Karen Chance - Claimed by Shadow

After my short free fall, the ground rushed up and hit me in the face. When my vision cleared, I identified the surface as carpet with a red and black oriental pattern thinly stretched over very hard wood. For a stunned minute I thought I'd ended up back in the bar, but then I noticed the two sets of feet in front of me. They didn't look like they belonged to tourists.

The woman was wearing tiny black silk heels with a scattering of jet beads on the toe. They matched the beadwork on her elaborate black evening gown, the hem of which was about a foot in front of my face. The beading ran up the front of the dress to an impossibly small waist, then disappeared, I assume so it wouldn't detract from the fortune in diamonds she wore draped around her slim throat and clipped into her golden curls. I glanced at her lovely blue eyes, narrowed in distaste as she regarded me, and quickly looked away. It isn't a good idea to stare a vampire in the eyes for long, and that is unquestionably what she was.

I scrambled to my feet and got another shock. I almost fell again-only Tony would be sadistic enough to make waitresses wear three-inch heels-and a hand reached out to steady me. A very familiar hand.

Like the woman, her escort was obviously dressed for evening, in a black swallowtail coat over a low-cut vest, white shirt and white bowtie. His highly polished shoes shone more than his understated jewelry-plain gold cufflinks that matched the clip holding his hair in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. The discreet accessories didn't surprise me-Mircea has never liked showy clothes. What threw me was the abrupt, overwhelming sense of joy that spread over me as soon as our eyes met.

I was suddenly struck by the sheer masculine beauty of him. He was so gracefully made that I caught my breath, all long limbs and elegant lines, like a dancer or a long-distance runner-or what he was, the product of noble blood going back for generations. Only one feature didn't fit that picture: his mouth was not the thin-lipped aristocratic version, but had the full, beautifully sculpted lips of a sensualist.

Maybe there had been more peasant stock in the gene pool than the family would admit, people who might not have had the airs and graces of their lords, but who knew how to laugh and dance and drink with a passion the aristocrats had forgotten. Dracula was supposed to have been the one born of a fiery gypsy girl, but I'd sometimes wondered whether the old rumors had gotten things mixed up, and instead it was Mircea who had Romany blood. If so, it suited him.

His hand was under my elbow in a light, impersonal touch, but for some reason it made my whole arm tingle. I tried to sense the geis Casanova had talked about, but nothing registered. If I hadn't known better, I would have sworn there was no spell to find.

I realized vaguely that my hands had begun smoothing the thick silk of Mircea's waistcoat. It was crimson with red dragons embroidered on it and seemed a little flashy for him, although the tone on tone made the designs almost invisible unless the light hit them just right. The embroidery was smooth against my fingertips, a beautiful, intricate design. I could even see the tiny scales on the dragons. Then my wandering hands discovered something more interesting, the faint prick of nipples, barely discernable under several layers of fabric.

My fingertips traced them delicately, my whole body vibrating with pleasure from that small sensation. Being near Mircea caused none of the mind-numbing effects of Casanova's attempt at seduction. I could have pulled away; I just couldn't think of anything I wanted less.

Mircea also wasn't going anywhere. He just stood there, looking bemused, but the hand on my arm began pulling me gently towards him.

I went willingly, lost in admiration for the way the gas light gleamed in his hair, and a thrumming energy suddenly ran up my arm. It hit my shoulder, then dove back down to jump from my fingertips like electricity. Mircea jerked slightly as the sensation hit him, but he did not let go. The feeling echoed back and forth, holding the two of us in a loop of sensation that made the hairs on my arm stand up and my body tighten.

The dark eyes examined me as slowly and thoroughly as I had inspected him. The sensation of that gaze made me shiver, and Mircea's eyebrow climbed a fraction at my reaction. His hand moved to the small of my back but encountered only the tough frame of the corset. His touch slid down to the curve of my hip, his fingers splaying over the thin satin of my shorts as he pressed us close.

I took a deep breath and tried to cope with the waves of emotion that were rolling over me, but it did no good. Mircea didn't help by reaching up to delicately brush my cheek with the backs of his fingers. A spark of gold leapt in his pupils, a color that I knew from experience indicated heightened emotion. When he was truly angry or aroused, cinnamon amber light spiraled up to fill his eyes, giving them an otherworldly glow that others found frightening but I had always thought beautiful.

Someone cleared his throat in a harsh bark. Pritkin's voice sounded over my shoulder. "My deepest apologies, sir, madam. I am afraid one of our actresses is not well. I trust she has given no offense?”

"Not at all." Mircea sounded distracted, and he made no move to release me.

"I will take her backstage, where she can rest." Pritkin put a hand on my arm, to haul me away, but Mircea's hand tightened on my hip. His eyes had begun to glow, the green and light brown flecks no longer visible against the rising tide of reddish gold.

"The child does not look well, Count Basarab," the female vamp said, taking his free arm, mirroring Pritkin's stance with me. "Let us not detain her.”

Mircea ignored her. "Who are you?" he asked. His accent was thicker than I had ever heard it, and his tone was filled with the same wonder I felt.

I swallowed and shook my head. There was no safe reply. I didn't know where or even when I was, but since the female vamp had a slight bustle on her gown, I didn't think it was anywhere I'd find familiar. There was a good chance I wasn't even born yet. "Nobody," I whispered.

Mircea's companion gave what in a less elegant person would have been a snort. "We will miss the opening," she said, tugging on his sleeve.

After a noticeable pause Mircea released me, the invisible energy stretching between us like strings of taffy as his hand slid away. He allowed his companion to lead him down the corridor, but he looked back at me in puzzlement several times. The energy arced between us but didn't break, as if there was an invisible cord spanning the distance, tying us together. Then they disappeared into a small curtained archway to what I vaguely recognized as a theatre box.

As soon as the red velvet curtains swooshed shut behind them, cutting off my view, the connection between us snapped. I was immediately hit with a longing so intense it was actually painful. It clenched my stomach like someone had sucker punched me, and started a headache pounding behind my eyes. I barely noticed Pritkin dragging me to the end of the corridor, where a set of stairs climbed towards, presumably, another set of boxes. An orchestra started to tune up somewhere nearby, which explained why there were no more people in sight. The entertainment was about to begin.

The stairs were lit by a series of small lanterns along the wall, with deep areas of shadow in between. As a hiding spot it wasn't great, but I was too preoccupied to care. My hands were shaking and sweat had popped out on my face. I felt like a junkie who has been shown the needle but denied her fix. It was horrible.

"What did you do?" Pritkin glared at me, his short blond hair standing up in tufts as if it was angry, too. It was a pretty fierce expression, but I'd seen it before. And compared with what had just happened, it was almost trivial.