Night Lover

by Rosanna Leo

  Aghast, I stared, feeling just a fraction of his two-hundred-year old pain. Was it possible I wouldn’t be able to save him? He’d wandered, a ghost, for so long. How could I ever reprogram his thoughts?

  What if I wasn’t strong enough? What if my prayers, so late and so few, proved insubstantial? Perhaps I’d been naïve in believing a simple change in thought was enough to redeem a soul.

  The moment I doubted, Hugh’s power returned. His gaze turned to me in frank interest, his lips twitching in a grin, he let loose a charge of energy. It pelted me, like a furious hail cutting into soft grass. This time, I flew back against the wall. As I cried out, shaken by fear and streaking soreness in my back, I realized he’d managed to pin me there. Something unseen grabbed my hands and lashed them to the wall, doing the same with my ankles. As much as I struggled, I could barely move.

  Licking his lips, Hugh stalked toward me, coming within uncomfortable inches. Large and looming, he commanded my attention with not only the power of the incubus but with the magnetic man caught inside. He cupped my cheek and kissed me with tenderness.

  “I can take all your pain away. Start a new life with me.” His tongue flicked against my lips, staking a claim. “Surrender to me.”

  “No.” I turned my head, aware of how badly I wanted to kiss him back.

  He held my head in place with a firm hand on my chin. “Come, Renata. There is consolation in the darkness.”

  As I gazed at him, I witnessed the change in his demeanor. His pale eyes, now dark with seductive intent, bore no resemblance to the heartbroken man who’d addressed me moments ago. The demon once again had control of him, had insinuated itself into every touch. It might have been Hugh who’d uttered Salva me time and again, but the incubus controlled him in every other way. I knew, if I didn’t succeed here, the demon would take him over completely. “I don’t want your darkness.”

  “But I’ll help you forget all your sins.”

  His words, meant to tempt, only reminded me of my mission. “My sins are not enough to keep me here.”

  I spat the words like venom and then, needing to assert my strength, I bit him on the lip.

  Demon Hugh reared back, clutching his mouth, wiping at his blood. His eyes large and wild, he laughed behind his hand. “Little one, you forget. I need no acquiescence on your part. I am an incubus. I can simply take what I want.”

  He strode back toward me. As he did, my shirt hem began to rise, as if pushed up by an unseen hand. He bared my waist and then my ribs and my breasts. Cold air assaulted my nipples and my torso exploded into a riot of goose pimples. Hugh appraised me with an appreciative eye, grinning in lecherous pleasure. Before I could object, he leaned down and captured one of my nipples in his mouth.

  “Please,” I uttered, squirming in my bonds. But as he suckled with greed and persistence, I wasn’t sure if I was begging him to stop or to continue. He felt so good. Every tug, every soft lick, seemed the embodiment of sin and carnality, and I wanted it like an asthmatic wants air.

  “See?” he whispered against my skin. “You forgot how I make you feel. Give yourself to me, and you will feel this for an eternity.” He spared me a glance, palming my breast. “There is no sense fighting the curse.”

  Curse.

  Suddenly, I remembered why I was there. There was something I needed to impart, something vital…about the curse. What was it again?

  He continued suckling.

  “Oh, God!” I shouted. “Yes, that’s it. The curse. Hugh, please. Listen to me, just for a moment.”

  “Hmm?” he murmured, tweaking my nipple.

  “Look at me!”

  He did, and for a second, I spied hope in his gaze. Right there, disguised by false lasciviousness. Desperate hope.

  Salva me.

  I hadn’t lost him yet.

  I stared him in the eye. “I know how to defeat Malanotte. He thinks he’s bound you here but I know how to free you.”

  He blinked several times, light brown lashes fluttering over startled eyes. “It’s not possible.”

  “It’s worth a shot. Please let me off this wall so I can help you.”

  He shook his head, clearly still unable to absorb my message. However, to my amazement, he waved a hand in my direction and my shirt fell back down to cover my torso. He’d granted me modesty in the moment and I accepted this as a small measure of victory.

  I can do this.

  “Hugh, you have to listen to me. I don’t understand the magic that chained you to the incubus, but your guilt is what really held you captive. You’ve suffered so long. Don’t you think it’s time for you to be reunited with Claudia?”

  He raised his head and I glimpsed a tear in his eye. “Claudia?”

  “She can be yours again. I wouldn’t lie to you. You mean too much to me.”

  He stared at me for what felt like hours, his entire body tense with unfamiliar hope. Little by little, his gaze changed from one of harsh desire to a yearning he’d long-since forgotten. “Renata,” he murmured. “All I know is want and pain. I don’t understand anything else. Help me.”

  On his last two words, my invisible bonds fell away. I brought my hands back to my side and rolled my shoulders to ease them.

  “I don’t want to live like this anymore.”

  “I know.” I dashed to him and grasped his hands. “And I’m here to tell you that you weren’t at fault. You didn’t kill Claudia or your mother. They always loved you. They still do.”

  “Love.” He whispered the word as if trying it out for the first time. “Am I worthy of their love? Of anyone’s?”

  Tears slipped between my own eyelids. I placed my hands on his cheeks and made him look at me. “Yes. I love you, too. And I want you to be free. But you need to forgive yourself.”

  “But…”

  “No buts. Can’t you see? Malanotte might have spun some sort of web around you, but you gave his words power. I don’t believe he could have cursed you unless you had already considered yourself damned. You’re not to blame for those deaths and once you start believing it, you’ll be able to end this.”

  As he gazed at me, stunned, his mantle of darkness seemed to slip from his shoulders. “So much blame. So much sorrow.”

  “Let it end now.”

  He wiped at my tears and a soft smile danced across his face. “I knew you’d be the one to save me.”

  I embraced him, my body buzzing with grateful energy. I did it. I destroyed the curse. He’d rest in peace now.

  He kissed my cheek, his caress void of malicious incubus intent. It was just a sweet kiss…the kind a brother might offer a sister. Elation made my heart swell. I could return to Finn now. My nightmares would stop. I’d sing in the festival and all would be well. I could actually look forward to planning a new life, rather than dwelling among old injuries.

  A snide tone interrupted our embrace, echoing in the semi-darkness of the church. “It is lovely to see you again, bella.”

  We looked toward the voice. Malanotte leaned on one of the monuments, his dark eyes narrowed on us.

  Hugh’s face went white. “You.”

  No. All of a sudden, any strides I’d made with Hugh seemed to fizzle. His body stiffened and lines of fear and doubt marred his brow.

  The Italian count grinned. “Now, then, Renata. You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” He winked at me. “Your newfound faith won’t help you now, my sweet. It holds no dominion over me. I serve a different master and a few mumbled Hail Marys can’t save you here.”

  A loud, grating noise startled me from my stupor. After a second, I realized I knew the sound. I’d heard it before.

  It was the sound of Hugh’s gravestones shifting. Opening for us.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Reeling, as if someone had hit me over the head with a club, I looked around. My eyelids fluttering, I spotted Hugh in front of me, walking toward the grave. Blinking hard now, I strained to see ahead of him and realized I was walking, too. In fact, my feet car
ried me, leading me toward the one place I never wanted to go.

  Back to the darkness.

  Just as in my nightmare, the slabs of stone creaked and groaned and opened, as if of their own volition, creating a dark hole in the floor. Hugh, like a sleepwalker, trudged toward the recess.

  “No,” I shouted. “Hugh, stop!”

  Malanotte, off to the side, laughed. “He can’t hear you, bella. My curse has power still and I will see you both in hell tonight.”

  I tried to make my feet stop but they continued walking toward the open tomb. Margaret’s voice once again boomed in my ear. There is great power in faith. Unsure if I could reverse the count’s spell, I voiced the words. “Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here. Ever this day be at my side…”

  Malanotte snarled. He raced forward and slapped my face. My head flew back with a bone-crushing crack. “Stop it, whore! Your words cannot stop me.”

  Still moving forward, I raised my heavy head and continued my simple prayer. “To light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.”

  Malanotte screeched, raising his hands to the ceiling. The manic sound reverberated through the church and I worried it would lift the ceiling.

  “Please,” I whispered. This would be a great time for Finn to wake up and stick my hand in that bucket of water. Oh, Finn. I’m so sorry.

  Hugh took the first step into the grave, his booted foot disappearing into the darkness.

  “Hugh, don’t. Oh, God. Please, help me. I can’t do this alone.”

  From out of nowhere, a beam of light shone through one of the church windows, illuminating the spot where we stood. Crashing, shattering light that fragmented the window, sending shards of colored glass all over the floor. Even as Hugh raised a foot to take the next step, he looked toward the light, and the force of the glow seemed to startle him out of his funk.

  Malanotte screamed and huddled in a corner against one of the graves. “What is this magic?”

  Shimmering with honesty and purity, a form materialized in the brightness. I watched as it took shape. What began as a blur sharpened into focus, from its white skirts all the way to its crowning halo of dark hair. She was the loveliest woman I’d ever seen but her beauty didn’t stem from her smile or peaceful posture. It radiated from inside her, shining outward, dazzling us.

  “There is no magic here, demon,” she said to Malanotte. “Only love.”

  Hugh jumped at the sound of her voice, his face pale. “Claudia?”

  She turned her gaze to him and held out her hand. “My dearest. You have been lost for so long.” Her pink lips spread in a smile. “No more.”

  No longer shackled by Malanotte’s power, he ran to her and they embraced. The power of their embrace sent the demon hurtling down the church aisle, howling in pain.

  Hugh shook his head as he passed a hand over her hair. “I can’t believe it’s you.”

  “All this time,” she said, “I couldn’t come for you. You were trapped on another plane, imprisoned in black guilt. Until you accepted the light, I couldn’t help you.” She lifted a hand toward me. “You were saved by Renata’s sacrifice. Because of her, the shackles of guilt no longer bind you.”

  They turned to me. Only then did I realize I was still walking toward the hole in the ground. Panicked, I tried to move my feet in the opposite direction of the grave, but they refused to follow my silent plea. With each step, I drew closer to the abyss. Another few paces, and I would be lost.

  Could it be Claudia had come for Hugh and not me? Was I still doomed?

  Claudia turned her gaze on Malanotte at the far end of the church and her dark eyes flashed white light. “No, demon! She does not go with you.”

  All at once, the hold on my limbs ceased and I was able to thrust myself away from the gaping recess. Scrambling on all fours, I moved toward one of the wooden pews, and crouched there like a child huddling among its mother’s skirts. I watched in amazement as Malanotte was raised from his spot and forced to walk the same path Hugh and I traveled moments before. His legs forced him toward the hole and he shrieked his displeasure.

  “Basta! You can’t cage me, bitch. I killed you once. I’ll have my revenge again.”

  Claudia flicked her wrist and the count was flung headlong into the pit, his cries echoing all around us. The great stones shifted and stirred once more, closing over him until they’d sealed shut with a thunderous slam.

  Every last trickle of fear disappeared from my body. Malanotte’s evil chokehold on my soul subsided. I gazed at the reunited lovers and my heart was filled with such happiness, but also a strange sadness because I sensed this was the last I’d see of Hugh and Claudia.

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to say good-bye.

  Yes, in the form of the incubus, Hugh had tormented me. He’d taken over my dreams, my life, my own romance with Finn. I knew my fascination for the dead man was unhealthy in just about every respect, and I understood it couldn’t continue.

  But somewhere, under all the false glamor and seduction, a part of me had fallen in love with the man. Hugh Dawlish, flawed and beautiful. From the first moment he touched me, from the first time I saw his portrait, I’d known our fates were intertwined. And to see him go now, to watch him disappear with the woman he really loved, caused a deep-seated ache, one I hadn’t anticipated.

  Blinking feverishly, I tried to dispel my tears. When I looked toward them again, Claudia had already gone. Her brilliant light now surrounded her man. Hugh gazed in my direction, a smile on his face, and he proceeded toward me. I wiped my nose on the hem of my T-shirt so I didn’t look like a snotty mess. I then turned away from him, determined to leave with my pride intact.

  I could fall apart later.

  “Leaving so soon?” he said.

  I turned, determined to swallow past the lump in my throat. I tried not to meet his gaze, but it wasn’t long before I raised mine to his. I could never hide from him. His eyes twinkled now, bearing no sign of anguish.

  “Renata,” he said on a breath.

  “Don’t,” I replied, putting up a hand to stop him. “Just don’t, okay? This is hard enough.”

  “My sweet, I never meant to hurt you. Please say you’ll forgive me for mistreating you.”

  For loving me? Because when he touched me, that was how it felt.

  “It wasn’t real love,” he said, reading my thoughts. “It was cruel and demanding and manipulative. But it was all I knew. Tortured as I was, I had no power to stop it.” He caressed my face. “You returned my soul to me. I shall always be grateful.”

  He grabbed my trembling hand and held it to his heart. Amazingly, I heard it beat in time with my own.

  “You see?” he said. “We are still connected.”

  I gazed at him, absorbing every detail of his face. His mass of hair, each highlight a glorious golden thread. His smiling lips. And those pale eyes, piercing me to the core.

  “What am I supposed to do now?”

  “You will live.”

  “Right. I just won’t be able to see you or touch you, or hear your voice.”

  “Renata, my soul has been tortured for two centuries and I have felt each painful moment. What you heard and saw of me was not what I wish to remain. My guilt, my need to experience martyrdom, turned me into a specter. A lonely shade. But you saved me.”

  “No, I didn’t. Claudia saved us.”

  “But you opened my eyes. As Claudia said, I needed someone to make a sacrifice for me, the ultimate sacrifice. Your love destroyed the curse, just as much as Claudia’s intervention.” He kissed me on the forehead. “Dear one, I didn’t come to you for the reason Margaret suspected. I didn’t choose you because you were weak. A part of me, the only good part that remained, chose you because you were strong. Never forget it.”

  “What now?” I dreaded his answer.

  “Now, I must go to her. I have waited an eternity.”

  I would lose him. Forever.

  “Take comfort knowing you have given
me peace.” He wrapped me in his arms once more, nodded, and faded.

  Staring after him, straining to remember, I noticed the broken window had been fixed. All the shards had disappeared from the floor and the stained glass was intact in the pane. As if none of them had ever been there.

  No more dreams. No strange apparitions.

  No Hugh.

  I wanted to cry. I wanted to rail. More than anything, I wanted to change places with Claudia and be with him.

  But at what cost? If I’d learned anything during this queer time, it was to never take life for granted.

  I never would again.

  As I uttered the vow in silence, the space around me went black. I closed my eyes against an onslaught of spinning sensation.

  When I cracked them open again, I was in my bed, next to a still-sleeping Finn. Overcome by gratitude, I gazed at him, transfixed by his gorgeous features. Unable to resist, I touched his face.

  His eyes popped open, as if he’d merely been resting. “Lark,” he murmured. “You came back.”

  I nodded, unable to speak, and fell into his arms.

  I would never leave him again.

  »»•««

  “Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion.”

  As I made my professional debut with Sonata, my voice ringing across the lawns of Dawlish Manor, I sang with a new spirit. A new joy.

  An open heart.

  For the first time in a long time, Mozart’s Requiem didn’t feel like a dirge, the plaint of a woman who refused to bare her soul. Today, as I sang it in the festival, with Finn conducting me, it was an anthem. A celebration of life.

  In truth, I also acknowledged it as a good-bye. To my parents, and to Hugh and Claudia.

  In the days following my experience at St. Bartholomew’s, I’d half-expected to look over my shoulder and find my night lover standing there, his eyes gleaming with mischief. Of course, he never materialized. It was probably good Finn and I were thrust right back into rehearsals and concerts. I think, had I been granted time to dwell on Hugh, I might have grown sad missing him. As it stood, all my energy was spent preparing for the festival.