The Kiss (16 page)

He grimaced despite himself. If only things had been different.
If only he’d met her when he was a normal man, but even that didn’t make any
bloody sense. Adam swallowed against the lump in his throat as she realized
that Eva hadn’t even been born when he was normal. If Granny hadn’t cursed him
he’d have died over a hundred years ago, and they’d never have met.

And that would have been infinitely better for her…

Adam bowed his head as shame coursed through him, shame the likes
of which he hadn’t felt since Evie. It hadn’t meant so much with the others, but
with Eva it was wrong, it was all wrong. He’d known it from the very moment
he’d taken her hand in his.

Still, wrong or not, he had to make her understand. He owed her
that much at least. “I thought I had no choice,” he said slowly. “I didn’t
realize, well maybe I did. It might be better to say that I didn’t want to
accept it. I can be selfish Eva that’s the truth and it’s taken me a little
while to get to the point where I know now what I have to do. There is no other
option.”

“Accept what? Do what? You’re not making any fucking sense Adam.”

He growled, frustration evident even to him. How could he tell
her this? How could he taint her with the knowledge that had disgusted him for
so many years, despite his resolve now?

“Adam?” she prompted. “Explain this to me. You owe me that much.”

And he knew she was right, that he had no choice. Eva had to
understand and the only way to make her was with the truth. No matter what it
cost him, or how badly it would make him feel.

“On the tenth year, Eva, Granny Hildegarde came to me again,” he
began. Despite his intention to stay calm the words came out in a strangled
sort of cry, as if they were being ripped forcibly from him—and God knew they
were. Adam paused to get a hold of himself, his eyes trying to say what the
words could not. “I was weakening by this point and I didn’t think I would last
another year trapped in the stone. I can’t even explain to you Eva what it was
like. To wait and wait and nothing ever to change beyond the blasted sky.”

He stopped for a moment the awfulness of those first years
filling him again. They had been the hardest, the times when he’d truly thought
he might lose his mind and never return. He’d begun to talk to himself over and
over again, the words ceasing to have any sort of meaning after a while. 

He shuddered and Eva stepped forward, concern tempering the
anger. “Adam?”

Taking a deep breath he continued before Eva could weaken his
resolve with her words, her look, her concern. It wouldn’t take very much for
him to convince himself not to tell her anything, to just enjoy her for the
little time he had left. “It was then, that she told me what I would have to do
if I wanted to survive,” he said. “My punishment, my curse. Finally she
understood and I had to as well.”

Eva took another step forward. “What did she tell you?”

It would be so easy to step forward, close the distance
between you, and take her into your arms.
The very thought stirred Adam’s
heart and hardened his cock, and he clenched his fists to fight against it.
“It’s your energy, Eva,” he whispered, pushing the words out. “That’s why you
were brought here. I need your energy to sustain me until the next solstice.
I’m supposed to drain you to the point of death and it will keep me alive until
next winter. It’s the only way she would let me survive, by taking from others
as I had let him take from her.”

Chapter
Twenty-Five

 “Just a room for one, please.”

“Shall I set up a tab for you, miss?”

A tab? Eva frowned. She wouldn’t be staying long enough to need
that, not to mention the fact that she barely had enough money on her to cover
one night in this rustic little inn and a cheap train ticket home.
A very
cheap, hide from the conductor style, cheap ticket.
“No, I’ll pay up front
for tonight if that’s okay. I plan on leaving first thing.”

 “The train leaves at nine, we only have the one a day,” the
helpful receptionist said. “If you’d like a wake up call I can book that in
now.”

“That would be great thank you.”

“Would you like breakfast too, miss?”

Eva fidgeted with the handle of her bag. “How much extra is
that?”

The receptionist, whose name tag read Carly, smiled. “No extra.”

Eva suspected Carly was lying but she wasn’t going to pull her up
on it. It would be the height of stupidity to set out on her long trek home
with no food in her belly. “Yes then, thank you.”

“You’re in room eleven.” She handed across a brass key and Eva’s
heart gave a little skip at the sight of it. So similar to the one she’d used
for her own room at the Estate, almost the same as Adam’s.

“Thank you.”

Carly pointed the way to her room and Eva, bag in hand, trudged
up the stairs. Her heart felt heavy in her chest and her eyes prickled oddly.

How long before this feels better?
  She answered her own
question then frowned.
A long fucking time.

The bedroom Carly had given her was small but Eva felt oddly
cheered by that. No plush luxury here, just normal every day stuff. Unlike the
Estate, where everything was about as odd as it could get.

Eva sat down on the edge of the bed and played back her confrontation
with Adam. Unbelieving still the things he had told her.
It’s just not
possible, things like this do not happen to people like me.

Her mind skipped over the vision of him in front of her as he
confessed the full horror of everything, the look in his eyes, the shape of his
mouth. She shivered and placed a hand against her lips to contain the sob.

I’m supposed to drain your energy… to the point of death…

Her lips twisted bitterly beneath her clenched fist, she hadn’t
been right after all. Grace had not wanted them for something as simple as sex.
Eva could probably of handled that no problem now. It was so common place it
was almost laughable. No, Adam wanted far more from her than just her body, he
wanted her very essence.

The conversation plagued her mind again and she walked over to
the bedroom window, looking out at the frozen fields before her. The words
wouldn’t leave her, and underneath the hurt and the anger Eva felt something
else beginning to raise its ugly head.

Regret.

“How could you?” she’d asked him horror struck. “How could you
think of doing that to me?”

“I haven’t taken anything Eva, I haven’t,” he’d insisted. “I
swear you’re fine.”

“But you were going to. You were planning to what? Take it from
me? Use me like some sort of fucking thing?”

“No, I wasn’t. I couldn’t,” he’d shouted. “Damn it, if you
believe nothing else, believe that.”

Eva had trembled with hurt, her heart racing, her breath shallow.
Every emotion she could have felt welled up inside her and she screamed at him.
“And this, the sex, the fucking compliments. What was all that? You were
softening me up until the time came to finish me off?”

Maybe it was that which hurt more than anything else. She’d
thought he, the first man in so long, had wanted her for herself, Accepted her
as she was, when all along he’d been stalking her, playing with her, telling
her the things she wanted to hear.

He blanched. “It wouldn’t have killed you, Eva. I’m not a
murderer, I never have been.”

“You were going to what then? Explain it to me, God damn you.
Tell me how you were going to do it!”

“I can’t, I won’t. It isn’t going to happen,” he said, slashing a
hand through the air. “Not again. Not with you.”

“You’re not making sense.”

“Its how I’ve survived for so long Eva, but not now. I’m done
with it. I can’t take another week of this, least of all a year.”

“But—”

“But nothing,” he’d said, sitting down on the bed, head in his
hands. “Leave now, Eva, whilst you still can.”

“You’re letting me go?” she asked.

His head shook in his hands. “Don’t you get it, Eva? Despite what
it means I was always going to.”

“I—”

“Leave now before you can’t.”

“You just said you wouldn’t stop me!”

“But will you be able to stop yourself?”

And not knowing the answer to that question Eva had run. Emotions
all over the place she’d sought refuge at the nearest safe building she could
find. This little Inn.

I can’t regret leaving. I can’t regret it damn it! So why am I
hurting, why can’t I get the picture of him, sat, head in hands, sadness
surrounding him, out of my head. What’s wrong with me?

Eva brushed away a tear and moved from the window. She couldn’t
allow thoughts like that to interfere with her resolve. It would be the height
of madness to remember anything about him, to think he was redeeming in any
way.

He wanted to fucking drain you
, her angry side said.
But
he didn’t
, her regretful side whispered,
he told you to go
.

Eva thought of Lily and all the other staff, wondering if they
had any idea what was in store for them, and what she could possibly do about
it anyway.
I’ve never murdered anyone.

They’d be ill perhaps, but if she trusted anything Adam said
they’d recover.
You won’t, not your heart at least.

Digging through her bag Eva pulled out the long t-shirt she wore
to bed. It smelled of him. Damn it everything smelled of him. Her skin, her
hair, her entire bag.
Why couldn’t I have had a bit of decent luck for
fucking once. Just one small break?

She dug back in her bag for some pants but her hand found the
hard edge of something else. The sketchpad. Slowly, carefully she opened it,
and there on the first page, in all his splendor, was Adonis. No, not Adonis,
Adam. As beautiful as she remembered, Eva was shocked to feel a pull deep
inside of her. She missed the stupid statue.
You miss
him,
Eva,
already.

“He won’t last the year.”

Eva jerked up and almost had a heart attack. Grace was stood in
the doorway, her tiny frame somehow dominating the entire space.

“How did you—”

Grace waved a hand. “Doesn’t matter.”

“I didn’t even hear the door,” Eva accused.

“You live as long as I have you pick up a few tricks, believe
me,” Grace said by way of an answer. “Why you’d barely recognize me from the
simple country girl I once was. I don’t even recognize myself anymore.”

“What are you doing here, Grace?” Eva asked.

“Making sure you understand what you’re doing, Eva.”

Anger built inside her and Eva clenched her fists. “Oh I
understand everything perfectly well now. Adam explained it all to me, thanks.
Something you neglected to do.”

“I doubt that.”

“Excuse me?”

The older woman strode into the room, shutting the door behind
her, placed her bag on the bedside table and took a seat. “He didn’t tell you
everything or you wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t be wasting my time trekking
across the countryside looking for you.”

“Well I’m just so fucking sorry to have put you out, Grace,” Eva
replied, sarcasm dripping like honey.

“I knew you’d be trouble the moment you stepped into my office,”
Grace said.

“Then why give me the job,” Eva demanded. “Because right about
now I’m wishing you never did.”

“It was too much coincidence, only coincidence doesn’t exist in a
situation like ours. Decade after decade you begin to see that. Everything
follows its own pattern and anything that happens around Adam marches to beat
all of its own. All leading to one goal.”

“Which is?” Eva asked, intrigued despite herself. 

“Their freedom. All twelve of them if I can.”

“I don’t—”

“Did Adam tell you there used to be more?” Grace interrupted.
“Twenty nine were trapped in the stone.”

Shock punched Eva. “No, he didn’t.”

Grace shrugged. “He doesn’t like to talk about them. It’s been
hard watching them slip away one by one.”

Head reeling Eva spoke. “But how?”

“I didn’t know what to do in the beginning,” Grace said, and she
didn’t sound happy about that. “Granny didn’t tell me much so I didn’t know how
I was to look after them all. Half a dozen died in that first decade. They were
not strong enough to last each year.”

“And the others?”

“It became too much. They refused to take the energy, gave up I
suppose.”

“But not Adam.”
Not beautiful, lying, gorgeous, deceitful
Adam.

“Oh he went through his phases. More than once I had to be very
cunning to get him to survive another year. He went a whole seventeen years
once without so much of a drop. It was awful to watch.” Grace looked away and
Eva was startled to see something akin to moisture in the formidable woman’s
eyes. “He’d come from the stone barely alive. Struggling to do anything. I
begged him over and over. Tried to explain to him that if he didn’t survive
Finn and I would be trapped forever. We’re all dependent on him to break it,
only then will we be free, and the curse certainly won’t break if Adam dies,
the pattern will simply continue forever.”

“And you?” Eva asked, a sneaky sympathy twisting its way into her
stomach. “You’ll be stuck?”

“I
am
stuck, Eva,” Grace replied with a return to her
usual brusqueness. “And will be until I set them all free. If that takes
another two hundred years then so be it.”

Confusion made Eva’s head foggy and she rubbed her brow to try and
cudgel it into thought. “But how do you set them free? Adam didn’t say.”

“Because Adam doesn’t know. He has to find it on his own, and
after so long that is not looking likely.” Grace paused and her stern grimace
slipped into a moment of deep unhappiness. “I’m not sure he even believes that
we’ll all be trapped without him, or maybe he just doesn’t want to believe it.
Otherwise he’d flail around in guilt that he can’t set us all free.”