Drink of my love for you, Christian.
Instead of the night a dull grayness came over her, and dragged her away, taking Jamys along, too. How long they remained there, she didn’t know, but he held on to her even then, and refused to be parted from her.
If you will not stay with me, then I will go with you.
When she lifted her head she was standing on the beach, her body draped in an old, soft man’s shirt, her hair blowing in her eyes. When she lifted a hand to push it back, she realized there was so much more of it than she’d had before; the wind drew it out in long, gleaming dark curls.
It dismayed her until she recalled something she’d read once about death. When you die, your hair keeps growing.
The island was just as quiet as she remembered, and the dark waters surrounding it were just as empty. The shy half-moon slipped behind a streamer of dark cloud, and on the horizon, the first ribbon of dark amethyst stretched, wrapping the gift of the coming dawn.
Jamys came up behind her, and encircled her waist with his arms. It’s all right, love. Come back to bed.
Is that where we were? She leaned back against him. I can’t remember. I don’t know how I got here.
I brought you. He turned her to face him, and his expression was so tight and drawn she lifted her fingers to stroke his cheek. I thought I had lost you.
I must have been sleepwalking. She reached up to touch her mouth to his, and felt the faintest stirring of a strange hunger. I love Paradise. I never want to leave it again.
Nor do I. He tugged her close, and tucked her head under his chin. But we cannot stay here forever. It is time for us to go.
She pulled back. Go where?
* * *
Sam stood at the boardwalk railing and surveyed the deserted beach. She’d never once seen it so empty. Always determined to enjoy their tropical vacation no matter what, the snowbirds and out-of-towners would brave anything from freezing temperatures to gale-force winds. But tonight no one occupied the golden sands or paddled in the blue-green ocean, and the only light came from the flames blazing along two rows of bronze braziers marching down to the water’s edge.
Between each ivory pole stood a jardin warrior dressed in a dark suit. Each man wore a black armband, and held a sword across the gap between the braziers to form a canopy of steel.
Sam felt Lucan approaching a moment before the scent of night-blooming jasmine wrapped around her. “How did you get rid of the tourists?”
“Only with gentle persuasion.” Night-blooming jasmine engulfed her as a velvet-gloved hand touched the small of her back. “You need not do this, love. I can see to it.”
“No.” She hated funerals almost as much as she despised death, and she was so tired. But Chris had been the sister that mortal life had never given her, and she had died with Jamys to save them all. Sam looked down at the wreath of red and white roses that Burke had given her. “I have to let her go.”
Lucan turned his head as a group of dark-cloaked figures approached them. His gray eyes turned to chrome as they halted several feet away. “I granted you and your sisters freedom, Duchess. Now I suggest you use it to leave my territory.”
The tallest stepped forward and politely pushed back her hood. “Forgive our intrusion, Suzerain, but we are not yours to command. We are hers.” Werren’s gaze shifted to Sam’s face. “My lady. May we be allowed to pay our respects to your friends?”
She didn’t want to do this now, either. “Yeah, sure.” She gestured toward the braziers. “We’ll join you in a minute.”
Once the women had moved away, Lucan turned to her. “Yours to command, is it? That would mean they gave you their oath. Their blood oath.”
“Things on the ship got a little crazy,” she reminded him. “I didn’t ask for it, but Werren insisted, because if they didn’t, they couldn’t help us, and with all the brainwashing Dutch did to them I thought . . . look, you had to be there, okay?”
He glanced down at the women. “What in God’s name are you going to do with fifty-three immortal sex slaves?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Buy them some decent clothes. Find them better jobs.” She couldn’t think of anything else.
His lips twitched. “Surprise me on my birthday?”
Sam didn’t recognize the laugh that escaped her, nor could she end it. She laughed and laughed until the sound shriveled in her throat and wretchedness overtook her. She saw her fists hit her lover’s jacket before they opened to clutch at it, and as Lucan’s arms came around her to keep her upright, she felt something fall inside her.
I owe you a life. Chris’s face came back to her in every detail: the lightning flash of her smile, the glow of laughter and love in her eyes. Let me save yours.