Free Immortal Confessions by Tara Fox Hall Page A

bunch. Even
those of the upper classes, who enjoy more tawdry intimate
adventures, balk at anything that involves blood.” That was mostly
true, anyway.
    “All right,” she said. “We have a place to
weather the storm, so long as it lasts. Where do we go from
here?”
    It was obvious she was not looking for
lovemaking, but a plan. “I scent horses faintly,” I said finally.
“I will dress, and go see what this farm has to offer in its
stables. Depending on that, we should stay here as long as we can,
until we make sure there will be no more blizzards. Then we stick
to our original plan to head to the biggest city.”
    “Which one would that be? Paris is in
turmoil, there have been reports Napoleon is losing power—”
    Not likely, but she was right, it was better
not to be where soldiers were fighting, if we could avoid it.
“Probably Fontainebleau,” I said, thinking hard. “I’m not sure if
that is nearest. It might be better to head east and out of
Seine-et–Marne though. Your family will think us sure to remain in
France, or at the most, head to Paris. If we head east, they may go
in the opposite direction.”
    “We have no money,” she said dejectedly. “It
was all on my horse.”
    I hugged her tight. “We have each other,” I
whispered softly. “We will take everything of value here that we
can with us and sell it, to finance our way.”
    Anna began to cry, great hitching sobs. I
hugged her tight, a few tears leaking from my eyes, because she was
so sad. It was my fault our plan had failed as badly as it had.
    “Please don’t cry,” I said in a cracked
voice. “It won’t always be like this, Anna, we will have a home of
our own, a grand one—”
    “My wedding dress,” she sobbed. “They took my
wedding dress, Devlin! It was my mother’s! And that whore is going
to wear it!”
    “Shh,” I said, feeling awful. “I will do my
best to get it back someday, Love, but it’s likely gone. But I
promise you, I’ll have another one made for you, any kind you
want—”
    “It won’t be the same!” she wailed.
    This was clearly one of those times to not
talk, just to hold. I held her, and over time, she stopped carrying
on. Then she wiped her eyes with a cloth, and hugged me. “I’m
sorry,” she said softly. “I don’t mean to be foolish. It’s enough
that we have each other. A dress is just a piece of clothing.”
    “You’re very brave, Love. Please, just lie
here with me for a while. We have both come through an ordeal, and
we should rest.” I really wanted to make love, but I thought it
best not to say that.
    Anna kissed me softly, and my inhibition and
reason dissolved completely into desire. Soon after she was moaning
softly beneath me, as I cried out in the sheer pleasure of being
within her warm soft body.
    I wanted to drink from her, and told myself
no. Yet as I lay there with her after, I found myself kissing her
neck hungrily, shaking slightly, and telling myself it would just
be a little, it wouldn’t hurt her, she’d recovered quickly those
other times with me...
    I bit down on my bottom lip, and stifled a
hiss of pain. Then I used that pain to make myself get up, and get
dressed.
    The first order of business was to look for
warmer clothes that weren’t bloody. The guard I’d killed had
leather armor, not good wool. Besides, he’d been on the short side.
The clothes that the man I’d killed had were all too small also.
But my own clothes were dry, and I put them on for now.
    Next, I looked for a weapon. After searching
a moment, I grabbed the dead man’s gun from behind the front door.
I puzzled over why it was there, where it would be hard to get to,
and then determined that Anna had likely placed it there when she
was tidying up the house. I said nothing to her, not wanting to
upset her after she’d been through so much.
    I went outside. The night was cold, but the
wind had gone, and the stars were out. The corpses were where I’d
left them, frozen solid. I picked