I apologize for the delay for those who have been waiting; wrote pages and pages but scrapped it all as I didn't like the direction of the plot so starting over has been time consuming (and university starting up hasn't helped!). It hasn't been possible to complete the story in this part without causing further delay but it's not my intention for this to be a long, continuous story so it will be wrapped up soon.
Thanks for the patience and hope you enjoy.
****
On queue, Amelia burst into the room and Nicolas eyed her coolly. He had been waiting for her entrance, had heard her hurrying thoughts; thoughts of disbelief, of confusion, of denial...and heartbreak.
"Amelia," Cole staggered to his feet and stood scant inches from her but made no move to touch her. Instead, he watched in impotent misery as she charged into the centre of the room and seized Lara by the shoulders.
"I give you permission to stay for the festivities, but not to touch my possession. Let her go," Nicholas said calmly but Amelia only increased her hold, her expression defiant. Just as quickly she stumbled back with a cry, waving her hands before her and blowing on them urgently, feeling as though she had just plunged them into a piping hot oven.
Panting harshly, Amelia declared, "You will not -- you
shall
not have her," her look was direct though her bearing was of someone dazed and feverish.
"Anything else?" Nicholas asked in bored tones but went on without pause. "If you are to condemn anyone here, let it be the man who sired you -- the both of you -- for his hands were not tied. He was not forced to proceed with any of this; indeed, he could well have spared your sister's life. As it was, he proved too selfish and too cowardly to face the punishments of not complying with me. Now that he has given his word, it is done." His tones were delivered with authority and finality.
Lara looked across at the man who had sired her and in that moment knew she could not disbelieve Nicholas for the older man's hanging head, shrouded shoulders and inability to meet her eye marked him as guilty as clearly as any brand would.
She shook her head then and almost laughed as her eyes flickered and finally stopped on Nicholas. She had avoided glancing his way feeling, not fear, but something else.
Betrayal
, her mind suggested bitterly and she dismissed the emotion with feverish rejection. She must surely be mad not to be fearful and shocked about this disturbing turn events but instead, wounded!
"Do you know," she mused, pinning him with an unblinking stare, almost as if unconsciously speaking aloud, "I thought when I was summoned here that you were going to ask for my hand in marriage... I tell you,
this
I wouldn't ever have envisioned. But now it's almost as though...as though I knew but chose to remain in ignorance..." she frowned in wonder. "You had me from the start. You lured me in well-- the pastor always said in his sermons that evil beings seek gratification by playing with their victims."
"Not once did I use my lure on you," Nicholas shook his head, slowly. "You came to me of your own freewill each time. I
myself
do not understand it... for I lured you nowhere. You simply followed," by the end, his tone was almost marvelling.
"Liar!" launching her body across the small distance that separated them, Lara clawed her fingernails down the Demon's handsome face. He did not stop her, only held her but the embrace was light. Finally pushing out of his hands as awareness chased away the fog that had entered her mind, which he allowed her to do without demur, Lara panted hard as she looked upon her handiwork.
Yet rather than survey his face with the satisfaction she had hoped, she felt something twist inside her at the evidence of her violence. Digging her fingernails into her palms, she forced herself from giving into the compelling urge to run her palms over his face in an attempt to smooth the damage away.
Distantly, she heard Cole calling out to her, telling her -- begging her - not to dare more but the man was silenced when Nicholas held up a hand, his eyes still pinned on Lara.
"No one has ever dared," he uttered simply, handling his torn face in bemusement and then he laughed. "But I should have known. You have well and truly put your mark upon me, girl, have you not?" he looked at her with something close to fascination as if it were
she
who were the anomaly in the room.
"Please," a hoarse voice broke into the tense silence. "Please -- I implore of you -- leave her be. I will give you anything you desire if you will just let her be and spare her life."
Nicholas turned to Lord Hampton, eyeing his pleading expression with disgust - and suddenly, he felt something snap within him as fury blinded all reason. His usually cool and tempered control was no more for he only felt a burning anger and unsteadiness within himself which had little to do with the old man; the anger was at himself...the unsteadiness about someone else entirely.
"Fool," Nicholas snarled then, his lip curling viciously, "Who are
you
to talk to
me
- to dictate to me? This is none of your concern -- be gone! You underestimated me when we first made our bargain with your overreaching arrogance thinking I would not come to collect -- and today you think you have bested me by sparing the child you prefer and offering me the bastard -- but now you will learn who holds the power here!" he started toward the cowering man with violence in every step.
"Nicholas-!" the feminine appeal was desperate. "This is between you and I, is it not?" Lara hurried in reasoning tones, sensing the taut violence within him and knowing it meant something terrible.
Though she knew her attempt to placate him was useless, she had to try; for all she knew, this unpredictable creature could turn on her but it was better to attempt it than to stand and watch and do nothing. Despise Lord Hampton she may well do but she did not wish violence on the man...and then, to Lara's dismay, Nicholas stopped short at the sound of her voice and paused. His lithe build appeared to tremble in barely confined fury and Lara was stunned at the result.
"Please," Lara murmured tentatively to his rigid back, "Please let him be."
"You think to manage me?" Nicholas whipped around and watched as the girl's face flinched at his contempt. "You seek to save the man who both fathered and abandoned you -- only to later sacrifice your life for his own ends?" the bitter, mocking words and their truth caused a burning pain within Lara.
Tears fell from her eyes and Nicholas felt his limbs becoming heavy and weighted in response and at that point, he knew. He knew what it was that he was trying to deny -- this internal battle within him that was making him so enraged. Something within him had battled and won against the greedy, selfish, animal side of him -- the side that demanded he snatch Lara to him and disappear into the night with her. He knew and accepted then that he would let her go.
The humans were all braying for attention now, each so noble and so willing to sacrifice his or her life for the sake of his possession it was nauseating. The dull pain that had started earlier in Nicholas's very core seemed to be intensifying. He had no clue what this ache was - had never experienced anything similar in his countless years of existence --and wished now only to return to his own world and to forget he had ever made a deal with Arthur Hampton so as to eliminate any chance of being exposed to Lara.
His mate she may well be but his hands were not tied. Indeed, he could turn and walk away right now and be free from her and her pull. The thought appeared to bring immediate yet momentary relief to his innards and it was this that he clung to as he made his decision. Be gone with them all, he thought harshly, almost desperate to escape now as a disorientating feeling made him dizzy. I need no woman forever tied at my side, no female who thinks she can lead me by the nose to do her bidding.
He had only ever fended for himself and the thought of there being another and one who disturbed his equilibrium so was daunting. The prospect of asking her to be his bride, here and now, now also seemed farcical. For Nicholas could not snatch her against her will and force her to submit...he had the power to do so, but it would be an empty victory. He wanted her to come freely to him and though he could not read her thoughts he was sure that by now what little attraction and pull to him she may have felt had been eradicated by her revulsion of who and what he was.
But neither, he knew, could he accept her as a sacrifice as was his right; to take her soul and thereby sentence her to a death sentence. She was too vital for that. She deserved to live amongst her own kind and indulge in their cloying rituals; to wed and rear children and live an uncomplicated life with a pale faced, limp cocked mortal mate. The thought caused a slash of pain to slice through his brain but he knew it had to be done. He would walk away. At least then, he would not feel this nagging guilt and pain that assailed him at the prospect of slaying her for his own ends or of snatching her and demanding -- forcing -- her to be his mate.
Decision met, he pinned each human with probing eyes. "I have stayed overlong in this sty of a world," he announced, his tones low and brusque, "and my patience is spent with your pandering and damned family theatrics. So I will make clear my intentions. As to you," he turned and faced Cole. "I release you of all further service. You are no longer my slave and your life and soul are now your own. Since I do not intend to return to your world, I no longer have use of your services."
Cole's breath caught harshly in his throat. His expression betrayed a plethora of emotions; he looked overwhelmed, staggered, infinitely grateful -- but also scared though Nicholas spared him little regard for he turned abruptly as he delivered his next dictate.
"You," he pinned Lord Hampton with a disgusted though mildly pitying look. "Well, your guilt will eat at you until you're sick with it," he lifted his shoulders, "and that is punishment enough, I'll warrant. We will meet again in the next life but as for the here and now, you may rest easy in the knowledge that I will not trouble you again with my presence. Your soul, too, is your own so consider our bargain met."
Just as stiffly Nicholas turned to Lara but his bearing was slower this time, almost weary. "And you," the silence following this was a long one for Nicholas struggled with that internal battle once more as he tried to school his roaring emotions. He pinned the girl with an unfaltering, narrow stare, chin lifted.
The shadows of the dying day attached themselves to the planes and hollows of his face until only his luminous eyes were visible as he uttered in clear, commanding tones, "I release you of all further claim; your life is once again your own."
"You mean -- you're letting her go?" it was Lord Hampton who spoke into the stunned silence some moments later and for a while the only reply with the hiss and flicker of the flames in the fireplace.
Nicholas arched a sardonic brow. "That is so -- as I do not wish to lay sight on any limb of your family tree again, I concluded that the easiest option was to be rid of you all. Call if a magnanimous gesture of good will on my part, if you will," a twisted smile moulded his handsome lips at that.
Nicholas looked about the darkened study then; at the gaping, pale faces and the unappealing furnishings, his face distasteful. "Indeed, I've been too long in this world and God willing," a brow arched sardonically, "I will never return again."
At that, he affected a stiff bow and exited the room on a swivel of his polished, booted feet displaying an arrogance and confidence at vast odds with his internal mood. He left behind him a silent, bemused silence as, for the first time in his existence he made the most selfless decision by relinquishing his only chance at a love hitherto of no importance to him.
*
One year later
"Yes, I think I shall do," Lara turned and Amelia started slightly as if she had been rudely awakened from a heavy dream. Her eyes widened somewhat as she became aware of her surroundings - and the sight before her.
Giving Lara a hesitant once over, she said in murmuring tones, "Don't you think - I mean, perhaps it would be more
