Vacation with a Vampire & Other Immortals Read Online Free PDF

what she had awakened to just now.
    Was this heaven? Did they dress you in men’s underclothes in heaven? Did they heat heaven with a crackling wood-fire?
    Maybe. If heaven was, as she had come to suspect through all her hours of pondering and meditation, what one expected it to be, then maybe this was her heaven. A private, cozy cottage, where she was warm and safe and dry. She’d always wanted a cabin of wood, with a cobblestone fireplace. If this were really heaven, her cottage would be situated on a beach.
    Beside her luxurious bed were a pitcher of water and a wooden bowl filled with tropical fruit. There were figs and nectarines and berries. She didn’t particularly like figs. Would there be figs if this were heaven?
    She stared at the bowl and imagined a juicy steak appearing there. Just to test it out. But nothing happened. Where was she?
    As her senses expanded, seeking more information, she heard no sounds of traffic outside, no horns or motors or sirens. She didn’t even hear an occasional passing car.
    She eased the blanket off and sat up straighter, then swung her legs around and lowered her bare feet to the floor. She started to stand, but a wave of dizziness put her right back down. Her head swam, and her body began to complain at her for daring to move at all. Pain pulsed, soft, then more loudly, from her back, from her legs, from her shoulders and one hip. The dizziness became an insistent throb, and she lowered her head into her hands, closing her eyes and moaning softly.
    Not heaven, she thought. Not even close. I’m definitely still in my body.
    “You shouldn’t be trying to get up yet.”
    It was a voice. A familiar voice. Deep and resonant and male, with the accent she’d heard so many nights in her sleep. Her angel?
    His hands closed on her shoulders, and he spoke again with concern. “Are you all right?”
    She lifted her head slowly, expecting…she didn’t know what. A radiant being in white robes with a halo floating above his head?
    It wasn’t quite that. But he was radiant. And so blessedly, blissfully familiar. His skin was light, for a man who was clearly of Latin descent. Oh, the usual coppery tones were there, but it was almost as if it were backlit somehow. And his beloved eyes… Deep brown eyes like chocolate left too long in the summer sun, and lashes so thick she was almost jealous. Her own only looked that way with the help of mascara and eyeliner. He came by them naturally, just like the heavy brows and the full lips.
    “It’s you,” she whispered, and she almost choked on the tears that welled up in her throat. “I really am dead, then. Why does it still hurt?”
    His eyes seemed to well up, or maybe she was just thinking that because her own were wet. “No, pretty one. You are not dead.”
    Was his voice as beautiful as it seemed? Or was she experiencing some sort of ecstatic state induced by nearly drowning? “If I’m not dead, then…how can you be here with me?” she asked softly.
    He frowned, then lifted a hand to indicate the room around them. “This is my home. Where else would I be?”
    “Then…you’re not an angel?”
    His smile was quick, but restrained, too. A flash of perfect white teeth only partly revealed. “No, pequita, I am no angel.”
    “But I know you. I do. I know you. We’ve met before. At the lighthouse, before I…” Her head ached harder, and she frowned, pressing her hand to her forehead.
    “You’ve been through a terrible trauma. Your mind is playing tricks on you, no doubt.”
    “No, I do know you. I’ve dreamed of you. All my life, really. When you came to me that night—”
    “Your mind is playing tricks on you.”
    “No. You knew my name that night. You called me Anna. And I know yours. It’s Diego.”
    That seemed to bring him up short. He went still, and his gaze darted away from hers, turning inward, but only very briefly. “I’ve been speaking to you while you slept, Anna. I’ve told you my name several times. But