The Vampire Voss (Regency Draculia 1)

Voss wondered if Chas had been tossed in the privy his first week at school, or if that sort of tradition had gone away with powdered wigs and knee breeches. Regardless, having encountered Chas more than once, Voss was inclined to suspect that he’d not been subjected to such an indignity at that age. He might even have been one of the ones doing the dunking of pretty but scrawny underclassmen.

Or, more likely, he allowed reluctantly, the pulling of them out of the muck.

Removing himself from such circuitous musings, he asked, “What happened after you made the connection between the vision and the groom’s death?”

She understood what he meant. “Maia, and later, Chas, knew about it, but I never told my parents. They were still alive then.”

He stilled, arrested in the midst of a movement on the short stool. “Did you know they would die?”

Angelica focused on her fingers, playing with a loose thread on the coverlet. “It was another year before it happened again. I was playing with my cousin’s coat and wrapped myself up in it while we were playing hide-and-seek. In the dark corner under the piano, I was hidden and had to remain quiet…and that was when my mind—it was rather like it opened. I saw him in his bed. His face was pale and his lips and eyelids blue. At the time, he was nine or thereabouts, but in the image, it was clear he was some years older.”

“He died, then? A few years later?”

She nodded. “I didn’t tell anyone about the vision that time because…well, I didn’t really know what it meant. But later, my old Granny Grapes came to me. She knew about it. She’d figured it out.”

“Granny Grapes?” A smile flickered in his eyes.

Affection swarmed her. “She died five years ago, but she was the one who inherited the Sight in our family from her mother. She was part Gypsy.” She’d been the one to help Angelica understand, learn to accept and control her gift. If it hadn’t been for her wisdom and knowledge—

“How do you live with it? With knowing that everyone you meet will die?” His voice was filled with compassion, but also with need. He needed something…but she didn’t understand what it was. “Don’t you ever wonder what happens after?”

Angelica looked at him. Their eyes met, but not in the sort of heated, explosive way they’d done at the masquerade ball or even when he came into the chamber just now. Something tugged, soft and deep, inside as she connected her gaze with his. “Everyone dies, my lord.”

His handsome face seemed bleak. “Why must they?”

“It’s the natural way of things, the cycle of life. To everything there is a season, and a time.” She dropped the little thread she’d been curling around her fingers. “If there is one thing I’ve learned from this gift I have, it’s that one cannot fear death. It’s rarely pleasant or expected or convenient. Most times it’s tragic and painful. But we can’t avoid it. And for some, it can even be a relief.”

She nibbled on her lip, thinking about how long it had taken for her to become comfortable with her Sight. How many nights of worry and anguish she’d slogged through in darkness—both literal and figurative—before Granny Grapes had taken her under her wing and helped her to understand that death was merely a transition to another part of life.

Voss didn’t say anything, and she was struck by what seemed to be deepening shadows beneath his eyes.

“I don’t mean to sound nonchalant or uncaring,” she told him when the silence stretched moments too long. “I didn’t always feel that way.”

“Didn’t you try to block it out? Did you not try to keep it away? Or did you revel in the knowledge?”

“Yes, and yes…and, at times, yes.” She spread her hands. “I’ve become comfortable with it now. I’ve learned to control it, and I’m judicious in my use of the Sight. Careful with how and when I call on it.”

Except…she hadn’t controlled the image of Lord Brickbank falling to his death. That had been visited upon her in her dreams.

She’d never met the man, never touched any of his belongings.

While she’d had other dreams of death in the past, they’d been just dreams. She’d not seen or met the persons portrayed in them.

And that was what made this incident with Lord Brickbank particularly discomfiting…and frightening. Had those other dreams actually happened, without her realizing it? And why did she dream some deaths, but “see” others by touching a personal item? Angelica had looked away as the reminder of Brickbank came to her thoughts, but now she glanced over at Voss. Strangely silent and contemplative, he sat unmoving. For the first time, she saw him without a coy or charming demeanor. Without a light in his eyes or even the dangerous fury that had been there last night during the attacks.

“My lord,” she began…but then her voice trailed off.

He shifted suddenly on the little stool, and then that smile was back…the sensual, smooth one that had sent little prickles down her spine. “Well, then,” he said. “I cannot say that I’ve ever had such a moribund conversation with a woman in a bedchamber.”

“I’ve never had any conversation with a man in a bedchamber,” she replied primly. Her heart had begun to beat harder, but despite his light comment, she noticed the glint was missing from his eyes.

Voss stood, suddenly looming over her, and she realized once again that she was dressed only in a night rail. And, she decided, this was not the time to ask if he had been the one to arrange for that event. She sincerely hoped he had not, her cheeks warming at the very idea.

“I should like to dress now,” she said. Her throat was dry and her lips felt suddenly very full and warm.

Now his gaze lit with humor. “Indeed. Are you requesting maid service from me?”

“No, indeed!” she said, the flush bursting hotter over her face.

“Very well, then,” he said, his voice oozing with exaggerated reluctance. “I shall send for someone.”

“V—” she said as he started toward the door, then realized her mistake. “My lord, I mean—”

He turned, his hand still on the knob. “Call me Voss. I like the way you make it sound. Angelica.”

She could hardly breathe when their eyes met, and for a moment, the only sound was that of low breathing and the distant thumps and bumps of others in the house. “Dewhurst,” she said firmly.

He made an odd sort of movement, as if to step toward her and then halting himself at the last moment. Something like a wince crossed his face, and he turned sharply. “I’ll send a maid,” he said, and then left the room.