Final Days Read online

  “Alisa, don’t run from me again. Somehow, I know you’re going to.”

  “Koen, I already told you I can’t promise you anything but these two days. I can give you all of me, every second, anything you want for that time. I just can’t stay after that.”

  He pushed closer as he moved his cock behind the denim to slide his pants closed, but he kept her against him.

  “You already know I will find you. No matter where you go, I’ll find you. I mean this. Don’t run from me again. If you do, I’ll chain you to me next time.”

  He lifted his eyebrows up and down maniacally.

  “Of course, that could be good, too.”

  Alisa tried to smile at the joke, but couldn’t do it. She believed him. What the hell was she going to do?

  She might have to tell him the truth.

  All she had to offer him now was the comfort of the moment, so she pulled him to her and wrapped her arms around him.

  She held him so tight, Koen wondered if she was trying to keep herself from running away.

  He lifted her off the rail and set her on the ground.

  “Dinner. And lots of it. What’s your favorite restaurant? And I mean something very, very nice. You already know price isn’t an issue. I want to take the most beautiful woman on earth on our first real date.”

  Alisa’s favorite restaurant seated by reservation only. But she wasn’t surprised when they were shown to a prime table immediately. It was in the back of the restaurant, and while it wasn’t private, it was out of the traffic pattern.

  Koen had difficulty paying attention to much of anything. His date was wearing a tight black halter dress that plunged in front and showed her excellent figure. All he could do for the first part of the night was wonder if she was wearing underwear this time. He kind of thought she couldn’t be, with the tightness of the fabric that seemed to hide nothing.

  No sex, though, tonight, and no talk of the future. This was going to be a romantic, elegant date that would make her fall in love with him and end any desire she might have to leave him.

  After they were seated, Koen ordered a bottle of their best champagne and a sample of all of their appetizers. Laughing, Alisa shook her head.

  “Do you realize how much food that is?”

  “I do.”

  “You’re huge, you can probably handle it. May I ask you, what do you have to do to keep this body? I’ve never seen a man more perfectly muscled.”

  “Very little. I guess it’s natural.”

  “Seriously? You must have been a very good boy in a previous life to get this lucky.”

  His eyes sparkled. “Oh, I am a very good boy. I think we’ve already finished the demonstration portion of the evening.”

  She blushed. Yeah. PDA on overload.

  “If rewards matter, I was lucky enough to get you. If I continue to excel, I get to keep you.”

  Alisa dropped her head. He would break her heart by tomorrow.

  He felt a change in her mood and pulled her chin back up to look into her eyes.

  “No. Whatever place you go to when you do this, come back. This time is for us, every moment precious, so stay with me here.”

  He was right. She was burning minutes and she had little to spare.

  A slow smile lit her face.

  “Okay. Dinner. And then you’re going to buy me a huge bouquet of flowers if my favorite flower shop is still open.”

  “Ask and ye shall receive, my lady.”

  It was a wonderful evening. She found out that he was charming, funny, and clever. A wonderful companion. He was very well travelled and could hold his own on any conversation about most of the places she’d visited. He was interested in her life and what she’d done, the stories she’d written, her brief time in Afghanistan, with her friends on assignment for their London paper.

  They were laughing about one of her ridiculous earlier stories about men who liked to dress like women, laughing over how cute he would look in a mini skirt and go-go boots, when she heard someone say her name. She looked up and saw Percy standing near the table staring at Koen.

  “Percy,” she said, and stood to give him a hug. When she turned to Koen, he’d lost his smile.

  Her arms wrapped around Percy’s neck, Alisa stepped back to look into his eyes that were filled with questions.

  “Hi, Perce. Um, this is Koen.” She wasn’t sure how else to explain the enormous man who was now standing, towering over everyone, with a hostile look on his face.

  “Koen, this man is my boss. And one of my favorite people in the world. He’s like a father to me.”

  That changed everything. Koen came forward then and offered his hand to the very surprised older man.

  “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, sir.”

  So polite. The two men just stared at each other for a few moments when Koen stepped back.

  “Please join us.”

  Percy looked them over, Alisa dressed to kill in a gown that looked like it was duct-taped on her body, Koen just coming off a jealous rage. He’d been alive a long time and had a very good handle on human interactions. Switching his full attention to Alisa, he noticed her rapid breathing and dilated pupils. When she glanced at the giant beside her, she sparkled. He looked back at the giant, who looked at her with a love he hadn’t seen in a long time. Thank God.

  His heart had shattered when they received the diagnosis of her illness. But this moment, something he never expected to see, made it all okay. Alisa in love. Even if she couldn’t spend a lifetime with this man, just the fact that she was finally really in love meant the world to him. He was grateful he was here, unexpectedly, tonight, to see this in her eyes.

  Percy turned to Koen.

  “Thank you, but I can’t. Just take good care of my girl here.”

  Koen bowed his head. “Always, sir.”

  Percy believed that. If only this big man could protect her from her fate. Well, stop asking for the stars, he thought. Be grateful for the moon.

  Turning back to Alisa, he hugged her and whispered in her ear. “He makes you glow. I like him.”

  When he pulled back, her smile was soft…and happy. That’s all in the world he wanted. He turned to Koen once more, gave him the same respectful nod Koen had given him, and walked out of the restaurant.

  Koen looked at Alisa. “I’m glad I met this man. I can see how much he loves you.”

  She sat back down and reached for her champagne. “You were jealous at first.”

  Koen sat, too. “Yes. I apologize. Another man was touching you, and I admit I have issues with that. Please forgive me.”

  “Always,” she said, wondering if she really was glowing.

  “Let’s finish dinner. I think I want to get you home.”

  Koen grinned at that. He was thinking along the same lines.

  Later, well satiated and languishing, trying to decide between getting up to get some ice cream or staying curled up next to Koen, Alisa realized she was happier this moment than at any other moment in her life. He was hard asleep, not moving at all. Well, they had worn each other out.

  She was so grateful for this man who brought love to her before it was too late. Only she wasn’t sure how to make him understand that he couldn’t stay. Unless she told him the truth. Something inside her still would not let her do it. Not yet, not while they were having the best time of their lives falling in love.

  She admitted it. Not only had she fallen completely for him, but she knew he had fallen for her. Love was a big word and a big concept, but all she needed to know was how she felt when she was with him. Earlier tonight she’d thought that he was breaking her heart, and that was true.

  God, she didn’t want to tell him that this love they’d begun was ill-fated. And yet, she knew now that neither one of them would have missed it for the world.

  She smiled and touched his chest near his heart, then laid her ear against him to listen to its beautiful cadence. Life was so special. Why didn’t everyone realize how
precious? Even she hadn’t paid enough attention through the years.

  Getting up carefully so she didn’t disturb him, she grabbed her satin robe and walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind her. As she walked out of the hallway, the glow of dawn peeked into the span of windows and French doors that covered the back of her apartment.

  Morning. She’d missed it yesterday with all the eating and sex. What a different woman she’d become in the wake of her illness. Alisa loved who she was now.

  The young woman taught caution and detachment by her mother was finally open and loving. She didn’t blame her, it was all her mother ever knew. She was just so grateful the illness and Koen had changed her course.

  Hmm. Grateful to the illness? It had been the catalyst. Wow. Perhaps there really was order and purpose to the events in our lives. Perhaps fate and destiny did exist.

  The sun threw its brilliant light all around the edge of the city, the pinks disappearing as it continued its journey upward. Alisa drew in the fresh morning air and decided that chocolate chip ice cream would go perfect with this crisp morning. And then maybe she would sneak away to find Percy and explain. She smiled as she covered her eyes with a hand. Like he didn’t know exactly what was going on.

  She’d be back in plenty of time to kiss Koen awake. Walking carefully to the kitchen, she quietly filled a small bowl with the smooth cold ice cream and went back out to watch the sun illuminate Chicago, the last city she would see before she left forever. Because she would come home when the time came, to the Windy City. And to Percy, who had been with her since that first day so long ago when she’d insisted he hire her. Neither one of them had been sorry.

  Although Alisa knew she should rest along with Koen because she would be up all night with him, she wanted to go into the office for just a little while. There was an article she wanted to write and it had to be now because this was the moment that the words came, and writers learn to listen to those words. If you didn’t capture the feelings and ideas when they were there, sometimes they were lost forever.

  So she dressed and left a little note attached to the back of the bedroom door so that if Koen woke, he would know where she was. She thought about the last note she’d left him.

  Ah, baby, this is not the same, she thought as she looked at him sleeping soundly in her bed.

  That huge, sexy man, in her bed. Another image she would never forget.

  FOURTEEN

  Starla couldn’t move. There on that stone slab, she knew with certainly this woman was going to kill her.

  And that she would succeed. She was frozen as she had been a few times before by first blood magic. Tears slipped from her eyes. Well, look at that, she thought. I can’t move a muscle, but my heart sent the tears anyway, and my body let them come.

  When she’d first felt the complete control of a first blood in Paris, she could never have imagined it would be the last thing she experienced before she died. All those ideas, the years she and her friend Henri spoke about when they first realized they were immortal, all just smoke now.

  A sob seeped out. Oh, God, she wouldn’t be able to meet Henri at the base of the Pyramid for their 100 year anniversary. And Jacob. How he would grieve. She wasn’t sure he would ever get over her loss, because she knew if she had lost him, all that made her life worthwhile would be gone.

  But mostly, she wanted to apologize to her children. They would never be born now. A tragedy so great, she thought the world would grieve. If Mother Earth were mother to all children of the moon as Ahmose believed her to be, she would weep the most.

  Ahmose. That man had been through so many centuries waiting for her to come to bring these three beautiful souls to life.

  That this vicious woman could steal all that…that she could prevail through all the power of the good and noble people in her new family…the universe had failed her and her children. God, or whatever designed all this, had failed.

  Windari looked at her work, the woman she needed to remove from existence already on her prepared alter awaiting that final slice. She would be quick, she was not a brutal woman. But she would not hesitate to do what had to be done.

  Look at her, she thought. Tears. It was understandable. But life was brief for humans, and essentially, that was what she really was. Even with first blood in Starla, altered to simulate Windari’s race, she was still little more than human. The young vampire would really only lose a few decades.

  No reason to draw this out. Put the little thing out of her misery. Windari stepped up to the alter and hovered over Starla.

  “Sorry, pretty one. You’re just in the wrong place and with the wrong man. I know you’re mated to Jacob, not Ahmose, but he will never look at me if you are there. You’ve bewitched him, somehow. Must be some Shoazan magic. I promise, this will be quick. May you journey easily into the stars.”

  Taking the knife with Crystal’s aura embedded, she cut across Starla’s throat, deep, very deep, deeper than any vampire could survive. She severed the arteries, muscles, and nerves, and snapped the bone that supported her skull. She watched as the lifeforce faded from the girl. Sad. Well, death happened every day.

  Taking the knife, she tucked it into the edge of a crevice in the cavern wall, sighed, and walked out of the cave. After she cleared the opening, Windari looked up at the stars. She wished she hadn’t had to do that. Heaven forgive her.

  Starla felt the slice, deep and ruinous, as it cut into her tender skin and slid across arteries she knew could not heal. She had only a moment to know that her life was over and her son would never be born. Tears escaped and rolled down frozen cheeks. Grief like no one could ever know surged forth, and then Starla lost consciousness. Somehow, she believed she should have been able to protect her child. But sweet oblivion ended the thought and the two lives on the stone slab were gone.

  Ahmose moved quietly beside Jacob as they traveled to join the team outside the village. He heard Jacob groan out loud and saw him fall to his knees.

  “God, no…”

  Ahmose went down beside him immediately, a sick feeling in his gut.

  “What?”

  Jacob looked up, his eyes filled with tears.

  “I felt her leave.” He paused. Then, in words so lost in pain, Ahmose almost didn’t understand them, “I felt her die.”

  Ahmose grabbed Jacob’s shoulders to support him, although it was as much to support himself as well.

  “It can’t be. Jacob, you have to be mistaken.”

  “She’s gone. I felt her lifeforce flicker, then it was gone. She’s a part of me, and I felt her go.”

  At that moment a member of Ahmose’s search team showed up and was surprised to find them on the ground holding each other.

  “Um, master, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but we found her cell phone signal,” he informed Ahmose. “We know where she is.”

  “Take us immediately,” Ahmose yelled and pulled Jacob up. “Is anyone any closer?”

  “No sir.”

  “How far away are we? I can move faster than any of you.”

  The young vampire gave him the information.

  Ahmose turned to Jacob.

  “I have to go to her.”

  “Go. We’ll be right behind.”

  Ahmose’s hyper-speed was extremely fast as a first blood, and although he knew Jacob would not be far behind, every second may matter now. If she was in mortal danger, seconds could make a difference if it wasn’t already too late. He powered through the trees, down through a copse of dense brush, and through a stand of overgrown trees into a cave barely visible to the naked eye. His powers of observation were extraordinary and he found the cave right away after entering the area.

  Busting through to an interior chamber, he saw a glow of candlelight pulsing against the rock and moved toward it. She was there, bathed softly in the pretty flickering light. An overwhelming scent of blood assaulted him right away. He was at her side before any human eye could have seen him move, and he saw the slit on he
r throat from one side to the next.

  Jacob had not been wrong. She was gone. He didn’t even need to feel for a heartbeat or pulse. This near to her, he would feel her lifeforce if it was still there. It wasn’t.

  He leaned across the stone to brush her hair from her face and kiss her on the cheek.

  “This isn’t real,” he said out loud. But his eyes reminded him it was. His beautiful Shoazan. He grieved for her loss as much as for the son curled inside her. She had been Jacob’s mate, but she still had been in his heart. The mother of children only they could have had together.

  Noise from his left let him know the others had arrived. He looked up at Jacob. The tears in his own eyes told Jacob before he saw his mate lying there, bled out.

  Jacob came forward, crawled up on the slab, took her into his arms, and buried his head against her ruby-stained throat.

  “You can’t leave me now, my love. We have only just begun our lives together.”

  Several moments later, Jacob looked up at Ahmose.

  “There’s nothing you can do? No first blood children of the moon thing that can fix this?”

  “I cannot create life where it is no more. If I could, I would make it so nothing could ever touch her. I have failed all of you. My talents are useless here.”

  They were all silent. What was there to say?

  Ahmose was not an empath, but he could feel Jacob’s pain through the air, permeating every molecule of space around them. It interfered with his own grief, forming now after the moment of disbelief passed and he realized Starla was gone forever and so was his son. Their pain mixed and twisted through everything.

  He couldn’t stop himself. This odd little family they had been building had meant everything to him. He crawled up on the slab and put an arm around Jacob, with a hand on Starla’s forehead. It did not matter that his kinsmen would see their leader cry. He couldn’t have stopped it anyway. They sat there entwined, moments un-kept, and held her.