"I could. But you see, I've learned how to appreciate the things I couldn't when I was younger. The swamp is a part of me. And you… you've become a part of me, too."
She searched his eyes. "Is that enough? I'm only human. I can't do half the things you can."
"But you can heal, Dana. You have your own gifts. If you can see yourself fixing up simple country folk instead of rich city slickers—" He faltered. "Most people in this parish live from paycheck to paycheck. I'm not sure how much market there'd be for plastic surgery. Maybe you'd rather—"
"I left that life when I came to Louisiana," she said firmly. "I'm not going back. I think I may even have found the courage to take up the kind of practice I gave up a few years out of medical school. Not for money, but for something else."
"For love." Remy took her face between her hands. "You could come to love this place, these people. My people, and the ones like your aunt Gussie. They aren't bad, you know, only ignorant."
"And perhaps, with a human at your side, you might dispel some of that ignorance."
"It's a start." He rested his forehead against hers. "Not just any human will do, you know. It has to be the one I love. My wife."
Dana breathed in the words and held on to them until they filled her chest to bursting. "I suppose it's a good thing that I love you. It'll make putting up with your wisecracks a little easier."
"You love me?" Remy grabbed her waist and lifted her off her feet. "Say that again."
"I love you."
Remy's grin spread and spread until he couldn't contain it any longer. He bent back his head and howled until the birds rose in squawking masses from the trees and Landry jumped out of the car to investigate the ruckus.
"Keep it down, Arceneaux," he said gruffly. "You're scaring the prisoner."
Remy took Dana by the hands and danced her in a circle, ignoring his blanket as it went sailing off into a mud puddle. "Now, ain't that just the damnedest shame," he drawled. "Let's give him something else to think about, shall we?"
And he kissed her until the cypress trees spun overhead.
*****
Dear Reader,
I'm very excited to introduce my first work for Harlequin/Silhouette, "Kiss of the Wolf." When editor Leslie Wainger approached me about contributing to a dark fantasy anthology, I jumped at the chance. I've always considered her a leading light in the world of paranormal romance.
I knew immediately what I wanted to write—an idea that had been floating around in my head for years. After doing a number of historical paranormal novels, I was eager to return to a contemporary setting. I'd always been fascinated by southern Louisiana and Acadian culture. And since werewolves and the bayou just seem to go together, it was natural for me to combine the two in a story based on my loup-garou series.
Remy Arceneaux is a bit of a rogue and an outsider. He and his brother Tristan have "reputations" in the town of Grand Marais; their names are connected with the mysterious disappearance of a local woman. It takes the arrival of Dana St. Cyr, a sophisticated doctor from San Francisco, to break open the mystery and uncover Remy's secrets. But can their love survive the truth?
I hope that you enjoyed Kiss of the Wolf as much as I enjoyed writing it. I love to hear from readers. You can reach me at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Susan Krinard
* * *
SHADOW KISSING
Tanith Lee
* * *
Chapter 1
« ^ »
She saw him that first day, in the old garden. It was a sort of shock. Addie hadn't warned her.
He stood just behind the riot of ivy and overblown roses, with the sun on his face. Vivien's heart lurched. Never, in all her life, had she seen a man so handsome. No, perfect.
For some while she stood there, gazing up at him. And then she spoke aloud. "Well, I shall have to paint you. If you'll allow me to." But of course he would. He was made of stone.
"You are so unworldly, Viv."
"Yes."
Vivien never liked being called by that particular moniker, but Addie nearly always used it. The "unworldliness" Vivien had to accept. Not every artist, every painter, was like that, of course. Some were very practical.
The nonartistic Addie Preece was certainly practical. That Saturday morning when she brought around the keys, she stared dismissively at Vivien's tiny Camden apartment.
"Please take the money for a taxi," said Addie. She slapped down a ten-pound note, which wasn't enough for the cab fare from here to there. "I can't understand why you don't drive. No car, no computer—and you still don't have a mobile phone. You are so unworldly, Viv."
And Vivien had coolly agreed.
She had already agreed to be live-in caretaker of Addie's flat for three weeks, while Addie was in the south of France and Spain.
The flat was the last in a terrace of incredibly gracious London houses, dating from the eighteen hundreds, mostly now turned into apartments to die for. Addie, however, was moving out in the near future. When she had invited Vivien there last week, to suggest she flat-sit, Vivien had glimpsed furniture and belongings already under dust sheets or packed in large sturdy boxes, rather like Addie herself.
"I haven't decided when I'll go. The first offer on the flat was way too low. I'm holding out for several thousand more." She had assured Vivien, "I won't offer to pay you for flat-sitting. But it's quiet here—the other flats are empty, as is the next-door property—another reason someone needs to keep an eye on things. But you could paint, couldn't you? There's a garden—" She had waved at the closed after-dark drapes. "It's private, exclusive to this flat. And otherwise, none of this is a big responsibility, is it? I'll leave you a list of anything you might need to know."
Addie, Vivien thought, was like certain wealthy people—rather mean. She had chosen Vivien because Vivien owed her a favor and wouldn't ask for payment.
So all this was like an interview—similar to the interviews Vivien had had with Addie when Addie put her forward for book-jacket illustrations with three reputable publishers. Interviewer and interviewee. They weren't friends.
I don't have any friends, Vivien thought, except Ellie, who has now moved back to the States. And no lovers.
That Saturday, after Addie had delivered the keys, Vivien had paused by her ornate, dusty mirror and looked at herself pensively. She saw a slim, pale woman of twenty-eight. Her mass of dark hair poured back from her face and over her shoulders, unrestrained, and her large gray eyes met themselves in the glass, almost questioning. Her second name was Gray. People made jokes about gray-eyed Vivien Gray. And he had said to her, "Eyes gray as glass… "
Angrily Vivien turned from the mirror and the memory.
No friends, no lovers. The one she had loved ultimately hadn't wanted her, and in the three years since, she hadn't wanted anyone else. And he was stuck there, in the bottom of her heart, like bottled darkness.
The taxi was hot and stuffy—the underground would probably have been worse. It was late July, the summer like a hot blue lid clamped down over London. When they reached Coronet Square, the trees in the small public park looked tarnished.
Vivien lugged her bags and folded-up easel round to the arched doorway of the gracious ground-floor flat.
Ten minutes later, throwing open Addie's French doors to the private garden, Vivien, startled and pleased, went out along a lush green avenue, between rowdy bay trees and tangled lilacs, turned a corner and saw—him.
He was a life-size statue. He stood there, six feet tall, and naked but for a little modest drapery at the hips. He had no look of anyone she had ever known—yet his beauty made him seem somehow familiar. Influenced rather by Greek Classical style, but with a hint of Art Nouveau. He was astonishing.
Even his marble was polished by weather rather than stained or chipped—or maybe he had been recently cleaned. At the thought of washing and rubbing this smooth male surface, Vivien felt a strange heat come into her face. How absurd.
She studied him some while.
Tomorrow, she would sketch the statue. It was a must.
Only as she was about to turn away did she see that letters had been cut into the plinth where he stood. Vivien drew off the thin veil of ivy, and read, "My heart is turned to stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand."
She thought she knew the words—Shakespeare, surely—but which play? Ellie would have known right off.
The sun now moved behind tall surrounding buildings. Shadows fell, changing the color of the roses to blood.
The flat was absolutely enormous. She hadn't seen it properly on the previous occasion. A hall, with a spacious cloakroom on one side and a dining room and cupboards on the other, led into a vast, weird and wonderful eight-sided room, with cornices and elaborate plasterwork overhead. It had a narrow window at one end, and more French windows at the other. Further doors led off into a couple of separate halls.
There were, altogether, three bedrooms, plus Addie's study, which was a barren room full of files and four computers—all switched off and under plastic tents—two bathrooms in ceramic tiles, and a small conservatory off the kitchen that also opened onto the garden. No plants lived in the conservatory. Addie never bothered with things like that, which was why the garden had run, literally, to seed.
The kitchen had a larder full of closed boxes and crates and depleted wine racks and a main area with white counters sparsely manned by microwave, coffee grinder and so on.
The fridge was the size of a small bus, and contained a bottle of Evian, half a carton of milk—which had gone off—and one slice of white bread, and a lettuce leaf that had obviously escaped and hidden long ago. Vivien needed to go shopping.
When she came back from the expensive local store, it was almost seven. The phone was ringing on and on, its tape clearly already message-full. As Vivien touched the phone, it rang off. Then, as she went back down the hall, it began again.
"Hello?"
"Finally! Is that Adelaide Preece?" It was an impatient female voice.
"No, I'm afraid she isn't here right now."
"Who on earth's that then I'm speaking to?"
Vivien frowned. "May I ask who you are?"
"Cinnamon Boyle-Martin." Then, before Vivien could respond, she added rudely, "and you're Ms. Whoever, right. So, my partner and I would like to come round tomorrow as agreed. Okay?"
"Why, exactly?"
"Adds must have told you. My partner and I are interested in some of her stuff."
"She didn't say anything."
"Too bad. She's selling off a few things. I'll bring her letter if I must. Do you have e-mail?"
"No," said Vivien firmly.
"Well, we'll be by about ten-thirty tomorrow morning."
"I'm not—"
"Ciao!" warbled Cinnamon, and was gone.
Had any of this been on Addie's lists of instructions? There was one under the grinder, but that seemed to be a warning not to use Addie's coffee beans. The other list, Vivien, who had not paid it much attention, now checked over. Ah. Scratched in the corner she read, Antique scavengers—CS and spice name, poss sun.
Vivien decided to worry about it tomorrow.
As the dark began to gather, she sat by the French windows on a chair released from its dust wrapper. The statue wasn't to be seen from here. She shut her eyes and, not expecting to, fell asleep.
The nearly naked, perfect man stood before her, among the trees. Slowly his head turned towards her—his eyes gleamed, human and alive, full of dark light…
Vivien woke with a start. It was nearly 11:00 p.m.
She switched on a lamp, which glimmered out through the glass and down the path. Presently she undid the doors and went out.
Looking back up at the building, if she had had any doubts, now she could see there were no lights anywhere, nor in the large house that immediately adjoined this one. Empty, as Addie had said. The dividing garden wall, half-hidden in creepers and trees, was ten feet high at least.
Vivien walked back down the path, feeling strange yet foolish.
He stood there now in darkness. Yet faint illumination from the electric false "gas lamps" of the square dappled him through the leaves.
Vivien stared. Who could ever compare with this?
Are you falling in love with a statue? Vivien asked herself. Listen, Gray, there are some mistakes even you aren't allowed.
Her heart beat fast. That was the artist in her, she thought sternly, excited by the prospect of sketching this wonderful image.
She could imagine telling Ellie, and Ellie hooting with laughter, hurtling her back to sanity once more. But she couldn't very well call Ellie in New York on Addie's phone.
Vivien turned smartly to go back indoors.
Something…
She stopped, looking now intently where her shadow fell away from the dim streetlights. The shadow was faint, too, and broken up by the shade-shapes of leaves—but there beside it stretched another, second shadow, which was male. By some fluke of the garden's contours, the shadows suggested he stood right beside her. His right arm extended slightly, as if… as if he had put his hand on her shoulder, intimately inviting her to stay…
Vivien looked back—it was irresistible. There he stood, above her, not close at all, unmoved and cold with night.
Vivien had set her alarm clock for seven-thirty, as usual, Unusually, it hadn't managed to wake her. She opened her eyes just before ten.
She was standing in her robe, hair still damp from the shower and a mug of mint tea in hand, when the door buzzer sounded on the kitchen wall.
Horrified, Vivien remembered what she had thought she wouldn't forget.
"Hello, yes?"
"Yes, this is Cinnamon Boyle-Martin and my partner, Connor Sinclair. Going to let us in?"
Her instinct was to say no. But good manners forced from her a reluctant "All right. Just a minute."
She drained her scalding tea like brandy. Confound it, why was she so nervous? They couldn't be burglars if they knew Addie—could they?
Vivien, vulnerable in her long, belted robe, shook back her hair and undid the front door. And there they stood, against the morning sunlight.
Her first impression was of Cinnamon, as rash and gaudy as expected. The tall man stood just behind her.
As Vivien's eyes adjusted, every element inside her body seemed to turn itself over. She didn't know what she felt—but fear was surely paramount.
For she had seen the man at the door yesterday. Clothed and colored in, Connor Sinclair was like Addie's statue in every way but one: He was flesh and blood.
* * *
Chapter 2
« ^ »
His hair was very thick and long, and black—very black. From the tanned, expressionless mask of his face, two eyes, heavily inked in by brows and lashes, looked down at Vivien. They were the color of hot black coffee—and cold as ice. He wore jeans and a white T-shirt, both of which showed very clearly the exact lines of a strong and muscular body, broad shoulders, narrow hips, long legs. The sleeves of the shirt were rolled up. His muscled forearms were the deep brown color of oak wood and dusted by dark hair. Beautiful hands, Vivien thought stupidly, powerful and calloused, with long fingers whose ends were squared rather than tapering—a working artist's hands. Had she noticed this on the statue—the statue whose living double this man was?
Decidedly, his eyes were as bleak and ungiving.
The Cinnamon woman was gabbling off some stuff about Addie, which Vivien wasn't taking in. Suddenly the man spoke over her, not loudly but with the perfect pitch of an actor.
"Shut up, Cinnamon." And then to Vivien, he
said flatly, "I don't know who you are, but either you can let us in, or I can call the police."
"What?" Vivien now stared at him in astonishment.
"Well, you could be a vandal, or a squatter, couldn't you. Adelaide didn't say anyone was going to be here, except for herself. I suppose she isn't here?"
Vivien tried to pull herself together. "No, she's not. I'm minding the place while she's away."
"Really? We'll have to take your word for that, won't we."
From stupefaction, and then purely physical admiration, Vivien felt herself pass into a rapid rage. How had he so flawlessly wrong-footed her? She should slam the door in his face and call the cops herself—
Cinnamon thrust a card and a letter into Vivien's hand. Vivien read the card: Scavengers Ltd. And then his name: Connor Sinclair. The badly written letter was from Addie. It agreed to something unreadable on Sunday.
"All right," said Vivien. She stepped aside, and Cinnamon dived past her like some sort of dyed-blond raccoon.
As he moved forward, Vivien found herself shrinking back against one wall, as if to be touched by him might burn her—or would it be frostbite?
He stalked down the hall. Cinnamon was already in the octagonal room, turning round and round, hair and jangly earrings dangling back so she could view the corniced ceiling.
"Pity we can't scrape that off, eh, Conn?"
"Mmm."
Noncommittal, he stood there, dominating the space. If the statue was six feet tall, Connor Sinclair was more like six foot three. A difference, then.
Oh, there were plenty. The statue, for one thing, didn't have these eyes, or these bladed lashes, so dense, long and black. Didn't have any of the colors. The statue was… unclothed.
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