Moonless (18 page)

48

Stolen Moments

Kiren was certain he’d stolen something that didn’t belong to him. Any instant the world would explode in a fiery ball and the elements would melt with fervent heat. That, or an army of eternal wraiths would attack and destroy the one thing he cared about most on Earth. For this instant, however, he clung to Alexia, savoring the softness of her lips and the sweetest wine of her kiss. Here was his heaven. If he never had greater, it would suffice.

But he ached for more.

Oh how he ached for more—an entire lifetime of these stolen moments! Would fate ever grant him the one desire of his heart? And how many times would he have to lose her before consigning his hopeful heart to the truth?

49

The Decision

The first gray light of morning roused Alexia with breathless apprehension. She touched her lips and relived the way he held her, the fervor of his kiss, the sound of her name on his desperate tongue. She had no idea how long she’d lost herself in his passion, but at last he had escorted her to her room and insisted she sleep, promising they would talk in the morning.

Her stomacher wouldn’t button quickly enough, the catches slipped as she hastened to fasten her bodice, her skirts took entirely too long to settle, and her hair seemed hopeless!

She found him tucked away in the parlor, sitting near a gloomy window reading a palm-sized red book. She wondered if he’d slept at all after such a late night, or if he’d spent the entire evening—like the one before—watching. Did he ever sleep?

Upon her entry he folded his read, tucked it deep within his coat and rose. He stepped right up to her. Her body reacted without consent, tilting forward.

He chuckled. His hand closed over hers, sending a thrill of pleasure up her arm. “You must not be so eager.”

She reddened, embarrassed and angry, and lifted their clasped fingers. “Then you must not be so quick to engage.”

He sighed and brushed her jaw. “Quick? I suppose you do not know how long I have been aching to do this.” He pulled her in and placed a lingering kiss on her lips, arms slipping around her center. 

She stared into his eyes. “What stopped you?”

“Business first.” He drew her deeper into the study, pulling the doors closed behind them. Her heart sped as his cloudy eyes turned on her. “Sarah must not know about us, about any of this.”

“Us?”

His smile warmed her like the sun through the rain. He sighed, and it faltered. “I have not been entirely clear as to what is expected of you—and for that I should be sorry.” His fingers trailed down her jaw. “But I am not.”

She blinked up at him. “What is expected of me?”

“You have a choice to make.” He brushed a dark curl back from her cheek, sending a tremor through her. “Either you must remain with your father and Sarah,” his brows lowered, “or you must leave this life behind for ours.”

That could not possibly mean what she wanted it to:
ours
, a life with him. She shivered. “And if I choose to stay with my family?”

He straightened up, wiping the emotion from his face and releasing her. “Then you shall have a life free of our kind.”

“Free of you?” There was already too much distance between them.

He hesitated, and nodded.

She swallowed. “And if the Soulless come for me?”

His eyes lowered. “They will be dealt with.”

She hugged herself. “And if I choose to go with you, what then?”

“You will have to abide by our rules and guard our secrets.” He offered his hands. She took them. Their fingers entwined and loosened in the early morning light, turning over in one another’s grasp. He watched them like he needed every fine detail, memorizing them, starving for their touch. “Dearest Alexia, if I may call you dearest?”

“Please.” She melted into his embrace. Her head rested against his chest—solid and endued by that delicious scent. This was heaven.

“Caring for me requires abandoning everything and everyone you now love.” He held her away. She looked up into the depths of his pooling blue, recalling the German caller’s story of disappearing girls. Arik’s pigment darkened. “If you choose this path, there will be no return.”

She nodded, sincerely torn.

“Alexia?” Sarah’s voice echoed from the hall beyond the door.

He kissed her briefly. She followed his retreating mouth, but he pushed her back, whispering, “I leave that decision in your hands.”

***

Alexia did not comprehend how he could be so calm and level headed in front of Sarah—who continued to tease and flirt, although he didn’t rise to her bait but continued courteously. Arik never gave a hint to what had occurred in the parlor while her heart raced. Every glance, every word, every unexpected whiff of his oaky musk threatened to undermine her control. She stayed far away until Sarah left them to check on the noon meal.

His lips grazed her ear. “Have you thought upon what I told you?”

Her knees trembled as she took in his magnificent face. “I have been trying, but you are an awful distraction.”

“Awful?” He kissed her cheek. She shivered, aching for his lips to be pressed to hers. His mouth came down as though responding to her silent plea.

Before his ominous tide swept her entirely away, before she lost all sense, she pulled free. “You are too good.”

One brow peaked. “At kissing you?”

Heat radiated off her neck and cheeks. “At guessing what I want.”

He frowned. “So good some people might accuse me of knowing.” His arms crossed. “And they would be right.”

“You what?”

He smiled. “When I look in your eyes, I see your thoughts, plain as the text in any book.”

Her jaw dropped. “You are teasing me?”

“No.”

She blanched. How many terrible things had she considered about him in his presence? Her mouth worked a moment before she managed, “Because you are
Passionate
?”

His head bobbed to one side. “Yes, but I have yet to meet another who can decipher thoughts the way I do. There is another way—one that can be employed by all our kind, one more powerful and completely initiated by touch.” He held up a hand, palm forward.

She stared.

“You advance the ideas or impressions you wish to disclose while connected, but you must be careful. Some of our kind can invade your consciousness and take whatever they like, even without your knowledge.”

“Without your knowledge?”

His brows lowered. “You can feel them delving if you are aware of the sensation, though very few know how. I will have to teach you.”

“Right.”

“It is not terribly complicated, and you would rather know when someone is flitting through your memories, as opposed to divulging your most treasured secrets.”

Like he was now.

He frowned. “I am overwhelming you.”

She agreed readily. The notion would not settle. Had he truly been privy to everything she’d ever thought around him? A series of less than virtuous considerations flitted through her memory. She wanted to die for humiliation.

“See, that is how I knew . . .”

She was not sure she wanted what came next.

“. . . how you felt about me.” He smiled apologetically. “You are frightened. I wish I had an easier way to tell you all this, but . . .” He sighed. “It is never going to be easier. You deserve the truth.”

She nodded again, attempting to mentally categorize him and this strange concept amidst the tales of vampires, werewolves and changelings.

“I am not a creature.” His head shook incredulously. “We are people as much as any other race or species. We feel, need, desire—just a little stronger than most.”

She swallowed. “You are telling me others do not,” she scanned his magnificent form, “
want
like we do?”

“Alexia!” He leaned back.

“No invading!”

“Do you often envision me . . . ?”

She reddened.

He chuckled.

Her fingers flattened, muscles twitching to slap his cheek.

He stepped away, smile fading. “I beg your patience, it is rather second nature.” He extended a hand. “I should like to make it up to you, please.”

She nodded. As their palms matched up, an image flooded into her mind.

He dismounted his gray and aimed up the stairs, gaze turning forward. The baron had no idea what was coming if he didn’t give the girl up!

His jaw fell.

A desirable young thing harbored the entry ahead, dark hair pinned back with loose curls spilling over her alluringly bare neck. The perfect shapeliness of her dainty form awoke a ravenous beast within his breast.

She turned. Long lashes batted over vibrant green eyes, pointed little face warmed by a blush that only served to heighten the contrast of her subtle nose and rich rose lips.

Alexia
. He hurried up the steps, catching himself barely in time . . .

The parlor came back into focus as she struggled to comprehend. “You really felt like that? The very first time—?”

“And it grows stronger.” He stroked a thumb across her fingers. “What I felt for you then is but a spark when compared.”

“But I had yet to change. How could you see me that way?”

He grinned. “I have only ever seen you one way, Alexia.”

The door opened.

Arik brushed past her as though they had never even touched.

“Our meal awaits,” Sarah announced.

He gave her aunt a superior look. Alexia wondered if he was reading Sarah now.

50

Troubled

Kiren slipped from his room, glancing cautiously either direction. He focused on Sarah’s door, straining his senses. Her soft snore drifted to his ears. He shifted his attention to Alexia’s room. Her mattress sighed against the bed ties as she tossed, her usual state of slumber before waking. He didn’t have long.

He padded down the stairs and around to the kitchen, pausing in the doorframe, out of sight. The cook removed her bread from the oven, yawned, and aimed for the back of the house, back to bed for an hour if her usual pattern held true.

He passed through the kitchen and out the door to the yard.

The dark silhouette rocked in the cold, a puff of white air billowing around him.

Kiren grinned and locked grips with the messenger. “Lester, what news have you for me?”

“Fire and brimstone, that’s what.” The runner shook his scraggly head. “That she-demon, she’s gone. Up and poof!”

His throat tightened. If Bellezza was free, the Soulless were merely a drop in the well of his new worries.

Lester pulled his hand free. “And were it not enough, there’s been a movement.”

Kiren straightened.

The runner rubbed his palms. “Them vultures been amassin’, all comin’ together in one place. Ain’t never seen so many.” He shifted from one foot to the other. “This could be what we been waitin’ fer.”

Kiren rested his hand on the hidden amulet below his coat. The Soulless had never unified, except on moonless nights. If they were crawling out from their hiding places before the lunar cycle, could he forego this opportunity?

He glanced back at the house. But it would mean leaving Alexia. That, or tearing her away from her world and placing her in even greater danger. Could he do that to her?

Lester gripped his shoulder. “We should be off.”

This chance would not come again. He groaned and nodded. “Go then. I shall join you before the next new moon.”

51

Trust

Alexia hastened downstairs. Arik didn’t inhabit the parlor or the dining room, or library. She wandered, listening for him, anxious about their remaining minutes before Sarah woke. Finally she caught words on a chilly breeze as she brushed by the kitchen. He was outside?

She neared, rubbing the goose flesh on her arms.

“. . . go then. I shall join you . . .” His words carried away in the wind.

She reached the door as he entered, and he stopped short of running into her. His face shifted from confusion to caution.

“Arik, who were you speaking with?”

He glanced out into the morning and pulled the door closed behind him. “No one with whom you should concern yourself.” She shivered and he took each of her arms, rubbing them for warmth while maneuvering her toward the kitchen hearth. “I have not kissed you yet today.”

“No, you have not.”

“Is that pardonable?”

She grinned. “Barely.”

He remedied the situation graciously. Her knees weakened and she nearly collapsed—would have if not for his sturdy embrace.

He laughed. She laughed. He set a chair next to the playful flames and pulled her down onto his lap.

“Arik!” she gasped.

His arms wound about her, lips hovering at her ear. “Are you sufficiently warm?”

By all that was proper and good, she should give his cheek a good slap and flee, but she couldn’t do it. She snuggled up against his chest. “No.”

His chuckle rumbled beneath her cheek. She loved the sensation, and the rhythm of his heart in her ear, and the calm seeping into her skin.

“This is exactly how I have imagined it.” A tremor shook his voice. “The two of us, a simple life.”

She lifted her head. “Who do you have to join?”

The crease in his brow deepened. He looked into her eyes. Sorrow harbored in his, a desperate morning sea with no end to the gray clouds. “I’ll show you.” He brushed her cheek. “Come with me?”

Her pulse leapt. Her mouth became an instant desert. She closed her eyes to keep him out and sat up straight, looping her fidgeting fingers together. Could she simply disappear—never resolve the ill feelings between her and Father, never say goodbye to Sarah, give up any and every expectation she’d ever had for life? Would she be expected to be a lady on this
other side
, or a serving girl as her mother had been? More importantly, what did he expect from her? Marriage? To live in sin? Some other arrangement she had never conceived?

“Alexia?” His hand stilled hers. His nose brushed across her jaw, mouth inching closer to hers. “Forget I asked.”

She nodded and surrendered to his kiss.

***

They slipped behind the carriage house while Sarah scolded a lazy stable hand.

“Do you really want me to leave with you?” she asked. His sad looks had returned and she would do anything to banish them.

He seized her fingers. “I want for your happiness.”

“Above your own?”

He nodded stiffly.

“Tell me why, Arik, why must we keep this a secret?” She lifted their clasped hands. “Sarah would be so happy for us, and if I leave with you—”

His head bowed, eyes squeezing shut. “I have stayed away from you to protect you. Please understand, I was entirely willing to forgo my own desires in favor of your safety.”

“Was?” She toyed with a lock of his ginger hair.

“You have rather forced my hand.” He smirked at her and she grinned in return. His smile faded. “If the Soulless discover us, they will come with a fury you have never witnessed.” His thumbs stroked across her cheeks. “For some of them erroneously believe I can restore them, and they will use anything I treasure against me.”

He treasured her.
She let a tremor of joy run through her. “But to tell Sarah—”

“You must choose one world, ours or theirs, and sever all ties to the other—to protect those you love.” His eyes pierced hers, brows low. “If you tell Sarah, John will apprehend the intelligence from her.”

She bit her lip.

“I am protecting us all by hiding what we are.”

She swallowed. “And what are we?”

He leaned down, resting his forehead against hers. “Destined? Damned? Some call it both.”

She shivered. “But John knows. He said I had been touched—”

“John knows nothing!” His eyes flashed a hurricane. She fell back a step. “You cannot believe a word he utters. He will say anything to confuse and weaken you, anything that might win you over.”

She stared.

He moaned and shoved her down.

Her ankle tweaked. Fingers of pain shot up her leg. “Wha—”

“You should be more careful.” He retrieved her from the ground with an indifferent air. “The footing here is somewhat uncertain.”

“Lexy?” Sarah appeared around him, arriving at her side in an instant. “Are you hurt?”

Alexia gave him a black glare as he set her upright. “No.”

He gazed back innocently enough. A secret wink issued, for which she seared him with her most potent scowl.

“Ouch.” She limped and tottered backward. He caught her before she met the ground.

“Did you hurt yourself?” he taunted.

“I most certainly did not!”

He huffed to Sarah. “She is so fragile. What do you do with her, really?”

She suppressed a chuckle and brushed off the back of Alexia’s dress. “I shall have to place her in your care, if you have no objections. Can you aid her inside?”

With no more effort than lifting a child, he scooped her up. She marveled at his strength, and how good it felt to be cradled against his chest—resisting the urge to turn and kiss his sweet-smelling neck.

Sarah bit her lip, scowled, and accompanied them as far as the carriage house doors to chastise the stableman further.

Alexia laid her head against him, ignoring the gathering heat in her damaged limb. “Why did you do that?”

“So I could be alone with you longer.”

They entered the house. He carried her all the way to a sofa in the study where he sat her next to him. “May I look at it?”

Her face reddened. Show him her ankle? She hadn’t even worn stockings today!

He pulled her leg across his lap and slid back the hem.

“Arik!” She reached to stop him, but froze at the sight of the bulging skin.

He winked and placed a hand over the wound. A sprinkling of ice tickled below the flesh, tingles that reverberated through her leg and left her desperate for him. The freeze simmered into a fire, fibers pulling back together, skin shrinking back to its healthy state. He pulled away.

“Just like in Wilhamshire,” she said.

He tugged the hem of her skirt back over the exposed skin, brow scrunching. “When you were attacked on your father’s grounds by—”

“I thought it was you who attacked me.”

“—one of the Soulless.”

She shuddered.

He tucked his hands up under his arms. “You were unconscious for two days.”

“Two days?” She blinked.

“I . . .” He hesitated. “Do you remember any of it?”

Snippets of memory flashed through her mind, the gashes on her arms from unrelenting branches, wicked bruises across her chest that made it difficult to breathe, and the sickly smell of her own blood.

His gaze flitted away, guilt in his grimace. He’d been reading her. “I did not believe it was possible, bringing someone back . . .”

She shivered.
From becoming Soulless
—that was what he meant to say. She held up her hand, palm forward.

His cheeks drained of color, paling to match his white scar. He rose and paced away.

“It scares you, what you have done?” She rubbed the creases of her skirt.

He rounded to face her, eyes squeezed at the corners. “I have never been more—” He groaned, ran a hand through his hair, and paced across the floor.

She stepped to his side and slid her fingers through his, pulling him to a stop. He met her gaze. “Will you share it with me?”

He bit his lips from the inside. A nod.

Her vision shuddered.

Lilting motion blurred into a night-stained forest. Panic beat through him, heart racing against the inevitable.

“Help!” The call echoed distantly. “Father! Anyone!”

He homed in on the cry, beating back the branches. They bent away from him.

“Help me!”

A scream. Smack!

Please God, no!
He sprinted faster. The trees curved visibly back, forming a clear path.

“Please.” No more than a whisper.

Desperation blurred his vision.
Not her, anyone but her!

He burst into the clearing.
The black caped thing knelt over a limp and torn body. It hissed.

“Please,” her failing request.

The creature screeched, launching at him. He dodged and rolled, hitting the ground next to her and freeing his pendant. Sudden light filled the grove. It radiated the corners, washing shadows away. The Soulless lay still.

He tucked the necklace back under his shirt and perched over
her. He lifted her head. A giant gash penetrated her forehead, bleeding profusely. He clasped his hand over the wound and sucked in as reality quaked. She was almost gone. He moaned and settled her down, moving on to the next wound. The dress exposed her full back, shorn at the hems. Her skin, badly seared, lay black and open, pooling with dark liquid.

Terror. Could he do it? Could he heal this and stop the transition? Was it too much?

He placed his hands over the severed flesh. Strength instantly drained out of him, being bled dry by her greedy body.

He gasped. He was too late. She was one of them already, and if he didn’t let go now . . .

No!
Tears blinded him as he focused, envisioning the wrecked vertebrae at her core and forcing them to knit back together, the robbed marrow to regrow. His arms trembled, breathing shallow, concentration hazy. Blackness crept over his vision . . .

Arik let go.

They stood watching one another. She blinked back tears. It felt so real, so impossible, so awful! She couldn’t comprehend even now that she had been the lifeless body face down on the forest floor.

He brushed the tears from her cheeks before turning to the window, hands clasped at his back. “I woke a day later, too exhausted to move. You were whole, unconscious, but whole.”

A sob escaped. She circled and threw her arms around him. “You were willing to sacrifice yourself for me?”

He smoothed the hair back from her face and gave the slightest nod.

She pressed her lips desperately to his, needing him, grateful for him. He requited her urgency with passion. Their arms wound about one another as his mouth consumed hers totally, the world forgotten. His body fitted perfectly to hers. He pulled her curls loose and sent them tumbling free, hands stealing earnestly down her neck, landing purposefully on her back, drawing her nearer.

White brilliance poured over her, the perfect balance of nothing and everything all at once, and only he occupied the space.
Is this heaven?
Her mind staggered. She had never felt so complete, so total!

A gasp.

Crack!

She pulled away, still in his arms.

Sarah stood in the parlor entry, jaw hanging.