Embrace the Twilight (27 page)

Wincing, he got himself to his feet and came to Sarafina. He knelt beside her, where she lay. “It'll be daylight soon,” he said softly. “Will the bullet wound heal?”

She nodded.

He leaned over her, kissed her mouth. “But it might not have. I might not have gotten here in time. I could have lost you. You understand that, right?”

“Will, please…just untie me.”

“I'm about to.” He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “If you weren't shot full of holes and the sun wasn't about to rise, I wouldn't for several hours yet. Seems to me I owe you.”

She smiled, but weakly. It hurt too much to smile.

He moved toward her ankles, unbound them, rubbed the places where the ropes had been. “I could've lost you. I could still lose you. At any time, without warning. You're not immortal. You don't age, and you won't die of natural causes, but that's not immortality. You can die, same as I can.”

He ran his hands up her legs, over her hips, then paused, staring at the sand-packed hole in her belly. “Should I clean this out for you?”

“No. It kept me from bleeding to death.”

He nodded; then he reached up to her wrists to untie them. As he worked the knot loose, he said, “I love you, Sarafina. You know that, right? It was never a lie. Never a game. Never an act. I love you.”

She closed her eyes. “Willem…”

“A year of love beats a lifetime alone. Freddy Mercury said something like that, and I'm sure he wouldn't lie.”

“Freddy…who?”

“I'm willing to risk the pain of losing you, of growing old and watching you stay young and vital. I'm willing to risk anything at all, Sarafina, just for the joy of being with you, loving you, for whatever time the universe chooses to let me. Are you willing to take that same risk for me?”

The rope came free. She lowered her hands, and he took them, lifting her wrists to his lips to kiss the rope burns.

“I don't think I have any choice in the matter, Willem. I've tried. I've told myself there's no future for us. That loving you is a guarantee of heartbreak. But it didn't stop me from loving you anyway.”

“Thank God,” he whispered. He lifted her body from the rock, hugging her gently to his chest.

“I have so many regrets, Willem. Things I can't change. You made me see how wrong I've been.”

“About what?”

“For years I've hated my precious Dante for choosing Morgan over me. But now…now I finally understand. I'd have done the same, for you.”

He nodded. “Then it's not too late to make amends.”

“But there's so much else. Things I can't so easily undo. Misty and Edward, for example.”

He stroked her hair. “You told me yourself they were criminals.”

“But I took away their will. I never realized what a valuable thing that was until I saw yours in action, Willem.”

“Isn't there…any way to reverse it?”

She blinked. “There might be. In that laboratory in the house, there were notebooks upon notebooks. Did you see them? And the computer, and all those shiny discs…”

“CD-ROMs.”

“Stiles must have salvaged a lot of DPI research. And no doubt he's added more. Maybe, somewhere in there, they've learned of a way to free a vampire-enslaved mind.”

“Maybe.”

She nodded, snuggled closed to him. “I'm sorry for what I did to you, Will. I'm sorry. I have no excuse.”

“You have the perfect excuse. You loved me. You were afraid to give me the chance to hurt you like everyone else you've ever loved has hurt you. Fortunately I don't have any intention of doing that.”

A motor sounded in the distance.

Will stiffened, went alert and quickly lowered her to the ground. He unbuttoned his shirt and peeled it off, handing it to her. “Put this on.”

He was apparently more concerned about her nudity than she was. She tried to sit up, failed. “Will, I can't—I can't move enough to—”

Turning, his face full of love, he eased her torn dress off her shoulders, slipped his midnight-blue, still-damp shirt on her and buttoned it up the front.

“It's Rhiannon and the others,” she said.

Will glanced at the sky. “Not a moment too soon.” Rising to his feet, he scooped her gently, carefully, up into his arms and began the long trek down the hill.

“Your foot is killing you,” she said, feeling his pain.

“So's your bullet hole, but we still need to get down there to the boat.”

He bent to kiss her forehead and continued limping down the path to the bottom.

When they finally got to sea level, the others came running toward them, Rhiannon leading the way. Her eyes shifted to the wound before meeting Sarafina's gaze again.

“You're going to survive?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Good.” Rhiannon gave a nod.

Sarafina lifted her brows as Will carried her toward the waiting boat, the “princess” walking close beside her. “Good?”

Rhiannon shot her a look. “You're the first vampiress I've encountered who had the gall to challenge me, much less the power to present a real challenge.” She shrugged. “Not a threat, of course, but a challenge.”

“I was somewhat handicapped when we locked horns, Rhiannon.”

“You were injured?”

“Heartsick.”

“Ahh. So then the next time you might even land a few real blows. One never can tell.” She didn't
quite
smile, but her eyes did. And she steadied Will by holding his shoulder as he stepped into the boat.

Jameson got into the driver's seat. Angelica squeezed into the center between him and Roland. Will sat in the back with Sarafina across his lap and Rhiannon in the seat beside him. Her cat curled in the small space behind their seats.

Amber stood on the rock.

“Amber? The sun will be up soon, we have to go.”

She glanced at the sky, then looked around. “But…where is he? Where is Stiles?”

Fina lifted her head very weakly. “Willem pitched him from the very top. He hit the rocks below, child. You don't have to worry about him anymore.”

“Where?” she asked. “I want the bastard dead. I want to see for myself that he's dead.”

“Amber—”

Jameson put a calming hand on his wife's shoulder, and she fell silent. He glanced at Will, nodded once.

“Put me down, Will,” Sarafina whispered. “Take her. She needs to see.”

Will swallowed hard but he did as she asked, easing Sarafina onto the floor of the boat, where she could lie as flat as possible. He climbed out, and walked with Amber.

 

The two of them stood on the rocks, right where Stiles had fallen. There was blood. Even bits of flesh and hair on the rocks. But no sign of Stiles.

“His boat was still there,” Amber said. “Just a few yards from ours, tied to a rock.” Then she blinked. “But the rowboat you took wasn't. Did you tie it to the other side, Will?”

He met her eyes, thought about lying to the girl, then decided against it. “No. I left it just over there.” He pointed. But of course there was no boat in sight.

“He knows more about me than I do.”

“You have his notes,” Will told her. “You can find out everything he learned by…”

“By killing me over and over again.” She lowered her eyes. “And now maybe he can't be killed, either. Maybe he's even more of a danger to us now.”

“Or maybe the waves just washed him out to sea,” he said softly. “And maybe I forgot to tie my boat in my hurry to get to Sarafina.”

Amber sighed, lowering her head. Her voice breaking, she said, “I don't know what I am, Will.”

He slid an arm around her shoulders and turning, began walking her back to the boat and the others. “You think you've got problems? I'm in love with a vampire.”

That made her laugh, just a little. He was glad to hear it. She leaned her head on his shoulder. “Sorry about almost getting you killed.”

“I've been almost getting killed my entire adult life, kid. Think nothing of it.”

The boat came into sight, and he helped her in, let her have the seat, then wedged himself onto the floor with Sarafina.

Fina searched his eyes, a question in hers. He gave his head a slight shake, left, then right.

Then Rhiannon caught his eyes, her own guiding them to follow her gaze to a small speck far out in the water.

He narrowed his. It looked like…a man, in a rowboat.

Rhiannon looked at him again. Her brows furrowed. Will thought he knew what she was thinking.

Sarafina looked from one of them to the other. “You didn't find him?” she asked. “You didn't find Stiles?”

Will said softly, “No.”

“But…that means he could have survived the fall. That means…”

“It means we didn't find the body,” Will said. “And that's all it means, Fina.”

But he could see by the look in her eyes that she thought it might mean more, and he couldn't quite keep himself from wondering if it did.