Belle Morte

Many vampires have blood-soaked pasts. Our histories are steeped in death and shadows.

When the time finally came, she would be glad to leave him behind, glad when he was nothing but a memory. And she would be only a memory to him, but it would be a shining one, a secret treasure that he would hold in the place where his heart once beat, and remember the tumble of her hair and the fierce flash of her eyes.

Edmond nodded. From the moment he had charged across the ballroom to Renie’s defense, he’d known he would suffer for his actions. But Renie was safe, and that was worth all the punishment in the world.

Renie had so much life that it was almost enough to make Edmond’s long-dead heart start beating again.

It couldn’t be that simple. Love was developed over time. It wasn’t something that just happened when two people met.

I couldn’t control the entire situation, but I could control how I felt about it and how I reacted to it.

That’s not what I wanted—” “Then what do you want?” Her eyes flashed with anger and hurt. Her. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anyone, but he couldn’t have her,

You can, mon ange. If you fall apart, I will help put you back together.

In the darkness of the hall, Renie’s fiery beauty was brighter than ever, punching straight through the shields he’d spent the last two centuries building.