by M. Leighton
“What are you gonna do, Ridley?” Savannah asked quietly.
I shrugged. I didn’t want to think about it. I was still too emotionally raw to consider it.
“I’ll figure something out.”
After a short, thoughtful pause, Savannah spoke again.
“Ridley, there’s something you should know.”
Her tone made me instantly wary.
“What is it?”
“Um, since Devon fed me his blood, I can sort of see shapes.”
I came to a dead stop and my mouth dropped open.
“No, you cannot!”
She grinned.
“Yes, I can.”
“Ohmigod, Savannah, that’s amazing!” I squealed, rushing to hug her even though she was in Devon’s arms. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks. I don’t know how long it will last or whatever, but I wanted you to know.”
Her expression held more guilt than pleasure and I knew why.
“I’m glad that you told me. We could all use some good news,” I said, trying to assuage her guilt over having something positive to share.
“Seriously? You’re not…”
“I’m thrilled! I couldn’t be happier for you. Really.”
Savannah nodded, but I didn’t think she was completely convinced.
I kissed her on the cheek and we resumed our walk home. We fell into a pensive silence after that, each of us lost in thought. When we arrived at Sebastian’s, I opened the door and held it for Devon and Savannah. Without another word, Devon carried her to the room that Savannah had claimed.
I listened until I heard the door shut and then I turned my attention to the house. It was eerily quiet and completely devoid of the smells that I associated with Cade.
Softly, I padded around, going from room to room and finding no one. I went to Cade’s bedroom. The door was open, but the room was empty. And not just of Cade. His bag was gone and there was no evidence that he’d ever been there.
I was turning to leave when I saw the note. It was a single piece of white paper lying on the corner of the dresser. I reached for it and read the five short sentences.
It’s over. I don’t need to be here anymore. The vision you saw of your future will come to pass. Also, there will be a child, a boy. Cade is a good, strong name.
I had to laugh at the last sentence, but then the implications hit me and I reread the note. Twice.
My cheeks burned with embarrassment over the intimate moment Cade must’ve seen. Once I felt my cheeks cool, my mind wandered over the part about a child. Bo and I would have a child? A boy?
I perched on the edge of the bed for several minutes, letting that knowledge settle in. It brought to sparkling life a future that had seemed dead, one that had been filled with nothing more than thoughts of an eternity without Bo. But if there was a child, what would it be? Would it have eternal life, like me? Or would it be mortal, like Bo?
In a daze, I shuffled down the steps to the bedroom that I had claimed and I stretched out across the velvet duvet. I closed my eyes and let visions of a bright future fill my mind. I pictured a small replica of Bo laughing in delight at his father’s antics on the playground. I pictured myself wrapped in Bo’s arms as we sat in front of a Christmas tree while our child opened presents. I pictured bits and pieces of a happy and fulfilling life that I suddenly looked forward to.
I was in the company of those thoughts when Bo returned. I was so distracted, I didn’t hear him come in until he closed the bedroom door behind him.
I pushed myself up on my elbows and watched him approach the bed. As he walked, he kicked off his shoes. He was already shirtless.
As my eyes hungrily roved his muscular body, I couldn’t help but notice that his gleaming, golden skin was now the pale not-quite-human skin that I was so accustomed to.
When he climbed onto the bed and crawled toward me, my eyes were drawn to his face. He was smiling, a devilish and wicked smile that made me immediately suspicious.
“What?” I asked.
“Are you thirsty?”
I shrugged, not looking forward to feeding from a bag when I had been quite content to eat from Bo, had looked forward to it even. In my mind and to my body, the act of feeding and sexual intimacy were inextricably entwined.
“I guess.”
“Before you feed, I have something to ask you,” Bo said, stretching out beside me and pushing me flat onto my back. “Will you go to college with me?”
“What?” Of all the things I might’ve thought he’d ask, that was nowhere on my list at all.
“Will you go to college with me?”
For some reason, his question irritated me. It seemed so trite and silly in the face of everything else. It was such a normal thing to do, I was almost insulted, as if he was ready to go on with a human existence regardless of my far-from-human life.
“Um, college isn’t really a priority for me anymore, ya know?”
“So you won’t go to college with me?”
He looked wounded, even though he was trying to hide it, and I felt instantly guilty.
I smiled to soften my previous aggravation.
“If that’s what you want to do, of course I’ll go to college with you, but what about—”
“Lucius knows a guy that can get me some papers and I can have a legitimate identity, one that’s not associated with a disappearance.”
“That’s great news,” I said, striving for enthusiasm.
“I know how much you wanted to go to Stanford.”
I wanted to point out all the obstacles and pitfalls to his plan, but I resisted. I wouldn’t take this moment from him.
“So you’ll go to college with me?”
“Yes.”
“After that, will you help me pick out a house somewhere along the coast, near the water?”
“Sure,” I said, deciding it was just better to go along with his fantasy and not shoot holes in it.
“And after that, will you help me decorate it?”
“Yep.”
“And after that will you marry me?”
My mouth went bone dry at his question. I could think of nothing I’d like more than to marry Bo. Images of making love with him flitted through my mind and desire flooded my body like molten lava.
“Yes, I’ll marry you,” I answered breathlessly.
“And after that, will you have a baby with me?”
Thoughts of the dark-haired boy I’d imagined rolled through my mind in a wave that eclipsed the other thoughts.
“Yes.”
“And after that, will you spend eternity with me?”
And, just like that, the wind was officially gone from my sails.
“I’ll spend eternity loving you,” I said, casting my eyes down to his chin, “and mourning you.”
“Why?” he asked coyly.
“That’s what you do when the person you love most in the world dies.”
“Well, do you plan on killing me off?”
“What? Of course not.”
“Then you won’t be getting rid of me for many, many lives.”
At that, I pushed myself into a sitting position.
“What? I mean, how? You’re mortal, aren’t you?”
Bo smiled, the kind of smug smile that reminded me of the cat who ate the canary.
“Nope.”
Despite the knowledge that he’d wanted to be mortal, wanted to be human more than anything, I thrilled at the idea that he wouldn’t leave me, that I wouldn’t have to watch him die.
“How? What happened? I thought…”
“I made a deal.”
“With whom?”
“God, of course,” Bo snorted.
“What kind of deal?” I asked suspiciously.
Bo shrugged.
“My mortality for your life.”
“What?”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal? You wanted to be mortal more than anything!”
; “I wanted to be mortal until I met you. Now, nothing matters except being with you and, as far as that goes, the longer the better.”
“But Bo—”
“Shh,” he said, pressing his fingertip to my lips this time. “No buts. I thought you’d be happy.”
“I am. I mean…I am! I just don’t want you making sacrifices for me.”
“You mean like throwing myself in front of a bullet or a train or a…sword made from a feather?” he asked pointedly.
“That was different. I knew that you would die if I didn’t.”
Bo sat up, too.
“What did you think would happen to me if you had died, huh? How did you think I would survive without you?”
I had no answer for that. I had no idea how Bo felt, but if it was anything close to what I felt for him, I knew that survival would be nearly impossible, not to mention earth-shatteringly miserable.
“I did what I had to in order to save you. I’m sorry if it didn’t turn out the way that you’d planned.”
“Are you kidding? It couldn’t have turned out more perfectly, but the point is that you didn’t know how it would turn out. Ridley, you willingly gave your life for mine.”
I cast my eyes down, embarrassed by him making such a fuss over it.
“I know, but I couldn’t stand the thought of a world without you.”
Bo put a finger under my chin.
“And I feel the same way, but now we don’t have to worry about that. Ridley, we can be together forever. Forever,” he repeated meaningfully.
As I looked into his beautiful eyes, I felt all the doubts and insecurities, all the fear and uncertainty melt away like early morning mist. My life wasn’t going to be full of misery and grief, of pain and loss. Bo and I would be together forever. We would go to college and buy a house. We would get married and have a baby. We would live, just like regular people. Well, almost.
Leaning forward, I pressed a tiny kiss on Bo’s lips.
“You make me whole, you know. You are the only thing I need to live, the only thing I need to be happy.”
Bo put his palm on my chest and pushed me back onto the bed, rolling smoothly on top of me. He rested his weight on his forearms as he stared down at me with his fathomless eyes.
“Why don’t we concentrate really hard and see if we can get a glimpse of that future again, like we did last time.”
Images of Bo’s naked body pressed to mine, the remembered feel of his lips on my skin and his hands bringing me to passionate life, flooded my mind as his kiss brought my blood to an instant boil.
With a finger to my chin, he held my face in place as he positioned his throat near my mouth. My fangs slid out in anticipation.
“I love you, Ridley,” he said, his body shifting against me as he awaited my bite. “My blood is yours. My body is yours. My heart is yours. My life is yours. Take it all.”
With a happier, lighter heart than I could ever remember having, I sank my teeth into Bo’s artery. As I let the blood of our life, our love and our future pour over my tongue, I realized that this was the first bite of a million more to come. Forever is a long, sweet time.
THE END
A FINAL WORD
A few times in life, I’ve found myself in a position of such love and gratitude that saying THANK YOU seems trite, like it’s just not enough. That is the position that I find myself in now when it comes to you, my readers. You are the sole reason that my dream of being a writer has come true. I knew that it would be gratifying and wonderful to finally have a job that I loved so much, but I had no idea that it would be outweighed and outshined by the unimaginable pleasure that I get from hearing that you love my work, that it’s touched you in some way or that your life seems a little bit better for having read it. So it is from the depths of my soul, from the very bottom of my heart that I say I simply cannot THANK YOU enough. I’ve added this note to all my stories with the link to a blog post that I really hope you’ll take a minute to read. It is a true and sincere expression of my humble appreciation. I love each and every one of you and you’ll never know what your many encouraging posts, comments and e-mails have meant to me.
http://mleightonbooks.blogspot.com/2011/06/when-thanks-is-not-enough.html
Other books by M. Leighton
Blood Like Poison: For the Love of a Vampire
Blood Like Poison: Destined for a Vampire
Caterpillar
Madly & Wolfhardt
The Reaping
Wiccan
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If you like a little more darkness with your romance,
TURN THE PAGE to read an excerpt of Wiccan
WICCAN
By M. Leighton
CHAPTER ONE
“Tonight I’m not Lisa. I’m Tony,” the girl said.
Her suggestive tone was met with a throaty chuckle. Though she wore a thin, fake goatee, there was no mistaking the feminine beauty of her face. Lisa, as she’d called herself, had big brown eyes and short black hair. The pixie cut was disheveled as if she’d recently run her fingers through it. Thick grass framed her head in a spiky halo and the top two buttons of her dress shirt were undone. A dark blue tie hung loosely around her neck, lying off to one side.
Her lips curved into a sultry smile and her lids were heavy with passion as she looked up into her lover’s face. She reached up and twisted a lock of dark red hair around her finger.
“I love it,” she said huskily. “It makes me feel so dirty.”
Her eyes drifted closed as two black-gloved hands came up to cup her face. Her lover leaned forward and long fiery hair dropped down like a curtain to conceal them both.
I could hear the soft wet sounds of their lips as they kissed and then her partner leaned back and I saw Lisa again. Her expression was one of dreamy desire as the gloved hands of her lover slid down to her throat. Lisa tipped her head back to let the long fingers stroke the pale skin of her neck.
When the fingers wound around Lisa’s throat and began to squeeze, she grinned as if she was enjoying an inside joke. But when they continued to tighten, Lisa’s smile began to waver. It faded completely when the creak of stretching glove leather broke the silence. The hands sunk deeper and deeper into her flesh, squeezing tighter and tighter, and Lisa’s sober expression quickly turned to a mask of terror.
Her face reddened as she struggled to breathe. To no avail, Lisa’s fingers clawed at the hands squeezing her airway shut. She opened her mouth to scream, but it was nothing more than a hoarse croak that barely stirred the stillness. Her lips worked themselves open and closed in several futile attempts to breathe.
Lisa began to shake her head back and forth, back and forth, in a final and desperate effort to free herself. Her lover simply bore down, subduing her easily. Red hair swung forward and thumbs bit into Lisa’s flesh. Her eyes watered and darted around frantically. Her tongue protruded grotesquely as she flailed.
My pulse throbbed in my ears when I saw a white ring appear around her mouth. It looked clown-like against the purplish red of her face. I knew what it meant, though. Lisa was suffocating.
Little by little, Lisa’s struggles waned until she finally went limp. I watched the life fade from her eyes as the seconds ticked by. Much as I wanted to, I couldn’t move. I was tied to the scene until the murder was complete.
By the time the hands finally loosened and pulled away from her neck, Lisa’s eyes were open and glassy, staring past me, out into oblivion. Now the earthy brown orbs were nothing more than windows into the hollow darkness of death.
Right before my eyes, the vision drifted away like early morning fog as the clarity of the present swept in. I took several deep calming breaths and reminded myself that it was just an image, that’s all. T
here was nothing to be afraid of, nothing to feel bad about. There wasn’t anything I could’ve done to help her.
My visions, while terrifying, were always like that—pretty much useless. They were glimpses of past events that flooded my mind when I walked over the site of a violent attack, an attack that most often resulted in a homicide.
But as usual, despite the irrationality of it, I had a moment of intense sadness. I felt sorry for the girl, for what she’d suffered and who she’d left behind, for the fact that no one had helped her and neither could I. It didn’t make any sense, but I’d learned to accept it. Well, somewhat anyway.
I was still in the grass beside the sidewalk when I heard the rhythmic sound of heavy footfalls. Blinking several times, I looked around and saw a runner jogging toward me, his feet thumping steadily on the concrete.
The sidewalk behind me was old and cracked and snaked through a little patch of woods that decorated the northwest corner of campus. It was well hidden and out of sight and, as far as I knew, only used by joggers. I had to admit, it was a great place for murder. The only reason I’d come this way to school was because my house was just through the trees and on the other side of the river. Now I was going to have to find a different route to take. This one was forever spoiled.
I looked to my left, toward the quad up ahead and my final destination, Fisk Hall, just beyond it. I knew I should get going, but my eyes were drawn once more to the grass where I’d seen Lisa take her last breath only moments before. Quickly, I was lost again in the images that were still fresh and vivid in my mind.