Part 28 (2/2)
I want forever.” She smiled. She was fairly sure it was only a little lopsided. ”I've always been greedy. Or maybe I haven't been greedy enough. It doesn't matter. I want forever, like the Ruffords have. If you can't give me that then let us part when we reach Algiers.”
He stared at her, shock making his heart thump in his chest. She loved him. So much she wanted... Did she know what she was asking for? ”You don't know what it's like.”
”But I do.” She said it calmly. ”I know it all, remember?”
”Even I don't know all of it. I am what they call a firebrand, and I don't understand that.”
”Then we both have parts we don't understand. I don't know why I have visions, or what to do about them.” She took a breath, then had the temerity to chuckle. ”After drinking human blood and compulsion, starting fires seems a little paltry.”
It was the things one couldn't control that frightened one. They had that in common. ”You can't make light of becoming vampire, Kate. It's irrevocable.”
”I don't make light of it,” she said, growing serious. ”I want it. And don't you dare tell me it isn't allowed.”
”The Elders-”
”I know. And the Rules.” The way she said it dismissed them as unimportant. ”It's your duty to make us both unhappy by refusing to make me vampire. Haven't you done enough duty in your life? You fought those dreadful wars. You took the stones back where they belonged. A little rebellion would do you a world of good.”
If my mother had made my father vampire, their love would have lasted for eternity. He knew that. His mother must know it too. She obeyed the Rules at the cost of an eternity of regret. Not to mention the fact that his father aged and died. How did she live with that? All her effort to do good in the world was really a compensation for the fact that, when her situation called for courage, she had retired from the field. All the women in his life had compared badly in his mind with his mother. Her vibrancy, her intelligence made them all pale in comparison. But Kate showed up his mother's cowardice for what it was. He didn't love his mother less. Kate had made her comprehensible. But his mother couldn't hold a candle to Kate.
And Kate wanted him. No matter that he was vampire. Enough to become vampire herself. He didn't deserve that. He should protect her from herself. He should refuse.
As he had been refusing to become involved with women all his life? His mother's pain was so frightening Gian had refused to allow the possibility of pain in his own life. Oh, he was more of a coward than his mother was. She at least had taken the plunge once.
Kate was waiting. Giving him time. Now it was up to him to give them both time. If only he could be sure what he was doing wouldn't hurt her. His eyes roved over her, looking for answers. She still had that silly silver-beaded reticule hanging from her wrist. He gave a nervous laugh. ”Maybe you could rea.s.sure us both by reading our future in the cards.”
She looked down, surprised, then shook her head. ”They never told the future.” She took the reticule from her pocket and opened it. She removed the tarot deck encrusted with gilt stars and tossed it to the hard-packed sand of the plateau. ”I thought the cards were part of me. They're not.”
”But you know the future,” he said, trying not to sound desperate.
She smiled ruefully. ”I never see my own.” She grew thoughtful. ”And I've never seen anything of yours beyond the time when Elyta tortured you.”They looked at each other.
He was the one to say it. ”Maybe... maybe that's because our future is together.”
She took a breath. ”Or maybe not.”
So. No easy answers. No guarantees. One had to just take the plunge, not knowing.
”Come on,” he said, grabbing Kate's wrist in one hand, and the reins of the horse in the other. ”We need shelter.”
Chapter Twenty-two.
Kate stood, trembling, inside the thick-walled, single-room structure that was the best the little cl.u.s.ter of houses around the oasis had to offer. It belonged to a family who had gladly vacated to a tent when they saw the color of Gian's gold. The floor was packed sand, the only furniture a wide bed and a table with two chairs. Gian was seeing to the horse. Kate was busy sweeping the corners of her soul to gather up any dusty speck of courage she could muster.
She was going to let him make her vampire. When he could abandon her at a moment's notice, and leave her standing on the sh.o.r.es of eternity. When he would have to tire of her, scarred as she was. When changing meant she must drink human blood, and lose the sun forever. When she would become something children had nightmares about and their parents feared.
Yes. All of that. Because she saw that there was a giant hole in the fabric of her soul. And the only way she could knit up that awful rent was to do the thing she feared most. Grab for the bra.s.s ring. Take a chance on abandonment.
The man she loved just happened to be a vampire. Well, they were alike in lots of other ways; stubborn, arrogant.
sometimes angry, controlled by their pasts, determined not to be. Now they'd be alike in this one too.
He ducked in under the flap of leather that stood in for a door in the little hut. ”They won't disturb us, except to leave food outside the door.” He was carrying a tray filled with the ubiquitous dates, a bowl of some kind of stew, and two crude cups full of wine. It all smelled lovely. He set it down on the pallet supported by a wooden frame and rope netting which formed the bed.
”Eat,” he whispered. ”You will need your strength.”
That sounded ominous. He went around the room pulling closed the shutters, sliding the fabric or leather over the windows to keep out the rising sun.
She ate, hardly tasting the lamb stew. He did not join her, but watched from a corner, his arms folded and a closed expression on his face. Was he having second thoughts? When she pushed away the bowl, he came and knelt in front of her.
”This will not be pleasant,” he said. ”After you are infected, you will get sick. Then you must have more of my blood to give you immunity or you will die. There is a possibility you could die anyway, if... if the parasite weakens you more than I can counteract with my blood.” Courage drained from his expression. He turned away. ”I can't risk it.”
”You can't not risk it, Gian Vincenzo Urbano. I want this.” She was surprised at the ferocity in her own voice. ”If you betray me with cowardice I will never forgive you.”
He sucked in a breath then let it out and nodded. ”I'll drain the last drop in my veins to give you strength. Know that.” He gathered himself. ”In three days, if this works, you will recover, and you will be vampire. The instant my blood touches yours there is no going back.”
Previous TopShe swallowed. Why was nothing ever easy? ”I understand.”
He pulled her to him. ”G.o.d forgive me. I'm selfish. I love you so much I can't imagine being without you. Ever.”
She pulled him even closer. ”'And I love you so much I demand it of you.”
He took a breath. ”I'll try to make this as painless as possible.”
”Then love me as you do it.”
He blinked in surprise, and then his eyes ignited. She opened her thighs. He knelt between them and kissed her lips. He was tender, though she felt the latent power in each straining muscle in his body. She drew his head closer and deepened their kiss.
His amis slid around her and he held her close. The need for him was a pain between her legs. She felt him swell against her most private parts and they ached even more.
”G.o.d, Kate,” he swore softly. ”I never thought you'd love me.”
”Every woman who has ever seen you has loved you,” she said into his mouth. He was pulling at his burnoose, even as he kissed her.
”They didn't love me. They loved the body.” Then he was naked and pulling at her loose s.h.i.+rt and the flowing pants.
She pressed her naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s against his chest. Her nipples peaked. His four-day growth of beard was p.r.i.c.kly against her lips.
He was rock hard now. How she wanted him inside her! So she took his shaft in her hand and guided it to the entrance of her womb. He groaned, but it wasn't in protest. He lifted her b.u.t.tocks, as easily as though she weighed nothing, and she opened to him farther so he could thrust inside her.
She threw back her head as he penetrated her. But she could not be parted from his lips for long. They collided again and again as he held her and thrust into her. She scoured his mouth with her tongue as though she was searching for something she'd never known before. How would he do it? Would he wait until the sleepy afterglow of pa.s.sion? She opened her eyes, and saw his open too. They were red. She pulled back and watched in fascination as his canines lengthened. He bit his own lip. Blood welled, viscous and bright red in the dim hut. She knew now how he would do it. She threw back her head, arching her neck to invite him.
And he accepted. His kiss on her throat turned sharp, and she felt the twin stabbing pains even as he thrust into her again. This time he took only one long sucking pull on her throbbing artery and withdrew. The blood on his lips was now both hers and his own, mingled, for all time.
<script>