by ghislainviau
Christina Moss
A quick gasping laugh escaped through her tears. “Alexander, it’s my horrible bad luck that the one person I love more than anyone is not only a vampire, but a fi gment of my subconscious mind!”
Alexander choked back his emotion. She had, after all, just said that she loved him. But he knew that she was at a disadvantage in her dream-like state, and in all those years she’d only known him to be a dream. He had to see her when she was awake. “Zoe, would you do something for me?”
She was fi nally done crying. “Anything, Alexander.”
“Tomorrow night at seven o’clock, would you go to the Charles River, Cambridge side, near that bridge? You know the one near MIT?”
Zoe considered his request. “What will I do there?”
“Just go there and think of me. Will you do that for me?”
“If I do, will you promise to come back to my dreams again?”
“Whenever you want. Every night if you want.”
“Okay, Alexander. I’ll go there for you.”
† † †
The next morning, Zoe entered the details of her vampire dream in her journal, just as she’d done years before. Then she made an appointment to see a specialist. She knew she needed 43
Vampire of My Dreams
to have her head examined, since she had fully intended to go to Cambridge that night. She had to be insane to go there just because she’d had a dream.
After thinking about it some more, she called back and cancelled the appointment with the specialist. She feared they’d give her something to prevent her from having dreams and she couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing Alexander again.
† † †
It was six fi fty-fi ve p.m. when the cab that Zoe was in pulled up along Memorial Drive in Cambridge. She paid the driver and got out. A cold wind blew but it would be a short walk to the place where she’d promised the vampire of her dreams that she’d be at seven o’clock. She had no expectations of fi nding anything meaningful there, yet she felt a need to be loyal to an illusion — an illusion she wished to see again in her dreams.
At some point she’d cross the Harvard Bridge to the Boston side and have dinner on Newbury Street. She would go to a nice restaurant, a birthday gift to herself. Then she would go home, turn in early and call Alexander’s name once again. She stopped a few yards from the bridge and leaned on the green railing. The refl ection of the pretty skyline and the full moon shimmered on the water. The support arches of the bridge dwindled into the distance as it stretched across the river.
44
Christina Moss
She took in the view and just as she’d promised, she thought of Alexander. She felt certain now that she’d dream of him again. It brought a smile to her face. “Alexander,” she whispered. “I wish . . .”
She stopped when she sensed someone behind her and turned to see a tall and handsome man with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his black pea coat, the collar turned up around his neck. His black hair whipped in the wind.
Zoe stared at him a moment, half in shock. She wasn’t dreaming, yet there he was as present as the moon and the sky. It was Alexander! And he stood before her as real as the biting wind and the cars whizzing by on Memorial Drive.
She was amazed and elated at the same time. Her heart was beating hard and fast.
He stood just a few feet from her. As she studied his eyes and face he smiled, exposing his fangs. “Are you afraid, Zoe?”
She shook her head gently. “Good. Are you cold? Should we go somewhere warm?”
“No, let’s stay here. I don’t want to move yet. I’m afraid you’ll disappear.”
“I’m not going anywhere. You look so beautiful. Happy birthday, by the way.” She smiled. “Can I tell you something?” Zoe nodded slightly. He took her hand and felt the rhythmic pulse of warm blood as it moved through. It was soothing to him. “I just can’t exist anymore without you, 45
Vampire of My Dreams
Zoe. I really love you so much. And I have to know — how do you feel about me?”
Zoe stepped closer to him and looked into his eyes. “Alexander.” He shivered, not from the cold but by the way she breathed his name. “I’ve always loved you. From the very beginning, and all this time.”
“I was afraid of how much I loved you,” he said. “I was afraid to tell you I was real.”
“Why did you leave me?”
“You were engaged. I didn’t think your new husband would appreciate me showing up in your bed.”
“Of course, because you never really were a dream. I’m sorry. Marrying Michael was such a mistake.” The fact of her failed marriage still weighed on her mind. Zoe walked over to the railing and once again looked across the water. Alexander stood close by her and took in the view.
“It wasn’t your mistake, Zoe. It was his. And mine. I should have come back to see if you were okay. Where is Michael now?”
“With his family in Brighton, I think. Can we talk about something else? I’d rather talk about you.”
“Of course. What would you like me to say?”
“I want to know about your past.”
46
Christina Moss
“You know my past. Do you remember the dreams?”
“All of them. I read my journals. But you only told me about your human life — before it happened. Tell me how it happened.”
He studied her sweet expression and then glanced across the water and at the distant lights and the full moon that had slightly changed position in the sky since he’d last looked at it.
He needed a moment to recall the story he’d never told anyone.
A story he had scarcely thought of since it happened.
“It was eighteen sixty-one — not long after the fi rst attempt on Lincoln’s life. Do you remember that story?”
“Yes. You and Pinkerton’s men were able to stop the assassination.”
“We did stop it. And Lincoln arrived safely for his inau-guration. It happened after that, on my next assignment in Philadelphia.” Alexander looked at Zoe again and was dis-tracted by how beautiful she looked in the moonlight.
Zoe asked, “What happened on your last assignment?”
“Several young women had been found murdered in Pennsylvania and there were rumors fl ying around about it being the work of dark angels. The Pinkerton agency was hired to fi nd the murderer. Of course we all thought the rumors were superstition but Mr. Pinkerton accepted the murder case and gave it to my partner and me since we knew the city. We had 47
Vampire of My Dreams
a good description of the suspect and it didn’t take long for us to fi nd him in a saloon, so we spent the evening there and followed him when he left. We shadowed him through a park, but the man turned suddenly and in a fl ash he was on me. He knocked me to the ground and I felt his fangs pierce the side of my neck. My partner jumped on him but the vampire hit him hard enough to kill him. Then just as suddenly as he’d attacked me, he was off and disappeared into the night.”
“But you didn’t die?”
“No,” he said quietly. “I didn’t die.” Alexander hung his head in shame as the bottomless depression fl ooded back. It was the same awful feeling he had had when he fi rst realized what he’d become. Zoe perceived his stress and lifted his hand and pressed his palm to her cheek. He looked down at her and knew she understood him perfectly.
“So a monster attacked you, but you didn’t become a monster. Isn’t that right, Alexander?”
“I suppose you’re right. I didn’t become a monster. But I did become a vampire. At the time, I had no idea what I was dealing with, but looking back on it, that vampire knew what we were about the moment we entered the saloon.”
“But he bit you. Why did you live if he bit you?”
“If he drank all of my blood or killed me outright, it would have been over and that would have been that. I wouldn’t be 48
Christina Moss
wit
h you today. Instead he drank a little blood and simply left.
I became infected, then the infection spread.”
“Then what happened?”
“It took several days to painfully transform into what you see before you — a being cursed with eternal life.” He turned away and looked across the water. “A hateful entity roaming the earth and having to live on the blood of the living.”
Zoe was silent but felt his sorrow and found it profoundly disturbing. She said softly, “I don’t fi nd you hateful. Please don’t talk that way.”
Alexander saw that his own misery over what he’d become had upset her deeply and it pained him to see her upset. “I’m sorry, I won’t talk like that.” He changed the subject. “Look, Zoe, isn’t the full moon beautiful?”
She glanced up and absently said, “Yes, I suppose.”
“What are you thinking, Zoe?”
“You’re different, Alexander. I know you are, and you know it too. You only kill those who hurt others. Like the man who killed my parents and tried to kill me. If it weren’t for you I’d be dead now. And if it weren’t for that vampire you’d be dead now. Don’t you see how important you are? Something horrible happened to you but instead of becoming horrible yourself, you use it to make things better. You haven’t been cursed with eternal life, you’ve been gifted with eternal life.”
49
Vampire of My Dreams
“That’s how you think of me, Zoe?”
“Yes, of course. There’s no other way to see you. That’s exactly who you are.” She put her arms around his waist and rested the side of her head against his chest. Alexander wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “Alexander?”
“What, Zoe?” He brushed the hair from her forehead and rested his hand along the side of her face, then he leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips. “What would you like to say to me?”
“I just want to be with you.”
“And I with you. Now I’m your family.”
“Kiss me again.” He reached down and kissed her once again but longer this time and more meaningfully. When the kiss was over she whispered, “Forever.”
“Forever, what?”
“That’s how long I want to be with you.”
His eyes became heavy with sadness. “Don’t think of it. I couldn’t possibly do that to you.”
“But you have to, Alexander,” she whispered calmly. “It’s the only way.” He didn’t answer so she continued. “How old were you when you were turned?”
“Thirty-one.” He studied her face and ran his fi ngers through her hair.
50
Christina Moss
“And you’re still thirty-one?”
“Forever.”
Zoe reached up and put her hand on the side of his neck.
“You’ll be here forever and I want to be with you.”
“I just can’t.”
“You have to. I’ll suffer too much if you don’t.”
“I won’t let you suffer.”
“You won’t be able to stop it. I’ll suffer every day with the knowledge that I’ll die someday and leave you alone forever.
It hurts to think about it.”
“Stop talking about it. You’re asking me to take your life away just because I’m dead.”
“Why do you say you’re dead? Because your heart doesn’t beat? Because you won’t grow old?”
“Yes, that’s exactly why.”
“When I called your name last night, where were you?”
“Standing right here where we are now.”
“Yet you heard me. I was in my bed, with my head on my pillow. I called your name and you heard me. Did you hear me with your ears?”
He shook his head. “Of course not.”
“If you’re dead, how did you hear me?”
51
Vampire of My Dreams
“My body’s here and you can see it but in a sense it’s an illusion.”
“But you perceive me and I perceive you. Do you love me, Alexander? Is that real?”
“Yes, Zoe. Don’t have any doubts about my loving you. It’s more real than anything I’ve known.”
“But isn’t that what life is? I don’t think you need a heartbeat to be alive. You exist now and you’ll exist forever. Isn’t the worst part about loving someone the fact that someday you’ll lose them? Do you want to lose me?”
“Of course not.”
“And you won’t lose me when I become like you because I won’t really die at all.”
“Zoe, I have to kill people to exist.”
She smiled. “Just the bad ones. It’s wonderful actually. You and I will do things differently. We won’t be like the others at all. Think of how much we’ll accomplish together. We can travel all over the world.”
“But Zoe, it’s so painful to transform. I don’t want you to go through that.”
“If you’re with me, I’ll be okay.”
Alexander, still holding her close, looked down at her with a neutral expression.
52
Christina Moss
Zoe waited.
After a time, he broke into a smile exposing his sharp eyeteeth. Then he picked her up like she weighed nothing at all. Zoe put her arms around his neck and said, “Where are you taking me?”
“Dinner. It’s your birthday. And you’re hungry.”
“How do you know that?”
“I can tell. Would you like wine with your dinner?”
“Will you have wine?”
“Yes.”
“Then yes, wine sounds perfect. But what will we do after dinner, Alexander?”
“Then we’ll go to my hotel.”
“And then?”
“Then I’ll make love to you.”
Zoe laughed. “Of course you will. And then what?”
“And then we change you.”
With Zoe still in his arms, Alexander walked towards his car.
“Alexander?”
“What?”
53
Vampire of My Dreams
“Thank you for saving my life eleven years ago.”
“Zoe! Thank you for saving mine!”
“Wait, Alexander! Look!” Zoe said. Alexander stopped and turned before reaching his car. Silently they admired the picturesque Boston skyline in the distance and the full moon above refl ecting a shimmering glow against the Charles River.
“Wow,” he said and then he looked down at her.
“Beautiful!”
† T h e E n d †
54
Christina Moss
Here is a sneak peek at the fi rst novel by author, Christina Moss
Intwine
Prologue
I had a secret and I intended to keep it that way — at least for the time being. My choice would impact millions of people, but they’d learn of it in due time. Besides, it would have been wrong of me to tell anyone before she even knew.
I stood in the kitchen before the sliding glass doors that led to the back yard. The green grass and lush privacy vegetation that lined the yard reminded me of my home planet, but I wasn’t in any hurry to return — far from it. Recent events had not only infl uenced my desire to stay, they meant my future would be going in a direction I hadn’t anticipated. It was, however, a future I was very much looking forward to, but there would be many barriers to overcome.
55
Vampire of My Dreams
My mother sat out back on an iron-scrolled chair with thick cushions, sipping tea. She was to be my fi rst obstacle since I needed her agreement on my sudden change of plans.
I looked down at my black guard dog standing by my side. “This is all your fault,” I told him but he didn’t seem to care.
I pushed the handle and the door glided open easily. She turned and smiled at me. “Seth! Finally, all is in order! We’ll leave on the starship tonight. Your father misses you and your brother, and you know how uneasy he is when I’m away. I believe everything’s worked out quite
well, don’t you?”
“Yes, very well. But Matt wants to stay on Earth for the summer and I think I should stay here with him.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Why would your brother want to stay?”
“To help Uncle Marcus with his research. It’s Matt’s fi rst time here and I don’t mind staying . . . for him.”
She looked skeptical. “I do adore you, my son, but to be frank, you’ve never been in the habit of putting the wishes of others before your own. Besides, don’t you have obligations this summer?”
“No one needs me until September.”
She studied my face. “Have I told you how much you look like your father?”
56
Christina Moss
“Yes, Mother, many times.”
“You have his dark green eyes.”
“Weren’t we talking about something else?”
She ignored me. “It’s really no wonder the girls like you so much — just as they liked your father when he was younger.
Of course, your birthright might also have some bearing on your popularity.” She smiled at me again. “So, my son, why do you really wish to stay?”
I tried to sound indifferent. “I told you why. It’s because of Matt,” I lied. I wasn’t about to tell her the truth — not at that point anyway. I couldn’t tell her how everything had changed for me just a few days before when I fi rst saw Juliette. All she and I did was look at each other, but so intense was that moment words weren’t necessary, and my life had suddenly changed. No one had known the truth — prior to that instant I had had no desire to claim my birthright. I’d planned to give it all to my younger brother. But when I looked into Juliette’s eyes, my future unfolded, and I beheld for the fi rst time, my true place in life and that future included her.
My mother wasn’t buying the lie. “Seth, if you cannot be genuine with your own mother, what’s the point?” She grinned at me. “Of course, until you are, you haven’t a chance of my approval anyway, so you may as well — how do they say it on this planet
— ‘fess up’?” I smiled at her and remained silent but I could see that she had become impatient. “So?” she prompted.