His gaze met hers, filled with the knowledge of what she was feeling, thinking. Gently, he lifted her hand and brushed a kiss across her palm. "I am sorry I ruined your dinner."

She nodded. Did all vampires possess this wondrous gift of healing? If so, he should be saving lives, healing children, fighting disease in every corner of the world.

"No," he said quietly. "It does not work like that."

"Why not? Why would it work for me and not for someone else?" She looked at his ravaged cheek. It looked better each time she saw him. In the places where it had healed completely, there was no sign of a scar. "Think of the lives you could save."

"No, my sweet one. It works for you because we have… " He hesitated to say the word.

"We have what?"

"We are bonded, heart to heart and soul to soul."

At his words, Vicki's heart began to pound. "We are? When did we do that?"

"When I first tasted you."

"But… Falco drank from me." Fear twisted in her gut, worse than anything she had ever known. "Does that mean that I'm bonded to him, too?"

"No."

"Why not?" She lifted a hand to the stitches in her neck. "He took far more blood than you did."

"Because I tasted you first," Antonio said. "But, more importantly, you gave yourself to me willingly."

"And if I hadn't?"

"There would be no bond between us."

"That's how he found us, isn't it? Because he took my blood?"

Antonio nodded. "But he has no power over you."

"Well, this has been most enlightening." Lady Kathryn hopped down from the top of the refrigerator where she had been sitting and observing. "There's just nothing like young love, is there?"

"Young?" Antonio asked with a wry smile. He had not been young for over five hundred years.

"Perhaps I should have said new love," Lady Kathryn amended airily. "Behave yourself, Antonio. Do not bed the girl until you have wed the girl."

And with that bit of unexpected motherly advice, Lady Kathryn vanished from the room.

"She's quite a character," Vicki remarked.

"Indeed," Antonio said dryly.

Lady Kathryn's talk of marriage left Vicki feeling oddly nervous. As much as she cared for Antonio, as much as she loved him, if she was being honest, she knew they could never marry or have a normal life together. The thought saddened her. Not wanting to dwell on it, at least not while he was in the room, she pasted a bright smile on her face.

"Well," she said, going to the refrigerator and pulling out a large bowl, "it looks like I'll just be having salad for dinner."

" Victoria?"

"What?" She pulled a fork from the silverware drawer and placed it on the table, along with the salad bowl and a bottle of Italian dressing.

"Something has upset you."

"I'm not upset."

"You cannot lie to me, my sweet. What is it that troubles you? Was it Lady Kathryn's reference to marriage?"

"Why should that upset me?"

Moving up behind her, he placed his arms around her waist and drew her back against him. "I would like nothing more than to make you my wife."

"Would you?" she asked tremulously.

"You know I would." His breath warmed her cheek. "I can think of nothing that would give me more pleasure, but you would not be happy as the wife of a vampire."

When she started to protest, he turned her in his arms and silenced her with a kiss.

"You would not mind at first, but in time you would come to resent the hours that I cannot be with you, just as you would come to resent the fact that the years had no claim on me."

She wanted to argue with him, to tell him that she loved him, that the differences between them didn't matter, but in her heart, she knew they did, knew that everything he said was true. In time, she would grow old and frail while he remained young and robust.

Breathing deeply, he buried his face in the wealth of her hair. "When Falco has been destroyed, I will take you home to your old life."

His words dropped like cold stones into the pit of her stomach.

"It is for the best, my sweetest one."

"Whose best?" she cried. "Not mine! If you loved me, you wouldn't want to leave me!"

"I do not want to leave you, but in time you would come to hate me, and that is something I cannot bear."

Whispering, "I don't want to live without you," she pulled his head down and kissed him, pouring all her love and all her desire into that one searing kiss.

Antonio moaned deep in his throat as hunger and desire warred within him. For a moment, he returned her kiss with all the passion and yearning in his heart and then, with a strangled cry of despair, he put Vicki away from him and fled the room before his hunger and his desire dragged them both down a path that could only lead to disaster.

Chapter 29

Fleeing the castle, Battista sought refuge in the dark of the night. Finally, after centuries, he had found a woman to love, a woman who accepted him for what he was. A woman who wanted him.

Lost in thought, he walked through the heavily wooded area that surrounded the outskirts of the land bordering the castle's perimeter. Maybe he was wrong to turn her away. There was no reason why they couldn't spend a few years together. He could give her pleasure for a little while, ease his own loneliness. And when she tired of living with him, she could return to her old life, find a husband, settle down, raise a family…

A low growl rumbled in his throat. Who was he kidding? Once he possessed her, body and soul, he would never let her go. He was a vampire, not a saint. What was his, he fought for and protected. What was his, he kept. He wasn't noble or kind. He couldn't love her for a year or two and then just let her go.

You could make her what you are.

The possibility had been in the back of his mind since the first night he saw her, but this was the first time he had dared put it into words. With a savage cry, he thrust the thought from his mind. She would never agree to be as he was, and he loved her too much to force the Dark Gift upon her. And yet… It would do away with so many of the barriers now standing between them.

Then ask her, urged the same persuasive voice in the back of his mind. All she can do is say no.

Yes, perhaps that was the answer.

And if she says no, then you can force her to accept it.

No! Never that. But perhaps there was another way. If he gave her a little of his blood from time to time, it would prolong her life, keep her young.

But eventually she will grow old and die and you will be alone again.

But at least they could have a life together.

What kind of life would that be for either of you? Like must marry like for true happiness, true understanding.

Victoria, a vampire… He pictured it in his mind. She was lovely now. Touched with the Dark Gift, she would be even more beautiful, every feature enhanced and perfected.

She would be a goddess… But would she still be Victoria?

Have you changed? the voice asked. Are you not the same as you were before?

And therein lay the answer. He had changed. He was a hunter now, a killer, and though he had not taken a human life in years, the urge to do so was always there. It had taken decades of self-denial and discipline to overcome the savage need to devour the blood and steal the life of his prey. Even when he knew he didn't have to kill to survive, the urge to do so remained strong within him. Almost, he had become like Falco, a creature without remorse, without compassion. A killing machine that took what it wanted with no regard for the hapless mortals it preyed upon, no thought for the pain and grief of loved ones left behind.

He remembered the night when he had made the decision to turn his back on killing. He had been a vampire for no more than seventy-five years at the time. He had been hunting the docks along the coast ofItaly when he had come upon a woman and her child. Smiling in anticipation of an easy kill, he had pulled the woman into an alleyway.

She had struggled in his arms, begging him to spare the life of her child. He had ignored her pleas as he bent her back over his arm and savaged her throat. There had been no tenderness in him, no effort spent to give her pleasure or ease her fears. Like a wild beast, he had no thought but to ease the pain of his hunger. The woman was limp in his arms, her heartbeat almost nonexistent, when he happened to look down into the face of the little girl still clinging to her mother's skirts. Brown eyes wide with fear had looked up at him.

"Mama! Mama!" Tears ran down the girl's dirty cheeks as she tugged on her mother's skirts. "Please, signore, do not hurt her."

The pain in the child's eyes, the note of tender pleading in her voice, had penetrated the hard shell he had erected around his heart. Until that moment, he had intended to dine on the child as well. Now, he saw himself through the eyes of that child. What he saw sickened him.

He looked at the woman in his arms. Her face was deathly pale, her breathing shallow.

Biting his own wrist, he held it to the woman's mouth and commanded her to drink. A few drops brought the color back to her face. Her heart beat grew stronger, her breathing less erratic.

After lowering the woman to the ground, he had taken the child into his arms and looked deep into her eyes. "You will not remember this night," he said. "You will not remember me."

She nodded.

Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew what money he had and pressed it into the little girl's hand. "Take care of your mother, ragazza."

The child nodded again.

Antonio had looked at the woman and the little girl one last time, imprinting their memory and the memory of what he had almost done in his mind. And then he had fled the scene. He had never killed again save to preserve his own existence.

Lost in thought, for a moment he did not realize he was no longer alone. Thrusting the past from his mind, he lifted his head, his senses probing the night.

They were on him before he could defend himself. Heavy silver chains whistled through the air, wrapping around his neck, his chest, his arms and legs, until he was trussed like a turkey bound for market. The silver burned through his clothing, scorching his skin, rendering him helpless to resist.