Salvation of the Damned (4 page)

Raphael let out a long breath simply to steady his inner turmoil. A strong desire to rebel and steal her away from them rose up within him. But as much as he longed to keep her for himself, he, too, would die without her sacrifice.

“Before I am transformed, or die, or whatever is going to happen to me, I want to know what it’s like to be with you.”

Such a simple request. Something he’d willingly give under any other circumstance. But there was no time. Especially no time to do properly what she’d asked of him. That could take…lifetimes.

“All I can offer you is a shallow imitation of what could have been between us. It is hardly enough.”

Eva wanted to laugh. He looked so solemn and serious. “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. It’s what I want.”

He nodded and held out his hand to her.

Eva took it eagerly, lacing her fingers with his and gazing up at his elegant profile. Her heartbeat picked up a faster rhythm, and for an instant, she caught the quick tilt of Raphael’s head as though he’d heard the change.

They walked together hand-in-hand out of the ballroom, without anyone stopping them. She leaned into Raphael, suddenly feeling colder, as if she’d passed an open window. Glancing back over her shoulder, she stared at the others who disappeared from sight as they turned the corner and started up the grand staircase.

“They’re all vampires too, aren’t they?”

Raphael’s golden gaze slid to meet hers, and his lips remained in a firm line. “Yes.”

“And they’ve come for the same thing you have?”

“We are all connected, Eva. This time the virus has mutated, gaining more power. In the past, some of us have managed to survive it. Now…nothing is certain. All of us are seeking salvation from the plague.”

“It could wipe you all out?”

He shrugged. “I doubt it would be any great loss to humanity.”

Eva shook her head. “I’m not sure about that. There’s balance in everything. Look what happens when a predator is taken out of any natural cycle—things get really bad for those that are left. I think the same might apply.”

He slowed their steps, his mouth curving into a half smile as he reached up to stroke her cheek with the back of his hand. “Truly you are one of a kind.”

Their footsteps barely made a sound on the thick carpet that ran down the hall, which was lined with gilt-framed portraits in stark relief against walls decorated in crimson silk. Eva glanced up to see a picture of a man in knee breeches, with a brocade vest and long-tailed jacket, and recognized him.

“That’s you, isn’t it?”

This time he grinned, exposing the sharp white point of his fangs. “Not my first portrait, but one of the more recent.”

“Exactly how old are you, anyway?”

His eyes glittered. “Old enough to know exactly how to pleasure you, and young enough to find you absolutely intoxicating.”

His head bend closer, his lips barely brushing the skin along her jaw, skimming a warm trail down her neck. “Ah, Eva. The things I would do to you had I the time.”

They had reached the end of the hall and paused before a set of double doors. Raphael pushed them open and bowed slightly, gesturing that she should enter ahead of him.

A giant four-poster bed took up most of the room.

“Do you ever actually sleep in that thing? I mean it looks like there might be room for six, maybe eight.”

“Let me show you precisely what I do here.”

In the space between one breath and the next, Eva found that her long black gown had vanished with nothing more than the sensation of a gentle warm breeze brushing against her skin. Her breasts tightened instantly at the arc of electricity that raced between her and Raphael, even though he still stood nearly across the room.

She blinked, and he was right against her, lifting her against the cool hardness of him, as if she weighed no more than a feather pillow. Eva wanted to melt into him, but he placed her gently in the center of the very big bed and pulled back.

Instantly, the need to have him near her, touching her, grew overwhelming, as if their encounter in the limo had never stopped. The velvet of the coverlet was plush and warm against her skin, and the look on Raphael’s face made her feel hot and tight all over.

“You are even more beautiful than I imagined.”

She blushed, and his eyes flashed with primal hunger that was powerful, scary and exciting all at once. “You aren’t planning to feed on me are you?”

He smiled, his fangs elongated, his body tense, the edge of his erection against his taunt abdomen plain for her to see. “Make no mistake, Eva. You make me hungry in a thousand different ways. But no, I will not drink tonight.”

Her stomach contracted, and small shivers danced across her skin. She could smell his cologne as if he were on the bed with her instead of staring at her with those dark, intense eyes from several feet away. Eva suddenly had the sensation of his hands, cool and firm, cupping her breasts, his thumbs brushing against the sensitive curve. Her fingers itched to touch him, even though she could feel him.

“You know this works better if I can actually touch you,” she said between short quick breaths.

He gave her a sly, knowing smile, and suddenly it felt as if he was kissing her, his lips warm and insistent on hers, the slick heat of his tongue running along the seam of her mouth. How in the hell did he do that?

“Close your eyes and relax,” he said, the words stroking her skin like fingers.

She wanted to, but the tension inside was building, pulsing and driving her wild.
Relax.
The word echoed in her head. That was damn hard to do as her panties and bra disappeared into thin air as well, leaving her bare to the cool night and the sensations that were flooding over her.

How could he be touching her everywhere at once? That was definitely what it felt like. The warm wet heat of his soft mouth swirled over her nipples, making them ache. At the same time, the smooth glide of his hand skimmed down her spine and over her stomach, causing a riot of butterflies to erupt inside. Eva pressed her aching thighs together and sensed the firm grasp of his hand resting against her bare bottom, his fingers slipping against the damp cleft of her core, making her shudder with need.

Moist heat sheened her skin as Eva writhed on the velvet. She could swear she felt the slide of sweat-slicked skin against the length of her body, making her ache for release. She reached out, desperate to feel the solidness of him against her. She needed…

And like before, it was as though he understood before she even completed the thought.

Dammit to hell. Raphael couldn’t resist her. As much as he’d tried to give her release without endangering her fragile mortal form, this was more torturous for them both, and he gave up resisting.

In an instant he was naked beside her, her heated skin an inferno that threatened to consume him.

She locked a hot silken leg over his buttocks, pressing him close to her wet pulsing heat, and he groaned in desperation. Her pulse ticked inside him like a time bomb, each rushing movement of her hot blood screaming at him, demanding he take his fill of her.

He clenched his jaw until he thought the bones might crack, determined not to drink, determined not to harm her. She lifted her hips and her slick heat convulsed against him.

“Please. Raphael. Please—”

He growled, knowing his eyes had gone red, unable to control himself any longer, and sank slowly into her, letting the fire and flood of sensations—hers, and his—overtake him as he moved with her.

Nothing mattered now but the fire that licked and gnawed and roared between them. He felt her first climax rip through them both, shredding him into a thousand tiny bits then bringing them back together. And suddenly the world exploded into a thousand suns, and Eva was the center of it all.

Eva was certain she had no bones left.

At least no mortal should be able to survive a bout of incredible sex like that. But somehow, she knew that there was more to what had happened to her and Raphael than utterly fantastic sex.

For the first time in her life she felt whole, as if she’d finally found the missing part of herself she’d somehow always known was gone.

Which made keeping her promise to Raphael to be part of this ceremony, whatever it was, even more difficult. As desperately as she wanted to cling to him, since the crash she’d believed that she had a destiny to fulfill. Her hand pulled into a ball, the lines forming deep creases within her fist. The line of her fate crossing and ending at the line of her heart. The palm reader had warned her never to fall in love. Perhaps this was why. She’d seen that one line ended where it connected with the other.

She could never have anticipated that falling in love would bring her to the brink of her destiny, but now that she knew, she could not turn away. Eva knew with a deep certainty she’d been born for this. The gods, the fates, whatever had been waiting for her in that white place on the other side, had confirmed it.

He still lay beside her, utterly still, his broad chest not moving beneath her cheek. His fingers grazed a lazy trail up and down her spine, causing delicious shivers across her body.

Eva savored the moment a few more seconds before she spoke softly, “We’re out of time, aren’t we?”

His fingers threaded through her hair with infinite tenderness, and he tucked her closer into his side with his other arm. “I’m not certain I’m able to let you go.”

Eva sat up on her elbow, resting her chin in her hand, and she looked at his golden eyes. “Maybe you don’t have to.”

She felt the anguished sigh come from the very core of him. “If you do not, all my kind, including me, dies. If you do, you die. Somehow I fail to see how either choice is appealing, because I truly do not wish to live without you.”

She lay back, curling tighter against him. “I wish there was some way.”

His heart twisted. He pulled her close, wishing he were capable of tucking her fragile form inside of his immortal casing. “If there is a way, I’ll find it.”

You must bring her. The ceremony has begun.
Dammit. Couldn’t Janus stay out of his head, even now, in his last moment to be alone with her?

We’ll be there shortly.

Come alone. We will send an escort for her.

Raphael’s brow pinched together. Why did Janus need him alone?

“I’ve been told there is a maid coming to help you dress.”

She looked up at him her eyes softening. “I’d prefer if you dressed me.”

He smiled, but it hurt like hell. The last image he wanted of her in this form was of her naked beside him, not in some damn coffin, still as death after the others had leached the life energy from her to thwart the virus and sustain themselves. He brushed a kiss on her forehead. “As my lady wishes.”

Rising from the bed, he conjured white undergarments and a white gown. God, it could have been a wedding gown, with long trailing sleeves and a fitted bodice. She slid from the sheets, her dark glossy hair delightfully rumpled. He’d remember that. And the texture of it between his fingers, as well as the jasmine and spice scent that cloaked her satin skin.

Raphael brushed light kisses up her legs as he slid the scrap of satin over her hips, cupping her bottom in his hands and pressing his cheek to her stomach. With infinite slowness, he pulled the silk stockings up her legs, brushing and caressing her smooth skin as he went. He held open the gown for her, and she stepped between the folds and into his arms.

Raphael’s gut contracted. Need and sadness ripped him to the core. He showered kisses down her bare shoulders as he fastened the little hooks up her back. She looked like a damned fairy princess, and he was the monster that would take her to her demise.

Anger, hate, at himself, his kind, boiled up within Raphael. How could he do this? God. How could he not? “You are, as ever, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” he whispered achingly against the shell of her ear.

Even though the memory of ever having a heart was gone, tonight he felt the phantom recollection in the tight ache in his chest. Phantom or not, the searing ache of loss squeezed at his chest and made his teeth clench with the pain.

Duty or love?

One he wanted; the other was the grim path he was forced to take.

He’d damn them all, if they weren’t damned already.

Eva turned and cupped her warm hand to his cheek, making his heart-of-stone fracture. “I’ve never wanted to be with someone the way I want to be with you. I think I love you.” She paused, a determined looking blazing in her eyes. “No, I know I love you. I’m not sure how or why, but you’re already part of me.”

It took everything within him to keep standing. He grasped her hand, took it in his own and brought their joined fingers to his mouth, and gently kissed it. “You can never imagine how much you mean to me, how long I’ve waited for you. And I will wait for you Eva, no matter how long. I am yours, forever.”

The door to their chamber snicked open, and they both started. A woman with long dark hair entered, nodding to Raphael.

He caught Eva’s gaze and saw the fear creeping in. “Marie will bring you down to the ceremony,
cherie.
Never forget that I am yours.”

Each step down the broad staircase felt like another step closer to the guillotine. When he reached the ballroom, the silent crowd was assembled, waiting.

Raphael stared at the coffin as the gong sounded and Janus appeared, his skin almost alabaster beneath the trailing black cloak and the shock of white hair worn long down his back. Raphael locked gazes with the elder vampire, whose eyes glowed red.

Janus’s lips did not move, but the words were uttered all the same in Raphael’s mind.
It is better to have loved and lost—

Raphael didn’t bother to hide his irritation and shot back his reply, glaring at Janus.
Spare me that twaddle.
The damn fool idiot who coined that saying didn’t have a clue what true love was. If he had, he never would have said that. The only true beauty in this world is love—without it, everything else is meaningless.

The red glow softened slightly, but Janus’s face stayed inscrutable. But this time he spoke. “Are you certain she is the one?”

Raphael leveled his gaze on Janus’s impossibly smooth face. “If I could have brought you any other, I would have.”

“Then you truly love her.” It was not a question, but a statement, one that struck Raphael to the core. Even in his half-alive state, an aberration of nature, he was still capable of love. And if he were capable of that, could he save Eva?

“I have loved her for a thousand years. I doubt a thousand more would change that.”

“You have sacrificed much for us, brother.”

Raphael turned away, his gaze locked on the glossy bones in the coffin before him.

“The council has agreed that we will give you time to be alone with her on the other side. When the bones disappear, you will enter the coffin first. We will give you a moment when you can meld your soul with hers and take your sustenance without intrusion from the others. It is the best we can offer you in return for your loss.”

Raphael clenched his jaw, his teeth grinding together. Certainly their offer was better than nothing, but it was hardly what he truly wanted. What he wanted was to die, too. The thought of once again living without her for another thousand years, possibly forever, was more than he could bear.

He stepped up on the dais, moving toward the coffin. The bones of Siphidius disappeared the instant he touched their smooth ivory surface, as if they had been made of nothing but mist. He climbed in; placing his body in the indentations the bones had leveled upon the crimson velvet.

An intense pull centered on his naval, as if he were being sucked inside out, his stone-like flesh bursting apart into atoms of dust as he disappeared from the coffin in the grand ballroom. Surrounded by the rest of his kind, Raphael had never felt more alone. And then, there was nothing but the white mist that enveloped him.

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