Dance Until Dawn

by Berni Stevens

  I tried so hard and so desperately to push him away, to be free of his revolting presence, but my efforts were futile against his immense strength. He forced his tongue deep into my mouth, causing me to gag, and it felt as if my throat would actually tear. I could feel the blood, sticky and cold, as it trickled from my bruised and battered lips, but still he continued his assault.

  A muffled sob escaped from me when one of his large hands grabbed and squeezed my breast painfully, the other hand still holding my throat in a vice-like grip.

  Suddenly I became aware of someone else, and knew beyond any doubt it was Will. Oh God … Will … Terrified that Honyauti would snap my head from my shoulders at any moment, I went limp and still in his grasp.

  Will entered the room like a tornado, his face demonic with rage. I’d seen him angry before, but I had never seen him like this. He was truly terrifying. His eyes blazed, and his handsome face had transformed to resemble a livid creature from the very depths of hell.

  He grabbed Honyauti with a feral snarl, and hauled him off me. Honyauti lost his hold on my throat, and I dropped back into the water again. Although barely conscious, I still couldn’t take my eyes off Will. I cowered in the far corner of the bath, and stared at the snarling stranger whilst holding a shaky hand to my bruised, throbbing throat. A soft keening noise came from my mouth but it didn’t sound like me at all. I felt too hurt to even cry properly.

  Will growled at Honyauti, consumed by feral rage. ‘I believe I said she was not for sharing.’

  The words reverberated around the bathroom like angry snakes, and I covered my ears at the sound.

  In one violent and contemptuous move, Will threw the smaller man bodily at the wall, and Honyauti smashed into it with such a force that several tiles shattered on impact. Before he had a chance to move, Will was on him. The wet sound of blood splattering on the floor made me gag again, as Honyauti clutched at his own throat. He rolled on the tiled floor, gasping for a split second, when Will dragged him to his feet by his long hair.

  ‘You never try to take what is mine Honyauti,’ he said, almost spitting out each word. ‘Do not ever dare to abuse my hospitality again.’

  Honyauti stared without speaking at Will, as the blood gushed from the gaping wound. It appeared to heal itself as I watched, and I couldn’t be sure which horrified me more – the wound or the instant healing.

  ‘If you ever touch her again – even come near her again – I will personally pull out your spine and feed it to you. Now get the hell out of my sight!’ Will released Honyauti suddenly, which caused him to stagger and almost lose his balance.

  He left, but not before he had turned and shot a look of pure venom at me. I stayed in my corner of the bath, not sure what to do or say to Will. Not sure if I could even speak yet. I rested my bruised face on the cool edge of the bath, and wished I could gain control over the violent tremors which shook my whole body.

  Will threw me an angry, cold glance. ‘Get dressed.’ His icy words hit my body like stones. Without looking at me again, he strode from the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

  I flinched at his tone, but got shakily out of the bath without a word. My teeth were chattering and I shook from head to toe. The various wounds on my face and neck throbbed with a vengeance, but all I could hear were Will’s furious, impersonal words.

  Get dressed.

  That was it?

  Get dressed?

  A big bad vamp tries to rape me and all I get is, ‘Get dressed’?

  OK, I may have had some kind of death wish (which is pretty strange for a vampire) but I was angry and desperately traumatised, and I couldn’t think straight. So I went for the door, grabbing a towel on my way out. I wrapped the towel tightly around my shivering body, and ran up the stairs towards the drawing room.

  I pushed the door open so hard it smacked back against the wall, and I stalked in to stand in front of Will with hands on my hips. I was vaguely aware that I dripped water all over his expensive rug, but found it hard to give a damn.

  He sat on the sofa, an unlit cigarette between his lips. He didn’t look up at my violent entrance, although I knew he was completely aware of my every movement.

  He struck a match and lit his cigarette, flicking the match into the fireplace with practised ease. He drew calmly on the cigarette, but still didn’t look up.

  ‘How … how dare you treat me like that?’ I yelled croakily at him. ‘How the hell dare you dismiss me like some – some possession – or – or a pet that has stepped out of line?’

  He did look up at me then, and his eyes glinted with angry, emerald sparks.

  ‘You really need to ask?’ he said in chilling tones, making new shivers run down my spine like icy fingertips.

  ‘Yes I bloody well do,’ I snapped. ‘Thanks very much for saving my life from the psycho Indian that you let come here in the first place. No wait. You took my life in the first place didn’t you? So thank you then, for saving my so-miserable existence – and before you say anything else – he attacked me and in case you didn’t notice – he was about to pull my bloody head off!’

  I stopped my almost hysterical rant when I saw Will’s expression, and stepped back out of reach just in case. I still shook from head to toe and fought to regain control of my emotions.

  ‘And you were naked in the bathroom with him. Why?’

  The cold, harsh words hurt me more than I would have thought possible, but still I stood my ground. Brave me.

  ‘I didn’t even know he was in the house—I was waiting for you. He—just came in—’ I choked back a sob. ‘Where were you Will? Why are you never here at sunset any more?’

  Will stared into my eyes for a moment before he leaned back in the sofa again. I stayed where I was, it wouldn’t do to get too close just yet.

  Tears of hurt and frustration trickled down my cheeks now, and I brushed them angrily away with my hand. Surely he knew me better than this?

  ‘You are telling the truth,’ he said at last.

  Well, I knew that.

  I didn’t recognise this Will. He was cold and uncompromising. I wanted the cool, fun-loving Will back.

  I watched him silently. I watched him stretch his long legs out in front of him, and I watched him lace his fingers together behind his dark hair.

  With one rapid movement, he suddenly had me pinned against the wall, my arms above my head, held fast by one strong hand. He leaned into me until our lips were almost touching. I looked at him – feeling so scared, but determined not to cry again.

  ‘What to do with you now, I wonder?’ he said.

  I stared. Surely he didn’t really believe I had welcomed Honyauti’s attentions?

  I swallowed painfully. My throat really hurt. I had thought all vampires were supposed to heal quickly, but knowing my luck, it would probably just be me who didn’t.

  I looked into the depths of those green eyes, and said the first thing I could think of. ‘Cut the possessive, macho crap and take me to bed.’

  Will looked genuinely astonished for a split second, before he laughed. He released my arms, and put his hands on the wall on either side of my face. Normal Will was back, and inwardly I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  ‘That is one offer I have no intention of refusing,’ he promised. ‘But perhaps it is not a good one for you to make tonight.’

  His gaze lingered on the side of my face, and I touched it self-consciously, wincing as I felt the tenderness there. Capturing my hand in his, he took it away from my face and his eyes narrowed as he looked at the bruises. ‘Bastard.’ He muttered further curses in Italian to himself.

  He lifted my chin with his forefinger and looked at my neck. I knew it was also badly bruised just by the feel of it. His fingers gently brushed the bruises on my face where Honyauti had hit me, and carefully traced my bruised
and ravaged lips.

  ‘I wish I had killed him,’ he murmured. He pulled me carefully into his arms and I shuddered both from relief and from the closeness of his body.

  ‘Are you hurt anywhere else?’ He asked, and I knew what he meant.

  ‘No, you came in time,’ I whispered, and closed my eyes to prevent further tears from escaping.

  ‘Then I think perhaps you had better go and put some clothes on, before I change my mind, and relieve you of this rather wet towel,’ he said against my hair.

  I pulled back from his embrace, and smiled up at him weakly. ‘Clothes,’ I said.

  15 March

  When I walked into the bathroom and saw Honyauti touching Elinor, the rage that filled me was swift and terrible. I knew the Indian had to be taught a lesson then and there if my authority over him could ever be acknowledged. I tried not to feel Elinor’s terror as she cowered crying in the corner of the bath, but I was always aware of her.

  I left after I had thrown Honyauti out. I just could not trust myself to speak to her for a while.

  But I had reckoned without her indomitable spirit and sense of injustice.

  Brave girl.

  She rampaged into the drawing room, like a tiny, red-haired nymph, clad only in a bath towel. That alone would have been enough to appease me under normal circumstances, but I was striving to control my temper. She appeared bruised and battered, and very frightened, yet she was still very angry with me.

  She berated me for not believing her, and rightly so.

  I always know when she is telling the truth and she told the absolute truth then.

  I could not stay angry with her. The assault had not been her fault. I knew that deep in my heart. But jealousy is an evil age-old vice and sadly I have it in spades.

  She stood her ground against me – again – she even told me to stop being possessive and, I believe the term was, ‘to cut the macho crap’. Colourful.

  Immortality will never again be dull.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Lessons

  The night after Honyauti’s attack, Will thankfully stayed put in the house all night. The thought of being left alone at all, ever again, terrified me beyond belief. Will seemed contrite about his former absences, yet offered no reason for them, and I couldn’t bring myself to question him.

  Paranoia filled me, especially when I thought he might just have found a more compliant woman to seduce. I didn’t feel strong enough to face that. Try as I might, I still found it difficult to sort out my true feelings for him. That I found him devastatingly attractive wasn’t in any doubt, I would have to be made of stone not to feel something. His very being filled my thoughts more than I could cope with, and his charismatic presence drew me to him whenever he entered a room. I had never felt like this about any man … but would it be enough? Would it grow into love? I hadn’t enough experience to tell. Will had been right when he said I had always been searching for something. But was the ‘something’ love? What the hell defined love anyway?

  I gave myself a mental shake. Tomorrow night we were expecting the elusive Khiara and her cronies. I certainly couldn’t muster up even a scrap of enthusiasm at the prospect of coming face to face with the woman who had captivated Will. Having encountered her advance party the other night, I knew instinctively she would be far worse. I tried to dismiss my dismal thoughts as Will came to sit beside me on the sofa. He took both of my hands in his, and regarded me seriously.

  ‘Elinor, I have to apologise.’

  I said nothing. He frowned.

  ‘I should have been here,’ he continued. ‘The attack would never have happened had I been here.’

  I still remained silent. Actually I agreed with him, but couldn’t bring myself to add to his guilt. He seemed to have suffered enough.

  He leaned forward and touched my lips gently with his forefinger. ‘You seem to be healing slowly for a vampire.’

  ‘I seem unable to do anything a proper vampire can,’ I said bitterly.

  ‘Are your lips able to be kissed I wonder?’ A mischievous glint appeared in his eyes.

  ‘I’ll give it a whirl,’ I said, pleased to have him flirting with me again. I’d missed the banter between us more than I cared to admit, even to myself. I shuddered as I remembered Will’s incandescent rage. Thankfully, his mood seemed calmer, although his usual flippant manner appeared somewhat subdued. He may have had centuries of seduction experience to his credit, but he seemed to be treading very softly around me. It was almost as though his confidence had taken a battering. Personally, I didn’t think it would do him any harm at all, but rather perversely I didn’t want him to stop trying to seduce me. Unless, of course, there really were other women on the scene.

  Will put his hands on either side of my face, threaded his long fingers through my hair and pulled me towards him. ‘Good,’ he murmured, leaning down to press his lips against mine. His kiss was soft and gentle, yet it stirred feelings deep within my body. I found myself moving closer to him, and wound my arms around his neck. He took that as an invitation to deepen the kiss. When he drew back, he touched my lips again. ‘How are the wounds holding up?’

  ‘OK,’ I said half-truthfully, and he laughed.

  ‘Would you like to go out?’

  The thought of sitting in the peace and quiet of Highgate Cemetery was suddenly overwhelmingly attractive, and I nodded.

  ‘The cemetery,’ he said. He stood up with a smile.

  I frowned at him. ‘You’re in my head again.’

  He pulled me to my feet. ‘Apologies.’ He sounded anything but sorry.

  Twenty minutes later we sat on the grass, leaning against an old tomb. I listened to the sounds of the night, the many rustles and scuffles of night creatures as they scurried through the long grass. Badgers, hedgehogs, foxes – all, no doubt, in search of a midnight feast. Bats flitted and swooped over our heads, and I heard the soft hoot of an owl and the whir of feathered wings as it searched for an evening meal.

  It was so peaceful there. The gothic beauty of mausoleums gleamed in the moonlight and stone angels stood etched against the dark sky like silhouetted immortal beings. My right hand was clasped firmly in Will’s and, for once, I felt comforted with a sense of belonging to this nocturnal existence. I closed my eyes and continued to listen to the sounds of the cemetery.

  ‘Elinor?’ Will’s deep voice interrupted my thoughts.

  ‘Ellie,’ I said without opening my eyes.

  ‘Can you forgive me?’

  I opened my eyes to look at him then. ‘For?’

  ‘For being absent when you needed me the most.’

  ‘You can’t be everywhere all the time.’

  ‘You should be my priority at all times. I was unbelievably remiss to leave you unattended. If it had been one of Khiara’s people …’ he mercifully left that sentence unfinished.

  ‘I can forgive you, providing you never leave me alone again.’

  His eyes glinted. ‘That I promise,’ he said, and his lips twitched into a smile. ‘I shall be with you every hour, every minute and every second that you are awake.’

  Why did I get the feeling I’d said something I might regret? I narrowed my eyes at him. He feigned innocence.

  ‘Can we turn into bats?’ I changed the subject.

  ‘Bats?’ He looked bemused by the change of subject. ‘What have you been reading?’

  ‘Dracula,’ I replied. ‘He turned into a wolf and a bat.’

  He laughed. ‘Sadly we cannot, but if we ever need a wolf, we have Stevie.’

  ‘And mist?’

  He shuddered. ‘Thankfully no.’

  ‘Shouldn’t Stevie be in a pack or something?’

  Will nodded. ‘His home pack is in Hertfordshire and he has to return every full moon, but his Alpha does not
object to him living in London.’

  ‘Is that usual?’

  ‘The Alpha is his father,’ replied Will. ‘Should anything happen to him, Stevie would have to return permanently, but until that time, he is permitted to stay here.’

  I fell silent again.

  Will released my hand and stood up. ‘Let us take a walk,’ he said, offering me his hand again. I put my hand in his, and he pulled me to my feet, stepping close enough to trace cool fingers down my neck. I shivered.

  ‘You may not be able to transform into a bat or wolf, but you have the strength of several men. You are able to jump from incredible heights and land unhurt, you can mesmerise most unwitting humans with just a glance from those beautiful blue eyes, and you are, of course, immortal.’ He put his arms around me, and pulled me in closer to his lean body.

  I looked up into his own captivating eyes. ‘Can I mesmerise you?’

  ‘Always.’

  He led the way down one of the overgrown paths, and headed towards the Circle of Lebanon. I loved this part of the cemetery best. Comprised of a semicircle of old vaults, its architecture looked Egyptian. The vaults sat silent and brooding in their pillared splendour, with moonlight glinting on their ornate lintels. We went down the steps to stand by the nearest vault, and I touched the stone door frame almost reverently. Rumour has it that a vampire was bricked up in one of the vaults, although I didn’t know which one. Swain’s Lane earned its dubious notoriety from reported vampire activity in the early 1970s, when the renegade vampire ran rampant in the area. The story has become an urban legend over the years known as the Highgate Vampire. Will had several books on the subject, and I’d been reading them, more out of curiosity than anything else.

  There were many ‘sightings’ and claims of attacks, which were grossly over-exaggerated in the tabloid press. One girl claimed to have sleepwalked her way to the cemetery where she was subsequently bitten by the vampire. One of Will’s books even has a photograph of the girl showing her bite marks.