“Why, have I got something on my face?” he teased her back, pecking at her neck and then rolling onto his back beside her.  It was too easy to pretend they weren't different at all, and that this stand-still in time could have been their every day encounter.  He wished it were.  Asher rested his head back and looked up at her from the grass with a sad smile.<br/><br/>He would steal her, if he could.<br/><br/>But, he thought sadly, she had her place, and he had his.  Her people needed her.  He would only bring her more trouble, and he already had.  It was his idea to search this side of the valley in the first place, and her people would still be living peacefully in their own boundaries if he'd never come looking for them to begin with.  Her dad would still be alive.  He deserved what he'd gotten.  He would accept that.  Maybe vampires had the fangs and the venom, but humans were the real monsters.  The evil which could be found in a man's heart was the worst kind.  Even Asher was guilty.<br/><br/>“You have to go back,” he said softly, breaking the quiet.