Chapter Sixteen: Caldric

"No," Aralyn answered. "I have never been one for games and I don't intend to start playing them now."

"Then perhaps it's time we confronted why we are really here?" Caldric asked.

"If you say ‘the tavern…'"

"I think it's safe to say that it had a part in all this."

Aralyn shook her head slightly. "The tavern. Do you truly believe that? I mean, I can get my head around it being Morwenna. I believe she is a meddling witch. And a powerful one at that. But this building?"

"I truly think that the tavern is alive, Aralyn. That it wants what's best for us." Caldric's tone turned melancholy when he added, "Perhaps more alive than me."

"No," she stepped closer to him and rested her hand on his shoulder.

"I believe it understands people better than either of us," Caldric went on. "It has a will of its own. It sees what people need. Or maybe even feels what they need."

"Caldric, that sounds like all kinds of crazy." Aralyn looked up at him.

It certainly sounded crazy. But to him, it was the only thing that made sense. They needed each other, and somehow the tavern knew it.

"So you think it was pure coincidence that I walked into the tavern right when you needed someone to fake date you so you could go to the vampire ball?" Caldric asked. "Because as powerful and ancient as Morwenna's magic is, I don't think she has that much control over people. Or the insight to know that we are so right for each other."

"Damn it, Caldric. Why do you have to make it sound so damn reasonable?" Aralyn shot back. "This whole situation just doesn't make sense."

"Maybe because I am not emotionally invested in the truth one way or another." He sighed. "If I was, I would think it was some kind of ironic joke. Who would ever have thought a vampire and a vampire hunter would make a perfect match?"

"I think perfect is perhaps stretching things too far." Aralyn wagged her finger at him.

"I don't. I think we understand each other better than anyone else has ever understood us. We are both trapped by circumstances beyond our control. And we see a part of ourselves in each other. A part that needs to heal." Caldric glanced past her to the bed, with its crisp clean sheets.

And was that the scent of roses all of a sudden?

He lifted his head and inhaled.

The tavern sure was trying its hardest to get them together. But he suspected it was going to take more than a rose-scented room and comfortable-looking bed to convince Aralyn that they were meant to be together.

Aralyn turned away from him and walked toward the bed with her arms folded across her body. "I have spent my whole life being told what I should be and how I should act. How is the tavern any different?"

"I don't think the tavern is telling us we should be together. I think it's showing us the possibilities." Caldric stood still, letting her have space.

"How did we go from fake dating so that I can gain access to the Tolioni Ball, to…this?" She threw up her hand as she turned to face him.

"I don't know," Caldric replied gently. "All I do know is how I feel." His brow creased. "Yes, I…think I…I can't put it into words. This isn't how I remember emotions being, it's deeper than that." He was fighting to figure out what exactly was going on inside of him.

"In your soul?" She looked up at him.

"I suppose so. Until this evening, I didn't know if I still had a soul, to be perfectly honest." He gave a short laugh. "And maybe I don't. Maybe I can feel the residue of what it was like to be human, to have a soul. But that's the part of me that knows that we mean something to each other. If only for a fleeting time."

"Are you sure?" Aralyn asked. "I don't mean about how you feel, but whether it is worth the risk."

"You mean the risk of losing someone I love again." He smiled sadly. "Unless you lifted the curse, I can't feel love for you, Aralyn. But I wish I could. I have shut myself off from people for far too long. And if it's taught me one thing, it is better to love someone and risk losing them than to feel this nothingness. All I can do is remember what love did feel like. What loss did feel like." He closed his hand into a fist and pressed it to his heart. "And I'm only now recalling what that was like because of you."

"At least you have those memories," she replied with a harsh laugh. "I'm beginning to think you actually know more of what it's like to be human than I do. I have pushed people away so that I don't have to feel that pain. I was taught it was a distraction, one that might get me killed. But what if part of me has already died, or rather never lived, because I have never experienced love? Never experienced life."

Caldric could see the tears misting her eyes and he went to her, closing his arms around her as he held her close. When he'd walked into The Lonely Tavern on less than a whim and saw her sitting there whispering about him, he'd never have guessed that this was how it would end.

No, not an end, a beginning.

As he cupped her face in his hand and tilted her head up, looking deep into her eyes, he said, "At least we won't have to convince the Tolioni family that our relationship is real."

"You say the most romantic things," she murmured, and then he lowered his head and claimed her lips. It was the first time he'd kissed a woman in decades, and it had been longer than that since he'd kissed a woman with such passion.

Perhaps it was the remnant of the effects of the fae band, or his imagination, but this was no fleeting, meaningless kiss from a vampire who could not feel emotion.

It was more than that. Deeper than that.

He closed his arms around Aralyn, holding her tight, not wanting this moment to end as their mouths moved. They were both damaged people, trying to find a way through a world that they both struggled to navigate.

As he held her, he wanted to promise her the world. But it was not his to offer. Not in the way he wanted to. His world was not her world. His was a world of darkness, hers was a world filled with light. In simple terms, he walked the night while she walked the day.

Yet the attraction they shared was irresistible. And right now, it was all that mattered.

He broke the kiss and looked down at her. Their faces were so close he could see every speck of gold in her iris, and the soft curve of her lower lip. She was everything he had ever dreamed of when it came to a woman. But he doubted she reciprocated that dream.

She was warm and alive. He was cold and dead.

But that didn't stop him from tipping her chin back up and claiming her lips again.

For the moment, here in The Lonely Tavern, they were not a vampire and a vampire hunter, but two people from opposite worlds. They were simply two lovers with a desire for each other that burned brightly and seemed to defy the boundaries of logic and reason.

Here in the tavern, they were free to explore that connection. To see where it took them. For one night or a lifetime, neither of them knew.

Caldric closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against Aralyn's, drawing a shuddering breath as he willed himself to believe that it was true.

That here, in this place, anything was possible. Even if it was only for a little while.

Aralyn cupped his face in her hands and brushed her thumbs across his cheek, causing him to look at her again. He was surprised to see her smile.

"You are thinking too much, vampire. That's usually my job. So let's make a deal. Let's pretend that here in this room, there are no consequences for our actions. What happens in this room, stays in this room," she told him.

"What if that is not what I want?" Caldric asked. "What if I want whatever happens between us in this room to last for eternity?"

"We both know that is impossible," Aralyn reminded him. "Your eternity lasts way longer than mine."

Caldric eased away from her as if she had slapped him across the face. Was she trying to push him away? Trying to ruin this moment?

"I'm sorry," she said and leaned her forehead against his chest. "I don't know why I said that."

"Because you are scared and think that pushing me away is the safest way to handle that fear. You know I will never hurt you, not intentionally, and that scares you because it means that you have to trust someone with your heart, and you don't think you are capable of that. Because you have hidden it away for so long, you are afraid that you have lost the ability to love," he replied.

She lifted her head and stared at him with her eyes wide. "You speak as if you can see inside of my mind."

"Maybe I can. Or maybe it is just that I recognize a kindred spirit when I see one. We have a lot in common, Aralyn. More than I realized when I entered the tavern. And it seems that fate, or something like it, has thrown us together for a reason. One that we may not fully understand yet, but one that we should embrace."

"You are making this sound a lot like a fairy tale, Caldric. I am a realist, not a romantic," Aralyn told him.

"So am I. But even a realist can let himself believe in possibilities for a night," he whispered. "Can you do that?"

Aralyn nodded, and he took her hand and led her to the bed. Then he pulled her to him and kissed her. As they stood there, their bodies pressed together and their souls connected, Caldric prayed the tavern was right and that this was their destiny.

Even if it was only for one night.

As if to answer his question, Aralyn wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.

Caldric let out a soft moan and lifted her into his arms, cradling her body to his as he lowered her onto the bed.

And for a moment, time stood still.

There was no tavern.

No vampires.

No vampire hunters.

Just two people who had found each other despite their differences. Or because of them.

Caldric trailed his hand over Aralyn's cheek, and she sighed and turned her head slightly, kissing his palm.

He shivered, his desire for Aralyn growing stronger with each passing moment. He was used to taking what he wanted, but he wanted Aralyn to give herself to him.

To surrender to the inevitable.

And he would do whatever it took to make that happen.

As if she could sense what he was thinking, she reached for his hand and laced her fingers with his. Then she lifted it to her lips and kissed it.

Caldric moaned and pressed his lips to her temple.

The smell of the rose-scented candle was filling the room, and he could hear the sounds of music, his music, coming from somewhere. It was almost as if the tavern was serenading them. Leaving him in no doubt. This was what the tavern wanted from them.

Which was the most absurd thought, but he was certain that it was the truth.

So he pushed it out of his mind and focused on Aralyn. On her scent, on her touch, on the sound of her heartbeat.

He wanted to savor every moment, to hold on to them for the rest of his existence.