A man Liya had not seen before was walking toward her, his eyes on the wolf. Her eyes flashed back and forth from one to the other.The wolf sat humbly at the man’s words and started panting, no indication it was going to eat her only moments ago.She was still afraid to move. He was almost as handsome as Damon in the same dark way but he looked to be several decades older and he was as hulking tall and thick as Nathan.“Miss Collins?”She was fixated on the wolf and didn’t hear himHe stared at her for a moment, then spoke slowly, “Miss Collins?” His ‘s’s sounded like ‘z’s.His accent was thick, so he took great care in speaking. So she knew his English wasn’t that good. She guessed it was German or Austrian.She snapped out of it, “I’m Liya…..” Then she realized that he had known her name and she had never seen him before.His eyebrows went up “Are you well?”. His eyes m

Anna sat straight up in bed trying desperately to explain what had happened to her in the last few days and what had happened when she tried to rescue Liya. “It’s true Aya, I swear! I have never lied to you before, you have to believe me.” She pleaded.“But monsters, Anna? I stopped believing in them when I was a little girl.”“I believe her.”Jeff’s admission startled Aya, “What? Not you too.” She faced him with her mouth hanging open in shock, “Has everyone gone nuts?” she threw up her hands.Jeff ignored her and came up beside Anna, “I’ve seen it too, in his eyes. When I took Liya out last night, he showed up in the bar and took her…” He glanced at Aya, “I mean, she went with him. When a friend of mine tried to stop him, Damon had this look in his eyes and it terrified the shit out of me.”Anna nodded in understanding her voice raising in excitement that someone believed her, “Did his eyes glow and his teeth ge

Liya didn't sleep that night. Her thoughts lay with Damon and what he had proposed to her. His touch haunted her flesh and her body charged with desire every time images of his naked body flashed in her mind. She couldn’t deny that she wanted to be with him, but what about her life? She worked very hard to escape her past, and that was all that seemed to matter, until now. He made her feel so whole, so loved. Her mother would have ridiculed her for being weak towards a man. She could almost hear her lectures echoing in her head. She was so confused. Damon gave her something that no one else had been able to, herself. She realized now that she did have the freedom of choice. The only reason she felt she needed to have a career and make something of her life was to prove something to her mother…he was right. However, was she supposed to drop all of this and become dependent on someone else? It terrified the hell out of her. What if Damon decided that they weren’t right toget

As the sun crested high in the sky Nathan awoke. His body had sufficiently repaired itself. He got out of bed and groaned as the evidence of repaired broken bones ached with movement. One by one, he rotated his shoulders and his head before dropping on all fours doing two hundred pushups off his knuckles and toes to work out any of the aches he felt. Satisfied that things seemed to be working right, he got dressed and made his way downstairs to consult with the others. He had been injured before, many times so this wasn’t new to him. What was new to him is compromising Damon’ best interests by saving Anna’s life. By rights, he should have let her die instead of injuring himself. He had to find out what he missed and to find out about Anna. His mind flashed to that night.When she ran out in front of the Semi, something in him snapped. He couldn’t just let her die. He knew Damon would probably throttle him for nearly losing his life. That was something he didn

Nathan’s humor hadn’t faded in the few minutes that Damon had gone and retrieved Liya. His smile said as much. He greeted them both as he opened the door for them.Damon gave him a sheepish grin before he got in the car causing him to roar with laughter after he shut the door.Liya’s head lay on Damon’ chest as he silently caressed her silken tresses. She smiled to herself, something wonderful was happening to her. She could feel her body changing. She didn’t know why, she only knew that it was because of Damon. She wasn’t sure if this was normal when you give yourself to someone or not. If it was, she could definitely get used to it. She felt so drawn and powerfully connected to him as if nothing else mattered.Damon could feel her contentment. For the first time in his immortal life he was finding himself in love.He looked down at the top of her head, watching his hand brush through her glorious ebony hair, de