By Sun and Candlelight (5 page)

"A very, very long time." Dr.
Casmerek bowed. "Unlike you, Porphrygia, I am a cyborg. I am very
happy to meet Matthias's bondmate."

"He's supervising my daylight drug
treatment."

"And I have asked permission to talk
to you both about the effects of bonding. The psychic connection
between you is not a feedback loop," he added to Doc. "My apologies
for suggesting it might be."

Zoe vaguely remembered Dr.
Casmerek's comments from eavesdropping on Doc's memories. "We knew
it was a bond," she said. "Your apology is accepted."

"Thanks, Zoe," Doc said. "Besides,
if you had his head chopped off, he'd just keep
talking."

"My head is beeping and warning me
I'm needed elsewhere. Are you sure I don't want the implants out,
Matthias?" Places to go, things to do, people to talk to. She hated
it.

"What you want, need at this point,
is to be alone with your bondmate," Dr. Casmerek said. "It is best
for a bonding pair to spend some time in seclusion. You two haven't
had that chance. You've been rescuing people, chasing down bad
guys, attending patients and working for the Empire. You are under
too much stress from not being together. Admirable as your hard
work might be, you need two weeks alone."

"How I would love that," she and Doc
said together.

"It isn't a suggestion," Casmerek
said. "It is a prescription - from the Empire's leading medical
expert of suprahuman lifeforms."

Zoe loved hearing all she wanted
couched in formal terms. The Emperor liked that sort of
talk.

She looked at Doc. "We get to have a
honeymoon?"

"We sure do, sweetheart," Doc said.
"But first I want to dance with you in your sexy blue dress
tonight."

By Sun and Candlelight is a short
sequel to the Vampire Primes (Vampire Bookclub) novel, DARK
STRANGER. DARK STRANGER is available as an ebook and as a mass
market paperback.

Books in the Vampire Primes
series.

I BURN FOR YOU

I THIRST FOR YOU

I HUNGER FOR YOU

MASTER OF DARKNESS

PRIMAL HEAT

PRIMAL DESIRES

PRIMAL NEEDS

DARK STRANGER

PRIMAL INSTINCTS

PRIMAL CALL - available in ebook
format

PRIMAL CRAVINGS - available in ebook
format

BY SUN AND CANDELIGHT - available in
ebook format

Upcoming exclusively in ebook format
Vampire Primes books:

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT, YOU'RE
GROUNDED

FIREBIRD

DON'T BLINK

Send
an email to join Susan Sizemore's mailing list for updates on all
her books to
[email protected]

"By Sun and Candlelight" was
inspired by this poem. It is the most pure expressions of love I
have ever read.

How Do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee? Let me count
the ways.

I love thee to the depth and
breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling
out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal
Grace.

I love thee to the level of every
day's

Most quiet need, by sun and
candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive
for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn
from Praise.

I love with a passion put to
use

In my old griefs, and with my
childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed
to lose

With my lost saints, -- I love
thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! --
and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after
death.

Elizabeth Barrett
Browning