Deep IsThe Night: Haunted Souls

by Denise Agnew

  * * * * *

  Clarissa drifted in a dream engulfed with heat and flames, her world tumbled into a mix of conflicting images and physical pain. With a jolt, strength returned. As awareness also came back, she heard a plaintive sob. Worried and bewildered, she took in what she felt and heard by degrees. After Jim had bitten her and she’d awakened in the crypt, she’d understood she did possess more physical ability and heightened senses then a mere mortal.

  This felt different.

  Sensual overload hit her and for a moment she couldn’t move, could scarcely breathe. Pain seared her neck on both sides but she couldn’t make a sound. She could hear water dripping somewhere, and the cold touched her but did not. Her skin, supersensitive, prickled with corporeal wakefulness. Warm, powerful arms held her as if she might break or dissolve. More than that, a man’s breathing rasped, his heart-breaking sobs searing deep into her. She couldn’t bear to hear him cry this way, to hurt so much.

  Her eyes popped open and she recognized Ronan’s wavy, tousled hair as he nestled against her and his tears dampened her skin.

  Ronan is crying? For me? Why?

  As her fingers slipped into his hair, she also clutched at his trembling shoulder to give him comfort.

  His head snapped up and she stared into his red-rimmed eyes, filled with a special misery reserved only for the damned.

  “Clarissa,” he whispered hoarsely.

  As she sat up her arm slipped around his shoulder and she sat on his lap. “Ronan, what happened? What’s wrong?”

  At first he didn’t answer her and his gaze reflected a profound joy mingled with desolation. He swallowed hard and as he explained, her heart jolted with shock.

  Before she could speak he continued. “I brought you here because it is a sacred place, a holy place.”

  Her own tears flowed, cleansing her eyes and her heart at the same time. Deep concern still filled his eyes.

  “Do you hate me?” he asked. “I couldn’t let you die that way. I had to…it had to be on my terms, so that you’d come back to me. I wanted you any way I could have you.” He pressed shaky kisses to her forehead, her cheeks and her lips. “I love you. I love you.”

  Sensing and seeing his complete misery, she knew deep in her now undead soul she wouldn’t want it any other way. “As long as we’re together, it doesn’t matter.”

  “I’ve destroyed you, broken you in pieces—”

  “No.” She put her finger over his lips. “You’ve given me an eternity with you. I’m complete.”

  “Not quite. Two more things must happen. One, you must take blood from me.” His eyes blazed, fire returning to them. “A new female vampire must mate. We must do it now.”

  “Yes.”

  As she kissed him her desire for life turned to an appetite for physical union. Vampire in her heart and body, she hungered the way he hungered, felt what he felt. His tongue rasped over hers and a hot, tight sensation seared between her legs requiring immediate and total satisfaction. He drew back from her and blood ruby stained his eyes, the passion riding high and fierce. With a single rip he tore her sweater off her body and her bra went flying. He dipped his head and captured one nipple in his mouth, sucking hard. She cried out as holy fire breached her body in one swell of ecstasy.

  They tasted each other and as their breathing turned hot and fast, Ronan whispered, “We are one always.”

  Nothing mattered but this driving need to reaffirm their love. Clarissa could tell, with her heightened sense of hearing, that no one was within miles of the church. They wouldn’t be interrupted.

  “Do it now,” he said. “Taste me.”

  She knew what he meant, and for a moment she hesitated. Then she realized the very idea of blood, of taking his blood within her, made her body ache with longing. Her stomach yearned for the fulfillment, her body needing what he could give her for nourishment. She realized her teeth had already grown longer, and in astonishment she hesitated.

  All worry lost, she reached for him, her teeth going to his neck. She lapped at his skin with her tongue and he shivered. With one sharp bite she fastened to his neck and he flinched.

  When she tried to pull back he held her head gently against his neck. “No, don’t stop. God, don’t stop.”

  Blood filled her mouth, and where she would have been revolted before, now the sensation, the joy it brought her and Ronan removed all doubt.

  Heat rolled through her body like a new sun rising, a deep throb filling her womb, her nipples tight and aching as she shivered and quaked against him in a new sexual ecstasy. Her loins filled with need to hold him, to feel that hard cock driven over and over inside her until she screamed. She drew her lips away from his neck, then licked instinctively at the wound to close it. She must have him now.

  She left his lap and helped him unfasten his pants. In seconds they were stripped naked and she straddled him. He held her at the waist, her wet, throbbing heat almost touching his erect cock.

  She gazed into his fiery eyes and said, “One always.”

  He lowered her onto his cock with one hard, deep thrust.

  She gasped, the sensation beyond description, the heat instantaneous. She whimpered.

  “Easy.” He groaned. “Oh, yes. Yes. Open to me. That’s it. Open to me.”

  With love and trust she relaxed her muscles, fitting her tightness around him.

  “That’s it,” he said softly. “That’s it.”

  They didn’t thrust against each other, the gloving of her body around his enough to start the final fire. She clasped his shoulders tightly and within a few minutes she couldn’t stand it anymore. She gyrated upon him and he thrust with tiny movements designed for pure sexual torture. Hanging on a treacherous cliff she rode out the delirious feeling of his cock rubbing firmly against that place high and deep inside her that only he could reach.

  “Oh, more.” She said as ecstasy rose. “More.”

  He held on to her waist and drew her up. He slammed upwards as he brought her down, giving the vanquishing thrust.

  Clarissa erupted and her scream echoed and entwined with his throaty roar as they found new life together.

  Epilogue

  Four days later

  The small party of friends looked cozy and happy as Clarissa watched them gathering in the living room of Erin’s home. The entire group, including Gilda and Tom, participated in a celebration of life and the salvation of Pine Forest.

  Sorley chatted with Ronan, his old self restored after a few days recovery from the effects of the ancient one’s tainted influence. Sorley sometimes looked at her with scared eyes, like she might blame him for what happened. She didn’t. Besides, she’d become like him, a creature of the night. They would share this through their immortal days.

  In the days since Halloween Pine Forest limped through recovery, the papers reporting the strange crime wave had subsided. People went through the day acting almost as if nothing untoward had happened, and Ronan explained this occurred wherever the ancient one had plundered. A sort of self-induced amnesia produced by the need for mortal denial of a hideous truth. Not only did Pine Forest forget the grisly details of the killings, no one except their little group remembered seeing the ancient one and the unbelievable incidents in the community center.

  The entire fire incident was reported as a freak accident caused by an electrical short. Blessedly, nobody but the ancient one lost their lives in the inferno.

  Earlier in the day, shaded from the depleting effects of the sun, their friends told them their plans.

  Erin and Lachlan would leave Pine Forest and do some traveling. First stop, Scotland. A wedding in the Highlands was planned for the spring.

  Micky would move to Denver with Jared, and a wedding would be celebrated in the fall in Denver.

  Gilda and Tom and their son also planned to leave Pine Forest, though they hadn’t decided where they would go yet.

  No one had seen or heard from Jim after that night, but Clarissa suspected he’d left in
shame and horror at what he’d done to her and Erin. She hoped wherever he’d gone he could learn to forgive himself and understand he’d played a part in saving Pine Forest that terrible Halloween night.

  She would never forget her days here in Pine Forest whether she stayed or left.

  Ronan smiled at her from across the room and she felt the inevitable stirring deep inside for mental and physical joining.

  Holding her hand over her stomach in a protective gesture, she crossed the room and settled onto the loveseat next to her man. She gave him a mysterious smile, even though her condition hadn’t been a secret for two days. On the night the ancient one was destroyed, she’d taken the second pregnancy test and discovered what she suspected. She was with child. Whether the first test missed the boat or their subsequent couplings had produced results, they would never know.

  Lachlan walked out of the kitchen with Erin, champagne in hand. They started filling glasses.

  Once everyone else had bubbly, Clarissa lifted her glass and said, “I have a toast to make. To a wonderful man who came into my life and changed everything. I will love you for eternity, Ronan Kieran.”

  A cheer went up and they clinked glasses. When they settled down, Ronan made his own toast. Clarissa’s heart turned over and started to thud like crazy with excitement when he got down on one knee in front of her.

  “To Clarissa, the woman I love. I could have done this in private, but I wanted to make it official in front of all my friends.” He took her hand and kissed the back and pure love shone in his eyes. “Will you marry me?”

  Choked with emotion she managed to say, “Yes, of course. Yes.”

  As they kissed, their friends clapped and cheered.

  Tears rolled down Clarissa’s cheeks and he brushed them away with his thumbs. “Can I talk to you in private a moment?”

  He led her back to their attic hideaway, making their way in the dark. When they reached the room and closed the door, he drew her into his arms and kissed her deeply.

  When he let her up for air, she asked, “Ronan do you think my special abilities on Halloween were because Jim bit me, or because I was pregnant?”

  His eyebrows quirked upward. “I forgot to tell you what the seer said when she called today. She believes the power came from both situations. Yusuf told me that the love of a woman and my willingness to sacrifice would be what saved us. I think the pregnancy also gave you power. When all of us combined forces with you, it was enough to defeat the ancient one.”

  She nodded and snuggled deeper into his arms. She gazed out the fan shaped window at the stars. Things were winding down. “Everyone who remembers what happened this month is going away.”

  “Perhaps that’s a good thing. All that matters to me is that you don’t regret what I had to do to keep you with me.”

  Hastening to reassure, she kissed him. “I have forever with you. I could never regret that.”

  He brushed his lips across hers in a scorching prelude of what would come later when the house quieted and their passion heated. “Would you like to honeymoon in Ireland? Visit my homeland and see where I was born?”

  She laughed with delight and he swung her around in his arms. After a few more torrid kisses, she said, “Ronan, do you think the darkest is gone? I don’t want to visit Pine Forest in a few years again to…to hunt…it.”

  Ronan knew what she meant and it concerned him, too. He shook his head. “I don’t think the darkest is ever gone. It exists in the world in many places. Here in Pine Forest it waits for the next time. It sleeps in the dark, lonely places, fragmented tonight by the power of true love.”

  The End

  About the author:

  Suspenseful, erotic, edgy, thrilling, romantic, adventurous. All these words are used to describe award-winning, best-selling novelist Denise A. Agnew’s novels. Romantic Times Magazine called her romantic suspense novels DANGEROUS INTENTIONS and TREACHEROUS WISHES “top-notch romantic suspense.” With paranormal, time travel, romantic comedy, contemporary, historical, erotica, and romantic suspense novels under her belt, she proves her gift for writing about a diverse range of subjects. (Writing tales that scare the reader is her ultimate thrill.)

  Denise’s inspiration for her novels comes from innumerable sources, but the fact she has lived in Colorado, Hawaii, and the United Kingdom has given her a lifetime of ideas. Her experiences with archaeology have crept into her work, as well as numerous travels throughout England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Denise currently lives in Arizona with her real life hero, her husband.

  Website: http://www.tilt.com/authors/deniseagnew.htm

  Email: danovelist@earthlink.net

  Denise welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at P.O. Box 787, Hudson, Ohio 44236-0787.

  Also by Denise A. Agnew:

  The Dare

  Deep is the Night: Dark Fire

  Deep is the Night: Night Watch

  Winter Warriors

  Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.

  www.ellorascave.com