The Dark Rose

by Ramsey, Valentine

“I’m prepared.”

  Dom softly began to sing, Elvis’s Can’t Help Falling In Love.

  Tipping her head up at him, Pan tried to keep her eyes open, but they began to droop. Dom’s soothing voice gave them no choice, his pure warm masculine smell pulling her under sleeps spell where she laid, embraced in his linked arms, the best place, of all places.

  + + +

  As the bright moon glorified the sky, Pan so sweetly lied with sleep resting upon her closed eye and in her soft breathed sigh. Her thick black feathery lashes fell like crescent fans over her sleep flushed cheeks.

  Studying her, Dom lightly traced her delicate features. He wanted to wake her up just so he could talk to her more. He kissed her shoulder, watching to see if she would stir, but alas her slumber was heavy.

  “More,” Dom whispered. “I want more. More of everything, more lustful language kisses from your coral lips, more invitations to your hips, more coy mischievous looks from your sable eyes, more sweet dewed air from your sighs—”

  As Pan exhaled, Dom inhaled her air, drinking in her essence.

  “Sighs that set my worship to fly as my bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep as the more I give to you the more I have for both are infinite. I will cast my anchor, plunge it into the oceans depths where under loves heavy burden I do sink to by all hopes remain undisturbed. And even then I want more. More by all mores I want. De plus en plus, ma petite beaute sombre, ma rose sauvage. Though fulfilling it,” Dom sighed, “is proving to be a chore.”

  Turning on his back, he watched the shadows dance along the walls and ceiling as the wind rustled the trees in her Eden. If he could not find a priest to marry them soon, in all desperation he would have to consider other less appealing options of their freedom.

  Less appealing though they may be, he would do anything to keep Pan and the hard cold facts were the longer their vows were postponed the less likely they were ever to be traded.

  Dom looked at Pan as she mumbled something. Her head rested on her folded arm, chin tucked to her chest, her cherub face sweet with dreams he wished he could foresee so he could dream them with her.

  Shifting on his side again, Dom ran his hand down the dip of her hip and slid it to her lower back, pulling her closer, tucking her against him. Her breath fanned warm on his throat.

  “To want more even when it must be a chore than at least it is one worthy of a formidable opponent such as myself.” Dom stroked Pan’s hair back and kissed her temple. “As the reward is too great to prolong a fate that will give me all I adore and even then—I want more.”

  + Chapter 30 +

  Monster

  Stepping onto the circular platform in front of the tall gilded tri-view mirrors in her closet, Pan held a new dress up to her. She turned from side to side estimating on how high it would need to be hemmed.

  Hopping down, she grabbed another Magda had already shortened. Strapless, it was the color of Dom’s eyes. Deciding she wanted to wear it instead what she already had on, Pan changed and stepped back on the platform. Great, now the sun barrette she wore didn’t match. Unclipping it, she tucked her hair behind her ear and smoothed the puffed out skirt.

  Hopping down, Pan headed to the vanity in her bedroom. Pulling a drawer open, she grabbed a peacock feather barrette and clipped it in. A shadow in her garden shifted in the mirror.

  A smile bursting onto her face, Pan whirled around. Unable to contain her excitement as Dom said he wouldn’t be able to get to her for a few days, Pan ran to him. Raphael suddenly stepped out of the shadows and into the light of her room.

  Pan gasped and skidded to a halt. She swallowed hard. Raphael’s black gaze blazed like pits of fire that had made their home in the centers. His lip peeled up.

  “Expecting someone kitten?” His terrifying expression said he knew exactly who she had expected him to be.

  Pan shifted, scared. “Get out of my room Raphael.”

  She wasn’t a fool. He was furious and she was frightened what that fury would drive him to do. If he could kill Gaston, his greatest friend, if such a dark soul could have friends, he could kill her. Pan glanced around for Sheba, her only line of defense if she didn’t manage to get a scream out before Raphael fell on her.

  Her search must not have been as surreptitious as she tried to make it as Raphael said, “She’s a little tied up right now.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I came to see how my surprise had been received.”

  “Then you should have scheduled an appointment.”

  Raphael stared, his expression stone cold unamused. Jaw flexing, he looked around her rose empty room.

  “I take it they did not appeal to you.” He spoke with refrained irritation.

  Pan crossed her arms and glanced about too. “What gave you that impression?”

  “Because my surprise was to find my roses now overwhelming the servant’s corridors.” Raphael’s lip peeled up in disgust. “My gift now adorning such a lowly area.”

  “Huh, that is a surprise seeing how I ordered them to be destroyed.”

  Raphael’s eyes flared. “Were they not worthy enough?”

  “They were repulsive.”

  “Repulsive?!”

  “Anything coming from you is repulsive.”

  He bellowed and Pan jumped. She tried to hide the terror from her face, but her eyes always gave it away. Clutching his head, he whirled around as if to punch the wall, but dropped his arms and stared at it as if in trance. He suddenly whirled around on her startling her again.

  “What more do you want?” he demanded. “I’m trying everything! My body, my soul, you make me whole! Is that what you want to hear?!”

  “You have no soul! And if you did it’s black as coal. The hole so big it could never be whole!”

  Fist clenched at his sides, jaw tight, Raphael paced fast. He suddenly paused, looking down at his feet were the nightgown she had worn last night with Dom lay. Bending, he picked it up. Bunched in his hand, he held it to his face.

  “You know what’s odd? Is I can’t determine if I smell Gray mingled with your scent. Hmm.” His fiery black gaze fell on her. “I think I do.”

  “I’ve had enough of you,” Pan said. “Get out of my room before I call Andre.”

  Raphael snorted at the threat. “Andre. Andre! ANDRE!” he yelled. He threw the nightgown at her and Pan flinched. “Andre is a bit engaged at the moment.”

  Pan gulped hard, remembering that he had asked if she minded being guarded by the wolves for the night so he could feed since he hadn’t indulged in human blood in months.

  “Then I’ll call my wolves.” Her voice shook.

  He leveled his gaze at her. “Do you honestly think that threat scares me, pussy cat?”

  “I don’t know, but the end result of it will.”

  His glower intensified. Pan drew a breath and opened her mouth to scream, but Raphael was on her before she could squeak one out. Snarling, he covered her mouth and spun her around, bending her over the bed, using his weight to trap her.

  Pan’s breaths came hard and fast against his hand. Groaning, Raphael ran his thumb over the pounding pulse in her neck. It was nothing compared to the one in her chest.

  “What you must taste like,” he said, his voice soft as velvet.

  Pan struggled, but so small she was helpless against him, her toothpick arms pinned in his iron hold.

  “I thought I told you to end it with him, your father even ordered you to on threat of death and yet…you positively reek of him.”

  Raphael kissed the side of her face. Eyes clenched tight, Pan turned her head, burring her face in her bedspread. She tried to speak, but not even a mumble came out his hand was clasped so tight. Raphael lifted it a bit.

  “Why would I listen to anything you have to say?” she bit out.

  “Because—” He continued to tenderly kiss her face setting her skin to crawl with disgust. “You are mine.”

  Pan laughed bitterly. “Dom tells me that t
o, only he’s right.”

  Raphael snarled and whirled her around so she was lying on her back. He pinned her wrists above her head.

  “An—” Pan began to scream, but Raphael kissed her.

  Pan tried to turn her head as his tongue invaded her mouth. She struggled to break his grip, but it was futile. A whimper escaped her throat. Raphael pulled back and licked a tear running from the corner of her eye.

  “Mmm, delicious. So I’ll let you decide, kitten. Break it off and be satisfied he lives or don’t and he dies. Your choice.”

  “You touch him and I’ll make your life a living hell.” The treat of Dom’s life incinerated her fear, replacing it with a surge of savage protectiveness.

  He chuckled. “And how do you plan on doing that?”

  Pan glared up at him through narrowed accusing eyes. “You killed Gaston.”

  Raphael’s face darkened. Snarling, he lunged down to bite. Crying out, Pan jerked her head to the side, eyes squeezed shut. But nothing followed. No pain, no blood rain. Realizing her wrists were freed and the pressure of his weight was gone, Pan opened her eyes to see he had vanished.

  Sitting up, she rubbed her mouth hard with her wrist, disgusted. A muted yowl caught her ears. Jumping up, Pan ran into her garden. She shrieked finding Sheba hogtied with rope. Falling to her knees, her frantic fingers struggled to undo the knots.

  “Hold on my beauty.”

  Terror was heavy in Sheba’s golden eyes. Bought as an exotic pet, her previous owner, a drug lord, had tried to control her by inflicting fear through abuse. That was until Andre had eaten him and given her to Pan. Pan had sworn Sheba would never feel that fear again. She swore now Raphael would pay for this.

  Getting her untied, Sheba scrambled into her room and Pan ran after her.

  “Sheba!”

  Sheba dove under her bed. Pan knelt, bending to peer into the shadows that her black felt fur let her completely disappear in. Only the iridescent glow of her orb eyes gave her away.

  “Come on mistress,” Pan said, trying to coax her out.

  Sheba growled. It wasn’t threatening, but one that said to let her be. Giving a hopeless cry, Pan sat on the floor, against the bed. Tilting her head back, she stared up at the moon through tear blurred eyes.

  The only sanctuary Pan had to escape alone with her love was now violated by a vile monster. Dom could never come back here again. It would be damnation. Pan wondered how she would explain this to him, wondered if she should even try.

  She gave a small bitter laugh. One thing was for sure—

  “Dom harbors not an ill of will, but for Raphael he will kill.” Pan laughed again. “And I—will not harbor a hint of guilt.”

  She laughed harder, but that laughter turned into desperate, terrified sobs. Coldness suddenly nudged her arm. Pan looked to see Sheba’s large black head peeking out. She nosed her again.

  “Oh Bathsheba, it seems so hopeless a journey to a happily ever after, I wonder if I should endeavor to give it up.”

  Sheba slinked out from under the bed and glanced about, ears flattened to her skull. Finding no Raphael, she turned her golden eyes on Pan again. Pan threw her arms around the feline’s neck, her always silent confidant.

  “What are we going to do?”

  + Chapter 31 +

  Snowflakes

  After getting ready for school the next morning, Pan made her usual call to Dom and got nothing but a dial tone. Frowning, she woke her laptop and tried to get online. Her heart plummeted. She had no service there either. It had been working all week and now it was just suddenly gone.

  Pan forced herself to smother her panic when Joaquin came to fetch her while Khalil was pulling the car around. She walked fast in the hall, clutching her books to her chest like they were armor. Joaquin kept slanting glances at her.

  “Something wrong kid?” he asked.

  “You don’t know why my cell phone and internet has been suddenly cut off, do you?”

  “Uh, Andre mentioned something of it.” He spoke with an unwillingness to disclose anymore.

  Pan looked up at him expectantly. He glanced at her.

  “Don’t turn those big baby doll eyes on me. Your romances are none of my business.”

  She glared with a slight pout.

  Joaquin sighed. “From what I’ve heard your father doesn’t favor technology so he forgot about them and something got mentioned so he cut you off.”

  “Who mentioned it?” Though Pan had a dark suspicion she already knew.

  “Why are you putting me in the middle of this?”

  “Because you’re paid to be in the middle mutt and I’ll order you eaten if you don’t answer.”

  Joaquin laughed. “Never guarded a Princess before, now I know they’re nothing but trouble. Raphael Stone.”

  Pan looked ahead, scowling hard. Raphael—she would destroy him.

  Pan had thought four Domless days were unbearable? An insane laughter echoed in her head at that mistake. Two weeks had passed since she had last seen her loves face, or heard his rich music’s tongue. Her heartache she could not forsake when there were no words to render the torture of it comparable. To keep him close it was her suffrage of choice.

  And if the devil wasn’t deceiving the third week was soon to turn over at an equally slow and agonizing pace. Ay me! Pan would cry in her secret night hours gazing up at the moons half cycle of power. The thought of a third was absurd.

  Pan was half out of her mind with starvation. Her ribs turning into meatless plains of love lacking undulation. Hunger gleamed in her devout eye to see Dom’s mirroring reflection. Her hollow heart growled for nourishment.

  When asked her case of sickness Pan would reply, “Qui me alit, me extinguit.”

  Humans frowned and vampire’s eyes went round, the Latin phrase meaning, “Who feeds me, also extinguishes me.”

  Arriving for school the third Monday, brother to morose Sunday, contradiction to verbose

  Isla, Pan gave Andre a doleful look and scooted out of the Hummer after her. Chatty Cathy here had Pan wanting to dig a shallow grave, bash her in the head with the shovel and push her in, or better yet plug up that motor mouth with a grenade.

  Since Brighton, Danna, and Paul had turned it was too dangerous for them to be in school. And finding herself in a position to replace Danna, Isla was blossoming into a perfect imitation of her, becoming a royal pain in Pan’s ass. The only difference was Pan didn’t have the heart or energy to bitch slap the doppelganger into place.

  Books clutched to her chest, Pan wordlessly followed a jabbering Isla up the stairs. Andre had driven around the school to the parking lot. He would then scout and do surveillance with the wolves wandering invisible in the forest.

  “I mean, what was the point, right?” Isla was saying.

  Listening to her drone exactly like her former clone, the sound of tires squealing brought Pan out of her gloomy trance. She looked around as a gray muscle car with two black stripes down the hood sped around the circular drive. Fishtailing, spitting gravel it came to a rocking halt in front of the stairs. The passenger door flew open and Pan gasped.

  “Come on!” Dom called.

  Dropping her books, Pan flew down the stairs.

  “Don’t Pan!” Isla yelled.

  But as Pan leaped in the car, Dom gunned it and they shot forward making kids leap out of the way, the force slamming the door closed.

  Tires squealing, Pan laughed as they hit the road. “This is madness!”

  Dom’s face was bright with a smile. “But essential for any chance at happiness.”

  Coming up on a red light, Dom swerved into the turn lane so they wouldn’t have to wait, giving Andre a chance to catch them. Seeing Andre wasn’t even following, Pan grabbed Dom’s jaw, pulling him to kiss her. Having him next to her, she couldn’t wait to drink in loves nutrients. Kissing along his jaw to his neck, Pan pulled away nourished and enriched.

  “You came for me.”

  “I will always come for you
. You have opened my eyes, my beautiful surprise. My life wouldn’t be a life without you. Neither heaven nor hell, nor angels or demons, can separate you from me.”

  Pan cupped his cheek. “I’m afraid that’s what stands in our way my dear love.”

  “Then I am ready to go to war.” Dom turned his lips to hers for a brief passionate kiss before he pulled onto the expressway.

  They drove for an entire day, only stopping for bathroom breaks and to pick up some food for her. Dom made sure to keep to rural areas where being recognized was less likely a possibility.

  “Where exactly are we headed?” Pan asked as dusk fell.

  “Mexico.”

  As soon as he said it, Pan knew it for the brilliance it was. All twelve covens had jurisdiction over North America and most of Europe though through Mexico they could reach Central America and ultimately South America where their authority ended, save for Argentina where her father had inherited claim from his marriage to her mother. There they would be free of their father’s fame they carried so heavily.

  Driving through the night, holding Dom’s hand, afraid he might disappear when she closed her heavy eyes, Pan fell asleep. Vampires required sleep like humans, but not as much, able to go about a week without it.

  Orange fire burning through her closed eyelids, Pan blinked, squinting against the blaring morning sun. Sitting up straighter, she uncurled from the seat, dropping her legs to the floor. She was a little achy from being contorted for so long. Noticing a coat covered her, Pan smiled. Dom must have thrown it over her.

  Yawning, she looked at the clock seeing it was a little after eight in the morning.

  “I thought you might sleep a little longer,” Dom said. “But I’m glad you’re awake. I could barely wait to talk to you.”

  Resting her head back, Pan smiled at him sleepily. “Talk about what?”

  “Anything. I don’t care as long as it’s with you. Are you hungry?”

  She pulled his coat up to her face. It smelled of his delicious spice. Breathing in the warm essence, Pan nodded. “I need to get something else to wear. A schoolgirl uniform doesn’t blend in very well.”