Gwenyth Stevens - Daughter Of Darkness Part 13

It got down to the front of my stomach and lifted my dress up. I pleaded with it. "Please, don't do this. I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen.... I never would've left if I'd have known you were ... I thought that you were dead."

"I am." The creature's voice was very deep, and somewhat familiar. "I am dead, yet I am not. I am caught in between--immortal. Now, I will have forever to remind you of your betrayal."

"No, I gave up everything to be with you, I gave up everything to be a fami--" I knew I was about to say family, but I didn't know why I said any of this. None of it made any sense to me. I needed to know, I needed to find out what terrorized me. I opened my eyes in the vision and looked down. Pallo knelt before me in the hallway. He was naked and covered in blood. He looked up at me and I screamed. His face twisted and pulled in different directions. His forehead had thickened and his eyes were black. His lips curled and he licked his large fangs.

I put my hand out and touched his face. He was in there, somewhere, and I was determined to reach him. "Oh, my sweet Pallo, what has he done to you?"

"Run, Gwyneth!" he shouted at me, "Run, now! I cannot fight the demon within any longer. Run!" He thrust my body away from him and I ran off into the night.

The vision receded and I found myself lying on the floor with Pallo on top of me. His tongue flickered in and out of me. I scrambled to pull myself away from him. No part of him looked demonic, no black eyes, no twisted face, but I didn't want him near me. The dream was still too vivid--too real.

I scurried backwards, trying to put distance between us, and was stopped only by the bed. Pallo looked at me, not sure what was going on. "Don't," was all that came out of my mouth. There was no trace of anger in his face. He was just Pallo, the man--okay, the vamp that had swept me off my feet.

"I can't explain it, but," I tried to think of the best way to tell him how I felt. "I keep having these bizarre visions about you and I." Great, just great! Now he'd think I was one of those psychics with the nine-hundred numbers. If I started speaking in tongues or singing Motown songs, we were screwed.

Pallo looked at me and tipped his head to the side. "What are these visions of?"

Oh well, damage was already done, why hide it? "They're of you and me. In some of them, you seem almost human to me, and others you're anything but," I knew I'd pa.s.sed the stopping point now. "They're more like a memory than anything else." As I said this, he stiffened.

"Go on."

"Don't laugh, but I can totally see you asking me to marry you, and no, I'm not trying to snag a husband. I see this like it already happened, and like... It's like you're trying to get me to go away with you in a hurry, but I know I can't leave. For some reason, I'm deathly afraid for you if I go with you. I know that he'll kill you, but I don't know who he is." I looked at Pallo. His face was void of any emotion. He just lay there looking at me with blank eyes. "Pallo, I know it's crazy."

"No, no it's not. Are there any other memories?"

I shook my head slowly. "Please, don't take this wrong, it's just... no, never mind... it's silly."

He sat up next to me on the bed. "Gwyneth, nothing you have to say to me is silly. Please tell me more of this. I am very interested to hear more about these."

I didn't really think he wanted to hear about me seeing him as a demonic creature about to kill me and my unborn child so I let it go. "I'm tired." He nodded and moved next to me on the bed. I pulled his arm around me.

"Sweet dreams," he said softly in my ear.

I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on the dreams I'd been having about Pallo. I wanted to get to the root of them. I stayed focused on them until I slipped back into one them.

This time I wasn't in the hallway with the vampire demon Pallo. This time, I lay in a large four post bed. I could not make out the other furnis.h.i.+ngs in the room. It took everything I had to make out the door to the room. A familiar voice spoke to me and I turned my head. There, beside me in the bed, was Caleb. He was stunning, his blonde hair spilled all over the covers. I sunk down next to him. "What's the matter?" he asked me.

"I thought I heard something."

"Gwyneth, you're safe. You're both safe," he said. His hand came up and stroked my swollen belly, gently, tenderly. The touch of his hand made my body warm. I wanted to be near him, I wanted to have him run his hands all over me. I snuggled in next to him and kissed his neck. He laughed. "You're never satisfied these days, are you?"

"No, I think it has something to do with expecting. I can't get enough of you, of this," I said as I kissed his lips, and put my hand firmly between his legs.

Caleb laughed, and pulled himself close to me. He moved his hands around my body, and his leg slid up mine slowly. His mouth moved over my breast. He planted tiny kisses on it. It proved to be more than I could stand. I begged him to take me. I begged him to please me, to take me and make love to me. He didn't argue. He artfully moved his body over mine, careful not to lean on my stomach. He bent down and kissed my rather large belly. "Soon we will be a family."

"Caleb."

He looked at me with his beautiful green eyes, and put his finger to his lips. "Shhh, Gwyneth, do not remind me that I am not the one who put this life in you. I am not angry, for this is something I could never give you. As much as I want to be a match for you, I am not." He kissed my belly again. "This is a joyous time for me. I have you, and soon a little one will join us. I shall, I do, love it as if it were my own, and there is nothing you can say to change that. He is gone, and you are here with me, with child." His lips found mine. "I love you, Gwyneth."

My thoughts raced to Pallo. I knew that this child I carried was his, and my heart ached because I knew that he was dead. It had been months since I had known his touch, and since I'd gotten the news of his demise. I had ended up in Caleb's arms seeking comfort after Pallo's disappearance, and I had never left, and I never wanted to leave. Soon we would be married and we would be welcoming the baby into the world.

Caleb's kisses brought me back to him. I arched my back, begging him to enter me. He did, and I cried out from the sinful pleasure of having him in me.

"I love you," he said softly to me.

"And, I you, Caleb."

"That is strange, last I knew it was I that you opened your legs for, and no one else." The sound of Pallo's voice made me freeze.

How?

Caleb looked down at me with a look of dread, but he didn't move. Something rushed past me and Caleb was suddenly propelled off me and into the air. I screamed. In a flash Pallo was before me, but it was not my Pallo, it was not the Pallo I had loved. This thing before me was a monster--a vampire. I'd come to know vampires in my lifetime, and one in particular was pure evil. I knew full well what they were capable of, and the destruction they could cause. My eyes fell upon my stomach.

The baby.

I had to protect the baby. I yanked my blue nightgown down to cover my body. He laughed. The sound of the Devil's voice fell from his lips.

"You hide your shame from me. Why? I know what you are now, donnaccia."

He had just called me a wh.o.r.e, and I knew it was the demon talking, and not my sweet Pallo. I reached my hand to touch him and he struck me across the face. I fell off of the bed and scrambled to my feet. My cheek burned, and my body ached. I was too far along in the pregnancy to move quickly, but I knew I had to get away from him--from it.

Caleb stirred on the floor, and I feared Pallo would destroy him if he noticed. His hate was, at least for the moment, focused on me, not Caleb. If I could give Caleb enough time to come to, he could fight the demon off. I couldn't use my magic against him if I wanted, I carried his child, and I was powerless to cause him harm.

"Here," I said, coaxing him towards me. "No, I have no shame. I would change nothing!" With that, I ran towards the door and out into the hallway. I could feel him closing in on me. I had lied to him just then, and I didn't know if he could tell or not. Some vampires could sense a lie, others could not. I had been told it took years to develop strong vampire powers. I didn't have time to figure it out. I had to save our baby. The Pallo I knew and loved had created this life with me, and I would not let the demon side of him destroy it. I screamed and ran from the room.

Something shook me. I opened my eyes. Pallo was over me in the bed. "You, you murderer, you killed me..." as I said it, I realized how insane I sounded.

Pallo looked at me and shook his head. "I didn't...no, I was upset...I..."

I turned and climbed across the bed. I pulled at the blanket on the bed. With my body weight on it, I couldn't get it to wrap completely around myself. I turned to keep my eye on Pallo, but he was gone. Frantic, I clutched at the blanket and pulled a corner of it over me and turned on all fours to climb off of the bed.

Pallo caught hold of my arms and fell on top of me. He rolled me onto my back and pinned my body to the bed. I kicked and bit at him. He didn't fight me, he merely held me tight.

"ENOUGH!" he yelled, so loud that I thought my eardrums had burst. I stopped fighting and lay motionless beneath him.

Pallo looked down at me with tears in his eyes. "I didn't kill you. I swear it, I loved you. I still love you. I will always love you."

"You walked in on her, on me...with Caleb. You cornered me in the hallway," I said softly, looking up at him. I wasn't sure how to talk about the past. I only had bits and pieces to go off of.

"I didn't mean to harm you. I was newly made, and had little control over my demon." He had stopped crying and looked as though he reflected on the past, trying to make sense of what was obviously senseless. "What you didn't see was me falling to floor and telling you to go, because I didn't want to hurt you."

"So, you admit that this all happened? But how? What the h.e.l.l is going on?" My thoughts were so jumbled my head hurt. I wasn't sure if I should run or take a nap.

"Gwyneth, you do not understand. Yes, it was you, but in another lifetime." He loosened his grip on me slightly. I thought about hitting him, but I didn't. "When we found Lydia with child, we had no idea what that would mean for us."

"What does Lydia have to do with this?" I asked.

"It does not matter. The only thing that matters is that you understand that you are removed from that life. You have a new life now, a fresh start."

"Did you kill me?" I asked dryly.

"I have already told you, no--but I did frighten you, and drove you to your death." He closed his eyes. "I drove you away... I couldn't stop the monster in me."

"I wouldn't leave you for being what you are, not if I loved you."

He let go of me and slid next to me on the bed, covering my body with the blanket.

"You were not the same person then. Circ.u.mstances were different." Pallo put his head back and his hair spilled out next to mine. Loose brown curls laced into my black waves and for a moment I couldn't tell where one started and the other began.

"Circ.u.mstances?" I thought about what he had said. "Caleb and the baby," It made sense now. I knew why I had fallen head over heels for both Caleb and Pallo in such a short time. I knew them, and had loved them.

"Yes, you knew Caleb. You knew Caleb for almost a hundred years before you ever even met me." I decided against yelling at him for reading me again. I wasn't even sure he was aware he did it.

"How the h.e.l.l old was I?" I asked.

"Over one hundred when you died. The faerie blood in you was strong, so you would have lived well over a thousand years."

"How did I die?" the words fell out so easily, like I talked about past lives everyday.

"I do not know exactly how it happened, but I know it was not pleasant."

"How do you know that?" I turned to face him on the bed. We were lying on the quilt and there was not enough of it to cover my whole body. I tried to ignore it and stared at his profile.

"Fairies are not easy to kill, and it took us many days before we found you." Pallo's eyes were closed again and I could tell he didn't want to talk about this with me.

"It took days to find my body, couldn't somebody smell a rotting corpse?" stomach bile churned and twisted in me as the thought of this sunk in. It's not everyday you find out you were murdered in a past life.

"I didn't say rotting body. I said body." Pallo turned and looked at me. It was like he saw inside of me--looking through me, to my core. He moved close to me and instead of answering my question he kissed me on the lips.

"The baby?"

He let out a sigh. "You were no longer with child when we found you."

"Was the baby all right then?"

His hand touched mine and squeezed. "No. I knew the people behind your death, and they are not the type to keep a child around. If I could have saved your baby, I would have." He put so much emphasis on your.

The reality of the situation set in and I shuttered. He grabbed my hand, and held it tight. He made me feel safe when it should have been impossible to feel safe.

"You are here now. Let us hope we never know what really happened." His mouth pressed on mine, but I didn't reciprocate the kiss. Pallo's entire body enveloped me as he wrapped himself around me. He brought his lips to my cheek. I stiffened, and he never made a move to kiss me again. He just lay there holding me tightly.

"Tell me you thoughts." He whispered.

I didn't know what to say. My mind had been racing over the hundreds of ways I could have died and my face flushed. I almost had a panic attack. My breathing was shallow and my pulse quickened. I clutched onto to him and he held me tight.

"I want to go home," I said, softly.

"Then it shall be." Wind whirled around us on the bed. I could feel his lips kiss the top of my head. "I am sorry."

Chapter 16.

With a loud thud, my body hit my bathroom floor. The blue tile felt ice cold on my naked body. Pallo was not with me. The thought of being rid of him should have made me happy. Instead, I was terrified. I had a vision of him being stuck in the past, unable to leave the house and starving to death.

I ran into the kitchen and grabbed the cordless phone. I dialed information. The operator gave me the number for Necro World. It took me three times dialing to get it right. I was so nervous that my fingers were hitting the wrong b.u.t.tons. It rang and rang. I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. An automated answering service picked up. I listened to the endless choices of b.u.t.tons to push and selected one.

"h.e.l.lo, Necro's Magik World & Supernatural Theme Park. Jennifer speaking. How I may help you?"

"Pallo! I need to speak to Pallo, please."

"Who's calling?"

"Just put Pallo on please," I said.

"Yes, Miss, I'm afraid that--"

I interrupted. "If Mr. Pallo is there, you have exactly two seconds to put him on this phone or I will hunt you down, Jenny. It is Jenny, right?" I p.r.o.nounced each word to its fullest, so she would hear how real my threat was. "I want to make sure I come after the right person."

"I'll connect you now, please hold." Soft music came over the ear piece. I wasn't sure when vampires started listening to soft rock, but I figured it was one mainstream way to handle the changing technologies. If they could tolerate Kenny G, then so could I.

The phone buzzed, and someone picked it up. "Pallo's office," James said.

"Is Pallo there?" I shouted.

"Ms. Stevens?" he asked.

"Yeah, James, it's me, Gwen. Is Pallo there?"

"You two gave us a h.e.l.l of a scare. One minute you were there and then poof, you were gone. We looked everywhere for you guys." I got the feeling he tended to ramble, and I wasn't in the mood for it.

"Jameson! IS PALLO THERE?" I screamed it at the top of my lungs into the phone.

"Well, okay, don't get your knickers in a twist. Hang on, I'll grab him."

I exhaled. I hadn't realized I'd been holding my breath. Someone came to the phone.

"Gwyneth, James tells me you are upset. Are you all right?" Pallo's sweet strong voice filled my ear. I was so relieved. He was fine.

"I was--" I started to say worried and stopped myself. "I thought you might not have made it back. You weren't with me, and I was just..."

"I was worried about you, as well." I could tell he smiled. "I could not go with you to your home. I hadn't been invited."

I smacked my forehead. I knew vampires couldn't enter a person's home without an invitation. If I would have taken time to think, I would have figured it out.