Shadows of Eternity

Chapter Twenty-Five

S mothering a yawn, Leia stood in the kitchen, waiting for the coffee maker to produce her morning cup. She had tossed and turned all last night, troubled by the appearance of Rohan’s sire and wondering what it meant for their future—if they had one.

Rohan was resting in her bed. Although he hadn’t said so, she knew he was afraid to leave her alone in her apartment. The fact that he was worried spiked her own fears.

He was supposed to dance tonight, and Saturday. The theater was dark the rest of the week. She had hoped to be there for every performance the rest of this week and the next, but now she wasn’t so sure. She wasn’t sure about anything, she thought glumly as she carried her coffee mug to the table and sat down. When this gig was over, she needed to do some serious thinking about her future and whether she still wanted Rohan to be part of it. Rohan couldn’t father a child, but lots of couples couldn’t have children, and they could always adopt. And lots of men who weren’t vampires slept days and worked nights.

She could handle that, too. Then there was the age thing. Rohan looked thirty and would always look thirty. It wasn’t a problem now, but, eventually, she would age and he wouldn’t. How would she feel when she looked forty, fifty, sixty, and he still looked thirty? How would he feel when she began to look like his mother instead of his lover?

The words he had spoken soon after they met suddenly rang out in her mind. The whole vampire thing isn’t going to go away, Leia. It’s part of me, a part I can’t change. He had also said if they stayed together, she would have to make changes. She had wondered several times since then what he’d meant and now, suddenly, she wondered if one of those changes referred to making her what he was. That would certainly change her! Funny, she had never considered that option. And she refused to think about it now. Surely no one ever willingly chose to be a vampire. It was a life against nature, unnatural, abnormal. Abhorrent.

But what if becoming a vampire was the only way for their relationship to survive? Was she willing to sacrifice her humanity to spend her life with him? That was the $64,000 question, she thought, chewing on her thumbnail. She just wished she knew the right answer.

Waking from the dark sleep, Rohan was instantly aware of where he was. He knew the sun had just set. Leia had finished cleaning up after dinner and was standing at the front room window, deep in thought about what had happened last night, but more concerned about what the future held for the two of them. Sadly, that was something she had to figure out for herself.

He rose effortlessly, showered and dressed. Showtime was eight o’clock. He had two hours to get to San Diego and get ready for his first number. After running a comb through his hair, he left the bedroom.

Leia looked over her shoulder when he entered the room. She had known he was awake. She’d heard the shower come on. Their gazes met, his impassive, hers troubled.

Rohan swore inwardly. He was about to read her mind to determine what she was thinking when she closed the distance between them. Eyes bright with unshed tears, she clasped her hands behind his neck.

“I don’t want to leave you,” she whispered brokenly. “Please tell me there’s a way for us to be together.”

He wrapped his arm around her waist and stroked her hair with free hand. “This is a decision you’ll have to live with,” he said. “And only you can make it.” He brushed a kiss across the top of her head. “I didn’t mean to involve you in my life,” he said, gazing into the distance. “I thought I could love you for a little while and then leave, but … ” He shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve never been in love like this before, darlin’, and never again.”

Love shouldn’t be this hard, she thought. Other couples met, fell in love, married, and if they were lucky, they lived happily-ever-after.

“But we’re not like other couples, are we?” he asked quietly.

Leia sighed as his hand stroked up and down her back, sending little shivers of delight dancing in the pit of her stomach.

“I know you’re afraid you’ll have to become what I am, but you don’t. I will love you and care for you as long as you live.”

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with doubt. “Is that how you want to spend your future? Looking after a decrepit old woman?”

He laughed softly. “I won’t let that happen.”

“Oh? Have you discovered the Fountain of Youth?”

“In a way. My blood can slow the aging process. You will be young and beautiful for a long, long time. Other women will envy you and wonder what your secret is.”

“I don’t believe you. That’s not possible.”

“I’ll prove it to you, my love, when you get older. Right now, I have to get to the theater. Are you coming with me?”

She bit down on her lower lip, then nodded.

They didn’t have time to drive that night so Rohan transported them to the venue. Not wanting to leave her alone, he took her into his dressing room while he changed into his breechclout, tied an eagle feather in his hair, and pulled on a pair of exquisitely-beaded moccasins.

Leia watched with fascination as he painted his chest and face. It was just a bit of red and black paint, yet it transformed him from Rohan to the warrior, Shadow Dancer. Tall and muscular, his skin the color of old copper, his hair as black as midnight, he looked gorgeous and dangerous.

“Are you doing a new dance tonight?” she asked. “I’ve never seen you wear moccasins.”

“Gotta give the crowd something new every once in a while,” he said, with a wink. “In the old days, I would have kidnapped you and carried you away to my lodge and made you my woman.”

“Would you?”

He nodded. “You would cook for me and bear me strong sons, and every night you would share my blankets and tell me you loved me.”

“I do most of that now,” she said with a grin. And knew she wanted to do it every night for as long as she lived.

“Leia.” Just her name, but there was a wealth of emotion behind it.

The five-minute bell sounded just then.

“You’d better go get your seat.” He kissed her cheek. “I’ll be dancing just for you tonight.”

Feeling her heart glow with love, Leia hurried out of the dressing room and into the theater. As usual, they had a packed house. The other dances all ran together in her mind and then he took the stage, looking magnificent and proud. She had grabbed a program and she quickly scanned it when she didn’t recognize the dance. It was one he hadn’t done before. The Eagle Dance. The description said that this dance was a prayer to Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit of the Lakota. In it, the dancer asked for a blessing on the People as he imitated the soaring flight of the eagle, which was a symbol of the Great Spirit. From time to time, he blew on a whistle to imitate the eagle’s piercing cry.

It was the most beautiful, powerful dance she had ever seen. For some reason, it brought tears to her eyes.

“Quite amazing, isn’t he?”

Annoyed, Leia turned toward the man sitting behind her, intending to ask him to be quiet. She gasped when she recognized the man as the one she had seen the night before.

The vampire who had turned Rohan.

She pressed a hand to her heart. Why was he here again?

Rohan sensed his sire’s presence before he saw him. What the hell? Fear and anger rose within him when he saw Josiah leaning forward, talking to Leia. It was all he could do to keep from leaping off the stage.

Another few steps and the dance ended. He took a bow and hurried into the wings. He peered through a narrow gap in the curtains, ready to spring into action, if necessary, but when he looked, Josiah was gone. Relief washed through him when he saw Leia. What the hell was his sire up to with his little game of cat and mouse? Was he just amusing himself at Rohan’s expense, or seriously plotting to steal Leia away from him?

Magdalena stood in the shadows at the back of the theater. She had been following Josiah for days. When she was human, he had vowed that he loved her, promised they would be together forever. After he’d turned her, he taught her the basics of what it was to be a vampire and then left her a week later without so much as a word of farewell. What she intended to do about it, she had no idea. But once she’d seen the Lakota warrior known as Shadow Dancer, she forgot everything else. What was a vampire doing dancing with a bunch of humans? He was magnificent. Never had she seen a man move with such masculine grace, such self-assurance. He was the very epitome of what a Lakota warrior should be. What would he say if she introduced herself to him? They were, after all, related by blood.

Leia waited in Rohan’s dressing room while he changed, then followed him down the narrow hall to the stage door. Dozens of admirers—all female—were waiting for him. She fell back as they gathered around him, calling his name, thrusting souvenir programs at him to sign, elbowing each other out of the way as they tried to get closer to him, eager to touch him, to get a photo of him or with him, to tell him how wonderful he was.

She grinned inwardly, thinking how jealous they would be if they knew Shadow Dancer was hers.

She glanced at the dark-haired woman standing a little apart from the others. She was pretty, exotic, with copper-hued skin and black eyes. Was she Indian? Leia frowned when the woman glared at her. Odd, Leia thought, and then forgot all about the woman when Rohan glanced her way and shrugged, as if to say, What can I do?

Eventually, the crowd drifted away, all but the dark-haired woman who had looked so menacingly at Leia.

Disconcerted, Leia moved to Rohan’s side. “Why is she looking at me like that?” she asked. “I’ve never seen her before.”

“She’s a vampire.” Rohan inhaled sharply, then wrapped his arm around Leia’s shoulders as he recognized the scent of the vampire who had done the killings in L.A. She didn’t look like a savage killer, he thought, as the woman approached them. She was petite and pretty. And dangerous as hell. “What do you want?” he asked brusquely.

“To speak with you. Alone.”

“There’s nothing you can say to me that can’t be said in front of my woman.”

“Then I will tell you another time,” she hissed, and was gone before he could say anything else.

“What was that all about?” Leia asked.

“I don’t know, but I sense something familiar about her.”

“Oh?” A sharp stab of jealousy speared through her. Was the woman a former lover he had somehow forgotten?

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go home.”

In a matter of moments, they were standing in her living room. “What do you think she wanted to tell you?” Leia asked as she kicked off her shoes and settled on the sofa.

Rohan shrugged. “Beats the hell out of me.”

Leia picked up a sofa pillow and hugged it to her chest. “Can she follow us?”

With a shrug, he dropped down beside her. “Probably. But don’t worry. She can’t come in without an invitation, remember?” No sooner had he spoken than he sensed the other vampire’s presence, knew she was standing in front of the apartment.

“It’s late,” he said. “I need to go out for a few minutes. Why don’t you get ready for bed?” He brushed a kiss across her lips. “You can warm up my side while I’m gone.”

She smiled up at him. “Don’t be long.”

“I won’t.” He kissed her again and vanished.

“I wish I could do that,” Leia muttered as she headed for the bathroom. “Think of all the money I’d save on gas if I could just will myself wherever I wanted to go.” And then she sobered. He wasn’t going out for a good time, he was going out to hunt. Would she ever get used to that?

The woman smiled when she saw him, as if she’d been certain he would come.

“All right, I’m here,” he said impatiently. “What do you want?”

She smiled, flashing white teeth. “I thought we should meet.”

“Yeah? Why?”

“We are related, in a manner of speaking.”

Rohan frowned. “Is that right? Funny, I don’t remember having a sister.”

“We carry the same blood,” she replied, a note of bitterness in her voice.

Rohan stared at her. And then he opened his senses and knew what she meant. Josiah had turned them both. “You followed him here. Why?”

“I want to destroy him.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to get in line,” Rohan retorted. “Why do you want him dead?”

“My reasons are my own,” she said. And then she frowned. “Why do you want him dead?”

He lifted one brow in amusement. “Why should I tell you?”

She shrugged.

“So, you’re Magdalena.”

“Did he tell you about me?”

“Just that he’d turned you. If you want him dead, why are you leaving bodies around town?”

“Why shouldn’t I? Isn’t that what vampires are supposed to do?”

“Not the smart ones.”

She sucked in a breath, and let it out in a long, slow sigh. “Sometimes I can’t help myself. I get so angry at how he treated me. Maybe when I’ve destroyed him, the urge to kill will pass.”

Rohan grunted. He knew the feeling. “So why do you want him dead?”

“Because he lied to me! He told me he loved me. That when he turned me, we would be together forever. And then he left without a word and I vowed to destroy him.”

“Can’t say as I blame you.”

“Why do you want him dead?”

Rohan shook his head. “I’m not sure my reason is as good as yours. My advice to you is go home. He’s your sire. You’ll never be strong enough to defeat him.” Josiah was his sire, too, Rohan thought. What made him so sure he could destroy him and Magdalena couldn’t?

“We would be strong enough together,” she argued.

Rohan grinned at her. “You would have made a hell of a warrior.”

“What makes you think I didn’t?”

He looked at her with new-found respect. It wasn’t unheard of for Lakota women to be warriors. In battle, they were as bold and brave as the men, sometimes more so.

“Will you help me?” she asked.

“Let me think it over for a day or two. I’ll let you know.”

“Do you love the woman with the flame-colored hair?”

“ ‘Fraid so.”

“I will see you again,” she said, and disappeared into the darkness.

She was a strange one, Rohan mused, as he went in search of prey. He fed quickly on the first lone female he saw, then willed himself back to Leia’s apartment. He had thought to find her asleep, but she was sitting up in bed.

Her eyes were filled with suspicion when she looked at him. “You went to see that vampire woman, didn’t you?”

Rohan swore inwardly. How the hell had she known? Woman’s intuition? “She was waiting for me outside.” He held up his hand, staying the next accusation. “She wants Josiah dead.”

“Why?”

“She’s madder than hell because he made some promises he didn’t keep. I guess you could say it’s a lover’s spat.”

“And she came to you for help?”

Rohan shrugged. “We’re related, in a way. Josiah made her, too. If she was a man, I guess we’d be blood brothers.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“She’s very pretty, isn’t she?” Leia asked.

“Yes, she is.”

“You have a lot in common. She’s a vampire. And she’s Indian, like you, isn’t she?”

Rohan blew out a sigh. He didn’t want to have this conversation. Siting on the edge of the bed, he took one of Leia’s hands in his. “Yes, she’s pretty and a vampire and Lakota. And it doesn’t mean anything. I don’t have any feelings for her, darlin’. It’s you I love and nothing will change that.” He paused and took a deep breath. “Are you sure it’s me you’re worried about, or are you having second thoughts again? You need to make a decision, Leia. I know it’s hard. I know there are a lot of differences between us, and that some of them scare you and some of them worry you, but if you love me enough, we can overcome them together. I love you and I always will, no matter what you decide.”

Lifting her hand, he turned it over and kissed her palm. She shivered as ripples of pleasure spiraled through her.

“Think about what I said,” he murmured. “Call me when you’ve made up your mind.”

“You’re leaving me?”

“I want you to be clear-headed while you think about it.” He grinned ruefully. “I’m afraid you can’t think objectively while I’m sharing your bed.”

Leia glared at him. “Of all the conceited … ” She gasped as he pulled her up against him and kissed her, his tongue dueling with hers in a long, slow mating dance that threatened to melt her very bones with its heat. She clung to him, desperate for more, for anything to quench the sudden fire burning through her.

“It’s not conceit,” he whispered against her ear. “It’s part of what I am. And that’s why you need to be alone to make your decision.”

Leia gazed up at him, her body still throbbing with need, even as she admitted he was right, because at that moment, she would have said anything, done anything, he wanted.

Rohan brushed a kiss across her lips. “I’ll be waiting for your call,” he said quietly.

Silent tears trickled down her cheeks as she watched him walk away.

Rohan muttered every foul word he’d ever known as he prowled the night. It seemed he was always leaving Leia or thinking about leaving her for her own good. Perhaps this time, he should just leave the country for forty or fifty years. She might miss him for a while, but she’d get over it. In time, she’d fall in love with some decent young man, marry, have a couple of kids, and live happily ever after.

He growled low in his throat as his fangs pricked his tongue. Who was he kidding? He’d probably rip the heart out of any man who dared lay a hand on her. Another good reason to leave the country. With a wry grin, he admitted there were times when he wasn’t as civilized as he liked to think.

With a muffled oath, he transported himself to the cold comfort of his lair. Leia had a lot of thinking to do. But then, so did he.