Fall of Darkness (The Chronicles of Darkness) (15 page)

I believe now more than ever that men
were not meant to taste the fruit of immortality. I have seen the fever of
absolute power twist the minds of those who were once good and true. I have
seen evil infiltrate even the greatest of men. I have seen my brothers evolve
into creatures of darkness no better than the ones they hunt.

They kill for pleasure, power, and
greed. Their bloodlust is surpassed only by the thirst of the dark ones. They
seek only personal gratification and care nothing for the sacred Pact that
empowers them. Thus the Pact will be broken and the prophesy fulfilled. Our
kind will meet its end. But so will theirs.

 I know the truth in this as I know my
own self, for Victoria promises it will be so. She comes to me, an apparition
haunting my dreams in the darkest hours of the night. She vows that vengeance
will be ours. Her last words were of the fall of darkness, the end of my family
and kind. I know now they were incomplete in their implication and magnitude.
Members of my family believe she foretold the demise of our kind out of spite for
her abandonment, but nonetheless live in fear of the potential end. Yet only
the corrupt should hold fear in their hearts, for Victoria whispers to me of a rising
light beyond the horizon.

Their day of reckoning will come, for a
greater reckoning awaits. Our fates are tied, our destinies intertwined. The
princess of darkness, the dreaded Cacciatori heiress, will destroy both our
kinds. Our paths are forever entangled, leading us hand-in-hand into the depths
of destruction. The war will end with no immortal victor. This is my vengeance,
this is my absolution. The reign of darkness will fall from this earth, and
mankind will know peace in the breaking of a new dawn.

 I find solace in this truth.  I know
not whether salvation or damnation will greet me in the end, but it matters
not. So long as I have my Victoria, I will have my paradise. I seek a better
world, where light and dark are no longer obscured by the actions of immortal men.
My heart is filled with hope for the future of this world. May we all find
peace in the end… and may God have mercy on our tarnished souls.

Rafael Ridolfi

Salvatore’s eyes stung as his brother’s
last words blurred before him on the pages. Unshed tears of grief and rage. Rafe
had put a pistol full of silver in his mouth hours after he wrote those words.
The damned sentimental fool.

Salvatore slammed the book shut and
tossed it onto his desk with far less reverence than before. He had read those
pages thousands of times over the years. Their poisonous optimism branded
themselves on his mind as they twisted like a knife in his gut. How could his
brother hope for the destruction of his own kind? All over a woman, one useless
human woman.

Massaging his throbbing temples,
Salvatore struggled to think through the pounding in his head. His brother’s
traitorous words and damning forecasts for the future had haunted him for
years. It was a burden he alone shouldered, for fear that other
self-sacrificing wolves would align themselves with his brother’s twisted
sentiments.

If the prophesy was fulfilled, their world
would be destroyed, but so would that of the vampires. He could sit back and let
the future unfold as foretold. The vampires would all burn in Hell where they
belonged, but so might he. His kind would be destroyed as well. He would lose
his precarious grasp on power, on immortality. His sense of self preservation
won out in the battle between logic and conscience.

He picked up the journal and tossed it
into the crackling fire of his office hearth, watching with glazed eyes as the
hungry flames consumed all Salvatore had left of his brother.

No one must know the Pact stood at risk
of crumbling beneath the weight of their own actions. No one must know their
fates were aligned with those of the vampires. The wolves must keep a united
front against the Cacciatori heiress and the prophesy she was destined to
fulfill. It would be better to continue fighting the vampires in a known war, than
to surrender all of their power to the fates. The princess of darkness must be
destroyed.

One woman. All that stood between him
and an eternity as an omnipotent leader was one woman. Simple, easily crushed.
Then again, Victoria had only been one woman. Salvatore had seen firsthand the
havoc she had wreaked on his family. A woman could do a lot of damage if she
infiltrated the confidences of a loved one. That train of thought led to an
even less palatable one.

If his own brother could turn traitor
over a woman, why not his own son?

Salvatore heaved a bone weary sigh and
reached for the phone on his desk. Some matters were far too important to leave
to chance. He punched the button for his receptionist and growled into the
receiver before she had a chance to respond.

“Send me Matteo.”

Chapter
12

A silk blindfold covered Kate’s eyes.
The sensation of Dominic’s presence so near, yet unseen, awakened her other
senses to a whole new world of awareness.

The elevator chimed and they shuffled
forward, the sound of their footfalls echoing down a hallway. She heard a lock
turn and a door open. Dominic led her by the hand through a doorway.

Kate looked forward to whatever surprise
he’d planned as a child did to Christmas. Ever since she met him, he’d made it
his personal mission to fulfill her every fantasy. Tonight he seemed
particularly excited about whatever he had in store for her. Kate sighed. Whatever
it was, it smelt amazing.

“Okay, now you can look,” he whispered
in her ear. He slowly lifted the silk from her eyes, letting the slip of
material flutter to the floor.

            Kate
blinked as her vision adjusted to the dimly lit room. Her knees buckled beneath
her. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe. Reminding herself that breathing was
a prerequisite to living- so breathe already- she sucked in a shallow, labored
breath.

“Oh my… oh, Dominic,” she gasped, her
hand flying to her mouth. An overwhelming display of red roses and gleaming
white candles covered every remotely flat surface of his downtown penthouse ---
they were on the floors, the counters, the furniture, everywhere.

Lush ruby petals carpeted the floor, the
thick layer crushing beneath their feet as they stepped further into the room.
Etched crystal vases of the long stemmed crimson blooms lined the walls and
counters in thick bouquets. Candlelight danced on the glass walls, illuminating
the dark glass with their golden warmth.

Dominic drew Kate backward into his
arms, hugging her from behind. He whispered softly in her ear, the brush of his
lips sending delicious shivers down her spine. “One rose for every hour I’ve
known and loved you. One petal for every minute.”

            “But
that’s like seven hundred roses and… I can’t even begin to think how many
petals!” Kate protested.

            “Forty-four
thousand, six hundred and forty petals. Seven hundred and forty… one roses,” he
said, brandishing a single rose and offering it to her with a soft smile.

            “But…
why?” Kate asked, feeling breathless.

            “Because
I’m in love with you, Kate.”

That still didn’t explain why he’d
turned his apartment into a candlelit rose garden.

            “But…
why?” Who cares why? Kiss him, kiss him now
.

            “All
I know, is when I look at you, I yearn for things I would never have imagined
wanting in a million years. You make me actually want to live forever, so long
as every single moment of forever will be in your arms.

“Every time I pull you near, I never
want to let you go. With every breath I take, I long to shelter and protect
you, love and cherish you, for the rest of my days. I wish I could build you
the castle of your dreams and slay the dragons that shadow your darkest fears,
to be the knight of your heart.

“You make me long for a family of my
own, a house full of children with your eyes and smile. You make me want to be
a better man, for each and every day I am all the better for having loved you.
You make me want to laugh, love, shout, cry… you make me want to live, as I
have never hoped to live before.”

            He
gently turned her to face him, sinking to one knee at her feet. Removing a
white satin ring box from his pocket, he popped the hinges to reveal a
magnificent diamond engagement ring.

“Marry me, Kate. I’m so hopelessly in
love with you. Let me love you forever. If you’ll but give me your hand, I
promise to give you the world. ”

Kate gaped at him in stunned silence her
emerald eyes gaping down at the gorgeous man begging to spend forever with her.
With her? Really? She’d never wanted anything more. Form words, Kate, words.
Come on. Say something. Anything.

            “I
know it’s soon,” he qualified, apparently mistaking her silence for hesitation.
“People will say we hardly know each other, but I already know everything I
need to know about you. I know you are gentle and kind, loving and passionate.
I know you make me feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before. I know I would
sacrifice everything I’ve ever known or wanted for one more day with you. I
want to spend every minute of the rest of my life getting to know you even
more…”

            Kate
cut his declaration short by pitching herself into his arms. Her mouth melded
with his, answering his vow of love with one of her own. Without words she told
him how much she loved him, needed him, and wanted to share every moment of
forever with him.

Dominic returned her heated kisses with
searing passion, hungrily accepting each of her unspoken promises. When they
finally broke apart, dazed and breathless, he smiled down at her in tender
amusement.

            “Was
that a yes?”

            “Ye--,”
she breathed, but his mouth claimed hers before she could finish her agreement.
Kissing her senseless, he devoured and conquered, stroked and teased.
Reluctantly conceding to the inconvenient need for air, they finally broke
apart. Pulling her up with him, he rose to his feet.

Dominic lifted the ring from the box and
carefully slid it into place on her left hand, brushing his lips across the
back of her fingers before releasing her hand. Kate lifted her hand to admire
the ring in the candle light and her eyes widened to plate-like proportions. Mercy.

The enormous center stone, a flawless
white diamond, was set high in the cathedral setting of a wide platinum band---
about four carats of faceted sparkling perfection, princess cut, and set at an
angle to take on an equilateral diamond shape instead of a traditional square.
Four delicate round diamonds were set in parallel pairs of two on opposing
sides of the larger gem, complemented by slightly larger triangular emeralds of
a deep jade hue, one on each of the remaining sides.

“It’s so… oh, wow.”

“Do you like it?” he asked.

She bit her lip and nodded. “I’ve never
seen anything so beautiful.”

“I have,” he vowed, brushing his lips
over the bridge of her nose, “you.” His chest swelled with pride. “I designed
it myself. I handpicked the emeralds to match your eyes.”

“It’s perfect,” Kate said, still
studying her hand as she twisted and turned it in the candlelight. Reality
slowly sank in. She was getting married. To a man she had known for a month.
“Everyone will say we’re crazy.”

            “Does
it matter?”

            Kate
tipped her head back to smile up at him. “No.”

            He
rewarded her with a dazzling grin. “Exactly.”

            Arching
up on her tip toes, she pressed her lips lightly to his. “Dance with me,
Dominic?”

            He
cocked a dark brow at her, and repeated her coy reply, “But, there’s no music.”

            Wrapping
her arms around his neck she said, “Yes, there is. Can’t you hear it?”

            “Oh,
yes. I hear it,” he murmured, capturing her lips with his own. He trailed light
kisses from her lips down her jaw line to the delicate curve of her ear, his
lips moving ever so gently against the sensitive skin there as he softly
crooned a familiar melody, sparking to life the magic of their love song with
his tender words.

            She
laid her head on his chest, listening to the steady thrum of his heart as she
lost herself in the spell cast by his deep voice. Long after his song was
through, they held each other, their bodies pressed together as their hearts
beat as one.

Reality eventually reared its head amid
the giddy love-struck haze of Kate’s mind.

            “Oh,
I need to call Lindsey. She’ll be pissed if she’s not the first to know we’re
engaged.”

            Fishing
his cell phone from his pocket, Dominic held it out to her. “You can call her
if you like, but she already knows.”

            Kate
tipped her head back to look at him in surprise. “Really? How?”

            “I
asked her if she thought you would say yes.”

            “Why?”

            “I
was worried you might say no, that it might be too fast for you.”

It was fast, but Kate didn’t care. 
Nothing had ever felt more right.

            “What
did she say?”

            “She
said I had her permission to propose,” Dominic recounted with a deep chuckle,
“and if you were crazy enough to say no, then she would marry me instead.”

            “I’ll
bet she did.” Kate giggled. “Well, now that you have Lindsey’s all important
stamp of approval, we should probably call my parents.”

            “Go
ahead. They know as well.”

            “Really?
Is there anyone who didn’t know you were proposing, besides me?”

            Dominic
laughed, the sound rich and deep in his chest. “It’s not like that. I asked
your father for your hand.”

            “You
asked my dad if you could propose to me after knowing me for all of a month?
What did he say? Please don’t say he said no.” Her parents liked Dominic, but
that didn’t mean they would approve of a decision of this magnitude after so
little time.

            “He
said the same thing you did,” Dominic answered with a proud smile. “Yes.”

            “But
what exactly did he say?” She still couldn’t imagine how the conversation
between the two most important men in her life could’ve possibly gone. ‘Hey,
Dave. Mind if I marry your daughter that I’ve only known for a month?’ followed
by ‘Sure, kid. Why the hell not?’

Yeah, right.

             “He
asked me if I loved you.”

            She
cocked a brow at him. “And what did you say?”

            “I
asked him if the sun rises.” Good answer.

            “Then
what did he say?”

            “He
nodded in approval. He made me promise to take care of you, to see that you
never went without. I told him my sole purpose in life was to take care of you.
So long as I draw breath, you will never want for anything.

“He told me if I ever hurt his baby
girl, he’d kill me, slowly and painfully. I told him I would rather die a
thousand painful deaths than ever cause you a moment’s pain.  He made me
promise to support you in chasing your dreams. I told him not only do I support
your dreams, I’ll not rest until every single one of them comes true.”

            Kate
sighed. “How did I get so lucky?”

            “You’re
not, but I am,” Dominic said, kissing the top of her head.

            “Agree
to disagree?” She compromised, nuzzling into the crook of his neck.

            “Agreed.”

            “When
should we set a date for?”

            “Today,
tomorrow, whenever you want. The sooner the better. I’ve waited a long time to
find you. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

            “Me
neither,” she agreed, drawing his face down to hers for a kiss. They sank to
the floor as their kiss deepened. On a fragrant bed of rose petals, they made
love with slow, measured tenderness. Savoring each touch, each kiss, and each
breath, they celebrated the beginning of the rest of their lives.