Clarissa drifted in a dream engulfed with heat and flames, her world tumbled into a mix of conflicting images and physical pain. With a jolt, strength returned. As awareness also came back, she heard a plaintive sob. Worried and bewildered, she took in what she felt and heard by degrees. After Jim had bitten her and she'd awakened in the crypt, she'd understood she did possess more physical ability and heightened senses then a mere mortal.

This felt different.

Sensual overload hit her and for a moment she couldn't move, could scarcely breathe.

Pain seared her neck on both sides but she couldn't make a sound. She could hear water dripping somewhere, and the cold touched her but did not. Her skin, supersensitive, prickled with corporeal wakefulness. Warm, powerful arms held her as if she might break or dissolve. More than that, a man's breathing rasped, his heart-breaking sobs searing deep into her. She couldn't bear to hear him cry this way, to hurt so much.

Her eyes popped open and she recognized Ronan's wavy, tousled hair as he nestled against her and his tears dampened her skin.

Ronan is crying? For me? Why?

As her fingers slipped into his hair, she also clutched at his trembling shoulder to give him comfort.

His head snapped up and she stared into his red-rimmed eyes, filled with a special misery reserved only for the damned.

"Clarissa," he whispered hoarsely.

As she sat up her arm slipped around his shoulder and she sat on his lap. "Ronan, what happened? What's wrong?"

At first he didn't answer her and his gaze reflected a profound joy mingled with desolation. He swallowed hard and as he explained, her heart jolted with shock.

Before she could speak he continued. "I brought you here because it is a sacred place, a holy place."

Her own tears flowed, cleansing her eyes and her heart at the same time. Deep concern still filled his eyes.

"Do you hate me?" he asked. "I couldn't let you die that way. I had to...it had to be on my terms, so that you'd come back to me. I wanted you any way I could have you." He pressed shaky kisses to her forehead, her cheeks and her lips. "I love you. I love you."

Sensing and seeing his complete misery, she knew deep in her now undead soul she wouldn't want it any other way. "As long as we're together, it doesn't matter."

"I've destroyed you, broken you in pieces-"

"No." She put her finger over his lips. "You've given me an eternity with you.

I'mcomplete ."

"Not quite. Two more things must happen. One, you must take blood from me." His eyes blazed, fire returning to them. "A new female vampire must mate. We must do it now."

"Yes."

As she kissed him her desire for life turned to an appetite for physical union. Vampire in her heart and body, she hungered the way he hungered, felt what he felt. His tongue rasped over hers and a hot, tight sensation seared between her legs requiring immediate and total satisfaction. He drew back from her and blood ruby stained his eyes, the passion riding high and fierce. With a single rip he tore her sweater off her body and her bra went flying. He dipped his head and captured one nipple in his mouth, sucking hard. She cried out as holy fire breached her body in one swell of ecstasy.

They tasted each other and as their breathing turned hot and fast, Ronan whispered, "We are one always."

Nothing mattered but this driving need to reaffirm their love. Clarissa could tell, with her heightened sense of hearing, that no one was within miles of the church. They wouldn't be interrupted.

"Do it now," he said. "Taste me."

She knew what he meant, and for a moment she hesitated. Then she realized the very idea of blood, of taking his blood within her, made her body ache with longing. Her stomach yearned for the fulfillment, her body needing what he could give her for nourishment. She realized her teeth had already grown longer, and in astonishment she hesitated.

All worry lost, she reached for him, her teeth going to his neck. She lapped at his skin with her tongue and he shivered. With one sharp bite she fastened to his neck and he flinched.

When she tried to pull back he held her head gently against his neck. "No, don't stop.God, don't stop."

Blood filled her mouth, and where she would have been revolted before, now the sensation, the joy it brought her and Ronan removed all doubt.

Heat rolled through her body like a new sun rising, a deep throb filling her womb, her nipples tight and aching as she shivered and quaked against him in a new sexual ecstasy.

Her loins filled with need to hold him, to feel that hard cock driven over and over inside her until she screamed. She drew her lips away from his neck, then licked instinctively at the wound to close it. She must have him now.

She left his lap and helped him unfasten his pants. In seconds they were stripped naked and she straddled him. He held her at the waist, her wet, throbbing heat almost touching his erect cock.

She gazed into his fiery eyes and said, "One always."

He lowered her onto his cock with one hard, deep thrust.

She gasped, the sensation beyond description, the heat instantaneous. She whimpered.

"Easy." He groaned. "Oh, yes. Yes. Open to me. That's it. Open to me."

With love and trust she relaxed her muscles, fitting her tightness around him.

"That's it," he said softly. "That's it."

They didn't thrust against each other, the gloving of her body around his enough to start the final fire. She clasped his shoulders tightly and within a few minutes she couldn't stand it anymore. She gyrated upon him and he thrust with tiny movements designed for pure sexual torture. Hanging on a treacherous cliff she rode out the delirious feeling of his cock rubbing firmly against that place high and deep inside her that only he could reach.

"Oh, more." She said as ecstasy rose. "More."

He held on to her waist and drew her up. He slammed upwards as he brought her down, giving the vanquishing thrust.

Clarissa erupted and her scream echoed and entwined with his throaty roar as they found new life together.

Epilogue Four days later

The small party of friends looked cozy and happy as Clarissa watched them gathering in the living room of Erin's home. The entire group, includingGilda and Tom, participated in a celebration of life and the salvation of Pine Forest.

Sorley chatted with Ronan, his old self restored after a few days recovery from the effects of the ancient one's tainted influence. Sorley sometimes looked at her with scared eyes, like she might blame him for what happened. She didn't. Besides, she'd become like him, a creature of the night. They would share this through their immortal days.

In the days since Halloween Pine Forest limped through recovery, the papers reporting the strange crime wave had subsided. People went through the day acting almost as if nothing untoward had happened, and Ronan explained this occurred wherever the ancient one had plundered. A sort of self-induced amnesia produced by the need for mortal denial of a hideous truth. Not only did Pine Forest forget the grisly details of the killings, no one except their little group remembered seeing the ancient one and the unbelievable incidents in the community center.

The entire fire incident was reported as a freak accident caused by an electrical short.

Blessedly, nobody but the ancient one lost their lives in the inferno.

Earlier in the day, shaded from the depleting effects of the sun, their friends told them their plans.

Erin and Lachlan would leave Pine Forest and do some traveling. First stop, Scotland. A wedding in the Highlands was planned for the spring.

Micky would move to Denver with Jared, and a wedding would be celebrated in the fall in Denver.