Fall of Darkness (The Chronicles of Darkness) (35 page)

            “You
don’t know?” Dominic repeated with incredulous distaste.

            “No,”
Kate gasped. “Please, I can’t do this right now. Can you just get rid of it?”

            “As
you wish, princess,” he agreed with a mocking bow.

            Heading
back into the clearing, Dominic kicked snow over the splatters of blood. He gathered
enough kindling for a makeshift funeral pyre, casting furtive glances in Kate’s
direction. She paced the perimeter, a white knuckled hand clutched over her
mouth and nose. Arranging the kindling, Dominic tossed his lighter on the pile.
His brother’s remains went up in flames.

            Dominic
crossed back to Kate. “Let’s get you to shelter,” he said, offering her his
hand.

Kate eyed his hand warily, but conceded,
sliding her hand into his. Her touch warmed Dominic from head to toe, giving
life to the fire only she had the power to light within him. Hand-in-hand, they
left the clearing, Matteo forgotten in flames and ashes.

Chapter
32

Tucked away in the shelter of a small
cave, Kate and Dominic stood staring at each other in silence. Though they were
mere feet apart, much more than distance divided them. Kate broke the silence.
“Why do you keep helping me?”

            “I
would think the answer’s quite obvious,” Dominic said with a sardonic little
smile.

            “Please,
by all means, enlighten me,” Kate snapped, her ire peaking from the casual
irony in his tone. She didn’t remember him being this irritating.

Without warning, his body slammed into
hers with jarring force. Dominic’s hard body pinned hers against the wall of
rocks. He pressed his palms flat against the stone on either side of her head.

“Perhaps, despite what you believe, the
only lie I’ve ever told you was one of omission upon our meeting,” he growled,
his angry breath warm and intimate on the bare skin of her neck. “Perhaps,
everything else was the absolute truth. How I felt about you, the sacrifices I
was willing to make to be with you, everything.”

Those smoldering brown eyes burned into
hers. Raw pain roiled in their dark depths. Kate dropped her chin to avert her
gaze. It hurt too much to look him in the eye.

“Perhaps, regardless of what you’ve
become…” He murmured, grazing a finger down her averted profile, tracing the
planes of her face, lingering on her lower lip. “And despite all my best
efforts to deny it, to fight it…” His touch swept down the slim column of her
ivory throat, and lower, caressing the rise of her partially exposed bosom.
Kate’s sensitive skin leapt to life beneath his hands, his touch blazing a trail
of fire.  “I still desire you more than ever.”

“And maybe,” Dominic continued in a low
growl, his anger mounting with each word. Grasping her chin in his hand, he
forced Kate to meet his piercing gaze, “just maybe, in spite of the fact you’ve
cast me aside and promised your love to another man, I still love you
desperately, with all that I am.”

            Kate
was speechless… or would’ve been.

Before she could open her mouth to
speak, or even think to react, Dominic’s lips claimed hers in a punishing kiss.
Cradling the back of her head in his unyielding hands, his fingers tugged
painfully on the hair at the nape of her neck. His lips continued their
bruising assault, heating her blood and awakening her body.

All the hurt, frustration, and anger of
the past months rose to bursting culmination, giving birth to an untamed
passion. They battled and raged in a rabid fever pitch of emotions. Kate fought
back, venting her own pain and suffering as she demanded penance from his lips
with the ferocity of her kisses.

Their tongues waged an uncompromising
war for dominance, dueling and fighting as their bodies ground against each
other in rage and need long denied. Dominic lifted Kate in his arms, jerking up
her skirts to bare the flesh beneath. He tore away her panties, pressed her
back against the wall, and drove into her with one swift motion.

Demanding. Possessing. Unforgiving. Kate
took it all, hungry for the feel of him.

She wrapped her legs around his waist,
her ankles linking at the small of his back. He pounded into her again and
again, hard and fast, punishing and claiming with each powerful thrust of his
hips. The feel of him inside her, against her, and all around her drove her
wild with ecstasy. Their mating was feral and frenzied as they found earth
shattering completion in each others’ arms.

When at last the storm had passed, they
sank to the floor of the cave in a tangle of dust and limbs, exhausted and
sated. Dominic rolled onto his side, taking Kate with him. Katerina purred in
animalistic delight. At least the two halves of her psyche agreed on one thing.
They both wanted Dominic.

Falling prisoner to the needs of her
kind, Kate’s eyes grew heavy. She surrendered to sleep as the sun rose beyond
the dark safety of the cave.

Dominic held Kate as she slept, relishing
the feel of her back in his arms. He took advantage of the opportunity to
admire her sleeping profile in the darkness. When she slept, she looked as
fresh and innocent as she’d been the day they’d met.

He knew differently. Yet somehow, he
didn’t care.

He couldn’t bring himself to care that
she was a vampire, that loving her defied not only his family and kind, but
nature. Nothing felt more natural than holding Kate in his arms. No, he didn’t
care what she was or what she meant to the world. The Pact and his kind could
all be damned for all he cared.

Kate could hunt. She could kill. It
didn’t matter to him. She would always be his Kate.

He stroked absentmindedly up and down
her arm, reveling in the smooth feel of her ivory satin skin. His fingers reached
her left hand and he toyed with the ring there. What he wouldn’t give to tear
it from her finger and toss it into a bottomless pit.

That he did care about. Dominic could
live with what she’d become and what she must do to survive. That she’d promised
herself to another man, he could not. It was the one fact he refused to
accept. 

So many questions plagued Dominic’s
mind, but he feared their answers would destroy what little remained of him. He
had no choice. He had to know.

Dominic watched her sleep in silence,
wondering to which man her heart truly belonged.

Kate awoke as the cave cooled with the
setting of the sun, her body stirring from her first day of restful sleep in a
long time. As she roused, Dominic withdrew from her side. Kate leaned into his
absence like a flower searching for sunshine. Rubbing her eyes, she sat up and
gave him a sleepy smile.

            Dominic
didn’t smile back. “Your fiancé will be waiting,” he said flatly, turning his
back on her.

            “Dominic,
please.”

Kate stared at the expanse of his rigid
back, searching for the words to make everything right again. The thick silence
between them was painful. What she wouldn’t give for him to turn around, to
gather her in his arms, and kiss away the hurt he’d left behind.

She thought he’d never speak as the
silence stretched on. Just when she thought it would have to break on its own,
he spoke.

            “Why,
Kate? Why didn’t you come to me?” he whispered, his voice thick with emotion.
“I waited for you. I hoped once you knew the truth, you could bring yourself to
trust me. But for some reason, you couldn’t do it.”

            “Dominic,
I…”

            He
spun around to face her, hurt and anger twisting his handsome features. With
narrowed eyes, he took her measure, raking her over the coals of his own
personal purgatory. “You made your choice.”

            “It’s
not like that.”

            “Then
how is it, Kate? Tell me, please. I’m dying to know how you could throw away everything
we had, without even blinking an eye.” He towered over her, his countenance
thunderous as he dared her to defend her faithlessness.

            “You
lied to me.”

            “Only
in the beginning,” Dominic sighed. “Everything else was the truth.”

            Kate
swallowed, hard. Time to finish what she’d started. Maybe it would be like
ripping off a Band-Aid, the faster she pulled, the less it would hurt.

“You killed my parents,” Kate blurted
out. The accusation hung heavy in the air between them.

Dominic sucked in a sharp breath. “Where
did you hear that?”

            Shaking
her head, she said, “That doesn’t matter. Is it true?”

            “Where
did you hear it?” Dominic pressed.

            Kate
watched him from beneath furrowed brows. “Is it true?”

            Dominic
sighed. “No, Kate. It’s not true. I’ve done a lot of bad things, but that’s not
one of them. Matteo killed your parents.”

            “Really?”

            His
full lips pressed together in an angry frown. “If you can believe I’d lie to
you about that, then we never had a chance.”

            “W-w-why
would Alex lie to me?”

            “I
can think of a few good reasons.”

            “Like?”
Kate couldn’t imagine Alexander lying to her about anything, especially something
so emotionally painful for her.

            “First
off, the bastard hates me.”

            “And?”
Kate rolled her eyes. No way would she get in the middle of their schoolyard
spat.

            Dominic’s
gaze darted to the engagement ring on her finger. “Perhaps to put his ring
where mine belongs.”

            Kate
scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.”

            “Is
it? Is it really? It worked didn’t it?” Dominic argued.

            “That’s
not fair. He wouldn’t… um, he couldn’t… Alex was only trying to make me happy.”

            “Is
that so? It seems Prince Charming had plenty of time to embellish on my past
sins. Did he happen to share any of his own? Did he tell you about the
countless humans he’s murdered in cold blood? Did he tell you about how he and
his friends tortured and killed Caprice? Tell me, Kate? Has the sainted ‘Alex’
been honest with you?”

            “Alex
is a good man,” Kate defended.

            “A
vampire,” he corrected.

            “That’s
right, a vampire. Like me.”

            “Like
you,” Dominic repeated, his lips curling around the unpalatable truth.

            “And
Heaven forbid you let yourself forget that fact for even one tiny second. You
might find yourself in bed with one of those vile bloodsucking creatures,” Kate
railed at him.

With an angry sweep of her hand, she
indicated the tunneled entrance to the cave. “The sun’s down. I’d better get
going. As you said, my fiancé will be waiting. Lord knows I don’t deserve him
after today.” Kate turned on her heel and stomped toward the entrance of the
cave.

            “Do
you love him?”

The whispered question, so low she
almost missed it, stopped Kate where she stood. Heart in her throat, she
turned. “What?”

“Tell me you don’t love me. Tell me it’s
him you want and I’ll leave you alone forever. But I can’t let you leave
without hearing it for myself.”

            “Dominic,”
she sighed. “It’s not that simple.”

            “It’s
a simple yes or no question, Kate. Do you love him?”

            Kate
held her breath, torn between the impulse to lie, to walk away from the pain
and passion Dominic’s mere existence demanded of her, and the desire to throw
herself at his feet, to beg him to love her half as much as she loved him.
Tears stung her eyes as she turned away. She couldn’t bear the intensity of his
gaze.

            “No,”
she said softly, her voice thick with unshed tears. “Not the way I love you.”

“Then stay.”

 Her heart fluttered. “What?”

“All that matters is that you love me. Nothing
else. What you are. What you’ve done. Nothing matters but you and me. Choose
me. Trust me. Love me. Stay with me.” He crossed the distance between them in
two quick strides. Catching her hand in his, he tugged her around to face him.

“I know I have no right to ask it of
you,
cara.
Life will be much harder with me than without. For both our
kinds will hunt us to the ends of the earth.

“I have nothing to offer you. I’m a man
without a home and without a family, but I can promise you this,” Dominic
whispered, branding her soul with the heat of his gaze. “No man could ever love
you as I will, with every heartbeat, for all eternity.”

            “Dominic---”

            With
a shake of his head, he pressed on through her protests. “I don’t want to live
forever if it’s not with you, Kate. For centuries, I’ve lived only for
vengeance and bloodshed. My existence was empty. I’m nothing without you,
cara
.”

            Heart
clenched in her chest, Kate turned away from the pleading in his eyes.
“Dominic, I can’t…”

            “Please.
I can’t live without you, Kate. God knows I’ve tried, but you’ve ruined me for
any existence without you in it.”

            “Dominic,
I… I can’t survive losing you again. I’ve lost so much already... My life, my
family, my humanity… you. I can’t do it again.”

            “You
won’t have to. I promise. I’ll never let you go again. Stay with me?”

            Kate
bit her lip and nodded.

            “Yes?”

            “Yes.
I’ve never wanted anything more.”

Dominic drew her into his arms and held
her close. “I love you, Kate. I always will,” he vowed, holding her hand over
his heart with his own.