Embrace the Night (24 page)

"Ah, my sweet Sara, what a tiger you are."

"I love you, Gabriel."

"Sara…"

"I know," she replied. "I know." And taking him by the hand, she led him into her bedroom and closed the door.

"Are you sure,
cara
?"

She looked deep into his eyes, remembering the nights he had come to her in the orphanage, the nights he had taken her to the ballet, to the opera. He had saved her life, turned her dream of being a ballerina into reality. She had once thought him an angel; now she knew that he was not an angel at all, but a man who was cursed to spend his life in darkness, a creature of the night.

The man she loved.

"I'm sure, Gabriel," she whispered.

"Are you?"

He turned her so that she was facing the looking glass in the corner, and then he stood beside her, his arm wrapped around her waist.

They stood side by side, but only her reflection stared back at them.

"I'm a vampire, Sara Jayne. I can only share half of your life. I can't give you children. I'll never grow old. Can you live with that?"

She glanced at Gabriel, standing beside her, and then stared at the mirror again. She could hear him. She could touch him, yet he cast no reflection at all.

"Sara?"

"Are you still trying to get rid of me, Gabriel?" She reached up to caress his cheek, but in the glass she was touching only empty air. "Don't you know that's impossible?"

"I just want you to be sure."

With a sigh, she took him in her arms and kissed him, her tongue seeking his as she rubbed her breasts against his chest. "I'm sure, my angel," she whispered. She ran her hands over his shoulders, down his arms. "Very sure."

With a low growl, he swung her into his arms and carried her to the bed. Eager now, he removed her clothing, his body trembling with yearning as her soft curves were revealed to his gaze. How beautiful she was! And she wanted him. It was incredible.

When he started to undress, she stayed his hand, then bent to the task
herself, letting her hands glide over his chest as she removed his shirt,
reacquainting herself with the hard planes of his body.

He groaned low in his throat as her hands aroused him. And then he couldn't wait any longer. Pressing her down to the mattress, he covered her body with his, her name a sigh on his lips as their bodies merged and became one.

She held him close, murmuring his name over and over again as the passion between them burned hotter, brighter, rivaling the energy and the heat of the sun.

She was all the light he would ever need, soft and warm, her touch filling the emptiness of eternity, driving the loneliness from his heart.

He felt her shudder beneath him, heard her gasp his name. A moment later, he threw back his head, his body convulsing one last time.

For a long moment, he held her close, his face buried in the curve of her neck. Knowing he must be crushing her, he rolled onto his side, his body folding around hers, holding her close. Too soon, the dawn would be upon them. But for now, for this brief span of time, she was his to hold, and to love.

He stirred with the coming of dawn, and his movements awakened Sara. Propping herself up on one arm, she watched him dress.

"Where are you going?"

He made a vague gesture with his hand. "I need to find a new lair."

"Stay."

"No."

"Why not?"

Why, indeed? She knew what he was; he had no need to hide himself from her.

"You can rest in here, as you did before."

"I would have your promise that you won't enter the room until nightfall."

She sat up, the covers tucked under her arms, and he thought how beautiful she looked, with her hair falling over her shoulders in glorious disarray, her lips slightly swollen from his kisses.

"Why?" Sara asked candidly. "Don't you trust me?"

His unflinching gaze met hers. "With my life,
cara
, but I would rather you didn't see me while I sleep."

Head cocked to one side, she regarded him curiously, wondering what he didn't want her to see.

"Please,
cara
."

"Very well." She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, quickly gathering the clothing she would need for the day.

"Sara, be careful today. Nina could be in Paris. She might have summoned help. Keep the doors and windows locked. Don't open the door for anyone you don't know."

"I have a rehearsal this afternoon."

"Is Maurice picking you up?"

A flush rose to her cheeks. "Yes."

"Good. Stay close to him. Be sure he brings you home."

"A most unusual request," she teased, "coming from you."

"I don't want you to be alone."

"What about you? What if she sends someone after you?"

"I'm not totally helpless during the day, Sara," he said, hoping to ease her mind. And it was true, up to a point.

She worried her lower lip with her teeth for a moment, then sighed. "Maybe I should stay home."

Gabriel clenched his fists at his sides, wishing again that he had agreed to spend the night with Nina, to pleasure her as she desired. But for his stupid pride, his revulsion at the idea of being Nina's plaything, even for one night, Sara would not now be in danger.

"Gabriel?"

"I think you'll be all right,
cara
. After rehearsal, I want you to buy some garlic and hang it over your doors and windows. Have you a cross? Good, wear it when you go out."

"You're frightening me."

"I know, but you need to be prepared."

He gathered her into his arms, wishing he could spend the day at her side. He thought briefly of taking her away from Paris, but wherever they went, Nina would find them. She would sense his presence, as surely as he could sense hers.

"I love you, Sara Jayne. Be careful."

The sun was up. He could feel the strength draining from his body, and he sat down on the edge of the bed as the lethargy slowly began to steal over him.

"Sara, cover the window."

"What? Oh!" She flew out of his arms and quickly hung a heavy quilt over the window, effectively blocking out the small amount of light that had penetrated the curtains. "Is that better?"

"Fine. Come, sit beside me."

She did as he asked, her arm sliding around his waist. "What's it like when you sleep during the day?"

"It's like death,
cara
. When I was first made, it frightened me more than anything else. I learned to accept the darkness, the blood, but every time the sun came up was like dying all over again."

She tightened her arm around him, not knowing what to say.

"Gradually, as I grew stronger, I discovered I could stay awake for a short while after the sun came up, and rise before the sun set, so long as I stayed out of the light."

"Do you dream while you sleep?"

"No. And yet, there have been times when I was aware of you, of what you were doing. When the orphanage caught fire, I knew you were in pain, but there was nothing I could do." He gazed into her eyes, remembering how helpless he had been. "It was a terrible feeling, knowing you needed me and there was nothing I could do."

"But you did help me," she reminded him. "If not for you, I'd still be confined to that chair."

"And now, because of me, your life is in danger."

"I don't care! I wouldn't trade a minute of the time we've had together. Not a minute. And maybe she won't come looking for us. Maybe she was only bluffing."

"Maybe," Gabriel said. And maybe the sun wouldn't shine and the rain wouldn't fall.

He held her a moment longer, and then sent her away. "Your promise,
cara
," he said, not wanting her to see him when the deathlike sleep was upon him. "Remember your promise."

"I remember." She kissed him one more time, then left the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

She was too nervous to sit still, consumed by curiosity about why Gabriel had so adamantly insisted that she not enter the room while he slept.

She wandered through the apartment, straightening this and that, while she waited for Maurice, her thoughts as unstable as a kaleidoscope. Gabriel was a vampire. Maurice wanted to marry her. The company was going to London in the spring. Nina wanted her dead…

Sara shuddered at the thought. How did one fight against a vampire?

She fingered the small silver cross at her throat. It was hard to imagine that anything so small as a crucifix, or so common as garlic, had the power to repel a vampire, yet she remembered that Gabriel had been unable to leave the cottage until she had broken the circle of garlic and holy water.

Vampire… She had seen him when the hunger was on him, seen the unholy light that had glowed in his eyes, seen his fangs, and yet it was still inconceivable that such things existed.

Yet her blood had revived him.

His blood had made her whole.

He had said he would never turn her into what he was, and she believed him, and yet, far in the back of her mind, in a corner where she didn't look too closely, lingered a niggling doubt. What if the lust for blood overcame him? What if he changed his mind and decided he'd like to have a vampire companion to keep him company through the ages?

She tried to imagine drinking the blood of others to survive, and felt her stomach recoil in horror. She tried to imagine what it would be like to live always in darkness, never to see the sunlight again, never to walk in the morning rain, or lie on the grass and watch the clouds drift across a lazy summer sky. Never to bear a child.

To live forever and never grow old… she had to admit that had a certain appeal.

With a shake of her head, she went to stand by the bedroom door. Leaning close, she listened, but heard nothing. A sleep like death, he had said, a sleep with no dreams.

Only her promise to stay away kept her from peeking inside.

She jumped, startled, when she heard a knock at the front door.

It was Maurice. "Ready?" he asked.

"Yes, just let me get my wrap."

They were rehearsing Swan
Lake
, but Sara couldn't concentrate on the steps or the music. Her mind kept visualizing Gabriel sleeping the sleep of the undead in her apartment. In her bed. And when she wasn't thinking of Gabriel, she was worrying about being stalked by Nina or one of her minions.

They were in the middle of the second act when the ballet mistress called a halt with a sharp tap of her baton.

"Sara Jayne, are you dancing with us today or not?"

"I'm sorry, Madame Evonne," Sara stammered, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "I'm… I'm afraid I'm not feeling well."

Madame Evonne drew herself up to her full five feet, two inches. "Do you wish to be excused?"

"Yes, please."

"Very well. Ginette, you may take Sara Jayne's place." Madame Evonne fixed Sara with a cool glance. "Shall we expect you tonight?"

Sara lifted her chin, refusing to be intimated by the dour-faced ballet mistress. "Yes."

"Very well." Madame tapped her baton on the floor and the music began again.

Sara felt Maurice's gaze on her back as she left the floor. Backstage, she settled her hat on her head, put on her cape, drew on her gloves, and left the theater, only then remembering Gabriel's admonition to have Maurice see her home.

Sara glanced up and down the street; then, with a sigh, she hailed a hack to take her to the market.

The clerk looked at her oddly as she filled a basket with strings of garlic.

She stopped at a small church on the way home and filled a bottle with holy
water, praying that she would be forgiven for her theft, but at the moment she felt she had more need of the precious fluid than did the priest.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she reached home. Inside, she pulled off her cape and gloves and removed her hat. For a moment, she paused outside her bedroom door, her curiosity again tempting her to peek inside. Only her promise to Gabriel to let him rest undisturbed kept her hand from the latch.

With a shake of her head, she turned away from the bedroom and began affixing garlic around all the windows and the front door. When that was done, she took the bottle of holy water and sparingly dribbled the liquid across the floor in front of the door and along the windowsills.

As she sprinkled holy water over and around the windows, it occurred to her that such precautions would not only keep Nina out, they would also serve to keep Gabriel in.

She'd treated every room but the bedroom where Gabriel slept when there was a knock at the door.

"Who's there?" she called, images of a female vampire with bloody fangs jumping to the forefront of her mind even though it was still daylight.

"It's Maurice. Sara Jayne, are you all right?"

"I'm fine. I'll see you at the theater tonight."

"Are you sure you're all right?" Maurice asked. "Can I get you anything?"

"I'm fine, really."

"Sara Jayne, please let me come in."

"Not now, Maurice. I'm taking a nap. I'll see you tonight."

"Very well,
cheri
," he agreed with obvious reluctance. "
Au revoir
."

Sara pressed her forehead against the door. She wouldn't be able to keep Maurice at bay for long. They were supposed to be engaged, after all. He wouldn't be pleased to learn that Gabriel had come back into her life. Somehow, she'd have to find the words to tell him that she was breaking their engagement. He wouldn't like that, either, but she knew now that she could never marry Maurice, or any other man. Her heart and soul belonged to Gabriel, now and always.

Gabriel.

A vampire.

It was still hard to believe, to accept. In spite of all she had seen, all he had said, it still seemed like a nightmare, too hideous to be true…

She felt suddenly cold all over as she recalled the nightmares that had plagued her here in Paris not so long ago.

They hadn't been nightmares at all, she thought, recalling the horrible images that had invaded her sleep, the visions of a fiend with hideous fangs and blood-red eyes. They'd been a premonition of things to come. She knew that now, because Gabriel was the demon in her dreams.