from the narrow ledge, Damien held his ground.
The force of the wind was such that each gust delivered a punishing body blow, but he relished the pain. He deserved it. The physical discomfort was nothing compared to the anguish in his heart.
Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. Tomorrow it would be a year that he’d lost Angelina. For the second time.
The first time he’d lost her, it had taken over a century for her to return to him.
The woman he had come to know as Angelina had looked slightly different each time they’d met, although there had been strong physical similarities with each of her apparitions. The raven hair and jewel-like green eyes. The voluptuous figure any man would want to touch. Full lips with a Cupid’s bow meant to be kissed.
What hadn’t changed was Angelina’s spirit. Her inherent goodness brought light to his soul. Her kindness had called to him on two occasions over the past century and on two occasions he had failed her.
And his failure had killed her.
Damien raised his head into the wind and howled with the pain of her loss and his guilt, but the storm was such that his cry blended with the screeching winds. Only he heard his anguished voice.
How much longer will I have to wait for her? Will she ever return to me? Damien wondered, peering into an after noon sky made so dark by the storm it seemed almost as if night had already descended. Perfect for a vampire like him, but not so good for any poor wretch who might be caught in the tempest.
He had battled such dangerous gales in his earlier life as a ship’s captain. Dared the sea and Poseidon himself in those misspent hell-raising days before he’d lost his mortal life.
His father—the one who had not even deigned to claim the bastard son who had slipped from his lover’s womb—had heard of those adventures and proclaimed Damien was not his, but rather the Devil’s spawn. The old man had never had a kind word for him nor had he ever believed that Damien would make something of himself. With each and every overture Damien had made, his father had rebuked him.
So Damien had stopped trying to please the old man. Instead, he had pleased himself—in every conceivable way with any available woman in every port in which he had ever set foot.
Until he met Angelina…the first time.
His gut fisted into a knot once more as he thought of her. Acknowledged all that he had lost because of his own ego. He tightened his grip on the edge of the railing as a particularly powerful squall nearly cost him his precarious footing on the slim ledge around the beacon of the lighthouse. He was tempted to let the wind take him. On occasion lately he had thought about tossing himself over the side, down onto the rocks below. As a vampire, the fall would likely not kill him, but it would break his body and Lord knew he deserved to suffer. Maybe after, the kiss of the morning sun would finish him off and end his insufferable existence.
But Damien would not embrace death tonight.
Angelina had come to him just before Christmas Eve on both of the other occasions. In his heart, he prayed that she might somehow return to him again soon.
There had been a sense of anticipation building for days, warning him that something unexpected approached. Some would have said it was the excitement of the upcoming holiday, but Christmas had never had any special appeal for Damien. His mother had tried her best to make it special, but with their meager existence, that had been difficult. She always somehow managed to scrape together a little gift and roast a scrawny chicken to perfection.
Sadly, Damien had not realized that his mother’s love had been what had made the holidays bearable. Much like it had been Angelina and her love that had first brought joy into his life.
If by some miracle she did return this Christmas, Damien vowed that he would not fail her again.
He was about to return to his home at the base of the lighthouse when the sweep of the beacon highlighted a dim shape on the water. He squinted and looked hard against the driving snow. With another turn of the light he noted the hazy outline on the surface of the ocean. Scrutinizing the horizon more intently, he confirmed that there was a ship at sea, battling the immense surges caused by the