For All Eternity (The Black Rose Chronicles) (40 page)

Read For All Eternity (The Black Rose Chronicles) Online

Authors: Linda Lael Miller

Tags: #For all Eternity, #linda lael miller, #vampire romance

Maeve laughed.
I suppose you’re right,
she said.

Nemesis came to me a little while ago—he and his Master have decided not to make war on us.

Valerian laid his cards out on the table in a flamboyant fan shape, and the mortals groaned in sporting despair and threw down their hands.
I am your creator, remember?
the great vampire finally said.
The instant you knew what had been decided, so did I.

Maeve put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to one side.
Then you know about the child, too.

Valerian gathered his winnings and tossed a chip to the dance-hall girl who was attending him so faithfully.
My dear,
he answered,
if you’d only troubled to look at the tapestry you were weaving, you would have seen the truth long ago. I’ve been aware of your delicate condition for days.

Mild irritation moved in Maeve’s spirit; sometimes Valerian’s seeming omniscience really got on her nerves.
Well,
she retorted,
just tune out for a while, won’t you please? There are things I want to settle with Calder, and I’d rather you weren’t a witness to the whole encounter.

He raised one shoulder in a shrug too elegant for the surroundings.
I have interests of my own,
he replied.
In fact, if you don’t mind, I’d like to concentrate on my poker game.

You’11 tell Dathan and the others about the truce with Nemesis?
Maeve pressed, eager to go but at the same time determined to accomplish her original purpose in coming to that rough, smoky place.

Certainly,
Valerian answered, but he’d become absorbed in the new hand of cards he’d been dealt, and the dancing girl was perched on his knee.
The first time I see the warlock, I’ll tell him. Then I’ll tear his throat out.

Maeve shook her head.
Have a care,
she warned.
Dathan is more powerful than you like to think.

Valerian shifted his thin cigar to the other side of his mouth, clamping it between his white teeth.
I’ve been taking care of myself for centuries, Maeve,
he reminded her distractedly.
Believe me. I’m very good at survival. Now, get out of here and let me finish my game.

She hesitated, then went to Valerian’s side, bent, and kissed his cheek in gratitude, affection, and farewell.

Maeve found Calder in that same century, in a field hospital in northern Tennessee. He wore the uniform of a Confederate officer and carried a black leather bag packed with modem instruments and medicines.

When Maeve revealed herself to him, he was injecting a powerful painkiller into the arm of a boy who should have been at home, playing ball, doing chores, and going to school.

Calder raised his eyes to Maeve’s face, and she saw his love for her in them, and his pain.

“Can they see you?” she asked.

Calder smiled sadly and withdrew the needle from the man-child’s arm. “Yes,” he answered softly. “They believe I’m a mortal, like them.”

She looked down at the soldier. “Will he live?” Calder nodded, then rounded the cot, took Maeve’s elbow in one hand, and led her outside into the balmy southern night.

“That’s quite a uniform,” she said, noting his gray tunic and well-made trousers. “When did you switch sides and become a Confederate?”

“I haven’t,” he answered, studying her through narrowed, worried eyes. “I’ve always been on the side of life—I go back and forth between the two armies, helping where I can. Why are you here, Maeve?”

She hesitated, then said bravely, “Because I love you.”

“And I love you,” Calder answered, setting his bag down and laying his hands on Maeve’s upper arms. “But I can’t let you hold me prisoner, no matter what dangers you might be trying to protect me from. I need the freedom to be myself, Maeve—without that, I might as well not exist.”

“I understand,” she replied. “And I’m sorry for those times I held you captive. My intentions were good, but I realize now that I was wrong.”

Calder raised one hand to touch her face. “Perhaps we could try again, you and I,” he said gruffly. “You let me take my chances with the world, and I’ll let you take yours.”

Maeve felt unvampire-like tears burning in her eyes and clogging her throat. “We could always find each other,” she said, “with just a thought.”

He bent and kissed her lightly on the mouth, and she felt the old, savage passion stirring. “Always,” he agreed.

She took his hand. “Would you come away with me, just for a little while?” she asked almost shyly. “There’s something I want very much to show you.”

“Of course,” he replied, looking puzzled.

“I’ll meet you in my studio,” she said, feeling as though she could fly home on the wings of her joy, needing no other magic than that.

‘To London,” Calder said with a grand gesture of one arm, as though inviting Maeve to precede him.

She was standing in front of the tapestry when her mate appeared, and she watched his eyes widen as he took in the images and their meaning. Finally he turned to her in wonderment.

“A child?” His voice was low and gruff, and he sounded as though he were trying to restrain his rising hopes, to avoid disappointment.

Maeve caught both Calder’s hands in her own and arranged them flat against her stomach. “Nemesis says the baby is mortal,” she said.

Calder looked at once joyous and baffled. “But how can that be?” he whispered.

She put her arms around his neck. “I don’t know,” she said with a smile. “You’re the doctor.”

He ran his hands up and down her back, his eyes full of wonder. “It’s a miracle,” he marveled, and then he kissed her again.

Maeve was intoxicated when he finally drew back, and so weak that she clung to the front of Calder’s tunic to keep herself upright. “How will we manage, Calder?” she asked. “How can vampires raise a mortal child?”

“The same way mortals do,” Calder replied, smoothing her soft dress away from her shoulders to reveal her white, full breasts. “With a great deal of love and patience.”

“But—”

Calder bent and took one of Maeve’s nipples boldly into his mouth, effectively cutting off her words and swamping her doubts in a storm of physical and spiritual sensation.

Maeve threw back her head, abandoning herself to Calder’s attentions, glorying in the wild appetites he had aroused in her. He smoothed the rest of her clothes away without leaving her breast, and then Maeve was clothed only in moonlight.

“Here’s something else mortals do,” he said gruffly when both Maeve’s breasts were throbbing and wet from his tongue. He dropped to one knee before her, like a cavalier acknowledging his queen, parted the veil of silk that hid her most sensitive place from view, and kissed her there.

Maeve cried out, half in protest, half in glorious surrender. Calder’s hands cupped her bare buttocks, and he pressed her hard against his mouth and suckled until she was trembling against him, whimpering softly in her need.

Calder lowered her to the bare wooden floor finally, and his own clothes were gone, quite literally, in a twinkling. He poised himself over her, and she parted her thighs for him willingly, even eagerly.

He entered her in one hard, desperate thrust and, as quickly as that, Calder’s own control snapped. He and Maeve moved together in a graceful dance of passion, their sleek bodies rising and falling, twisting and turning, as each worshiped the other.

It ended with a simultaneous, white-hot melding, not only of their physical selves, but of their souls as well, and afterward they both lay stricken and exhausted on the hard floor.

Maeve was the first to move. She put her clothes back on, reached into the pocket of her gown, and took out the pendant the gypsy had given her, long, long ago. Crouching beside Calder, who was still splendidly naked and had managed to raise himself onto one elbow, she put the chain around his neck and then kissed him softly on each side of his face.

“This is my pledge to you,” she said. “I will be your wife, now and throughout eternity, in heaven or in hell, in life or in death.”

Calder sat up, took Maeve’s face in his strong hands, and kissed her earnestly. “And this is my pledge to you,” he replied then in a hoarse voice, drawing back only far enough to look deep into her eyes. “I will be your husband, faithful and brave and patient. I will love you beyond forever, and my soul will be a part of yours.”

Maeve moved back into his arms. It was the closest they would ever have to a wedding, this exchange of vows they had just shared, but she and Calder had agreed to love each other for all eternity.

Forever sounded just right.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LINDA LAEL MILLER is the #1
New York Times
bestselling author of over a hundred novels. A favorite of romance readers, she expanded the scope of the traditional love story with her unique vampire series:
Forever and the Night
,
For All Eternity
,
Time Without End
, and
Tonight and Always
. Look for the upcoming books in the series, newly available on digital format.