Колин Глисон - The Vampire Voss

He dropped a kiss onto her lips, quickly and easily, as a man who is comfortable that he will have ample opportunity to do more than that with the woman he loved, whenever he wanted to. “I think you make it sound easier than it was—and yourself more tolerant than you were—but I wholly understand. I felt the same way, although I didn’t quite understand it for a long time.”

“What’s going to happen now? Will Moldavi come after us again? Now that you aren’t a vampire anymore, isn’t he more dangerous to you?” Her eyes were worried.

“Moldavi isn’t stupid—he knows we’re prepared for him. I’m still very strong, and I have something he doesn’t: the ability to move about in full daylight. And aside of that, there isn’t any way he’d know that I’m no longer Dracule. It’s not as if Dimitri is going to tell him, although I’m certain he’ll find out about it someday. But yes, there is a possibility he might attempt to come after you and Maia again—although Dimitri, Cale and I think it unlikely. He’s not about to risk more lives or resources when he knows we’re expecting him and have thus far evaded his attacks. And now that I can move about in the day, that gives me even more of an ability to protect you. Try not to worry, Angelica. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She nodded, but he could still see the concern in her eyes. There was nothing he could do to erase it, but what he’d told her was true: he and Dimitri felt no imminent danger from Moldavi—at least for the sisters.

The safety of Chas Woodmore’s arse was a different story entirely.

They walked for a while, Angelica identifying the flowers and plants he’d long forgotten. At last she asked, “Do you think Chas will ever come home again? To stay?”

“I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “I suspect that as soon as he receives the message from Corvindale that we intend to wed, he’ll be arriving with a stake in his hand. I never did thank you for saving my life, in fact, darling. It’s very precious to me, even though it’s no longer immortal.”

“It was my pleasure,” she said with a smile. “I couldn’t read your future from your glove, and I’ve come to believe that I cannot read the future of a vampir that way. I don’t know why it is, but it seems that I can only see the future of vampirs in my dreams—and that those dreams are as random and unmanageable as Fate itself.”

“Perhaps they aren’t so random, after all,” Voss said, thinking of the mysterious blonde woman. “After all, if you hadn’t dreamed of Brickbank’s demise, as unpleasant as it was, perhaps we wouldn’t have found each other.”

Her eyes brightened. “Of course! I hadn’t thought of that.” She squeezed his hand, bare palm to bare palm. “And even though I dreamed that you were going to die, wearing that awful neckcloth and coat—I still don’t understand why you chose those clothes—and I was afraid that Corvindale was right and we can’t change Fate, I wasn’t going to stand by and allow it to happen. I’d never been able to change my predictions before, but I had to try that time.”

“But I did die. You were right, my love. I did die.”

“Truly?”

He nodded, finally understanding everything himself. Why the blonde woman—she had to have been an angel—had continued to appear to him. That she’d been waiting for him to be ready.

Ready to change. Ready to put someone else ahead of himself—someone from whom he could not hope to gain anything. Ready to act exactly as Lucifer wouldn’t want him to act.

When he woke the next day—or some time later—to find himself no longer in pain, no longer Marked, no longer bound to Lucifer, he realized he’d been given the opportunity for a miracle.

It was the one moment in his life that he’d been truly selfless—risking himself, giving his life for someone he didn’t even know. Yes, he’d held back from attacking Angelica, from doing what he wanted to her because he knew it would hurt her…and that had been the start of his metamorphosis. But it wasn’t until he’d given everything up for someone with whom he had no attachment that the change had been fully realized.

That gift of self had been enough to break an unbreakable covenant.

He realized that, at Rubey’s advice, he’d changed. And that the angel had given him that chance.

Voss wondered how many other chances he’d had in the past that he’d ignored. He had a sense there had been more. You don’t remember me, but we’ve met before.

“You never saw that little girl again? The one that you saved? You never found out what happened?” Angelica asked.

“No.”

“How odd. One would expect the parents to look for you, and express their gratitude.”

But Voss shook his head, a little smile curving his lips. He would explain it to her, about his visitation from an angel that was not fallen…but later. When they were private and had plenty of time to talk about it. “I’m not about to question the event, Angelica.”

No, indeed, he wasn’t. After all, he’d asked for help, he’d begged and pleaded for it while writhing in agony…and the angel had heard him. She’d known he was ready to change, at last.

Looking down at Angelica, he saw worry in her beautiful face. “What is it?”

“Do you think Chas will ever give us his blessing?”

Voss fully intended to make certain the man did, if he ever saw him again. But instead of saying that, he replied, “Corvindale, albeit reluctantly, has agreed to help make our case. Now that I am no longer Dracule, he has no reason to deny us permission. But regardless, Angelica, we’re going to wed, with or without your brother’s consent. Now that it’s been shortened, I’m not about to live the rest of my life without you.”

“Thank you for coming back to me, Voss.”

“Thank you for throwing away that necklace, Angelica. But there is one more request I’d like to make of you.”

“And what is that?”

“You know I love you, I adore you, my dear… but when we were in Paris, and you were bathing… you were humming.”

“I was trying to keep from hearing you splashing about and wondering… imagining…what you were doing.”

He smiled. “Ah. Well, now that you don’t have to imagine any longer, my love…would you mind…not humming so much? You tend to be terribly off-key. Usually flat.”

“Is that so?” She smiled, her eyes lighting with humor. “So now I know precisely how to get whatever I want from you. I shall hum, or sing—which I’m even worse at—until you give it to me to silence me.”

Voss laughed with deep, filling pleasure. He’d had no idea that his life had been so bleak and dark—but now it was filled with light and humor. “My dear, you don’t have to resort to that. I’ve given everything to have you…and I would give anything for you. Just…don’t sing.”