Midnight Kiss

by Nancy Gideon

  “You are a fool, Gerardo.”

  He laughed at her. “Ah, and it is that sweet disposition that will win Gino over when he comes. After all, why would he prefer this fragile mortal being to a goddess such as you?” He circled behind Arabella and dropped down so his arms draped casually about her. He nudged her cheek with his own as he looked up at the blond fury with a taunting grin. “Why would he want something so fresh and warm, when he could have a lifeless eternity in your arms?”

  “Take her, if you want her, but leave enough life in her to draw Gino here to us.”

  Arabella caught her breath up in a fearful gasp as the vampire’s lips stroked down her neck. He was going to kill her; she knew it, but she refused to plead for a nonexistent mercy. She could hear the hunger in his quiet moan as he bent over her like a praying mantis, graceful and deadly. Then, abruptly, he stood and sauntered away from her.

  “Bianca, I grow impatient with this. Let Gino alone. Let him have his bella moglie and let them make one another unhappy. Let him play the mooning swain, if it amuses him, but we both know the attraction will age and he will not.”

  Arabella followed his lithe figure with disbelieving eyes. Had he a heart, after all? Was he going to let them go? She couldn’t pretend to understand the workings of Gerardo Pasquale’s three-centuries-old mind, but she’d never expected to find compassion there.

  “Come,” he coaxed his companion with a sudden gaiety. His pale features lit with a certain animation, and Arabella could see what a magnetic man he must have been in life. “Let us enjoy the night. Let us leave this cursed damp place and seek the warm seas of my homeland. Here the mortals taste of wet overcoat. I would feast off ones who were ripe from the sun. Forget Gino as he has forgotten us.”

  “I forget nothing! And I, too, grow impatient.”

  Bianca seized Arabella by the throat, her long fingers, obscenely hot with stolen blood, choking off a cry of fright. She was jerked up to face the seething blonde, those black eyes boring into her mind like a piercing fever.

  “Call him now. Call him!”

  “No.” It was a hoarse whisper of defiance.

  But the dark eyes intruded, seeping in to numb her will, and even as Arabella fought to clench her teeth and still her throat, she heard herself sending a mental plea.

  Louis!

  I am here.

  And her eyes rolled frantically toward him as he separated from shadow. She could see thin weals upon his lean face and neck as if furrows had been torn in the skin but were nearly healed. And though his coat and shirt were ripped and stained with blood, he showed no sign of injury as he came forward in his strong stride to make a cold announcement.

  “I’ve come for my wife.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “AND I’VE COME for you, just as you knew I would,” purred Bianca.

  Louis’s gaze slid over Arabella, assessing her state, pausing at the bruise on her face and darkening with a lethal fury. Then he glanced coldly toward Gerardo, measuring the distance between them before looking back to the lovely demon. “As I’ve told you, a waste of time.”

  “I have nothing but time, Gino. May I call you Gino? It brings back such wonderful memories.”

  “To you, maybe. Call me what you like as you say arrivederci.”

  “Goodbye? There is no such thing as goodbye to our kind.”

  Bianca shifted so she was standing behind Arabella. Her long white hands were playing through Bella’s wavy dark hair, arranging it up off her neck, twisting it into various rolls, almost as if they were female friends before a vanity mirror. Arabella sat still as stone, her eyes on her husband, her expression carefully masked.

  “Gerardo, and I want you back with us. Keep this woman, if you like, but be one with us again.” Her hands stroked Arabella’s throat. “In fact, I would enjoy the company of another woman after all these years with only Gerard’s arrogance to keep me amused. Shall I make her one of us?”

  A laugh from Gerardo broke the moment of tension. “Bianca, think of it. Another beautiful creature to steal away your light. Would you create your own rival? Now, that might be amusing.”

  She shot him a venomous look, but considered his words. “Ah, but you know me well. No, I would not share either of you with another. I must kill her.” And her fingers clenched in the glossy hair to wrench Arabella’s head to one side, causing her to cry out in pain and terror.

  “No!”

  Louis took one stride forward and found Gerardo blocking his way. His friend’s hands settled firm and strong upon his shoulders, holding him in restraint.

  “It is better this way, Gino, il mio amico. You can find no happiness with her. You cannot go back. We’ve closed that door. Your hope is dead, just as the doctor is dead.”

  Louis looked past him to Arabella and saw understanding blank her features with pain.

  Her small voice rent his anguished heart. “Is that true, Louis? Is my father dead? Have they killed him?”

  His stoic silence was her answer.

  With three such powerful beings in one room, none expected a violent display from the lone mortal woman. Arabella wrenched out of Bianca’s grasp, surging up to plant her closed fist in the other woman’s face as hard as she could. Bianca stumbled back, not hurt, but stunned enough by the attack to let Arabella escape her. Louis shoved Gerardo aside so he could take up his wife in his arms. Hers went tight about his neck and she clung to him, trembling with loss and rage.

  “I’m sorry, Bella. I’m sorry. I never meant for such things to happen,” he whispered roughly into the tangle of her hair. His hard gaze leveled on the other two to keep them at bay. His expression said in no uncertain terms that he would not be as easy to bully as this fragile human, and they were understandably cautious.

  She drew back her head to regard him. Her touch moved in gentle absolution against his cheek. “It’s not your fault, Louis. And I’m sorry, too. You may have lost your chance to be mortal, but don’t give up your humanity to become like them. I love you, Louis.”

  And she kissed him, hard and firm on the mouth, and he returned it with like passion while never taking his eyes off his centuries-old companions. He didn’t trust them to remain patient for the emotional reunion. Though Bianca made no challenging move, her glare sparked with jealous displeasure. Finally, he murmured into his love’s fervid kisses, “Bella, release me. We can finish this later. Now, I have business to attend.” He took her by the forearms and moved her safely behind him. Then, to the others, he said again, “I’ve come to take my wife home.”

  “Take her,” Gerardo drawled. “If you can.”

  And he was smiling as his hand flashed out, catching Louis by the back of the head, his fingers compressing until his friend’s knees buckled.

  “You are weak, Gino, no match for me. Spare yourself the punishment. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  And contrarily, his grip strengthened.

  “Gerardo,” Bianca shrilled. “I will not allow this. You will not harm him!”

  Pale eyes slashed toward the lovely vampiress. Gerardo’s voice was an icy hiss. “Shut up! This has nothing to do with you. You have no power over me. This is between Gino and me, as it should have been long ago. You will not interfere. I am not your fool!”

  Bianca stood stiff and still, her eyes glittering and as inanimate as Louis’s black stone, but amazingly enough, she faded back and was silent.

  Gerardo grinned with malignant delight as he turned back to his friend. “Just you and me, il mio amico, mio fratello. And il signora bella. Like the old days, Gino, will you share with me? I believe I am in love. Will you let me make her la mia ragazza? My sweetheart? It would only be fair, after all. It would only be right. What do you say, Gino? Shall we be friends again?”

  Louis grabbed his wrist and gave it a savage twist. At the same
time, his other elbow came up to strike a rattling blow full in the face. Freed as Gerardo stumbled back, Louis retreated as well, warily shielding Arabella behind him.

  Gerardo touched his fingertips to the split in his lower lip, examining the blood then sucking it off with obvious relish. “Just a taste, so I can anticipate feasting upon your bride. I am going to kill you, Gino, and then I will make her my own. That would be justice, no?”

  “No.”

  Gerardo was circling in a jaunty stride, and Louis revolved with him, keeping himself between the other vampire and his mortal wife, keeping careful tabs upon Bianca’s whereabouts. Then Gerardo stopped and opened his arms wide.

  “Gino, why do you fight? You cannot win. I am faster. I am stronger. Do not make me break your bones. Settle the debt, my friend, and we can go our own ways. Let me take her, and I will forgive you. Bianca, she is nothing. She need not stand between us.” But in spite of his bold words, he glanced over his shoulder to where the icy blonde stood, her features cold and strangely remote, to see if she would intrude. She made no move.

  “I owe you nothing, Gerardo. What happened you brought upon yourself. I won’t pay for it any longer.”

  “Then you’ll suffer for it.”

  And he struck with an unexpected swiftness, catching Louis by the throat and hurling him a good twenty feet, as if he’d been nothing more than a child. Louis paused in mid-air, braking his flight without ever touching ground. Then, he charged Gerardo, fueled by a killing fury and a centuries-old frustration. Gerardo met his head-on rush with a fierce anticipating smile.

  They came together with a crash of unnatural force. Snarling, they both went down, locked in immortal combat. Any of the blows they struck would have shattered the human frame, but because they could not truly damage one another, the pain was temporary and their struggle all the more intense and ferocious.

  But Gerardo was faster and stronger, and many of the blows he dealt went unseen by Louis until the brunt of them shuddered through him. His face was bleeding and his body ached from abuse, but anger and hatred and love pushed him to continue even when it grew obvious to both of them that his power would not sustain him. Gerardo had him by the collar and the trouser band and smashed him headfirst into the stone wall.

  “Time to say buona notte, il mio amico.”

  Through the mist of pain, Louis heard Arabella’s shouts and fierce curses as she threw herself upon Gerardo’s back in a futile attempt at distraction. He collapsed on the dirty floor, dazed and helpless, as Gerardo turned to confront his human attacker.

  Arabella shrieked in alarm as cool fingers clamped down on the back of her neck, dragging her up tight to Gerardo’s chest. Pinning her to him, his head bent, she felt the sudden sting of his teeth, followed by the sensation of weightlessness as he drew deeply from her. Her hands fluttered and finally clung to the folds of fabric at either of his shoulders. She heard Louis’s far-off roar of rage and her own frail moan, but neither acted upon Gerardo’s conscience.

  But something did, because he pulled back to regard her with astonishment.

  “Mi scusi. I did not know.”

  Arabella staggered when he released her, faint and stunned by his unexpected charity. His hands cupped momentarily beneath her elbows to provide support and his pale eyes held hers, delving deep.

  Such a strong beat for a heart so small.

  She heard his voice with a seducing clarity within the privacy of her mind. He’d taken enough of her blood to forge that mental link and to realize something she had not known herself.

  It is Gino’s? But of course it is. And Gerardo smiled briefly, a joyous expression that was as strangely sweet as it was beautiful. He should take better care of his first to be born and its mother.

  Arabella gasped as she took his meaning. A child! She was carrying Louis’s child!

  And as Gerardo turned toward his fallen friend to remark upon his discovery, Louis surged up in his wife’s defense. Gerardo easily intercepted the failing punch and with a hard twist broke his arm. His other hand forked beneath Louis’s chin, crushing about his windpipe, stopping his breath, stilling his fight.

  “Gino, give up. I do this out of love for you.” And suddenly, his appearance softened with a poignant plea for understanding. “Let me put our struggle to a final rest, my friend.”

  Not sure he could trust what he saw in the other’s pale eyes, that fragile offer of friendship he’d yearned for over the centuries, Louis pulled back, panting hard and uncertain.

  “Gino, time to end this.”

  But even as he reached out to Louis, Gerardo was driven abruptly forward from the dreadful impact of a steel bar punching through his back and out his chest. His look was one of supreme surprise as his legs crumpled and he fell into Louis’s arms while Bianca stood behind him, smiling grimly.

  “You are a fool, Gerardo,” she claimed coldly. “I told you I would not let you harm him.”

  Louis went down to his knees beneath the sagging weight of his friend. Gerardo clutched at him, his head heavy upon his shoulder, his breath rasping noisily as he struggled to speak.

  “Gino... care for them. How I envy you. Forgive... forgive me as I forgive you.”

  Holding him, weeping over him, Louis whispered, “I forgive you, mio fratello, mio amico.” And closing his eyes, Louis felt Gerardo give a massive sigh and go still against him. He could hear Arabella sobbing softly close by.

  After a long moment, Louis’s eyes opened again and he looked up slowly, his gaze a cold, brilliant fire. “You,” he said to Bianca. “You will pay for this.”

  Bianca’s momentary alarm eased to a sneering look of contemptuous superiority. “And how do you mean to see to that miracle, Gino? You, who could not best Gerard, think you can defeat me?” She laughed, then gasped as Louis thrust out his palm and a powerful pressure struck her in the chest, flinging her back across the room when he had yet to touch her. She was gulping for air as Louis eased his fallen friend gently to the floor and stood.

  “Where did you learn such a thing?” she wheezed. Then she gave a soft moan. “Eduard. Mon Dieu! Eduard taught you.” And for a moment, she looked mortally afraid. With lightning speed, she streaked across the floor, snatching up Arabella and wrapping her forearm about the other woman’s neck. “Stand where you are or I will snap her spine.”

  “Let her go, Bianca. It’s over.”

  “No,” she snarled, controlling Arabella’s struggles. “I will not lose you, Gino. I have loved you for centuries, and you have denied me the pleasure of having you. Come with me, hunt with me, live with me as my companion through the ages, or she will die right now.”

  Louis stood panting, pensive, rubbing at his arm as bone knit and flesh healed.

  “No, Louis, you mustn’t—”

  But Bianca choked off any further words. “You and me, Gino. Remember? Remember how it was? So beautiful. So powerful. You and me. No worlds would go unconquered before us. Come with me.” She moistened her lips. “And this time, I will be your slave.”

  “No.”

  Her features mottled with disbelief and rage. She screamed at him. “You are mine! I made you! I will have you! Forever!”

  Again, the calm and final, “No.”

  “Then she dies!”

  Arabella drew a quick breath and because her vocal cords were too compressed for speech, she sent a mental message.

  I love you, Louis.

  “Bianca, harm her and I will destroy you.”

  She laughed. “How? You may have some of Eduard’s tricks, but I am more powerful.”

  “But I have one power you lack, one that will see you in ashes.” And he looked toward the bank of cloudy windows running along one wall. “Can you smell the dawn? How far have you to go to find safety?”

  Bianca tore her gaze away from the bright
ening sky with a look of panic. “You will burn, too!”

  “Shall we wait and see? Let her go and seek your coffin, or be reduced to... fireplace soot.”

  She was breathing in quick snatches. Her fingers spasmed around Arabella’s neck. “All right, Gino. I must flee. But I will not let you win all. She comes with me, and tomorrow night, she will rise up as my slave.”

  “The devil, you say!” Uttering that oath, Arabella scooped the mended chain of her father’s gift from out of her bodice and pressed the silver cross to the back of Bianca’s hand. After a sudden pungent scorch and a shrill cry. Arabella stumbled forward as Bianca released her, shrieking with a howling fury.

  Clutching her hand and seething with a demented pain, the vampiress fixed the two of them with a prophetic gaze. “Have one another then, but my time will come. Time will always be in my favor. We will meet again. I will have you, Gino—in this lifetime or the next.” Then she whirled with a preternatural speed and seemed to vanish.

  As Arabella surged into her husband’s arms, the first pink of dawn warmed the grimy panes of glass behind them.

  “Are you all right, my love?”

  “Yes. Oh, Louis, hold me.”

  And he did, for a long, intense moment, breathing in the mortal sweetness of her, filling up with the eternal love of her. Until distracted by her soft gasp.

  “Gerardo—”

  Louis turned to follow her stare and saw the steel bar where it lay on the floor. There was no trace of Gerardo Pasquale. Not even ash.

  Master! Miss Arabella!

  “Takeo, in here!”

  The boy burst into the warehouse at a run, not pausing until his arms were wrapped tight about the both of them. Then he whisked off his cloak and flung it over Louis.