Gardella Vampires - Rises The Night Part 28

She had to. She was a Venator.

She was Ilia Gardella.

"It was a prophecy from long ago, from Lady Rosamund. Eustacia knew it well, but she did not know exactly what it meant until it happened. 'The golden age of the Venator will find rest at the foot of Rome' is the accurate translation. It makes sense now, for your aunt was truly the golden Venator, Victoria, and you will follow in her footsteps."

"I still cannot accept Max's choice. There had to have been another way!"

Wayren looked at her with easy blue-gray eyes. Her face bore an expression of compa.s.sion. "He didn't want to do it, Victoria.

He did not want to. He would have done anything but that. Eustacia ordered him to do it."

Her eyes dampened. "What? How could she?"

"She did what had to be done, Victoria. If Nedas had succeeded in bringing Akvan's Obelisk to full power, there would have been destruction and death even worse than we saw in Praga. She sacrificed herself willingly to give Max the chance-the only chance-to stop Nedas. One life in exchange for many others. She trusted that he would succeed. And he did. Against all odds he did, for he had to strike the obelisk at precisely the right moment, or the opportunity would be lost."

Victoria took the handkerchief Wayren offered her. It smelled like lily of the valley and peppermint, and somehow the combination soothed her. "Max didn't expect to survive."

"I'm certain he didn't. You saved his life even when you were at your weakest, a testament to your strength and ingenuity. You are the Gardella now."

Wayren touched her with a slender, cool hand, and Victoria felt a wave of comfort. "Who do you think had the more difficult task-your aunt, going to her execution? Or Max, who had to face someone he has loved and admired and respected, and to cut her down? Is it any surprise that he would not want to live with that memory, that knowledge, day after day? It was over for your aunt in an instant; I am certain Max ensured it was fast and painless. But he..."

"He will live with his choice every day, and wonder if there was something different that could have been done." Victoria remembered that horrible time a year ago when she'd made a choice, and could have killed the man in the alley of St. Giles.

Remembering her own choice. She knew how much worse it was to have to kill someone you loved.

"Indeed."

Previous Top"He gave me his vis bulla." She showed it to Wayren.

"Did you not remove your own vis bulla when you feared you could no longer wear it, Victoria?"

She nodded, remembering.

"We must give him time, Victoria. And hope he will return."

Here's a sneak peek at the next volume of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles THE BLEEDING DUSK.

The lair of the Queen of the Vampires was tucked away in the snowy mountain range of Muntu f.a.garas. in the center of Romania.

The only reason Maximilian Pesaro had been able to find the hideaway was because of the two bite marks on his neck.

Permanent ones, left by Lilith herself.

They burned and tingled as he approached the entrance to the interior chamber to which he'd been directed. The throbbing never fully went away, but there were times when it ebbed and eased enough that he could almost forget about the fact that he was permanently linked to the vampire queen.

Max pa.s.sed yet another of Lilith's Guardian vampires, ones that had eyes that burned pale ruby and fangs that released a strong poison at will. She opened the heavy wooden door to Lilith's private chamber and stepped back to allow him in.

"Maximilian." Lilith's voice was a purr, and her red-ringed blue eyes avid as she cast her gaze over him. "I believe this is the first time you have ever come to me of your own accord. What a pleasure."

The chamber was warm and the lighting burned low. A ma.s.sive fire roared in its place, taking up the entirety of one long wall and casting black and red shadows into the room.

Lilith herself was arranged casually on a long chaise, her filmy ice blue gown draping from her hip to the floor, leaving her white feet and arms bare. Her hair, so s.h.i.+ny and bright that it appeared to burn, poured over her fair skin in sensual coils that reminded Max of a copper-haired Medusa. Although she had been on the earth for more than a millennium, Lilith had the beautiful elfin face of a twenty-year-old, and a body that matched. Her pose appeared nonchalant, but a fleeting glance at her dangerous eyes told Max a different story.

He was glad for at least the advantage of surprise.

The doors closed behind him and he stopped in the center of the room. And, wanting to keep what little leverage he had, waited.

"You're not dead," Lilith said after the silence stretched. She followed suit and arched her long, lithe body as she drew herself into a seated position. One of control.

"Then you're aware that Akvan's Obelisk has been destroyed. That I have kept my part of our arrangement."

She smiled. Her upper fangs glinted. "So that is why you have come."Now she stood and moved toward him, bringing with her a renewed burning in the scars on his neck and a gentle waft of roses.

Max felt her presence as it seeped into him, cloying and close, and noticed the way his breathing became... heavier...

controlled.

Although he kept his eyes averted from hers, the tug was insistent, insidious, and he felt the first hint of a muscle tremor deep beneath his skin.

"You agreed to release me from your thrall if I succeeded." He drew in his breath slowly, keeping it steady with effort. "You didn't expect me to."

Lilith tilted her head, turning her face away while keeping her gaze on him in a sly manner. "On the contrary, Maximilian. I was certain that you would succeed. I had no doubts. After all"-she reached for him, brus.h.i.+ng her long-nailed finger along one of his cheekbones-"that is one of the things that attracts me to you. Your strength, your determination, and your integrity."

Max didn't flinch as the nail, death-sharp, cut a slender line in his skin. His heartbeat was still his own, and though his throat was dry, he was still steady. He wanted to step away, but he didn't. He'd faced Lilith before, he'd face her this time.

Now her hand had come to rest on one side of his chest, and they stood face-to-face, the vampire as tall as he, the weight of her hand burning through his s.h.i.+rtwaist. "Along with... this..." she added, smoothing her palm over his firm pectoral. With her touch came the strength of her thrall, battling to capture his breathing, the race of his heart, the surge in his veins. His desire.

"Will you not keep your word and release me?" Max closed his eyes. He knew it had been foolish to come here, but he'd been willing to try. He had little to lose. He'd even told Victoria he never believed Lilith would release him.

Both of her hands were on him now, flat-palmed, sliding up and over his shoulders to cup the bare skin of his neck. Max felt the tiny, warm drip of blood from his cheek where she'd cut him, and the unbearable closeness when she leaned forward and pressed an openmouthed kiss to the edge of his jaw, over the trickle of blood.

The flood of sensation staggered him. Her lips, one cool and firm; the other warm and soft, bussing against his skin, set his fingers to trembling there against the sides of his trousers. Her teeth were slick and smooth as they slid against his jaw, ending in a tiny nibble. His breath caught, and he drew it in sharply, deeply, and felt the beginnings of response simmering low inside him, behind the weakness in his knees. His lips parted with a soft puff of air.

When she kissed them, he tasted his own blood, and he kissed her back, unwillingly, yet willingly.

Then through the haze of desire that pummeled for control of him, Max remembered who he still was.

He managed to slide his hand up between them, brus.h.i.+ng against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressed to his s.h.i.+rt. He tore at its ties and at last closed his fingers over the tiny silver cross that hung from his areola.

Strength from the holy amulet-the vis bulla-surged through him, and he drew in his first clear breath since she'd stepped close. He pulled his face away as she realized what had happened and stepped back. Her fingers tore at his s.h.i.+rt, pulling it open, and with a shriek of surprise, she jerked away.

"So you have come armed." At first, she could not look at him; could not look at the large silver cross that hung on a heavy chain around his neck. Hidden beneath his s.h.i.+rt, it was the only weapon he'd been able to bring into her presence aside of the tiny vis bulla; not as effective as an ash stake, but it had produced the effect he'd desired.

"I am not so foolish as to come to you unprepared," Max replied, his voice easier now, although his blood still leapt and his chest was tight. "A stake would have been preferable, but your Guardians would not allow me to pa.s.s with one. I tried."

"I would expect nothing less from you, Maximilian." She kept her distance, kept her eyes slightly averted, but was not the crumpled heap of weakness a lesser vampire would have been. The surprise had sent her spinning away, but the mere vision of the cross was not enough to frighten a vampire of her caliber for long. As a mortal's eyes became used to sudden light in darkness, so would she soon be able to look at him again.

But the large cross would keep her from touching him-or touching him much-and the delicate silver vis bulla-blessed with holy water from the Vatican, and forged of silver from the Holy Land-gave him his Venator speed, strength, and fast-healing capabilities, but neither would damage Lilith in any other way.

"And here you are, demanding that I comply with your wishes. Maximilian, you absolutely fascinate me. Are you quite certain you do not wish to remain here with me? Forever?"

"I have no wish for immortality."

"But you did at one time."

"I did. Long ago." There was no glossing over it. Max had learned to live with his choices.

"Not that long ago. Merely fifteen, perhaps sixteen years ago. And your last year spent living among the members of the Tutela did not raise that desire in you again?"

His last year living with the Tutela, the protectors of the vampires, had been h.e.l.l on earth. "I did it because of your promise to release me if I succeeded with the task you set me to. Now I am here to collect it."

Lilith looked at him, reached out her hand to touch his arm. "I cannot let you go, Maximilian, my Venator pet."

"You lied, then." He'd known it, known she would not release him. "I did your bidding and you never intended to do as you promised."

"Come now, Maximilian. You are fully aware that the secrets I gave you, the knowledge you had that enabled you to see to the destruction of Akvan's Obelisk, was just as much to your benefit-and that of your race-as it was to mine. I would not say you have come out of this so very badly."

Bile burned the back of his throat. Oh, but what he had been forced to do to carry out Lilith's desires... he'd done the right thing, but it had been repugnant. Terrible. Heartbreaking.

And that was why he'd removed his vis bulla; walked away from Victoria and the rest of the Venators... and why he'd been reckless enough to come here.

A hero he'd been, true, but a repulsive one at that.

"Ah, Maximilian." Lilith was speaking again, touching him again. Her fingers wove into the hair that brushed his shoulders, sending little frissons of unease into his scalp. "I do like your hair long like this. It makes you look so much more... savage. You would be a magnificent vampire."

He closed his eyes. Waiting. Ignoring the leap in his veins, the obstinate awareness of her pull, the way his fingers trembled. The unbearable smell of roses from the hideous creature in front of him. The way his body responded to hers, and the knowledge that it wasn't only because of the bites.

"I'll never drink your blood."

Lilith sighed against him, her breath not putrid as one might expect from an undead... but tinged with the same floral scent that clung to the rest of her. But then, of course, she hadn't just been feeding. "And that, my pet, is my greatest disappointment of the century. All right, Maximilian. I will allow you to be released from my thrall. Much as it will annoy me to do so."

She released him and he opened his eyes. Wary.Lilith stepped away, suddenly breezy in her demeanor. "I will release you. There is a salve, a balm you can apply to the bites...

my bites," she added, her blue-red eyes narrowing. "It will heal them permanently. We will no longer be bound."

"And?"

Her smile came all the way to her eyes, drawing them tight at the corners and tightening the tops of her cheeks. But it barely touched her lips. "And... with the dissolution of my markings on you will also be the destruction of your Venatorial powers.

The vis bulla will be useless to you. You will no longer sense those of my race. You will be relieved of any memory of our times together, of your time as a Venator. It will all go away."

"I will recall nothing of the Venators, of the vampires?"

"Nothing. Your ignorance will be your bliss."

He could forget what had happened. Live a normal life.

"You've done your duty, Maximilian. Beyond your duty. You've done everything that's been asked of you, and more. I would miss you, of course..."

Then he understood. "And of course, I would be ripe for your plucking."

"Oh, no, Maximilian. You would be just like any other mortal man. No longer a challenge. No longer exciting, a mixture of pleasure"-she stroked a hand over his cheek-"and pain"-and slipped her hand down under his s.h.i.+rt to brush against his vis bulla. And then jerked away with the pain, and a breathless laugh. "I would have no further interest in you."

His heart thumped quietly. "Why?"

Lilith placed both hands on his chest. "I would no longer have to contend with my greatest threat. You as a Venator."

He took her wrists-the first time he'd ever touched her of his own volition-and forced them away.

"So what shall it be, Maximilian? A free, ignorant life... or the vis bulla and me?"

COLLEEN GLEASON.

THE REST FALLS AWAY.

In every generation, a Gardella is called to accept the family legacy of vampire slaying, and this time, Victoria Gardella Grantworth is chosen, on the eve of her debut, to carry the stake. But as she moves between the crush of ballrooms and dangerous, moonlit streets, Victoria's heart is torn between London's most eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Rockley, and her enigmatic ally, Sebastian Vioget. And when she comes face to face with the most powerful vampire in history, Victoria must ultimately make the choice between duty and love.

"Intriguing, witty and addictive."

-Publishers Weekly Available wherever books are sold or at penguin.com COLLEEN GLEASON lives near Ann Arbor with her husband and children. She has an English degree and an MBA from the University of Michigan. Before writing full-time, she worked in the sales and marketing side of health care and insurance products. She has managed large sales forces, worked in start-up companies, and owned her own business. Colleen loves to hear from her readers; she can be contacted through her Web site at www.colleengleason.com.

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