The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance

about everything except her touch for a moment and, when the kiss broke, he nodded. “What?” he asked in reply to Katrina’s expectant look. “I tendered your invitation. I told you it wasn’t likely he would accept.”
    Katrina sighed and scolded him in a mutter of her newly acquired Italian before she spoke again. “Send me there,” she demanded. “I know you. You didn’t even ask. You said something like ‘come visit’, didn’t you?”
    Nikolai looked guilty and didn’t need to answer.
    “Honestly, Nik, you and your ‘doing without asking’ thing! Now send me there. Kyle will send me back.”
    “Damned right he will,” Nikolai said with a scowl, gesturing at his wife reluctantly.
    Nikolai had made Katrina immortal when they’d married, but thankfully he hadn’t made her a vampire or given her any ethereal powers. If he had, she’d be an even bigger force to be reckoned with.
    Kyle smiled as his sanctuary was breached for the second time in less than an hour, and this time by a presence that was more human than ethereal. Immortal, yes, but human. Truly, one of the rarer of her kind. There were very few immortal humans, and Katrina was one of them.
    “I’m sorry for Nik’s likely rudeness,” Katrina said as she appeared in Kyle’s formal dining room. “And for mine, appearing unannounced like this, but you can’t say you didn’t expect me.”
    Kyle held up a hand as he continued gazing at the flames in the hearth at the end of the room. “He was not rude,” he replied. He looked up at Katrina. “Well, not as rude as the Destrati have been known to be in the past. Your influence, I am sure.”
    Katrina blushed - an attractive feature vampires were incapable of — and stifled a giggle. “He’s much better, really,” she said, taking a step towards the very dangerous and formidable Kailkiril’ron. Kyle was known by many names, and though he preferred “Kyle Carillron” these days, he was known in legend among the vampire clans as “Kail the Betrayer”.
    She crossed the room slowly, giving him time to adjust to her presence. For everything he was to everyone else, he’d never been anything but kind, gentle and warm to her. But she didn’t know how she hadn’t felt the danger in his presence before, when she was still human.
    “Because then you were under my protection,” Kyle answered her thoughts aloud. He held her dark eyes. “Now you are not, and Nikolai sends you alone.”
    “I ... I asked him to,” Katrina said, though the defence in her tone didn’t quite cover the slight tremor that his thinly veiled warning involuntarily elicited. Though she knew rationally he had protected her before, she was certain he could harm her with a thought if he were so inclined. “Well . . . ‘asked’ insistently.”
    The corners of Kyle’s mouth twitched as he raised his glass, and Katrina knew she was responsible for his almost-smile. Kyle drained the glass and set it aside on the mantelpiece above the hearth.
    “I never really got the chance to thank you for what you did for us,” she continued. “And I don’t quite trust that Nik expressed it the way he should have.”
    “No thanks are necessary,” Kyle said.
    Katrina laid a hand on Kyle’s arm. He looked down at it and arched an eyebrow.
    “Please come,” she asked softly. “At least—” her eye caught the now empty glass, and she looked up at him meaningfully “—have a drink with us.”
    “You don’t have to provide for me,” Kyle said, wondering why the suggestion raised his ire. “I don’t drink from men, and I don’t want any of your willing blood slaves attending me.”
    “Don’t be disgusting,” Katrina said, scowling at him. “Clan Destrati doesn’t do that any more. Everyone has their means, and it isn’t as barbaric as you make it sound.”
    Katrina eyed him. Kyle was the epitome of tact, couth, civility and elegance. Something was bothering him if he was being anything but.
    “And I wasn’t offering any of that,” she continued, meeting his pale eyes. “Just . . . company. An evening with friends. Everyone needs that now and again.”
    Kyle regarded her with a raised brow.
    Katrina returned his look without flinching. She was serious. “If you don’t want to come with me, then send me back alone,” she said with a shrug. “Either way, I’m asking you to come and visit.”
    Kyle sighed. “I’m afraid I’m not very social, tonight or any night,” he replied.
    “Maybe that’s