After Twilight

by Amanda Ashley

  She watched curiously as Falcon stared at the candles. The fingers of his right hand swirled slightly and the entire row of candles leaped to life. Sara laughed softly. “Magic. You really are magic, aren’t you?” Her beloved sorcerer, her dark angel of dreams.

  He turned to look at her, his black eyes drifting over her face. He moved then, unable to keep from touching her, his hands framing her face. “You are the one who is magic, Sara,” he said, his voice a whisper of seduction in the night. “Everything about you is pure magic.” Her courage, her compassion. Her sheer determination. Her unexpected laughter in the face of what she was up against. Monster without equal. And worse, Falcon was beginning to suspect that her enemy was one of the most feared of the vampires, a true ancient.

  “I’ve told you about me. Tell me about you, about how you can be as old as you are, how you came to write the diary.” More than anything else, she wanted the story of the diary. Her book. The words he had written for her, the words that had poured out of his soul into hers and filled her with love and longing and need. She wanted to forget reality and lean into him, taking possession of his perfect mouth.

  Sara needed to know how his words could have crossed the barrier of time to find her. Why had she been drawn into the darkness of those ancient tunnels? How had she known precisely where to find the hand-carved box? What was there about Sara Marten that drew creatures like him to her? What had drawn one of them to her family?

  “Sara.” He breathed her name into the room, a whisper of velvet, of temptation. The rain was soft on the rooftop, and his lifemate was only a scant few inches from him, tempting him with her lush curves and beautiful mouth and enormous violet eyes.

  Reluctantly he allowed his hands to fall away from her face. He forced his gaze from her mouth when he needed the feel of it again so desperately. “We are very close to the Carpathian Mountains. It is wild still, where we will go, but your plan to establish a house for the children will be best realized there. Few vampires dare to defy the Prince of our people on our own lands.” He wanted her to accept his words. To know he meant to be with her and help her with whatever she needed to make her happy. If she wanted a house filled with orphans, he would be at her side and he would love and protect the children with her.

  Sara took several steps backward. Afraid. Not so much of the man exuding danger and power, filling her home with his presence, filling her soul with peace and her mind with confusion. She was afraid of herself. Of her reaction to him. Afraid of her terrible aching need of him. He was offering her a life and hope. She had not envisioned either for herself. Not once in the last fifteen years. She pressed her body close to the wall, almost paralyzed with fear.

  Falcon remained motionless, recognizing she was fighting her own attraction to him, the fierce chemistry that existed between them. The call of their souls to one another. The beast in him was strong, a hideous thing he was struggling to control. He needed his anchor, his lifemate. He must, for both of their sakes, complete the ritual. She was a strong woman who needed to find her own way to him. He wanted to allow her that freedom, yet they had so little time. He knew the beast was growing stronger, and his new, overwhelming emotions only added to his burden of control. Sara smiled suddenly, an unexpected humor in her eyes. “We have this strange thing between us. I can’t explain it. I feel your struggle. You need to tell me something but you are very reluctant to do so. The funny thing about it is that there is no real expression on your face and I can’t read your body language, either. I just know there’s something important you aren’t telling me and you’re very worried about it. I’m not a shrinking violet. I believe in vampires, for lack of a better word to call such creatures. I don’t know what you are, but I believe you aren’t human. I haven’t made up my mind whether you are one of them; I’m afraid I’m blinded by some fantasy I’ve woven about you.”

  Falcon’s dark eyes went black with hunger. For a moment he could only stare at her, his desire so strong he couldn’t think clearly. It roared through him with the force of a freight train, shaking the foundations of his control.

  “I am very close to turning. The males of our race are predators. With the passing of the years, we lose all ability to feel, even to see in color. We have no emotions. We have only our honor and the memories of what we felt to hold us through the long centuries. Those of us who must hunt the vampire and bring him to justice are taking lives. That adds to the burden of our existence. Each kill spreads the darkness on our souls until we are consumed. I have existed for nearly two thousand years, and my time has long since past. I was making my way home to end my existence before I could become the very thing I have hunted so relentlessly.” He told her the truth starkly, without embellishment.

  Sara touched her mouth, her eyes never leaving his face. “You feel. You could never fake that kiss.” There was a wealth of awe in her voice.

  Falcon felt his body relax, the tension draining from him at her tone. “When we find a lifemate, she restores our ability to feel emotion. You are my lifemate, Sara. I feel everything. I see in color. My body needs yours, and my soul needs you desperately. You are my anchor, the one being, the only being who can keep the darkness in me leashed.”

  She had read his diary; the things he was telling her were not new concepts. She was light to his darkness. His other half. It had been a beautiful fantasy, a dream. Now she was facing the reality, and it was overwhelming. This man standing so vulnerable in front of her was a powerful predator, close to becoming the very thing he hunted.

  Sara believed him. She felt the darkness clinging to him. She felt the predator in him with unsheathed claws and waiting fangs. She had glimpsed the fires of hell in his eyes. Her violet eyes met his without flinching.

  “Well, Sara.” He said it very softly. “Are you going to save me?”

  The rain poured onto the roof of her home, the sound a sensual rhythm that beat through her body in time to the drumming of her heart. She couldn’t pull her gaze away from his. “Tell me how to save you, Falcon.” Because every word he’d spoken was truth. She felt it, knew it instinctively.

  “Without binding us with the ritual words, I am without hope. Once I speak them to my true lifemate, we are bound together for all eternity. It is much like the human marriage ceremony, yet more.” She knew the ancient words. He had said them to her, had whispered them to her a thousand times in the middle of the night. Beautiful words. I claim you as my lifemate. I belong to you. I offer my life for you. I give to you my protection, my allegiance, my heart, my soul, and my body. I take into my keeping the same that is yours. Your life, happiness, and welfare will be cherished and placed above my own for all time. You are my lifemate, bound to me for all eternity and always in my care.

  She had stumbled over the translation for a long time, wanting each word perfect in its beauty, with the exact meaning he had intended. The words that had gone from his heart to hers. “And we would be considered married?”

  “You are my lifemate; there will never be another. We would be bound, Sara, truly bound. We would need the touch of our minds, the coming together of our bodies often. I could not be without you, nor you without me.”

  She recognized that there was no compulsion in his voice. He was not trying to influence her, yet she felt the impact of his words deep inside her. Sara lifted her chin, trying to see into his soul. “Without binding us, you would really become like that monster who killed my family?”

  “I struggle with the darkness every moment of my existence,” he admitted softly. A jagged bolt of lightning lit the night sky and for one moment threw his face into harsh relief. She could see his struggle etched plainly there, a certain cruelty about his sensual mouth, the lines and planes and angles of his face, the black emptiness of his eyes. Then once again the darkness descended, muted by the glow of the candles. Once again he was beautiful, the exact face in her dreams. Her own dark angel. “I have no other choice but to end my life. That was my intention as I made my way to my homela
nd. I was already dead, but you breathed life back into my shattered soul. Now you are here, a miracle, standing in front of me, and I ask you again: Are you willing to save my life, my soul, Sara? Because once the words are said between us, there is no going back, they cannot be unsaid. You need to know that. I cannot unsay them. And I would not let you go. I know I am not that strong. Are you strong enough to share your life with me?”

  She wanted to say no, she didn’t know him, a stranger who came to her straight from taking a man’s blood. But she did know him. She knew his innermost thoughts. She had read every word of his diary. He was so alone, so completely, utterly alone, and she knew, more than most, what it was like to be alone. She could never walk away from him. He had been there for her all those long, empty nights. All those long, endless nights when the ghosts of her family had wailed for vengeance, for justice. He had been there with her. His words. His face.

  Sara put her hand on his arm, her fingers curling around his forearm. “You have to know I will not abandon the children. And there is my enemy. He will come. He always finds me. I never stay in one place too long.”

  “I am a hunter of the undead, Sara,” he reminded, but the words meant little to him. He was only aware of her touch, the scent of her, the way she was looking at him. Her consent. He was waiting. His entire being was waiting. Even the wind and rain seemed to hesitate. “Sara.” He said it softly, the aching need, the terrible hunger, evident in his voice.

  Closing her eyes, wanting the dream, she heard her own voice in the stillness of the room. “Yes.”

  Falcon felt a surge of elation. He drew her against him, buried his face in the softness of her neck. His body trembled from the sheer relief of her commitment to him. He could hardly believe the enormity of his find, of being united with his lifemate in the last days of his existence. He kissed her soft, trembling mouth, lifted his head to look into her eyes. “I claim you as my lifemate.” The words broke out of him, soared from his soul. “I belong to you. I offer my life for you. I give to you my protection, my allegiance, my heart, my soul, and my body. I take into my keeping the same that is yours. Your life, happiness, and welfare will be cherished and placed above my own for all time. You are my lifemate, bound to me for all eternity and always in my care.” He buried his face once more against her soft skin, breathed in her scent. Beneath his mouth her pulse beckoned, her life force calling to him, tempting. So very tempting.

  She felt the difference at once, a strange wrenching in her body. Her aching heart and soul, so empty before, were suddenly whole, complete. The feeling filled her with elation; it terrified her at the same time. It couldn’t be her imagination. Sheknew there was a difference.

  Before she could be afraid of the consequences of her commitment, Sara felt his lips, velvet soft, move over her skin. His touch drove out all thought, and she gave herself willingly into his keeping. His arms held her closer still to his heart, within the shelter of his body. His teeth scraped lightly, an erotic touch that sent a shiver down her spine. His tongue swirled lazily, a tiny point of flame she felt raging through her blood stream. Of their own volition, her arms reached up to cradle his head. She was no young girl afraid of her own sexuality; she was a grown woman who had waited long for her lover. She wanted the feel of his mouth and hands. She wanted everything he was willing to give her.

  His hands moved over her, pushing aside the thin barrier of her top to take in her skin. She was softer than anything he had ever imagined. He whispered a powerful command; his teeth sank deep, and whips of lightning lashed through his body to hers. White-hot heat. Blue fire. She was sweet and spicy, a taste of heaven. He wanted her, every inch of her. He needed to bury his body deep within her, to find his safe haven, his refuge. He had fed well, and it was a good thing, or he never would have found the will to curb his strength. It took every ounce of control to stop himself from indulging wildly. He took only enough for an exchange. He would be able to touch her mind, to reassure her. That would be absolutely necessary for their comfort and safety.

  He slashed his own chest, pressed her mouth to his ancient, powerful blood, and softly commanded her obedience. She moved sensuously against him, driving him closer and closer to the edge of his control. He wanted her, needed her, and the moment he knew she had taken enough for the exchange, he whispered his command to stop feeding. He closed the wound carefully and took possession of her mouth, sweeping his tongue along hers, dueling and dancing, so that, as she emerged from the enthrallment, there was only the strength of his arms, the heat of his body, and the seduction of his mouth.

  Without warning, the storm increased in intensity, battering at the windowsill. Bolts of lightning slammed into the ground with such force, the ground shook. Sara’s little cottage trembled, the walls shaking ominously. Thunder roared so that it filled the spaces in the house, a deafening sound. Sara tore herself out of his arms, clapped her hands over her ears, and stared in horror out into the fury of the squall. She gasped as another bolt of lightning sizzled across the sky in writhing ropes of energy. Thunder crashed directly overhead, wrenching a soft, frightened cry from her throat.

  Chapter Four

  Before another sound could escape from Sara, Falcon’s hand covered her mouth gently in warning. Sara didn’t need his caution; she already knew. Her enemy had found her once again. “You have to get out of here,” she hissed softly against his palm.

  Falcon bent his head so that his mouth was touching her ear. “I am a hunter of the undead, Sara. I do not run from them.” The taste of her was still in his mouth, in his mind. She was a part of him, inseparable now.

  She tipped her head back to stare up at him, wincing as the wind howled and shrieked with enough force to cause small tornadoes in the street and yard, throwing loose paper, leaves, and twigs into the air in a rush of anger. “Are you any good at killing these things?” She asked it with a hint of disbelief. There was a challenge in her voice. “I need to know the truth.”

  For the first time that he could remember, Falcon felt like smiling. It was unexpected in the midst of the vampire’s arrival, but the doubt in her voice made him want to laugh. “He is sending out his threat ahead of him. You have angered him. You have a built-in shield, a rare thing. He cannot find you when he scans, so he is looking for an awareness, a surge of fear that will tell him you know who he is. That is how he tracks you. I will send my answer to him so he is aware that you are under my protection.”

  “No!” She caught his arm with suddenly tense fingers. “This is it, our chance. If he doesn’t know about you, then he will come for me. We can lay a trap for him.”

  “I do not need to use you as bait.” His voice was very mild, but there was a hint of some unnamed emotion that made her shiver. Falcon was unfailingly gentle with her, his tone always soft and low, his touch tender. But there was something deep inside him that was terribly dangerous and very dark.

  Sara found herself shivering, but she tightened her hold on him, afraid that if he went into the raging storm he would be lost to her. “It’s the best way. He’ll come for me; he always comes for me.” Already her bond with Falcon was so strong, she couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to him. She must protect him from the terrible thing that had destroyed her family.

  “Not tonight. Tonight I’ll go after him.” Falcon put her from him gently. He could clearly see her fears and her fierce need to be sure that he was safe. She had no concept of what he was, of the thousands of battles he had fought with these very monsters: Carpathian males who had waited too long, or who had chosen to give up their souls for the fleeting momentary pleasure of the kill. His brethren.

  Sara caught his arm. “No, don’t go out there.” There was a catch in her voice. “I don’t want to be alone tonight. I know he’s here, and for the first time, I’m not alone.”

  He leaned down to capture her soft mouth with his. At once there was that melting sensation, the promise of silken heat and ecstasy he had never dared to dream about. “You
are worried about my safety and seek ways to keep me with you.” He said the words softly against her lips. “I dwell within you now; we are able to share thoughts with one another. This is my life, Sara; this is what I do. I have no choice but to go. I am a male Carpathian sent by the Prince of my people into the world to protect others from these creatures. I am a hunter. It is the only honor I have left.”

  There was that aching loneliness in his voice. She had been alone for fifteen years. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be alone for as long as he had been. Watching endless time go by, the changes in the world, without hope or refuge. Sentenced to destroying his own kind, perhaps even friends. Honor. That word had been used often in his diary. She saw the implacable resolve in him, the intensity that swirled dangerously close to the surface of his calm. Nothing she could say would stop him.

  Sara sighed softly and nodded. “I think there is much more in you to honor than just your abilities as a hunter, but I understand. There are things I must do that I don’t always want to, but I know I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do them.” She slipped her arms around his neck and pressed her body close to his. For one moment she was no longer alone in the world. He was solid and safe. “Don’t let him harm you. He’s managed to destroy everyone I care about.”

  Falcon held her, his arms cradling her body, every cell needing her. It was madness to hunt when he was so close to turning and the ritual had not been completed, but he had no choice. The wind beat at the window, the branches of trees sweeping against the house in a kind of fury. “I will be back soon, Sara,” he assured her softly.

  “Let me go with you,” she said suddenly. “I’ve faced him before.”

  Falcon smiled. His soul smiled. She was beautiful to him, nearly unbelievable. Ready to face the monster right beside him. He bent once more and found her mouth with his. A promise. He made it that. A promise of life and happiness. And then he was gone, wrenching open the door while he still could, while his honor was strong enough to overcome the needs of his body. He simply dissolved into mist, mixing with the rain for camouflage, and streamed through the night air, away from the shelter and temptation of her body and heart.