Dance with Darkness by Melissa Darnell Read Free Book Online Page A

really was. He already knew she was a monster, and she was tired of pretending otherwise today.
    He didn’t say anything until the song ended, but she could feel his presence in the space between the front row and the edge of the stage. When she stopped dancing and met his stare, she didn’t know what to expect. So the blatant desire in his eyes stunned her.
    “You’re beautiful,” he murmured.
    “Don’t you mean unnatural? Or dangerous?”
    With a quick shake of his head, he took a single step forward, used his hands to push himself up, then climbed onto the stage. Once on his feet again, he brushed his hands off with casual confidence. His silence was unnerving, pushing her to speak.
    “Are you here to tell me to get out of town again? Because if you are…”
    He walked toward her, closing the distance in only a few steps, until his scent hit her like a slap in the face. “No, I’m not.”
    “Then…” She swallowed, trying not to breathe him in. “Then what do you…”
    “You. I want you.” He lifted her chin with a single finger until she was forced to meet his gaze. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that kiss all week. I haven’t felt like this since my wife died four years ago. I didn’t think I ever would, to be honest. I don’t know why I feel the way I do for you, but I do. And it seems like it would be pretty stupid of me to ignore it.”
    She felt surrounded by him, his scent filling her nose and throat and lungs, his warmth emanating over her, his broad shoulders and those dark eyes filling her vision and making her all too aware of the bed on the stage behind her. Because the dancers had to both dance and lie upon it during a pivotal scene in the ballet, the top mattress was real and soft enough to protect their bodies from unnecessary bruising.
    “Maybe you’re just attracted to the fact that I can’t die so easily.” She wasn’t sure where the words came from, but once they slipped out, she knew they were an all-too-real possibility.
    But he didn’t seem to think so, judging by the way he chuckled and his eyes crinkled up at the outer corners. “If that were the case, I would’ve gone looking for a vampire girlfriend long before now.”
    She was trembling. Her hands fisted, her fingers aching to touch him. But she couldn’t. If she did, she might not be able to stop.
    He lowered his head, holding her gaze the entire time, and she had to wonder who was mesmerizing whom. But just before their lips touched, she came to her senses and jerked her head back.
    “No, stop! I don’t want to take your energy.”
    “You didn’t enjoy our first kiss?”
    She turned away, needing to clear her head. “That isn’t the point. You said it yourself. I can drain you with just a kiss. And I… it’s not right. Don’t you get it? I don’t want to be this! I don’t want to…” To kill you , she almost said, but the words choked in her throat.
    “Lorena, I’m a witch.”
    That made her face him again. “What?”
    He scowled. “It’s true. I have been all my life. I was born that way into a long line of them. And my family’s not the only one. There are several families with powerful abilities in this area. Our ancestors immigrated over from Ireland together centuries ago to escape persecution for their abilities. We call ourselves The Clann, the Irish Gaelic word for “family”, and each member is called a descendant. When we hit puberty, our powers start to develop.”
    “And that’s why you’re able to create fire…”
    He nodded. “I can create fire in my hands with a single breath, or form water from the air to put it out. There’s a bunch of other stuff we can do too. But the first thing we learn is to hide our power. You know the kind of world we live in, how people react to anyone with scientifically unexplainable abilities.”
    She gave a grim nod. The existence of vampires might be an accepted bit of lore nowadays, but that didn’t make it any safer for