Immortal Confessions (5 page)

I almost came right there, to hear her say
that. Somehow I managed to last a few minutes before I came,
screaming her name.

I collapsed down on my back beside her,
panting heavily, my heart racing. Slowly, I came back into my right
mind.

What had I done? I’d deflowered a lord’s
daughter right before her wedding. If it were found out, I’d be
killed. There would be no child, that wasn’t the problem. No one
had seen us. And none of that mattered in the least, because I
loved her and I was not leaving her here to marry some asshole. She
would have to come with me, and we’d have to leave in secret. But
we’d need money to finance our escape, and to set us up in some
city, so I could get the right connections to support her myself...
I thought frantically about what to do and how to do it, tightly
clenching her hand in mine.

She moved closer to me, almost lying on my
chest. “I wondered why you always seemed chilled. It is because you
aren’t human.”

“I’m not,” I said, brushing her hair back
from her face. “I’m vampire. I won’t age, Anna, and I’ll need to
drink blood, or I’ll die.”

She looked at me seriously.

“I love you,” I said, throwing all my reason
to the wind. “I’m not living without you. Say you’ll come with me,
and we’ll leave here together.”

She looked at me. “I am not ready to be your
wife, Devlin. I don’t know you well enough.” She burst out
laughing. “I feel like a brothel woman, saying that, with us laying
here as we are. But it’s the truth.” She paused.

This was good. I wasn’t ready to make her my
wife, even if I loved her. The nobleman in me told it wasn’t proper
anyway, when I had nothing but myself to offer her.

“I do want a commitment from you that you’ll
be with me and not other women. I won’t be disgraced, Devlin.”

To Hell with being with other women. I wanted
just her. “You have it.”

“If I refused to go with you, what would you
do?” she whispered.

“I’d stay here, and let the sun have me,” I
said despondently. “I’ve already gone through so much. Now that
I’ve finally cared for a woman, I don’t see the point of
continuing, unless you’re with me.”

My words were true in the mood I was in, and
better yet, they had the effect I wanted them to.

“I will go with you,” she said, kissing me
lightly. “On two conditions.”

“First?”

“We must wait at least a few days, until the
caravan bearing my marriage money arrives. We’ll need some of my
dowry to buy a home and give us a start. That money is mine by law,
as it was my late mother’s.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered softly. “I believed
the woman your father was with at the dinner table to be your
mother.”

“Stepmother,” Anna said with a grimace, then
her face smoothed. “I don’t mean to be unkind. She has given him a
son, and other daughters, and never treated me as less than them.
She eased his mind when my mother died having me. But she is not my
mother. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” I said gently. “My mother is
dead also, and my father, brothers and sisters. I am the only one
left.”

Anna hugged me. “I’m sorry, Devlin.”

I kissed her cheek. “It happened a long time
ago, dearest. I was never close to my mother. She wouldn’t permit
it. Don’t trouble yourself. Think of our love instead.”

Anna nodded. “You’re right, we must think of
our future and prepare quickly. I’ll need to pack a saddlebag with
my most precious things. You will need to buy us some horses,
Devlin. You’ll have to go outside the walls to procure some,
perhaps to the next town. If you purchase quality steeds for us
here, you’ll draw suspicion. Do you have enough coin for two good
horses?”

“Call me Dev,” I said lovingly. “No one has
for many years. But I want you to, Anna.”

Anna was all business. “Dev, can you get the
horses? We’ll never get away on foot. We must get them as soon as
possible.”

This woman was odd, to not want to lie here
and be romantic with me, to be instead planning out our escape for
us. In her shoes I might be too, if I was about to be married
against my will.

“Devlin, are you listening to me?”

“Of course, Anna. I have most of the money
that I made here. It’s not much, but together with what you paid
me, we have enough.” I felt a little embarrassment mentioning her
money, but she took no notice of that. “What is the second
condition?”

“I want you to take some of my blood
tonight.”

I was floored. I looked at her in shock with
my mouth open for a long moment. Then I managed, “Why?”

“This is what you are,” she said tenderly. “I
must know if I can accept it now, or if I can’t. There’s no point
planning a future together without knowing.”

“Are you sure?” I said, fearful myself. “I
don’t have to take your blood, Anna. I can survive on animal blood,
for the most part—”

“Wouldn’t you want to?” she said abruptly.
“Sooner or later?”

“Yes,” I said honestly.

“Then do it now,” she said, laying back.

I began shaking, entering her again slowly.
As I stroked her, I nibbled at her neck. When I felt her relax, I
bit down shallowly.

That first taste of her almost killed me from
sheer pleasure. Her blood was like nothing I’d ever had before. It
knocked me off my feet, and I came instantly, screaming louder than
I ever had in my life. My whole body shook, convulsing as I
orgasmed over and over. I fought myself not to bite harder, and
sucked gently at her throat, tears coursing down my face as she
climaxed again beneath me.

She tasted like sunlight, like the freshness
of spring, like everything that was beautiful, like everything I’d
lost when I’d lost the day. With all my willpower, I pulled my
mouth off her. Then I bit my lip and kissed her throat tenderly,
letting my blood heal her wounds.

I looked down at her beneath me and decided
right then that I must have her, no matter what it took. This was
more than coincidence, luck, or even magic: this was destiny. I had
gone through all of those lonely years to be alive here at this
moment, to have found her and come to her at this time. She was
going to be mine for the rest of her life, no matter what it took
or who I had to kill.

After the second time lovemaking, Anna became
more relaxed. For a while, she slept there in my arms. I lay there
thinking, working on her ideas, formulating them into a plan.

It was doable, if fate was with us. I’d found
her, hadn’t I? That would have to be enough to convince me of my
Lord God’s favor.

* * * *

I woke Anna an hour later. “We must go back,
Love,” I whispered tenderly. “You will be missed. I must find some
hole to slink into until dark comes.”

“Come with me to my room,” she said, hugging
me close.

Uh oh. “Love, much as I would like to, it
would be my death to be discovered there. I will try the basement
dungeon of the castle, there must be—”

“My father has an extensive wine cellar,
Devlin, and he does not believe in torture. Locked doors are not a
problem for you, clearly, but this one will be. It’s
enchanted.”

I sighed mentally. Here I’d been thinking she
was so smart. “Love, there are no real spells or magic. It is all
smoke and mirrors.”

“Really? Then why does the wall part when he
commands it to?”

“Ropes and pulleys. The walls must not be
nailed or mortared together—”

“All of it? The bricks reform out of his way
and reform again into a wall, when he speaks a certain phrase.”

“What phrase?”

“I’m not sure, it’s in another language.”

Sounded like a delusion, or a good illusion.
“There must be a logical reason. Regardless, I will find some other
place to sleep.”

“You sleep in another woman’s bed again and
I’ll not go with you,” Anna said jealously. “Is that clear,
Dev?”

“Yes, Love.” I was pleased she was jealous,
that she already wanted me only for herself just as I wanted her.
“Now come, we have to move fast.”

We dressed without speaking, and hurried back
to the castle. The night was already lighter. We walked quickly,
and made it inside the walls without being seen. Abruptly, our luck
took a turn for the worse.

Anna and I had not been missed, but the open
lock had been discovered. Even as we watched in the shadow of the
wall, the magistrate fitted the door with a new lock, and posted a
guard near it.

A setback, but not a huge one. I could kill
him as we made our escape, though it would be hard to do from
horseback. It was going to be difficult enough riding or leading
horses through that small door in any case. Getting the deer I’d
killed through it had been a chore in itself. Also, how to procure
horses for us and get them inside unseen? I dared not risk leaving
them tethered in the forest for another hungry bear, or
opportunistic peasants.

That part of the plan would have to wait
until tomorrow. I first had to get through the coming day.

I walked Anna back to her chamber. Just as I
leaned in to give her a last kiss, we heard a footstep. Anna pushed
me into her chamber, and shut the door quickly behind me.

“Sister, what are you doing up?” a female
voice asked. “And not in your nightclothes?”

“I am worried about becoming a wife,” Anna
said quickly. “I got up early and went to pray.”

“Good,” her sister said happily. “God will
guide you. I believe that Marcus will make a good husband. And
he’ll make a good father, just as he’s been a good friend to us
both through the years.”

“I’m sure he will,” Anna said smoothly.
“Goodnight, sister.”

She closed the door and bolted it. Then she
brought me into her bed, where we again disrobed and embraced
happily. We did not make love, preferring just to caress each
other’s skin and kiss.

Anna fell asleep in my arms. Before dawn, I
reluctantly left her still sleeping, and dressed, wrapping my cloak
around my face and hands. Then I moved to the cold uncomfortable
floor, that I might pass the day beneath her bed with none but her
the wiser.

* * * *

Anna discovered where I was when she awoke.
She told me to rest, that she would be back close to nightfall.

“Can you procure me some clothes?” I asked
sheepishly. “Mine are terribly bloody.”

“Yes. Toss your bloody ones in the fireplace.
We’ll burn them tonight. Goodbye.” With a last chaste kiss, she
hurried out.

I did as she asked, then returned to my
hiding place. The stone floor was uncomfortable, but I’d passed
many days in similar suboptimal hideaways. It was much less risky
than lounging in her bed, especially as I was now without clothes,
having saved only my boots and my cloak.

I rested there, wrapped in another blanket
until she returned that night. By that time, my libido had returned
to its normal insatiable level and my lust for her blood was at a
crescendo. I was kissing her passionately as soon as she had locked
the door behind her.

We made love and I drank from her again,
though the latter I did sparingly. I did not want harm to come to
her. It was too good to be with someone that meant something to me
who cared about me, too.

I must add here something, as it occurs to me
it is not obvious: I had, at that time, very limited knowledge of
what I could and couldn’t do. That boiled down to no sunlight, no
food, and that I had to drink blood or I’d get more and more logy
until I could not stay conscious from lack of energy. That had
happened to me once or twice, and both times, I’d had to drain a
person completely to regain my full senses. I also knew that I
couldn’t be killed by cold or a simple wound, of course, but the
limits of what I could do besides that had never been tested. As
Anna dozed beside me, I contemplated that mystery for the first
time: why had I never cared to verify my potential powers before
now?

The bear had been a powerful opponent. Yes,
it had been wounded, but I’d faced it, and won with only a knife
and my fangs. A great deal of that had been my ability to heal my
bodily damage when I’d drained it of blood. That meant that I’d
probably be able to take killing wounds and not die, so long as I
fed shortly after. That attribute might be the very thing that
ensured our escape, so long as I could control my fear of being
killed.

I’d healed minor wounds quickly over the
years. I knew from practice that somehow my saliva could heal up
the puncture marks my fangs made, so long as the drain-ee wasn’t
already dead. But that I could heal so completely so quickly with a
large infusion of blood was a complete surprise.

This untapped power of mine begged another
question: what else might I be capable of that I hadn’t known? The
legends I had heard said vampires could fly, and turn into rats, or
mist, or wolves, or bats, couldn’t cross running water, and that
they couldn’t touch silver, or anything of God, be it cross, Bible,
or consecrated ground or objects. I knew the touch of a holy object
had no impact on me, and water affected me no different than it did
a human. Aside from God and water, was the rest true? How to know,
as I’d never met another vampire in my travels? How did one learn
to shift form if there was no one to teach them?

I tried concentrating, and was not able to
turn into anything other than human. So I checked that off my list.
Next, I tried standing and levitating. That didn’t work at all
either. There was no silver in Anna’s room, so that would have to
wait for another time. Besides, now I had a headache.

I also had the more pressing problem of how
to escape with Anna. Any more vampiric discoveries would have to
wait until we were settled away from this place. I made a mental
note to research what I could of legends. Anna was right: this is
what I was. I’d spent more than enough time not knowing the manner
of creature I’d become.