Wolfe's Lady (8 page)

His topaz eyes, golden in the morning sunshine, widened until they dominated his face and his frown vanished, the corners of his mouth twitching as if he wanted to smile.

“Your faith in me, Stella, is gratifying and it is correct. I have not nor do I ever wish to drink blood or eat human flesh. I would never do to another person what Henry did to me, not attack or bite or taste. He intended to kill, something I just will not and would not do.

I manage with protein as you have observed. If I kill as a wolf, it has never been either other humans or wolves. I don’t know if I kill at all but I don’t think that I do. If I did, the knowledge of mutilated bodies, human or animal in the area would be common and there are none.”

Joy renewed as she decided it was possible.

“Then you can do it!”

“Stella—”

“That is, if you want to. Do you?”

He seized her hand in his bruised, battered ones.

“I do more than anything.”

“Then why not try?”

His grin was wry and his laugh mocking.

“You know the two reasons why—I cannot swim and I am terrified of heights.”

Stella’s grin was bright.

“You can face your fears one time, can’t you? Then we can be together.”

Darien closed his eyes, his breathing ragged and his hand in hers trembling.

“There is another thing and it’s not one that I want to do.

Your love would be vital if the cure were to work but something more would be needed— your blood.”

“My blood?” Her voice soared to soprano level. “What do you mean? If I have to die for it to work, then I’ll try to remember some other way.”

His eyes blazed. “I would never accept your life in sacrifice for any reason and that is not what legends require. I would have to cut your finger or some other part of your dear body to get a few drops of blood to purify the water.”

Until she drew breath, Stella didn’t realize she had not been breathing. A few drops of blood from a small cut seemed little and she had no doubt she could do that. A quick search of all the lore she learned yielded a faint memory of such a ceremony.

“That’s fine. I don’t mind, Darien. I will do that for you.”

He stared at her with those topaz eyes for a long moment and then shut them, as if in prayer or searching his soul.

After several minutes passed, he opened his eyes and met her gaze.

“I can try for you, Stella. If it fails, then you will know how much I love you.”

“What happens if it fails?”

He quirked one eyebrow at her. “If the attempt fails, then the one sure cure might work.”

“What is it?”

“Death. If I become mortal long enough to drown, I would call it either a final cure or simple failure. So, it is possible that I could become human again only to drown. Will you take the chance?”

Stella gulped. If that happened, she would want to die too but it wouldn’t because she could not bear it.

“If you will, I will. So, when are we going to do this?”

“It must be done on the evening before the full moon; that is the sole way to determine if the effort succeeds.”

“We do it next month.”

“If that is what you wish, we shall, my darling Stella.”

He sealed the promise with a kiss, one that scorched all the way to her toes. That combustion fueled to an inferno as Stella, hands gentle as if he were fragile, made love to his damaged body until they both forgot all pain and all obstacles.

The next full moon, the full Harvest Moon in late September, would rise on a Sunday evening. In that month, Stella helped Darien find a place that would work for their attempt. She also made an effort to teach him to swim or failing that, to at least get over his fear of water and heights. First, she coaxed him to climb to the top of the bluffs at the park in town and though his knees trembled, he made it to the top with her where he managed to look over the view below without total panic. Then they climbed, at her insistence, out onto the roof of the high school which he managed with great difficulty.

After that, she drove him out to one of the few remaining forestry fire towers, an old wooden structure that stretched high into the sky.

Rangers once used the towers to watch for fires but they hadn’t been used in decades. She hoped to talk Darien into mounting all the steps to the top but he would go no further than the first three flights. Even that height made him pale and perspire. Stella doubted he would ever banish his fear of heights but she hoped that her efforts tempered it.

After heights, she addressed his inability to swim. She tried to coax him into some adult swimming lessons at the local health club but he refused. However, after heavy persuasion, he did get into the pool with her. She taught him how to hold his breath under water and tried to give him pointers on staying afloat. In their pool sessions, his fear threatened to bloom into a full-blown panic attack but she thought that a little preparation was better than none at all. At least, by the time that the full moon was almost at hand, he could put his face down into the water without flinching.

Just five days before full moon, as the orb waxed, they discovered the perfect location. Grand Falls, the state’s largest natural and free flowing waterfall, was about fifteen miles north of Riverville. In an isolated location, the falls descended twenty-five feet when the river ran high.

Although Grand Falls and the river below attracted swimmers, anglers, picnickers, and nature lovers, they both thought that on a Sunday evening, the visitors would be few.

“Are you ready to do this?” Stella asked, as they sat outside in the late afternoon, admiring the remaining blooms in his garden and the first hints of autumn color in the foliage.

Darien, relaxed in a dark blue shirt, unbuttoned at his throat and jeans, grinned.

“I am as ready as I can be. I look forward to a successful outcome but—"

“But what?” she asked, his fear spreading to her like an epidemic.

“I hope that I don’t die. If I survive the fall, the water at the bottom is dangerous with strong undercurrents.”

She stroked the back of his hand. “I won’t let you drown.”

Stella would not; she had a plan. Just before he jumped, she would dial 911 on her cell phone, summoning help to fish him from the rolling waters before he could get into trouble.

“I shall count on that. Shall we go, then?”

At Grand Falls, the sheer beauty of the falls filled her with awe each time she saw them. Rugged rock formations lined the riverbank on this side and made walking more difficult. There was just one other vehicle, a beat-up old pickup truck, when they arrived and as they walked along the rocks, hand in hand, the driver left.

They were alone in the wild place and so, without discussing it, they made their way with care up the rocks toward the falls. On the bank, Darien turned and gathered her into his arms. He held her so close that she could feel his rapid heartbeat and the fine quiver that shot through his body.

“You’re really scared.”

His mouth moved against her hair, speaking into her ear.

“I am, Stella. This will be the most difficult thing I have ever done.”

She snuggled against him, hoping her embrace would give both comfort and courage.

“Will it be harder than becoming a werewolf?”

“Yes.” Darien said, without any doubt at all. “That was difficult enough and I had no idea what would happen. With my fears, jumping into the water will be harder. The hardest of all, though, is now, Stella.”

He pulled out a knife and the blade caught the remaining light so that it shimmered between them. She held out her hand to him, palm up and waited. As they had discussed and decided, he slashed the knife across her open palm so that a cut, about two inches long, opened. Although it stung, Stella held her hand over the water and let the blood drip from her cut into the water.

“Let my love and my blood restore you,” she said.

Then she staunched the blood and let him stick a large adhesive bandage over it. He brushed it, light as a breath, with his lips.

“I will be waiting for you, Darien,” Stella said. “Help will be on the way and will be here by the time you hit the water.”

He eyed the rushing waters and shivered. The noise of the falls was very loud.

“It is time, then. I will do it or die, my lady. Kiss me.”

Stella pulled him closer, her hands clutching his shirt and brought the full force of her lips against his, pouring all the love that she could muster into his body by that conduit. He responded, his body answering her call and returning it in kind, pouring powerful emotion and potent desire into her veins until she felt almost drunk with love. Every atom in her body craved more, ached for full release, but Darien pulled away.

“If I survive, we shall have world enough and time for that later. Stella, I love you.”

Without another word or look, Darien removed his shoes and waded into the water. He gasped when he entered the cool river then continued out, walking with care and some apparent difficulty. Stella watched him, even as she dug her cell phone from her jeans pocket and punched in 911.

“911. What is your emergency?” A bland, professional voice answered the distress call.

“My boyfriend just fell into the river at Grand Falls and I think he’s going over! He can’t swim! Can you please send help?” Stella cried, the panic real, not feigned.

As she watched, the current knocked Darien from his feet and propelled him toward the falls with speed. He struggled to stand, reaching a half-crouch when he realized he was at the brink. With arms spread wide, he shouted,

“Geronimo!”

He leaped or fell over the brink, plummeting down over the high falls as she watched, one hand clutching her throat with fear.

Stella then ran as fast as she could over the rocks, hurrying to the bottom of the falls to see if he surfaced in the choppy waters. In the distance, over the noise of the falls, she could hear the approaching wail of sirens. His sleek, dark head surfaced for a moment and she cupped her hands together to yell.

“Darien! Hang on! They're coming!”

If he heard her voice, he did not respond but floundered, then vanishing beneath the waters again. Two minutes, long, awful spans of time, later, the paramedics rushed up with stretchers and gear.

“He’s out there!” Stella screamed. “Help him, please help him!”

Everything happened quickly after that and she could never remember just how they pulled Darien from the waters. When they did, however, she was there, pushing through the emergency workers and a few bystanders who had arrived on the heels of the ambulance.

Darien lay on his back on the rocks, his chest not moving, and Stella fell to her knees at his side.

“Do something!”

His skin had a bluish cast and he lay with such stillness that she was very afraid. Stella wringed her hands together, anxious, and worried as the ambulance crew performed CPR. When Darien gasped and began to cough, she began to cry but she put her face down beside his.

“Darien. Darien.”

He choked and spewed water but his lips moved in the shape of her name, Stella.

Within seconds, he was on a gurney with an oxygen mask over his face. His color was returning but when they asked if she wanted to come along, she climbed into the back of the ambulance without hesitation.

“Is he going to be all right?” she asked, through her tears.

“He should be if he didn’t break his neck or suffer a spinal cord injury,” one of the EMT’s told her. “We got to him quick; he should be fine.”

Darien stirred and when she touched his hand, his fingers curled around hers. Then he reached with his other hand to lift the oxygen mask so that he could talk.

“Don’t leave me, Stella-star.”

“I won’t,” she promised, voice calm even as she noticed that dusk fell around them. Soon they would know beyond any doubt if their attempt worked. If it didn’t, the emergency responders were in for a shock.

Above them, the first stars sparkled in the sky as the moon rose, full and huge. Soon, it would be evident whether or not their attempt was successful.

His topaz eyes glittered as he asked another question,

“Am I changing?”

She stretched out his hand but it looked the same, looked at his jaw but it had not elongated, and his legs had not lengthened.

“No, you’re fine.”

He coughed again and shook his head.

“Fine might not be the word I would choose at this moment.”

At the hospital, he spent five hours in the emergency room cubicle until a doctor pronounced him fit to leave, after verifying that his blood oxygen levels were normal. It was a quarter to midnight when they walked outside. Thousands of stars sparkled in the sky but the brightness that bathed everything in a silver glow came from the full moon. The moonlight felt magical and it turned the average night into a mysterious and beautiful thing.

Darien stopped and stared up at the moon. He stretched out his hands and looked at them with a smile. Then he rubbed fingers over his face and grinned.

“Stella, I do believe that it worked. I am cured.”

She kissed his face with tiny butterfly kisses, first his forehead, then his cheeks, nose, and last of all his mouth. Her hungry lips devoured his, tasting and reassuring that he was well.

“You are,” she said, pausing for air. “Your car is still at Grand Falls so I don’t know how we will get to either your place or mine.”

He drew her close. “Is that an invitation, dear Stella, to a mortal and ordinary man?”

“It is, for tonight and for the rest of your life, Darien. You will never be ordinary, not to me.”

Darien stroked her hair and smiled.

“I thought that the man was traditionally the one who asked that all important question.”

“What question?”

“I think you know the one.”

She touched his lips with her finger.

“I can guess but first I need to know a couple of things.”

He smiled at her, his hand straying to capture her fingers with his own.