Immortal Confessions by Tara Fox Hall Read Free Book Online

practice that somehow my saliva could heal up
the puncture marks my fangs made, so long as the drain-ee wasn’t
already dead. But that I could heal so completely so quickly with a
large infusion of blood was a complete surprise.
    This untapped power of mine begged another
question: what else might I be capable of that I hadn’t known? The
legends I had heard said vampires could fly, and turn into rats, or
mist, or wolves, or bats, couldn’t cross running water, and that
they couldn’t touch silver, or anything of God, be it cross, Bible,
or consecrated ground or objects. I knew the touch of a holy object
had no impact on me, and water affected me no different than it did
a human. Aside from God and water, was the rest true? How to know,
as I’d never met another vampire in my travels? How did one learn
to shift form if there was no one to teach them?
    I tried concentrating, and was not able to
turn into anything other than human. So I checked that off my list.
Next, I tried standing and levitating. That didn’t work at all
either. There was no silver in Anna’s room, so that would have to
wait for another time. Besides, now I had a headache.
    I also had the more pressing problem of how
to escape with Anna. Any more vampiric discoveries would have to
wait until we were settled away from this place. I made a mental
note to research what I could of legends. Anna was right: this is
what I was. I’d spent more than enough time not knowing the manner
of creature I’d become.
    * * * *
    Anna awoke a little after midnight. After
making love again, she disentangled herself from me, and reached
for a goblet beside her bed. I stopped her, when I saw what was in
it.
    “Don’t, Love. You risk your life
needlessly.”
    “I must,” she said. “We can have children
when we are settled, Dev. But we may have to travel for weeks, or
months and we can’t afford—”
    “I can’t give you one, ever,” I said
hesitantly. “I am unable to, Love.”
    Anna looked at me for a long moment. She
seemed sad.
    I’d heard her say she didn’t want to be a
mother, but I didn’t know how to mention that without sounding like
an eavesdropper. I’d try another tack. “Can you still be with me,
knowing this? I’ll understand if you cannot. Most women want
children.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “It has never happened since I was turned, to
my knowledge.”
    “And before?”
    Heat suffused my face. “Yes, more than a few
times. I was very fertile when I was mortal. But in the last two
hundred years—”
    “Are you so old?” she said in a hushed
voice.
    “Yes,” I said, feeling decrepit and ancient.
“I was born in 1592, if I’m remembering right.”
    She looked at me again. “Do you not
remember?”
    “I remember some things very clearly,” I said
quickly. “Most of my mortal years I remember fairly well, though I
couldn’t tell you my mother’s birthday, or the name of my favorite
dog, though I remember their faces well. However, the years after
becoming vampire are indistinct. I spent many years traveling, and
singing, and they blur together, both the people and the places.” I
looked away from her. “Nothing mattered to me for a long time,
really, after I was turned. There was nothing to distinguish one
year from another.”
    “Then why go on?” she said, stroking my arm.
“I’m glad I found you, but it sounds a desolate existence.”
    “I knew if I gave up and died, that would be
the end,” I said simply. “I didn’t want that to be the end of
me.”
    “Don’t you believe in God?” she said
curiously. “My cross doesn’t seem to bother you.”
    I reached out and touched it gently. “It
doesn’t. Yes, I believe in God. I always have. I pray regularly to
Him.”
    “What do you pray for?”
    For Danial. For his forgiveness. For not
finding a way to save him.
    “Devlin?”
    “Redemption,” I said hurriedly. “And I found
that, in you.” I kissed her gently. “Please rest, Anna. We have
much to do