My Love Eternal

by Liz Strange

  “So are you ready to spill what’s been going on with you yet?” Shannon asked over her steaming latte.

  That caught my attention. “Going on with me?” I thought playing dumb was the way to go, but she wasn’t buying it.

  “Yeah, you’ve been all mopey and weird lately. I mean I know you’re not exactly Miss Social Butterfly, but you usually get out more than this, and I get that you were bummed about breaking up with Sam, but that’s been, like, a year. You did pick up that hottie at the club a few weeks ago. That should have put the wind back in your sails.”

  She did remember seeing us together! “Yeah, I don’t know what to say. I’ve been having a lot of trouble sleeping, and just feeling crappy. And that guy, that was just a one-time thing, nothing serious.”

  “Too bad. He was cute if you like the European, artsy pretty boy type. You know me, I go more for the big, beefy muscle heads. Oh well, lots more fish in the sea.”

  “Yeah, well, find me one you haven’t slept with yet.”

  She laughed. “You bitch. It’s not easy being this beautiful, you know.” She tossed her hair and tried to keep a straight face, but didn’t quite pull it off.

  “Yeah, you have it sooo rough.”

  I paused, the story of bizarre encounters and the deaths at the hospital on the tip of my tongue. What would be the point of dragging Shannon into this? She already thought I was acting oddly, and telling the truth was only going to stress her out. How could I explain that even though I had my suspicions he was not only responsible for five known deaths, but that the reasons for these deaths were supernatural in origin? It sounded crazy just thinking about it, and I could only imagine the reaction if I voiced my conclusions out loud. Best to keep my mouth shut.

  Even though the conversation with Shannon distracted me for the moment, the restless anxiety returned as soon as we were on our way to the theatre. I tried to block out everything but the movie, but couldn’t stay focused. As soon as the opening credits rolled I was counting down the seconds until it was finished. I all but leapt from my seat when it finally ended, my skin feeling like a thousand tiny ants scurrying over its surface. I bumped into two people as I made my way toward the door. I needed to get outside. My chest was so tight I couldn’t breathe.

  I lunged through the door in my hurry to get outside. The air was frigid, definitely on the far side of fall now, biting into the exposed skin on my face. It wouldn’t be long until the harsh, Canadian winter came upon us. It was still a comfort though, after the theatre’s strangling claustrophobia. Just being outside, with all its possibilities, made the tension subside. I lost Shannon in my rush, so I waited on the street among the people coming and going from the theatre.

  Suddenly, like an electric shock, his face appeared in my mind. I had been doing everything I could to not think about him all evening that this flash caught me off guard. A cold, prickly feeling ran up the back of my neck. A young couple passed me, and for one brief moment, it was our faces I saw, smiling, with the wind whipping through our hair. My heart thundered painfully. Something was about to happen.

  I looked down the street, seeing people and movement, but there was a surreal, hazy quality about it. There was only my blood rushing, and the soft tempo of the music playing only in my head. The stores wrapped in darkness looked out onto the street with blind eyes. I could no longer feel the cold. Then I began to move swiftly down the street, pulled like a magnet to some source bigger and stronger than myself. There was a break in the throng of people, and without warning he appeared. He watched me approach with wary eyes.

  I stopped, and brought a shaky hand to my lips. I had to be imagining things. It had been a long time since there had been any sign of him, but there he was, alone, waiting for me. He wore the long, dark coat again. The movement of it stirring in the gentle breeze caught my eye momentarily. His face turned away from mine, lost in the shadows.

  I thought for one fleeting moment he would leave, but he turned his glorious face in my direction once again. His movements seemed to flow, as if underwater. It was mesmerising to watch, and somehow painful. Then we froze, locked in that perfect and unspoilt moment where there was no sound, no distractions, only the two of us in the night.

  I reached a trembling hand toward him, but he only smiled a sad, private smile that made my chest tight. I tried to move forward, but I was locked in place, and the more I tried, the more pained his expression became. I couldn’t understand if the moment was actually happening, or if it was some kind of illusion. His silken voice inside my head begged me to come to him. I used my strength to continue, but with each step I progressed, the farther the space between us seemed to become. I willed myself with a ferocity I didn’t know I possessed.

  Everything about him, except his perfect, pale face blurred into the night. The darkness began to close in about me, shrinking snapshot by snapshot. That wonderful, dangerous, seductive smile played across his lips, and I shivered . The soundtrack playing in my head stopped abruptly, replaced by the unsteady rhythm of my pulse.

  He moistened his lips with the tip of his crimson tongue, and I felt it against my skin. I trembled uncontrollably as his full lips opened, exposing his cruelly sharp fangs. My body flashed with heat, and a light perspiration covered my skin. The arousal exploded in my head and between my legs. I saw the approval in his cerulean eyes, and experienced the first step in understanding what a future between us held in store. Perhaps, if I had been terrified or repulsed, things would have turned out very differently for me.

  His eyes pierced like daggers, brilliant sapphires in the velvet darkness. His mouth opened again, slowly forming words, though there was no sound. “I want you.” I did not hear, so much as feel the words inside my head. At the last moment before he disappeared, the face of a pretty, young woman flashed in my mind. It was a face I was sure I had never seen before.

  Then my legs started shaking, and my knees buckled beneath me. My knees made a sharp crack against the sidewalk, and the contact sent spasms of pain up my body. I fell to my side, curling my legs to my chest, and tried to will the pain and disorientation away. Then there was nothing.

  Chapter 4

  The next thing I was aware of was an assault of frantic voices around me. I was cold, and my faced was pressed against a hard, damp surface. Faces peered down at me, worry stamped across their unfamiliar features. Then I heard a voice I recognised, and was comforted though still shaky. I was too exhausted to move. Each time we crossed paths he seemed to transfer a bit of himself onto me, and also sap some of my physical strength.

  The crowd shifted, and Shannon’s face appeared above my own. Her expression was rigid, distressed, and I suspected angry. She bent down, and pulled me up against her body. Her arms held me tightly, and my body had no resistance. “What the hell happened, Rachel? You shot out of that theatre like a bat outta hell. I thought you’d gone to the washroom, and when you weren’t there I looked outside, but you were gone.”

  I weakly shook my head.

  “How did you get all the way down here?”

  I didn’t know where “down here” was, but I concluded that I must have wandered quite a distance from the theatre. Even if I could speak, I don’t know what I would have said. Whatever happened was within me only as fragments, incoherent jolts of movement and images. There was no explanation for what just happened, or what was happening all together.

  She looked at the people surrounding us, but most had already moved away, and the few who remained only shook their heads. The one man who spoke up, said, “She was just standing there on the sidewalk with her arm out like she was reaching for something, and then she crumpled to the ground. She dropped pretty hard, but I don’t know if she hit her head or anything.”

  Shannon’s look was incredulous. “Yah, okay. Thanks. Maybe if you could all just back up and give her some space.” The remaining gawkers slowly retreated, and eventually continued on their way. She returned her eyes to my face. “Are you okay? Did you faint again
?”

  I started to cough, and she pushed me away from her, while still hanging onto the back of my coat. “Gross. Are you going to be sick?”

  I coughed again, and the words scratched their way out of my throat. “No… I’m okay.”

  “Jesus, Rachel, you are not okay. You’ve been acting like a freak for weeks. You never do anything anymore but mope around and you don’t talk to anyone. You look like you haven’t slept in weeks. And then, well, this is the second time something like this has happened. I don’t get what’s happening with you and you’re starting to seriously piss me off.”

  His face flashed before my eyes. “I thought I saw someone, and I was following them… and then I don’t know what happened.”

  “What are you talking about? Who did you see?” Her dark eyes flashed with suspicion, and I swallowed a hard ball of pain down my throat. “What is going on with you?”

  “Help me up.” She pulled me onto my feet with a little more force than was necessary and I almost toppled over again. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how to explain this… I just thought I saw a guy I know… ” The words sounded lame, even to me. I knew I should just stop talking.

  “What guy? Not that one you hooked up with at the club? Is that who you’re talking about? ‘Cause I haven’t seen you with, or heard you talk about any other guys since you and Sam broke up.”

  “Never mind.”

  “Don’t you tell me to ‘never mind,’ Rachel. We’ve been friends way too long for you to blow me off. This is like the first time we’ve done anything together in two months, and you run out on me, and I find you passed out on the street, in the dark. And this is about some guy? I don’t get you, girl… ”

  “I said let it go. I’m sorry I scared you, or pissed you off or whatever you are. I can handle this on my own.”

  “You don’t seem like you’re handling anything, actually.”

  I bit back my anger, because I could understand her point of view. If the roles had been reversed I would think she was acting like an ass too. Truthfully, I was starting to freak myself out. Did I really run after a possible murderer— or worse— down a darkened street? I stumbled slightly, and she caught me under my elbow, holding on hard.

  She turned me toward her, forcing me to look her in the face. “Talk to me right now. We’re not going anywhere until you give me something here. This is not like you. I’m worried about you.”

  It made me uncomfortable to see her face pinched in concern. Usually nothing bothered Shannon— one of her qualities I liked the most. I squirmed under her intense scrutiny. “Yes, it’s about that guy from the club.” I racked my brain for the right way to word what I would say next. “We’ve seen each other a few times, and I guess I thought there was something more going on than there is. I didn’t want you to know ‘cause I was embarrassed.”

  She stuck her chin out slightly, frowning. “And that’s what this is about?” Her tone clearly implied that she didn’t believe me.

  “Uh-huh. I hadn’t heard from him in a few days, and then I thought I saw him, and the streets were really busy, and then I don’t know what happened. I guess I fainted or slipped or something.”

  “Really?” Her words were tight, and it hurt me more than I would ever have imagined to lie to her.

  “And I guess I haven’t been sleeping that well, and I’m tired, and out of it, and yeah, I’m sorry.” The words spilled out, tumbling over themselves. I don’t think they helped my credibility.

  She held up a hand to stop me before I continued. “Well, it’s not like you to go chasing after a guy like this, so I don’t even know what that is about. But if he’s dodging you, or whatever, then he’s a jerk, and you need to let it go.” She gave me a pointed look, and I cringed at the harshness of her words. “As for all this fainting and stuff, I think you need to see a doctor, maybe get something to help you sleep.”

  “I guess you’re right.” I made up my mind, then and there, that there was no way I could share what was going on with anyone. No one could understand. I was alone with this, and that was fine with me.

  “I mean it, Rach, ditch this guy. It’s not worth it.”

  I smiled like I agreed with her then let it go. There was no need to make her any unhappier.

  We wandered back to the car in silence, the darkness comforting me. After the feeling of nausea and the weakness passed, I was nearly humming with excitement. That otherworldly anticipation was building, and my craving for him was like a slow boil waiting to spill over. I had heard the words “I want you” in my head, just before he disappeared. I played them over again in my brain, savouring the lyrical beauty of the way the words sounded. The impact of those three words made my heart swell, feeling as if it was slamming into my ribcage. It was crazy, dangerous, and without a doubt true. Somehow, without knowing anything about him, not even his name, I knew I wanted him in return. I would know who he was, and what brought him into my life.

  I was lost in my thoughts, barely feeling the movement of the car, until its motion abruptly stopped. I snapped out of my reverie, realising we were already home. I turned to Shannon, who hadn’t said a word the entire ride, but she was already getting out of the car. I pulled open my door, savouring the slap of cool air against my face. She was on the landing, keys in hand, looking at me with barely concealed annoyance on her face.

  “Are you coming?”

  I closed the door behind me with a barely audible click. “I just need some air.”

  “Whatever,” she snapped, going inside. I turned my gaze out to the park across the street as the door closed behind her. His image flashed in my mind, and that familiar prickle danced across my nape. There was something about him that was so delicate, but also extremely masculine. His features were too lovely to be called handsome, but an undeniable strength emanated from him.

  The night became heavy, wrapping itself around me as if to cut me off from any other sensation. Then snap, and I wasn’t seeing from my perspective any longer. I was seeing through his eyes again, feeling his hunger and thrill. There was a strange sound around me, something I couldn’t immediately identify until the scene before me came cleanly into focus.

  A woman sprawled on the floor, a man on top of her, and the sound was moaning— low and terrible, a sound that scurried up my arms. I thought at first they were sounds of sexual neediness, but as the man rolled to the side with the woman still pinned underneath him I could see that she was covered in blood. The look on her face was pain, not pleasure.

  The man’s eyes were wild, his body rigid with excitement. He was swelled with a sense of power. Something flashed in his hand as he pulled it up then struck down with incredible force, and the woman shrieked— a sickening, desperate sound. He was stabbing her, over and over, while she tried, pathetically, to get away. She was no match for him. Not even a surge of adrenaline would save her now. He licked his lips, savouring the moment.

  Suddenly the man was knocked from behind, and his body tumbled away from the woman to crash into a nearby table. A vase fell and smashed on the floor, the water and flowers exploding over the narrow room. The woman’s eye became large dark caverns against the pallor of her face and the crimson pool spreading around her body. She was hurt badly, and her heart beat too slowly.

  The man struggled to right himself, but his legs were tangled in the table. Then he was suddenly lifted upright and slammed violently against the wall. The table shrieked away, and the knife dropped from his hands to skid across the wood floor. Fear was evident on his face. He was angry at having his game interrupted, and the heated emotion lapped at me. The smell of the other man’s sweat and blood was intensely arousing.

  “How do you like it when the tables are turned?” my stranger asked, leaning into the man held against the wall, until their faces were pressed together. “Is it as much fun to be the hunted, as the hunter?”

  “Fuck off.” The man hissed the words, spittle flying from his lips.

  “Now, now. That’s not very nice
language, especially in front of a lady.” My attention returned to the woman, who was painfully pulling herself across the room, away from the men. She stopped, panting from the exertion.

  With one hand, the stranger raised the man until his feet dangled several feet from the floor. I experienced the ease with which he supported the man’s body, like some strange astral projection of myself in his body. The would-be killer struggled unsuccessfully, his boots making a hollow, knocking sound against the cream-coloured walls. A vein throbbed in his throat, the skin taut with his anger and fear. There was a small sound from the floor, and he turned to meet the woman’s eyes. A pitiful, hateful look simmered there, as she sat in a pool of her own blood, her life leaking from her body.

  “Kill him,” she said softly.

  With one hand he reached down and grabbed the knife, and in one swift movement sliced the man’s throat from ear to ear. Even before the blood started to spill, his mouth was pressed to the wound, and I heard him drinking. It was a repulsive and yet wonderful sound. A warmth and satisfaction spread throughout my body. Abruptly he pulled back, allowing a small amount of blood to spill from the wound and down the front of the man’s shirt. The lips of the wound gaped like a second mouth.

  He tossed the body to the ground, and came to the woman’s side. He looked into her eyes that were racked with pain. He bent over her, and I thought he would kill her too, but he merely pressed his mouth to the deepest wound, and I heard his soft sigh inside my head. When he pulled back, the bleeding had stopped, but the woman was still close to death.

  He walked to the phone, dialled and left it on the table where he found it. When he walked out, he left the door wide open, an undeniable invitation to the emergency response members who would show up for the call.

  The last thing that went through my mind before I was thrust back to my own reality was his voice, “I know you see. I don’t understand, but something inside of me is open to you. That’s how I know you are the one… ”