My Love Eternal

by Liz Strange

  “Watch you mouth. This is my woman you are talking about, and the one tossing about threats is you.” “Be strong. This is almost over,” I heard in my head.

  “You need to stop, Giovanni. You want you to hear what I came to tell you.”

  “All I’ve heard is insults and comments meant to intimidate.”

  The stranger sighed. “You’re infuriating. Maybe you deserve to be destroyed.”

  “More threats?”

  He paced across the room, keeping his thin back to where we stood. Giovanni took a step forward, just out of my reach. The man’s arrogance was evident in the way he held his body. Fascinated and terrified, I trembled like a scolded child.

  “You have nothing to tell us. You’re wasting my time,” said Giovanni.

  “This,” the stranger said, turning and waving his hands about the room, “is not worth a few moments of your time. Keeping you and your lady from being destroyed is a waste of time?”

  “And now who’s being dramatic? If this were a simple exchange of information you would already be gone by now, but here you are still. You obviously want something from me as well as whatever information you think I need to have. Much has changed since that night, and you don’t know me at all. Rachel is my partner, and she is to be treated as my equal. I will not settle for less that that, not from you, not from anyone.” Giovanni’s voice was low, but filled with conviction.

  “Your equal? Rubbish!” he snorted. “Don’t patronise me, I’m doing you a favour by coming to you like this and you think that you’ll talk down to me? Enough with your talk about love and relationships, I don’t buy a word of it. And, even more, it bores me silly.”

  Giovanni returned the man’s cold smile, a look I had never seen before. It was terrible and somehow beautiful on his face. “No more. It is your own misfortune that you are incapable of love, and despite you, I survived. In some strange way I have you to thank for finding Rachel. If you hadn’t taken me like you did, then we would never have met.”

  “It’s a very big mistake to talk to me this way, my dear boy. I was serious when I said what I have to tell you is very important.” As he talked, his cruel eyes looked past Giovanni, directly at me. I looked away, but willed myself to remain where I was.

  Giovanni closed the small distance between himself and the other man, the soles of his shoes whispering across the wood floor. The man regarded him with distaste and barely concealed fury. Giovanni acted as though he didn’t notice, and didn’t stop until he was as close as he could get to the man without touching him.

  Then, he did something that unleashed the conflict that had been threatening to escape throughout our entire encounter. It was an insignificant move, so slight as to be almost unnoticeable, but the man reacted violently. It was the touch of Giovanni’s hand on the stranger’s arm that released the torrent of emotions that brought the possibility of a civil exchange between the two to an end.

  The man drew back with a sharp intake, and eyes that had previously burnt a fiery green, were now as black as coal. He snatched his arm away as though it was on fire, and his mouth became a cruel slash across his face. “Don’t you ever touch me!”

  “You have to calm down, or nothing is going to come of this! These outbursts of yours are getting us nowhere. All this hedging, and the intimidations need to stop. Stop the insults, and just get on with what you have to say.”

  “I want to speak with you alone.” His eyes remained on me, though his words were directed at Giovanni.

  “Anything that you say to me can be said to her. You will show her the respect she deserves or you can leave. This is not negotiable.”

  For a brief moment I thought he was going to relent. His eyes lost some of their darkness, and the sneer receded until his face was a mask of blankness. He stared at the pair of us, long arms dangling loosely at his sides. The unusually long fingers twitched ever so slightly. Then that icy smile returned.

  The shift in the feeling of the room was very subtle, but the hair on my arms still rose in alarm. My gaze flickered nervously in Giovanni’s direction, hoping to gauge his reaction, but he did not move. My attention returned to the man, who was now slowly moving in my direction, and my body thrummed with fear. I didn’t want to meet those monstrous green eyes of his, but my body was betraying me. It was like it had been earlier on the streets when I had responded to his psychic call. I could not stop myself, and as soon as our eyes met I was trapped. I drowned in his hypnotic gaze, but I could not pull myself away. I was peripherally aware of Giovanni standing slightly to the front and to the right of me. He seemed too still.

  Slowly he leant into my face, which made him bend at an awkward angle because of his height, and I whimpered in revulsion at his closeness. His lips were mere inches from my own, and I thought with growing horror that he might actually kiss me. I felt a tightness about my body, as though the air had become denser. One skeletal hand reached out and I was powerless to stop it from touching my body.

  Then, as quick as lightning, he pulled his hand back and slapped me across the face. My head rocked from the force, and the strength of the contact picked my feet up off the floor to knock me back against the loveseat. I stumbled, but the shock and pain of the attack broke his mental control of me. My fear was instantly replaced by a burning anger. I brought my hand to my cheek, which still stung from the slap, and silently seethed from the indignation of what he had done.

  Giovanni turned in our direction, but did not move forward. His face was worryingly devoid of emotion, and his body did not display the reaction that I felt the incident warranted. I looked back up into the man’s face, but this time the eyes did not mesmerise me. I was disgusted to see that the icy smile had been replaced by a genuine one. He was apparently pleased with himself, and that only angered me more.

  “Giovanni,” I said urgently.

  His attempt at a frown didn’t quite succeed. His eyes moved from my face to the stranger’s, but he was oddly silent. I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t trying to help me, or defend me in some way. I took my chance in that moment the man turned away from me and toward Giovanni.

  I jumped to my feet and launched myself into the man’s body. I connected solidly with his side, and to my surprise he stumbled a few steps backward. I think the movement was more from surprise, than any real force of my strike. I slipped around his side, stopping as I reached Giovanni. I heard the man fall into the coffee table as I grabbed Giovanni’s arms with my small hands and shook him with all my strength. I could hear the man cursing, and knew I had but seconds before he was on his feet again. If he got a hold of me it would be all over. “Giovanni, please.”

  “Go!” he growled through gritted teeth. I shook my head in disbelief. “Get out of here!” he screamed.

  Burning with humiliation and anger I had no choice but to run. I didn’t wait to see what would happen next. I simply fled. As I raced out the room, I heard the sounds of a struggle, and two male voices raised in anger. I knocked the door clear out of its frame, not even attempting to open it in my haste to get away. I felt a moment of guilt then the sour taste of cowardice, but I knew I was no match for the stranger. He was too strong, and had too much control over my mind, to the point where he could turn my own body against itself. And, God damn it, I was angry!

  I ran out to the driveway and jumped into one of the cars. I pulled the shade down and the keys dropped into my waiting hand. After slamming the car into drive I pulled away from the house, driving recklessly until the familiar village lay far behind me. I was too angry and scared to care who might see me.

  What had happened back there? It had been chaos, and the man was so weirdly evasive and yet aggressive. It made no sense. One minute Giovanni had been angry, the next passive. Had he also been affected by the man’s mental control? Why did he tell me to leave?

  When I finally came to my senses enough to realise that I had no idea where I was, I stopped. It was dangerous to find myself in unfamiliar territory with only a few
hours of night left. I pulled over to the side of the road to get my bearings and ascertained that I was on a highway I had travelled on before. I remembered it leading to several small towns and villages. The road cut a swath through a dense forest, and I took shelter there in a small clearing. My face still held a phantom stinging from the man’s slap, and I burnt with humiliation. I let out a stream of expletives, but it did nothing to reduce the level of my anger. I needed to calm down, and think things through clearly. I stepped from the car and let the silent darkness calm me.

  A moment of doubt had never touched me since joining Giovanni as a vampire. He had always been loyal and supportive, guiding and protecting me every step of the way. He was so incredibly strong. I couldn’t believe what had happened. He must have been affected by the stranger’s mind-games. There was no other logical explanation. His outburst must have stemmed from desperation. He knew his behaviour would have shocked and hurt me. It was a way to get me far away from the danger in our midst.

  I was mulling this over and over again when I became aware of the presence of something alive. I shut my thoughts off immediately and concentrated on the area around me, aware of a small sound of movement, a whisper of brush being gently pushed aside. There was no way a human’s ears would have been able to pick it up, but I could hear things clearly for miles. When I wanted to concentrate on a particular area, I could discern the most brief or quiet of sounds. Then I picked up a heartbeat. The creature moved closer still, and I caught a scent. Human.

  Chapter 13

  I followed a small, very overgrown path from the highway’s edge, deeper into the forest’s depths. After I gained my bearings, allowing myself to be aware of my surroundings and not just my simmering anger, I was able to tentatively establish where I was situated. I was just over the border from my adopted country, and I was almost positive I was close to a small, farming community Giovanni and I had hunted in several years before. If it was the place I was thinking of, I remembered quaint farmhouses filled with sleeping families and barns full of resting animals. It gave me a twinge of sadness when I thought about the kind of lives those sleeping men and women were going to wake to.

  The small clearing where had I stopped consisted of just a large rock with a fallen tree resting on its wide base. An area no more than ten feet square existed where the ground was relatively free of plant growth and other obstacles. I had just perched myself on the rock’s upper plateau, when I caught the first signs that I was not alone. My first thought was to scare the person off. I had had too much drama that night already, and I had already fed. The movements stopped and I knew by my heightened senses that the human was still a way off from being any kind of threat, or witness. I closed my eyes, forcing myself to calm down. Slowly the tension began to drain from my body, but I was far from being relaxed. There were many things out there in the night that were potentially as dangerous as I was.

  As pointedly as I tried to make myself think through the facts, my emotions kept creeping in. A venomous fury coursed through my veins. Terrible images of Seraphine’s death, and Giovanni’s anger and fear filtered through my brain, twisting and souring my thoughts. Remembering that stranger’s horribly cold smile and green eyes chilled me to the core.

  Had I somehow unconsciously sabotaged our safety, influencing Giovanni to make decisions outside of what his experience would normally tell him to do? Had I let this man come into our life through my own ignorance, and possibly something worse, considering the danger that he alluded to? Was I somehow at fault for what had happened this night?

  A strange and sudden thought jumped into my brain, one completely divorced from the matter at hand. Today was the birthday of my niece, Danica, who had only been eleven years old when I left. She would now be in her early twenties. Where had she ended up? Was she married? Had she gone on to university? She would now be almost the same age as I was when I changed. For some reason that thought unsettled me terribly.

  Then, as quickly as the thought came, my mind raced back to the present. No matter what may have happened, or could still be happening, I would have to return to the house. I could conceivably find another place to go, but no matter what my life was with Giovanni, I needed to be where he was. I needed to give him the benefit of the doubt and clear up what had transpired. He had never failed or wronged me before.

  I thought it best to wait until quite close to sunrise to return. The encounter would have to be over by then, as the stranger would have to return to his daytime resting place for his own safety. I closed my eyes and tried to open my mind to Giovanni’s thoughts, but there was nothing. I tried to believe that that was a good omen, because when he was high with emotion, his link with me was usually wide open. If he was in pain, or fearful I should have been feeling something. At least that’s what I wanted to believe.

  I was debating about going ahead into the nearest town when I became aware again of the presence in the dark woods. My stalker wandered a bit closer as I sat thinking, but was still not close enough to be any kind of threat. The unseen person’s movements were very stealthy and oddly light. They pricked at my attention.

  I leant down and snapped off a large branch from the fallen tree, which rested at my feet. I paused, listening to the night, but the movements had stopped. I tossed the branch off in the direction the last sounds had come from, and waited for a reaction. I expected a scream, or some kind of abrupt movement, but there was none. I was curious, and a frankly a little annoyed. A few minutes passed in complete silence. Then, so softly even I strained to hear, there was a rustling. The person made slow, careful movements, but it was obvious they were coming in my direction. I sat as still as stone, waiting for them to get closer.

  It was puzzling that the person was approaching from deep within the forest. Why would someone be out there alone at night? As they came closer, I picked up on some fleeting images and the unmistakable feelings of fear and curiosity. Within a few minutes they would be close enough for me to see them, but not close enough to allow them the same luxury. A slight breeze rustled by, bringing with it the aromas of dirt, sweat and blood.

  I didn’t need to feed, but I was churning with anger and aggression. The chance to release my inner turmoil was too intoxicating to dismiss. I could just have easily departed— a ghost to my would-be voyeur— but I stayed where I was. It was somewhat exhilarating to not know whom I would come face to face with in that shadowy encounter.

  My stalker was not only exceptionally careful, he or she was bold. The almost inaudible footsteps stopped not ten feet from where I sat, on the very edges of the clearing. Though I pretended to be oblivious of their approach, I could clearly discern a small figure beneath the overhanging branches of a nearby tree. From where I sat, I did not a have a completely unobstructed view of their position, but I was left with the impression of a small man or woman, medium-length dark hair and large eyes. The eyes beamed out from the obscured face, shining in the pale stream of moonlight. The body remained incredibly still, but the eyes flicked about the open space with cautious interest. Again, I caught a whiff of their scent and something about it disturbed me. It was not like any other scent I had experienced before when hunting.

  The alluring aroma in such proximity led me away from those troubling thoughts. My body began to betray me, trembling lightly with desire. I let myself go to the feeling, pushing aside everything else. I lunged at my prey, my movements too quick for eyes to register before I caught the person in my grasp. The body felt frail and thin in my arms. There was no struggle or outcry at my sudden attack. The passivity was decidedly unsettling. I cupped the individual’s small chin with my hand, and lifted the lowered face toward my own. I had to see the face of this daring creature, and know the look of fear before I took a life.

  When those gloriously innocent and calm eyes met my own, I was so surprised I immediately dropped my hold. For the first time in many years, I was hesitant about taking a life. I felt my doubt as physically as I had felt my fear and anger from
earlier in the evening. I was even more troubled that once my grip was released the person still made no attempt to escape. That haunting gaze remained on my face, and I felt a strange sense of peace. An unmistakable bonding happened between the two of us in that moment. I could not kill this pitiful creature. It was only a child.

  The boy was young, maybe nine or ten years old, though he was so thin he might have been as old as twelve. Bearing the obvious signs of malnourishment and neglect, he was also incredibly dirty, with tangled, matted hair, but was not matured enough to be releasing the telltale body odour of adolescence. His outfit was several sizes too large, all but swallowing up his tiny frame. The clothing was also not adequate to prevent the ill effects of exposure to the cold, damp nights common in that area. Yet, underneath the ill-fitting clothes and the filth, lay an unquestionable beauty.

  His eyes were large soulful pools shining up from a face that even the gauntness could not detract from exquisite features. It was a face that through his youth would seem too “pretty,” but as a man would be undeniably masculine and attractive. It was a face that would one day make woman silly with desire. The boy’s eyes were bluer than the clearest of skies, a blue reminding me too much of the eyes of the man I loved.

  Those terrible and innocent blue eyes held me in their unflinching gaze, and touched me in a deeply intimate way. Much pain lurked there, too much pain for someone so young, inexplicably drawing me. I was compelled to understand what could deliver a child to such a place, both emotionally and physically. What terrible things could have happened to have fate bring him to me in such a way? Were the events that transpired earlier only a circumstance that needed to occur to allow me to meet this child?