This Vampire As
Page 9
“I have been a vampire for centuries, Rachel Berne. Centuries. It isn’t anything like what the storytellers portray. Vampirism is not eternal life. It is eternal death. I had no feelings. No emotions. No passions. No sensation. No...uh...ability to love a woman, if you understand what I am trying to say.”
“Now you’re going to tell me I imagined...that lovemaking session?”
“Oh no. No. Rachel. That was real. And perfect. Well beyond anything I have ever experienced. Ever.” Wystan pulled in a large breath, expanding his chest before exhaling with a heavy sigh. “This is not working. I’ll try explaining another way. Have you ever heard of soul mates?”
Her eyes went even wider.
“You have? You’ve heard of soul-mates? Two beings destined for each other? Regardless of time and physical restraints? Regardless even...of death? You have heard of that?”
“That’s another...bit of fiction, Wystan. Studies have proven the ability to love more than one person in a lifetime.”
“I’m not talking about just love!”
He didn’t control his voice. More armor fell in the room about them. She pulled her hands free and covered her face with them. And he’d promised not to scare her!
“Rachel, please? Forgive my outburst. I’ll try to control it better. It’s just—! I’m just—! Ah!”
Wystan arched backwards and let the emotion out. That was stupid. A thud resounded through the room as something heavy fell, and two of the torches blew out. She was still hiding behind her hands when he looked back at her. He was failing at chivalrous behavior, too. The one thing a knight would never do was accost and frighten a lady.
He swallowed.
”My lady. Please. I...am speaking so poorly, because it means so much to me. I will try and be more succinct and less emotional. Please say you forgive me and will listen still. Please?”
She nodded. She didn’t move her hands. It was the only sign she gave. It would have to be enough. He didn’t know what to do, so he started talking again.
“You mention love, and—oh! I don’t know. When I was alive before, they spoke of courtly love. Such a love was supposed to transcend physical lust. It didn’t seem real. It seemed overly-dramatic and false...a way for a knight to get a lady’s favor in a joust. Perhaps gain employment with a powerful lord through his wife. I couldn’t help hearing about it, though. Troubadours sang for hours on the subject. I never experienced it. Perhaps one can love more than once in a lifetime. I don’t know.
“That isn’t a mate, Rachel. I’m speaking of soul-mates. It’s not just love. It is so much more. A mate-bond is something that can reach through an eternity of lifelessness and kick a dead heart back to life. It is that powerful. I was told about it when I was first changed. I didn’t believe. It didn’t exist. It was a dream. It wasn’t real. For centuries of time I was right. And then...things changed. The moment you drew near, my heart started beating again. My emotions returned. My passions. My...ah! I still can’t explain. My entire world has been upended. All I know is, I have a mate. And I found her. You.”
She pulled her hands down, covering her mouth with her fingers while she regarded him.
“What else can I say? What shall I do? Don’t...you feel it, too?”
As he watched, her eyes went wet. Shiny. Looking exactly like polished silver.
I made her cry? No. Oh, no.
”Please don’t cry, my love.”
She sniffed, blinked, and a solitary tear dropped onto her cheek. A swell of emotion slammed through him. It electrified, and it terrified. Now, Wystan was trembling.
“Forgive me. I went too fast.”
She shook her head.
“I didn’t go fast enough?”
“I don’t know...what to say,” she told him.
“Say that you feel it, too. You have to! You must! Maybe not when we first met, but surely you felt it later...when we joined? I have never felt such wonder, Rachel Berne. Please say you felt it, too? Something? Anything?”
“Wystan. Please.”
His newly-awakened heart kept pumping, sending something heavy and painful with each beat.
“Rachel. Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel anything for me.”
“We...just met.”
“Yes. We did. But time is meaningless. When you’ve existed for enough of it, you learn that. Yes, we just met. And yes, I am going too fast. But I don’t know any other way! What else I can say? I used to think I had nothing but time. Now it feels like I’ve got seconds to convince you of what you mean to me. I’ve never had a mate. I’ll never have another. You are everything to me, Rachel Berne. Everything. My future. My life. My joy.”
“Wystan?”
She didn’t sound convinced. She sounded impossibly young, and immeasurably unsure. And slightly frightened. Wystan bowed his head and shook with what couldn’t possibly be sobs. No. Never. Not a knight of the Honor Garter. His eyes burned. A knot formed in his throat, making an obstruction he had to swallow around. It wasn’t possible. He’d failed? And now, he was ready to cry?
Wystan raced to a lance and brought it back. He’d moved so quickly, she still had her hands atop her mouth and the exact same look on her face. He had to blink rapidly in order to see. And then look away just as quickly. He couldn’t tell what her expression signified. Horror?
He spoke to the span of room on his right.
“Rachel Berne. You are my mate. My one...and my only. I love you. I do not lie. I am not a fraud. And I am not remotely insane. I am simply a vampire who has found his mate. But it is supposed to be a wondrous thing, not a pain beyond comprehension.”
“What are you doing, Wystan?”
He swallowed. The knot shifted. It made his voice gruff. “There are two certain ways to kill a vampire, Rachel. Sunlight is not one of them. That only works with the newly created.”
“So, that’s why it failed.”
He nodded. He didn’t dare look up at her. His heart was a solid throb of agony, sending pain with every continued beat. He didn’t know what might happen if he looked at her. He might do something completely ignoble and burst into sobs. It was an actual possibility that alarmed and panicked. And those emotions he’d never dealt with before, either.
“One...method is to slice the head off.” His body shuddered with emotion he couldn’t suppress. His voice betrayed him, too, as each word trembled. He lifted the lance and even it shook visibly. “The other method is well known. It’s a wooden stake, shoved right through the heart.”
Wystan smacked a fist into the lance. It broke, leaving two uneven ends. He tossed the one with the spike over his shoulder. It hit something breakable. He heard glass shatter and more sounds of items falling. He didn’t care what it was. Not anymore. He ran a thumb over the end of the section he still held. It was jagged, but not quite sharp enough. He picked up the sword and started carving, using brutal swift strokes that whittled the end to a spike.
“Wystan? What...are you doing?”
There.
The stake looked just about perfect. Wystan looked up at her. Blinked her into focus. And then looked away.
“I need you to make a call now, my lady.”
“A...call?”
“Yes.”
“Who am I calling?”
“It won’t matter. Your friend Munson will do. Tell her about me. Be sure to speak of a vampire. Tell her my history. Exactly as I told you. Stay on the line for at least forty-one seconds. Longer, if possible.”
“Why forty-one seconds?”
“I’ve been told that is enough time to find a signal and trace it. And after the call, I need you to leave. Hide somewhere. Or...I suppose you can stay and watch.”
“Watch...for what?”
“Hunters. They’ve got a camp near the coast. They think it’s hidden. Or, they may send a group from Manchester. That’s their base.”
“Hunters?”
“Yes.”
“There’s such a thing as a vampire hunter, too?
”
Wystan nodded.
“So...why did you make a stake for them?”
“They’re fairly inept. I’m making certain…they can’t miss.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?’
“Make the call, Rachel.”
Wystan bowed his head and waited, alert to the sound of her pushing buttons. Instead he got the sound of more glass shattering. And then a lot of tinkling sounds. He looked up in time to watch Rachel move off the cushion and join him on the floor. She took the stake from his nerveless fingers and chucked it, too.
She didn’t hit anything other than a wall. Wystan was frowning as the sound of a rolling stick finally stopped. She dusted her hands together, using exaggerated broad strokes and then she planted them on her knees.
“What...are you doing?” he asked.
“Taking a turn.”
She tipped her chin up and then she smiled. Wystan blinked rapidly several times. Her expression didn’t change.
“At what?”
“Breaking stuff.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “Looked like fun. And I had to get that stake away from you somehow...now, didn’t I?”
“Uh...Rachel?”
“Besides...I think this place is a bit archaic. You know...” she wrinkled her nose. “Old. It really could use a woman’s touch. Just as long as you don’t expect me to clean up the mess, anyway.”
She scooted closer. Wystan watched her. He was afraid to move. Breathe. Think. Hope was a very scary thing at the moment.
“Do you understand what I’m saying, Sir Wystan Ryn de Crecy? Or do I need to get more specific?”
“Um...”
“You’re really kind of cute with that confused look on your face. Oh. What am I saying? You’re always cute. And yes, I feel something pretty powerful. And yes. I could very easily admit to loving you. But no. I’m not exactly sold on this vampire thing...but if it’s at all like last night—whoa! You can fly, too?”
He’d seized her up and held her. Close to his heart. Her arms were locked about his shoulders. Her legs wrapped about his hips.
She called this flying?
It was more like soaring.
And if the de Crecy banners hadn’t stopped him, he’d have probably slammed right through the stone vaulted ceiling.
And he wouldn’t have cared about that, either.
-o0o-
Jackie Ivie lives in the enormous state of Alaska with her husband and three very spoiled pets. She started her writing career writing hot highland historical romances for Kensington Publishing. There are now ten “Clans series” books, available in seven languages. Keeping her head in the clouds most of the time, Jackie now spends her time researching, developing, and writing her paranormal series – the Vampire Assassin League, as well as her other historical line – the Brocade Collection.
Jackie loves hearing from fans, who can contact her at www.jackieivie.com or www.VampireAssassinLeague.com
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THIS VAMPIRE AS is the 17th installment of the Vampire Assassin League. It will be followed by #18, A FOREVER MATE. Check out all the assassins in the VAL, available singly, in 4-book bundles, and in print as 2-packs.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN