Lord of the Night

by Robin T. Popp

  “You know that if anything happens to her, I’ll come after you,” Erik said.

  “Not if you’re dead. But maybe you don’t care if she dies first, because if you take one more step, she’s going to suffer a fatal accident.”

  Erik and Ty locked gazes and waged a silent battle of wills. The tension between them was almost palpable. “You had your chance,” Ty said, cocking the gun as Erik took another step forward.

  “Duck!” Erik’s shout filled the night and Kacie dropped to her knees. Beside her, Ty shouted and pulled the trigger just before Erik plowed into him, driving both men back—and over the side of the cliff.

  The horror of seeing Erik go over was so unreal that for a moment Kacie couldn’t believe it had really happened.

  “Oh, God. Erik!” she screamed, scrambling to the edge on hands and knees, taking care not to slip and fall after them.

  She looked over the edge. At first, all she could see were shadows. “Erik,” she moaned.

  “Kacie.” His voice was faint, as if coming from a far distance down.

  “Erik? Where are you?”

  “I’m down here. I don’t know how far.”

  “I’m coming down,” she said, searching for a way.

  “No! Kacie, it’s too steep. It’s a sheer drop all the way down.”

  That didn’t make sense. “Then where are you? Is there a ledge?”

  She heard his groan of pain. “The chain around my wrist caught on something on the way down. I’m more or less hanging in midair.”

  “And Ty?”

  She heard a strangled sound. “I’ve got him,” Erik said.

  Kacie leaned a little farther out, trying to distinguish what was the side of the cliff and what wasn’t. “Oh, I see you,” she called. The ring and bolt that had secured his chains to the wall in the chamber were wedged between two boulders on the side of the cliff. If he hadn’t still had the other end manacled to his wrist, he would have fallen all the way down.

  “Is there any way you can pull yourself up? Maybe climb the chain?”

  “No. I think this time my shoulder really is dislocated. It hurts like hell.”

  She leaned to one side and noticed that the ring was standing straight out. If she could hook something into that end, maybe she could pull him up.

  She sat up and looked around. The castle wasn’t that far if she ran. “I’m going to get the Hummer. I can use the winch to pull you up.”

  Silence met her suggestion. “Erik?” She leaned out again, afraid that the chain might have broken loose, but he was still there, dangling, and using his free arm to hold Ty around the throat.

  “It’s too late, Kacie.”

  At first she didn’t know what he meant, then she glanced out over the horizon and knew. What she had taken for new and improved night vision hadn’t been that at all. The sky had been growing lighter with the approach of dawn. Even now, there was a decided glow on the edge of the horizon. If the sun came up before she could save Erik—

  It was too horrible for her to contemplate. “You hold on, Erik Winslow. Do you hear me? I am not going to let it end this way.”

  Then she turned and raced for the castle, running as fast as she could, ignoring the drain of energy brought on by the coming daylight. She was a changeling, by God. She could do this.

  Hands still bound together, she ran faster than she’d ever run in her life. Under other circumstances, she might have enjoyed the accomplishment, but now, all she could think about was saving Erik.

  The stables loomed ahead of her—she didn’t even slow down as she raced inside. As expected, the Hummer was where she’d left it. She started to climb in and stopped when she had to reach for the door handle with both hands. She wasn’t going to be able to work the winch with her hands tied together.

  She looked around and spotted several old gardening tools. Hurrying over to them, she picked up the hoe, as it seemed to have the sharpest blade.

  It was awkward, but she managed to brace the tool against the wall with her feet, blade facing out, so she could rub the ropes tied around her wrists over the hoe in a sawing fashion.

  It seemed to take forever; the entire time she worked, she had the sense of time passing too quickly.

  Finally, the rope frayed. Exerting pressure by pulling her wrists apart, she managed to free herself. She let the hoe fall back against the wall of the stable and rubbed her wrists, trying to restore circulation. Then she turned around and nearly jumped out of her skin.

  “Miss me?” Carrington snarled.

  Erik dangled helplessly, Ty’s weight dragging him down. The pain radiating throughout his body was almost as strong as his sense of helplessness. Even if he let go of Ty and managed to pull himself up the chain, he was too far down the face of the cliff to be able to scale it the rest of the way. And reaching the top was a secondary concern as the dawn’s arrival drew imminently closer.

  This was the end for him. He’d contemplated his demise so many times and in so many different ways, but now that it was here he found the prospect a little anticlimactic.

  Ty jerked and Erik tightened his grip around the man’s throat, knowing he couldn’t choke him to death. “Hold still,” he grumbled and then loosened his hold enough for Ty to catch his breath.

  “I can’t . . . believe it,” Ty gasped past the restriction on his throat. “After everything . . . you would still . . . save my life?”

  “You give me too much credit,” Erik grunted, trying to ignore the pain in his arm. “I’m not trying to save your life. I’m afraid that if I let you go”—he tightened his hold around Ty’s throat—“you might survive the fall.”

  There was a moment of silence. Then, when Erik’s words registered, Ty kicked his feet, trying to break Erik’s grip on him. Erik gritted his teeth and focused on hanging on.

  “You can’t . . . hold on . . . forever,” Ty choked.

  I don’t have to, Erik said through the psychic link because he no longer had the strength to talk. I just need to hold you for another ten minutes. Now shut up and enjoy the sunrise with me.

  When he heard Ty’s horrified gasp, he knew the other man had finally realized the time. He had to give Ty credit for the effort he put into his struggles, but it did no good. Erik had lost all feeling in his muscles and the arm around Ty’s throat was locked in place.

  Erik kept his gaze on the horizon. He’d longed to see the sunrise again and now he was finally going to. It was the perfect way to die, if he’d still wanted to. Now, however, he’d give up a thousand more sunrises just to have one more night with Kacie.

  Closing his eyes, he pictured her face in his mind. The line from a Tennyson poem ran through his mind—’Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. Well, he had loved—and loved deeply—even if the time had been too short.

  When he felt the lethargy of the coming dawn fill him, he knew it was time. It was harder to face than he’d ever thought it could be. He didn’t want to die.

  He opened his eyes and saw that the sky had lightened and there was a bright orange line along the horizon. Despite his dire circumstances, he couldn’t suppress the thrill that raced through him. He’d missed seeing the sunrise.

  A single, brilliant spot of light emerged, blinding him. The sun. His breath caught in his throat. It was as lovely as he remembered it; lovelier than his finest painting. After hundreds of years, he finally felt the sun’s heat on his face.

  Even if he could have spoken aloud, there were no words to describe it. Ty’s gasp told him that he, too, had found the sight captivating. Then Erik felt the hardening of Ty’s skin beneath his arm and knew that his end had finally come.

  Chapter 18

  Still bleeding from the pounding Erik had given him, eyes blazing and fangs showing, Carrington looked like something straight out of a horror film. Desperate to get away from him, Kacie stumbled back, straight into the workbench. Keeping her eyes on Carrington, she reached behind her and blindly felt along the top for
anything she could use as a weapon. There was nothing within reach but dust.

  She grabbed a handful of it and flung it in his face. As he tried to blink it away, she ducked out of his way and raced across the stable.

  “You can’t run from me,” he taunted her, rubbing his eyes. “Sooner or later, you’ll get tired.”

  She could have run out of the stable, to the castle. There, she would be able to lock herself safely inside where Carrington couldn’t reach her. But that plan had one insurmountable flaw—it left Erik on the cliff to die. That was unacceptable.

  So instead of racing to safety, she hurried around to the far side of the Hummer, trying to keep the vehicle between them while she figured out what to do. The clock was ticking.

  After considering and rejecting several plans, she finally realized that she’d have to deal with Carrington head on. A full-out attack. But she needed a weapon.

  Giving herself a nanosecond to mentally prepare herself, she raced to where she’d left the hoe propped against the wall.

  She reached it with Carrington a hairbreadth behind her. Grabbing it, she spun around.

  “Get away from me,” she demanded, feinting with the hoe and forcing Carrington back several steps.

  He only laughed at her efforts. “That’s it, baby. Fight me all you want,” he taunted her. “I like it rough.”

  She held the hoe at an angle and tried to stab him with the corner of the blade, but he blocked her effort. The impact of the long wooden handle hitting his arm broke off the end of the hoe and it clattered to the ground in a horrible replay of their earlier confrontation.

  As she contemplated her next move, Carrington reached out and grabbed the wooden handle, yanking it from her hands. Horrified, she tried to run, but he caught her and threw her up against the side of the Hummer.

  “The time for games is over,” he told her, leaning into her, his rank breath hitting her in the face so that she felt like she was suffocating. “It’s time to finish this.” His mouth came down on hers in a brutal kiss. When she tried to twist her head away, he grabbed it and held her still. She bit down, her fang piercing his lip. As he pulled back in surprise, she shoved him as hard as she could and escaped, running once more to the side of the stable that held the tools.

  He stumbled after her, but she kept running, grabbing an old shovel as she hurried around to the front of the Hummer. There, she stopped and waited. Carrington came crashing around the corner and seeing her standing there holding the shovel, he pulled up short, his eyes glowing and his lips curling back in a snarl.

  Kacie waited, holding the shovel up in the air with both hands wrapped around the base of the handle.

  “You like to play games?” she sneered. “I’ve got a game you’ll like.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Yeah. It’s called baseball.” She glanced up at the old pulley hanging above Carrington’s head and then smiled, praying her bluff worked. His eyes widened momentarily and then he, too, glanced up. In that moment she swung the shovel as hard as she could against the side of Carrington’s head. Now that she had changeling strength, the blow was considerable.

  She watched as he stood frozen, his expression going blank and his eyes rolling back. Then, he dropped like a stone.

  She tossed the shovel to one side and jumped into the Hummer. The key was still in the console, so she dug it out and started the engine. She had to look down to make sure she’d put it in the right gear, and when she looked up Carrington was standing in front of her, blood dripping down the side of his head.

  He gave a furious roar as she slammed her foot on the accelerator. The Hummer jumped to life, hitting him square on.

  Instead of falling under the Hummer’s wheels as she’d hoped, he jumped up and landed on top of the hood. His snarling face and bloodthirsty glare filled her vision as she drove out of the stables.

  It was much lighter outside and Kacie’s fear that she would be too late to save Erik spurred her to drive faster than she ever had before. She hit ruts in the ground so hard she literally came out of her seat. And still Carrington held on. Each rut she hit bounced him a little farther down the hood but he kept climbing up, relentless in his attempt to get to her.

  Trying to ignore him, she turned the steering wheel, angling the vehicle so it was headed toward the spot where Erik waited for her. As soon as she made the slight turn, the sun hit her eyes. As the significance of the light set in, the expression on Carrington’s face turned to one of horror.

  As she watched, a rough, light gray substance spread over his form, turning him to stone. Stunned, Kacie let her grip on the steering wheel slip and the Hummer hit another rut. At the moment of impact, Carrington’s body slammed against the windshield and exploded into dust.

  Kacie stood on the brakes and the Hummer slid to a stop. Her heart was pounding so fast she thought it might burst from her chest. She looked at the dust covering the hood of the Hummer and then looked behind her. Nothing. Carrington was gone. Turned to dust by the sun.

  By the sun.

  A fresh horror hit. She was too late.

  If the sun was up high enough to turn Carrington to stone, then . . . Erik was dead.

  She stepped on the gas and drove to the place where he and Ty had gone over the edge. She moved about as if in a dream state, her body doing what needed to be done while her mind sat in a private corner, screaming endlessly over the pain of losing Erik.

  Though it was too late, she refused to leave his body hanging from the cliff. She fed the winch cable down the side and then tried several times before she finally succeeded in hooking the ring wedged between the two boulders. Then, returning to the winch, she flipped the switch that would retract the cable.

  It didn’t take as long as she thought. When Erik’s lifeless body reached the top, she shut off the winch and pulled him up the rest of the way on her own.

  His skin had turned the same grayish color Carrington’s had. Unhooking the winch, she knelt beside him, afraid to touch him the way she wanted to for fear that despite surviving the trip up the rocky cliff face, even the smallest gesture would turn him to dust and she’d lose him forever.

  Now that she knew he was dead, the numbness that had carried her this far began to recede. She tried to call it back, not wanting to feel the hurt and pain. The last time she’d felt such a magnitude of sorrow and despair had been on the night her parents and brother had been killed. And even then, she’d had Erik to comfort her.

  “Go to sleep, little one. I’ll protect you,” she whispered, her voice catching. She hadn’t protected him at all. He’d protected her, just as he always had. And now he was gone. It wasn’t fair. As a changeling, she had the potential to live as long as a vampire. They could have had a long, happy life together and now she was facing an eternity alone. She didn’t think she could bear it. She missed him so badly.

  Once the tears started, they wouldn’t stop. She cupped her face with her hands and great, gulping sobs racked her body until she thought the pain would kill her, and still she cried.

  She didn’t notice the gentle brush against her hand at first, until it came a second time. Then she stopped crying as quickly as if someone had turned off a water spout, every part of her alert.

  The third time she felt the caress, she knew that she hadn’t imagined it. Opening her eyes, she stared down into Erik’s face. It wasn’t possible for him to be alive, was it?

  There were splotches on his body where her tears had fallen and pale skin showed through. She stuck out her hand to touch him and then hesitated. What if she was wrong? What if touching him destroyed what little of him she had left?

  She had to know. Touching the spot where one of the tears had landed, she softly rubbed it. To her utter amazement, the powdery gray substance came off on her finger.

  Hardly daring to hope, she ripped open his shirt and saw that his skin—was skin. Lowering her head, she pressed her head to his chest and cried out. His heart was beating.

  “K
acie.” The word was barely above a whisper but she heard it.

  “Erik,” she cried. “You’re alive. How is this possible?” She bent to kiss his lips, his face, whatever she could reach.

  “I want to hold you, Kacie, but I can’t move my arms.”

  “No, no. You can’t turn to stone. Not now.”

  She heard the rumble of his chest. “No, I don’t think that’s it. Muscles ache, that’s all. Help me sit up, will you?”

  She started to reach for him and noticed that there was a dusty red stain on his shirt. “You’re hurt.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “No, I mean, you’ve been shot,” she said, getting even more worried.

  “When Ty fired the gun, he hit me.”

  “We have to get you to a doctor.” She helped him to sit up, but when she tried to help him stand, he resisted. “I’ll be fine. We both know that one little bullet isn’t going to kill me.”

  She reached her arms around him and hugged him as if she might never get the chance to again. “I thought I’d lost you.”

  “To be honest, I thought you had, too.”

  She sniffled, still not over her scare; afraid that this might be the dream, that harsh reality awaited her.

  “Don’t cry, love. Everything’s all right,” he told her, turning his head so he could press a kiss to her temple.

  “Maybe we’d better get you inside,” she suggested. “Just in case.”

  “Actually, I’d like to sit here for a while. I’m not sure how it’s possible for me to be out here while the sun is shining, but I haven’t seen a sunrise in four hundred years. To be able to sit here and share this one with the woman I love—well, it doesn’t get any better than this.”

  “What about my dad and Michael?”

  Erik shook his head. “No, I prefer having only you by my side.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” she said, then saw his smile. “I take it they’re all right?”

  “Yes, they’re fine. Michael contacted me on the link and sends his regards. He’s at the lair with Gerard. We’ll see them tonight.”