Elizabeth Hunter - This Same Earth

“Daughter, that’s enough,” Carwyn murmured as he walked across to gather her up and hold her as she shook with silent sobs.

Giovanni watched Beatrice from across the room, noting her pale face as she watched Deirdre’s grief. The fear in her eyes matched that which slashed at his own heart, and he fought back a wave of hot panic at the thought of being parted from her.

Deirdre finally wiped her eyes and pulled away from her father. She gave Beatrice a hard look, but before Giovanni could rebuke the widow, some unspoken communication seemed to pass between the women and the tension drained from the room. Deirdre turned to him with a veiled expression.

“Giovanni, forgive my outburst. I will leave you so that I may see to my family.”

“Deirdre…”

“And you, Beatrice, thank you for helping to find those who killed my Ioan.”

“Of course.”

Carwyn and Deirdre walked out of the library to join the vampires who surrounded a bonfire lit in remembrance of their kinsman. Giovanni watched them through the window until he heard a quiet sniff behind him, and he turned. “Beatrice?”

“Is that what you want?” Tears were in her eyes, and her arms were folded across her chest.

“What-”

“Is that what you want for us ? For me to give up my human life and be tied to you like that? So connected that either of us would want to die if something happened to the other?”

Yes.

No matter how painful Deirdre’s loss was, Giovanni had also seen the incredible joy her bond with Ioan brought. “You know my feelings for you. And what I want.”

“To become a vampire. Like you. To live in the dark and watch all my family and friends die around me.” She dashed the tears from her eyes. “But I’d have you, right? And what if I lost you? Or what if you left me again?” Her eyes flashed out the window toward Deirdre. “What then?”

“I won’t leave you again,” he said gently, walking across the library. “And you see only the sadness, but what if we could have a thousand years together? More? Even if we had only one hundred years together, isn’t that more than a mortal man could give you?” He stood in front of her, gripping her shoulders and willing her to see the devotion in his eyes. “What if we had ten? Or only one? Do you think Deirdre regrets any of her time with Ioan because of her grief now?”

“I don’t know,” Beatrice whispered. “It’s too much , Gio. Everything’s changing so fast. This is not my world. And it’s so much bigger than anything I could have imagined.”

He shook his head. “We live on the same Earth, Beatrice. The world has not changed, only your perception of it.”

“I don’t know what I want,” she whispered.

“And I finally do.” He embraced her, feeling the race of her heart against his chest. “I’ve spent five hundred years waiting to feel toward anyone the way I feel toward you.” He clenched his jaw when he spoke again. “I know you want to be cautious, but remember that, too.”

Beatrice’s pulse began to even out as she calmed herself, taking deep breaths until her shoulders relaxed. She took a step back and her hands unclenched.

“I feel like I’m falling sometimes. I feel like my life is out of control, and I don’t know my way around.” She shrugged helplessly. “I’m a stranger here.”

He reached his hand out and she took it. “You’re not a stranger to me.”

Northern Wales

January 2010

A week later, Beatrice and Giovanni travelled by horseback through the rugged mountains of Snowdonia in northern Wales. They followed Carwyn, who was hospitable enough to travel above ground for the benefit of his guests. They were stopping in Carwyn’s house in Wales for a few nights before continuing on to London to meet with his daughter and her fiancé, a water vampire who ran London and had extensive contacts throughout Britain and the continent.

The leads into Ioan’s death had dead-ended in Dublin, but Beatrice had found two boats in the port that were owned by shadow corporations that looked promising. One was headed to London, and the other had been tracked to La Havre. Either could have been Lorenzo, but they would have to go to London before they could find out more.

“I’m sorry you’re visiting my home for the first time under these circumstances.”

Beatrice looked over and smiled at Carwyn. “Don’t apologize. I’m sorry I’ve been so moody lately.”

He pulled his mount back and kept pace with her as they made their way along the trail. Giovanni had ridden ahead, familiar with the terrain and, she suspected, wanting to give her and Carwyn some time alone to talk.

He shrugged. “It’s a crazy world you’ve found yourself in, darling girl. I can hardly blame you for not feeling entirely yourself.”

“I’m glad to be visiting anyway.”

“How’s the bike?”

“Good,” she smiled. “I’m happy you convinced me to buy the Triumph.”

Carwyn nodded. “Anyone looking after things? While you’re away?”

“Well, officially I’m still on my vacation time, though Dez and Matt know what’s really going on and are watching the house. I’m going to have to figure out something to do about work, though.”

“Ah, so Dez is finally in on the secret, is she?”

Beatrice nodded. “She is. And she and Matt are dating now.”

“About bloody time,” he muttered.

“Hey, watch the language, Father. Don’t you have parishioners around here?”

Carwyn chuckled and looked around the snowy valley. “That I do, though I hardly think any of them are out on a night like this.”

Though she was bundled in the warm woolen clothes she had bought in Ireland, Beatrice still shivered as they made their way through the cold, desolate hills leading toward Carwyn’s mountain home.

“So Matt and Dez are finally together,” he continued.

“Yep.”

“And you and Gio?”

She fell silent and looked sideways at him. “What about us?”

Carwyn shrugged and gave a wry smile. “Distract an old man with some juicy gossip. What’s going on with you two? I know you and Mano broke up.”

“Yeah,” she said quietly, surprised by how much it still hurt, “we did.”

“And you and Gio are obviously more than friends. You always were. Anything else is pure denial. So why aren’t you two together now?” She may have been glaring at him, but the priest only offered a wink.

“He left me, Carwyn. For five years he stayed away, and he knew where I was the whole time. Am I supposed to just forget all that time because he comes back and tells me he loves me?”

Carwyn lifted an eyebrow. “He told you he loves you?”

She shrugged and looked at the mounded cairns that started to appear at regular intervals along the path.

“Do you love him?”

She wouldn’t have answered for anyone but him, but Carwyn was one of the people she trusted most in the world.

“Honestly? I don’t know. I think part of me never stopped, but the other part of me doesn’t quite trust him to stick around.”

They rode in silence for a while longer.

“I understand where you’re coming from, B-and heaven knows I told him he was wrong to stay away for so long-but at the same time, I do understand why he did it.”

Beatrice scowled at him. “You know, I’m pretty sick of everyone thinking they know what I want more than I do.”

Carwyn chuckled and brushed at the red hair that fell in his eyes. “I’m sure you are, but let me tell you, the time you were in L.A., without him, you did a lot of growing. It was lovely to watch, you know, to see you come into yourself. Do you think you would have grown the same ways if he had been there? Or if you had stayed in Houston with him?”