“Don’t leave me, Stella-star.”
“I won’t,” she promised, voice calm even as she noticed that dusk fell around them. Soon they would know beyond any doubt if their attempt worked. If it didn’t, the emergency responders were in for a shock.
Above them, the first stars sparkled in the sky as the moon rose, full and huge. Soon, it would be evident whether or not their attempt was successful.
His topaz eyes glittered as he asked another question,
“Am I changing?”
She stretched out his hand but it looked the same, looked at his jaw but it had not elongated, and his legs had not lengthened.
“No, you’re fine.”
He coughed again and shook his head.
“Fine might not be the word I would choose at this moment.”
At the hospital, he spent five hours in the emergency room cubicle until a doctor pronounced him fit to leave, after verifying that his blood oxygen levels were normal. It was a quarter to midnight when they walked outside. Thousands of stars sparkled in the sky but the brightness that bathed everything in a silver glow came from the full moon. The moonlight felt magical and it turned the average night into a mysterious and beautiful thing.
Darien stopped and stared up at the moon. He stretched out his hands and looked at them with a smile. Then he rubbed fingers over his face and grinned.
“Stella, I do believe that it worked. I am cured.”
She kissed his face with tiny butterfly kisses, first his forehead, then his cheeks, nose, and last of all his mouth. Her hungry lips devoured his, tasting and reassuring that he was well.
“You are,” she said, pausing for air. “Your car is still at Grand Falls so I don’t know how we will get to either your place or mine.”
He drew her close. “Is that an invitation, dear Stella, to a mortal and ordinary man?”
“It is, for tonight and for the rest of your life, Darien. You will never be ordinary, not to me.”
Darien stroked her hair and smiled.
“I thought that the man was traditionally the one who asked that all important question.”
“What question?”
“I think you know the one.”
She touched his lips with her finger.
“I can guess but first I need to know a couple of things.”
He smiled at her, his hand straying to capture her fingers with his own.
“If one of them is how we will get to your place or mine, I suggest that we walk. Your apartment is just a few blocks away.”
“Are you up to walking?” she asked.
“I am—even as a mortal and ordinary man.”
“Let me see if you are.” Stella said, with a grin and kissed him again, her lips as savage now as they had been gentle. He responded with heated ardor so strong she expected smoke to puff from his ears.
His hands caressed her body, arousing delight each place he touched.
“You seem capable enough to me, mortal.”
He chuckled and then she asked, serious now.
“Do you mind, though? You’ve exchanged immortality for me.”
Darien’s smile outshone the full moon.
“Immortality has its disadvantages and they outweigh by far any advantages. I really can’t think of any at the moment but mortality has some perks.”
“Does it?” She had to wonder if he wouldn’t mind giving up living forever to grow old and die with her. “Tell me one.”
“Now I—we—can enjoy the home I’ve made here for decades to come. Otherwise, as you know, I would have had to move on to another location within a few years and this house, in its near perfect setting, is without doubt the favorite home I have ever known.”
She liked that. “Is there another?”
He grinned. “I can celebrate my birthday again. It’s been a very long time, Stella, and I look forward to the occasion.”
She adored the idea and even though his birthday loomed months distant, she could envision the perfect cake with twenty-eight lit candles. “You can celebrate it with me.”
“I like that,” he said with sincerity.
“So you have no regrets? Living forever is supposed to be something that some people want. “
“I would rather have a happy, mortal life with you than all the years of lonely immortality, Stella my star.”
“Then we will.”
“And we shall, Wolfe’s lady.” Darien said. “We shall.”
“So ask me that question.”
“Will you, dear Stella, my darling star, marry me?”
“I thought you were never going to ask but yes, Darien, I will marry you.”
He laughed, and then sealed her answer with a slow, sweet kiss.
****
On the night of the winter solstice, a night of a great full moon, shining silver above the first snowfall of the season, Stella let Darien carry her over the threshold of his delightful house as his bride. With every curtain open, each shade raised high, they let the lunar light pour into their bedroom, reveling in the light that had so long been his curse but now was a blessing. As they came together as man and wife, their passion soared to new summits as each touch, every caress, consumed them both in pleasant fire. Their lovemaking sang between them, new music that carried them to the stars and back, transformed and enhanced. In harmony and in love, they began a new life, together.
The End
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