Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [680]
Reichen stepped onto the sill in a crouch, hearing the hot spit and sizzle of melting silver and cracking glass as the framed photograph burst into flames behind him.
Then he leapt into the thick autumn night to finish what Wilhelm Roth had started.
CHAPTER
Two
Claire Roth’s lips pursed in contemplation as she stared down at the architect’s model spread out on the table in her library. “What do you think about moving the bench away from the strolling path and closer to the koi pond, just on the other side of the cottage roses?”
“An excellent idea,” said a bright female voice over the speakerphone situated nearby. The young woman was calling from one of the region’s Darkhavens. Having seen some of her work elsewhere within the vampire community, Claire had been working with her for the past week, privately consulting on the design of a small garden park. “Have you decided about the material for the walkways, Frau Roth? I believe initially you’d mentioned cobblestones or crushed rock—”
“Would it be possible to keep the paths natural instead?” she asked as she moved along the side of the table, perusing the rest of the scale model. “I’m thinking soft earthen walkways trimmed with something simple yet inviting. Forget-me-nots, perhaps?”
“Of course. That sounds lovely.”
“Good,” Claire said, smiling as she considered the change. “Thank you, Martina. You’ve done a wonderful job. Really, I couldn’t be more pleased with how you’ve taken my jumble of rough ideas and turned them into something so much more than I imagined.”
The young Breedmate’s voice brightened on the other end of the line. “The park is going to be beautiful, Frau Roth. It’s obvious how much time and care you’ve put into your vision of what you’d like it to be.”
Claire quietly registered the compliment, feeling less pride than relief. She wanted this slice of empty land to be turned into something beautiful. She wanted it to be perfect. Every planting, every carefully placed sculpture, bench, and strolling path was intended to be a place of total peace and tranquillity. A sanctuary meant to inspire the mind, heart, and soul. She wasn’t one to pick up the torch for a cause—well, not in a very long time, at any rate—but she had to admit this project had become something close to an obsession for her.
“I just need it to be right,” she murmured, blinking past a sudden misting of her eyes. She’d been overly emotional lately, and was grateful that there was no one in the library to see her weakness.
“Don’t worry,” Martina’s cheerful voice soothed. “I’m certain he’s going to love it.”
Claire swallowed, caught off guard. “W-what?”
“Herr Roth,” the young Breedmate replied. An awkward silence stretched out for long moments. “I, um … I’m sorry if I’m prying. You’d asked me to keep the park and its design a secret, so I suppose I assumed that you meant it to be a gift for him.”
A gift for Wilhelm? Claire had to work to contain her bemused reaction to the idea. She hadn’t even seen her mate for half a year. He came to the country only because his blood compelled him to. Claire had grown to dread those visits, expected as his mate to feed him from her veins and to take his blood in exchange. Wilhelm hardly pretended to feel differently about their coolly obligatory arrangement. They had discreetly lived apart nearly all of the three decades of their pairing—he in his Darkhaven mansion in the city, she and a handful of security staff here in the country manor a couple of hours away.
No, the garden park was not a gift for her chronically absent mate. In fact, she was sure he’d be furious if he found out that she’d undertaken the project on her own.