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  She glanced down at her left hand where a purple bruise marked an injection sight. Why was her skin so wrinkled and thin? She was too young to look so damn old.

  More tears fell. She knew they were tears of self-pity, but she didn’t care. There was no one else to pity her at this point. A few of her students had stopped by shortly after she’d been admitted, and two members of the faculty had dropped off books and magazines, but no one had been in to see her for days. She had no friends or family. That fact hadn’t really bothered her until now.

  “Dinner time.” One of the orderlies, a young man who always seemed unflappably cheerful, breezed in with a tray of food.

  Serena let him adjust the bed for her and slide the bedside table into place. She felt weak and helpless, and annoyed by his good cheer. “Gruel, again?”

  The young man laughed. “How’d you guess?” He placed a cup on the table and dropped a straw into it, then lifted the cover off the plate. “Here you go. Best gruel in town.” He smiled and turned to leave. “I’ll be back for the tray.”

  After he left, she stared at the food until she couldn’t look anymore, then she lay back and closed her eyes.

  No one really cared that she was about to die. She longed for someone to sit beside her, hold her hand, kiss her fingers and cry at the thought of losing her, and tell her that everything would be all right.

  Why had she let her life slip by like this?

  Scenes flashed in her memory, scenes from her youth. She remembered days of sunshine with her parents when she was a child. And she remembered their funerals, less than six months apart. She remembered the men in her life, with all their flaws and shortcomings, each walking away. Was she really so hard to love?

  The orderly, Mr. Happy, interrupted her memories, and then a nurse arrived to chatter at her while taking her vitals and changing IV bags. The window acted as a mirror now, reflecting her bedside light against darkness.

  Finally alone again, she closed her eyes to continue where she’d left off. Tears burned down the sides of her face, and sleeping aids pumped their way through her bloodstream without effect.

  The door opened again and she groaned. Couldn’t they just leave her alone with her terror and her thoughts? She opened her eyes, turned her head and frowned.

  “Serena.” A man swung a black cape from his broad shoulders, draped it over the visitor’s chair and carefully sat on the edge of the bed at her side. He took her hand in his and smiled into her eyes.

  She stared up at his handsome face, into eyes the color of a cloudless sky.

  “Do I know…you?”

  Even as she asked the question, sensations flooded her mind: the feel of his arms around her, his mouth on hers, his voice low and sexy in her ear. She remembered the excitement of his cool body against hers, and the joy of sharing his thoughts. Her neck suddenly tingled with the long-lost memory of his bite.

  “Griffin,” she whispered.

  After sixteen years, he hadn’t changed a bit. No wrinkles, no hair loss, no paunch. If she’d ever doubted his claim of being a vampire, this was the proof.

  She studied his face, his fine features, full lips and strong jaw. How could she have forgotten him? It was like forgetting she had arms.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  He stroked her face, easing strands of hair into place and ignoring her question. As fresh tears of joy spilled from the corners of her eyes, he wiped them away with his thumb.

  “No flowers or chocolates?” she asked, trying to smile.

  He shook his head. “No.”

  He closed his eyes and cocked his head for a long moment as if listening to distant music, then opened them again and looked around the room. Kissing the back of her hand, he rose.

  “Don’t leave,” she whispered, her voice barely working at the terrible prospect of losing him again so soon.

  At the door, he held the handle and leaned against the wood, and strange wrenching sounds of metal on metal and splintering wood screeched in the relative quiet. He must have wrenched the door into the frame so that no one else could get in, Then he hurried back to her bedside.

  “I’m not leaving,” he said.

  She nodded. “Good.”

  He held her hand again.

  “Why did you stay away so long?”

  He shook his head. “I’ve told you before, Serena, time is meaningless for me.”

  “But not for me. Now I’m all wrinkled and ugly, and my heart isn’t working right. I don’t have the strength to swat a fly. You could have picked a better time to stop by.”

  He leaned forward until his mouth was inches from hers. “You could never be ugly. I explained that to you before. Don’t you remember?”

  She saw his fangs and for a moment was back in her bedroom, looking up at him straddling her with hunger burning red in his eyes and his wild hair framing his gorgeous face.

  Emotion balled in her throat, choking off all possibility of words. All she could do was look at him.

  Griffin sat up and studied the machines hooked to her body. He carefully removed the IV, but left the heart monitor leads taped to her chest and stomach. Had he removed those, nurses and doctors would probably have come running from all directions.

  Moving the wires out of the way, he stretched out on the bed beside her and wrapped his arms around her. His scent, for so long a forgotten memory and yet still familiar, made her smile as she rested her head on his shoulder.

  “I’m here to give you a choice, Serena.”

  She rolled her head back to see his face.

  “I’ve shown you the truth before, about what I am. And I’ve told you how much I want you with me. Now you must decide. If you come with me, you will never again see daylight, and you must constantly fight the drive to kill. It won’t be easy.”

  Did he really think there was a choice to make?

  “There is,” he said, once again answering her unspoken question. “For one thing, I might lose you. This doesn’t always work. You might live many more years as a mortal.”

  “Or not.”

  “Yes, or not. Life is uncertain, which is what makes it precious. When you become a vampire, your existence changes. Meaning becomes something you must search for.”

  “Is that why you followed me years ago?”

  He smiled and pressed a kiss into her hair. “I’ve followed you since you were a child, Serena. And I’ve been here every night to check on you. I’ve watched over you.”

  She drew in a difficult breath. “You should have told me.”

  “Not until the time was right.”

  He must know what Dr. Thorpe had told her. Could he hear the erratic beat of her heart?

  “Come with me, Serena.”

  She’d decided to go with him sixteen years earlier and no decision in her life ever felt more right. Funny that he didn’t know that.

  She nodded against his shoulder.

  Griffin rolled up onto his elbow and gazed down at her. “Are you certain?”

  She nodded again and reached up to clutch his shirt.

  His smile revealed lengthened fangs, and his eyes glistened red, blue and silver. “Good.” He leaned over and kissed her, groaning softly as she opened her mouth under his. Their tongues met in a dance of seduction, and his fingers traced a line down the side of her cheek.

  In spite of everything, her body reacted to him by hardening and tingling. She slid her arm around his neck to hold him close.

  He raised his head and she looked up into the terrible beauty of a beast with red, feral eyes. His ravenous gaze ran down to the side of her neck.

  This was it, the moment she’d dreamt of years ago. Would there be pain? Or joy?

  It didn’t matter. There had never been anyone else in her life, and she suddenly realized why. She’d been waiting for him, waiting for her shadow lover to return. Somewhere deep in her subconscious, she’d known he would.

  Steeling herself, she slowly raised her chin, baring her neck to hi
m, willingly surrendering.

  He leaned forward until his mouth was near her ear. “Everything I have is yours,” he said, his voice low and deadly, “and you will be mine.”

  As she drew in a stuttered breath, he lowered his mouth to her neck.

  She cried out at the momentary sting as he sank his fangs into her neck.

  Pain faded to pleasure, and she clung to him, holding his head to her. Orgasmic joy drew her up against his body and into his embrace.

  He sucked hard, drawing out the pain, and fear and sorrow. She shook from head to toe, unable to stop.

  And then she lost her grip on him, and her hand fell uselessly to her pillow. Cold crept up her legs to her torso and arms.

  Her world darkened and faded to nothing.

  Her last thought was his name.

  “Serena.”

  A voice drew her from sleep.

  Was the nurse waking her again? Had it all been a dream?

  She opened her eyes and found Griffin looking down at her, his body bare and his eyes silver in flickering light.

  She smiled at the rush of giddiness. “You’re real.”

  “Yes,” he said.

  She glanced around at the unfamiliar room. Candles illuminated dark corners, and artwork adorned the walls. “Where are we?”

  “Our home.”

  “Our home?”

  He smiled. “For as long as it pleases you.”

  She thought back to the room full of monitors. “How did you get me out of the hospital?”

  “Through the window.”

  “But won’t people be looking for us?”

  His smile widened. “You’re in my world now, Serena.”

  Yes, the shadow world.

  She sat up and looked at her hands, no longer wrinkled and thin-skinned. She appeared as healthy as she felt. “This is amazing.”

  Glancing down, she realized she was naked. “You undressed me?”

  He grinned. “For the sake of saving time, my sweet.”

  “Oh? So, what, now you plan to have your way with me?”

  In a movement so fast she barely saw it, he drew her under him and into his arms.

  “Indeed I do,” he said, “and I can wait no longer.”

  Serena sucked in a breath of surprise when he pierced the flesh of her neck as he entered her. Erotic pleasure swept over her in massive waves.

  Griffin moved his shoulder to her mouth and instinct took over.

  Connected, both as humans and vampires, her thoughts reached out and swirled into his, taking his past as her own, giving her future with joy. As one, they rose into a haze of perfect delight.

  She knew it then. He had always loved her, and he always would, just as she loved him.

  “Forever,” he said, his thoughts as clear as words.

  She agreed. “Forever.”

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  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3197-3

  Shadow Lover

  Copyright © 2009 by Lydia Parks

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