The Lost Centurion

by Monica La Porta

  “Run.” He freed Diana’s hand. “I’ll slow them down.” They had gained ground, but the gate was still too far.

  Diana looked at him, then shook her head. “No. I won’t leave you. We’ll go down together.”

  “Please—” Marcus stumbled over a boxwood he hadn’t seen. Claudius’s body rolled on the lawn.

  The vampires, only a few steps behind, immediately jumped at the opportunity. Half of them scrambled to assist their sire, the remaining charged after Diana and Marcus.

  “Hurry.” Diana helped Marcus up, then they sprinted toward the gate.

  Guns started shooting right away. Claudius’s voice could be heard above the noise. “I want them alive.”

  Marcus didn’t wait for the vampires to understand their sire’s order and redoubled his efforts to escape. “We’re almost there.” He pulled Diana when she lost speed, propelling her ahead with all his might. He knew they didn’t have a chance together, but if he could see her outside, then he would fight the vampires and keep them occupied long enough for her to find safety nearby.

  Gasping for breath, he made sure they reached the gate, then kicked it open. “Go. Don’t look back.” He grabbed her and pushed her into the street just outside of the gardens. “Stop a car.”

  She stared at him from the ground. “No.” Then she rose and made to move back to his side.

  Marcus felt the sting of a bullet hit his right thigh. “Go. Now.” He bit his lower lip, but didn’t let her see he was wounded and kept her at arm’s distance. “Find help.”

  At his last request, Diana frowned, but finally nodded.

  Marcus was hit a second and a third time. He saw the horror painted on her face as she called his name over and over. While falling, he told her to run away.

  ****

  Diana kneeled by Marcus. In the dim lit night, she could see the entry points of several bullets on his torso alone, but blood was pooling from under his arms and legs as well. She didn’t know where to press to staunch the bleeding. There were too many wounds. She raised her head to the dark sky and screamed.

  Helped by two vampires who supported him, a pale Claudius slowly walked to her side. He gestured toward Marcus. “Is he still alive?”

  One of the men still pointing his gun at Diana stepped closer to Marcus, then leaned and pressed a finger to his neck to check his pulse. Visibly relieved, the man turned to face his sire and nodded.

  “Good.” Claudius looked down at Diana. “You’ll have eternity to replay in your mind what I’ll do to him.” He made a sign to another man who walked to her and grabbed her by the elbow. “Bring them to the dungeons.” He gave Marcus’s body a last look, then turned his back on them.

  Diana was pushed up and forced to walk away from Marcus. She saw four men grabbing him by his ankles and wrists. She tried to jerk away from her captor’s hold. “Let me walk by him.”

  The man didn’t seem to notice her at all. He kept dragging her behind him as if she weighed nothing. When she stumbled, he didn’t stop, but simply pulled her along. They were almost back at the staircase when a commotion resonated from inside the house.

  Diana looked up at the opened French doors. The light from the ballroom filled the balcony, then the shadows of fighting people played all over the marble tiles, and screams and shots disturbed the quiet of the night. Her captor let her go and ran to join the melee. The four men holding Marcus let him fall on the ground and ran inside as well. She went to sit by him, carefully cradling his still body in her lap. He was breathing, that she could feel, but he was so still she couldn’t recognize the centurion full of angry energy she had come to know and love.

  “Diana?”

  Between tears, she almost didn’t see his lips moving. She cupped his neck and raised his face to her. “Rest, my love.”

  “I love you.” His eyes lit with life for a moment, then his eyelids fluttered. The white of his orbs showed, and a moment later, he fell limp in her arms.

  She touched him to see if she could find the larger gash and apply pressure on it, but he was covered in blood everywhere she looked. His face was paler and she was dismayed at seeing that he wore a peaceful expression on his face. Images of cold, marble statues of Roman soldiers came to her mind. She recoiled at the thought and desperation got hold of her.

  “Marcus?” She called his name several times, progressively louder, until her voice sounded like a shrill cry. His heavy body sunk on her lap, his long arms and legs trailing on the green grass now soaked with his blood, his head resting on her chest between her arms.

  Inside the palace, the fight went silent. For a fleeting moment, she thought she saw a flutter of wings. Marcus breathed a shallow breath, then shuddered against her body, and went stiller yet. Diana acted without thinking, brought her right wrist to her mouth, and punctured her skin with her fangs. When she saw that the flow of blood wasn’t abundant, she tore other puncture wounds close to the first two. “Please…” She didn’t know who she was calling to, but she repeated the plea while she took his head and pressed her bleeding wrist against his lips. “Drink.”

  She smeared her blood over his mouth, coaxing him to suck from her, but he didn’t give any sign of being conscious. She still didn’t know if giving him her blood would heal him, but it was the only thing she could do for him. “You must live, big thing. There’re so many things I want to tell you. So many things I want to do with you.” Between sobs, she kept pressing her wrist to him and blathering. “So many places I want to visit with you.” She rocked him back and forth. The shadows were still playing their macabre dance on the balcony floor, and the distant echo of the fight reached her ears, but she was oblivious to what was happening only a few meters from her.

  “Marcus, you are my first and only love.” Her head was throbbing, and her vision was blurred. She felt on the verge of fainting, and made one last attempt at feeding him. With two shaky fingers, she separated his lips enough to let her blood drip on his tongue. Pitch black darkness engulfed her, but she didn’t stop. She could still feel the soft skin of his mouth and pushed against it.

  “Diana?”

  She heard the voice and fleetingly thought it sounded familiar, but she didn’t have time to acknowledge the call. Her energy was rapidly depleting and Marcus hadn’t reacted to her ministration yet.

  “Diana, you can stop…”

  The whole world turned on its axis and she fell and fell. Someone screamed.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The room was dark. It must have been too early in the morning for the sun to come out yet. Marcus stretched first his arms, then his legs on the narrow bed. He proceeded to rotate his head from one shoulder to the other. He felt stiff. Steps resonated from nearby. They had a strange echo. The leather sole of the sandals made a softer sound when hitting the packed dirt of the camp. He knew because he was a commander who took pride in knowing his soldiers’ habits, like the one of trying to sneak out of the camp at night.

  “Marcus, are you awake?” Alexander’s voice intruded in his morning routine. A light, not the soft glow of a burning torch, but the natural light of the sun came from the adjacent room.

  Marcus realized he wasn’t in his tent and sat upright. “Alexander? What are you doing here?” He looked around and realized the question he needed to ask was of a different nature. “What happened?” As soon as the words came out of his mouth, his memories came back in a rush, overwhelming him with images. He looked around and recognized the furniture decorating the green apartments at Alexander’s villa. He was back in Amalfi. “Where is Diana?”

  “Thank the gods. You’re finally awake.” Alexander came into sight. His face was tired, his eyes bore dark circles under them, and his lips were stretched into a thin, worried line. “How do you feel?”

  “I’m good.” He swung his legs over the edge and stood. “Where is she?” He reached Alexander and grabbed his arm. “Is she…?” The last memory he had of her was fragmented. He had asked her to leave and she had finally agre
ed, but the vampires were shooting at them, and he had been hit. He couldn’t remember anything else. His hand tightened around Alexander’s arm.

  Alexander visibly flinched and Marcus loosened his hold.

  “You are stronger…” Alexander massaged his arm. “She’s fine.”

  “Where’s she?” Marcus looked behind his friend’s shoulders.

  “When your situation improved, I sent your little tigress to sleep. It was almost dawn and she needed to rest. She has never left your side and she hasn’t fed in the last two days. I called in a favor and had blood brought in from the blood bank, but she refused to drink from it, and since she has lost so much—”

  “Was she injured?”

  “No, she gave you her blood to heal your wounds. She saved your life.”

  “I want to see her.”

  “I understand, but there’re a few things we should talk about first—”

  “Whatever it is, it can wait.” Marcus looked at the hallway looming outside. Afternoon lights were casting long shadows on the floor.

  “I must explain how I was able to save you.”

  “I don’t need to know. I’m truly grateful already for everything you did.” He made to pass Alexander, but his friend raised one hand to stop him.

  “I needed back up and I asked the Immortal Council for it.”

  “Okay.” Marcus was taken aback by that bit of information.

  “I was able to rescue you and Diana only because the Council sent fifty immortals to my aid.” Alexander paused for a moment. “Samuel led them.”

  “Broken Wings Sam?”

  Alexander sighed and shook his head. “Yes, my good friend Samuel.” He looked at his feet for a moment, then faced Marcus again. “I apologize it took me almost three days, but it wasn’t easy to plead your cause.”

  “So the curare’s possession case worked?”

  “Well, it helped, but I had to work on a different angle as well.”

  Marcus whistled. “I can’t even imagine what you had to promise to save my ass.” That he hadn’t parted from the Council on the best of terms was an understatement. He had chosen to be a renegade and never regretted it, but to be shunned from his species had caused him to live a lonely life. “Was I reintegrated?”

  Alexander lowered his eyes to the floor. “No. You know that is set in stone. But I could convince them that Claudius was acting against the pact laws.”

  Marcus had patiently listened to his friend talking, but he wasn’t interested in the politics and couldn’t stand a moment longer without Diana. “Listen, you did what you needed to do and I’ll be forever in your debt for saving both of us, but if I don’t see her now I’ll punch you in the face.” He smiled and showed Alexander his fisted hand.

  “Explanation time’s over.” Alexander laughed, then stepped to the side and pointed at the door for Marcus. “The room next to yours has windows to the north and is shaded by trees. I had the windows covered with metal panels to make her bedroom one hundred percent sun-free.”

  Marcus frowned. “Is her change complete already?”

  Alexander nodded. “Our little vampling has grown into a full-blown vampire.” He walked out into the hallway and stopped a few steps ahead before a dark, heavy curtain.

  Marcus didn’t remember a window on that wall.

  “It shields the light coming from the French door.” Alexander raised a flap of the curtain and revealed a second layer beneath. “She has become very sensitive.” He gestured for Marcus to pass under the curtains.

  Marcus waited for the two layers of fabric to be lowered over him, then grabbed the handle and opened the door. On the other side, the darkness was complete, and for a moment he didn’t know where to go, then something moved on his right.

  “Marcus?”

  She was in his arms before he could take a step toward her. Her mouth was on his with an urgency that left him breathless. “Little thing…” He hugged her tight to his chest and then they both fell to their knees.

  “I thought I lost you—” She sobbed and kissed him, her hands all over him. “For a moment out there I thought—” She snuggled against him, her forehead on his chest. “I couldn’t go on living without you.”

  He shushed her sweetly. “Never say that.” Her small body shook and he cradled her. There was something different about her. Then he passed his hand through her hair and realized it had grown long. He followed the length of her newly grown tresses past her shoulders. “I’m sorry I wasn’t with you when you went through the final stage of your change.” He kissed her crown. “Were you scared?”

  “No, I was too worried about you.” She tilted her head for him to keep caressing her hair. “You’re here now.”

  “Where is the bed?”

  “I forgot there’s no light in this room.” She laughed and stood. “Follow me.”

  Without breaking contact, they walked a few steps to the right, then Diana pulled him down to the bed and on top of her. She locked her legs around him. “I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as you.” Shivering and shaking, she caressed his back and nuzzled his neck.

  “Little thing?” He sought her mouth and gently parted her lips for a taste of her.

  She moaned and pressed him to her. “Yes?”

  “You must feed.” He smiled against her mouth when she moaned even louder. “You can’t stop shaking.”

  “Two different hungers are at war.” She sighed against his throat and he arched it for her.

  Her fangs punctured the skin where his throat met his collarbone and they moaned at the same time. In the whirlwind of sensations that followed her first draw, he found she had managed to lower both his pants and hers. His hands roamed up and down her body, pulling her shirt aside only to find a bra. He circled her torso, looking for the clasp, his fingers fumbling with need. The little sounds she was making while suckling from him made him groan.

  “Sorry.” He brought his hands back on the front and tore the bra away, then cupped her breasts. She moved against him while he played with her nipples, and she bit him harder, sending them both in a renewed frenzy.

  She stopped feeding long enough to say, “Please.”

  He entered her at the same time she plunged her fangs so deep in his throat, bright light exploded behind his eyelids. Pain and pleasure mixed, and Marcus lost himself in her as their movements became more and more frantic. The whole world disappeared for a long while.

  Later, a sleepy Diana trailed small kisses all over his body. “I love you.”

  “I love you.” He brushed the inside of her wrist and was rewarded by her shivers.

  “Marcus…”

  His fingers followed the line of her arm up to her shoulder, then down toward her breast, where he started teasing her nipple. “Hmm?”

  She hid her face on his chest. “We are married.”

  A few heartbeats passed before Marcus realized what she had just said, but she had already moved away from him. He blindly reached out and found her curled up at the other side of the bed. “Can we turn on a light, please?”

  He heard her sniffle and move on the bed. A moment later, the soft light of a small night lamp illuminated her face. She was trying hard not to cry, and he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms, but when he moved closer to her, she backed away until she reached the headboard.

  “I know you would’ve never married me like this, but Alexander had to come up with a plan and told the Council I was your betrothed before I was turned without my consent, and Claudius had kidnapped me the night of our wedding. I don’t know your laws, but it seems that, as your wife, Claudius’s nest has no power over me. Then you were dying and I gave you my blood, and you weren’t getting any better, then Claudius appealed to the Council and swore nothing Alexander had said was true, and that they had to give me back to him. But Alexander had already thought ahead and he married us in articulo mortis because he argued that you would’ve wanted at least to leave me well cared for. He said he could sign the weddi
ng contract in your stead because you gave him permission several years ago to attend to his estate should anything happen to you, and he said this was the case. I should’ve told him no. I didn’t care if I was going to end up with Claudius again. Without you, nothing would’ve mattered in any case. But I wanted to be your wife if only for a moment.” She finally paused to breathe, then added, “And you might want kids and I can’t…”

  Marcus smiled at her outburst. “Is that everything or is there more I should know?” Meanwhile, he couldn’t stop looking at her in wonder. Diana had blossomed into her full potential. Her oval face was framed by a halo of chestnut tresses and her eyes were a deep, shiny green. Her tiny frame had filled and her skin was healthy and unmarked by the scars of her past. She was as beautiful as her soul.

  “That’s everything.” She lowered her head and hugged her knees, her hair cascading around her like a curtain.

  “Would you look at me for a moment?” He reached for her and brushed her arm.

  She shook her head and sobbed.

  “Diana…?” He moved closer to her.

  She hugged herself even more tightly.

  “Little thing?” He gently pried her hands away from her knees, then put a finger under her chin and raised her face. “Look at me. There’s something I must tell you.” He lowered his lips to hers. “It’s important.”

  She slightly nodded and he smiled against her trembling mouth.

  “I love you. I want to spend the rest of eternity with you.” He opened her mouth for a kiss that started chaste. “Would you marry me forever?”

  She pushed her hands against his chest and leaned away from him, her eyes wide and her lips already swollen.

  “Please?” His hands caressed her back in long circles. “Will you be my wife? Please?” He blew warm air against her ear.

  She shivered and nodded.

  “It’s a yes?” He lapped at the lobe of her ear.

  “Yes.” She snuggled against him.

  He hugged her and kissed her forehead, then the point of her nose. “Since I missed the ceremony already, do you mind if we start the honeymoon right away?”