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  He flew through the air, his arms outstretched toward the woman. When he reached her, he engulfed her in his arms, his momentum taking her with him through the air. He encased her body with his own and rolled them over, so they would land on his back. As they began their roll, one of the pipes grazed Christina’s forehead by a millimeter.

  They landed hard on the hot asphalt, with Marcus skidding on his back. His hold tightened around the nurse as the hard blacktop tore his shirt. Debris bit into the flesh of his back, and his strong jaw clenched in pain.

  When they came to a stop, the nurse propped herself up using her elbows on his chest. Her green eyes wide, the human woman stared at him in awe.

  The warmth from Christina’s body seeped through their clothes, the sensation oddly comforting to him, like coming home. The feeling surrounded him, sank into his bones.

  Lying together with her hair encircling his head, Marcus bathed in her scent. She smelled of jasmine and honey, a delicious combination. He drew the seductive scent deep into his lungs with several long breaths.

  Christina shook her head, disbelief widening her eyes. “That was incredible! Are you okay? Did you break anything? Is your back okay?”

  “I’ll be fine. You’re the one bleed—” Marcus’ response died in his throat, his words stifled by the drop of blood that fell onto his tongue from the wound on Christina's forehead.

  He swallowed the drop along with his words, immediately overcome. That one drop tasted unlike anything he had ever consumed before. It tasted like she smelled—like honey and jasmine—sweet in a way he’d never experienced. It warmed him to the core, made him come alive. His vision swam, and his body reacted like a school boy's, painfully hard and aroused.

  Mine! The thought popped into his head without warning. My heartmate!

  Acutely aware of his body’s response to her, the vampire quickly rolled from beneath Christina before she felt his reaction. He leapt to his feet with the usual grace of his kind and extended his hand to Christina. She put her hand in his and allowed his strength to help her stand. Her petite fingers sent a wave of desire through his veins.

  “The pole got you. You’re bleeding.” Marcus licked his thumb and reached for her forehead. As his thumb rubbed across the wound, his saliva sealed the small cut. He struggled to keep the thumb from going back into his mouth to taste her luscious blood once more. The howling sirens from emergency vehicles as more arrived saved him from the temptation.

  “Thank…” Christina began, but one of the injured drivers moaned, and the nurse ran to help the next survivor without finishing her thought.

  He watched her go. The world tunneled to her, taking his attention from the sting on his back. She was tenacious, merciful, and beautiful. His chest swelled with pride as he watched her help others, selflessly attending to their needs, while ignoring her own.

  He’d found his heartmate at last. Someone he would love forever, care for, and protect. While he knew heartmates could be human, after all, his sire had a former human as his heartmate. He’d always assumed his would be a natural born vampire. He found it ironic that his mate turned out to be mortal. As the realization hit, so did the tingling sensation on his skin.

  He looked down and saw his flesh beginning to blister from the rising sun. Dawn had come and brought the deadly rays that would burn him with their pink hues. His eyes burned and watered while he ran for the relative safety of his limo.

  Once he was inside, Payton threw a blanket over his smoldering body. “Close call, sir.”

  “Yeah, I kind of lost track of the time.” Marcus wrapped the blanket around himself and tucked his long legs up under him to fit all six-foot-three inches of his body under the material. The UV tint on the windows would keep most of the rays off his skin, but he was glad for the extra layer of protection the blanket provided him. Still, he would be safest in his house. “Get me home as quickly as possible, Payton.”

  “Yes, sir, right away.” Payton maneuvered the limo over to the shoulder of the road, hit reverse, and drove backwards down the highway until he came to an exit ramp. Taking the ramp, he headed for Marcus’ home as fast as possible.

  “It’s times like these, Payton, that I wish I could dematerialize like other vampires. Just think myself home, and I’d be there.”

  “You’ll be able to do it one day, sir. I’m sure of it. Every year your powers increase, as is the way of your kind.”

  “Yep, one day I’ll be like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. I’ll just tap my heels and think ‘there’s no place like home’ and poof, I’ll be there.”

  As Marcus huddled under the blanket, his thoughts returned to the nurse. My Christina.

  After centuries alone, he’d found his mate. Ordained by the Fates, she was made for him, perfect for him. He would have to win her, of course, for being human she didn’t understand what it meant to be a heartmate.

  He would have to find out all about her, and he looked forward to the discovery. What was her favorite food? Animal? She was a nurse, but where did she work? What did she like to eat? What was her favorite restaurant? The questions bounced around his brain like a trivia game.

  He would call her tomorrow evening and ask her out on a date. But wait, he didn’t have her number.

  He suddenly sat up. Panic twisted his stomach as he pulled the blanket tightly around his body. Oh shit, I don’t even know her last name.

  Chapter 4

  Marcus sat on the couch, stretched out his legs, and crossed them at the ankles. He hadn’t slept much. Thoughts of Christina kept him awake. Were it not for the pull of the day sleep, he would not have slept at all. He leaned back, closed his eyes, and her image flooded his mind.

  With one hand resting on the back of the couch and the other holding a glass of wine, he saw a mental picture of them at the accident scene. He pictured her lying on top of him, her long red hair flowing down, pooling around his head onto the street below them. He brought the wine to his lips. As he consumed the contents of the glass, he realized he craved something stronger. He went to the bar and grabbed a bottle of two-hundred-year-old scotch. The date stamp on the bottle took his mind back to the time the Alpha Council formed, a little over two hundred years ago. The Alphas, considered the Special Forces of the vampire breed, dealt with those who became too violent or demented to remain in civilized society, and Marcus was proud to be a member of the elite group.

  Payton’s footsteps drew Marcus from his reverie.

  “Excuse me, sir. I don’t mean to disturb you, but I have the results of the search you asked me to perform.”

  Marcus poured the Lagavulin into a glass. After swirling the fiery liquid, he downed it in one smooth gulp.

  “Let me see it.” Marcus poured himself another glass of Lag before he made his way across the room to grab the stack of paper from Payton’s hands. He flipped through it and looked at the human in horror.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. There can’t be this many Christinas in the Savannah White Pages.”

  “I’m afraid so. That is everyone in the white pages with the name Christina, or C as their initial.”

  “How am I ever supposed to find her? There are tons of names here.” Marcus asked rhetorically, waving the papers before Payton’s face.

  “Perhaps one of your fellow Alphas might be able to help you. I’m sure some of them have unique gifts.”

  Marcus’ thoughts flashed to Demetri Romanoff. At over six hundred years old, the male had learned much in that time. Proficient in every type of combat with most types of weapons known to Marcus, Demetri was the Alpha Council’s strongest fighter.

  His skills were sharp but his mind sharper. He possessed knowledge few others did. He happened to have a home in Savannah, so he was familiar with the area. Perhaps he could help.

  Marcus fished the cell from the pocket of his jeans, sat back down on the sofa, and balanced his glass on one knee. He hit the speed dial button. With each ring, his anxiety grew. Would Demetri think him a fool for not
erasing Christina’s memory? Would Demetri think him insane for thinking Christina is his heart—?

  “Hello,” Demetri answered, his voice deep and raspy, with just a hint of a Russian accent.

  “Hey, man, this is Marcus.”

  “Hello, Marcus. What has you dialing my number tonight?”

  “I have a bit of a situation here, and I could use your help.”

  “Do you need me to come over? I could be at your home in about fifteen.”

  “That’s okay. No need. We can do this over the phone.” Marcus wiped a nervous hand down his face and settled farther into the couch. It will be easier if we aren’t face to face anyway.

  “Whatever you want, comrade. So, what can I do for you?”

  Marcus took a deep, steadying breath. “I kind of messed up last night. There was an accident on the highway.”

  “Yes, I read about it in today’s paper.”

  “Yeah, so anyway, I helped people during the accident.”

  “You wiped their memories. Right?”

  After a brief hesitation, Marcus answered, “All but one.”

  “What!” Demetri’s voice roared from the phone, and Marcus pulled it from his ear. “What do you mean all but one?”

  “There was a woman… Look, I know you are going to think I’m nuts, but she’s my heartmate.”

  Now Demetri hesitated. “Why exactly do you think that? Please tell me you didn’t drink her blood at the scene of the accident.”

  “I didn’t exactly drink from her. She became injured and some of her blood fell into my mouth. I know she is my heartmate; all the signs were there. My entire body and mind reacted to her.”

  “Well, I guess etiquette dictates that congratulations are in order. It is understandable you didn’t wipe her memory. I assume you told her she was your mate.”

  The ice clinked against the side of the glass when Marcus took a long swallow of his scotch before answering. “I didn’t get the opportunity.”

  “So you will contact her this evening and share the news.”

  “That’s the problem…I only know her first name. The sun rose before I got any other information from her.”

  An inelegant sound escaped Demetri. “That’s no problem. I have the contact information for all the vampires in Savannah. If you tell me her first name, we can at least narrow down the possibilities.”

  “She isn’t a vampi—”

  “You idiot!” Demetri’s shout rang from the phone, ending Marcus’ reply. “You left the memory of a human intact! Are you dumb or just plain stupid? What are you going to do to clean this mess up?”

  Marcus couldn’t say his fellow Alpha’s response surprised him. He’d expected it, really. But Demetri’s ire did not help him with his problem. He slammed down the last of his drink before responding. “That’s why I called you. I don’t know how to find her. I tried to find her in the phonebook, but do you have any idea how many Christinas there are in the Savannah White Pages? It would take me years to call all of them.”

  As Marcus placed his emptied glass on the end table, he heard only silence on the other end of the line. Demetri’s voice sounded calmer when he finally spoke. “I have heard of vampires who can call people to them using their minds. It is supposed to work like a mindlink, only one-sided. You can’t communicate with each other. One person is calling; the other is coming as commanded.”

  “I’ve manipulated others with my mind when I’ve been with them, but I’ve never done anything like that over a long distance. I didn’t even know such a thing was possible.” The surprise made his words flow quickly from his lips.

  “I have not done it either. As I said, I heard of other vampires doing it. It’s worth a try. Otherwise, you’ll be spending the next several years calling numbers for every Christina in the phone book.”

  “No other ideas?” Marcus’ brows narrowed in consternation. “Just in case that doesn’t work.”

  “No, but if I think of anything I’ll give you a call.” Demetri’s accent thickened, and a sense of foreboding flowed over Marcus. “For your sake as well as the sake of our kind, I hope you find her. The last male I knew who couldn’t find his heartmate went insane and needed to be put down.”

  He didn’t need the warning. More than once Marcus witnessed others losing their mates. In fact, just recently the Alphas took out a male who had gone crazy from the death of his mate, and Marcus had been forced to watch his own sire give up his heartmate. “I don’t need the reminder, Demetri. I remember when we took out Lucio a few months ago.”

  “Then you recall how devastated the male was.”

  “What I remember more is Stephan’s reaction to giving up Kat. And that was before he knew she was his heartmate.”

  Until a few months ago, Marcus lived in his sire’s penthouse in Las Vegas. He enjoyed his Vegas playboy lifestyle—a different woman every night and no shortage of tourists with whom to bed or drink from, or both. Vegas was his kind of city, it came alive after dark and no one became suspicious if you slept all day. Oh yeah, he definitely enjoyed his Vegas life. That was until his sire, Stephan, came into town for a visit.

  “When Stephan erased memories of us from Kat’s mind and sent her away to keep her safe, it almost destroyed him. I’ve never seen my sire so distraught.”

  “Luckily, it all worked out in the end.”

  Marcus had to admit Demetri was correct. In the end, Stephan and Kat fell in love and set up house in the Vegas penthouse Marcus had once called home.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t stay in Vegas, Marcus.”

  “You know the saying, three’s a crowd. Not to mention I didn’t want to sit around the place watching Stephan and Kat make goo-goo eyes at each other.”

  “So that’s why you came back to Savannah.”

  “I bought this plantation in the eighteen hundreds, thought it was about time I got some use out of it.”

  The southern plantation, though grand, no longer suited him. For him, it was simply a place to stay until he could sell it and move to a city more in line with his high-rolling lifestyle. He had to admit, however, he did enjoy listening to the southern drawl that slid through the lips of the women in Savannah, but that was the only appeal of his current abode.

  Well, that and the fact that somewhere out there in the city his heartmate waited. He must find her, make her his. Anxiety crawled over his skin. The Alpha needed to know his mate was safe. He wanted to get off this damned phone and try the technique Demetri mentioned. It might be a long shot, but it seemed his only shot at this time.

  Marcus ended their conversation in the traditional valediction of the Alpha Council, “Safe travels, Demetri. And thank you for your help.”

  “And safe travels to you as you try to find your heartmate. Remember it is imperative you do not fail.”

  With that directive, Marcus snapped the phone shut and tossed it on the cushion beside him.

  There’s no time like the present. Marcus closed his eyes in concentration, leaned back, and rested his head on the couch. Man, I hope this works.

  After picturing the redhead with the big emerald eyes, he began repeating the same series of words over and over again aloud. “Christina, come to me. Come to me now, Christina.”

  ****

  When her favorite paranormal movie came to an end, Christina stretched her arms over her head. She ran through her list of To Do’s for the next day: buy groceries, call insurance company, rent a car. As her thoughts turned to the accident, she contemplated her life.

  I’ve been through so much lately. First, I lost my father six months ago to cancer, then I was offered a job, which would have been great, except when my boss found out about the offer she let me go immediately, and now I’ve been in a car accident. Well, that’s three, so hopefully the old saying will be true:bad things come in threes, and I’ll catch a break.

  She needed a pick- me-up, and since the endorphin rush she got from running on the treadmill wasn’t an option due to stiff and sore mus
cles, she went to her other vice, playing the piano. As she sat on the wooden bench, she lovingly caressed the lines of the wood trim. She had this one item left of the things her mother had given her before she left, an instrument through which she expressed herself, explored her talent.

  Her fingers hovered over the keys. She closed her eyes and allowed her mind to drift. A face took form in her mind’s eye. A face with a hard jaw and strong lines, which perfectly emphasized his dark eyes and short, chestnut hair. For a man, he boasted beautiful features. No, that wasn’t quite right. The gentleman from the accident, the one who saved her, was not feminine in the slightest. All male, his broad shoulders and tall stature made her feel petite when he stood over her. His was a face chiseled by God, and it provided just the right inspiration.

  Her fingers moved of their own accord, their muse the mystery man. Her music filled her one-bedroom apartment with minor chords and beautiful harmonies. She played a dark romantic melody, secretly dedicating it to him. Her fingers flew over the keys in Allegrissimo tempos, creating rich tones and long crescendos. When she finished the composition, a feeling akin to longing called to her. A need pulled her, and the man’s face pushed again into her mind. For just a second, the rich tone of his voice seemed to whisper in her ear. She shook her head.

  Okay girl, pull yourself together. He was just some guy. Get over it. You’ll never see him again, so just get over it already. She put her head in her hands. I need a distraction. Thinking about Mr. Tall, Dark, and, Handsome isn’t going to do me any good.

  Lifting her face, she perused her selection of sheet music. Finding a piece difficult enough to require her full attention and distract her from her thoughts of the sensual stranger, she played, drowning out everything but the music from her soul.

  Chapter 5

  An achy edginess consumed Christina since she awoke that afternoon. At first, she thought it was a physical sensation left over from the accident, but upon rising she found it much easier to move. Her muscles still stiff, though not as sore, performed most movements pain-free.