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understand that, correct?” Daldon smiled and nodded. “I’m not going to claim her. I have given her my blood so I will always have a connection to her, but I can’t have her in my life. It’s not…I’m much too old and set in my ways to change now. Neither of us will be happy if she tries to change me.”
    “ You think it will be that easy, my lord?” Stephen didn’t answer, but apparently he wasn’t required to. “Things have a way of working out for the best. You say you are old and set in your ways, and that she will change you, correct? Perhaps she will simply like you for who you are.”
    “ I don’t even like me for what I am.” With that he turned and left the room. There were things he had to get finished before he could rest, and one of them was to make sure his house was secure. He had no idea who was chasing Clar, if that was even her name, but he would make sure she was safe while in his house. And he had to find out who the men were that had tried to rape her. An hour later, Stephen was dragging himself to the lower levels to rest.
    A sound woke him, and he laid there for several seconds before he opened his eyes. The room was still in semi-darkness, and the light that always burned was still on. But he could feel someone there…or maybe, something. Sitting up, he let a little of his beast go and spoke.
    “ Whoever you are, it’s not just dangerous that you’re in my room uninvited, but it could be deadly as all hell for you to be. Show yourself.” No one answered, but he heard the flare of a match just before a bright light showed a person’s face.
    “ You should know that finding you was harder than I thought it would be.” Stephen didn’t move when the woman blew out the match and the room darkened again. Using some of his considerable magic, he lit the room so that there were no shadows anywhere.
    “ Who are you, and what the hell do you want?” She wasn’t there , was his first thought. Just a projection of herself, which meant that they had at one time exchanged blood. Otherwise, she’d never had been able to come to him.
    “ I’m Velvet. Velvet December. It’s not my real name, of course. Don’t you just love that name? Back when you and I were lovers, it was just plain old Sally Shunt.” He still had no idea, but rose from his bed and reached for his robe. He was in the habit of sleeping in the nude, and felt uncomfortable with her in the room with him in such a state of undress. Her laughter made his skin crawl, and it triggered the necessary memory to tell him who she was.
    “ You’re supposed to be dead. I made sure that you were brought before the committee back then, and they told me you were put to death.” She shrugged. “Well? Why are you here and not dust on someone’s shoes?”
    “ I was sentenced, but not to death. I suppose they thought I’d eventually get dug up and the sun would take me, but that patch of earth was never good for anything once they put me there.” She moved about his room, looking at things but unable to touch them. “You did me a great injustice by turning me in, Stephen. I’m very upset with you. I’d like to know what you plan to do about making it up to me.”
    “ I don’t give a shit what you are. And as far as making anything up to you? You can fuck off for all I care. I want you to get out of here and leave me to my life.” Her laughter again. It grated on his nerves like nails down a chalkboard. “Say what you want, then leave. Whatever you think you have to say to me is going to fall on deaf ears. I could care less about you.”
    “ You did at one time.” He had too, he remembered, until she’d betrayed him and he’d cut her out of his life. And he remembered how extremely easy it had been too. But she spoke again before he could let that sour memory form. “You were going to live your days with me. You said you’d care for me and make sure that no harm came to me. Is turning me over to the Vampire Committee how