Final Choices

by Lydia Parks

  Assured that the villagers would not leave the safety of their own streets, Nathan started north along the bank of the Connecticut River, following Iris’s trail, listening to the howls of wolves and screeches of owls in the night…

  Nathan sighed and closed his eyes again.

  Why was he thinking about Iris now? Was it his own sense of self-preservation reminding him what could happen if he gave into the desire for companionship? Had he not learned his lesson adequately?

  For eighty years he tracked her, first through New England, then the Louisiana Purchase, then west to the Spanish Possessions and back again. At one point she fled to England and he followed, then she crossed into France. He tracked her through Europe and Russia. Everywhere, she left a trail easy to follow—a trail of bodies and irate villagers. Mobs with torches followed drops of blood into the woods, only to be found butchered the next morning. Tales of evil spirits and werewolves abounded, as well as the occasional tale of a vampire.

  He caught up with her one night, just before the turn of the century. Crossing the Atlantic—always a dangerous venture for a vampire—he’d landed temporarily in Cuba, and realized Iris was undoubtedly there. She’d learned early to take advantage of human conflicts to hide her carnage, and U.S. marines had been in Cuba since before the summer started.

  At night, Nathan walked the camps and battlegrounds, searching for any hint that would lead to her lair. He found her victims, written off as casualties of war, and he sensed the nearness of his creation, but he could not find her.

  Shortly before dawn, he returned to the cave he’d discovered a week earlier, winding through cold, damp passages and wading a stream to reach the last small room. Safe from prying eyes and sunshine, he spread his cloak on the sandy floor and lay down to wait for sunset.

  Before he reached unconsciousness, he heard a sound—a footstep—and the connection he’d sensed before buzzed through his head and chest.

  Nathan jumped to his feet.

  Chapter Five

  Iris appeared in the passageway as an apparition, beautiful and white. She smiled sweetly. “Hello, Nathan.”

  “Iris.” He tensed, ready for her attack. “Why have you done this?”

  “Done what?”

  He gestured with one hand toward the world outside. “All the meaningless slaughter. Why?”

  Her eyes widened in surprise. “I kill to survive, as I am suppose to. You kill, do you not?”

  Nathan frowned. “Yes, but not like this. You draw attention to us. You threaten our existence.”

  “What am I supposed to do? I have to survive. You must understand. You made me what I am.”

  He shook his head. “You can survive without killing. You take only what you need, no more. It’s possible to make them forget. Don’t you understand?”

  She took one tentative step forward. “How can I? You’ve never taught me.”

  “I haven’t been able to find you.”

  “I didn’t know you were looking for me.”

  “How could you not know?” Nathan bristled. She must be toying with him.

  Iris lowered her head submissively. “I’m here now, Nathan. Can you not teach me what I need to know?”

  “Is this some kind of trick?”

  Her eyes snapped up to his. “No.”

  He studied the vibration that ran between them, searching for the truth. He should know if she were lying. Hannah, the one who made him, said it was so. Could it really be that Iris had committed all the murders innocently simply because he had failed in his duty to train her?

  His mission was to stop her. The wooden stake lay hidden in the sand under his cloak. He should grab her by the neck, drag her to his makeshift bed, and drive the stake through her evil heart.

  Assuming it was, indeed, evil. He’d found it that way, hadn’t he? Or had he changed the memory to suit his need?

  “Nathan, please teach me. I only want to be with you. I’ve missed you all these decades.”

  He sighed. “You have not missed me. You’re incapable of emotions, just as I am.”

  She covered her left breast with her hand. “It feels as though I’ve missed you.”

  Iris walked to him slowly, vulnerable and open. If he wished to capture her, this was his chance. She was not strong enough to resist him. She would be nothing but ashes in a matter of minutes.

  Her innocence, however, he both felt and saw in her lovely eyes as she stopped in front of him, her arms at her sides.

  “Nathan, please.”

  She turned her head then, exposing her neck to him, and her eyes glowed deep, blood red.

  His own reaction was instantaneous as his fangs dropped and his erection grew. He wanted her as he’d wanted her all this time, as if it were the first night. Her sincerity no longer mattered—he would make her understand. Gently grabbing her shoulders, he drew her to him and wrapped her in his arms. With his mouth beside her ear, he whispered, “I will teach you, Iris. We will spend eternity together.”

  “Yes,” she whispered back.

  Then he kissed her, opening her mouth with his, drawing her tongue to his, and she slid her small hands up the front of his chest. He stroked the length of her fangs with his tongue, and she copied the gesture as he lifted her and placed her gently on his cloak. Pleasure shivered down his spine.

  The desire to drink from her was more powerful than he’d thought it would be, but Nathan knew that each encounter was a lesson. He would teach her about feeding and controlling the thoughts of humans, but first he would teach her how best to enjoy copulation as a vampire.

  As he kissed her and nipped gently, he removed the white satin gown she wore, and then his own clothing. Flesh to flesh, they lay together, embracing, entwined. He drew the sharp point of his teeth across her breasts, leaving thin red trails but not breaking the skin, and she shuddered. She did the same to his chest and he growled with delight.

  Leaving Iris on her back, Nathan moved down her slender body, fanning her human desires and eliciting human responses. Carefully, he caressed her breasts, teasing the erect nipples with his tongue. She cooed, her arms over her head, and spread her legs under him.

  He moved down, licking and kissing, and nipping tender flesh, until he reached her thighs. Stretched out between her legs, he pricked the creamy flesh inside one thigh and licked the resulting drop of blood, nearly swooning from the promise of pleasure it held.

  “Iris, my sweet flower,” he whispered, as he lowered his mouth to her cunt.

  As he would with any woman, he caressed and teased, and drew his tongue cruelly across her clitoris, already swollen and wet. But, unlike any woman, this one would not reach a climax with his mouth buried in her folds. And so he continued to tease and suck until she was writhing beneath him.

  “Please, Nathan, you torture me.”

  He raised his head then and smiled. “Yes, my dear, such delicious torture, is it not?”

  As he started back up her body, she surprised him with her strength and pushed him over to his back to return the favor. With amazing skill, she attended to his erect cock, taking it in her mouth in long, slow sucking strokes, drawing her fangs carefully up the sides, swirling her wonderful tongue around the head, until Nathan thought he might lose his mind.

  “Enough,” he growled, pulling her up to him. He rolled them both over and positioned the head of his granite phallus against her swollen labia.

  She did not resist, but raised her knees on each side of him, welcoming him. Yet he did not enter her right away.

  He held himself over her and smiled. “You’ve learned much since our first night together.”

  She returned his smile, her eyes glowing in the near darkness.

  “Drink only from my shoulder,” he said. “Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  He lowered his shoulder to her waiting fangs and closed his eyes. As soon as he felt her teeth penetrate his flesh, he drove his cock into her in one long, wondrous stroke.

&n
bsp; She clamped down on his shoulder and his shaft, gripping him hard in her climax. He withdrew and thrust into her in time with her orgasm until he felt his strength faltering.

  With a primal growl, he drew her up with one arm around her waist and pierced the vein in her neck, taking back the blood he’d given her, tasting her joy as his cock exploded deep inside her.

  She drew hard on his shoulder as he did the same to her neck, giving her pleasure and taking it back as they continued in a mutual orgasm that went on and on, hinting at their eternity together.

  He tasted the decades of experience in her blood—the killing, the torture, the unrelenting need for revenge. He knew her human suffering and pain, and why she’d killed her family, and he felt her anger, still a white-hot ember burning in her lost soul.

  Slowly, as he drank from her, reveling in their shared climax, he saw the future unfold in her thoughts. It was not the future of nights of bliss, wandering through eternity together, but lone nights of sweet vengeance, human blood and suffering. Darkness. He saw the stake as she saw it, raised above his back, aiming for his cold heart, gripped in her determined hand.

  In an action that would have been too fast for human sight, had there been a human witness, he withdrew from Iris, grabbed her arms, and pinned her to the ground.

  Her hand still gripped the stake, now raised above her head, and she yelled in frustration.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “You know why.” She struggled beneath him, but was unable to gain her freedom. “You know what they did to me.”

  “But I am not your father.”

  “Why should I allow you to rule my life? I’m free of them, and I wish only to be free of you.”

  Understanding grew in him along with disappointment. “You came here tonight to end my existence, no matter what you had to do.”

  She growled.

  Nathan sighed. He held her down by the neck and snatched the stake from her hand. With all the resolve he could muster, he drove the stake through her heart and into the sandy ground below.

  Iris shrieked—a blood-curdling sound. She continued to struggle for a long moment, then stilled.

  He watched as she aged to an ancient corpse and then to dust beneath him, and he knew at that moment that he would spend eternity alone. Never again would he look for a mate; the pain he felt was as real as any human sense of loss.

  * * * *

  Terra jumped to her feet and stood in the middle of the living room, squinting at the TV and fighting for balance. First she wondered when she’d fallen asleep, and then she wondered what had wakened her.

  The ringing telephone answered her second question.

  Stumbling over her tennis shoes, she rushed to catch the phone on the next ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Terra? It’s Austin.”

  “Hi.” She rubbed her eyes and looked at the microwave. Could it really be seven-forty-five? “Where are you?”

  “I’m at the station. Shouldn’t you be leaving for work about now?”

  “I, uh, guess I fell asleep.”

  He laughed softly. “Tired?”

  “Yeah. But don’t let it go to your head.”

  “I’ll try my best.”

  She smiled at the teasing note in his voice, which instantly disappeared.

  “Terra, we got another lead on my case.”

  She straightened, her senses tuned to cop mode. “What is it?”

  “The guy we’re looking for is supposed to be camped out in a warehouse, just off the corner of Walker and Peters Streets. You know where the Sterling Gallery is?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s the place just across from it.”

  “You think the lead’s solid?”

  ”Dunno, could be.”

  Terra ran her fingers through her knotted hair. “Okay, I’ll be in the office in about a half hour.”

  “Why don’t we just meet at the warehouse in thirty-five?”

  “Okay. Fine. See you there.”

  Terra rushed through showering and dressing, and was out the door in twenty minutes with a half-frozen bagel in hand. After pumping ten dollars in gas, she drove onto the interstate, took the exchange to I-20, and hopped off on McDaniel Street. Topping the speed limit a little, she drove into the warehouse district, found the building she wanted, and parked across the street.

  The area was quiet at this time of evening—no moving vans, no art dealers, nothing but stray dogs and nearby traffic. A siren wailed several blocks away as the sun set over the city.

  She saw no sign of Austin and had just pulled out her cell phone when she spotted his rental car turning the corner. He parked behind her.

  Terra dropped her phone onto the seat and got out, meeting him halfway between their cars. Her first instinct, after the wild night they’d spent together, was to jump into his arms, but she checked the urge and nodded. “Hey.”

  “Thanks for coming.” He touched her arm, then withdrew his hand as if suddenly remembering their deal to be coworkers first and lovers only when they were alone in her apartment. “He’s supposed to be in there. Got a flashlight?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. I’ll go first.”

  Terra studied the abandoned three-story warehouse, completely devoid of windows. “Shouldn’t we call for backup?”

  Austin shook his head. “I don’t want to scare him off. If he’s in there, we have a better chance of catching him with just the two of us.”

  “I guess so.”

  She hurried back to her car to get her flashlight, and checked to be sure her thirty-eight was snug in its shoulder-holster, then turned to find Austin already at the door to the building. He squeezed through an opening used by uninvited guests and disappeared.

  Terra trotted to catch up and easily made it through the opening. Inside, she stopped to turn on her flashlight and scanned the huge open room.

  The place, two floors high, was a dump, filled with piles of trash, dirt, and twisted pieces of pipe.

  What she didn’t see was Austin, but she knew better than to call out. Standing very still, she listened, and was rewarded with the sound of footsteps across the room. Drawing her weapon, she followed the sound to a stairwell, then stopped again.

  Austin had gone down the stairs—there must be a basement. As backup, she should block the exit. But what if there was another staircase? Maybe she’d go to the bottom and wait.

  At the bottom of the stairs, she stepped into another open room, though it wasn’t quite as large, and the ceiling was low. This room, too, was filled with refuse and old mechanical parts. Again she saw no sign of Austin.

  Terra waited at least ten minutes, but heard nothing. Deciding he must have searched the basement, found nothing, and left by another exit, she started forward to catch up with him. “Austin?”

  Halfway across the basement, she found a wall and an open door. The hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end as Nathan’s strange phone call came back to her. If some weirdo were following her, this would be a great place to attack. Maybe he’d even called in a false lead just to get her here. Hell, maybe he’d already jumped Austin.

  Fear blossomed in the pit of her stomach. She eased cautiously through the doorway.

  The room she’d stepped into was about twelve by twelve, and there was no other exit. She turned a slow circle, using her flashlight to cut a slice into the darkness, and found the room empty except for one old cardboard box. As she completed the circle, her light fell across blue jeans and boots in the doorway and she yelped as she jumped.

  She shone her light on the familiar face, and staggered back a step. “Jesus Christ, Austin, you scared me half to death.”

  “Sorry,” he said.

  Then her gaze went down to his hand and she realized he pointed a .357 at her chest.

  “Hey, watch where you—“

  He motioned with the gun. “Put your weapon and flashlight on the floor, Terra.”

  “What?”


  “You heard me. Do it now.”

  Stunned, she lowered her weapon and flashlight to the floor. This must be some kind of mistake. Why would Austin draw on her? It must be a show of some kind for the suspect. Or something.

  But he didn’t lower his .357. Instead he pointed with his free hand. “Back up to the wall.”

  “Austin, what are you doing?”

  The light, though no longer pointing directly at him, illuminated his face. He smiled strangely, as if regretting the situation. “I’m catching a killer.”

  Terra suddenly felt dizzy with confusion. “Who? How?”

  Austin picked up her .38 and stuck it in his waistband, then used her flashlight to illuminate his way to the box. As he spoke, he extracted duct tape and rope.

  “Unfortunately, Terra, you are my bait.” He forced her to face the wall and tied her hands behind her back, then placed a large strip of duct tape around her mouth. She knew she couldn’t take him in hand-to-hand, and had no choice but to comply. How could he do this to her?

  In spite of all her years of training, and her personal ability to squelch her emotions, tears welled in her eyes at his betrayal. She’d opened herself completely to Austin Williams less than twenty-four hours ago and made love to him. How could he do this to her? And why?

  “I’m afraid I have no choice. I really don’t. The killer I’m after isn’t human. You’re my only chance at catching him, if I want to stay alive.”

  Not human?

  As she began to understand, her tears dried, sorrow replaced by terror. For whatever reason, this man intended to use her to catch Nathan.

  She couldn’t let that happen.

  Chapter Six

  When Austin reached back for the roll of tape, Terra dashed for the door. Before her mind could register the movement, Austin had her pressed back against the wall, leaning on her with his entire body.

  She stared at him. How could he move so fast? She knew he wasn’t a vampire; he had a heartbeat and his skin was warm. Yet, he seemed able to move as fast at Nathan.