Page 85 of Midnight Enchantment

“I love you, Liliana,” he said quietly. “I know you are afraid for me, but this is what I want. What I need. I cannot live with the demon inside me any longer. You cannot know how it torments me.”

But she did know. She had felt his pain, at least a shadow of it, when the blood-demon had tortured him.

“Will you not help me, my sweet Liliana?”

Tears welled in her eyes when she heard the anguish, the soft pleading, in his voice. How could she refuse? Rising, she went into his arms and laid her cheek against his chest.

Whispering, “Thank you, love,” he brushed a kiss across the top of her head before carrying her back to her own bed.

“Will you stay with me, Raedan?”

He nodded slowly. “Until you fall asleep.” He waited until she slid under the covers, then he heeled off his boots and stretched out on the top of the covers beside her.

She wept quietly, her tears wetting his shirt, until sleep carried her away.

And still he stayed, content to hold her while she slept, until the sun peeked through her window. Knowing he might not survive the night, he continued to hold her, willing to endure the discomfort of sun’s warmth to be near her a little longer.

When the pain grew unbearable, he kissed her cheek, then sought the lonely darkness of the attic.

Chapter Thirty-Five

The pillow beside Lily’s still bore the imprint of Raedan’s head when she woke in the morning. She smiled inwardly, thinking he had stayed with her long after she had fallen asleep. And long after the rising of the sun. And then she sighed. He was determined to face the dragon alone. Ava and Mason had made no objection. Didn’t they care that he might be killed? It was a disquieting thought. Even though Ava had stopped trying to dissuade her from seeing Raedan, Lily knew her great-grandmother didn’t approve. Might never approve. She didn’t think her parents ever would, either. Was it Raedan himself they objected to? Or the fact that he wasn’t a Hungarian vampire? Or the fact that he was possessed by the blood-demon? Or all of the above?

Would they ever accept him? She knew her family loved her. Would always love her, no matter what. But it would be hard to visit them knowing they felt she had made a terrible mistake.

Sighing, she threw the covers aside and headed for the bathroom. She could be worrying for nothing, she thought, as she filled the tub, but she doubted it. He would be putting his life and their future together at risk when he went to the mountain to confront the dragon tonight. And as much as she longed to go with him, she knew he would never allow it, just as she feared that no spell she conjured would be strong enough to protect him. She could wear her invisibility cloak, but he would still know she was there because of the blood link they shared. Like it or not, there was nothing she could do to help.

She fretted all that day, her all-too-vivid imagination shifting into over-drive as it painted one horrible scenario after another. Ava and Mason tried to distract her by taking her to lunch at a popular restaurant in Transylvania. They toured the shops, had tea in a quaint little tea shop, watched a puppet show. And all the while, she imagined Raedan fighting the dragon, being torn to shreds by its razor-sharp talons, scorched by its fiery breath.

Knowing Raedan was safe until nightfall, Lily wished the day would never end. But, all too soon, the sun began its slow descent behind the hills. With the coming darkness, a horrible sense of doom descended on her.

Raedan was waiting for them when they returned to the house. Dressed in black from his shirt to his boots, he looked like the angel of death.

Lily ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. “Don’t go!” she begged. “Please don’t go.”

Ava and Mason quietly left the room.

Raedan held her close, his hand stroking up and down her back while he murmured in her ear, whispering that he loved her, would always love her, promising that he would come back to her.

Leading her to the sofa, he sat and pulled her down beside him, his dark eyes searching hers.

She knew without asking what he wanted.

Pushing her hair away from her neck, she closed her eyes and pulled his head down, sighed as he bit her ever so gently. Pleasure surged through her and she knew that, strange as it seemed, in his own way, he was telling her that he loved her.

She would have been happy to let him take it all, but after only a moment, he lifted his head. “Thank you, my sweet Liliana.”

“I love you,” she whispered. “I’ll never love anyone else.”

“Ah, my darling girl, you must promise me that you will not spend your life alone if I do not return. I cannot bear the thought of you in another man’s arms, but I would rather that than have you spend your life alone, with no one to love. And no one to love you.”

His gaze moved over her face, as if to memorize every feature. “You have given me more happiness in these few months than I have known in nine hundred years.”

Murmuring his name, she burst into tears.

He held her close until darkness covered the land.

When he stood, preternatural power radiated from him, raising the hairs along her arms, sending a chill down her spine. She stared up at him, thinking that, for the first time, she was seeing him for what he truly was. He was more than a man. More than a vampire. She felt the blood-demon raging inside him, an evil spirit trapped inside a supernatural being who intended to destroy him. His eyes were so dark, they were almost black.

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