Always the Vampire

“And what will you do if Triton and the others balk at your plans, or Lynn refuses to cooperate?”


“I’ll tell them to come up with a better idea.” I paused and searched his face. “Is that what’s bothering you? That I didn’t discuss all this with you before I started things rolling?”

“Partly.” He exhaled a breath that seemed to come from his bones. “It’s been a demanding day, and it’s not over.”

“You’re tired.”

“Exhausted.”

I slid off the sofa and grasped his hand as I knelt beside the chair. “Saber, I’m worried about you. Please let Cosmil and Lia do a healing on you tonight.”

“I don’t need it. We have too much training to do.”

“Which won’t mean squat if you’re not at your fullest strength possible. Please. Just ask if a shot of healing would help.”

He brooded for a full half a minute before he met my gaze. “I’ll ask only if you make a promise to me.”

“What is it?”

“If I’m mortally injured when we go up against Starrack and the Void, promise you’ll Turn me.”

I sat back, butt on my heels, mind spinning. “Turn you?”

“Swear it, Cesca.”

“Saber, I can’t.”

He took my hands, pulled me up and then into his lap. “I’ve thought long and hard about this, honey. Even before I was infected. I want to be with you.”

My emotions collided at such supersonic speed that I couldn’t begin to name them. Only one stood out. Anguish.

I took his face in my hands. “I want to be with you, too. For as far into the future as I can imagine. But I can’t Turn you, Saber. I don’t know how.”

“Then call Ray for instructions. Or ask the Marines. Even Jo-Jo.”

“What if I do it wrong? Or your bit of werewolf blood interferes and it doesn’t take?” I held his gaze, searching for any flicker of reaction to my questions. “Saber, what if you hate being a vampire once it’s done?”

He threaded his fingers through my hair. “Princesca, if you can drink Starbloods, I can. I’d rather live without sunlight than without you.”

He kissed me then. His lips teased, coaxed, and I opened to him even as that cool flowing stream of energy inside me heated.

“God, Cesca, don’t you feel this power between us?”

He slanted his mouth over mine, his kiss demanding now. And then I felt it. For the first time, I felt not merely his heart frantically beating with desire, but his blood rushing through his veins. I sensed the vampire in him straining to possess, the wolf straining to mate. I sensed the totality of the man who loved me.

And when he kicked the coffee table out of the way and tumbled us to the floor, I tore at his clothes with as much single-minded purpose as he.

“It can be like this always,” he whispered, skimming a hand down my side. “Promise me, Cesca.”

“Deke,” I whimpered when his tongue laved one nipple then the other.

My pulse pounded in my ears, and nerve endings thinned. With each caress, my fingertips found joy in the tension and texture of his skin.

“We. Belong. Together.” He punctuated each word with a kiss then cupped my sex with his palm. “Promise me, Cesca.”

I cried out, arching to his touch. “Deke, please.”

Please don’t push. Please don’t make me choose now. Please just love me and let it be enough.

No.

“No,” he said again, this time aloud.

I blinked away a sliver of mindless passion to find Deke poised over me, ready to join our bodies. The solemn expression in his cobalt eyes commanded me to see into him.

“Promise me, Cesca. Even if the Turning fails, I have to know you won’t simply let me die.”

“You will live, Deke,” I said as I wrapped my legs around him. “I promise you will live.”





We took Saber’s SUV because he decided to go with me on my Friday night ghost tour. I think because he expected Ken and David to show up out of the blue. They didn’t, but they did call me before the tour started. The vampire buddies were together, still on vacation, and—surprise!—in Orlando. That put them about two hours away by car, a bonus considering I’d figured on eight or more hours of travel. Ken offered to come to St. Augustine right away, but I told him to wait until the following night. We arranged to meet Saturday at ten in the South Beach Grill parking lot near A1A and Highway 206.

That is, if Lynn, Triton, and our magical mentors agreed with my plan. If not, I’d phone them to abort the mission.