by Michele Hauf
They walked together hand-in-hand out of the ballroom, without anyone stopping them. She leaned into Raphael, suddenly feeling colder, as if she’d passed an open window. Glancing back over her shoulder, she stared at the others who disappeared from sight as they turned the corner and started up the grand staircase.
“They’re all vampires too, aren’t they?”
Raphael’s golden gaze slid to meet hers, and his lips remained in a firm line. “Yes.”
“And they’ve come for the same thing you have?”
“We are all connected, Eva. This time the virus has mutated, gaining more power. In the past, some of us have managed to survive it. Now … nothing is certain. All of us are seeking salvation from the plague.”
“It could wipe you all out?”
He shrugged. “I doubt it would be any great loss to humanity.”
Eva shook her head. “I’m not sure about that. There’s balance in everything. Look what happens when a predator is taken out of any natural cycle—things get really bad for those that are left. I think the same might apply.”
He slowed their steps, his mouth curving into a half smile as he reached up to stroke her cheek with the back of his hand. “Truly you are one of a kind.”
Their footsteps barely made a sound on the thick carpet that ran down the hall, which was lined with gilt-framed portraits in stark relief against walls decorated in crimson silk. Eva glanced up to see a picture of a man in knee breeches, with a brocade vest and long-tailed jacket, and recognized him.
“That’s you, isn’t it?”
This time he grinned, exposing the sharp white point of his fangs. “Not my first portrait, but one of the more recent.”
“Exactly how old are you, anyway?”
His eyes glittered. “Old enough to know exactly how to pleasure you, and young enough to find you absolutely intoxicating.”
His head bend closer, his lips barely brushing the skin along her jaw, skimming a warm trail down her neck. “Ah, Eva. The things I would do to you had I the time.”
They had reached the end of the hall and paused before a set of double doors. Raphael pushed them open and bowed slightly, gesturing that she should enter ahead of him.
A giant four-poster bed took up most of the room.
“Do you ever actually sleep in that thing? I mean it looks like there might be room for six, maybe eight.”
“Let me show you precisely what I do here.”
In the space between one breath and the next, Eva found that her long black gown had vanished with nothing more than the sensation of a gentle warm breeze brushing against her skin. Her breasts tightened instantly at the arc of electricity that raced between her and Raphael, even though he still stood nearly across the room.
She blinked, and he was right against her, lifting her against the cool hardness of him, as if she weighed no more than a feather pillow. Eva wanted to melt into him, but he placed her gently in the center of the very big bed and pulled back.
Instantly, the need to have him near her, touching her, grew overwhelming, as if their encounter in the limo had never stopped. The velvet of the coverlet was plush and warm against her skin, and the look on Raphael’s face made her feel hot and tight all over.
“You are even more beautiful than I imagined.”
She blushed, and his eyes flashed with primal hunger that was powerful, scary and exciting all at once. “You aren’t planning to feed on me are you?”
He smiled, his fangs elongated, his body tense, the edge of his erection against his taunt abdomen plain for her to see. “Make no mistake, Eva. You make me hungry in a thousand different ways. But no, I will not drink tonight.”
Her stomach contracted, and small shivers danced across her skin. She could smell his cologne as if he were on the bed with her instead of staring at her with those dark, intense eyes from several feet away. Eva suddenly had the sensation of his hands, cool and firm, cupping her breasts, his thumbs brushing against the sensitive curve. Her fingers itched to touch him, even though she could feel him.
“You know this works better if I can actually touch you,” she said between short quick breaths.
He gave her a sly, knowing smile, and suddenly it felt as if he was kissing her, his lips warm and insistent on hers, the slick heat of his tongue running along the seam of her mouth. How in the hell did he do that?
“Close your eyes and relax,” he said, the words stroking her skin like fingers.
She wanted to, but the tension inside was building, pulsing and driving her wild. Relax. The word echoed in her head. That was damn hard to do as her panties and bra disappeared into thin air as well, leaving her bare to the cool night and the sensations that were flooding over her.
How could he be touching her everywhere at once? That was definitely what it felt like. The warm wet heat of his soft mouth swirled over her nipples, making them ache. At the same time, the smooth glide of his hand skimmed down her spine and over her stomach, causing a riot of butterflies to erupt inside. Eva pressed her aching thighs together and sensed the firm grasp of his hand resting against her bare bottom, his fingers slipping against the damp cleft of her core, making her shudder with need.
Moist heat sheened her skin as Eva writhed on the velvet. She could swear she felt the slide of sweat-slicked skin against the length of her body, making her ache for release. She reached out, desperate to feel the solidness of him against her. She needed.
And like before, it was as though he understood before she even completed the thought.
Dammit to hell. Raphael couldn’t resist her. As much as he’d tried to give her release without endangering her fragile mortal form, this was more torturous for them both, and he gave up resisting.
In an instant he was naked beside her, her heated skin an inferno that threatened to consume him.
She locked a hot silken leg over his buttocks, pressing him close to her wet pulsing heat, and he groaned in desperation. Her pulse ticked inside him like a time bomb, each rushing movement of her hot blood screaming at him, demanding he take his fill of her.
He clenched his jaw until he thought the bones might crack, determined not to drink, determined not to harm her. She lifted her hips and her slick heat convulsed against him.
“Please. Raphael. Please—”
He growled, knowing his eyes had gone red, unable to control himself any longer, and sank slowly into her, letting the fire and flood of sensations—hers, and his—overtake him as he moved with her.
Nothing mattered now but the fire that licked and gnawed and roared between them. He felt her first climax rip through them both, shredding him into a thousand tiny bits then bringing them back together. And suddenly the world exploded into a thousand suns, and Eva was the center of it all.
CHAPTER FIVE
EVA was certain she had no bones left.
At least no mortal should be able to survive a bout of incredible sex like that. But somehow, she knew that there was more to what had happened to her and Raphael than utterly fantastic sex.
For the first time in her life she felt whole, as if she’d finally found the missing part of herself she’d somehow always known was gone.
Which made keeping her promise to Raphael to be part of this ceremony, whatever it was, even more difficult. As desperately as she wanted to cling to him, since the crash she’d believed that she had a destiny to fulfill. Her hand pulled into a ball, the lines forming deep creases within her fist. The line of her fate crossing and ending at the line of her heart. The palm reader had warned her never to fall in love. Perhaps this was why. She’d seen that one line ended where it connected with the other.
She could never have anticipated that falling in love would bring her to the brink of her destiny, but now that she knew, she could not turn away. Eva knew with a deep certainty she’d been born for this. The gods, the fates, whatever had been waiting for her in that white place on the other side, had confirmed it.
He still lay beside her, utterly s
till, his broad chest not moving beneath her cheek. His fingers grazed a lazy trail up and down her spine, causing delicious shivers across her body.
Eva savored the moment a few more seconds before she spoke softly, “We’re out of time, aren’t we?”
His fingers threaded through her hair with infinite tenderness, and he tucked her closer into his side with his other arm. “I’m not certain I’m able to let you go.”
Eva sat up on her elbow, resting her chin in her hand, and she looked at his golden eyes. “Maybe you don’t have to.”
She felt the anguished sigh come from the very core of him. “If you do not, all my kind, including me, dies. If you do, you die. Somehow I fail to see how either choice is appealing, because I truly do not wish to live without you.”
She lay back, curling tighter against him. “I wish there was some way.”
His heart twisted. He pulled her close, wishing he were capable of tucking her fragile form inside of his immortal casing. “If there is a way, I’ll find it.”
You must bring her. The ceremony has begun. Dammit. Couldn’t Janus stay out of his head, even now, in his last moment to be alone with her?
We’ll be there shortly.
Come alone. We will send an escort for her. Raphael’s brow pinched together. Why did Janus need him alone?
“I’ve been told there is a maid coming to help you dress.”
She looked up at him her eyes softening. “I’d prefer if you dressed me.”
He smiled, but it hurt like hell. The last image he wanted of her in this form was of her naked beside him, not in some damn coffin, still as death after the others had leached the life energy from her to thwart the virus and sustain themselves. He brushed a kiss on her forehead. “As my lady wishes.”
Rising from the bed, he conjured white undergarments and a white gown. God, it could have been a wedding gown, with long trailing sleeves and a fitted bodice. She slid from the sheets, her dark glossy hair delightfully rumpled. He’d remember that. And the texture of it between his fingers, as well as the jasmine and spice scent that cloaked her satin skin.
Raphael brushed light kisses up her legs as he slid the scrap of satin over her hips, cupping her bottom in his hands and pressing his cheek to her stomach. With infinite slowness, he pulled the silk stockings up her legs, brushing and caressing her smooth skin as he went. He held open the gown for her, and she stepped between the folds and into his arms.
Raphael’s gut contracted. Need and sadness ripped him to the core. He showered kisses down her bare shoulders as he fastened the little hooks up her back. She looked like a damned fairy princess, and he was the monster that would take her to her demise.
Anger, hate, at himself, his kind, boiled up within Raphael. How could he do this? God. How could he not? “You are, as ever, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” he whispered achingly against the shell of her ear.
Even though the memory of ever having a heart was gone, tonight he felt the phantom recollection in the tight ache in his chest. Phantom or not, the searing ache of loss squeezed at his chest and made his teeth clench with the pain.
Duty or love?
One he wanted; the other was the grim path he was forced to take.
He’d damn them all, if they weren’t damned already.
Eva turned and cupped her warm hand to his cheek, making his heart-of-stone fracture. “I’ve never wanted to be with someone the way I want to be with you. I think I love you.” She paused, a determined looking blazing in her eyes. “No, I know I love you. I’m not sure how or why, but you’re already part of me.”
It took everything within him to keep standing. He grasped her hand, took it in his own and brought their joined fingers to his mouth, and gently kissed it. “You can never imagine how much you mean to me, how long I’ve waited for you. And I will wait for you Eva, no matter how long. I am yours, forever.”
The door to their chamber snicked open, and they both started. A woman with long dark hair entered, nodding to Raphael.
He caught Eva’s gaze and saw the fear creeping in. “Marie will bring you down to the ceremony, cherie. Never forget that I am yours.”
Each step down the broad staircase felt like another step closer to the guillotine. When he reached the ballroom, the silent crowd was assembled, waiting.
Raphael stared at the coffin as the gong sounded and Janus appeared, his skin almost alabaster beneath the trailing black cloak and the shock of white hair worn long down his back. Raphael locked gazes with the elder vampire, whose eyes glowed red.
Janus’s lips did not move, but the words were uttered all the same in Raphael’s mind. It is better to have loved and lost—
Raphael didn’t bother to hide his irritation and shot back his reply, glaring at Janus. Spare me that twaddle. The damn fool idiot who coined that saying didn’t have a clue what true love was. If he had, he never would have said that. The only true beauty in this world is love—without it, everything else is meaningless.
The red glow softened slightly, but Janus’s face stayed inscrutable. But this time he spoke. “Are you certain she is the one?”
Raphael leveled his gaze on Janus’s impossibly smooth face. “If I could have brought you any other, I would have.”
“Then you truly love her.” It was not a question, but a statement, one that struck Raphael to the core. Even in his half-alive state, an aberration of nature, he was still capable of love. And if he were capable of that, could he save Eva?
“I have loved her for a thousand years. I doubt a thousand more would change that.”
“You have sacrificed much for us, brother.”
Raphael turned away, his gaze locked on the glossy bones in the coffin before him.
“The council has agreed that we will give you time to be alone with her on the other side. When the bones disappear, you will enter the coffin first. We will give you a moment when you can meld your soul with hers and take your sustenance without intrusion from the others. It is the best we can offer you in return for your loss.”
Raphael clenched his jaw, his teeth grinding together. Certainly their offer was better than nothing, but it was hardly what he truly wanted. What he wanted was to die, too. The thought of once again living without her for another thousand years, possibly forever, was more than he could bear.
He stepped up on the dais, moving toward the coffin. The bones of Siphidius disappeared the instant he touched their smooth ivory surface, as if they had been made of nothing but mist. He climbed in; placing his body in the indentations the bones had leveled upon the crimson velvet.
An intense pull centered on his naval, as if he were being sucked inside out, his stone-like flesh bursting apart into atoms of dust as he disappeared from the coffin in the grand ballroom. Surrounded by the rest of his kind, Raphael had never felt more alone. And then, there was nothing but the white mist that enveloped him.
CHAPTER SIX
WHEN EVA entered the vast ballroom, the first thing she did was search for Raphael’s face. But despite the hundreds of faces she saw, he wasn’t there.
Somehow that hurt even deeper than she’d thought possible. Had what they’d shared meant so little to him? The stiff brocade of her over gown felt suddenly too heavy and the room too cold.
The sea of faces crowded in, making her heartbeat stutter. They all seemed to press closer and Eva was afraid she might faint.
A firm hand grasped her arm, supportive, but hardly kind. She glanced at the red-eyed man with long white hair whose pale face was placid, almost devoid of emotion.
“I am Janus, the elder of those gathered here. This way, my lady.” He led her up the steps of the golden dais, ever closer to the mahogany casket with the strange skeleton. But when she was close enough to see inside, she noticed that the skeleton was gone.
She turned to the man. “Where is Raphael?”
“He is waiting for you on the other side, my lady.” He nodded toward the coffin.
Eva clasped her han
ds together tightly.
“It won’t hurt. I give you my word,” Janus encouraged.
Using the small step stool beside the coffin, she climbed inside, her heart frantic in her chest.
“God. This better work,” she muttered, and closed her eyes.
True to his word, nothing hurt. Almost like having a heavy quilt tossed over her, everything suddenly felt heavier and heavier and Eva grew warmer and warmer.
Instead of being dark, the light outside her eyelids intensified just like before until Eva was forced to open them. The room was white, if it was a room. She really couldn’t see any walls, or a ceiling. Just light, everywhere. And Raphael, standing there, waiting for her.
She rushed at him, flinging herself into his arms.
“You came,” he whispered into her hair.
“You’re here.” Her voice broke with a sob.
“I have only a moment before the others arrive, and I must tell you something.” He bent to one knee, and Eva found it all suddenly rather old-fashioned and pulled on his hands, but he would not be moved.
“I love you, Eva. I always have and I always shall. You are my life, my breath, my very being. Will you come back to me?”
“Come back? Aren’t you staying here, with me?”
“I wish I could, but there is only a little time given to us on the other side of the veil separating life from death. You will meet each of my family in turn and they will ask the blessing of you, then they and I will return.”
“Will I?”
He closed his eyes, and when he did look at her, the anguish etched into the planes of his face said it all. “I can only hope.”
Then he kissed her fiercely, as if his entire being depended on it, and Eva held nothing back. But as she reached to lock her arms around him, he dissolved into nothingness.
Atom by atom, Raphael’s body exploded outward, knitting together, taking shape. The snap of an electric-like charge skittered over his skin as the transformation was complete, and his eyelids felt heavy as he forced himself to open them. Reluctantly, Raphael sat up, pulling himself upright. He used what little will he had left to climb out of the coffin. He stumbled down the steps of the dais into the now-empty room and wept. All the others were already transporting to the other side and would reemerge shortly. It took only mere seconds for the transformation to occur, and yet it was that brush with death, that moment they touched life, that kept them all safe for a thousand more years. All but the sacrifice. If she did not return from the other side of the veil, she would be lost to him.
