One Immortal - Tia Louise Page 0,38

out of the glass-encased shower and grab a towel. Holding out my hand, she pauses a half-second before putting hers in mine. It’s all I need to know.

Buffing her body with the plush towel, I drop it on the floor and carry her to my large bed. We’ve made love, but now we need to rest. In the morning we’ll sort out what all of this means.

For now, I’ll hold her beautiful body next to mine to sleep.

* * *

Melissa

My eyes open in the darkness, and I realize I’ve been asleep. I’m not sure how it happened, but it fills me with the most amazing flicker of hope. I slept during the night!

Derek is beside me breathing heavily. I watch him sleep, studying his features. The beautiful bow of his lips, the dark scruff on his cheeks, his powerful jaw and imposing brow. I remember his tenderness in the shower, his pledge to save me. He said the most amazing things to me.

All of it combines into the perfect image of the man I would love. My hero. His gorgeous chest rises and falls, and I wonder how we’ll make it out of this alive. He knows what I am. I know what he is. By all accounts, we should be enemies. Only, I don’t want to be his enemy. I want to be his everything.

He stirs and those steel blue eyes blink open at me. I’m not sure he’s awake, still I can’t resist speaking the truth to him in this twilight hour.

“If everything were different, I’d tell you I love you right now,” I whisper.

For a moment, he doesn’t respond. I’m ready to accept he’s still asleep until he moves, pulling me against him. His face is at my breast, and I feel him kiss my skin gently once, twice. Then his arms relax, and I know for sure he’s asleep again. I know I should slip out. I should leave and go back to my room before the sun rises, but I can’t. I’ll stay with him tonight, and tomorrow I’ll try to figure out how I’ll ever leave him again.

When I open my eyes, I’m surprised to find I’m alone in his suite. The curtains are pulled shut, so I have no idea of the time. I sit up and reach for the lamp when I see a scrap of paper on the pillow next to me.

Early meeting with my partner. Sleep as long as you want. I’ll be back by noon. Wait for me or tell me where I can find you. –D.

Tracing my finger over the controlled block letters of his handwriting, I’m amazed again that I’ve been asleep. I slept through him waking, getting ready, and leaving this morning. It’s incredible. It’s like the clock has been reset somehow on my evolution, and I’m back at the early stages when I was just learning the extent of what had happened to me.

How? Again I’m overcome by how little I know about this curse. I’ve been thrust into this half-life and left to figure out what comes next. In the beginning, I tried following the rules of the old horror movies and books, but only some of them are true. Most are just plot devices.

For example, I don’t burn up in the sunlight. At the same time, the sun does hurt my eyes, and I’d rather stay indoors during the midday hours. Every day, my biorhythms shift more and more to nocturnal. I have no control over this part of my progression. I’m awake well past midnight, until the first hints of sunrise, when my eyes grow heavy, and as much as I struggle, it’s impossible to keep them open.

None of the religious symbols bother me. In fact, they comfort me, and I find myself longing to go to St. Louis Cathedral and hide in the ancient edifice until this nightmare has ended. I imagine myself waking up and realizing it’s all been a terrible dream. I pretend I shake the horror away, and return to my life as an independent marketing consultant.

Oh, god. My former life feels so far away from me. It’s a distant memory I’ll never get back. Pushing the blankets aside, I walk to the window and open the curtains.

Just like my ability to sleep at night, my eyes aren’t as affected by the sunlight this morning. Clouds obstruct most of it, but the few rays that peek through on this overcast day don’t send me scrambling for my sunglasses