The Black Rose Chronicles Read online

No power… Lisette vowed again as she bent, fangs plainly in view, to give Aidan the fatal kiss, the one that would damn him for the second time, and for always.

  Aidan made a soft, sleepy sound, innocent as a child as he wandered in his dreams, and Valerian could make no move to save him. The only response he could manage, in fact, was the sheen of tears that blurred his vision.

  Please! he cried out silently to any benevolent being who might be nearby. In the name of justice—this cannot happen!

  It appeared there was no hope, for Lisette moistened a patch of skin on Aidan’s neck, using her tongue, her eyes raised to meet Valerian’s. She was enjoying his torment, the damnable, whoring witch, and he swore that even if it cost him his own existence, if it took a hundred years or a thousand, he would avenge the events of this night.

  Lisette’s long vampire teeth glimmered, pearly in the dim moonlight, and she moved to lunge, to bury her fangs in Aidan’s sleep-warmed flesh.

  Valerian managed an anguished groan, but he still could not move. Still, the fog in his mind began to clear at last, and he was able to send a single name, in itself a plea for help, echoing into the universe.

  Maeve.

  In the next instant, just when Lisette’s fangs would have broken Aidan’s skin and begun to draw upon the healthy blood flowing through the veins and arteries beneath, the chamber seemed to burst with blinding, silvery light.

  Valerian’s heart surged with hope, though he knew this was not Maeve, or Tobias, or any of the vampires of his acquaintance. No, this was a holy being, sanctioned by Heaven itself, and as such it would surely destroy Valerian.

  If Aidan could be saved, he didn’t care.

  The being of light seemed to push the walls out with its power; Valerian was sure the room, indeed the building itself, would explode into splinters. He soon realized, however, that the temporal world was not affected by this phenomenon—even if Aidan had been awake, he would not have seen or heard anything out of the ordinary.

  Humans.

  Slowly the entity took on shape and splendor, and Valerian realized that the newcomer was an angel. It was male and dressed, oddly enough, in the garb of a Spartan warrior.

  Lisette had raised herself from Aidan’s bedside, abandoning her prospective feast, staring in horror. Nemesis, she whispered fearfully.

  The spirit laughed. No one so important, Vampyre. I am Jafar, and I am an ordinary enough creature—what mortals call a guardian angel. He looked fondly upon Aidan, who had begun to toss and turn upon his modern pallet. This one is my particular charge, and I am sworn to protect his soul with all the powers of Heaven.

  Jafar had not yet spared a glance for Valerian, who was recovering now that Lisette’s powers had slackened so dramatically, but Valerian watched the angel in stricken fascination. In all his existence he had never seen a being so magnificently beautiful.

  What must Nemesis, one of the greatest angels in creation, be like?

  Lisette had backed herself against the wall of Aidan’s very ordinary bedroom, her eyes wide with terror.

  Go from this place, Jafar told her. And do not come near my ward again, for if you do such a foolish thing, I will be permitted to destroy you.

  Lisette made a mewling sound, one that could be heard only in the spirit, like all that had transpired that night, and vanished.

  The angel bent over Aidan with a tenderness that was heartbreaking to see and carefully straightened his blankets, the way a mortal father might do for an exhausted child.

  With the return of Valerian’s physical powers came a serious fear that Jafar would turn his angel-strength upon him.

  The splendid creature knew he was there—there had never been any question of that—but his regard, when he finally looked at Valerian, was remarkably gentle. You did an uncommonly generous thing by summoning me back to the mortal’s side with your cry of despair, but now you must keep away from him.

  Valerian nodded, though he wasn’t at all certain he could comply with such an order, even if it came from the most wonderfully frightening being he had ever encountered. He found that he could move, and rose slowly to his feet.

  He looked at Aidan, memorizing his features and frame, and then met the angel’s gaze once more.

  I hope you’ll be more efficient in the future, he said, and as he vanished, he heard the seraphim laugh.

  Come the morning, Valerian knew, Aidan would awaken and marvel over the strange dreams he’d had.

  Vampires and angels, indeed, he would think, perhaps with a chuckle.

  On Saturday morning Neely and Aidan were married in the big gazebo in the center of the town park, with a justice of the peace officiating. Neely’s friends from the restaurant came to share their joy, as did Aidan’s buddies from the construction job.

  Neely felt beautiful in her antique dress, and the whole ceremony passed in a glorious haze. When the judge reached the I-now-pronounce-you-husband-and-wife part, and Aidan kissed her, she almost fainted with the joy of it.

  Duke held a reception for the bride and groom at the restaurant, complete with wedding cake, supermarket champagne, and lots of rice and birdseed.

  “I’ll look after that car of yours,” Duke said when Neely went to him to thank him and say good-bye. He was an old-timer, and it was hard for him to express emotion.

  Neely stretched to kiss Duke’s freshly shaven cheek. “When somebody comes through who looks like he needs a dented Mustang,” she said with a misty smile, “you just hand him the keys and tell him to drive it in good health.”

  Duke smiled. “You’ve got a generous heart, little lady. I always knew that. I know somethin’ else, too.”

  Neely had never been happier, but she felt sad, too, saying good-bye to such a good friend. “What?” she sniffled, still smiling brightly.

  The big man planted a shy kiss on her forehead. “That joy will follow you everywhere you go, from now on,” he answered. “You stop in and say howdy to old Duke if you’re in this neck of the woods again, you hear?”

  “You can count on it,” Neely answered softly.

  A few minutes later she and Aidan left the reception and drove away in their brand-new “caravan,” a couple of very proper gypsies.

  Aidan, who had bought a suit and tie for the occasion, looked comfortable behind the wheel of the RV—perhaps too comfortable. He pulled off his tie and tossed it over one shoulder, then quickly unfastened the top three buttons of his shirt.

  “Forgive me if I sound like a bumper sticker, Mrs. Tremayne,” he said cheerfully, keeping his eyes on the open road ahead, “but today is the first day of the rest of our lives.” Neely scrambled into the back of the RV to exchange her wedding dress for a pair of jeans, a lavender T-shirt, and sneakers. “That’s very profound,” she responded, trying to keep her voice light. The truth was, she was thinking about the patch of strong masculine chest she’d glimpsed when Aidan opened his shirt, and wondering when the honeymoon would begin.

  “What are you doing back there?”

  Neely rejoined her husband in the front of the RV, plopping into the passenger seat and giving him a sultry look as she fastened her seat belt in place. “What do you think I was doing?” she teased. “Sipping champagne from my shoe? Sprinkling the bed with perfume?”

  A slow blush moved up Aidan’s neck and glowed along his jawline. He gave her a sidelong glance and a high-voltage grin. “I wouldn’t put it past you, you hot-blooded little vixen. You’ve been after my virtue from the first.” Neely felt her own cheeks glow, and she sagged deeper into the seat with a soft but long-suffering sigh. “Now what are we going to wait for? Our golden anniversary?”

  Aidan laughed, and the sound was rich and masculine, causing Neely to want her husband that much more. “That or the first wide spot in the road,” he teased. “Whichever turns up soonest. Great Scot, woman, did you think I was going to fling you into the sheets the moment we stepped over the threshold and have my way with you, right there in the steak-house parking lot?”


  This time Neely laughed, too; but her blush deepened, and she reached across to give her husband a playful slap on the arm. Then she squirmed in her seat and said, “Are we there yet?”

  An hour later Aidan brought the RV to a stop at the edge of a sun-splashed meadow. Then he came around to open Neely’s door and help her out.

  She had looked forward to being alone with her husband, yearned for it, in fact, but now that the time had arrived, Neely suddenly felt shy. “Here?” she whispered.

  Aidan laid a hand to either side of her face and kissed her lightly, and much too briefly. “Here,” he confirmed. “Look at the way the sun slants between those trees over there. There’s something cathedral-like about the place.”

  He was right, but Neely suspected the reverence they both felt came from their own hearts, rather than from the landscape around them.

  “It’s beautiful,” Neely agreed.

  Aidan eased past her, into the RV, and returned in a few moments carrying blankets, a chilled bottle of very good champagne, and two fluted glasses. Slipping one arm around Neely’s waist, he escorted her toward the trees where the light fell so gracefully onto the fragrant grass.

  He put the champagne and glasses aside to spread the blankets over the soft ground, then beckoned to Neely. “Come over here, Mrs. Tremayne.”

  She went to him happily, and he took her into his arms and held her close. He kissed her thoroughly, as he had so many times before, but this time he would not be leaving her to merely imagine his lovemaking.

  After a while, when Neely was half-dazed with wanting her husband, Aidan began stripping away her clothes. He worked very slowly, tossing aside her T-shirt first, caressing and admiring her for a long time before unclasping her bra and disposing of that, too.

  Her breasts stood bare and proud, their tips hardening in the spring breeze, and when Aidan bent with a groan to touch one morsel with his tongue, Neely cried out in hoarse joy and pressed him close.

  They sank to the ground one limb at a time, like some graceful four-legged creature, and Aidan continued to enjoy Neely’s full breasts. She kicked off her sneakers and tore at the zipper of her jeans, and Aidan chuckled against her nipple and stilled her frantic hand with his own. He made her wait.

  Finally, though, each was bared to the other.

  Aidan stroked Neely’s thighs lightly and made teasing circles on her belly with his fingers.

  “No longer, Aidan,” she whispered franticly, slipping both arms around his neck. “I’ve waited too long, and I want you so much—”

  “And I want you,” he said, his mouth falling to hers. Their tongues battled, then mated. With a groan Aidan mounted Neely, easing her legs apart with one knee.

  She cried out and arched her back as he glided inside her and settled deep for a moment, claiming her, letting her body get used to his.

  He chuckled as he nibbled at her lips. “Little vixen,” he teased. She struggled beneath him, wanting to thrash and writhe, but he held her firmly in place.

  Neely made a sound that was half passion and half frustration. “Aidan,” she pleaded, “make love to me—please—or I swear it’s going to happen on its own!”

  Aidan raised himself onto his elbows, withdrew from her, then made a steady, smooth lunge into her warmth again.

  That was all it took. Neely’s body was so primed for Aidan’s conquering that one stroke brought on a raging, cataclysmic climax. Eyes unfocused, she jerked helplessly beneath him while a low, lingering wail of pleasure poured from her throat.

  Aidan held Neely while she responded, lodged far within her, and murmured gentle, senseless words against her ear. She’d been still, dazed and sated, for some time before he moaned and stiffened and spilled his warm seed inside her.

  For a long time they lay there, arms and legs entwined, bodies joined, and their breaths might have been one breath, their heartbeats a single steady meter.

  “I’m sorry,” Neely said when she could finally speak.

  Aidan raised his head and looked at her with incredulous, ink-blue eyes. “What did you say?”

  “I was so eager. It happened so fast.” Tears started in her lashes because she wanted Aidan to be pleased, the way she was, and she thought she’d failed.

  He kissed the moisture away, aroused her all over again simply by caressing her eyelids with the tip of his tongue. “No, darling,” he whispered tenderly, “this day has been an eternity in the making.” He slid lower, brushed his lips over her collarbone and the soft rounding of her breasts. “And the best part is,” he added presently, “that this is only the beginning.”

  Neely spread her hands over Aidan’s muscled back then, and a sob escaped her, a hoarse, splendid sound born of jubilation, not sorrow. Their souls spoke a silent, private language, and their bodies needed no words at all.

  When they had spent still more of their passion, they drank champagne from their wedding glasses and, with laughing reluctance, began to dress each other. When it became a game, however, and the players started kissing places before they covered them, the clothes came off again.

  “We’re going to catch pneumonia, lying out here in the breeze in the altogether,” Aidan said some time later.

  “You’re right.” Neely sat up and started reaching for scattered garments and pulling them on. She was ridiculously happy, and she couldn’t help humming a little under her breath. “I’m glad we didn’t wait for our golden anniversary.”

  Aidan, who had dressed more quickly, pulled Neely to her feet and kissed her as they collided. “I could never have lasted past the silver one,” he teased.

  Once they’d put away the blankets and glasses and the champagne, Aidan got behind the wheel and started the engine.

  “Well, Mrs. Tremayne, where do we go now? South to Mexico, or north to Canada?”

  Neely considered, smoothing her hopelessly crumpled T-shirt and straightening her seat belt. “Surprise me,” she said.

  Late that night Aidan and Neely stopped in a moonlit RV park, at the edge of a southbound highway. There they grilled hamburgers on their tiny stove, crowded into their minuscule shower stall together, and finally made feverish love on the fold-out bed.

  Aidan slept when it was over, but Neely lay curled against his side, watching the stars through the skylight in the roof of the motor home as they did their intricate, shining dance around the moon. If anybody had ever told her she was going to be this happy, she reflected, she would have thought the notion was insane.

  After the sky patterns had shifted several times, Neely rose, pulled an oversized T-shirt over her head, and crept to the drawer where she kept her most treasured belongings. Inside were school pictures of Danny, a necklace that had belonged to her mother, and the antique music box that Aidan had given her the night he proposed.

  Holding the box close to her heart, Neely made her way to the door, opened it quietly, and stepped out into the silver-spangled night. She needed to be in the open spaces, at least for a few minutes, because the RV was simply too small to contain all the love and gratitude she felt.

  Standing on the metal step, Neely wound the key on the bottom of the rosewood box, then lifted the lid. Sweet, oddly familiar music flowed into the night, and Neely danced in the damp and scented grass, turning round and round, like the stars overhead.

  When she had spent her energy, she stopped the music and went back inside to crawl into bed next to her husband.

  Aidan slept without reservation, sprawled every which way, with one arm flung back over his head. “Hmmm?” he said.

  Neely smiled, kissed the pulsepoint at the base of his throat, and thought briefly of a wondrously handsome, elegant vampire who had once visited her dreams.

  How odd, she thought as she toppled into sweet sleep, that she should think of him now.

  II

  For All Eternity

  Contents

  Dear Readers:

  Untitled

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

 
Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Dear Readers:

  I am thrilled that For All Eternity, the second book in my vampire quartet, is now available in this new format.

  These books were written back in the 90s, long before the current trend. They were inspired by the legendary Anne Rice, but they quickly took on a life of their own. For All Eternity pits Maeve Tremayne, a beautiful vampire who travels through time, between Calder Holbrook, the mortal Civil War doctor who loves her, and the evil forces that threaten to destroy them both.

  I invite you to travel with me to Maeve’s grand and magical world. It’s a world I didn’t want to leave.

  Happy reading,

  Linda Lael Miller

  For Wendy—again, always, just because. You’re still the best thing that ever happened to me.

  I love you, Sweetheart.

  “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”

  —Goethe

  21

  Bright River, Connecticut

  The present

  Vampires are not supposed to cry.

  So Maeve Tremayne told herself, in any case, that day in midsummer, as she stood in the echoing entry hall of her brother’s house, gazing through a sheen of tears at the bouquet of dead roses he’d left for her.