I opened my eyes and found Kerr sitting in a chair next to the bed. He looked at the painting on the wall, the one that Lucha had done of the girl. He'd been fascinated with it since I'd made him and Folco bring us to Lucha's home. I didn't want to risk Valentino showing up again, and I thought that Lucha would feel more comfortable in his own surroundings. I had also considered that Lucha wouldn't remember me, and I hoped that the painting would help if I needed it to.

"That's you," Kerr said again. He'd been repeating that over and over again at random times since we'd arrived two days ago.

When I'd left to feed last night, Kerr had been standing before the wall, touching the outline of the woman gently.

I looked at him now, and I reached my hand out and put it on his leg. He leaned forward and brushed my hair back from my face.

He smiled and pulled a handful of my hair up. "It is still damp, from yer bath."

I nodded. My hair always took a long time to dry. Kerr dropped my hair and looked past me at Lucha's sleeping body. "Do you love him?"

I nodded again, afraid to say it aloud to Kerr. He looked down at me. "Then why did you sire him? He may not like what he's become."

I sat up and didn't bother covering my bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s from Kerr. I leaned over and stroked Lucha's cool back. He'd been resting soundly since I sired him, and would hopefully be waking sometime throughout the night. "It's hard for me to talk about this with you," I said to Kerr.

"Try," he answered back.

"There is something about Lucha that drew me to him. At first it was his size, and shape, it's a lot like yours you know," I added trying to bring my point home. "I liked that he has power too, it made it easier for him to understand me, but it wasn't until I saw the painting and he told me that he'd had dreams of my coming that I felt like he filled a void. I've had this empty hole in me since before I can even remember, and Lucha made that go away. It sounds silly to say, but he reminds of someone I once knew- someone that I believe I loved very much."

I turned and looked at Kerr. A single tear fell down his cheek. Lucha stirred and Kerr stood. We weren't sure what Lucha would awaken as, so we had to be prepared for the worst. I turned him slowly to me, and his eyes fluttered open. They swirled from brown to black and back again. He blinked and then tried to sit up.

"Linnea...?"

I exhaled and moved closer to him. He remembered me, and that meant that he would be fine. I touched his torso lightly. "Do you understand what has happened?" I asked.

Lucha tipped his head back and then looked up at me with his fangs erect. "I am one of you now." His voice held no regret, no anger.

"I will leave the two of you for a bit. Call me when yer ready to take him hunting. I do not think that it's wise for you to go alone with him. He was strong enough to fight Valentino off of you ... even for a just a moment ... we have no idea how strong he may be now.""I will get you, I promise, and thank you," I said to Kerr as he walked out of the room.

Lucha stretched his body out, and smiled up at me. "I feel more alive now than before. I can hear things and smell things that I never dreamt possible."

I smiled. "What do you smell?"

He pulled my body over him and brought my lips to his. "I can smell that you are ready to receive me."

I let out a small laugh. It was true. I was ready to accept him. I was damp and my body ached for his touch, but he needed to feed first. I kissed his lips, intending for it to be chaste, but he grabbed my body and barrel rolled me over onto my back. He pushed my legs open with his knee and stopped just before entering me. His eyes were pure black and that meant that his demon was at the surface, not him.

Lucha blinked and brown flashed through. "Say yes, Linnea."

It took a great deal of strength for him to fight his way up and ask my permission to enter me, and I couldn't deny him that. I didn't want to deny him. "Yes, Lucha."

He drove himself into me hard and I cried out. Each thrust was harder than the one before it. Lucha now possessed the strength of at least twenty men and every ounce of that was being used to grind my body into the bed. I felt Lucha's fangs pierce my neck and I tipped my head back, allowing him better access to me. Each suck was followed by his body thrusting into mine. I screamed out as my o.r.g.a.s.m ripped through me.

Lucha pulled his mouth from me and licked the wound just like I'd done to him so many times before. I touched his back. "Did you finish?"

He laughed and buried his face in my neck. "It makes me happy to hear that you were too preoccupied with pleasure to notice that I ended as well."

I pulled him close to me and hugged him tight. I'd been so afraid that he either wouldn't remember me or would hate me for what he'd become. "We need to get dressed and get Kerr. You still need to have a full feeding."

Lucha didn't show any signs of moving. He was still deep within me when he spoke again. "Tell me about this, Kerr?"

"He's a vampire, too. Umm, he is my closest friend, and...."

"Do you love him?"

I started to say no, but stopped. "Yes, I do."

Lucha nodded, and pulled out of me. I thought that I'd upset him, but then he brought his hips back down against me, driving the full length of his erect c.o.c.k back into me. I wrapped my legs around him and let him make love to me again and again until we could go no more.

"Amore eternal," he said softly in his native tongue.

Yes, I thought to myself, now you truly are my eternal love.

Chapter 28.

I leaned back against the fence of Lucha's family home and rubbed his back. He didn't look at me, and I understood why. He was still crying over the loss of his father. We'd traveled together now for over fifty years, never once aging. Lucha had asked me to meet his father shortly after he'd been turned, and I had been reluctant at first, but not as reluctant as Kerr about letting me go. His hands were full with business in America and he couldn't break away, at the time, to join us. He trusted Lucha with me though, and let me leave without a fight.

The first time I had met Contro Delerno, Lucha's father, I had been surprised by how young he appeared to be. He had been in his late forties at the time, but didn't look much over thirty. He looked like he could be Lucha's twin. Both had the same dark s.e.xy eyes and hair, and bodies that made any woman burn with need. Contro was about two inches shorter than Lucha and had tiny lines around his eyes. Those were the only differences I saw.

I didn't think that Lucha would tell his father that he was now a creature of the night. I had been wrong. He had already written his father telling him about meeting me and what I was. He'd also informed him that he'd dreamt that he would soon be joining me, and that he would visit once he knew it was safe.

Contro had opened his home and his heart to me. I loved him like he was my own family, and in some strange way, I think he was. Lucha and I had been inseparable since the moment I'd met him. I had heard rumors from other vampires that we were like a married couple, and that to harm one was to harm all. Somehow Kerr had fallen into this mix. He'd come to Europe two years after us, and joined us here, at Lucha's family home. He and Contro had gotten along well. The two had spent many nights playing chess. I used to love coming down the stairs to hear Lucha playing piano, Contro playing his flute, and Kerr singing softly.

Lucha shook his head. "How can we be so powerful, yet unable to stop suffering?"

"He did not suffer long," I said, trying to be as comforting as I could.

"Thank you for that, Linnea. I was unable to do what he asked."

I wasn't sure what to say. Contro had begged Lucha to end his life. We could sense the terrible illness eating away at his insides for years now, but we'd never been able to convince Contro to let us sire him. Lucha would never have forgiven himself if he had made his father a vampire against his wishes. He wasn't able to honor Contro's request to die either, and Kerr was gone, checking on a lead about Valentino, so that left only me.

I had taken Contro's pale, old hand and brought it to my face. He smiled up at me and nodded. His hair had gone white some ten years earlier and was now thin, but still long. I had swept it out of his face and kissed his cheek. He'd wiped the tears from my face and told me that he loved me, and was happy that his son had found me. He also told me how very much I reminded him of Lucha's mother who had died when Lucha was just a baby, and that made me cry harder.

Lucha stayed at my back as I moved my body over Contro's. I put my lips to his ear and told him that I loved him too, before gently sinking my fangs into his neck. I drew the poisoned blood from his body and drank it down, it would not hurt me, nor did I care if it would have. I wanted to end Contro's pain. I used my power to bespell him, so that he was not only numb to my bite, but would also be in a state of nirvana during his last few seconds on this earth. The last word he uttered as he lifted his hand to my face was Lucha's mother's name, Elsa.

I shook the thoughts of Contro's pa.s.sing from my head and turned to walk away from Lucha. I was sure that my presence only served to remind him of how his father had died. He grabbed my wrist and spun me around to him. His eyes were bloodshot and tinted red.

"Do not think that I am angry with you, little one. I love you, and I love what you did for him. He died seeing my mother before him, and you loved him almost as much as I did, what more could I ask for?" His head dropped down and he pulled me close to him. "Lift your magic and have a child with me."

I pulled back from Lucha and gave him a puzzled look. He'd never brought up having a family before. "Lucha, you know not what you say right now. Your grief is speaking for you. We do not lead lives that a child would be welcome in."

"That is not true, Linnea. I have wanted a family with you since we met. Lift the spell and allow me to plant my seed in you, and to watch it grow, and live. Let us have something around us instead of all this death."I touched his cheek. "If only it were that easy. It's not my magic that keeps my womb clean. It's the magic-man, Gregory. He knew me before I became what you see before you now, and he gave me this gift in the hopes that one day I would return to him, alive again."

Lucha let out a laugh and turned from me. "We are a lot of things, Linnea, but alive is not one of them. If you do not wish to have a family with me, then just say so. You do not have to lie. Just tell me that you would prefer to create life with Kerr, and I will let it be. I have sensed that your love for him is deeper than your love of me. If you would prefer to let him f.u.c.k you every night, you have only but to say it and it will be so. I will not continue to stand by and not make my feelings known. Leave me now, I do not wish to look upon you any further this evening."

I jerked back from him. I felt like I'd been slapped. I would have questioned where his anger came from, but I knew. Contro's death would forever be a.s.sociated with me, no matter what Lucha said. My love for Lucha was great, so great that I had stopped feeding my need for s.e.x off humans the moment I met him. He had fulfilled my every need, and I thought he always would. I turned and walked away from him, and he didn't try and stop me. I ran hard towards the village and didn't look back. I would not stand there and exchange hurtful words when his father wasn't even buried yet.

Chapter 29.

I leaned against the wall of the tiny tavern and tried to stop the pain that built in my chest. I wondered how Lucha held up and had thought about going back for the burial, but I wasn't sure I'd be welcome there. I glanced around to get a better grip on my surroundings. I was at least eight villages from Lucha's and I still didn't feel like it was far enough. I was dirty and tired. I'd been sleeping in barns and hiding under hay during the daylight. It was beneath me, but so was begging Lucha to forgive me, when I truly believed that I'd done nothing wrong.

I needed a bath and a place to sleep that wasn't crawling with mice. I tipped my head back and felt the air around me change. I knew a vampire when I sensed one. "What do you want?"

"I sensed another near here, and I came to see who it was. I have to admit that after our last meeting I was a bit surprised to learn that you had fallen to our side. From the smell of you it is not going so well." A polished British accent said close to my ear.

I opened my eyes and looked into Corbin's face. I wasn't scared of him. I didn't care what he did to me. In fact, part of me hoped that he would end this existence for me. "If you've come to kill me, get it over with."

"Is it true what they say about you?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Depends, on what they're saying."

"They say that you have no memories of when you were alive."

I nodded. "Yeah, it's true then."

Corbin let out a long laugh. Obviously, he found it more amusing than me. I didn't much care about it anymore. He touched my cheek and I didn't flinch. "Let us get you cleaned up. An alley is no place for you to be."

"Why clean me up? You've only tried to kill me in the past. You don't need me clean for that."

"That is true ... however ... much has changed now, Linnea. We now fight on the same side."

Chapter 30.

Corbin came in and took his boots off. He'd been out most of the night, again, searching for what he called potentials. After several weeks with him, I stopped questioning him about what he did and just smiled at him. We weren't close, yet not quite strangers. He had held true to his word and had seen to my needs and I his. Although, not the ones he hoped for. I had taken over care of the new vampires he brought in. So many of them possessed magic, strengths, and other supernatural abilities as humans that Corbin had a hard time keeping them in line.

It was easy for me. If they got out of line I simply used my power and showed them who was in charge. I had had one get a little rougher than I'd have liked, but I had dealt with him promptly. I reached up and rubbed my shoulder. The new vampire had slammed me into the wall and I was still sore from it.

"Are you hurt?" Corbin asked, coming closer to me.

"I'll be fine." I turned and looked up at him. "Tell me why you sire so many men."

He smiled and tossed his gloves aside. "Have you ever sired anyone?"

I thought about Lucha and Camille, and nodded. Lucha had been wise choice, but Camille had been all wrong. I should have known better than to bring her over. Lucha and I had been at a ball together and I caught wind of her and her accomplices' plan to murder Lucha, and steal his money. They had no idea that he was already dead, and that played to our advantage. Lucha and I had made love surrounded by the dead evildoers, while Camille laid there dying-watching us, and begging for her life. I brought her over as a gift to Lucha, to keep him satisfied. His hunger for s.e.x was even stronger than mine and I worried that I would not always be able to fill it. He had refused to accept her, claiming to want only me.

Camille was a bad seed to start with, and she'd not changed. Kerr had been furious with me for siring her. She had tried to seduce him so many times that I'd lost count over the years. We had parted ways with her and I had not seen her since. Every now and then I thought that I could feel her near, but she was never brave enough to show herself.

I wondered if Lucha would turn her away now that I was gone. He would need to feed his hunger for s.e.x. Mine threatened to consume me. I would have to take a lover soon or risk going mad.

Corbin sat down in the chair and pulled his knife out. He liked to sit and clean his fingernails with it. He was odd, but I got used to him. "I take it from your lack of response that you regret your decision to sire who you did."

I nodded. "Yes, one of them at least, and what about you, do you have any regrets?"

"Ah, as a matter of fact I do. There is but one. He was powerful, and I had been sent to find him. I not only found him, but I found a powerful woman who had been sent to protect him. She and I did not see eye to eye," he looked at me as he said this, "and many things had happened that I can never take back or do over again."

I turned towards him, suddenly very interested in what he had to say. "Like what?"

"I cannot be sure, but I believe she may have been with child when I tried to kill her."

I sat in silence and listened to Corbin speak. It seemed important to him that he get to tell me this. He told me about siring the man as the woman was forced to watch. I wasn't sure what to say to him, because I wasn't sure what sort of response he looked for- it felt almost like he sought absolution. He wasn't bragging about what he'd done, but he wasn't mourning either.

"Have you nothing to offer?" he asked.

"I do, but you won't like what I have to say."

He laughed a little. "No, I suppose that I won't, go ahead."

"You feed from the innocent. I can smell them on you the minute you walk in the door, yet here you sit seeming upset by events that happened a century ago. I'm not sure what to make of you, Corbin. One minute you are a monster, and the next you are kind."

He rose slowly and came towards me, his knife still in hand. I glanced down at it and looked into his eyes. Something clicked in me and I jumped to my feet and moved back from him. He looked down at the knife and then back at me. He dropped it on the floor and put his hands up.

"Linnea, I mean you no harm." I saw his lips move and knew what he said, yet I heard his voice in my head screaming other words. I heard, hold his head still, I've never seen a human with this much strength, imagine how powerful he will be soon, and I saw Corbin standing before someone who was on his knees, I tried to see the man's face, but I blocked it out. I ran my hands down my stomach and knew that I'd just lost the baby that I had been carrying in my womb and that the man on his knees before Corbin was my husband.

Corbin took another step to me and I screamed out. "You murdered him, and my baby!"

I pushed the table over and ran for the door. Corbin was on me in an instant. He grabbed my arms and held them behind my back. I waited for his fangs to sink into me, but they didn't.

"I cannot change the past, Linnea. I would take it all back if I could," he whispered in my ear. He let go of me and I ran out the door. I didn't look back. I couldn't.

Chapter 31.

I stood outside the gates to Lucha's home and watched from a distance. I had started to go in, but had stopped when I saw Lucha leaving. He should have sensed me, maybe he did, but he never looked in my direction as he rode away on his horse. I closed my eyes briefly and saw the horrors unfold before me again. I tried again to see my husband's face or to hear his voice, but I couldn't.