As Midnight Loves the Moon by Beth D. Carter Page A

the realm that was created when
light and dark formed.”
    “Heaven and
hell?”
    He nodded. “That’s one name for it.
And right between them was the tiny crack that a mixture of angels and demons
spilled into. Good and bad turned into hybrids and the Shade was where most of
us were born.”
    She glanced back at Wayde quickly
before refocusing her attention on Alex. “So what are you?”
    “I am Fae ,”
he announced.
    “I thought you were,” Wayde said
smugly. “Right from the first time I smelled you.”
    “I always thought they were little,
with wings, and had funny names like Tinkerbell ,” she
said.
    “That’s fairies,” Alex explained
dryly. “ Fae are different.”
    “ Fae are
warriors, which explains why he’s a cop,” Wayde added, smiling. “Damn. I got
lucky.”
    Alex raised an eyebrow.
    “I meant,” he added, “you’re wise, and fair and have a very long life.”
    “How old are you?” Daphne asked,
pointing back and forth. “Both of you.”
    “Age is relative,” Wayde replied. “I
was born in the Shade and came to earth when Sumer in Mesopotamia was thriving. I was curious about humans.”
    She blinked and then looked toward
Alex questioningly.
    “About four thousand years ago,” he
said and her mouth dropped open. “I’m not as old as that. I’ve only been around
a couple hundred years.”
    “Are you both immortal?”
    “No,” Wayde said. “Nothing is
immortal. We vampires age very slowly and have healing properties that help us regenerate
and Fae , I believe, live a couple thousand years. Right?”
    “Yes.”
    She bit her lip. “Humans must seem
very insignificant compared to living as long as that, seeing what you’ve seen.
I’m only twenty-three, but I probably won’t see my next birthday.”
    “Don’t say that,” Wayde admonished.
“And humans are remarkable. The Shade don’t have near
the compassion and the love that you feel. Perhaps it’s because you live such a
short amount of time, but everything is more vibrant. More
alive. I’ve been searching my whole life to find someone that makes me
feel like you do.”
    “Come on,” she scoffed. “Four
thousand years and you’ve never met one person?”
    “No, I didn’t say that,” he
corrected. “Of course, I’ve had lovers. I’m a vampire. Sex and bloodlust go
hand in hand. But that’s different from love. The night I found you, Daphne, I
had gotten a whiff of your scent and I followed the trail. I’ve never done that
before. It was the same with Alex, and before I knew what I was doing, I began
leaking mating pheromones like crazy.”
    “I don’t know what that means,” she
said.
    “It’s like catnip to a cat,” Alex
told her. “Annoying as shit.”
    “But irreversible,” Wayde said,
frowning. “It links our lives and our life spans together.”
    “But…I’m dying. What happens to
both of you if I die?”
    “You’re not going to die,” Alex
stated and folded his arms.
    “He’s right,” Wayde said and took a
deep breath. “We have two options, Daphne. The Shade have a hospital in Los Angeles called Dove Hollow. It was created for the human companions of the Shade, ones
that grew into old age or ones that were hurt by our kinds and obviously
couldn’t be treated in a regular hospital. I want to take you there.”
    “Perhaps there’s a magical solution
for you,” Alex added.
    “Magic? Like
Harry Potter?”
    Wayde sighed. “Stories of wands run
amuck. No, not like Harry Potter, I’m sorry to say, although I did enjoy the
books. Magic has a few conditions. Only for the living and
only in the now.”
    “Meaning,” Alex translated. “You
can’t resurrect the dead and you can’t time travel.”
    “I don’t know if your heart is
technically in the realm of the first condition since it was a congenital
problem,” Wayde admitted. “If natural human ailments were as easy to fix there
wouldn’t be a need for Dove Hollow.”
    Daphne nodded. “Okay. What’s the
second