Come to me, p.24
Come to Me, page 24
“Love,” Nicolae said. The word was a deep rumble in his chest that Samira could feel vibrating through her own body.
Nyx nodded. “Yes, love. Love that would make each of you give your life for the other. No creature of the Night World would ever make such a sacrifice, or even understand it. And that is why humanity is precious, and above us.
“You, Nicolae, have found the strength of this truth,” Nyx went on. “In it you will find all the power you need to drive Vlad Draco from Moldavia.”
Nyx came up to them then, tall enough that she looked them eye to eye as they sat on the horse. She lifted a starry black hand and touched Samira’s cheek, her touch cool and faint through the veil of Night.
“So you see, my dear child, you fulfilled your tasks after all. Death needn’t take you today.”
Death shrugged his shoulders at this news.
“Will you let me stay here with Nicolae?” Samira asked, almost not daring to hope.
Nyx laughed and turned away, gathering Night around her like a cloak. “I could not take you now even if I wished to,” she said over her shoulder. “For what is a soul but the love a human has for others? You have a soul now, Samira. You created it yourself. And we of the Night World can never force a soul from its body.
“Enjoy your earthly life,” Nyx called lightly, moving away, Death at her side. Night peeled back from the sky, revealing the blue and gold of a brilliant afternoon. “Enjoy it, for you will not have another!”
Warm air rushed in where the chill of Night had been, and the birds again began to sing. There was a murmur of voices as the villagers gathered behind them, watching the last shadows of Night and Death disappear on the horizon. Samira stared along with them, the miracle of her release still too fresh to be believed.
Nicolae bent down, putting his face beside hers, his cheek pressing against her hair. “You’re mine now, for as long as we both shall live.”
He, at least, was real, and something she could cling to. She reached up behind her, her hand cupping the back of his neck. “And you are mine.” She tilted her face for his kiss, and then turned round in his arms so that he could kiss her fully.
“I want you to marry me,” he said, when at last they broke the kiss.
“Yes,” she said, although it had not been a question. “Yes!”
Nicolae laughed, and turned his horse round so that they faced his men and the villagers. “Three cheers for the woman who will be my wife: Samira, the future Queen of Moldavia!”
The villagers cheered, uneasily at first, but then with gusto as Nicolae kissed her again.
“Congratulations,” Andrei said, riding up to them. “And may I also congratulate you, Nicolae, on having the worst in-laws I have ever seen.”
“At least they won’t visit often,” Constantin said.
“And they won’t ask to borrow money,” Petru added. Nicolae laughed, and Samira smiled, feeling the warmth of their acceptance and approval, and her freedom from the Night World. They all rode back toward the fortress, Nicolae’s arm a comfort around her.
“You know the battles are not yet over,” Nicolae said gently to her, as they rode ahead of the others. “We must leave Lac Strigoi and help my father now.”
She nodded. “I know. Do we leave tonight?”
“The morrow is soon enough.” She put her hand on his thigh, still astonished that this man was hers to love for the rest of her natural days. “Then the night is ours.”
“As never before, my love. The night is ours.”
Books by Lisa Cach
The novels of the Night World:
Come to Me
Dream of Me
His Darkness Beautiful (coming in 2014)
Other stories:
The Changeling Bride
The Raven Witch (original title: Bewitching the Baron)
Phantom Bride (original title: Of Midnight Born)
The Wildest Shore
The Mermaid of Penperro
The Dragon, the Virgin, and George (original title: George & the Virgin)
Dr. Yes
The Erotic Secrets of a French Maid
A Babe in Ghostland
Have Glass Slippers, Will Travel
Dating Without Novocaine
Great-Aunt Sophia’s Lessons for Bombshells
Wake Unto Me (Young Adult)
E-Novellas:
The Flirting Season
The Trouble with Truffles
My Zombie Valentine
A Rose by Any Other Name
Get all four of the above stories together in:
Crazy 4U
Warm your chestnuts with three romantic, humorous Christmas novellas under one cover:
Mistletoe’d!
About the Author
Lisa Cach is the award-winning author of more than twenty romantic novels and novellas, ranging across sub-genres from Paranormal, Historical, Contemporary, and Chick Lit, to Young Adult. Her novel “Dating Without Novocaine” was named one of Waldenbooks’ “Best Books of 2002,” and she is a two-time finalist for the prestigious RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America.
Ms. Cach was raised in the moss and mud of the Pacific Northwest, where she still suffers through the long grey winters today. She has used travel to inspire her fiction for decades, and in service to her art has hiked the foothills of the Himalaya, picked leeches off her legs in the jungles of Borneo, eaten dinner in the childhood home of Vlad the Impaler in Transylvania, and worn out her feet following an ancient pilgrimage route in the southwest of France. She has sailed the Caribbean as a working crew member of a research schooner, and taught writing aboard the MV Explorer on a voyage up the Amazon. Her professional background includes teaching conversational English in Japan, an M.A. in counseling psychology, and several years working the graveyard shift on a mental health crisis line.
When not writing or traveling, you’ll find her gardening, drawing, hiking with her husband, or digging for treasures at estate sales. And, of course, reading.
Visit her online at http://lisacach.com, or like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lisacachbooks.
Cach, Lisa, Come to Me
