Always (31 page)

“
It will just take time.”

“
I guess we have plenty of that now.” I sniffed back my stubborn tears.

“
I know that it’s selfish, but I’m glad I get to spend my time with you.”

“
You are?” I smiled up at him through my tears.

“
I am.” He gently wiped away the moisture under my eyes. His fingers lingered on my face, tracing the shape of my lips. I closed my eyes before his lips met mine, savoring the sounds my heart made when he was this close. “Your heart is still so human,” he whispered.

“
What?” I pulled back slightly. “Yours still beats, too.”

“
It doesn’t have to.”

“
No?” I pressed my hand against his chest, but there was no longer the steady beat that was so comforting. Disappointment cut through my stomach like a knife. I dropped my hand back to my lap.

“
It still beats.” He took my hand and put it back to his chest. “See?” I nodded, feeling slightly better to hear his heart again. “When you’re young–like you–your heart still beats on its own; meaning it still has to. With time, you’ll be able to stop it all together whenever you want.”

“
Why would you want to?” The question fired out of my mouth before I could take it back.

“
There are times when you need to. Like when you’re supposed to be dead, or when you don’t want anyone to hear you.”

Anyone? By that I was sure he meant other vampires. If he was talking about humans, he wouldn’t have cared about his heart beating–they couldn’t hear that. But if he meant vampires, did that mean he had enemies?

“
Do you hurt each other?”

“
Some do. That’s part of the reason my brothers and I joined together. There is strength in numbers.”

“
There are only six of you.” He shrugged. “And there are 500 warriors.”

“
There
were
500 warriors.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
Neleh has hunted down a lot of them.”

“
How many are left?”

“
No one really knows. The ones left stay quiet–most of them anyways.” A small smile played at his lips.

“
But, Ryan tried to kill us.”

“
He tried to kill you,” Marcus corrected. “Even though we’re not well liked, there aren’t many who would take on the Letrell Brothers.” There was so much pride in his voice. “And now you are a Letrell.”

“
I’m not strong like you. I don’t want to be,” I half sobbed. “I don’t want to be a monster, Marcus. Please don’t make me.”

He squeezed my hand firmly between his larger ones. “I won’t,” he vowed. “I’ll take care of you, Claudia. You never have to worry about anything again–I promise.”

Chapter
Thirty-Two

1980

The sunlight danced on the pure white walls. Even after all these years, I still preferred the sunlight to the moonlight. I wiggled my toes under the blanket knowing that it would wake Marcus up.

“
Are you awake already, my love?” came his raspy morning voice.

“
The sun is up.”

“
I think the sun was up when we went to sleep.”

I blushed at his teasing words. “You got back late,” I reminded him.

He smiled widely and rolled over to pin me under him. “Good morning, my beautiful wife.”

“
I couldn’t agree more.”

“
That you are beautiful?”

“
That it’s a good morning,” I laughed.

“
Ah.” He buried his face in my hair and inhaled deeply. “I love waking up to you.”

“
I would hope so. You’ve been doing it for quite some time.”

“
Yes,” he agreed.

His lopsided grin never failed to make my heart do summersaults. The longer we spent together, the worse it got. Marcus had promised that we could always be like this, and I could live with that. David and Sylvia were no longer with us, but it didn’t get boring as I had once thought it would.

He lowered his eyes and I heard his teeth chewing on his bottom lip. “What is it?” I immediately knew something was wrong.

“
Nothing. Well…”

“
Well?” My eyes narrowed. This kind of well wasn’t usually followed by something I wanted to hear.

“
We have to leave tonight.”

“
And go where?”

“
To London.”

“
You can’t be serious.”

He raised himself up on two elbows. “It’s not…it’s not an unreasonable request.”

“
We said,” I took a deep breath, “You said we would never go back there.”

“
It was a very long time ago that I said that.”

“
And what? Now never means something different?”

“
Silango has called me.” I turned away from him, refusing to acknowledge that hated name. “I would have taken you to Blakesly House to keep you safe, but there isn’t time.”

“
Why?” I demanded.

“
It’s urgent that I see him now.”

“
Because he said so?”

“
Yes, Claudia, because he said so.”

“
Well, I’m not going with you.”

“
I’m not leaving you unguarded.”

“
I’ll be fine.”

“
No,” he shook his head firmly. “You’re coming with me.”

“
Don’t you remember the last time we went to London?”

“
I changed you into a vampire.”

“
I’m not even talking about that,” I shot him my best glare. “I’m talking about how mean you were to me, how different you became.”

“
It won’t be like that this time.”

“
What’s different about this time?”

His eyebrows drew together drastically. “You are.”

“
I don’t…”

“
Don’t you see, my love?” He traced his finger below my bottom lip and up under my eye. “I won’t have to keep anything from you. You’ll be able to know where I am and why I need to go. It was all the secrets that estranged us.”

I saw the wisdom in his words, but I wasn’t ready to give in yet. “London was the root of all our problems. It we had stayed in Hamel, we would have been fine.”

“
You married a vampire. Your life was never going to be fine again.”

“
It’s not so bad now.”

“
No?” He jabbed his fingers lightly against my ribs; knowing exactly where I was most ticklish.

“
Stop!” I squealed.

“
Stop what? I’m having such a hard time hearing you.”

I squirmed under his touch. “This isn’t going to work.”

“
Are you suggesting that I have an ulterior motive for making my wife smile?” His mouth widened in mock horror.

“
Not at all,” I laughed, “but I’m still not going to London.”

“
Sylvia will be there.”

His sudden declaration made me fall silent. “What?”

“
I received word from her two days ago saying she would meet us in London the day after tomorrow.”

“
That’s not fair.” He knew how much I wanted to see my old friend. So much time had passed since I saw her last. It wasn’t right to bribe me with that. What if I still said no? Would he refuse to let me see her?

“
It’s not…my choice.”

“
Who’s choice is it?” But I already knew. He didn’t need to say his name. It seemed like back luck to say his name so much in one day.

“
Silango wishes her to be there–and you too.”

“
Me?” I couldn’t hide my shock. Why would he want to see me?

He sighed heavily. He had obviously known for a little while now. “It will be fine, Claudia.”

“
Actually,” I admitted on sigh, “it would be nice to see Sylvia.”

“
I miss her, too.” I was surprised to hear him say that. He always said that trouble followed Sylvia. “It’s been…”

“
Six years,” I finished for him. “Six long years.”

“
Has it really been so bad just being with me?”

“
No,” I swatted at his chest, “of course not. I just…miss Sylvia, and now David, too.”

This time, when we had all split ways, it was different. Normally, we made plans for when we would rejoin each other, but this time, they just left. We didn’t even know for sure where they went. At least he had found Sylvia.

“
Do you think Sylvia and David have seen each other?” I wondered out loud.

“
I don’t think they have.”

“
I don’t understand how they can just part ways like that.” He shrugged, more interested in the shapes on the pillowcase under my head. “You would never leave me, right, Marcus?”

“
You and I are different.”

“
Because you love me?”

“
Sometimes.”

I pursed my lips tightly, narrowing my eyes at him. “David loves her.”

“
He does.”

“
And she loves him, too.”

“
I’m not arguing with you.” He kissed the bottom of my jaw, trying to distract me.

“
They should be together.”

“
I am sure they will be again one day. They’re just taking a little…break.”

“
You’ll never need a break, though, right?”

“
Never.” He kissed me softly until my frown lines disappeared. “We’ve had some good times together, haven’t we?”

“
Do you remember that time in Spain?” I could barely hold in my laughter.

“
Oh,” he groaned loudly and covered his face with his hand.

I couldn’t hold back my laughs then. “I bet that train conductor still talks about that.”

“
If he’s still alive.”

“
One can only hope.”

“
Do you remember right after Sylvia left?”

“
And we took David to Paris to cheer him up?”

“
And he got drunk?”

“
And jumped off the Eiffel tower?”

“
It didn’t go exactly like I had planned,” I admitted with a grin.

“
We took him to the city of love right after his love left him.”

“
Paris is a beautiful city,” I still defended my plan to cheer David up. “Who knew he was so suicidal?”

“
Oh, I don’t think he was suicidal. He just wanted to make you mad.”

I shook my head, familiar angry fondness for David making me smile. “It worked.”

Marcus laughed loudly. “I’ll never forget the look on those people’s faces.”

“
When he actually jumped or when he got up and walked away from it?”

The bed shook with his laughter. “Both.”

“
Hmph,” I snorted.

“
You were so mad,” he reminded me.

“
I might still be.” I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t help anything, laughing and carrying on.”

“
Oh, David,” he sighed. “Some good times we’ve had.”

“
You still haven’t heard from him?”

He shook his head, his laughter dying on his lips. “Two years now–nothing.”

“
He’s been unhappy for a long time,” I commented.

“
Maybe even before Sylvia left.”

Sylvia and I had talked about it. She had known that David was unhappy. She didn’t know the whole story why David had left the Letrell’s; only that he and Damien had fought. I couldn’t imagine what had made him angry enough to go out on his own, but I did see his dark moods.

It was the reason Sylvia had decided to leave. The two weren’t bonded, just chosen mates. She thought that leaving him would set him free. She was wrong, of course, but now we couldn’t find David.