Free Story - Eternal Part 3 - Vampire Romance

Here we go. Part 3 coming up. Enjoy.

Eternal - Part 3 - by Abigail Armani © 2014


Time ceased to exist. I know not how long we lay together under the stars as the threads of night thickened around us. I was blissfully content, and yet I knew he had not taken my maidenhead. I was still a virgin.

“Felix,” I whispered in the darkness.

“My love?”

How I thrilled at the sound of his voice. It was deep and dark as the wild wood, with a sensual cadence. “I thought … I thought you might have ...” In my awkwardness I felt the heat rising to my face. “Might have...” I struggled for words.

“Might have taken you?”

“Yes.”

“I will. Soon. We are destined to be together, you and I. I have known it for a long time. You are the one. But... “ He paused and a shadow flickered over his pale face in the moonlight. “There are things you must know, Elizabeth.”

“What things? Teach me! I will learn.”

“I sense and applaud your eagerness.” He smiled and kissed me again as his fingers traced the outline of my jaw and slipped lower to caress my throat. He kissed me there, lingering at the spot at the base of my throat, and I trembled with desire and a burning need to know all there was to know about Felix Marchant. But there was something not quite right. There was a haunted look in his eyes. A bleakness. A loneliness.

“What is it?” I asked, not sure whether I would like the answer. But he shook his head and gave none, and simply looked at me searchingly.

At length he sighed. “There is desolation to be found in truth, yet truth and love are all I have to give you. My greatest fear is that truth will turn you against me, and that you will loathe and revile me.”

“Felix! What nonsense! You are the best and brightest thing that has ever happened to me.” It seemed he smiled cynically as I referred to him as 'brightest'.

“Up you get, Elizabeth. I am taking you to meet my family.” He rose to his feet and effortlessly pulled me up. He had such amazing strength and agility. I marvelled at him, for truly I was the most fortunate woman on earth to have stumbled upon such an unexpected yet wholly welcome love.

“I would like that. You have brothers and sisters too?”

“Yes. Three brothers, and three sisters.”

“I'm looking forward to meeting them. Are they much like you?”

He laughed mirthlessly. “Yes, Elizabeth. They are very much like me. You will see, soon enough.” With these words he scooped me up in his arms and set off.

“I can walk, Felix. You don't have to carry me, you know. I ... Oh!!”

That moment will stay with me forever. It was the moment that challenged my beliefs. The moment that dared me to question life itself.

We flew.

With one great bound he leaped from the forest floor to the top of the highest tree, and there in an eyrie of branches and pine cones he pointed north, to the edge of another forest even denser than the one we were in, and in a clearing lay a house of stone. But I was so filled with shock I paid no heed to that which he showed me.

“How … how can this be?! How did you do that?! How?!” I marvelled.

“With ease. Does it frighten you, Elizabeth?”

“No.”

“And do I frighten you?”

“No. But … I want to know … need to know. How did you get us up here?! It is impossible. What powers do you have? Are you bewitched?”

“Only by you. Hold tight.” He leaped from tree top to tree top, holding me tight to his chest. I screeched in alarm, and then merely stared into the gathering darkness, my eyes straining to see where we were headed, all the while feeling a sense of unreality as the cool air rushed and the topmost branches creaked as they dipped and sprung beneath our combined weight.

“How can this be?” I murmured. And yet, with his arms around me and the wind in my hair and the moonlight on my face, I realised I didn't care. I merely accepted and wondered and marvelled at the experience.

In no time at all we arrived at the house of stone he had pointed out to me. Stepping off the uppermost boughs of an Ash tree, Felix plunged us downwards at speed, only to land as lightly and sprightly as a cat. He set me down and took my hand, and led me towards the door.

It was suddenly flung open before we reached it and a boy ran out. He would be perhaps 14 or 15 years I thought, not quite yet a man. He was tall and slender and his face was as pale as the first Snowdrop of winter.

“Felix!” The boy smiled and approached us, glancing curiously in my direction. “You've brought her home.”

“As I always said I would. Matthew – may I introduce you to Elizabeth.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance.” He gave me a courteous little bow.

“Likewise.” I smiled and bobbed a curtsey, but before I had the opportunity to speak further someone else came out of the house.

A woman. She was dressed in black from head to toe, and I wondered from her garb if she were in mourning. Her face held a cold, almost ethereal beauty, her skin pale as the white marble pillars of a sepulchre, her face framed by lustrous hair of that rare blue-black colour like the wing of a raven. But her expression was one of anger. Casting a contemptuous look in my direction, she marched up to Felix, her dark eyes glinting with fury.

“Felix. I warned you not to do this,” she hissed.

Unperturbed by her rudeness, Felix grasped my hand. “Elizabeth, this is Olivia. I'm afraid she is having one of her dark days, but she will soon be in better humour.”

“Good evening,” I said, and gulped as she almost snarled a response.

“Go back to where you came from.” There was venom in her tone and in her eyes.

“Olivia,” Felix said in a warning tone. “Where are your manners? Please extend a little courtesy to our guest.”

“Our guest?! Don't you mean your guest?” Turning to me she said venomously, “You are not welcome here.”

“I … I'm sorry to intrude,” I stammered, feeling awkward and ill at ease. “Felix – I should go.”

“No. Your place is here, with me.” He placed a comforting arm around my trembling shoulders. “Olivia, your behaviour is unacceptable. Stand aside, and you would do well to remember that this is my house,” he said curtly, stepping forward.

“She is not one of us!” hissed Olivia. “Or is she? Have you turned her?”

“What does she mean, Felix?” I asked, puzzled.

“Hah! She doesn't know?!” Olivia confronted him, her eyes blazing. “You haven't told her, have you!”

“Told me what?”

“I will tell her in my own time.” Felix ushered me over the threshold. A welcome fire blazed in the large fireplace in the hall, filling the house with the fragrant scent of pine wood. “Matthew, have Catherine prepare food for our guest.”

“Yes, Felix.” Matthew opened a door into an adjoining room and disappeared from sight.

Olivia followed us in, a baleful hostile presence. I felt intimidated and not a little fearful of her. She looked at me scornfully and then continued her tirade with Felix.

“And what do you propose to do with this one? Feed her up a little,” she said meaningfully, her brows arching. I did not miss the warning look that Felix shot her, and I sensed his own anger rising. Olivia's tongue darted out to lick her lips briefly in a strangely intimate gesture. “And what will you do with her then – spank her pretty round bottom – you so enjoy that, don't you Felix? The tasty little appetizer before the main course!”

“Enough!!” raged Felix. He strode towards her and slapped her hard on the side of her face. The slap echoed eerily through the large room. “I have tolerated more than enough from you and your petty, spiteful little ways. Show some respect.”

Olivia stood stock still, her white face marred by a flush of red where he had struck her. Hate filled her. It was almost palpable. I looked at her and trembled in fear, and as I looked upon her countenance, those eyes of hers held mine so that I could not look away, and what I saw next horrified me beyond reason. Olivia snarled, and her milk white teeth gleamed – but they were different now, for the incisors were vastly elongated, honed to a deadly sharp point. As she sprang at me, I knew in that instance what she was.

Vampire.