The Perfect Kiss (20 page)

After a few moments, when she had mastered her emotions once again, Anya joined him at the edge.

“There’s a cave down there,” Zach said, breaking the awkward silence that prevailed. “I saw it earlier. There was something in it….”

Anya’s gaze flew to Zach’s. “What?”

He stared at the cave for a moment, but his expression seemed lost, confused. He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t remember.” He turned to her and smiled deprecatingly. “Must not have been too important.”

Anya listened to the night, but except for her pounding heart, everything around them seemed normal. Almost too calm. Her instincts bristled as she stared at the opening of the cave.

“My grandmother showed me that cavern when I was a child. A long time ago pirates used it to hide their treasure, she said. In fact, that house—” Anya indicated the crumbling mansion behind them with a slight inclination of her head “—is built on the exact spot where a pirate’s house once stood. The cave goes right into the cellars. That’s how he eluded the authorities. But then, one night, the Royal Navy burned his ship, right out there,” she said, pointing to the sea. “They say his lover watched the flames from her bedroom window, and then flung herself to the ground in despair. That’s why the house is haunted. She’s still waiting for her lover to come home from the sea.”

Zach turned to her and smiled. “That’s a very romantic tale, Anya. You surprise me. Do you really believe in ghosts?”

“Who’s to say?” she said, her voice slightly breathless. “There are stranger things in this world, things a lot more frightening than ghosts. And more dangerous.”

Now was the time to tell him, she thought. Now was the time to turn to him and say, “By the way, do you know what
nosferatu
means? That’s what I am, Zach. At least…I
could
be if I allowed myself to lose control. If I allowed myself to follow my instincts. If I allowed myself to take you the way I wanted to minutes ago when you kissed me.”

What would he say? She could almost hear him laughing…until he thought about it. Until he analyzed it. Until he remembered.

Then the questions would pop into his mind one by one. Why did she disappear all those years ago? Why did he only see her at night, or in very dimly lit rooms? Why did she eat so little? Why was her skin always so cool? Why did his passion threaten her so much?

All those questions would lead to one very improbable answer. Improbable, but not impossible. For his sake, Anya would have to be convincing. She might even have to…show him….

The moon rose over the sea, and the water shimmered with silver fire. The countryside seem to glow in the ghostly light, and the wind softened to a breeze. Now was the time to tell him. In the halcyon aura of early evening, now was the time to shatter every perception he’d ever had of her. Of life.

Anya’s legs weakened as she turned to study his profile in the dusky light. She said, “Zach,” at the same time as he turned and said, “Anya.”

He smiled. “Sorry. But I have a confession to make. Maybe you’d better let me go first.”

He had a confession, too. Anya might have laughed at the irony had the situation not been fraught with such danger. She said, very softly, “It can’t be as ominous as it sounds.”

Zach shrugged. “I’ll let you be the judge of that. I’ve
made a decision regarding the Seduction campaign. I want to go ahead with it.”

Anya glanced at him sharply. “I’ve told you. I won’t come back to the city. I can’t.” There was no way now she could ever leave her home. She was too weak, too vulnerable. Even here she wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold on.

“You don’t have to,” Zach said. “We’ll finish the shoot right here. In this exact location. In fact, we’ll do it at night, with the moon and the sea and the wind in your hair, just like it is now.” He gazed at her for a moment, seeming to lose himself in her eyes. Then he said slowly, “I can’t think of a better spot, especially in light of the story you just told me. A little romance, a little mystery, even a little danger. What could be a better setting for Seduction?”

His voice had lowered at the last, and the husky timbre thrummed through Anya, arousing her all over again. What was it about Zach Christopher that made her lose control so easily?

There’s a bond between us, he’d said, and at that moment, Anya could believe it was true.

But bonds were fragile. Bonds could be severed. And it was up to Anya to break those ties to Zach once and for all. She forced a coldness into her tone. “You’ve made all these plans without consulting me?”

“I’m consulting you now,” Zach said. “And besides, we do still have a contract, Anya. I’m trying to make it easy for you. For some reason, you say you won’t—
can’t
—come back to the city. Fine. We’ll do the last shoot right here. The arrangements have already been made. Julian and the crew will be here tomorrow. I expect your full cooperation.”

More
people were coming? Julian…the crew…Dear God, how would she be able to stand it? How would she
be able to fight the temptation when her needs were already so brutal? So demanding?

Sensing her hesitation, Zach was quick to follow up. He said, “You really don’t have a choice in the matter, Anya. I don’t want to sound unfeeling, but there’s a hell of a lot at stake here. It’s not just for me. A good many people’s livelihoods are in jeopardy, people that I care about. I don’t know what it is that’s frightening you, tormenting you, but somehow, you’ve got to find a way to see this thing through. Just this one last shoot, Anya. That’s all I’m asking of you.”

But it wasn’t. He was asking so much more than that. So much more than he could ever understand.

She gazed silently at the ocean, then said, almost in a whisper, “If I do this one last thing for you, will you do something for me?”

“If I can.”

She looked at him then, letting her gaze trap him in its inexorable spell, consciously using her powers against him. He would hear her. He would listen to her. He would do exactly as she asked. But she could feel his resistance before she’d even uttered a word, reminding her all over again how incredibly strong his will was.

“Once the shoot is finished,” she said softly, “you’ll leave here. You’ll leave here and never come back.”

“I’ll leave here,” Zach said. “I’ll leave here and never come back.”

Anya heard him repeat her words back to her, and a part of her plummeted into despair. He had heard her. He would listen to her. He would leave here and never come back.

Then he reached out suddenly and grasped her chin, forcing her to look up at him. Anya gazed into his eyes and
realized once again how powerful, how very persuasive that green gaze could be. She trembled at his touch.

“I’ll leave here, Anya, and I won’t come back—” his finger whispered over her lips “—at least…not until you ask me to.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“A
nya, you have a phone call,” Freida said, wringing her hands excitedly as she stood just inside Anya’s bedroom door. “It’s Dr. Traymore!”

Anya looked up from her writing. She tried to quiet the sudden leap of excitement inside her, but her heart was already beating an impatient tattoo. This could be it, she thought. This could be the moment I’ve been waiting for.

She laid aside her pen and reached for the phone, but something stopped her. “Where’s Zach?” she asked cautiously.

“He’s in his room,” Freida said. “I think perhaps he’s already gone to bed. Don’t worry. You’ll have complete privacy.”

“Thank you.” Anya picked up the receiver but waited until Freida had left the room and closed the door before she spoke urgently into the mouthpiece. “Leonard? Is that you?”

An ominous silence followed.

“Leonard? Are you there?” Anya began to grow panicky, but finally she heard Dr. Traymore’s deep voice sputtering across the wire. He sounded a million miles away.

“Anya. It’s so good to hear your voice.”

“Yours, too.” Had he always sounded so feeble? So fragile? Perhaps she shouldn’t have sent someone his age to do such perilous research, but there’d been no one else she could trust. No one else had his knowledge, his beliefs. He’d known, or at least suspected, such evil existed in the world long before Anya had even been born.

The wire crackled in Anya’s ear and an ember exploded in the fireplace. Anya jumped, proving to herself how much on edge she was.

“Anya? Are you still there? I can barely hear you. We’ve a terrible connection, it seems.”

Anya could almost see the white-haired archaeologist tamping down the tobacco in his pipe. The image instantly reassured her. “Yes, I’m here. Please, tell me what you’ve found. Do you have the book?”

“Yes, I have the book, but…” He trailed off unexpectedly. She detected a kind of quiet caution and something else, something harder to define, in his voice. Fear? Disappointment?

Anya’s heart dropped. “But…it’s…not what we expected? The answers—”

“The answers are still very elusive, Anya,” he said wearily. “The book is full of riddles. It could take a very long time to decipher all the meanings, and even then it may not be what we wanted to find. You must be prepared, my dear.”

Prepared? How did she prepare herself for an eternity of darkness, of loneliness, of savage hunger? How did she prepare herself for a life without love, only an evil possession too unspeakable to contemplate?

Anya closed her eyes. Her hand holding the phone shook uncontrollably. “Dr. Traymore, there must be an answer for me somewhere inside that book. You have to find it. You have to help me. I’m not sure how much longer I can go on—”

“Anya!” His aged voice sprang across the line, strong now in reproach. “You must hang on! However long it takes, you must not give in. Do you know what would happen? Do you know what you would become? A monster, just like him.”

“I know! Don’t you think I know that? I dream about it every night. But without hope, without the possibility of light, it seems too overwhelming.”

“There’s always hope, my dear,” Dr. Traymore said kindly. “Never give up. I have the book. That’s the first step. Rest assured that if the answer is buried somewhere inside it, I’m the one who can find it. Trust me.”

Trust me.
Zach had asked the same thing of her. And before him, Gershom. Who could she trust now? Who could she believe? Despair overwhelmed her, but she tried to shove it away, tried to muster her courage and resolve. “When will you be coming home?” she asked Dr. Traymore.

“Soon.” He hesitated then said, “Anya,” in a voice that made her skin crawl with dread.

“What is it?”

“Be careful, child. Be very, very careful. If Gershom senses we are closing in on a way to thwart him, he will become even more dangerous, even more cunning. He will come for you, Anya. He will come for you before the bond can be broken.”

“He would come here?” she whispered. “He would cross water to come here for me?”

“He would do anything to possess you. Never underestimate his power. Away from his native soil, his powers are diminished to be sure, but his forces are still greater than you and I can imagine. He will come for you, Anya. Make no mistake. It’s just a matter of time now….”

Anya hung up the phone, trembling. Dear Lord. Dear God in heaven, her worst nightmares had come true. She knew with certainty what she had been trying to deny for days.

Gershom
was
here. He had come for her at last.

He was out there in the darkness, watching and waiting
and biding his time. He would be searching for blood to rebuild his strength. Looking for victims to replenish his powers. When he had fed, when he was strong again, then he would come for her.

Anya opened the balcony doors and a gust of wind swept inside. A scent clung to the air, a subtle aroma of decay. Anyone else might have thought it only the promise of winter, but Anya knew it was a darker covenant, a deeper, more lasting vow. She closed her eyes and remembered Gershom’s whispering pledge: “One perfect kiss, Anya, and already you and I are inseparably linked. You are mine now. For eternity. From this night forward, you can never know the love of a man, for a man who arouses your passions will also unleash your hunger. That is my gift to you.”

And then, “You can run, but you cannot escape me. I will always be with you, in your mind and in your dreams. One day soon you will come to me. When your hunger becomes unbearable, you will come to me.”

“No,” Anya whispered to the wind. “I will never come to you.”

The wind sharpened, assaulting her with a force that took her breath away. He was angry, she thought. Angry at her defiance, and the notion suddenly elated her, filled her with power. For ten years, she had resisted him. She would resist him still. She would prove to him that here she could be strong.

For ten years, Anya had secluded herself from the world because of Gershom. For ten years, she had cloistered herself in loneliness and darkness and torment because she had feared to defy his prophecy. For ten years, she had lived by his rules.

Then she’d met Zach. She’d met the one man who could
tear her resolve to shreds, who could destroy her will with one look, one touch, his own perfect kiss….

And she could have him, she thought. She could have him now. Would that not be the ultimate resistance to the darkness? Would that not prove to Gershom—and to herself—once and for all that he would never have her, that she would never, ever go to him again?

Would it not be her first step to salvation?

The idea set her to trembling. What would it be like to wake up with Zach at sunrise? To walk with him in the sunlight? To watch the sunset with him in the evening? What would it be like to kiss him without the fear, without the guilt, without the hunger?

Oh, Zach, Zach, she cried inwardly. Are you the one? Are you the one who can save me?

Anya closed her eyes, opening her mind and her heart and her soul to the night. A dozen fragrances wafted over her. A dozen sounds swept through her. She concentrated harder, probed deeper….

Yes, yes, there it was! There was the sound, the echo, the deep throbbing of his heart. It came to her out of the darkness, filling her senses like the most glorious of music. She knew the rhythm so well by now. The delicious cadence seemed perfectly timed to her own racing pulse. The sound made her shiver, made her sway in the darkness.