that there was another house beneath the one above, a rather cozy place if one didn't mind cold stone floors and walls without windows.
Rising, he laid out a change of clothes, all the while following the woman's movements.
He wondered who she was and what had prompted her to buy a house that had been empty for more than five years. Many people had come to look at the place in the last decade. A few had attempted to live there, but he had not wanted their company and it had been an easy thing to drive them away. Dark thoughts planted in their minds, objects that moved or disappeared completely, the whisper of a cool wind down the back of a neck when the air was warm and the night was calm. He grinned faintly. It was all so easy.
Donning a clean black silk shirt, a pair of black trousers, and a pair of soft black leather boots, he followed the narrow passageway that led to the back of the fireplace in the parlor. There were many such walkways in the old house. A wave of his hand and the hidden passageway opened.
Dissolving into a fine gray mist, he drifted through the parlor and down the hallway to the kitchen. The smell of roasting meat made his stomach clench even as the scent of animal blood stirred a hunger deep within him.
The woman stood at the stove with her back toward him. She stirred something with a long, wooden spoon,then lifted it to her lips for a taste.
"Hmm, not too bad, if I do say so myself," she murmured. Laying the spoon aside, she sprinkled salt and pepper into the pot.
The woman glanced over her shoulder as he floated into the kitchen. Had she sensed his presence? Such a thing seemed unlikely. Few humans had the ability to detect his nearness when he was in an incorporeal form.
She was not classically beautiful, but she was a remarkably pretty woman, with delicate features and fine, unblemished skin. Her honey-colored hair fell in a thick braid past her waist. Her eyes were brown with tiny gold flecks, fringed by long, dark lashes. Her slender figure was clad in something long and silky and pink. Not a nightgown, as he had thought, but some sort of lounge-around-the-house dress.
Dominic grinned as he drifted out of the room.
He had not wanted anyone to occupy the house in the past, but this one could stay. There was something about her... something he would pursue at a later date, when his hellish hunger had been appeased. Perhaps one day he would even introduce himself to her, but not now. Now he needed to feed and as handy as it might have been to use the woman, he didn't want to scare her away just yet. It might be amusing, even entertaining, to have company for a while.
Taking on his own shape once again, he made his way to the city located some thirty miles past the quaint village where most of the local people did their business. He never hunted in the village. Not only was it too close to his lair, but the inhabitants all knew each other. If one of them went missing, everyone would know about it in a matter of hours. He had ever been discreet in his choice of hunting grounds.
Walking down one of the crowded cobblestone streets, surrounded by warm, mortal flesh and beating hearts, he again felt the hunger rise up within him, growing stronger,more demanding. It was a need that could not be denied, a thirst that could be quelled but never quenched. The beast that dwelled within him had an insatiable appetite, one that could not for long be ignored.
His footsteps quickened as his hunger mounted, and then he saw his prey. She was a few yards ahead, a young woman with short brown hair. He watched the subtle sway of her hips, lifted his head and sniffed the air, sorting her distinct scent from all the others that surrounded him.
She looked up at him in alarm as he glided up beside her. Her eyes were gray and clear. He gazed into them, his mind speaking to hers, assuring her that he meant her no harm, and when he was certain she would offer no resistance, he slipped his arm around her waist and led her away from the crowds into a dark alley.
Lost in the shadows, he took her into his arms. For a moment, he simply