"You can't begin to know—"
"She can, that's why you wanted her, Cartier."
"Adrian,” the vampire purred. “I wondered how long it would take you to get here."
It wasn't the reaction he'd been anticipating. Faith's rapt gaze was fixed on Cartier, and Adrian felt her anguish like a physical presence in the hushed studio.
"Take her, Adrian,” Cartier offered. “I have no desire to acquire slavering idiots, regardless of how tempting they may have briefly been."
Faith stumbled to her feet, staggering back in her effort to place distance between them as she gaped in humiliated outrage.
"You said you wanted me,” she sputtered, unable to stop the words as much as she wanted to. “You said we'd be together."
Cartier ignored her, refused to even glance in her direction as she tossed aside the last shreds of her dignity. The genuine pain he felt at her anguish was all the reminder required to reaffirm his resolve. In that moment he hated her, because he did desire her.
"Get her out of here, Adrian, before I tear out her throat just to be free of her whining."
Adrian recognized the lie in his master's eyes, and it puzzled him. Cartier wanted her. Faith had offered herself to the vampire, and he had just driven her away. He heard her sobs begin, softly at first, then more deeply as the scope of her turmoil expanded. He went to her and pulled her into his arms.
Adrian kept his hold firm as he led her to the door. He risked a single look back at Cartier. The master vampire stared at them, his expression unreadable. Blackthorne knew in that instant what had caused the sudden change of heart. Faith made Cartier vulnerable, touched the humanity that lay within his ancient heart and weakened his contemptuous view of mortal life. She'd been the reason for a loss of control Cartier would not permit a second time.
"Time is infinite, Adrian. I can wait. She will come to me when I do want her, dear boy."
Without a word, Adrian took her from the radio station studio room.
* * * *
Cartier picked up the dark queen that had been cloaked in the heavy shadow of the sound board. His thumb caressed the smooth, carved ebony before his fist closed over the piece and hid her from his view. After several seconds, Cartier dropped the figure into his pocket, and flicked a switch on the console. He leaned toward the microphone, and spoke her name ... Promised her eternity...
* * * *
Faith watched the waves crash down on the deserted beach. It was just after sunset, and a slight chill permeated the air after the day's heat. She'd been home almost a week, but her dreams were haunted by Montreal and all that had happened there. She was safe, and her injury was healing nicely, yet something inside her had changed irrevocably. Her body ached with a need she couldn't define, and she wasn't able to escape the longing even in sleep.
She climbed to her feet and strolled the sandy stretch of beach that would take her back to her home. The breeze wrapped her in a blanket of loneliness. The yearning that dominated her world so often of late dragged her into despair again. A face hovered on the fringes of her mind, but remained elusive. She knew if she could recall the image that wanted to surface, she would no longer have to search for an end to her pain. She'd find it in his eyes.
If only she could remember...
* * * *
Cartier twirled the glass between his fingers and watched Julianna as she tried to feign indifference to his presence. She'd been nervous of him since she'd helped Adrian. She had no way of knowing that he was grateful now for her intervention. It had given him the space of time he needed to clear his thoughts.
So why was he so preoccupied with the memory of a dark haired, sad-eyed mortal who had all but begged for death at his hands? He laughed bitterly. In spite of her youth, he knew Faith Prentice would have understood him as few others had. For that knowledge, he had driven her from him, because Adrian would have found a way to poison her devotion. Blackthorne had claimed her in friendship, and Cartier knew Adrian would never let go of that loyalty.
One day, very soon, Adrian would have to finally learn the price of his repeated betrayals of Cartier.
Julianna stirred restlessly, her eyes wary as she felt the shifts of his mood. He drained the glass and set it carefully on the bar-top. A cool smile crossed his features, and she took a step toward him. Cartier turned his back to her and left the club without a word.
* * * *
Adrian sat in front of the huge screen and filled his mind with the image of the forbidden sunrise. It had been an extremely long night. The deaths Cartier's rage had caused were officially filed as “unsolved". Cohen's anger at that necessity had been vocal and stinging.
He thought about Faith, and the repression of her memory. It had taken both his influence and Julianna's to take Cartier's image from her mind, and he still wasn't sure they'd been completely successful. She'd formed a deep bond with their master. The honesty of her caring for Cartier had come as something of a surprise to them. It had also made their task all the more difficult to accomplish.
Cartier was out there, and Adrian knew he now had yet another reason to fear his vampire father. He couldn't help but wonder if he'd been wrong to keep Faith from Cartier. His thoughts drifted to Giselle. His love for the pretty medical examiner offered him hope. And, since finding her, some of his isolation had eased. Did he have the right to deny Cartier the same comfort?
Faith had awakened a whisper of humanity in the ancient vampire, and Adrian had destroyed it once again. He shuddered, suddenly chilled to the core of his being. Cartier would bury that hint of perceived weakness, and when it was thoroughly extinguished he would seek his reprisal.
A month later...
Faith sighed heavily as she gazed out at the moonlight that glittered off the tips of countless waves as they crawled inward to the sandy beach, each cap a glistening diamond that broke into shards of crystalline brilliance before ebbing away to rejoin the restless waters of the Pacific.
Her heart ached more each night. She was growing old with an agony she couldn't define or identify. Tears blurred the sparkling stars, and the roar of her heartbeat overrode the pound of the surf. Deep within her, a scream blossomed, and she shook with the effort of maintaining her silence.
As the pain began to slip away, she rose and walked back to her house. She was almost at the patio when the glass door slid aside and a tall, fair-haired man stepped onto the stones. He carried two fluted glasses filled with clear champagne. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized she knew him, but didn't. He'd lived within her soul and her dreams for what felt like an eternity.
"Who are you?"
He smiled, handing her a glass as she stopped in front of him and looked upward to meet the blue azure of his eyes.
"Devon Cartier."
Cartier ... She knew that name ... Didn't she?
"Do I know you?"
Laughter rippled the air between them and he nodded.
"I'm here to show you forever, Faith..."
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Denyse Bridger
Visit Denyse on the web
Denysé is a native of Atlantic Canada, born in the country's Eastern most province, Newfoundland, and raised in Nova Scotia. A lifelong dreamer, she began writing at an early age and can't recall a time when she wasn't creating in some artistic form. An active interest in the American West, and to a lesser extent the American Civil War, has been a lifelong obsession. Cowboys have been a love-affair that began at the tender age of three, and eventually expanded to encompass an equally timeless passion for pirates, Greek Gods, and Ancient Egypt. The other side of the Old West intrigue is an affinity for Victorian England, particularly the 1885-1895 part of the century.
To stay current with all her projects, or to just say hello, please feel free to visit Denysé's website: denysebridger.com Or, sign up for the monthly newsletter Romance and Fantasy. If you prefer to chat with Denysé and other readers, the newsgroup is open to everyone. Denysé Bridger News.
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