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  Kathrina shook her head. “I still don’t understand.”

  His lips were next to her neck, so close that when he spoke Kathrina imagined that she could feel the movement of his breath. But of course it was only her imagination. How could she feel the breath of the walking dead?

  His laughter startled her, intruding on her thoughts. “Oh Kathrina! There is still so much that you do not know about true vampires.”

  Luciano had read her thoughts, and for some reason this angered Kathrina even more than knowing what fate he intended for her. “Please stay out of my head,” she hissed.

  Backing away, he nodded to her mockingly. “As you wish my lady.”

  Now that he was not so close, his touch was no longer muddling her thoughts.

  “So how do you plan to help us defeat Omar, and what did you mean about the darkness?”

  Luciano smiled. “You mean you don’t already have a plan?”

  Blushing, Kathrina turned away. “No not really … but since you are the oldest vampire … I just thought you could easily take care of him.”

  “I could … but why?” Luciano shrugged. “What Omar does is of no consequence to me.”

  “But you promised to help.”

  “I did.” He gave her a sadistic smile before turning away.

  “So you must have some kind of plan.”

  “I do.”

  “And?” Kathrina asked, completely aware that he was toying with her.

  “My plan is to let you live long enough to attempt to destroy him.”

  “That wasn’t the deal.” Kathrina’s pale face was now flushed with anger.

  “The others believe that it is your destiny. It wouldn’t be fair of me to disillusion them … would it?” Luciano’s eyes danced with amusement.

  “You’re a monster! How could you have tricked us like that?” Kathrina turned away from him and started for the broken window. “I’m out of here!”

  “I said I would help you and I will.”

  Kathrina stopped, but wouldn’t turn to look at him.

  “I will take you to his lair, but it is up to you and your sisters to bring Omar down,” he explained.

  Kathrina shook her head. “When I read your journal, I expected so much more. I felt you were noble … different from the rest of these bloodsuckers.”

  “I have my reasons,” he told her in a hard - unyielding voice.

  “And if I am killed? Won’t you lose your only chance to put an end to your curse?”

  “It won’t happen.” Luciano dismissed the possibility.

  “But it could,” she insisted.

  “It won’t!” he thundered.

  Closing her eyes, Kathrina fought back tears. When she’d found Luciano’s journal, she’d been confident that he was the one person that could defeat Omar. As strong as she and her sisters were together, they could still fail. Somehow she had to convince him to help. She had to make him understand how important it was to stop her uncle. What had happened at the birthday party was just the beginning. If they could not stop him, the streets would soon run with the blood of the innocent.

  Finally she turned to look at him and was startled to see that his features had softened. There was no more anger in his eyes, but there was sadness. It was then that Kathrina knew there was more to Luciano than what he let others see. His eyes reflected a deep seeded pain in his soul.

  How could she get through to him? How could she melt that ice that had put his heart in some kind of deep freeze?

  Kathrina took a hesitant step toward Luciano. Suddenly the need to ease his pain was even more important that her own destiny. Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his neck and brushed his lips with a soft kiss.

  When she stepped back to look at him, she was startled to see that he was visibly shaken. Before he had the opportunity to mask his emotions, Kathrina caught a glimpse of who Luciano really was. He was a vampire that could feel with more intensity than any human male she’d ever met.

  Kathrina didn’t give him a chance to pull away. She kissed him again, but this time she tasted his lips and mouth with her tongue. The room began to spin. Being this close to him was like a drug that was instantly addicting - a taste just wasn’t enough.

  When he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer, she could feel that his body was trembling. He returned her kiss with a hunger that threatened to consume her and overshadow all reasoning.

  Kathrina knew the exact moment that the ice returned. His trembling ceased and he pulled away from her. When she looked into his eyes, she saw none of the passion she’d felt in his arms. Instead she stared into cold - hard granite.

  “Why did you do that?” he asked. Though his voice was low, there was no missing the harshness in it.

  “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully.

  Why had she done it?

  Why did she feel the need to extract emotion from her executioner?

  “Well you kissed me back so you must have liked it,” she blurted out.

  “You are a foolish girl,” he glared at her. “It is not your touch that I crave, but your blood.”

  Stung by his words, a single tear crept from her eye.

  “If you want to stay alive long enough to have the opportunity to kill Omar, you’ll want to keep your distance,” he told her.

  Kathrina suddenly felt shamed by her actions. She had forced herself on him, and actually imagined that he enjoyed it. All along, the reaction she’d felt had been his hunger for her blood.

  How could she have been so stupid to believe that he might actually have feelings that went beyond his need for blood?

  “Fine,” she told him through clenched teeth. “That won’t be a problem.”

  Luciano extinguished the candle and then wrapped his fingers around her arm. Kathrina tried to pull away, but his grip tightened painfully. He began dragging her toward the only door in the room.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “We need to sleep and renew our strength,” he told her.

  Luciano threw open the door and led her down a steep staircase. At the bottom of the stairs was another room, but on this level the windows were boarded up.

  It was so black that at first Kathrina could see nothing. When her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could see a large coffin in the corner of the room. What little light that was seeping through the cracks around the boarded up windows, made the coffin’s gold finish seem to almost glow.

  When Luciano lifted the lid of the coffin, Kathrina saw that the inside was just as lavish as the outside. The padding was too thick to be practical, at least if the coffin had actually been meant to hold a corpse. The black satin inside would feel heavenly against the skin.

  “Get in,” he ordered.

  Kathrina stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “You’re kidding … right?”

  Luciano shook his head. “I told you that you would be at my side at all times.”

  “Okay, but this is a little ridiculous … not to mention warped. I’d prefer to wait for the coffin until I’m actually dead.”

  “Get in.” Though it was a whisper, she didn’t miss the underlying danger in his voice.

  Steeling herself against the repulsion she felt at getting into a coffin, Kathrina lifted one leg and swung it over the side. Once inside, she turned to look at Luciano, hoping she could find a way to talk him out of keeping her in a casket.

  He waved one hand and motioned for her to lie down.

  Kathrina shook her head. “You know … I could just stay out here. I won’t go anywhere … I promise!”

  “Lie down.”

  Though she did as he commanded, her mind was still looking for a way to change his mind.

  Luciano slipped in beside her and lowered the lid.

  “You know I will suffocate in here. Unlike you, I do need oxygen,” Kathrina told him, hoping that he would realize that he was making a mistake and let her out.

  “Are you so sure that I don’t need oxygen?
” he asked.

  “Of course you don’t.” Kathrina was angry that he still felt the need to play with her, especially after he’d disregarded her kiss so callously, and now he’d decided to keep her prisoner in a coffin. “You are nothing but a reanimated corpse … a glorified zombie really.”

  “I resent that comparison,” Luciano reached around to pinch her playfully.

  “Ouch!” Kathrina blurted out.

  “Relax,” he told her. “There is enough ventilation in here that you’ll be fine. This is a modified coffin.”

  “Even so … I’ll never be able to sleep. I’m claustrophobic you know.”

  Luciano rested a hand on her forehead, and before she realized what he was doing, she slipped into dark oblivion.

  Chapter Four

  The howling wind and rattling windows drove him from that dark abyss that is sleep for the vampire. Luciano opened his eyes, listening for any sounds that would forewarn him of danger. Kathrina still lay beside him, deep in slumber. For some reason he found comfort in the sound of her breathing and the soft - rhythmic beat of her heart.

  Her scent made him tremble with hunger, but it was not only for her blood. He yearned to possess her completely - body and soul. A part of him wanted to keep her alive, if only so that he could continue to enjoy her touch. She was so soft - so inviting, and oh so innocent. For thousands of years he had taken what he wanted from women, leaving them with nothing but death in return. Not once had he had any regrets, but this time he might.

  When Ophelia left, she’d taken his heart with her. Since that long ago night, he’d felt no tenderness for anyone.

  Why now?

  Why should he be hesitant to kill the one woman that could reverse the damage to his body?

  She wanted to do battle with Omar’s coven, but she was far too innocent to ever be victorious, no matter what her talents. Tonight he would have to educate her- teach her to leave behind her inhibitions and become a predator. Only then would she stand any chance of surviving the upcoming battle.

  Naturally he could not let Omar kill her, but it would be far better if she were to defeat her enemy without his help. It was true that he could easily destroy Omar, but to kill the son of a true immortal would be disastrous, even if he were only a half blood. Luciano cared little about the fate of humans, but to bring such destruction down on an entire species was far too callous, even for him. Omar would have to be killed by his own blood - the immortal sisters.

  Kathrina was right. It was her destiny to stop Omar’s revolution. Though this battle was foretold in the ancient prophecies of the immortals, what was not known was if the sisters would be successful.

  Luciano was jerked back to the present when Kathrina began to stir.

  * * *

  The night wind carried with it a chill that seemed to seep right into her bones. Though Luciano appeared immune to the cold, Kathrina was aware of the fact that vampires didn’t like low temperatures. The cold had a tendency to make them sluggish, though they could still be just as deadly, no matter what the temperature.

  Luciano continued to weave his way through the streets of New Orleans. Kathrina struggled to keep up with him, having to stop to catch her breath more than once. He didn’t seem to mind; he would wait for her patiently until she was ready to start moving again.

  Luciano hadn’t told her where they were going, but she didn’t really care. All that mattered was that she was no longer in the coffin, or in that decrepit old building. Once they were out in the open she could have made a run for it, but what good would it do? Luciano would pounce on her within seconds. The better idea would be to go along with him until she found Omar, and then she would find a way to deal with her captor.

  Some distance ahead of her, Luciano had crossed the street and was opening the large gate to the St. Louis Cemetery. Kathrina hurried to catch up with him before he could disappear behind the tall walls that separated the cemetery from the city. She didn’t want to play a game of hide and seek among the ghostly tombs.

  Once inside, Luciano took her hand and led her through the narrow walkways until they came to a tomb. Perched on top of the white structure was an angel, her arms spread wide to welcome the deceased to the afterlife.

  “Why have you brought me here?” Kathrina was curious, but not worried.

  Without providing an answer, Luciano put his arm around her waist and they lifted into the air, coming to rest on the slightly pitched roof of the tomb. From this vantage point, Kathrina could see the little avenues that wound their way through the cemetery.

  After the two of them had settled into a comfortable sitting position, Luciano wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly against his chest.

  The chilly winds settled over her skin, but it was not the cold that made her shiver. Luciano’s nearness was like being engulfed in fire and ice simultaneously. His icy touch burned, sending her into an inferno of sensation that she couldn’t even begin to define.

  “Why are we here?” she asked again.

  Luciano brought a finger to his lips to quiet her.

  “We are hunting,” he whispered.

  Kathrina drew her brows together in confusion. “You mean you are hunting?”

  He shook his head. “We are hunting.”

  “I don’t think so,” Kathrina tried to pull away from him but his arms didn’t budge.

  “No one will notice us up here, but you can easily see the cemetery and the housing projects,” he explained.

  “And you hunt here because you think that when your prey is found dead … it won’t be that big a deal?” Kathrina frowned.

  “Of course,” he admitted. “It is like hunting the wastelands of the mortals. I see no reason to draw unwanted attention to our kind.”

  “Not our kind,” she interjected.

  “You are here to hunt too.”

  “No!” Kathrina shook her head, struggling to pull away from him.

  Luciano nestled his face against her neck. Kathrina gasped when she felt him playfully scrape his fangs against her skin.

  “You had better listen and listen closely.” His voice was soft, but she didn’t miss the sharpness in his tone. “The prophecy does not guarantee victory for the sisters. The truth is that the three of you are far too innocent to triumph over Omar … especially you.”

  “So what you are saying is that we have lost before it has even begun?”

  “The predator is in your blood Kathrina. Harness that hunger and use it to your advantage.”

  “I will never feed on blood!” Kathrina spoke through clenched teeth.

  His laughter caught her by surprise. “I have sensed your hunger Kathrina. You cannot deny the vampire within you.”

  “You are wrong.”

  Luciano grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. “Open your mouth Kathrina.”

  Kathrina clamped her lips together defiantly, but relented when he began to squeeze her jaw painfully.

  “I knew I felt fangs when you kissed me,” he smiled. “You are a born killer Kathrina.”

  “Did you forget that my mother was a wolf?”

  “This is true enough, but it is the vampire that dominates your soul.”

  Kathrina was ready to refute his words, but again he put a finger to his lips to quiet her. She became still, listening to whatever it was that had caught Luciano’s attention. At first she couldn’t hear anything, but within a few seconds her ears picked up the sound of footsteps from the dark street beyond the graveyard. A second later a figure stepped into the yellowish glow of a nearby streetlamp.

  The lone figure seemed relaxed, unaware of the danger that was so close to him. The man’s nonchalant stride appeared too relaxed, especially for this area of town. He had a smooth - olive complexion and sharp features that were framed by dark - curly hair. His hands were hidden in the pockets of the brown sports jacket he was wearing. On the back of the jacket was the emblem of a popular football team.

  The hunger radiated within Luciano�
�s eyes. Kathrina knew that the man would become the vampire’s victim. Hoping to change his mind, she shook her head in silent opposition, but Luciano didn’t seem to notice. He was already anticipating the kill. Before she could reach out to stop him, Luciano had risen into the air with such speed that he became no more than a streak across the night sky.

  Horrified, Kathrina watched as Luciano came out of the darkness to swoop his victim into the air. She expected to hear the man shriek, but all was silent. A moment later she heard movement on the ground in front of the tomb. Though she hesitated, Kathrina finally forced herself to peer over the edge of the roof, and immediately wished she hadn’t.

  Luciano was hunched over the limp figure, feeding greedily from the dying man’s throat. All that Kathrina could see of the victim was one pale - lifeless hand, and blue jean covered legs. Squeezing her eyes closed, she backed away from the edge of the roof. If she’d had some illusion to what Luciano’s true nature was, the horrifying scene that she’d just witnessed had shattered that illusion. He was a killer, as all vampires were - even her own father. Kathrina found the realization revolting.

  Suddenly nothing mattered but getting away - she didn’t care about some elusive destiny - Omar - the wolves - she didn’t care about anything. All she could think about was running away from the ghastly scene of the creature feeding on the unfortunate man who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  Kathrina crawled to the back of the tomb. Turning around, she held on to the edge of the roof and lowered herself toward the ground, but she couldn’t quite make it. She was forced to drop the last couple of feet. She hit the ground with a thud. Sharp pain tore through her ankle and up her leg.

  Forcing the pain from her mind, she got to her feet and started limping away as fast as her injured ankle would allow. There was no way she was going to let him turn her into some kind of monster. Kathrina no longer had any doubt about what Luciano was. He was a monster that could only live by taking the lives of others.

  She’d only gone about twenty yards when she heard him behind her. Kathrina tried to move faster, but it was no use. She had not gotten far when she looked up to see that he was in front of her and was now blocking her path.