The Dark Rose

by Ramsey, Valentine

  Pan sat up as an idea occurred to her. Sniffing, she stood and wiped her face, going to him.

  “Give me your phone,” Pan said, holding out her hand.

  Andre sighed. “No, Pan.”

  “Give it to me!” She dug frantically in his coat pockets.

  Andre didn’t fight, but held his arms open. Pan felt his inside pockets and found its familiar shape. Pulling it out, she flipped it open and dialed with shaky fingers. Wiping her nose, she sniffed and held it to her ear.

  “It’s ringing.” She laughed with near hysterical excitement.

  There was a click as Dom answered, then, “I’m sorry, this number has been blocked—” said an automated voice.

  Pan looked at the phone as if it held death. Andre gently took it from her and tucked it in his pocket.

  “But—” She looked up at him not completely understanding.

  “I’m sorry Pan, Victor’s thought of everything this time.”

  Feeling like her heart exploded, she screamed and fell to her knees, sobbing. Gasping for breath, she collapsed on the floor at his feet. Andre knelt and pulled the hair sticking to the tears on her face off.

  “Everything will be okay,” he said.

  “How can you say that?” Pan cried. “I am nothing but a weak slave to my heritage, shackled and chained to the Rose name.”

  “Your father only wishes your best interest—”

  “Lies! He’s only concerned for his best interest. Stop trying to provide logic when I need comfort!”

  “I know you love this Dominic, but—”

  “Don’t even try to comfort me. There’s no use when I am condemned to marry Raphael.” She said his name with disgust though her tone didn’t hold all the revulsion it should as tears choked her voice.

  “Raphael may be vile in many ways, but he appears to hold genuine emotions for you.”

  “Genuine? All he has for me is a sick infatuation of lust.”

  Andre’s jaw clenched, knowing the truth as well.

  “I will never willingly have sex with him and he would see nuptials as his right to force. He knows no gentleness, no tenderness, knows nothing of love like Dom.” Pan cried out at the pain of just saying his name. “Why do the gods hate me so?!”

  “Because you are a threat to everything they are. Listen—” Andre pulled her chin, making her look at him. “I will never let Raphael force you. Never. You have my word.”

  Pan blinked at him with tired eyes. “Your word means nothing when the first thing he will do when we are married is dispose of the first thing standing in his way to me. You. He killed Gaston, Andre.”

  Andre’s eyes darkened. After a minute, he went back to packing her things. Pan just stared at the floor, blocking him out. She was feeling pleasingly numb, pleasantly vacant, which was good as she didn’t think she could survive much longer knowing such agony.

  As Andre carried her trunk out, Danna, Isla, Brighton, and Paul ran in.

  “Pan!” Danna said, dropping to her knees at her side. She wiped her face. “Oh, you poor thing.” Sympathy shone in her emerald eyes.

  Pan stared at her, not really seeing.

  Brighton knelt next to Danna. “I think she’s in shock.”

  “Watch out,” Andre said, as he came back in. They moved. “Get the rest of those,” he said to Paul and Brighton, nodding to her luggage as he knelt. He scooped her up in his arms and walked with her out to the Hummer, where Joaquin and Khalil waited.

  They arrived at the airport, pulling up to their private jet with blacked out windows and a rose on the tail. Andre carried her up the steps and into the plane. Laying her to rest on a leather couch, he snapped the buckles around her waist then glanced over his shoulder, looking to seeing if the others were boarding.

  “Pan,” he said, pushing her hair back. “Pan look at me.”

  Taking a shuddering breath, she met his eyes.

  “I will do this one thing and this one thing only simply because I cannot bear to see you so broken. What would you have me tell him?”

  Pan blinked, resurfacing in the pool of awareness. “Him?”

  “Your Gray,” Andre whispered.

  A ray of sunshine, a spark of hope, pierced her gloom.

  “To many things,” she breathed. “My love is not bound with the shortness of words.”

  “Then find a short sweetness that he can hold on too,” he said even more softly as the others were loading on.

  “Tell him,” Pan whispered, “tell him I am his forever.”

  But forever would never be long enough.

  + Chapter 33 +

  Prince of Pride

  Dom’s mind raced for the vision of Pan’s face, knowing no other soothing place. He felt himself starting to fade, his love already a thousand miles away.

  “Clear smoke, light stroke of bright white wings, the angels sing, my voice not among them despite what my Pandora believes for my blood heaves, grieves, seethes with demonic entities.”

  Room dark as his heart, the moon stared down at him mockingly through the open balcony doors, as if laughing at him to say, “And you thought you could have me.” Giving a roar, Dom wheeled around and punched a hole in the wall. Plaster crumbled as he yanked his fist out.

  “Is there no pity in the heavens?” Dom demanded. Running a hand through his hair he sighed a sigh of tormented despair. “God, spare me the misery to come for I do not think I can bear the bottom of my grief, as it’s like a leaf that comes from a greater tower of life and now floats alone on the wind cursed for its sin to its kin!”

  He crouched holding his face in his hands.

  “You need your fix,” Urijah said. “Famine is in your cheeks, need and oppression in your eye. You look on the brink to die. It’s pitiful.”

  Dom stood, looking up at the moon again. Its radiance revealed Urijah sitting in a red velvet wingback chair, his leg crossed over his knee at the ankle.

  “She’s gone,” he said. “What have I now?”

  “You have tomorrow.”

  “And all to look towards is sorrow.”

  “Maybe,” Urijah began delicately. “This one thing you fight so desperately to hold onto, you should let go of. For her sake it might be best to give her up. Put your love to rest.”

  Dom threw him a fuming glare. “Let her go, give her up, set her free. With me she only will be! Selfishness is my demon, greed is its seed. Your words are the sound of madness. So take them back and step from the edge of insanity.”

  Unperturbed, Urijah held up his hands, to show he meant no harm. “Your life is my only concern. Continuing your affair may be pushing things too far.”

  “Then you should be a fear trembling man for I have no life without her,” Dom said vehemently. “Take your prayers and your cares and know I am going after her.”

  Dom had no problems sneaking onto the Rose grounds. There were hardly any guards on duty now that Pan had been carted away. With her gone even Victor had no reason to stay. Dom didn’t know what he would find, but he was looking for anything that would point him in the direction of his soul’s protection.

  Running through the grounds, reaching her garden wall, not breaking stride, Dom leaped, placing his foot in the corner, propelling himself up. Twisting in the air, he landed to sit on the wall and swiveled over, dropping. Landing in a crouch, he slowly stood, bracing for Andre to attack. He had been so intent on his mission to just get in and find Pan’s location, he hadn’t kept his guard up for well…a guard.

  “Andre,” Dom greeted tensely.

  Andre’s fierce eyes glowed like ice blue fire. His lip peeled up. “You come here to die Gray?”

  Dom let out his breath. He couldn’t stand this bloody hatred in its exhausting fight. He couldn’t stand its bloody fray that held no end in sight, ceaselessly dyeing earths innocent clay.

  “Perhaps. If it will end my misery.”

  Andre’s eyes narrowed, his expression turning curious. “Know now that I will not allow Pan to fall into a fool�
�s paradise or for you to taint her with any gross behavior. She is too young and sensitive to know when she is being led to wander.”

  “What impression you must have of me,” Dom said, aghast.

  “You are a Gray.”

  “And that qualifies me to love her more than anyone else.”

  “No one could love her more than her Rose coven,” Andre growled.

  “You’re wrong,” Dom said softly. “Unlike your Rose coven I do not hold ridiculous expectations of her, demanding she be molded into something she’s not.” His voice grew louder with his anger. “I expect nothing but her love which you condemn her for! You condemn her for loving me! As if I’m some grizzly disgusting monster who wants to do everything opposite than love her, cherish her, adore her, pure actions that you condemned because of my namesake!”

  They glared in a standoff of wills.

  “You can tell me or you cannot, but either way I am going to find her,” Dom bit out. “Where is she?”

  “She’s where you can’t get to her.”

  “There is nothing that can stop me from getting to her.”

  “She’s engaged to be married. That will stop you.”

  Dom’s face fell. He couldn’t have heard right. “What?”

  “Victor announced it hours ago.”

  Dom clenched his jaw. “Raphael,” he growled. “If he touches her—I’ll kill him.”

  Andre watched him a moment, then looked down at the ground. He nudged a fallen blossom with the toe of his boot. “As will I,” he said. “However, I’m here not because I care that you are a Gray, but because of my devotion to Pan.”

  Dom frowned.

  Andre looked up at him. “She sends a message.”

  Such a small statement froze Dom in place, much like his heart that couldn’t keep pace.

  “What does she say?” Dom asked, unable to contain his desperateness.

  Andre shook his head, wearing a small grin. “I’m not sure you’ve given me enough reason to tell you.”

  “You want me to deny my father and refuse my name? I already have! End my torment,” Dom pleaded. “Do not enjoy it. Have mercy and do not extend it. Tell me what my beloved has said.”

  Prince of Pride, he would set it to hide and fall to his knees and beg if Andre pleased it.

  “Pan is untainted by cruelty, at least—until recently.” Confliction flickered across Andre’s face. “She is ripe for the picking of any who seek to run her astray with false pretenses and hollow words of love. Words like the ones you just spoke, but all I know of your name and untame coven holds stark contrast.”

  “It is Pandora that leads me to wander,” Dom said with imploration. “And I follow eagerly even if her steps lead to devil’s water. Without me she would survive, without her I would shrivel and die. I revel equally in her sweetly spoken words and in her silence as mischief and innocent all at once dances across her face. The touch and whisper of her lips are a life force stronger than the stolen blood in my veins. She is the moon, illuminating my patch of darkness. I would no sooner harm her by hands, words, or actions, than I have the ability to harm air. If she demanded my heart, and she has, then in its raw unbeating, beating form I would gladly gut open my chest and place it before her feet to rest. So tell me what has my beloved said?”

  Bending and picking up the white Meidiland rose head, Andre sighed. “She has said what you already claim to know. That she is yours forever.”

  Dom closed his eyes, the tension easing from his shoulders as he absorbed those words.

  Andre looked up at him from under his brow. “Was hearing that worth all your declarations?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Andre nodded, examining the flower again. “You better leave,” he said, turning his back on him.

  Dom’s perceptive eyes caught what looked to be a flower petal flutter to the ground as Andre disappeared into the darkness of Pan’s room. When he heard the bedroom door close he ran to it, finding a small piece of folded paper. He opened it and read.

  The wet blacktop shone like a reflecting alternate universe as Dom strode fast across it. The brightness of the lights hurt his eyes, the noise irritating his sensitive ears. With all these advancements in physical evolution it would seem as the angel Pan claimed him to be, his white wings were slow to grow.

  So instead, Dom climbed the stairs of his private plane, putting Icarus to shame.

  + Chapter 34 +

  Princess of Pain

  Pan slept the entire flight, having no real consciousness of time. The landing jostled her awake.

  Groggy, she sat up and rubbed her sore eyes. “Where are we?”

  “Don’t know yet,” Brighton said, unbuckling and standing.

  Waiting for the pilot to open the hatch, Pan slipped on a pair of Audrey Hepburn sunglasses to hide her red and puffy eyes. She had shed enough tears to last her for years.

  “I’m cold,” was all she had to say for Isla to appear with a short black cape. Draping it around her shoulders, Isla buttoned the diamond chain at her neck. Pan pulled it around her as she was still wearing the lace dress.

  Descending the stairs, Pan saw Isaac waiting next to a stretch limo, arms crossed over his thick chest. Even with the glasses she had to squint against the sinfully bright dawn.

  “Princess,” Isaac greeted, his voice a deep rumble. His beautiful and inhuman violet eyes were hidden behind the sunglasses he always wore.

  He smiled displaying his gold capped fangs and held open his arms. Pan walked into them, needing a hug more than he knew. Like Andre, Isaac had guarded her since birth, just not as consistently. In his arms, she disappeared beneath his bulk as he was such a towering huge man. Skin black as night, tattoos decorated his jaw like sideburns as he rocked a Mohawk.

  A jagged white scar he had received trying to rescue her mother Evangeline from the werewolf Lomax traced from his eyebrow to the top of his skull. Isaac had been deeply devoted to Evangeline since she had saved him from his slavery in France, turning him. So, in a way, Pan was of distant kin to him and now that her mother was dead, his devotion had transferred to her.

  Pan had expected to find herself in British Columbia thinking perhaps she had been banished to their cabin there. Or to their castle in France, or the villa in Italy, or the penthouse in Tokyo, but when leaving the airport, she discovered she was in Athens, Greece, an equally rich and vibrant culture.

  As happy as she could be with Isaac, Pan slumped against Paul in the back of the limo wanting Andre, though he wouldn’t be coming right away having to close some of her affairs.

  Arriving at the extremely luxurious King George Palace, Pan sat up. Expecting her, a dozen of the hotel staff stood at the curb. Leaving them to unload everything, her entourage encircled her and hustled her in. People looked around at them with interest.

  Reaching the elevators where her personal concierge waited, he hit the button for the private elevator belonging to the Royal Penthouse Suite that consisted of the whole ninth floor.

  Every time they stayed here, they rented it and the King George II Suite. Victor preferred the Penthouse as it had a steam room, exquisite art, unrefined lavish décor, separate entrances, and Pan’s favorite part the piece de resistance, or private terrace with a pool that looked out over an unsurpassed view of the city. From the Acropolis where the Protectress of the City Athena’s Parthenon stood, to the white marbled Panathenaic Stadium.

  While all this would have captivated any eye into awed fascination Pan could have cared less. She’d been here many times and even lived here for ten months when she was six. All she wanted was Dom and since she couldn’t have him, coming in second place was a bed, and that was exactly where she headed.

  Collapsing on the bronze comforter, Pan laid there as her luggage was brought in. Danna and Isla unpacked for her. When they finished, Isla sat beside her while Danna pulled Pan’s boots off.

  “I’m sorry Pan,” Isla said, stroking her hair. “We got out some clothes. Do you want to chang
e?”

  Pan shook her head no.

  “Do you want us to get you anything?” Danna asked. “Food maybe?”

  “No, I just want to be alone.”

  Danna sighed and they left. When the door closed, Pan turned over and looked around. Seeing her jewelry box on the dresser, she went to it. Unclipping the cape, Pan tossed it on a chair. Opening the antique box, she felt for the little button triggering the hidden compartment to pop open. Staring up at her in mockery was the Cracker Jack compass Dom had given her.

  “Why is it I have this when you are the one who needs it most?” Pan said. “Oh Romeo, oh Romeo, my darling Dominic del Romeo, you are so far as heaven is where you are. How will you ever find me? Married months in my heart, days, hours, seconds, and I have yet to feel the touch of my beloved. To feel my thighs quiver as he kisses me in places I’ve dared not even dream. To feel his belly pressed against mine as his hips rock between mine. And now…I will never have the chance as I am damnably bound to a monster that knows no gentleness, knows not even the word.”

  Pan looked out the terrace doors where ocean met sky, the wild waves not its friend as the meeting clouds had a lot to contend.

  “Oh moon, hidden behind the suns garish eye, speed his love to me, send it my way, I pray, I beg, or my soul will split from this earthly being and follow him to his heavenly scene. Come Dominic, come my husband to be. Come the day in the night, I hold no fright for when I die, take him and cut him out in little stars, as he will make the face of heaven so fine, the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun, but walk where the night was won.”

  Feeling like she could cry, Pan only sighed as her reservoir gone dry. Pulling the necklace over her head, she closed the terrace doors to the oceans symphony, hiding it behind the blackout curtains. She wanted everything to be as dark as her heart.

  Quickly changing, Pan crawled into bed, yanking the blankets over her head. The spears of pain stabbing her heart were so immense she just wanted to disappear.