Ravenous (Siren Publishing Classic) (10 page)

“Can you do anything for her, my lord?”

“If you are asking whether I will cross her, no, I will not suffer her being the monster I am, to have no choice to live for eternity. We will care for her as if I had no powers at all,” Gabriel firmed.

“She loves you, sir. Perhaps she would want to join you in living death?”

“No, George, we will wait.”

As the hours passed so did Gabriel’s patience. He wanted her to wake. He felt the early sun rise come upon him, but instead of moving below, he crawled into bed with Emma.

I am to sleep with her, George. Please keep the rest of the servants from this room. Only you may enter.

Aye, my lord, it shall be done.

With that reassurance, Gabriel fell into the sleep of his own kind.

When Gabriel awoke the next evening, Emma was still unconscious. He knew in his heart she would sleep for a very long time. She had been beaten and broken. He sat up and focused on her heartbeat. It was still weak, maybe weaker. Gabriel felt fear hit his mind for the first time. Her heart was becoming weaker.

He bit into his wrist and felt his blood flow over his teeth. He then placed his arm over her mouth. Some trickled onto her tongue. He massaged her throat, and hoped she would swallow. After a time, with severe frustration, her body convulsed with shudders that indicated her blood was mixing with his. When she stopped moving, Gabriel sighed. He heard her heart beat back into rhythm. She was still bruised and swollen. However, his blood had healing agents within it that would heal her swiftly.

Gabriel shook his head. He had promised himself he would give her a choice, a choice she never had before.

A day later Emma opened her eyes to see Gabriel sitting in the chair beside her bed. It must be nighttime, for the room was dark save for the burning candles.

“Gabriel,” she whispered.

“Emma, you had the whole household worried for you, are you all right?”

“Aye, but how am I here?”

“George and I brought you home. Do you not remember what happened the other evening?”

“I do, however, how are we here if we were in London just last night?”

And for the first time she sat up and felt her face. It was not swollen and her lips were not cut. She moved her body experimentally and felt no pain.

“Gabriel, what has happened? Please tell me how we are here and how I am healed.”

Gabriel had not thought she would notice she was all but healed, but ever his Emma, she was observant.

“You do not want to know, sweet, just be happy you are here and with your family,” Gabriel soothed.

“Gabriel, you know the truth of my life, please tell me how it is possible we are here, and I am healed. You say we are to be a family. There should be no secrets. You must know that I love you no matter what.”

“I wonder if I were to tell you that you would still love me. Perhaps the truth of my life will send you running off into the dead of night never to return.”

“What are you saying, Gabriel?”

“I am not human, Emma. I am immortal, do you understand what that means?” he asked.

“You are saying…” She stopped with a puzzled look upon her face.

“I drink human blood to survive. I cannot die by human illness. I was born two hundred years ago,” he reaffirmed.

She stared at him in sudden understanding. “You are a vampire.”

He firmed his lips and grunted, “Aye.”

Emma had read lore when she was a small child about the undead that walked the earth feasting on the blood of the living.

“You survive on human blood?”

He gave her a curt nod. His body stance spoke of tension waiting for her to come to a conclusion.

“How had you come to this affliction, Gabriel?”

“In the year of 1620 a woman of nobility took me to her bed. I was turning five and thirty, and my father was demanding that I marry. We were not titled, and he felt our extreme wealth would attract a daughter of a nobleman. So I went on a drunken rampage of spirits, and gambling. She came upon me in a moment of weakness, and I was angry that my father wanted me to marry a woman who was a stranger, so I took her to bed, and then I awoke in a pine box below the ground. I was hungry and desperate for blood. I was alone, so I fled to England from Ireland. A while later I joined her Queen’s army in war. I saved many a young man’s life, and the King rewarded me with this infernal title. The rest you know, Emma.”

He fell silent, and Emma’s heart broke for him. He never asked for this, just as she never asked to be born to a baron, who would bargain her for a higher title and money. She grasped his hand, and he gaped at her.

“Gabriel, you never asked for this, just as I never asked to be married to a man who wanted to beat me for his pleasure and then eventually kill me. I love you, Gabriel, no matter your trials, we will see to them together.”

“You are not of this world, Emma. You cannot mean you still want me after I have told you I am a vampire, and that I feast on human blood.”

“You saved me, Gabriel, and it sounds as if you need some saving as well. You say you were five and thirty when you became undead? You do not look a day over thirty.”

“It is a side effect of the healing agents within my blood. I have looked thus since I was crossed.”

Emma held dawning horror in her eyes. She would continue to age, and he would not. Furthermore, another thought came to her. She was healed by his blood, which meant she must have drunk from him. Funnily enough the idea was not at all repulsive. This was Gabriel, her lover, her life.

“I will age as you stay young,” she stated.

“Indeed, but we will be together as you and I wish, we will raise the children as our own and revel in the time we do have,” he said.

She shook her head and grasped his shoulders. “No, Gabriel. I will age, and you will not. I will eventually die, while you live.”

“I will not let you suffer as I have. I am a monster, Emma. I am, at this moment trying to decide if you’re staying, here is what is best for you, but I cannot seem to give you up.”

“Gabriel…”

“This discussion is at an end.”

He disappeared into the air, and Emma was shocked for a moment and then angry. He left the room, just left without any further discussion.

* * * *

As the days passed Gabriel avoided the issue of crossing Emma. She did not realize what she was asking. She was blinded by love and the appeal of the undead. If he crossed her, she may not be able to adjust to life as a vampire. It was the only way.

He made love to her late at night and fled to his chamber just before sunrise. He reveled in her sweetness and light. Gabriel was worried she would lose all of her qualities if she lived as he did.

Emma was frustrated. Her lover and partner refused to speak of the issue. He was acting completely unreasonable. She wanted to share eternity with him. Did he not understand that?

She taught the children and slept with her employer at night. She felt a fallen woman in love with a man whom she could not reach.

Emma began to feel sick again. This time the headaches would simply not go away. The days passed into weeks, and she lost weight. Her clothing no longer fit her slender frame. Gabriel felt severe concern for Emma. She was very ill.

He brought a physician to see her, and he had no answers. He left a tonic for her consumption and recommended rest. With Emma resting in her room, Gabriel walked to his office in anger. In the two hundred years, he had been walking this earth medical science had yet to find an answer for illness.

“My lord, I have your drink,” George interrupted.

“Thank you, George.” He sipped the blood and felt the warmth fill his veins.

“I see our lady is still ill and becoming more unwell.”

“Do not tell me I should cross her again. I will not have her live the life of a monster. She is too delightful, with joy and love.”

“May I speak freely, my lord?”

“Aye, you may.”

“Would you prefer to watch her die in pain than to live a life of the same joy and happiness you find within her? Do you not feel you are the identical person you were when you were changed? You have saved countless lives. You are acting like a father to James and Rose, even when you protested their coming to live with you. Our mistress is dying, my lord. Even I do not need powers of the undead to see she will perish soon. Her headaches persist. She suffers from not being able to eat. I fear if she dies now, you will regret your decision later. Let her have what she craves most, eternity with her soul mate.”

Gabriel took in what George was saying and felt tears slide down his face. For the first time in centuries, he felt less a monster and more a man in love. Could he watch Emma die? Could he live without her? She seemed to want to spend her life with him as he was. The children loved her, he loved her, and it was clear the servants loved her. His heart, long ago dead, began to shake inside of his chest at the thought of her dying.

A moment later the decision was taken entirely out of his hands. He felt Emma’s heart stop completely. In a panic, he came upon her bed and shook her slight body. She was unresponsive and pale.

“Emma! Emma!”

He prayed he had not waited too long. He bit into her delicate neck and sucked her life force from her body. Her heart shuddered and tried to beat, but was once again stopped. He drained her of blood, he then slashed at his own wrists and poured the liquid into her mouth and hoped she received enough to replace her mortal blood. As he began to feel weak, he stopped feeding her and waited.

“Emma, please come back to me,” he cried.

He pressed his hand against her heart that beat no more. He came too late.

With a sorrow born from his own stupidity, he left the room. He walked to the children’s nursery and felt their little hearts beat in unison. He fisted his hand in anger and disappeared into his room below the house. He wanted to seek the sun, to find oblivion with Emma, but he could not. The children needed him. He would have to live eternity with the knowledge that he denied himself a life with Emma.

For a while, he sat upon his bed with tears freely flowing down his face. He heard the door open and did not raise his head. He was in no mood for company. However, he did not hear another heartbeat in the room, more of a presence of his own kind.

Gabriel looked up to the person standing in his room, and it was an angel, a vision to his eyes. It was his Emma walking toward him. She was smiling and kneeling at his feet. His blood had restored her flesh and her vitality.

“My lord, why are you weeping?” she asked.

“I thought I had lost you, Emma. Are you here with me now or am I dreaming?”

He touched her hands and then hair and lastly her lips. She felt real.

“I am here with you, my love. I will always be here with you.”

He felt supreme joy at her words coursed through his veins. She was as he was, but she was the same woman he fell in love with.

He stood and embraced her in a fierce hug. “You are not unhappy you are now as am I? I did not want this for you, Emma. However, I find I cannot live without you.”

“I feel wonderful, Gabriel. I have never felt so much in all of my life. I am so very happy we will share eternity together.”

“The nights will be ours. The days, however, will be to sleep. We will have to make other arrangements for our children.”

“Our children, that sounds wonderful.”

“You will be unable to produce any children of your own, Emma. Will you be satisfied with James and Rose?”

“We already have the perfect family, Gabriel. I have no desire to have children of my own. However, I do think you are right we will need a new governess,” she stated with a smile of pure joy.

“Indeed, you are right. You really should start interviewing right away,” he replied.

She held herself away from her lover and stated, “I should interview, my lord? That is the job of a lady of the house. A wife you could say.”

“Are you saying you want to be my wife, dear lady?” he teased.

She smacked his chest and said, “I am not saying any such thing. I am pointing out the fact that interviewing servants falls to a wife and…”

Gabriel placed his fingers upon her lips and said, “Will you marry me, Emma? Will you be my wife for all eternity? Will you share in the good times and in the bad, and help me raise James and Rose? Will you love me as much as I love you?”

“Can you not read my thoughts, my lord? Of course, I will. I will love you for all eternity.”

And with vows said in the bottom of a crumbling castle by the sea, a pair of soul mates sealed their promises for an eternity.

A time later Gabriel moved her lips from his own and said, “You need to feed, sweetings.”

“Can I not have blood from the slaughterhouse as you do?”

“No, love, you must have human blood. You are a young fledging. You need to replace your blood with the warmth of a person.”

He saw hesitation in his fiancée’s eyes. He knew she would someday drink from a human, but for tonight he could help her.