Salem Moon (23 page)

“
I love you, Lily Snow
.
”
He
nuzzled
her ear.

“
I love you too
,
Gabriel Blackstone.
”

“
W
here the
hell
have you been?
”
Chloe Blackstone yelled
,
ripping the front door
wide open
just as Gabriel reached
it
.

Gabriel was startled. He and Lily had devised a plan to find Lilac before they
’
d parted ways. He needed to sleep, to pry whatever information he could pick up in his dreams from Lucien
’
s subconscious. It was the only way. As Lucien grew in power, he would not willingly tell Gabriel where she was.

“
I…went with Lily to Baker
’
s Island Lighthouse.
”

This was the first time he
’
d
seen her angry. Lawrence was standing behind her in the foyer,
his
hands
tucked
in his pockets with a solemn look on his face. He looked
more
disappointed than angry at him.

“
Gabriel, for Chrissake! We told you not to see her. And you
slept
with her, didn
’
t you?
”
Chloe
’
s
tone
was
cold and
knowing.
“
You know what, Gabriel?
D
on
’
t even bother answerin
’
, I
know
you did
.
Why didn
’
t you hear Lawrence out about the
Snows
before you did such a thing?
”

Chloe was damn near hysterical and Gabriel honestly
saw
no reason for it. Why did she detest Lily so? Besides her incredible beauty, Lily was a smart, kind and genuinely good person. He loved her passion for life, that she took responsibility for herself.
She didn
’
t expect
anything from anyone, except herself. And she loved him
. That
he knew with absolute certainty.

“
I love her,
”
Gabriel stated unapologetically.

“
You…
love
her? What do you even know about her?
”
Chloe was beside herself. Lawrence came to her side and led her by the arm into the house. Gabriel followed them.

Lawrence led the way into the cozy living room, where a fire was burning steadily in the fireplace. The night had grown chilly and Gabriel welcomed the warmth it provided. The end of summer was definitely imminent
,
the crisp, clean fall like air
,
the days still filled with the warmth of the sun, but the nights cool.

Lawrence was finally able to calm his wife down. They sat side by side on the leather couch
.
Gabriel sat across from them in the damask covered Queen Anne chair at the right of the fireplace. All
were
silent. Chloe had said her piece and she looked now to her husband to take control of the situation
,
to finally tell Gabriel why he could
n
’
t
be
with
this girl.

“
I don
’
t know how much your parents have told you about the curse laid on the Snow family after Richard Snow and his clan took control of much of the land originally owned by the
Blackstones
. Did they…tell you anything about that?
”
Lawrence said with a heavy sigh.

Chloe interrupted him.
“
We tried to call your parents, Gabriel. They should know what
’
s going on here. But…we couldn
’
t reach them. Are they…away, perhaps somewhere without cell phone service?
”

Gabriel heard the anxiety in her voice and underneath that he detected an inkling of suspicion. She no longer trusted him, he was sure of it.

“
Yes…they are away,
”
Gabriel cautiously replied. He did not fear being asked to leave their home
. He
was very adept at living outdoors. He just hated to lie to them. They had opened their home and hearts to him
and
did not deserve this betrayal of their trust.
They would never accept the truth; that he was a Blackstone, only he
’
d lived over 300
years ago
.

Chloe said nothing, although her eyes never left his face.

“
Did your parents tell you
anything
about the
Snows
?
”
Lawrence asked again.

“
Not really, other than they accused…a Blackstone girl…of witchcraft and they stole a lot of our land.
”
He could not bear to say Abigail
’
s name.

“
Abigail Blackstone. To this day, her grave has never been located
. A
lthough
,
the city of Salem has been working diligently over the years to find all those who were lost in those dark days
and giving
them a proper burial.
”

“
I mean no disrespect, sir, but what does this have to do with Lily?
”

“
Bear with me, son. We
’
ll get to that; but first you need to hear the entire story of what has passed between the
Blackstones
and the
Snows
. Legend has it that on the night before her death, after being sexually assaulted by Thomas Snow, she cursed him and all his ancestors forever. She asked God to avenge her death and punish her family
’
s tormentors.

“
This angered the villagers so much, they threw stones at her even as she was hanging, dying a slow, painful death by strangulation.
”

The horror of it!
Gabriel thought. He was furious! He now had the information he
’
d sought, but wished these words were not true
.

Lawrence continued his story.
“
Of course, she died alone. They
’
d already taken Dr. Blackstone to jail. Absurdly, he was charged with conspiracy after the fact. The witch judge claimed he knew hi
s daughter was a witch and had
‘
aided and abetted her.
’

“
In the diary I showed you earlier, Dr.
Blackstone also cursed the Snow
s. They took everything from him and he swore they would pay for their deeds
.
And the final insult
,
stealing Blackstone property by paying a mere fraction of what it was worth to the
very colony that had killed his child.

“
He cursed the
Snows
repeatedly and loudly. Word of the curse spread like wild fire throughout Salem Village. They came to fear him
.
The father of a witch
. P
erhaps
he
’
d cast
a spell or put
a hex
on
the Snow family
.
At the very end of his life
,
with his last breath he spoke of a son, Gabriel
. No-
one
had
ever heard of
him
and yet he insisted that he was
real
. Over time, the Snow family has come to think that perhaps a son
did
exist and that
he
was the reason the curse came true. The curse still haunts the Snow family to this very day.
”

“
And…you believe this? That the curse is real? Why would you think such a thing is possible?
”
Gabriel asked, incredulously.  To believe in such a thing in this century was ludicrous
.

“
The curse is real,
”
Chloe said quietly.

L
ily tossed restlessly in her sleep, unable to awake from the dream. Actually, she wasn
’
t even sure it
was
a dream. It was so
vivid
. There, at her second story window she saw something that couldn
’
t possibly
be there, the
face of a pure white wolf
, its breath steaming
up
the pane of glass.
The rest of the animal was hidden in the shadow
s
. It was…calling to her, without ever moving its mouth
, beckoning to her with its
soft brown eyes,
so
inviting and seductive
.

“
Let me in, Lily.
”
The voice
was
melancholy, as if it would surely perish without her invitation to come to her. She found herself moving, floating to the window, opening it, looking into its eyes.

Once the wolf gained access to the room, it mutated and became a man
. A
beautiful, golden haired man with the face of an angel
,
glowing as it held out one perfect hand to her. With a crook of his finger, he
summoned
her.

She was at once entranced
and took his
outstretched hand. He embraced her, folding her up in his arms. Without word, he kissed her
. His e
yes
were
wide open and intent on her face. Ah, those eyes, filled with a fierce hunger!
My God!
Lily thought
;
he
’
s
irresistible!
He swept her up in his arms and carried her like a groom carrying his bride on their wedding night
and placed
her back down on her bed.

With supernatural speed, his mouth was
on her
throat
, her
cheek and her lips. He ran his hands leisurely down
the sides of her body. Her eyes were half closed
,
while he never
even blinked. How very decadent
to be seduced like this. To be seduced by
him
!

Somewhere, deep in her subconscious,
an alarm went off,
a voice
,
telling
her how
wrong
this was
.
It was Gabriel who she
’
d promised to love for the rest of her life. And yet, she did
n
’
t
push him away. She simply lay prone and allowed him to have his way with her. She relinquished control of her body completely to him. Lured and caught as she was in his web of overwhelming
pure, unadulterated lust
.
Her mind was trying to tell her to wake up, screaming really, but she did not heed what her mind and
soul
was
telling her: that she was in the company of danger
.
It
’
s just a dream, that
’
s all
.
She wasn
’
t really being unfaithful to Gabriel.

All at once, she felt a sharp, shooting pain on her neck. He was
biting
her! He bit her lips and the tender skin around them as well. She began struggling to break free of him, not liking this pain, but was helpless against him. He was much stronger than she
. He held
her prone with his hands, his mouth and the weight of his body.

Pinned to the bed, she felt him between her legs. He was pulling them apart and she felt his
manhood
then
as
it
came in contact with
her inner thighs
.
She struggled with the darkness of
decadent
desire
. Oh,
how easy it would be to simply succumb to this seduction
.