The Caretaker of Showman's Hill (Vampire Romance) (22 page)

He felt the sun burning into his skin reminding him he was still a vampire. His hopes were dashed. He wouldn’t be so lucky after all. He forced open his swollen eyes to look at the angel's face once more before he died.

Damn if she wasn't trying to undo him. She sat cross-legged in front of him on the ground, the sun’s first rays lighting up her nightgown making it see-through.

"I want to make love to you, Basil." She moved closer.

He couldn't believe she was doing this. Well, it certainly took his mind off of wanting to die, if that was her intention.

"Cassie, stop this and just let me die."

"I love you, Basil and I want you to hold me."

She leaned forward and rested her body against him. His arms automatically wrapped around her to protect her, something he wouldn’t be able to do much longer.

He pushed to his feet and with all his strength, pulled Cassie over to a grove of pine trees where the sun’s rays weren’t as bright. He needed to have just a little more time with her before he died. She looked at him with those big, innocent eyes, and he couldn't help but let his gaze drift down her body. Firm, perky breasts showed from beneath the semi-transparent fabric of her gown. She had a slim waist and deliciously curvy thighs. This wasn’t what he needed to see right now.

His fangs emerged immediately, growing to a huge proportion, along with other parts of his body as well. The damned potion was making him twice as horny, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to control himself much longer.

"You don't know what you're saying, Cassie. I’m still a vampire and yet you say you want to make love with me.”

"I know exactly what I'm saying."

She reached up and kissed him, and he felt his knees weaken as he fell with her to the soft ground of pine needles below them.

"I want you, Cassie,” he confessed. “It's more than just want. It's a feeling I haven't had in a very long time."

"Lust?" She flashed a quick smile.

"No. More like love,” he choked out.

"Don't be embarrassed," she said. "Love is a beautiful thing."

"That's not what's embarrassing me at the moment, honey."

He looked down to his waist and then back at her. He had the overpowering urge to take her now. If she didn’t stop him soon, he would take her and there was nothing he could tell himself that would stop him from doing it.

The potion had taken away his pain for now, but it also gave him the undeniable urge for a virgin in one way or another. He was still a vampire with traits that weren’t always admirable. His need for her was overwhelming, and he pulled her to him and brushed his lips against hers. She jerked back as his fangs cut her bottom lip.

A mere kiss and he'd already hurt her. A drop of blood rolled down her chin only exciting him more. Before he knew what he was doing, he was eagerly lapping it up.

It was so fresh, so pure. The blood of a virgin, untainted, untried and exactly what he needed. His mouth was afire and his skin was too. The sun was climbing higher in the sky, and the heat had started to consume him. He knew if he didn't do something fast he'd combust and there’d be nothing left for Cassie to remember him by but a pile of ashes.

He let his mouth roam to her neck. The need now for sex was being overpowered by his need for blood. Confusion clouded his mind and made it hard to think. The needs of man, or the needs of a vampire. Which would win in the end?

It would be so easy to bed her right now, and even easier to drink her blood. One need fought with the other, both of them driving him mad. Damn Cassie for putting him in this position. He would end up hating himself in the end, no matter what choice he made. Why hadn’t she just stayed away and let him die?

His hands fondled her pure body through her nightgown, while his mouth settled again on her neck. Two small puncture marks was all it would take. He hadn’t had a good drink of blood in such a long time. Then again, it had been a long time for sex as well.

"Do it!" she ordered him. "Take me, Basil. Anyway you have to."

Her permission again. Damn, she made it so easy it was sickening. She stretched out that long, slim neck of hers and offered it to him just like he'd seen her do to Antonio in the graveyard the first night he'd met her. Only this time, it wasn’t a vampire controlling her, making her do it. This time, she did it of her own free will.

Now he understood how hard it was for Antonio to move away. Only Antonio had Basil to stop him. No one was going to stop Basil from the act now. Even if someone tried, he knew they couldn't do a thing about it. He was the only vampire left, his powers growing stronger, the sun growing stronger as well. His needs were so overpowering it even scared him. Never had he felt such pressure to make a decision.

"Arrrrrrgh!" Basil let out a frustrated scream and pushed away from Cassie. Rocks moved and branches fell all around them. Birds stopped singing, and animals scattered out of sight fast. He dropped to his knees and squeezed his eyes closed. He pounded his own body with his fists and pulled at his hair.

"Basil," cried Cassie, pulling at his arms. "Stop it!"

His skin was actually smoking now, the sun beating down upon him hotter than the fires of hell. He couldn't remember the last time he was actually out in full sun. The feeling was strange, yet exciting. It reminded him how it felt to be human. He was incinerating and he would do nothing to stop it. The pain was so intense now that it started to feel blissfully good.

"I can't do it to you, Cassie. I won't do it." His body shook with spasms again, the potion’s temporary affects wearing off. This time he knew when the spasms ended, they'd end for good. "You're better off without me. Forget about me. Just let me die."

He could no longer see her through his swollen eyes, but he could hear her crying and it about broke his heart. A sad, heart-wrenching cry. A cry that had been pent up in her for her entire life.

He couldn't stand to leave her this way. He had to comfort her before he died. He hated it when a woman cried. He reached out his arms and pulled her to him. His nostrils flared and he could no longer smell her scent. He was blinded to the rising sun and he had a taste in his mouth that reminded him of the fire and the train wreck. He knew the end was near.

His life passed through his mind. First he thought of Cassie, then La Roux. Then his thoughts went backwards to Dee and his dead lover, Carine. His parents flashed before him, and all the people of the circus. He saw Faith with her snake wrapped around her, doing her act. He saw Hope contorting into her odd positions almost inhuman. Charity juggled many items in the air, and as he looked up, he saw his wife falling from the trapeze.

Then he saw Louie atop the back of one of his horses, doing tricks as it sped around. Sefu’s skill of swallowing swords flashed before his eyes, and then he saw Andre, dressed like a clown and making people laugh.

Antonio and his trick elephants crossed his mind next, as well as the fact that his cousin had lost his own life but saved the others. The three rings of the traveling circus came to life once again as he watched his mother tell fortunes and his father, the ringmaster, making the circus the success that it was.

Last of all, he saw himself with his lions once again in the caged ring. He could feel the tight clothes he wore, and the breeze on his chest from his open shirt. He could actually smell the leather of his whip as he commanded his lions and they obeyed.

He pulled Cassie closer, squeezing her, loving her, wanting to say so much to her but no longer being able to speak. He felt her fingers caress the golden ankh hanging around his neck, only reminding him eternal life was a curse in his case, not a blessing. Now his life would end, but memories lived on forever. He hoped Cassie would never forget him.

He knew Cassie was still crying by the wetness against his skin, but he could no longer hear her or hear anything for that matter.

He had to reach her, had to give her one last message before he burned into ashes and settled into the ground. He wanted to say he was sorry about Dee. To say he loved the way she'd helped La Roux and the way she made those crazy dinners - even the borscht with all the garlic. He wanted to say to her the curtains weren't really that bad, and wanted to ask her if the damned flowers were daisies or sunflowers.

But most of all, he wanted to thank her for giving him courage. Courage to go beyond his limitations rather it be eating olives or venturing into the sun without his sunglasses. He saw in her everything he ever wished he was. She was truly an angel and now he'd never be able to say all these things he'd kept inside. Now she'd never know how much he really loved her.

He pulled her closer with the last ounce of his strength, not being able to see any more. He kissed her one last time, his aim way off, ending on her wet tear-stained cheek instead of her lips. His angel tasted salty, oddly reminding him of the taste of blood. She had a sultry flavor to her tears, but at the same time tasted like an innocent virgin.

A feeling of renewed hope surged through him. The sun’s rays didn’t seem scorching anymore, and his spasms were not so bad. What was happening? He'd only tasted her tears, yet they seemed to have the same effect on him as would her virgin blood. He immediately had an idea he hoped would work.

He started licking up her tears as fast as he could and miraculously felt the burning of his flesh starting to cool.

"Cry, Cassie, cry!" he instructed her anxiously. Maybe neither of them would have to die or be cursed after all. He forced open his eyes, but didn’t like what he saw.

Cassie stopped her crying and looked at him in disbelief. A moment ago he couldn't speak, but now his voice was strengthening and he was saying something to her that he knew made no sense. He needed her to cry if this was going to work.

“Dammit, Cassie,” he growled out angrily, “why can’t you listen to me? I said cry! Now cry already, will you?”

A smile lit up her face, and she now understood just what was happening. She did cry again, but this time it was because she was so happy.

“Oh, Basil, I think I understand. You’re not going to die after all, are you?”

“I will if you don’t give me more tears,” he told her. That’s all he had to say. The tears came in a flood now, and he lapped them up hungrily, his need no longer of a vampire, but of a man who had love in his heart.

"Oh, Basil, you're going to be alright, aren't you?" Cassie laughed joyously, all the while tears streaming down her face.

“I never liked a woman crying,” he told her, “but today we’ll make an exception.” He felt his strength returning, and his fangs retracted. His vision cleared, and his eyes fell upon the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

He looked at the bright sun hitting her face, lighting up her blond hair like a halo. It was as if he’d died and gone to heaven after all. He held up his own hand, surveying the bright sun upon it, his heart beating furiously, waiting to see if he was going to incinerate after all. When more sun hit him, making him feel better instead of worse, he knew it was a miracle to behold.

“Cassie, you did it,” he cried. “I’m no longer a vampire. You broke the spell with your tears.

Cassie was never so happy to hear Basil’s voice grumbling at her, commanding her to cry. Her tears were of joy, and she hoped they would never end. As fast as they fell, Basil licked them up like a little puppy. She ran her hands through his long, black hair and watched the way the sun made it glow in purple hues like a raven's wings.

He was beautiful in the moonlight, but in the sunlight, he was a true god. The sun glowed off his naturally dark skin and a rosy tint came to his cheeks.

"Oh, Basil, you’re right. The curse must truly be broken."

She took his face in her hands and kissed him several times before looking into his eyes. Though they were bloodshot like hell, she could still see the twinkle in them and the way the light shone from behind them. It was a light she'd never noticed before.

"It's the tears, Cassie. Your virgin tears are just as good as virgin blood. Look at me. The sun is hot yet I'm still here."

"So you're really no longer a vampire."

"No, I’m not. I’m human now, just like you." He looked at her sexy body in that thin nightgown, devouring her with his eyes. "Here's proof I'm just a man." He took her hand and guided it to him. She thought he was going to put her hand between his legs, but instead he put it up to his mouth.

"No fangs," he announced with a smile. She laughed, and so did he. It was the first time she’d ever really seen him smile. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

“Cassie, I need to tell you something that I should have said long ago. Vampires don’t have emotions, but men do. I have a ton of emotions that I’m looking forward to letting loose, and one in particular that has to do with you.”

Cassie waited nervously, knowing how hard this was for Basil. A man who felt no emotions for the last two centuries suddenly felt everything all at once.

“I . . . ” He took her hand in his and brought it to his mouth. He softly kissed it, and she felt a tingle go through her body. “I . . . love you, Cassie.”

Elation washed through her, and she threw herself into his arms. “I love you, too, Basil. More than you’ll ever know.”