breakfasts where you’re throwing plot ideas out to me willy-nilly and always manage to come up with something that sticks. I love you.