A Dream Forbidden (Lillith Mercury ) (25 page)

I felt his fangs sink into my throat as he found his own release and we collapsed to the bed together.

"How?" he said looking astonished as he rubbed his now smooth skin. Then he gave a sort of startled gasp and leaped from the bed.

I followed him to the bathroom and found him crying as he looked at his own reflection.

"My angel," he said, turning to me, "I can never thank you for this … there are no words."

"You don't owe me thanks," I said before my knees buckled and I fell into Dracula's arms.

* * * *

I awoke a few hours later, still wrapped tightly in his arms and covered with his satin sheets.

"You have risked your happiness to save me," he said softly and I knew he had read my mind while I was asleep.

"You are part of my happiness," I sighed. "I couldn't be happy knowing you suffered."

"But your wolf does not approve."

"He didn't want you to suffer either," I said.

* * * *

And it was true, he didn't want Dracula to suffer. When I spoke to him two days later Marco was clearly upset, but there really was no one to blame. I was right about him. He was alright with the idea in theory.

"You are mine, Red. A part of you will always be mine. I'm just not sure I'm ready to settle for half," he told me.

Just like I was afraid of, Marco couldn't handle me being with Dracula, even though he agreed to the idea. We still obviously loved each other, but we weren't exactly dating anymore. We still saw each other fairly often and he told me he just needed time. Marco said he wasn't angry, he just needed to find a way to cope. That sounded reasonable enough to me. As a matter of fact, I needed some time to cope myself. I was still the alpha female of the pack and Bade was still my protector, but I spent more time with him than I did Marco. The last time we spoke Marco told me he still loved me and assured me once more that I would never be rid of him, but like we had agreed once before, "Let's just give it a while and see where that takes us."

Dracula had graciously agreed to give me time to heal. However, he made it clear that his door was always open to me and he hoped that I would consider him a reasonable alternative to a being alone. The theatre was still packed every night and tickets were sold out all the way through June.

Last I'd heard students were still protesting at the university and no one knew Richard was half snake. The people who had lynched the cheerleader in Texas were being put on trial and would hopefully get the electric chair.

As for Elijah, he was doing fine. His parents had accepted him with open arms despite the fact that he was a werewolf. He had scattered Mary's ashes in all the places she'd always wanted to see. "Now a little bit of Mary will always get to see the sunrise over the mountains," he told me.

Kat had finally dumped Judas and was now seeing Beau. She seemed genuinely happy for the first time since she'd dated Charles Xander and I didn't want to ruin it by telling her how much my heart was breaking.

Having Marco withdraw from me didn't hurt as much as I'd expected it to and that upset me. I loved Marco, so why wasn't I in unbearable pain without him? Maybe it was because I knew things weren't over between us. A part of me would always belong to Marco and deep down I knew he'd be back. Or, it could have something to do with the bedtime stories Dracula sometimes stopped by to read me. Even though I wasn't seeing him either, it's hard to dwell on the past when the devil keeps whispering in your ear.

THE END