“I can’t deny that when I first saw you, that was the attraction. You look so much like her.” He reached out and traced my jaw, ran a fingertip along the outline of my lips. I gently bit the tip of his finger and was rewarded with a smile.
“But then I watched you, and learned about you, and you are nothing like her in spirit. She was quiet, deferential, acquiescent. The farthest thing from you imaginable.” He cocked an eyebrow at me, and I glared back at him, but he could tell it was in jest. I knew I was none of those things.
“Everything that you are is everything that I’ve ever wanted in a mate. Evangeline was perfect for the Gareth I used to be, a simple Scots lighthouse keeper, who scoffed at myths and legends, and openly laughed at garlic hung over doors and holy water carried in a charm on string around a neck. Even if a cure were possible, that Gareth is gone, in the grave along with Evangeline.”
I didn’t say anything, so he continued.
“You are my equal, my light in the darkness. You keep me guessing, despite the fact that I know you better than you know yourself, and I feel power in you unlike any I have ever come across. You are my soul, the part of me that’s been missing for close to two hundred years. You’re my heart that beats, the breath in my lungs.” He finished simply, and I brushed back the tears that were falling silently down my cheeks.
“Then why would you ever think about leaving me?” I barely heard my own voice, it was so low, but he heard it, loud and clear, because a look of pain slashed across his face.
“I would rather die a gruesome death than let any harm come to you and if that means leaving to protect you, I would in a minute. It would be the end of me, but there it is.”
Now I dropped the comforter and crawled into his lap, wrapping my legs around his waist. I cupped both hands on the back of his neck and looked into his eyes, focusing all my attention on him.
“If you ever try to leave me again, I will hunt you down and you will know what it means to die a gruesome death.” My words were ludicrous; and I meant them to be. I was not good with words, I was a scientist, but I tried to explain to him the depth of my feelings for him.
I got a smile out of him, which was what I was going for, but when he opened his mouth to speak, I put a finger to his lips. He shut his mouth obediently.
“You know my past; you know me. You know that I have spent a lifetime separating myself from people, so I wouldn’t get hurt again. My parents’ passing the way they did, I knew that if I ever” -I put a lot of emphasis on that word- “fell in love, it would be the worst for me. My parents had something together that I did not want to replicate. I didn’t want to love someone so much that their death would mean the end of me. Because that’s what would happen. I think that it’s ironic that I have given my heart, my soul, my very being, into the hands of a vampire; someone that, realistically, won’t ever die. So if you leave me, for any reason, you better realize that you will kill me as surely as if you drained me of every last drop of blood in my body. Do you understand?” I stared into his eyes, and he nodded slowly, his expression thoughtful.
“You don’t have it in you, you know. You’re too strong for that.”
I knew he was referring to my father’s suicide, but I didn’t mean that he would cause me to commit the same act.
“I know that, I love myself too much.” I tried for a bit of humor, but it fell flat in the serious atmosphere.
“If you left, I would find a vampire to do the deed that you won’t.”
He reared back as though I slapped him.
“Dammit, Anna, why must you always go back to this?” his voice was a growl that came from deep in his chest. I knew this bothered him, but he had to know what I was capable of. I was definitely not acquiescent.
“Because Gareth, I won’t live without you. I can’t live without you, and I might not be the type of person to take my own life, but I will find someone that can make me undead.”
“To what end?” he ground out and he set me away from him again, roughly this time.
“So that you could come back, and not feel that you would have to protect me by not being with me.”
He threw out a hand toward the fireplace and it blazed alight, flames leaping and jumping like my nerves. He moved to stand in front of it, his tall, trim frame outlined in flames, his hands braced on the mantle. He was glorious standing there, the golden light flickering on his skin, bringing to it a flush that was almost human.
“You tie my hands, Anna.”
I stood from the bed and padded over to him, feeling completely self-conscious, which was stupid, really. I pressed myself to his back, bringing my arms under his and wrapping them around his chest. It was a bad sign that he didn’t return the hug.
“Gareth, this is a stupid argument. We love each other; that much has been established, and we both agree that to be away from one another would effectively ruin the other person for the rest of their lives.” He made a chuffing noise at that.
“Ok, you win, you would be in the most pain the longest. Think about this though. I will age, I will get sick, I will die. Then where will you be? Just think it over. For me.” I finished on a whisper.
He nodded, but I didn’t know if he really would think about it; he was as stubborn as me. I could see this would be the major bone of contention in our life, but I had set my mind on a course that I wouldn’t be dissuaded from.
I had had enough of conflict for the evening. I moved from behind him to place my back to the fire, my arms wrapping around his neck. He was so much taller than I, and I went onto the tips of my toes just to place a kiss to the underside of his jaw. With a groan he picked me up, twining my legs around his waist, and strode back to the bed. Thus our arguments were ended for the evening.
Chapter Thirteen
I stretched my arms over my head, feeling supple and powerful. A devilish grin spread across my mouth, and to prove a point to myself, I stretched my hand out to the fire that had died in the night and concentrated, picturing a leap of flame, a ball of fire erupting from my palm.
I could feel power building in me, feel the rush of flames coming from somewhere deep in me, but it didn’t burn; the flush of heat was almost as good as everything that Gareth had done to me the previous twenty four hours. Almost.
With a cry of accomplishment, I watched as the flame leapt to life in the fireplace, and I laughed out loud, pumping a fist in the air in delight. I heard a deep chuckle and turned to see Gareth standing in the doorway, leaning nonchalantly against the jam. With another cry of delight I jumped into his arms. He caught me and swung me around, and all the arguing the night before was gone for the moment.
“My little witch.” He set me down gently, brushing hair off my forehead in the tender gesture that I loved.
“Not a witch yet. Apparently I’m a novice, one that can’t even veil her thoughts that well.”
I stepped away from him after one last kiss and moved over to the suitcase full of clothes that he had brought over for me while I was passed out. I sorted through it as he moved through the room, ending up on the bench at the end of the bed. I noticed as he passed in front of a window, a weak bar of sunlight dissected him for a brief moment. No burns erupted though. I snapped straight up, scientific curiosity overtaking the need for clean clothes.
“Sunscreen?” I asked, dropping a pair of jeans back into the suitcase and moving over to him. He nodded at me as I sat down, grabbing his arm that had been burnt yesterday. It had just been in sunlight again and nothing had happened to it. It was, in fact, completely healed.
I ran my fingertips along the rock hard musculature, and his skin was smooth, with no greasy feeling of lotion on it.
“If only my mother had this, it could’ve helped her so much.” I didn’t say that I wished that my mother had been a vampire, and I think he appreciated that I didn’t say it out loud. I thought of all the burns that could have been healed in a day, all the skin cancers that would never have erupted.
“I still f
eel the heat of the sun, but it’s not altogether unpleasant, almost the way it feels with a bad sun burn, but I can handle that.” He said, watching me study his arm.
“You feel real physical pain? I didn’t think you would.”
“Of course I do. I still have nerves, I still have brain function, synapses still fire. I just don’t have most of the other troublesome associations with human function. I don’t have to sleep, but I do have to ‘eat’, for want of a better word. I don’t ingest food or liquids so I don’t have to worry about getting rid of them either. My meals go straight into my bloodstream to nourish me. If you stab me though, I’ll feel it.”
I brought my legs under me and leaned forward; this was the interesting stuff.
“So, stake through the heart?” I asked eagerly, and he threw back his head and laughed, loudly. It was a masculine sound and it sent shivers down my arms and spine; it was so sexy.
“Ready to off me already?”
I realized how it sounded and how I said it, and was momentarily chagrined at my enthusiasm.
“No, I mean is that a myth or truth?” I asked, nudging his leg. I was a puncher; I might not have generally been a touchy-feely person, but I smacked shoulders and backs, things like that. I had learned quickly that if I didn’t want to break my hand that punching Gareth anywhere was out of the question.
“Well, it’s both, I suppose. The act itself wouldn’t kill me, because I would just regenerate, but it’s very incapacitating, or so I’m told. Now, if while I was down you cut my head off, then yes, it can kill me.”
I flinched at his words, spoken so casually, and had a hard time catching my breath. The thought of anyone trying to hurt him like that…it made me feel as though someone had run me through and cut off my head.
“Ok, change of subject. That is not something I want to think about. Um, what is the best part of being a vampire?” I asked to change the subject, and after casting an assessing glance at me, he paused to think about it.
“I don’t really know. I’ve been able to do things that I wouldn’t otherwise have done had I not been a vampire, but the limitations are annoying and the diet leaves much to be desired. The ability to read thoughts, if I had to choose something, or being able to move with the speed that I can.
“You have to understand, this wasn’t a life I chose. I was made against my will, and for the first years I fought against it. I still fight, that’s the reason I look for a cure. But I had to learn to embrace what I am, or I would’ve had died. And that’s what got me in this mess to begin with.”
“You almost died?” I whispered, and I thought about what he had shown me last night, the lighthouse, the storm, Evangeline. A picture was starting to revolve around the dark shapes that moved in the shadows behind Gareth in the memory. What I had taken to be survivors of a ship wreck might have been something else.
He nodded, but whether it was because he was admitting it, or agreeing with my thoughts, I couldn’t tell. Until the next words he spoke cleared it all up for me.
“I attempted to kill myself. I guess that I am a romantic at heart, and love deeply. I couldn’t go on without Evangeline, or so I thought. I know it must hurt you to know that I loved someone else, but know that I was young and foolishly besotted with a new wife-”
I put a hand on his arm, stopping him in mid-sentence.
“Gareth that was another time and place. You were a different person. This is what matters, not then.”
“I truly don’t deserve you.” He said, wonder in his voice, but I just motioned for him to go on. It was clear this was another part of his past he didn’t like to revisit, but I needed to know.
“I know you don’t, ha ha.”
He ignored that comment and went on, his tone detached, like that of story teller, not one that it had actually happened to.
“I left her on the beach, and without much thinking on my part, I ran up to the top of the lighthouse, climbed out onto the gallery, and launched myself into the air. I felt nothing, not fear, not sadness; I was already dead in my mind. I waited for the ground to rush up and steal my life, but instead I was caught in midair by something…” his voice trailed off, and he gazed down at the carpet, lost in memories. I waited patiently.
“The shapes you saw in my memory, they were not survivors.”
I knew it.
“They were vampires come to feed off the dying. A coven of them, about five strong, which is unusual. One of them spotted me taking my swan dive, and I guess I was more appealing than congealing, cold blood.” He spat out the last of the words, and tremors shook his frame, as though he was back in that cold night. I scooted closer and wrapped my arms around him awkwardly, idiotically trying to chafe warmth into cold skin that didn’t retain heat. He didn’t have to speak anymore, I could picture the rest vividly enough. Then I realized that I really could picture it. It was in my mind, but Gareth hadn’t put it there. I was reading his mind, seeing his thoughts!
I saw the vampire, darkly handsome, grab Gareth’s chin in mid-flight and push his head back, exposing the jugular vein that beat there. I watched as the ivory fangs punctured the delicate skin and I winced mentally at Gareth’s scream of pain.
“Stupid mortal, trying to kill yourself.” The vampire spoke against Gareth’s neck, his blood bright crimson against the alabaster smoothness of the vampire’s mouth. I looked on in horror as they alighted on the sand, the vampire still drinking from Gareth, then in a smooth motion the creature cut himself on the wrist, at the Bracelets of Fortune, and held the bleeding appendage to Gareth’s open mouth.
I snapped back to the present, and looked at him, horror and awe on my face.
“Did you do that?” I asked, although I knew the answer already. He slowly shook his head.
“No, you did it all by yourself. You read my thoughts.”
“That’s just like me, I couldn’t have picked a happier memory to read for the first time.” I was a little sick to my stomach and my head was swimming. I moved on the bench so that I could put my head between my knees. I stared at the plaid flannel of my pajamas while I waited for my head to clear. He placed a cold hand on my shoulder, his fingers rubbing my skin under the strap of my tank top. He was trying to comfort me, and it should’ve been the other way around.
“How can I read your thoughts? I haven’t even been practicing that. I can barely contain my own.” I sat up, my hair falling over his hand and arm and reminding me uncomfortably of Evangeline. I reached behind me and put it up, twisting it up in a knot.
He brushed a stray strand over my shoulder and hooked his finger under my chin.
“We’re bound together. I am you, and you are me, now. You’ll be able to link with my thoughts as easily as I do yours, I suspect.”
Instead of disliking that thought, it made me curl my toes in pleasure. I didn’t mind him inside my head, and I knew I could block him if I didn’t want him to see what I was thinking, but the thought of knowing what was going on in that enigmatic mind was an aphrodisiac.
He read my thoughts too easily.
“We have to go to work. You’ve missed three whole days, and as your employer, I have to say that doesn’t impress me.” He stood, his face stern but laughter in his voice. His eyes when they caressed me were no longer hauntingly sad.
“Then I quit. Just kidding!” I held up my hands as he came at me in mock anger, and I shrieked with laughter as he picked me up along with my suitcase and carried me over his shoulder into the bathroom.
Just to show that even matches made in heaven had problems, an hour later found me pouting in the passenger seat of Gareth’s Rover, not speaking to him. He drove confidently, as any supernatural creature with preternatural reflexes and strength would drive, one arm draped casually over the wheel, the other draped over the gear shift. I glared at him out of the corner of my eye, stewing in my own silence. He wasn’t mad; he had gotten his way, damn vampire.
We had gotten ready for work, almost like an old married couple shari
ng a bathroom for many years. The new connection between us meant that we were completely tuned into the other, and I knew when he was going to go left and he knew when I was going to go right. For the most part, we stayed out of each other’s heads, out of respect. The rest was just as if he was an extension of me, like an appendage that was independent from my body, but still a part of me.
I got out of the shower and I finished getting ready. We barely spoke, not really having to, and we headed downstairs.
I marveled at the house. The bedroom should have tipped me off to what the rest of the place should have looked like, but I was still shocked.
We came down a wide staircase that led down to the entryway. The house was very Old New England, with wide walnut floors polished to a mirror sheen, and the furnishings were a collection that any antique dealer would have wept over. The thought surprised me that Gareth had probably purchased most of this when it was not considered antique.
A parlor was off the staircase to the right, and formal dining room to the left and a long hallway that we followed led to a big, beautiful kitchen and a great room, with raftered ceilings. The back wall of the house was a bank of windows, and I could see a lake and…
“Are those stables?”
“Yes. You sound surprised.” He went around the big wood and marble island and reached under the counter.
I shrugged, as if it was obvious why I would be surprised, and turned my back to him, staring out at the scenery. The day was overcast, but not dark. The windows must be tinted from the outside, blocking the dangerous UV/UVB rays, because Gareth didn’t seem concerned that weak sunlight was pouring into the house.
I turned back to face him just as his hand disappeared under the counter again.
I eyed the kitchen, speculation in my eyes. It was a kitchen any chef in the world would kill for, with a Wolf range and twin Subzero refrigerators. About as useless in a house that a vampire owned as a cat with a driver’s license.
Eternity Page 15
