HECTOR

Hesitation flickered across her face. I knew what she was thinking. A meeting like this more often than not resulted in a violent territorial battle between the two vampires, often ending in one of their demises. She was incredibly beautiful, like all vampires, but in a less traditional way than most of the tall, slender, ice queens I'd encountered over the centuries. She wasn't as tall as was typical, for example. I guessed her to be around five-foot-seven next to my six-foot-four. Most female vampires were somewhere between five-foot-nine and five-foot-eleven. So though she was slender, she was able to pack just a tad more curves into her frame than most. It had been a long time since I'd been able to appreciate a womanly hourglass figure on a vampire, but she had one. I felt a surprising but not unfamiliar stirring in my midsection as I eyed her. Her hair was the color of a new penny, and fell in waves to the middle of her back. Like all vampires, she was pale, almost translucent in color, and her eyes were a deep red, almost black. I knew from experience that meant she was hungry. I'd most likely interrupted her hunt. I frowned inwardly. I had hunted for human flesh at one time, more than four hundred years ago. Carlisle Cullen had changed that about me, a change which I appreciated to no end.

She tossed her hair, eyeing me suspiciously. Every muscle in her body was tensed, prepared to fight if the need arose. She was a young vampire by my standards, but a tough one. She must have been a force of a woman as a human to transfer that so clearly into her new life.

"When do you leave?" she finally asked. I couldn't help but smile.

"I was hoping you'd say yes. I'm not on an official time schedule," I admitted, "but I had hoped to arrive sometime in October. What do you say?"

She opened her mouth to answer, then suddenly dropped into a low defensive stance, a snarl emerging from her lips. She looked like a cat, her back arched and her teeth bared. I smelled it too. Another vampire. One whose scent I recognized clearly. I glanced at Lily, knowing she'd be no match for this particular intruder. "No." I laid a hand on her shoulder. Beneath her cold skin, her muscles were rock hard and tensed for battle. She shuddered as I touched her, but I sensed that she was listening. "Run."

She glanced up at me, prepared to argue, but something in my face stopped her. "What about you?" she asked.

I frowned. "I'll be fine."

She shook her head. "I don't think so. If there's something in this city dangerous enough to scare you, I'm not leaving you alone with it. Not until you tell me what's going on."

The scent was growing closer. Even though we were upwind, I was sure he could smell us by now. I didn't have time to argue. "Fine. Follow me." I didn't want for a response, but whirled in place and took off down the alley. It was a dead end, but that didn't matter. I easily leapt to the rooftops, knowing our scent would be harder to distinguish up here in open air. Behind me, I could hear Lily echoing my movements. I practically flew from building to building, running until there was no trace of his scent in the air. From my bird's eye view, I could see a cemetery in the distance. I smiled wryly at the irony, but knew it was far enough and isolated enough to hide until dawn. Not hesitating, I targeted its location, then pulled up when I realized my companion wasn't following me. I turned. "What are you waiting for?"

She stood perfectly still, sniffing the air. "It's gone."

"For now."

"No."

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, no?"

"I mean, he caught our scent, but dismissed it. He knew you, though. Catching your scent both angered and amused him. Catching mine peaked his curiosity, but he just didn't care enough tonight to follow. Didn't want to come face to face with two vampires when one was an unknown."

"How could you possibly know that?" I asked, although I had a feeling I already knew the answer.

She shrugged. "I just do. He fed, then he left the city heading north." She looked up at the sky. "The sun's coming up. I need to feed. My home is on Park. Wait for me there. You have some explaining to do."

I almost laughed, until I realized how serious she was. I shrugged. If she was going to be my companion to the Americas, I might as well humor her. Besides, a friend of Carlisle's was a friend of mine. "I'll be waiting," I said. I watched as she vanished into the streets below, then headed in the direction of Park Street. It wouldn't be hard to figure out which home was hers. It would be the only one reeking of vampire.

She was a feisty one, this Lily. Clearly a fighter, and not afraid to exert some authority when she thought it was needed. An Alpha female if I'd ever seen one. I wondered at her ability to know that Alistair had sniffed out and dismissed us, then fed and moved on. My guess was she was able to decipher recent thoughts or feelings and events that had occurred within a certain distance of her. It was impressive. Not every vampire had special skills that exceeded the powers every vampire was created with. I did not, nor did Carlisle. But many did, and this one seemed like it had the possibility of being useful.

I found her home easily, and let myself in through a top floor window. It was clean, simply decorated, and dotted with feminine touches here and there, just enough to give away the fact that someone lived there. The only real personal touch was her library. Books dominated three large bookshelves lined up side by side. Perusing them, it was fairly easy to see where her interests lay. She loved history. European history was the most prevalent, though not exclusive to her collection. She'd been building her collection since before she was changed. First editions of dozens of now rare and expensive books dotted the shelves. I idly wondered if she had insurance on her collection. A lot of money was sunk into these books.

I smelled her coming before she arrived. I noticed with some amusement that her eyes, though no longer nearly black, were not the blazing red that accompanied feeding on human flesh. She'd gone out and found some animal to feed on, most likely because I'd reminded her of Carlisle, and the diet he'd no doubt taught her decades ago. "You have a marvelous book collection," I told her.

She shrugged. "I like books. I didn't know what to do with all my time after I was changed. You know, with not having to sleep and all. So I read."

"You study history." It made her ability to read the past suddenly make a little bit more sense.

"I always have. Not all of us have the benefit of having lived long enough to actually experience it." She smiled, and I was surprised to realize how pretty her smile was. I wondered how long it had been since I'd indulged in the pleasures of the flesh. Twenty, thirty years at least. I pushed the thought from my mind as fast as it entered.

"I suppose I owe you an explanation about what happened back there."

"I suppose you do."

I suppressed a smile. I was really starting to like this one. "That was Alistair Wilhelm. A German. Nothing about that man is, or ever has been, good. I met him during World War II. He was a Nazi prison camp guard then. He delighted in torturing his Jewish prisoners before feeding on them. He also had a penchant for Jewish girls. The things he did to their fragile little bodies," I shook my head, frowning at the horrid memories. "I was his superior commander – " she blanched, and I was forced to explain myself. "I was not a monster. I was there to save those poor souls. I was conscribed into the German army, and was horrified at what I saw. I knew the only way to make a difference was as an officer, so I worked hard to earn that rank. When they put me in charge of those prison camps, I used my sway to save as many innocent people as possible."

She nodded, although I could tell she was still disgusted by the fact that I had been, not only a Nazi, but a high ranking official in its army. I didn't blame her. Sometimes I was still disgusted myself. I plunged on. "As his superior commander, I gave him two choices. Leave Germany forever, or be exterminated. He laughed in my face and challenged me to a duel. At the time, he was little more than twenty years old as a vampire. I was more than 500. I assumed the fight would be over before it began. I was wrong." I sighed heavily, hating the next part of my story.

"When I arrived at the selected location, I arrived to find that I was outnumbered. Alistair had been building a personal guard of vampires during his time in the prison camp. Thirteen younger, stronger, far more dangerous vampires stood behind him in the clearing. I only just escaped, and even then at great cost." Lily stared at me, entranced by my story. "I'm sure you know," I continued, "that young vampires have no control over their bloodthirst." She winced, and I knew she knew what I was about to say. "I was forced to lead them to a work station, where the presence of humans distracted them sufficiently to allow me to escape. Alistair had kept them far enough away from the camps to keep them from sniffing out the humans and exposing themselves. That is why I never caught their scent."

"What happened to them?" Lily asked, her voice just barely a whisper.

"Alistair had lost control of them. Suddenly they viewed the prison camps as little more than a buffet. So, one by one, he executed them. By the time I returned, he was long gone. Our paths have crossed occasionally since then. He likes to keep tabs on me. His ultimate goal, I'm certain, is to destroy me. But he's biding his time. The longer he waits, the more seasoned a fighter he becomes. Soon, he'll be powerful enough to face me without an army to back him up."