Dance with Darkness (6 page)
Chapter 11
T
hey spent every free moment together during the next two weeks. Chrissy was thrilled to have Lorena over for dinner each night, peppering her with dance-related questions and begging her to tell stories about what it was like to perform on tour.
And on the weekend nights, when Chrissy stayed over at friends’ or her grandmother’s, Lorena reveled in the new kind of craving Conor’s deft fingers and lips and body created within her.
Though their time together grew shorter every day, neither said anything about her impending departure until their last night together. She would be leaving tomorrow with her company for the next stop of their tour.
They made love that night, and yet even after they both cried out with their climaxes and the afterglow forced a calm over their bodies, she could still feel the desperation like a heavy blanket draped over them. How had this man become so essential to her happiness? Her life had been so empty before him, so cold and devoid of any joy beyond dancing, even before she’d been turned into a vampire.
“Lorena, stay with me.” Conor’s murmur was quiet in the darkness of his bedroom, but his words were so unexpected that she jerked in surprise.
“You mean…don’t leave with my company tomorrow?”
He nodded, raising up on his forearms at either side of her shoulders so he could stare down at her. “I’d go with you if I could, but I can’t until Chrissy goes to college. So stay. Stay with me, and give us a chance.”
Stay here…and give up her dancing?
“You wouldn’t have to quit dancing,” he said, his voice steady and calm. But the look in his eyes was something else. Something that bordered on fear. “You could teach at your friend’s studio. Or even start your own dance school if you preferred.”
She eased out from beneath him, sitting on the edge of the bed as her mind and heart raced. Part of her bubbled with joy that he wanted her to stay and that he trusted her to teach others’ children now. And she could see the future he was suggesting, staying here to teach others the thrilling happiness she’d found in dance. Maybe she could even create her own professional ballet company here. The idea had crossed her mind more than once this month.
But was this what she really wanted?
And because she didn’t know, she couldn’t stay. Not yet. Not until she was sure.
* * * * *
Four months later...
After four months of touring…four long months of forcing herself through the motions on stage after stage for audiences that would never care as much as Conor did, she knew.
She still loved dancing. But it was no substitute for love.
She didn’t call before she showed up at his doorstep, didn’t know if he’d even be home on a Friday night. Though they’d stayed in touch by phone, she still couldn’t shake the small, dark fear that he might have changed his mind, might have found someone else who was like him. Someone with whom a romance wouldn’t be nearly so complicated.
But he was alone. And when he opened the door and saw her, he didn’t hesitate before wrapping his arms around her so tightly she would have choked if she’d been human.
Home. She was home.
“What about The Clann?” They weren’t the words she’d planned on greeting him with. But they were among the first on her mind. She couldn’t see the other local descendants being quite so eager to have a vampire take up permanent residence in their town.
“They’ll come around once they get to know you,” he promised, though the growl in his voice made it sound more like a threat.
Her mouth twitched against his shoulder with the urge to smile.
“What made you change your mind?” he whispered against her hair, his hand stroking her back and making her shiver with need. But a good need.
“Before I met you, dance was all I had. It was all I lived for.”
His hands grew still on her back. “And now? Is dancing still all you care about?”
“No, it’s different. I’m different. When I’m performing on stage, I’m thinking about you, wishing you were out in the audience watching me. When I’m rehearsing, I’m wondering what you’re doing and when I can see you again. I thought that would change after I left. But it’s been four months, and it’s only getting worse. What good is the dancing if you’re not there to see it?” She shrugged. “Besides, I am immortal, after all. It’s not like my body’s going to wear out if I take a break for a few decades.”
His chuckle warmed the top of her head. “So then you wouldn’t mind spending a few decades with me? As my wife?”
It was her turn to grow still. She let the idea sink in, but found only a warm glow flowing over her in its wake. “You want…to marry me?”
His hands resumed stroking her back and hair, which she’d left down for him. “I should have told you before you left. But I didn’t think you’d believe me then. Not after knowing me for only a few weeks.” He leaned back to look into her eyes as his hands slid down to hold hers. “Lorena, I love you. More than I’ve ever loved anyone else. And even the last four months apart with nothing but phone calls and texts and emails have still been better than anything that happened in the the entire four years before I met you. There’s no real magic in my life without you. Please say you’ll spend the rest of your life with me, or at least that you’ll think about it.”
A smile formed on her lips. “No.”
“No?” A stark bleakness immobilized his features.
She shook her head. “I don’t need to think about it first. I know what I want, and it’s right here in front of me. But I can’t promise to spend the rest of my life with you.”
He stared down at her, his gaze searching hers. “You can’t?”
“No. I’m immortal, remember? But what I can do is promise to spend the rest of
your
life with you.”
His grin was slow and sexy as it grew. “That’s good enough for me.”
THE END
Also by Melissa Darnell
Out now from Harlequin Teen in multiple languages in both print and ebook formats in Melissa Darnell’s Clann Series (Teen):
Savannah Colbert has never known why she's so hated by the kids of the Clann. Nor can she deny her instinct to get close to Clann golden boy Tristan Coleman. Especially when she recovers from a strange illness and the attraction becomes nearly irresistible. It's as if he's a magnet, pulling her gaze, her thoughts, even her dreams. Her family has warned her to have nothing to do with him, or any members of the Clann. But when Tristan is suddenly everywhere she goes,
Savannah
fears she's destined to fail.
For years, Tristan has been forbidden to even speak to Savannah Colbert. Then
Savannah
disappears from school for a week and comes back…different, and suddenly he can't stay away. Boys seem intoxicated just from looking at her. His own family becomes stricter than ever. And Tristan has to fight his own urge to protect her, to be near her no matter the consequences….
Also out now from Harlequin Teen in Melissa Darnell’s Clann Series (Teen):
Read their sample chapters, playlists, and more at
and
Also by Melissa Darnell...
The
Girls Series
A steamy New Adult/College series of paranormal romances with heat
Girls Series 1: Scent of Evil
Brianna’s a good girl.
Or at least she was, until evil crashed through her life, leaving her changed forever and forcing her to give up the people and things she loves the most.
Now Brianna wants nothing more than to successfully walk the gray line between good and bad by necessity. But then a boss’s attempted blackmail turns to tragedy, leaving her responsible for a bar full of employees counting on her to save their failing business.
For everyone’s sake, she needs to stay focused and in control of herself now more than ever. Falling in love is not a distraction she can afford.
Too bad Steven Daniels appeals to both the light and dark sides currently at war within her.
When both his blood and his love call out to her, tempting her at every turn, will Brianna find a way to hold onto the girl she once was and resist temptation? Or will Steven be the final push that drives her to cross that line into darkness?
Girls Series 2: Scent of Revenge
Morgan Fremont has to find a job fast. She’s heard how much the Midnight Dream Girl dancers make each week just by dancing fully clothed on top of the bar at the Midnight Saloon. When Morgan performs her impromptu “job interview” performance for the entire bar, she attracts a lot more attention than just saloon’s fun loving patrons.
Will Morgan get more than she can handle if she becomes the newest MDG? Can she resist the determined seduction of Jonathan Dexter, a man who, like her, has secrets that drive him relentlessly through life? And who is the mysterious lover in her dreams?
---------------
Chapter 1 from
Girls Series 1: Scent of Evil
T
he emergency workers tried everything they could to bring Brianna Cochoran’s boss back to life. But the former owner of the Midnight Saloon was too far gone.
And it was all her fault.
Numb with horror, Brianna watched the ambulance crew write down the time of death then carefully load John McCannon onto a gurney and then into the ambulance. As the van drove away, lighting up the city streets with silently revolving red and blue lights, she ran a shaking hand through her thick red hair.
How could this have happened? It was supposed to have been so easy. Just one thing left to do, and then the deal would have been completed and everyone could have walked away from the exchange happy they’d gotten what they’d wanted.
Instead, she had just become a murderer.
No, it wasn’t my fault!
she silently told herself over and over.
But no matter how many times she thought those words, they still felt like a lie.
“Miss Cochoran, tell me again how your boss died,” the detective asked half an hour later, his beady gaze drilling into her. In contrast, his voice sounded almost bored, as if this were simply routine. Maybe it was. Or maybe that was how he lulled witnesses into relaxing and tripping themselves up.
Brianna dragged in a ragged breath, then let it out slowly to steady her nerves and rein in her emotions. A crazy part of her wanted to blurt out the whole story and let this cop lock her up in an insane asylum afterwards. Which he would definitely do, because everyone knew monsters like her didn’t really exist.
Or at least they weren’t supposed to.
She bit her lower lip and imagined asking him, “Do you believe in vampires?”
Yeah, like that would go over real well.
She sighed. Obviously she couldn’t tell him the truth, at least not all of it. Not unless she wanted to get locked up somewhere others would eventually notice her inability to get sick or age. Or her strange needs.
But what could she tell him? If she tried to lie, he would probably be able to tell. She was a crappy liar and always had been.
So she took a deep breath and opted for staying as close to the truth as she could. “I came in for my shift early because John and I needed to talk.”
“About?”
Oh how about the small matter of John’s being a blackmailer?
that crazy part of her wanted to blurt out.
“About this place.” There, that was the truth. Sort of.
The detective’s eyebrows rose. “What about it?”
What to say, what to say? Her mind raced through the truth, finally leaping onto another safe part of it to share. “We needed to discuss how to tell the employees that I just bought this bar.”
He went completely still for a few seconds, then made a note on his small notepad.
She tried not to cringe, wishing they weren’t seated at opposite sides of one of the bar’s round tables so she could see what he’d just written down. Was it good or bad?
“You were saying you just bought this bar from your boss?” He looked at her again, eyebrows raised in silent question.
She licked her lips and forged on. “Yeah. John was looking to retire. And I’ve always wanted to own my own business. So I offered to buy this place from him with my savings.”
That was all true. Sort of. Maybe John hadn’t exactly been looking to retire at first, but he’d definitely seemed happy to accept her offer for the bar when she insisted on his selling it to her at a price she could afford in exchange for meeting his demands. And she
had
always wanted to own her own business. It was why she was now in her third year of courses towards getting her business management degree at the local university. Though in her fantasies, she had pictured herself owning a dance studio someday instead of a place for people to come get drunk and rowdy at.
Still, taking over the bar so she could safely keep her job without having to constantly watch her back or kill John for that safety had seemed a great solution at the time.
Now...not so much.
“I see,” the detective said slowly. “Why weren’t the employees already aware of this business exchange?”
“I was worried they might not want to stick around and work for a girl who’s still in college, and then that might make John change his mind about selling to me. I figured if we waited till it was all a done deal, then they might be more willing to stay and give me a chance as their new boss.” All too true.
“You do seem pretty young to be taking over a bar.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I’m old enough for it to be legal. Just got my liquor license approved today.” Thanks to John’s connections fast tracking the process for them.
The detective frowned. “So you show up to discuss all of this with Mr. McCannon and then...?”
“He was all right at first. But then he fell off the barstool onto the floor, gasping and turning purple as if he couldn’t breathe. So I tried to do CPR on him, but...” She shrugged once more, letting him fill in the blanks.
Again, it was all true.
It just wasn’t the
whole
truth.
“Were you previously aware of his health issues?”
No need to lie here either, or even fake her emotions. She was genuinely shocked and let it show now. “No, not at all. He seemed fine. Never missed a day of business, never mentioned going to a doctor or feeling bad.” In fact, he’d seemed the last person on earth to need to be turned by a vamp, which was why his attempt to blackmail her had come as such a surprise. The old cuss had given the impression that he was mean enough to live forever out of sheer spite.
But he must have known he had a bad heart. Why else would he be so determined to gain immortality from her?
The detective made a note on his notepad then stared at her for a long moment, and she wondered what he saw. Probably a scared little girl, at least on the outside. But did he also see the darkness deep inside her just waiting for her to lose control over it? Could some ancient human instinct within him sense how dangerous she really was to any human who came too close to her at the wrong time?
She focused on taking slow, even breaths as he continued to stare.
Finally he made a few last notes then flipped his notepad shut. “Okay, that’s all for now, Miss Cochoran. We’ve got your home address and phone number if we need to ask any more questions. Unless there’s anything else you want to tell us now?”
You mean like how this is all because John caught me vamping out while taking care of that would-be rapist in the saloon’s parking lot a few weeks ago?
that hysterical part of her wanted to say.
She had thought John would turn out to be the secretly kind old man type who would accept what she was and then help her get rid of the rapist’s body. Instead, her boss had become an even bigger problem for her by demanding she turn him into a vamp too or else he’d tell everyone what she’d done to her so-called “victim”.
She could have been just as bad as John and simply killed him to shut him up, or at least threatened to. But no, she just had to try and be the bigger person in the situation by countering his demands with an offer of her own...
keep your lips zipped, sell the Midnight Saloon to me at a price I can afford, and I’ll give you all the immortality you could ever want.
And then John had gone and died on her anyway, even after weeks of all their careful preparations, right before she was about to give him what he wanted.
She realized the detective was still staring at her, waiting for an answer.
Did she want to tell him anything else?
Oh mister. If you only knew the real story...
She pressed her lips together to hold in the wild laughter trying its best to bubble up inside and shook her head.
“Okay, we’ll let you know if we have any further questions down the road.”
She nodded, holding in her sigh of relief until after he had walked away. Once he was gone, she dropped her head into her hands.
Holy crap, that was a close one.
Her story shouldn’t blow up in her face later, though. She’d stayed close to the truth, only leaving out the few details no cop would have believed anyway. Let them dig into the paperwork all they wanted. The Midnight Saloon was legally and rightfully hers now, and had been even before John’s heart gave out tonight. The notarized title transfer said so. And though John’s death had scared her nearly senseless and the timing of it wasn’t great, it could have been worse...his heart could have given out
after
she bit him and left fang marks that would raise a lot of questions.