Come to Me (34 page)

"I had hoped for a few hours more," she said softly to Nicolae.

Nicolae frowned down at her. "Do not think that this is finished before it has even begun." He repositioned her so that she rode astride in front of him, and kicked his horse into a canter, straight through the villagers and into the approaching face of Night.

They reined to a stop a hundred yards in front of the mass of villagers, and waited while Nyx closed the final distance between them.

An eerie, howling wind swirled around them and then died away, bringing silence and darkness in its wake. Samira clung to the arm that Nicolae held around her waist, and stared into the heart of the deepening blackness.

A full moon and deep swath of brilliant stars emerged overhead, lightening the gloom and picking out the details of the landscape with a silver clarity. A swirl of stars slowly gathered and coalesced before them, becoming the face and body of Nyx, Queen of the Night. Beside her, a lean figure as pale as moonlight stood silent.

"She has brought Death with her," Samira whispered.

Nicolae's arm tightened around her. "That white man?"

"Yes. He's my uncle." After a moment she added, "He doesn't talk much."

That earned her a surprised chuckle from Nicolae. "You have one hell of a family."

"You have no idea." She swung her leg over the neck of the horse and reluctantly tried to slide down. Nicolae grabbed her, not letting her go.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"I must bow to my queen."

He hoisted her back up and firmly reseated her before him. "Your place is here. You are no longer her subject."

Samira felt a thrill run through her heart, even as she feared how his move might affect Nyx. "Nicolae, do not anger her!"

"You stay." And then to Nyx, whose last stars were falling into place around her body, "Queen Nyx, welcome to Moldavia."

Nyx smiled at him, her teeth as white as starshine, her inky hair blowing in a cloud behind her. "Prince Nicolae. I am honored."

"It is a pleasure to meet Samira's grandmother. She has told me much about you."

Nyx arched a brow at Samira. "I hope all of it was flattering. Samira, have you no greeting for me?"

Samira dug around her throat until she could find the semblance of a voice. "Your Majesty. It is a pleasure to see you again."

"I doubt it, unless you have fulfilled all the tasks I set before you."

"You will not take her, even if she has not," Nicolae said.

Samira almost fainted.

Nyx's gaze shot to Nicolae. "I beg your pardon?"

"You will not harm her."

Nyx seemed to grow larger, the stars spinning across her ephemeral flesh. "Who are you to say what I will or will not do?"

"I will give myself over to you!" Samira interrupted frantically, struggling in Nicolae's grip to be free. She could not permit Nyx to punish Nicolae for his effrontery. She would not have him fight against Night, for it was a battle he was certain to lose. "Your Majesty, I cannot answer all the questions you set for me. Destroy me if you must, but do not harm Nicolae!"

Nicolae's arms, once so weak, were clamped like iron bands around her, and she could not break free. "Let me go," she whispered urgently.

"No."

"She wishes to be free," Nyx said to Nicolae, with deceptive mildness. "Won't you release her?"

"No. You will have to kill me to take her."

Samira moaned.

"Because she is your possession?" Nyx asked.

"Because she is my heart."

It took Samira a long moment to understand what he had said. She turned in his arms and gazed up at him in wonder. His face was set in rigid lines as he stared at Nyx, and Samira almost thought she had imagined his words.

"I love her," he said. "You will not take her from me."

"Perhaps she wishes to go," Nyx said. "What say you; Samira? Is it the life of a mortal that you want, with its disease and dirt and death? Your pardon, Death," she said to Death. He nodded that there was no harm done.

"I would choose a life with Nicolae, if I could," Samira admitted. She looked up at him again, gazing into his brown eyes that looked back at her with love unfettered. It was something she had never thought to see; something she had for three millennia not known that she
needed
to see. "I love you," she told him, ignoring Nyx and Death. "With all of the heart that I have, I love you."

Nicolae bent his head and softly kissed her on the lips. She touched his cheek, trying to memorize his face, trying to ingrain it on her being for whatever short time she might have left.

Samira turned back to Nyx. "Yes, I would choose this short life if I could. I would rather have a year here with Nicolae than a thousand in the Night World."

Death shook his head at such foolishness. Nyx crossed her arms over her starry bosom. "Why should I let you have your way, when you cannot answer the questions I set to you four weeks ago?"

A small fluttering of hope rose to life inside Samira. There was in Nyx's question the possibility of persuasion, and mercy. "You asked who else was involved in the dream sent to Dragosh."

Nyx nodded.

Samira had sworn to Theron that she would not reveal his name. After the visit he had paid her, and the power-hungry plans he had laid before her, it was an easy choice between protecting him and gaining a chance at life with Nicolae. Theron did not deserve her protection. "It was Theron."

"Yes."

Samira's eyes widened. "You knew?"

"Not at the time. He was not difficult to discover once I knew what to watch for, though."

"What will happen to him?" Samira asked, a remnant of compassion for her former friend rising to the surface.

"I haven't yet decided," Nyx said idly. "He has set in motion new possibilities for the future, many of which will lead swiftly to his own destruction. Some, however, have intriguing ends. I will watch and wait."

Samira nodded, afraid to ask any more, and not wanting to hear about Theron anyway.

"I don't know the answers to your other questions," Samira admitted. "I don't know why the Night World is beneath humanity. I don't know how I've helped Nicolae, except that his friends tell me he comes out of his tower more often. And I did figure out part of the illusion book for him."

Nyx shook her head. "But you do know the answer, Samira. I saw it before me but a minute ago."

"Love," Nicolae said. The word was a deep rumble in his chest that Samira could feel vibrating through her own body.

Nyx nodded. "Yes, love. Love that would make each of you give your life for the other. No creature of the Night World would ever make such a sacrifice, or even understand it. And that is why humanity is precious, and above us.

"You, Nicolae, have found the strength of this truth," Nyx went on. "In it you will find all the power you need to drive Vlad Draco from Moldavia."

Nyx came up to them then, tall enough that she looked them eye to eye as they sat on the horse. She lifted a starry black hand and touched Samira's cheek, her touch cool and faint through the veil of Night.

"So you see, my dear child, you fulfilled your tasks after all. Death needn't take you today."

Death shrugged his shoulders at this news.

"Will you let me stay here with Nicolae?" Samira asked, almost not daring to hope.

Nyx laughed and turned away, gathering Night around her like a cloak. "I could not take you now even if I wished to," she said over her shoulder. "For what is a soul but the love a human has for others? You have a soul now, Samira. You created it yourself. And we of the Night World can never force a soul from its body.

"Enjoy your earthly life," Nyx called lightly, moving away, Death at her side. Night peeled back from the sky, revealing the blue and gold of a brilliant afternoon. "Enjoy it, for you will not have another!"

Warm air rushed in where the chill of Night had been, and the birds again began to sing. There was a murmur of voices as the villagers gathered behind them, watching the last shadows of Night and Death disappear on the horizon. Samira stared along with them, the miracle of her release still too fresh to be believed.

Nicolae bent down, putting his face beside hers, his cheek pressing against her hair. "You're mine now, for as long as we both shall live."

He, at least, was real, and something she could cling to. She reached up behind her, her hand cupping the back of his neck. "And you are mine." She tilted her face for his kiss, and then turned round in his arms so that he could kiss her fully.

"I want you to marry me," he said, when at last they broke the kiss.

"Yes," she said, although it had not been a question. "Yes!"

Nicolae laughed, and turned his horse round so that they faced his men and the villagers. "Three cheers for the woman who will be my wife: Samira, the future Queen of Moldavia!"

The villagers cheered, uneasily at first, but then with gusto as Nicolae kissed her again.

"Congratulations," Andrei said, riding up to them. "And may I also congratulate you, Nicolae, on having the worst in-laws I have ever seen."

"At least they won't visit often," Constantin said.

"And they won't ask to borrow money," Petru added.

Nicolae laughed, and Samira smiled, feeling the warmth of their acceptance and approval, and her freedom from the Night World. They all rode back toward the fortress, Nicolae's arm a comfort around her.

"You know the battles are not yet over," Nicolae said gently to her, as they rode ahead of the others. "We must leave Lac Strigoi and help my father now."

She nodded. "I know. Do we leave tonight?"

"The morrow is soon enough."

She put her hand on his thigh, still astonished that this man was hers to love for the rest of her natural days. "Then the night is ours."

"As never before, my love. The night is ours."

LISA CACH
is a
Romantic Times
Reviewers' Choice Award Winner who currently lives in the Pacific Northwest, a place she loves although she is always trying to leave it. Wanderlust has led her to sail the Sargasso Sea, eat jellyfish in Japan, and trek the leech-infested jungles of Borneo.

Visit her website at
www.lisacach.com
.