castle as DeMarco sat on the window ledge of the highest turret. Gazing out over the dense forest below, his thoughts were of Sarah. Raw feelings of love and hate filled what should have been an empty heart. A battle raged inside his head. Her denial of him drove him to the brink of murder. He dreamed of draining her to her death as a captive Aris watched, powerless to save her. His mouth watered as he imagined the smell of her throat, the taste of her blood. He remembered the look of fright in her beautiful blue eyes as he told her who he was and who he had been to her.
Memories of their life in a past century flooded his mind and his heart filled with sorrow that she was so unfaithful to their love. He knew his true wish was not for her to die. His true wish was to have her a vampire, ruling by his side, Queen to his King.
“Sire?” DeMarco turned to face the aid that had entered his chamber. He nodded to Julian to speak. “The plan is in place. I have chosen the two who will travel to London to kidnap the woman.”
Sitting in front of the fireplace in Aris’ flat, the two Immortal men waited while Sarah bathed. Exhausted by the ordeal she had suffered, she slept most of the airline flight from Spain to England. Once their plane was on the ground, her first conscious thought was a hot shower. As their car sped through the night to Aris’s apartment, all she could think of was a cascade of tiny drops of hot water pelting her skin, washing away the un-Godly experiences of the last few days.
Her legs quivered as they rode in the elevator of Aris’s building. Wrapping his arm tightly around her, he steadied her as the door opened and they made their way down the hall.
Once inside, she kicked off her shoes, falling onto the soft sofa with a sigh. “At last.” She spoke in a barely audible whisper. Overcome by exhaustion, her eyes closed as she began to drift into sleep. “No. I can’t allow myself to sleep until I’ve washed that awful castle off my skin.” She pushed her exhausted body off the couch, standing and stretching her arms toward the ceiling. “I’m going to take a shower, then I’ll sit with you.” She turned and left the room.
Gabriela sat with her while Sarah scrubbed and put on fresh clothes. As she entered the sitting room, she was dressed in comfortable gray sweats and her clean blond hair was still moist. Settling in on the sofa next to Aris, she felt truly safe for the first time since her kidnapping. He wrapped an Afghan around her as Richard handed her a China cup filled with her favorite Earl Gray tea. Smiling, she smelled the bergamot fragrance as she lifted it to her lips.
“Ummm, so good. I wasn’t sure I’d survive to ever have another cup of tea.”
“That is behind you. You are here with us now, safe and warm.” Gabriela squeezed her human friend’s hand, then brushed a damp blond curl off her forehead. “We are here to make sure you are safe. One of us will be constantly with you until this madness is settled once and for all.”
Panic filled Sarah’s blue eyes as memories of the dark King flooded her mind. “You must warn the Immortals. DeMarco wants the Infinity Diaries. He wants the power of the knowledge of life and death so he can rule over all the humans on earth.” She shivered as she spoke, drawing the blanket more closely around her. “He wants to breed them for food and worse.”
“We assumed as much, Sarah, however, your evidence will prove to all below ground that we must march on Spain. DeMarco must never get his hands on the Diaries. Knowing the past and the future of every being on the planet would enable him to control the whole human race. Through the Diaries he would be able to locate and recruit the vilest of the human species to aid him in his slaughter. He would know who was weak and frightened; who he could easily control. No, he must never possess them. We must stop him.” His voice was confident as he spoke, but deep inside his soul the nagging doubt as to what the true outcome of the war would be reared its nasty head.
Determined to keep his eyes on winning the battle, he changed the subject of conversation. Aris reached for Sarah’s cell phone, smiling as he handed it to her. “But before you do anything else, you must telephone Colleen. She phoned you on the second day of your abduction. I answered when the caller ID registered her name.”
“Good grief, she must be worried to death.” Sarah hadn’t thought of her Chicago friends since her kidnapping. She had no idea what she would say to them. “What did you tell her?”
He grinned. “Your practice of yoga gave me an easy story.” He refreshed her tea then leaned back, wrapping his arm around her, drawing her close.
“What story? Just what did you tell her?”
“I told her that you and Gabriela were on a yoga retreat for a few days. I said it was a cloistered affair and that you were not even allowed to have your cell phones with you. You were to have no contact with the outside world.”
Sarah was amazed at how quickly he came up with such a plausible deception. “Did she buy it?”
“Luckily, she did. I told her you would call her when you returned so you had best decide what you are going to tell your best mortal friend before you telephone. We are just fortunate that we found you so quickly. Had it taken longer, I have no idea what would have been my next tale.”
“It’s almost four o’clock in the morning in Chicago right now. I’m sure she’s sleeping. And I’m simply exhausted. I can’t think straight, much less give a credible report about a fictitious yoga retreat.” She yawned while leaning forward to place her empty cup on the coffee table. “I think I’ll just go to sleep and call her when I wake up. It’ll be afternoon for her and I’ll be rested and able to make some semblance of sense when I speak with her.”
“Excellent idea.” Aris got to his feet. Taking her hands in his, he helped her to stand. Gently, he guided her through the bedroom door. Holding the comforter for her, he waited while she crawled between the clean, crisp, sweet-smelling white sheets. He covered her, kissing her gently before turning out the light and slipping silently from the room. She was fast asleep before he crossed the threshold. Leaving the door open, he positioned his arm chair so he could easily watch her as she rested.
Gabriela gave Richard a knowing nod. They both knew Aris had no intention of letting her out of his sight while she was above ground and the evil King and Queen still walked the earth.
After Gabriela and Richard left the apartment, Aris watched Sarah as she slept. His sensitive ears could hear the soft whisper of her breath and the slow, quiet beat of her heart. Even in the dim light his Immortal eyes watched the rise and fall of her chest, the pulse of her blood just beneath the tender skin of her throat.
He was filled with a burning human desire and as he watched the steady throbbing of the artery in her neck, his vampire nature began to surface even through his measured restraint. He ached to hold her, to make love to her in time to the rhythm of her pounding heart. Yes, and to drink her blood as it pulsed through her beautiful throat. As he thought of their coupling, a deeper more beastly yearning raised its ugly head. He struggled to resist with all his Immortal strength, yet the same vile phrase haunted him over and over. “Take her. Make her Immortal. Do not wait. Take her now. Take her while she sleeps. Take her now.”
He knew he could. He could make her his. For a moment, he was overwhelmed by his own dark vampire drive to taste her blood, to drink her, to possess her. As if in a trance, he rose from his chair and moved toward the bedroom door.
Reaching the threshold, he stopped abruptly as if an invisible wall stood between him and the trusting woman sleeping peacefully in his charge. “What am I doing? What am I doing?” Grasping either side of the doorway, he closed his eyes as he fought for control of his dark nature. A battle between love and evil raged within him-ripping at his very soul. His limbs quivered as he fought to silence the beast that demanded her human life. After what seemed to him an eternity, his blood rage