by Lisa Kessler
Kane laughed, lacing his fingers with hers as they walked side by side, two warriors, survivors. “That we did.”
Chapter Thirteen
The following night, Kane made his way up the catacomb underneath his home. His wounds healed, his strength returned, he lifted the large stone from his bedroom floor.
After finding Rita standing toe-to-toe with two vampires the previous evening, he found himself more than ready to give her the immortality she requested.
Anything to keep her safe.
Replacing the stone cover, he turned to find a vellum paper folded on his bed. Kane picked it up, his brow creasing with concern.
Meet me at the lake.
All my heart,
Marguerite
He would not take comfort in holding her or kissing her.
Rita was not even under his roof. His chest tightened. Why would she leave?
Kane slipped her note onto his bureau and dressed in riding breeches and a linen shirt. He glared at the cravats and frock coats hanging in the closet. He had no time for French fashions. He fussed with the shirt buttons on his way to the stable, managing to fasten most of the buttons at the bottom before giving up on them and saddling Kukulkan.
Once mounted, he galloped his Friesian stallion off toward the lake, toward Rita. His stomach knotted. He couldn’t remember another time in his long life when he’d experienced anything like this. Hope mixed with nervousness and trepidation.
Perhaps this was what it felt like to truly live.
He urged his horse faster. The gas lamps faded in the distance behind him. When the lake came into view, Kane noticed Candide tied to a tree at the edge of the clearing.
The mare turned and neighed at her stable mate. Kane pulled back on the reins until Kukulkan slowed to a walk.
He turned in his saddle, and smiled in spite of his worries.
Marguerite sat on a blanket near the water.
His boots hit the dirt and he tied Kukulkan to a tree beside Candide. He treated each horse to a carrot and made his way to Marguerite, not sure what to expect and shocked at his uncertainty. After the previous night’s horror, had she decided she wanted no part of life in the shadows?
She sat staring at the water with a soft wrap around her shoulders and gloves on her hands. He sat beside her and broke the silence. “Rita?”
“Bonsoir.”
The moment her eyes met his, she grinned, and his heart pounded in response. No sunrise could possibly be as beautiful as her smile in the moonlight. He cupped her cheek, unable to resist touching her.
She nuzzled into his palm. “I am glad you found my note.”
“It sounded urgent.”
“I have something to show you.” Rita pulled her gloves off and offered her left hand to him.
He took her hand and noticed a fine band of color wrapped around her ring finger. After a closer examination, Kane raised a brow. “You have tattooed a rose around your finger.”
“Not only a rose.” She kissed him, awakening his body instantly. “It is an answer.”
“An answer?” Would he ever understand this woman?
He wanted to try.
Marguerite nodded. “I decided if I am going to gain the ability to transform into an animal, I might lose a ring, but this way, I will always wear it.”
He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to her finger. “And I will always cherish you.” He brought her hand to his chest, covering his heart, his gaze meeting hers as he whispered, “Hun ool, hun yaah.” He wet his lips. “It means One Heart, One Love in the language of my people.”
With her other hand, she brought his to rest over her heart. “Hun ool, hun yaah.”
Feeling her heart beating with his, her lips speaking his true Mayan language, binding them, stirred the jaguar inside of him. His heart, mind, spirit, and body were now hers, and she was his.
Kane pulled her into his arms. “In tial.”
“What does it mean?” She stared up at him, looking more stunning than any woman he’d ever seen.
“It means you are mine, Rita.”
He kissed her and laid her back against the blanket, smiling when she whispered, “In tial. And you are mine.”
Kane stroked her hair, losing himself in the blue of her eyes. “I want to give you a grand wedding. We can walk down the aisle in Notre Dame. Anything you wish.”
Rita shook her head. “No priest, or dress, or jewels could make me more yours than I am right now in your arms.”
“Yaakuntik, Rita.”
Before he could explain the meaning, she whispered, “I love you, too.”
Marguerite ran her hands up his chest and along his strong shoulders, pushing his shirt back. As a girl, she’d always imagined her wedding in a cathedral, a wedding Mass, and perhaps a dowry, but committing to each other away from the city, away from others, just Kane in the moonlight confessing his love and offering his heart, meant much more to her than any childhood fantasy.
He rose up, while she freed the buttons at the bottom of his shirt. No fabric or fashion on earth could do justice to the body it covered. His lips brushed hers, parting them. She moaned when his tongue caressed hers. Kane’s hand ran up her thigh to her waist, fingers splayed, as he moved over her abdomen and cupped her breast.
She ached for his touch. The previous night she’d seen so much death and decay, she wanted to feel loved and alive.
Feeling his fingers unlacing the front of her dress made her pulse race with anticipation, and the moment he opened the fabric and the cool night air teased her skin, she gasped with desire. Kane broke the kiss, his gaze sliding over her body, following the path of his hands.
Lifting her hips, he pulled her dress free. She caught his smile when he found no undergarments to impede his exploration. He slid his hands up her legs, parting them until his fingertips brushed her curls at their juncture.
Marguerite dropped her head back, moaning his name to the heavens above her. Her body writhed, already aching for release. His touch awakened passion like she’d never known. Suddenly, his fingers withdrew.
She opened her eyes and watched him remove his pants, tossing them aside. He laid over her, kissing her lips slowly.
“I gave you my word I would never drink from you until you asked me.”
Her body tensed instinctively. “I offered last night and you refused me. You hunted instead.”
He broke the kiss, resting his forearms on either side of her head. “Your spirit is carried in your blood. It is too precious to be used to feed and heal wounds. When I finally taste you, Rita, I want you to enjoy the closeness. I want you to yearn for it. Trust me with all that you are, with your heart and your soul.”
Trailing her fingertips along the curve of his buttocks and slowly up his spine, she stared up into his eyes. Kane’s body pressed against hers, he could take her body and her life any time he chose.
Instead, he loved her. He offered her more honesty than any person she’d ever known. “I trust you.”
He rewarded her with a crooked grin that warmed her heart, and a kiss that made her entire body go up in flames.
Kane lost himself in loving her, worshiping her, until he could wait no longer. He pressed his hips forward, burying himself inside her. She gasped his name, her inner muscles tightened, hungry and ready for him. He thrust into her over and over, feeling the thirst build, heightening his senses. Her heartbeat beckoned him, inviting him to taste, to claim her and bind them together for all time.
Her nails dug into his shoulders, and he growled into the kiss. Sliding an arm around her, he rocked back onto his knees, bringing her with him. Rita wrapped her legs around his waist, and he sat back, grinding into her while he held her tight in his arms.
He trailed hot, hungry kisses down her neck, and she tipped her head, rocking her hips into his. He licked her skin at the base of her neck, lightly brushing his teeth over her, but she didn’t tense.
Her fingers tightened in the back of his hair, holding him c
lose. “Take me. I want to be with you forever.”
Desire and thirst burned through his veins, but he held back. He wanted to be sure his bite brought her pleasure, not pain. Kane slid one hand between them and nestled his fingers into her curls, teasing her until her pulse pounded in her veins. He kissed her soft skin, and just as her inner muscles contracted around him, his fangs sank into her neck.
Kane groaned against her skin. Her blood tasted of sunshine and rain, of flowers and candlelight, everything that was beautiful. He drank deeply, slowly, savoring this closeness. Her thoughts, her memories, all poured into him as their souls connected. He felt her pain over losing Callia, and her love for him.
And he discovered her animal spirit. A white hawk soared through her bloodstream and her soul, a beautiful, rare hunter who symbolized freedom in its truest form.
In tial. He claimed her again.
As she weakened in his arms, he felt her voice inside of his mind. In tial.
Her heartbeat fluttered, and Kane cut his tongue, kissing her wound tenderly until her skin healed. While he held her close, their bodies still connected, he brought his wrist to his lips, biting through the skin.
He placed the wound against her lips. “Drink, Rita.”
Gradually, he felt the pull at his veins. The sensation of her drinking from him, watching her lips on his skin, her slender throat swallowing what he offered, sent him over the edge, and Kane ground his hips into her until he erupted deep inside of her.
Rita moaned against him while he held her close. She drank him into her body, her blood, and her soul. He hoped she would drink enough from him to be strong, to face forever with all the tenacity he had grown to expect from her. He’d never turned a mortal, but seeing her unharmed gave him hope.
She pulled back, her lips crimson with his blood. “You are mine in body, blood, and soul.”
“You heard my thoughts although I did not speak them into your mind.” His wrist tingled as the wound healed.
“Our thoughts mingled, like one mind.” She kissed his lips again, long and slow. “I do not feel any different.”
Kane pressed his lips to her forehead. “I have never offered my blood to another. I do not know how long we will wait.”
Without a word, Rita slipped free of his arms and reached for her dress. “Neither one of us should be here when the sun rises.”
Kane frowned at her rush to break the spell of their new marriage, but he also recognized the wisdom behind it. Reaching for her mind, he found the Lord’s Prayer, her thoughts shielded from him. He dressed, doing his best to bury the hurt and confusion brewing inside him. After helping her fold the blanket, he waited for her to speak, to question him, but silence remained.
Rita climbed aboard Candide without any assistance, her strength obviously returning.
“Do you feel well enough to ride?” He watched her for any sign of dizziness from blood loss.
She nodded. “Oui. I feel…fine.”
Rita didn’t wait for him to mount his horse. She spun Candide around and was soon galloping back toward Paris, leaving Kane to follow behind.
Chapter Fourteen
Marguerite raced ahead, wiping stray tears from her cheeks.
It hadn’t worked. Antoine shared the process with her more than once. He drank from his maker, and instantly felt a burning in his belly as his body changed. His eyesight and hearing improved, he thirsted, but not for water, and his strength increased.
Within minutes.
She’d taken Kane’s blood, and other than feeling closer to him than any other person on earth, nothing changed. She failed him.
Maybe his kind couldn’t make others.
Or maybe she just wasn’t worthy.
Either way, their marriage would only bring Kane pain.
She would grow old and leave him—die. She had been so full of hope, so certain of her future. It hurt to feel it slipping away. She felt foolish for believing she could become more.
Her body had failed them both.
A sob escaped her, and she urged Candide faster. She didn’t know what to say, or how to tell him. Instead, she’d shut him out of her mind until she could think things through.
But weeping would give her away.
Candide slowed as they neared the stable, and Marguerite sucked in deep breaths, hoping to calm herself. She pulled her horse to a stop and dismounted. Kane arrived as she unsaddled her mare. He jumped to the ground, his features cold and hard.
He stopped her, taking the saddle from her arms. “Why are you hiding? Your mind is closed to me.”
“Sunrise will be here soon.” She called upon her all-too-easy-to-wear mask of charm and offered him a coquettish smile. Picking up a brush to groom Candide, she shrugged.
“We needed to return, no?”
Kane rested the saddle on the rack and turned to face her, frowning. “I am not a wealthy duke to be charmed. Less than an hour ago, you gave yourself to me, and took me for your own. Now you lie to me. Why?”
And in that moment, her opportunity presented itself. If he hated her, he would not mourn her when she was gone.
When daylight came, she would leave him while he slept. She stared down at the rose around her finger, her heart breaking inside. She would always be his as long as she lived, but he would remember her as a betrayer long after her light extinguished from this world.
She told herself it was for the best.
That didn’t make it hurt any less.
She placed her hand on her hip. “You offend me with your accusation. Nothing I have said is untrue. If I choose to keep my thoughts my own, that does not mean I am lying.”
He stalked around her like the large jungle cat she now knew dwelled inside of him. The cat she had already pictured herself shifting into. It had been folly to think she could ever become like him.
She’d been a foolish woman in love to believe she could be a Night Walker.
Kane groaned and pulled his hair back from his forehead.
“How can I help you if you will not confide in me?”
She took his hand, memorizing how it felt to have his fingers clasp hers like he would never let her go. “I have nothing to confide, Kane.” The first lie was always the hardest. “Nothing.”
They walked hand in hand to the maison and into Kane’s bedroom. She lay down on the bed. He didn’t join her.
Kane lifted a large stone in the floor, exposing a dimly lit passageway underneath. He turned toward her, but his eyes did not shine with mischief the way she had grown accustomed.
“My daylight sleeping quarters are hidden underground.
We will be safe there.”
She’d never be able to move the stone herself to leave during the day. Part of her wanted to surrender. When dusk fell the following night, he would understand that her body hadn’t changed. She was still mortal.
And he would pledge to love her anyway. She would age while he remained virile and young. She would pass away and leave him behind. Alone.
Marguerite steeled herself behind the mask of Le Voleur D’or. It was for the best.
“I cannot bear to sleep under the ground.” She reached for his hand. “Please, can we remain here? We can lock the door. There are no windows for the sunlight to enter.”
“If Gerard were to open the door, we would appear dead to him, Rita. He could call a doctor, and soon we would be burned in the sunlight.” He shook his head. “No, we must sleep below. I have a bedchamber there. You will not know you are underground.”
She sighed. “Just for one night then? Let me rest with you in your bed as husband and wife. I will reconcile myself to our new sleeping arrangements, but for tonight…” She lay back onto the bed. “Please, Kane.”
He sat on the edge of the bed, running a finger down her arm. The muscles tensed in his forearms, and she ached to be wrapped safely in his embrace, to hear him assure her that he could fix this.
“I was born into this world to uphold it and protect it.”
A tear slipped down her cheek before she could stop it.
Kane pulled back. “You are crying. Are you in pain?”
“No.” A sob choked her throat. “No pain.” She wiped her tear. “I wish I felt something, but I am still mortal. Nothing has changed.”
He lay down beside her and pulled her into the refuge of his arms. “You are right, nothing has changed. You are still my wife, and I will always love you.”
“It will only hurt you when I am gone, and I do not wish to live the rest of my days telling people you are my son when I am old and gray. This will never work.” She pressed a kiss to the scar over his heart. “I love you too much to stay.”
“That is why you insisted we sleep up here.” The comforting caress on her back ceased. “You were going to leave me.”
“It would be better for both of us.”
He grabbed her arms and pulled her back from his chest.
She couldn’t escape his intense stare. “We are one. You do not get to choose what would be better for both of us.”
Heat smoldered in her belly, pushing past the ache. “And you do?”
“That is not what I said.”
Marguerite sat up, doing her best to glare at him, but the corner of his mouth curved up slightly into a crooked grin that made her heart flip.
“I meant that we talk, and together we decide what is best. You are not in this world alone anymore.”
Her shoulders sagged, the spit of anger spent. “I was so happy tonight. Being in your arms, making our vows to the moon and stars. My body has let us down.”
Kane leaned forward to steal a kiss, his teeth brushing her lower lip and sending a flush of heat through her. “Your body is perfect. Perhaps I did something wrong. We can try again.”
Try again. Why hadn’t that occurred to her? Marguerite swallowed the lump in her throat. “I would like that.”