Final Days (6 page)

To make his point, he pulled her to him and kissed her so erotically, heat and moisture surged again.

Without words, she made it clear they were not finished.  Pushing him back against the bed, she slid down his legs, her hands trailing against the thickest muscled thighs she’d ever seen.  As she moved down, her eyes dropped to his cock and she looked back up at him.

“Wow.  Just…wow.”  She paused and took him in her hand, her fingers moving across the head as he groaned.  “I think that word covers it.  Believe me, if I could stay, I would.  Now, though…”

She lowered her head and began an aggressive attack with her tongue that created an explosive reaction from him very quickly.  How satisfying to bring such an impressive man so much pleasure.  Just to hear the moan as his body responded to her.

When she crawled back into his arms, he kissed her hair and sighed in satisfaction as he fell asleep.

Alisa caressed his chest while she list
ened to him breathe.  She wondered how sorrow and absolute joy could exist side by side.  As she finally fell asleep, she thought that she could have fallen in love with this man. 
If time had allowed.

She woke slowly to the unfamiliar touch of someone’s lips on hers.  It only took a second to remember her night with Koen
…their incredible lovemaking, and that she was in bed with him. Still groggy from being awakened, she smiled as she heard his deep voice in the darkness. 

“I have to go.  You’ll stay, won’t you?  You have to stay.”

His voice was so beautiful, she knew she’d miss it forever.

“I’ll stay,” she whispered.  She wanted to please him more than anything on earth. 

Koen put his hand on her cheek, bent close, and whispered, “Sleep.  I will see you tonight.”  

She sighed
in contentment and rolled onto her side.  He took one last look at her perfect face before he eased up off the mattress and let himself out of the room, locking it behind him to keep her safe.  He was racing the coming day as he headed back to Eillia’s apartment to seal himself inside one of her protected rooms.

He made it just as vermillion streaks lit up the horizon.

But sleep eluded him because
, unexpectedly, his arms felt empty and he missed her beside him.  He needed to hear her breathing.  He needed to feel her soft hair in his fingers.  And those full breasts pressed against his chest. 
What the
hell? 
This was ridiculous.  He refused to believe she meant that much to him already.  It didn’t make it any less true.

Daylight had arrived and the need to rest overcame his problem sleeping.  His eyes dropped, the final image before he lost consciousness was of blue eyes
that belonged to the woman he now knew belonged to him.

SEVEN

Staring at the blank paper that needed to say so much, Alisa considered what words she would leave behind
. 
It was important that he understood what this night, being with him, meant to her.

She began to write, and when she was finished, she laid the note carefully in the center of the bed, then dropped on the floor beside it. 

She’d spent her life coming and going.  Leaving a place came naturally to her.  But not here, not now.  This was the hardest thing she’d ever done.  She knew the one thing facing her that would be harder was leaving this life so much sooner than she should.  Today was the first exit that hurt.  The next one would be the last. 

Alisa pushed herself up, grabbed her large bag and paused to look at her note to Koen one last time.  She’d told him that every day for the rest of her life she would think of him.  He wouldn’t know it wasn’t for that many more days.  For a moment, she considered telling him why.  But last night was not about sorrow.  It had been about joy and love found in an unexpected place.  She wanted it to remain so for him. 
And for her.
  There would be no tears or regrets.  So she kept her imminent departure from this life a secret from him forever.  It was the best choice.

Closing the door with a loud snap, she walked down the wooden stairs and did not look back.

She knew how he would feel when he opened that door.  He’d look for her, then see the note.  He’d know she was gone.  She knew how he would feel because her own emotions welled up and threatened to send her back in to wait for him in spite of her conviction to go.  But she really had no decision to make.  Her destiny was set and it couldn’t include him.

The universe had provided her with a glimpse of the future she
might
have had.  Was it kindness or cruelty that it had done so?  To show her
this
possible future…the moment when the spark of love begins, when two souls find each other.  To let her peek at him, and know he was the man she never knew she waited for.  Aware all along it could only be that…a peek.  

Vicious fates!
But then she smiled as she cleared the stairs, her head filled with him.  No.  It was not cruel.  She had been given a glimpse of perfect love, and it would be a precious memory she would hold close as her days counted down to the last.  Alisa knew she would never forget one split second of their time, locked in her mind like an image under glass.  From the moment she looked up into his eyes to the moment he paused as he went out the door last night, a look of mischief on his face, her promise that she would be here when he returned.  Every touch, every taste, every scent, scored into her mind for all her remaining time.

His body was, as she had told him, as perfect as that of a Greek God.  His touch had done things to her she had never known could happen.  Th
eir connection was beyond just physical, she still had no idea how, but it had been.  At one moment she had felt as if they merged and she was, literally, a part of him.  It wasn’t possible, she knew that, but what an incredible surreal experience.  Was it her pending death that had created a mystical altered state of perception that did not actually exist?   Didn’t matter.  For her, it was real.  Strangely, it seemed as if he felt it, too.

Alisa put her hand to her forehead and tapped it.

“Nuts,” she accused herself out loud.

The thing that stayed with her the most was the way he had brushed her hair back lovingly at one point, and asked what he could do to “fix” things for her. 
He wanted to be her hero.

God. 
Did she ever need a hero
.

She slipped down the alleyways to the main street
, walked through a group of people who looked like they were returning from all-night partying, then turned into a café. 

Sitting in a booth, she looked at the menu with a grin.  They’d never gotten to dinner.  Even so, she wasn’t really hungry this morning, but she knew she needed to keep her strength up.  Nutrition was vital at this point.

Forcing herself to have a little breakfast, some coffee, and a pastry for instant energy, she paid the check and got up too quickly.  Her right leg gave out and she stumbled against another table occupied by a young couple in business dress.

A
pale blonde-haired woman put a hand out to help steady her as the young man stood and supported her from the back.

“Ah,
pardonnez-moi
,” Alisa said, embarrassed.  This was happening more often now.  “You are kind to help a clumsy woman.  I am all right now,
merci.
”

She left as quickly as her betraying muscles would let her.  Carefully stepping with one foot then the other to make certain she would not trip again, she kept to the alleyways so that if she had a problem, at least there would be no witnesses. 

Once she arrived at her hotel, and slipped in the back entrance, she took some meds, paid her bill, and climbed into a hired car waiting under the covered pavilion.  As it faded in the distance, Paris winked at Alisa.  She took a long look at the skyline.  For the last time.

The apartment was empty.  He wondered if she’d just stepped out and would be back momentarily.  Then he saw it.

In the center of the bed where they had made love, a square scrap of paper.  She hadn’t just stepped out.  She was gone.  He waited a full sixty seconds before he
walked over to the perfectly made bed.  Even then, he stared at the fluid handwriting for another minute before he picked it up.

Koen,

    First, I wanted to tell you that I keep my promises.  But I knew you were the kind of man who wouldn’t let me go until I promised I would be here when you returned.  And, oh, God, I wish I could be.  It is impossible for me to find words great enough to make you understand what this night meant to me.  Let me just say that every day for the rest of my life, I will wake with the memory of this night as the most wonderful one I’ve ever known.  Even now, thinking of you inside me, your touch, your voice, your eyes, my body warms and my heart smiles.  I hope you can think of our romance as fondly, because although it shot through us like a flaming meteor, it was real.  And perfect.  I cannot stay.  You know what we felt, so you know if I could, I would.  Please, remember our moments sometimes, don’t forget me.  But have a happy life and find someone to love.  You were made for love.  Always, Alisa.

The paper slipped from his fingers, slid on the wood floor, and glided under the bedside table.
  Koen walked to the window and watched the human drama play out on the busy street below.

Well, he’d tried. He’d made it clear to her that she had to be here tonight.  Now he second
-guessed himself and wondered if he shouldn’t have just told her what he was and taken her back to the apartment so she could stay with him until daylight left again. When he rose tonight, he’d already decided he wanted her in his life.  He’d just been too slow to realize.  Never in all his centuries had he connected to someone like that.

It was okay.  A first blood vampire knew how to find people.  And nothing would stop him. 
With CCTV and security cameras, he’d be able to track where she’d gone.  She’d told him she had a flight out in the morning.  No chance she would escape the cameras at the airport.  His team would have her inside of a day.

A chirp announced an incoming call.  When he answered, it was Jacob.

“She’s in Africa.  I need you, Koen.  Will you come?”

“I’ll meet you at Charles de Gaulle.  I can be there within the hour.”

Then he contacted his security team to begin the search for Alisa.  He wished he could go himself, but Jacob would need him in Africa to help find the young vampire Starla.  Eillia was too pregnant to travel that far to search for her friend, and just the fact that Jacob asked him to come meant he expected trouble.  Koen would always be there for family.  Hopefully, they would find her quickly, get her back to his villa, settled in, and then he could commit every moment to helping Alisa adjust to who and what he was.

Her private charter took Alisa over vineyards in the Rhône Valley.  While she used commercial jets for transportation, the intimacy and versatility of small planes were the only way to tour a country. 
Especially now.

The pilot was an old friend who had flown her and
several of her friends on assignments.  Palo had flown in the military with Percy decades earlier, so Percy called him and set up this leisurely cross-country flight to let her absorb the landscape that showed off the true magic of France.  Palo flew low much of the time so Alisa could see details missed at higher elevations.  A true bird’s-eye view.

Her smile didn’t stop as he flew her past country farms, horses and cows wandering in lush green fields.  The shoreline of any country was
beautiful and it was especially so here in southern France as they approached the Pyrénées.

“Palo, thank you.  What a wonderful
thing to be able to fly.  To see the world from such a height, distant and yet still part of it all.”

He looked at her with moist eyes and said, “
Bien sûr
,” with such sadness, she knew Percy had betrayed her request. 

“Ah, he told you, didn’t he?”

Palo nodded.  And spoke in English.  “I am so sorry, Alisa.  Such a beautiful person…  I cannot think of you gone.”

“Well, it’ll be much sooner if you crash this plane, so kill the tears.  I’m all right.  Really. I’ve accepted this.  No one lives forever, right?  And I’ve got a good year or so heads-up.  That’s kind of a gift.  It give
s me the chance to do things like this.  So, I am grateful to have you take me on this part of my Magnificent Journey.”

“Anytime,
ma belle
.  Anything you need, I am your man.”

Sweet.  Such a kind man.  It was clear he was sincere.  And sad for her. which is why she wasn’t planning to tell
anyone
.  Which is why Percy owed her big time when she got back next week for her follow up with the doctor.

She didn’t know why
Dr. Patel wanted to see her.  It wasn’t as if there was anything he could do for her.  He had her on some meds that might help delay its progression.  Right now, she was pretty symptom free other than the muscle weakness, but nothing was going to stop that.  The only medical intervention she would ultimately need when the time came was palliative care. 

She switched her attention back to the ground rushing quickly below her.  No more thoughts of her illness.  The scenery was too gorgeous to miss.

After they landed, Alisa said a heartfelt goodbye to Palo and thanked him for all he’d done for her in the years past.  He hugged her and held on a little too long this time because he knew as well as she that he would never see her again.   As he drove away, she saw him wipe tears from his eyes with the palm of his hand. 

Sighing
, Alisa admitted her mother had been right.  People didn’t need other people’s troubles.  Everyone had enough of their own.  It made her more certain than ever that her decision to keep her condition a secret was the right one.

Alisa would spend a day at her friend Chloe’s little house by the sea.  Chloe was a fashion model, but she was out of town, and had left a key for Alisa under a concrete alligator by the back door.  Serenity was easiest found in solitude.  And right now, Alisa was looking forward to quiet walks on the beach and the pitch dark nights on soft sand with
only the sound of waves rushing against the shore and an occasional seabird.

Percy had a list, and notes, for each of the only five people Alisa was close with.  He would make sure they were delivered after her death.

Alisa’s mother had always told her not to visit her troubles on others. From the first time Alisa had run to her mother with a skinned knee, she had been brushed aside sharply.

“Don’t be bothering anyone with your problems,” the stoic and unforgiving woman had said to her little girl.

And Alisa never did.   From there forward she took care of everything herself when she had a problem.

Her mother had taken very good care of her.  Proper clothes, nutritional food, good schools.  She’d just never been loving.  But Alisa knew she had done the best that she could.

It wasn’t a mystery why her mother was so unemotional and detached.  Alisa met her grandmother just once before she died.  The old woman was worse than her own mother.  Neither woman was mean, just not kind.  She knew that through much of her own life, she herself had been too cautious about letting people in.  Stoic, like her mother.  Implacable at times.

She was sorry for that.  Now more than ever, Alisa realized how important it was to let people in.  Which is why she left loving messages for those who had touched her life most.  And who she
had
let in, at least a little bit.