The Perfect Kiss (26 page)

Slowly, almost against his will, Zach turned and stared at the old Allison mansion, now shrouded with darkness.

A cold hand of dread seized his heart.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

A
nya knelt beside Roland Sutton and placed her hand against his chest. Her own heart thudded inside her. He was still alive, but just barely. She didn’t actually need to feel the beat against her hand. Over the ringing in her ears, she could hear very clearly the weak, irregular rhythm of his heart. It was a cadence so dangerous, Anya’s senses reeled from the fear. And from something far more repugnant to her.

The blood. So much blood. Blood flowing from the gashes on his neck. Blood that had been left to tempt her. The scent filled the air, made Anya’s head spin sickeningly. Her hand shook as she lifted it to Sutton’s neck. Her fingertips hovered over the ruby trail.

“What happened to him?”

Anya looked up as Zach strode toward her. She couldn’t seem to move, couldn’t seem to think. A wave of dizziness swept over her. A wave of darkness. She stared at the blood on her hands.

“Get up,” Zach said, taking her arm almost forcefully. There was something about the way he was looking at her, Anya thought. As though he were seeing her for the very first time. What emotion glimmered in those green depths? It was one she couldn’t seem to define.

Anya stood and struggled back away from the wounded man. She grabbed her throat with her hand, as though with her physical strength she could keep that black need at bay. His blood felt sticky against her skin. Sweet and tempting.

“He’s hurt,” she said, gasping, trying to catch her
breath, trying to calm her pounding heart. “Almost dead. We have to get help.” But even as Anya said the words, she knew there would be no help for Roland Sutton. He was a dying man. He had been left with just enough life to lure her to his side.

“Good God, it looks like he’s been mauled,” Zach said as he knelt quickly and felt for a pulse. “Go back to the house and call an ambulance,” he commanded. “I’ll stay here with him.”

But Anya couldn’t move. Her legs were trembling too badly, and she couldn’t quit looking at the blood. It flowed from Sutton’s neck like crimson nectar. The scent was all over her, crazing her senses. She lifted her hands to her face.

In a flash, Zach stood and grasped her arms, pulling her stained hands away from her face, but Anya couldn’t stop trembling. “Are you okay? Are you going to be sick?”

She was sickened, but not by the sight of blood. She was sickened by her own wretched hunger, her own evil urges. The man lying at her feet was weak, dying. It would be so easy—

“Anya.” Zach’s hands tightened around her arms. He peered down at her, still with that strange look in his eyes. “You’re going to be okay. Do you hear me? You have to go for help.”

“I…can’t.”

He shook her lightly. “Yes, you can. Forget everything you told me last night. It doesn’t matter. Sutton’s dying. He needs your help.”

Anya looked away from Zach to the blood seeping across Sutton’s white throat. The buzzing in her ears grew louder and louder, until she thought she would surely go mad from the din. Her throat blazed with fire. Her mouth throbbed
with need. Her heart pounded with terror. She couldn’t fight it. She couldn’t fight it any longer.

Anya tore her gaze back to Zach. His green eyes searched her face, probed deeply into her soul. And that look was still in his eyes! That emotion that seemed as elusive, as bittersweet as the most tender of memories.

It almost looked…like love.

The thought made Anya tremble even more.

“Go for help, Anya,” he ordered softly. “You can do it.”

Anya bit her lip until she could taste her own blood on her tongue. Her eyes fluttered closed as her heart continued to flail against her chest. She needed food. She craved the blood.

But she wanted something else even more. She wanted to break that black covenant which told her she could never know the love of a man. Zach’s love.

“I’ll go,” she whispered. “I’ll go for help.”

Gershom was nearby; Anya knew that without a doubt. The evidence lay before her. But he’d just fed. He would be sated for a little while and resting, gathering his strength. She would have to hurry. She couldn’t leave Zach alone here for long.

Anya began running toward the cliffs, toward the path that would lead her home. Her feet barely seemed to touch the ground. Urgency spurred her. Fear commanded her. She glided on air, almost flying.

Then miraculously, help appeared before her eyes. Just at the edge of the woods, she saw Roland Sutton’s search party. They had seen her, too. And they were looking at her as though they could hardly believe their own eyes.

* * *

Anya gazed out the darkened window in her bedroom. She’d come back home hours ago, but Zach had remained
with the police. There were questions to be answered. Forms to be completed. Phone calls to make. All the details involved in a tragedy.

The general consensus among the throng that had gathered around Sutton’s body was that a wild animal had mauled him, probably the same dog that had attacked Zach.

They were right, of course. But only Anya knew just how deadly Gershom would be now. He had fed on human blood. His powers would already be strengthening. Soon he would come for her. He would come for her, and God help anyone who got in his way.

Anya’s hands trembled as she stared out into the darkness, remembering the moment Sutton had died, the moment he had been set free. The thing that had struck her about his death was the silence. The tranquillity. The utter calmness. No voices. No pounding heartbeats. No roar of blood through throbbing veins.

Just silence. Everlasting peace.

Was that the answer? she asked herself weakly. Was that the answer Dr. Traymore would find in the book? Would that alone calm her torment?

“Anya?”

She whirled, her hand going to her heart.

“I’m sorry.” Zach stood just inside her bedroom door. “I knocked, but I guess you didn’t hear me. I think we should talk.”

The black satin dressing gown she wore whispered with movement as she walked away from the window. “Come in.”

Zach stepped into the room and closed the door. The room was dark except for the moonlight. Anya saw him pause and get his bearings. “Can we have a light?”

“I prefer the dark,” she said.

“Anya, don’t.”

“Don’t what?” she said coolly. “Don’t tell you the truth anymore? Don’t let you see what I really am? I’ve been nothing more than a fantasy to you, Zach, but dreams end. I’ve told you the truth about myself. You saw it for yourself earlier. You just don’t want to believe it.”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know what to believe anymore.” He tugged a weary hand through his hair. “Twenty-four hours ago, I would never have thought that I would understand anything about my father, yet now I do. I never thought he would come to me, yet he did. And now…what you’ve told me…”

“What you saw with your own eyes,” she reminded him softly.

“I saw you go for help.”

“Because you asked me to.”

“No. Because it was the right thing to do.”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” she said in despair. “You have to believe me, Zach. You have to accept it.”

“And you have to believe
me,
Anya,” he said slowly. “I do accept you. I accept you for who and what you are—even if I don’t understand it. And I still want you.” He crossed the room to stand before her. Anya tried to pull away, tried to hold herself aloof from his appeal, but his arms were too strong. Too strong to resist. And she no longer wanted to.

“Hold me,” she pleaded, burying her face in his shoulder, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. He still didn’t believe her. She knew that, no matter what he said. But at this moment she couldn’t seem to care. His warmth welcomed her, enfolded her, made her never want to leave his embrace.

“I’ll hold you,” he whispered, “for as long as you’ll let me. Oh, Anya, Anya, do you know how much I love you?”

She gasped. Her body stiffened. Slowly, she lifted her head and looked at him. “You…love me?”

“Yes,” he said, smiling. “I love you, Anya.”

She gazed at him, stricken. “But after everything I’ve told you? When you know what I am, what I could become—”

“I don’t care, Anya. I don’t care. So much of our lives have already been wasted. So many years have been thrown away. If I’ve learned anything from this tragedy tonight it’s that life is short. I don’t want to spend another minute of mine on regrets. All I want to do right now is hold you and kiss you and tell you over and over again that I love you, I love you, I love you.”

It was like the wind rushing over her. It was like a warmth seeping inside her. It was like the most brilliant of lights flooding through her.

It was like being reborn.

She touched his face with her fingertips. “No one has ever said that to me before.”

“I’ve never said it to anyone,” he said simply.

He brushed his lips against hers, and a whisper of light touched her soul. A breath of hope stole over her. She clung to him as he kissed her again and again and again. Tenderness soon became desire. And passion became an affirmation of life.

“You make me feel…”

“What?” he asked tenderly.

“You make me feel anything’s possible. Even love. Even light. When you’re holding me like this, I can almost believe…”

“Believe, Anya.” His voice swept over her, warming her way down deep, in the farthest recesses of her soul. “Because in the end, nothing matters but love.”

He kissed her, tenderly at first, then with growing passion as their mouths clung, their bodies entwined.

Nothing matters but love.
Anya closed her eyes and repeated the prayer in her mind. If only it could be true…

Zach lifted her into his arms, then laid her on the bed. He stretched out beside her, his fingers untying the sash of her gown. He gazed down at her, his eyes dark and inviting, and she lifted her lips to kiss his throat.

His pulse throbbed against her mouth, a rapid, erotic rhythm that sent her desires spiraling upward, demanding release. She touched her tongue to that dangerous beat, that desperate vibration, and her whole body quivered with need. She grazed her teeth against his flesh, and a thousand sensations sliced through her. Her heart pounded inside her chest. Blood rushed through her veins, so quick and so hot, Anya felt light-headed.

She could have him, she thought. She could have him now!

She looked into his eyes. They were clouded with need, with desire for her, but there was something else in those green depths, other emotions that beckoned like a light at the end of a deep, dark tunnel.

Love. She saw love in Zach’s eyes. But more than that, she saw trust. She saw faith.

She closed her eyes and let the knowledge sweep over her. Somewhere inside her, Anya experienced a new glimmer of hope, like the first tenuous ray of morning light.

You can never know the love of a man.

Oh, but she did! She did know the love of a man. Zach loved her, and the power of that knowledge surged through her like a bolt of pure energy, shoring up her defenses, strengthening her will, banishing the darkness.

She wanted him, she realized. More so now than ever. She wanted him as a woman wants the man she loves.

She lifted her lips and kissed him. Instantly, his mouth claimed hers, deepening the kiss with his tongue until they were both gasping for breath. Anya kissed his neck, letting the beat of his pulse tantalize her for only a moment.

“Do you want me?” he whispered.

“Yes…”

“Show me,” he demanded, his eyes as deep and dark as the ocean. “Show me how much you want me.”

And she did. Using her lips and her hands and her tongue, she swept him away with the force of her passion, the strength of her desire, the power of her love for him. She showed him everything that had been lost to her for so many dark years.

And then it was his turn. With his lips and his hands and his tongue, he showed her just how high they could climb together, just how brilliant the light at the top could be. He showed her everything that could be between a man and a woman in love.

As their bodies moved together, he showed her that light could be stronger than darkness. That passion could be stronger than hunger. That faith could be stronger than evil.

He showed her that nothing mattered but love.

And when it was over, when they were both sated and spent and gloriously exhausted, she lay in his arms and could almost believe that she could remain there to watch the sun come up with him in the morning.

She remained there for a long time after Zach had fallen asleep, marveling at what she’d done. She had faced the darkness and won. She had vanquished the hunger. She had dared to love a man and now she was free.

Suddenly, it grew cold inside the room. Colder and darker, as though a shadow blocked the moon. Anya tried to ignore the chill, but a blanket of dread dropped over her,
extinguishing the tiny flame of hope inside her that had barely begun to grow.

He was out there.

Anya could feel his presence as surely as she felt Zach’s arms around her. Gershom was strong again. She could feel that, too. The power of his hold on her reached through the darkness and snared her as easily as catching a rabbit in a trap.

Anya?

No! She wouldn’t listen to him. She had broken his bond when she had fallen in love with Zach. Gershom couldn’t touch her now. He no longer had control over her. She was free!

Come to me, little one. Come to me now. Forever.

Anya closed her eyes. Tried to close her mind. Think about Zach, she commanded herself. Think about his love and his trust. Think about how strong you are. Think about the faith you have in yourself. Think about the bond you now have with him.

Think about what I will do to him, Anya.

And then an image tore through her mind, ripped open her newly formed defenses. She could see Zach lying on the ground, his throat gushing….

“No. Please, no,” she whispered. Beside her Zach stirred in his sleep, drawing her even more deeply into his embrace. She could hear the beat of his heart echoing through the silent room, and as she listened, the sound seemed to grow weaker.