Choosing Eternity
The Sullivan Vampires, Volume 3
by Bridget Essex
Synopsis:
Is love forever?
Rose Clyde is irrevocably in love with the alluring vampire Kane Sullivan...but their passionate love affair has seemingly been doomed from the very start.
Once, long ago, Kane made an immortal enemy...and now that enemy has returned and craves revenge. Kane's love for Rose is her only weakness, and--to exploit it--there is a plot for Rose's life. If Kane's enemies have their way, Rose will die at the grandest event of the year: the vampire ball.
But Rose just got Kane back. And she won't lose her without a fight...
Find out if love is eternal in the passionate, thrilling conclusion to the SULLIVAN VAMPIRES trilogy.
"Choosing Eternity"
The Sullivan Vampires, Volume 3
© Bridget Essex 2018
Rose and Star Press
First Edition
All rights reserved
Please don’t pirate this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons or werewolves, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Dedication:
For the love of my life.
You are my eternity.
Contents:
Part One: Eternal Dream
Part Two: Eternal Vow
Part Three: Eternal Choice
Epilogue
A Love Letter to My Readers
More from Bridget Essex
About the Author
-- Part One: Eternal Dream --
There are several moments in my life that are impossible to forget. The first time I met Anna, the first time we kissed. The first time we made love. I was drunk on wine and she was sober and so tender and sweet.
The first time I met Kane.
The first time we kissed.
The first time her mouth drifted over my skin. The first time I cried her name out in the dark, the two of us tangled together…
All of these are, of course, good moments. Good moments, truly wonderful ones, have a way of living in your heart forever. I don’t know if it’s true, but I like to believe that—even if we lose our memories—they still reside in us somewhere, imprinted in our cells, our very DNA.
But the bad moments?
The bad ones last, too.
And this moment, this moment of staring through the open door, of seeing a strange woman transform into Melody, knowing that Melody was not who she said she was…
It was a nightmare moment.
And that, too, would live inside of me for always.
I was hidden far enough away in the shadows of the hallway that I couldn’t be seen. I hoped. The door into the empty room—empty save for the mirror and the woman-who-wasn’t-really-Melody—was open only a little. It was hard to see into that room, but that meant I was also shielded from her view.
I held my breath as I watched this stranger turn in the mirror…this not-Melody.
Who the hell was she?
The stranger pirouetted in front of the mirror, glancing at herself this way and that, as if she was a regular woman, having a regular moment of getting dressed for the day, and not a vampire who’d just transformed her face, singing creepily to herself in an empty room.
I wasn’t Melody’s biggest fan, granted, but I think anyone would be hard pressed to not find this sight eerie.
Well…eerie. And dangerous.
Because Melody was a vampire. And she was very angry at me currently. Kane had chosen me over her, and she’d been fairly furious about that fact last night…I doubted this would have changed for the positive by morning.
The realization of my precarious situation came over me by degrees, slow and crawling over my skin with a pronounced chill. I shivered a little, taking a step back, moving out of view of the crack in the doorway…
I turned and was about to head back down the corridor, back toward Gwen’s room…
When I heard another voice coming from behind me.
Another voice in the room.
I couldn’t help myself. I knew it was a horrible idea, a wretched one, but I paused, as still as a statue, holding my breath, listening.
And then I turned around and paced back quietly…
And peered again through the crack in the door.
Melody still stood in front of the mirror, but her back was to the glass in the mirror’s antique frame now.
And the glass showed the reflection of the rest of the empty room…
There are a lot of myths about vampires—no, garlic has no effect on them, and they don’t sleep in coffins. These are the hallmarks of cartoon vampires, pop culture vampires. The myth that vampires cast no reflections is just that…a myth.
So Melody was casting a perfect reflection in the mirror…and her reflection was joined by another woman who stood near to Melody. I could only see her in reflection because of my narrowed view, and as I peered at the reflection in the mirror, my brow furrowed.
Hadn’t I seen this woman before?
She was tall, with long white-blonde waves of hair that fell over her shoulders. She had a cruel face, with a thin nose, high cheekbones and piercing, cold eyes that reminded me of a shark’s. She was very pretty in a “perfume ad” or “haute couture fashion show” kind of way. She stood, rail thin in her pencil skirt and cream-colored blouse, her chin raised, and there was not an ounce of emotion in her as she stared at Melody.
She wore a tight frown.
“Are you done preening yourself like a peacock?” the woman hissed into the stillness. “I didn’t come here to waste time.”
“Try to be nice, dear,” said Melody, clamping her teeth in a ferocious smile. She turned and glanced over her shoulder at the back of her dress. Melody cocked her head, considering her own reflection before smoothing her hands over the material on her rear. “We’re stuck with each other for just a little while longer.”
“I know,” said the taller woman, giving Melody an equally insincere smile. Her face seemed to stretch a little, and a chill passed over me as that smile deepened, her eyes becoming sunken, and…hungry looking. “I’m counting the seconds.”
Melody raised a brow but said nothing as she turned again in the mirror, considering herself a bit like a ballerina on top of a child’s jewelry box. She sniffed. “God, I can’t wait to be rid of this hideous form.”
“I can’t wait for a lot of things,” said the other woman, glancing down at the phone in her hand as she leaned back into her towering high heels. “Are you certain that everything has been taken care of for this evening?”
“Don’t you trust me?” asked Melody, batting her eyes at the woman with the white-blonde hair. For her part, this woman drew herself up to her full height (which was quite tall, especially paired with the heels), and sneered at the shorter Melody.
“Hardly. And why should I? It’s not as if your other part of the plan went swimmingly.”
Melody snorted. “It is not my fault that Kane got wind of—”
The other woman stepped forward so quickly and suddenly that she was a blur of motion.
Her hand, with its long, cruel fingers, was wrapped tightly about Melody’s throat.
They stared at one another for a long moment, but Melody didn’t look particularly frightened. In fact, she seemed defiant, staring the other woman down with a sneer, her blood-red lips up and over her teeth…teeth that grew more pointed, even as I watched them.
“Careful,” Melody murmured, turning her mouth up at the corners. “Wouldn’t want Darcy to get wind of how you treat me. Especially before t
onight.”
I breathed out, everything slowing down, just for a heartbeat…
Wait…
Darcy?
Darcy.
I gasped a little, put my hand over my mouth, tried to keep quiet…
I remembered where I’d heard that name. Just last night, the two vampires who’d come after us, tried to kill us… They said Darcy had sent them.
I stared at the two women in the room, my mouth open.
Melody had something to do with Darcy.
There was a tense moment where the two women glared hatred, pure and dazzling in its intensity, at one another. And then the white-blonde woman stepped back, her head to the side as she stared at Melody, curling her fingers that had just been wrapped around Melody’s throat into a fist, instead.
“Your incompetence almost botched this entire thing,” said the taller woman slowly, carefully, giving a smile that was mostly teeth. “So I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I don’t have a great deal of patience for you.”
Melody turned back to the mirror, running her fingers through her curls. “It’s not going to matter, and you know it,” she said with a little shrug. “Anyway, it’s better this way. We’ll be able to get rid of Rose in front of everyone, so it’ll be much more dramatic, don’t you see? We won’t have to announce that Kane is weak; everyone will be able to witness her weakness with their very own eyes. They’ll watch Kane be destroyed right in front of them, made to cower with despair… That is what will win them all over to you, Magdalena,” said Melody, turning, her eyes bright with a feverish glee. “They’ll fall at your feet like supplicants,” she whispered, taking a step forward, wrapping her arms about Magdalena’s neck, her head to the side as she stared up at the vampire from beneath long lashes. “They’ll worship you, then,” she breathed.
Magdalena stiffened under her caresses, brows furrowed, leaning back into her heels a little more, away from Melody. “Don’t touch me.”
“That’s not what you said last night,” Melody purred.
“That,” Magdalena snarled, “was very much a one-time thing.”
“The feeling’s mutual.” Melody batted her long, black lashes at Magdalena, laughing as she danced away from her.
“If Darcy found out I’d fucked her beloved—”
“So crass,” pouted Melody prettily. “I just wanted to know what you tasted like.” Her grin deepened. “And I didn’t like it one bit.”
“You are insufferable,” snarled Magdalena, and with a crash that reverberated across the entire floor, she slammed the wooden door shut. Their voices became muted and muffled behind the shut door, and I could hear nothing else.
But I’d certainly heard enough.
I stood there, my breath pumping in and out of my lungs quickly.
It’s not every day that you hear people discussing murdering you.
And they’d been discussing killing me tonight.
That…isn’t really a conversation life prepares you for.
I took in a deep breath, my hands curling into fists at my sides. It was going to be all right, of course. I’d heard them; I could keep this plan from happening.
Today was not going to be the day I died.
I had a lot to live for, dammit. I wasn’t ready to go, and I certainly wasn’t ready to be some chess pawn in a vampire hierarchy.
I was no one’s plaything, and I would not be used like this.
I refused.
I headed quickly toward the staircase at a trot. All right, first thing was first…Magdalena had looked familiar. I had a vague recollection of checking her into the hotel for the Conference. And now, of course, I knew that Melody wasn’t who she said she was. It would linger in my nightmares forever, the eerie transformation of the woman’s face from Melody’s into…someone else’s. How was that even possible?
But I’d just fallen in love with a vampire, after all. I was the last one to be asking what was and was not possible.
My head was bent, and though my senses were heightened, though my adrenaline was pouring through me, I wasn’t as alert as I probably should have been. I was intent on finding Kane, intent on coming up with a plan, together, to beat the not-Melody at her own game. Together, Kane and I would figure out how best to handle this…
So I was too lost in thought.
If I’d been paying attention, maybe I would have seen her coming. Maybe I would have been able to double back, get to Gwen’s rooms before she’d been able to spot me.
Maybe I would have been able to avoid what happened next.
But I did not.
I reached the top of the staircase, and I stopped, quickly.
Ascending the stairs toward me was an older woman. She wore a billowing black dress, a vintage style with an elaborate, tiered skirt of shimmering black tulle. Her long, wrinkled fingers—tipped with frighteningly sharp black nails—clutched the gown as she ascended each step with a slow, calculating motion.
She wore large black retro sunglasses, and when she looked up at me…
She smiled.
I took a step back. I couldn’t see her eyes, but I could very clearly see her face, could very clearly see the sharpness of her teeth as she opened her red-painted lips wide for me.
Maybe I was wrong, but I had the feeling that—in the hallways and open places of the Sullivan Hotel, at least, where humans were present—the vampires at the Conference weren’t supposed to reveal their vampire-ness.
But the woman ascending the stairs toward me was very much a vampire and doing absolutely nothing to hide it.
I wracked my brains, trying to remember where I’d seen her before. But my brain was being overridden, currently, by my fight or flight responses that were firing throughout my entire body.
This woman had very long teeth and was coming my way.
The wounds in my neck, just a few days old, began to throb as the stranger ascended the last of the steps and stood in the hallway with me now. Self-consciously, I reached up, placed a hand over my neck.
The woman’s smile…deepened.
We still said nothing as we looked at one another, which unnerved me further. I cleared my throat, nodded my head to her, gave a wan smile. “Hello—can I help you with something?” I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. I was on the floor for the servants. There was no reason that any of our guests would be on this floor. I tried again: “Are you lost?” I asked it hopefully.
The woman, still, said nothing.
The hair on the back of my neck stood to attention, gooseflesh sprouted over my arms, and I took a few steps widely around the woman, toward the staircase, my hand reaching in the air for the railing. I found it, gripped it, nodded my head to her in terse farewell, and then I descended the stairs quickly.
I didn’t look back up at the woman, not until I reached the landing where I’d turn to continue down to the next floor. Then and only then did I turn back and look over my shoulder to see if she was still there.
But she wasn’t up in the hallway.
Instead, the woman was on the landing.
With me.
I jumped out of my skin.
It was the single-most unnerving thing I have ever experienced, turning to glimpse this woman with her terrifying smile standing a mere few feet away from me. There had been no sound, no footsteps, not even the slightest hush of her skirts moving about her as I treaded the staircase down to the landing. But, suddenly, the woman was simply there, her dress still, her smile fixed in place and—now—impossibly…growing.
The woman cocked her head to the side, and she held out a hand to me.
And, in her hand, clutched between curving, claw-like fingers…was a little heart pin.
The dress I was wearing was Dolly’s, of course, borrowed for me by Kane, because the clothes I’d been wearing last night were still covered in Gwen’s blood. Dolly loved to accessorize, and the dress she’d let me borrow had a little vintage heart pin on the lapel. Or, at least, the pin had been there when I’d put on
the dress.
It must have fallen off in the hallway. At the top of the stairs.
The woman held the pin out to me, and her smile didn’t waver, not for an instant.
I’d seen my share of vampires in the last few days. They were just like people, except for the fact that most of them were beautiful. The ultimate predator, right? They lured you in with their beauty, with their intoxicating loveliness.
But some were not lovely at all.
Some were terrifying.
This woman’s disturbing look… It could be harmless (as harmless as any vampire can be, of course). But every instinct I possessed told me that I needed to escape her presence now.
I’d almost been killed by vampires several times in the past few days.
I was tired of giving the benefit of the doubt.
But this was Dolly’s dress I was borrowing, and that was Dolly’s pin I’d just lost.
I needed to get it back…
I held out my hand for the pin, brow furrowed, heart pounding loudly in the stillness.
We stared at one another for a long moment—too long, really. It became awkward and desperately uncomfortable. I shifted my weight on my feet.
Only after it had become too uncomfortable did the stranger move.
She uncurled her fist and let the pin fall into my waiting hand.
I watched the little silver thing spin end over end in the air as it dropped down to my outstretched palm.
But the backing of the pin had come unclasped, and the little pin bit into my skin. The smallest round dot of blood blossomed on my palm.
The woman stared down at the blood, and I stared at the blood, too, and as she licked her lips, as she took one step forward, I was also taking a step backward, and then another. I threw good manners to the proverbial wind as I raced down the rest of the stairs, descending, hoping against hope that when I turned to look over my shoulder, the woman would not be right behind me.
Maybe she would have been had I not heard voices ascending toward me on the steps around the next turn in the staircase…
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