Sebastian

He knew he was about to die. Sebastian surveyed the vast forest clearing, using his preternatural sight to pierce the thick darkness which surrounded him. The ranks of oak, birch and sycamore trees stood close together beyond the stumps and blackened grass of the forester’s work-area, bastions against the forces of evil – except that was a fallacy, he knew. The forces he stood against would crush them without a thought.

His breath caught in his throat. He prayed that Jeannie was safe, that his strategy had worked. Fear coursed through his veins for her. His woman. His love. His life. Without her he would be as nothing and he might as well walk into the sun and let it destroy him. He would do it willingly if it would save her.

His thoughts turned inwards, drifting back to three days before. He had taken Jeannie out to dinner to celebrate her twenty-fifth birthday. Being a vampire, he could not eat, of course, but he had used his powers to give that illusion to those frequenting the intimate Italian restaurant, so that Jeannie could enjoy the occasion. He remembered her eyes twinkling with collusive merriment as he sipped a glass of red wine. Raising the glass, he had silently saluted both her intelligence and her beauty.

Tall and slender, she yet always seemed diminutive from his own six-feet-four-inch frame. She had worn a silky sheath dress in jade green which caressed her gym-toned curves in a way he had envied. From its perch in an empty wine bottle, the candlelight had flickered over the warm red tablecloth, turning her skin almost translucent and her hair into a river of chocolate satin. The smell of her favourite perfume, Elle, had teased him, tempting him to whisk her home to his mansion, there to indulge his every fantasy, but this night was for her. He had given her a beautiful, delicately-wrought antique necklace of gold clusters set with emeralds and her coffee-coloured eyes had turned caramel with pleasure.

He had toyed with asking her to marry him. They had been together for eighteen months, yet it seemed only yesterday that she had run from him in terror, after she had realized what he was, that vampires did exist. He smiled to himself. She had been so brave. She had been unable to deny their attraction any more than he had. Not in five hundred years had he met anyone who could make him feel as she did. She did not allow him to take himself too seriously. She was lightness and laughter to his sombre darkness; she was strength and vitality. She brought warmth and happiness to his cold, dreary existence, whilst the passion they shared in bed he had never known with any other woman in all his centuries upon the Earth.

Her birthday would have been the ideal time to ask her, but he had held back the words, shy of declaring himself. He knew that some day she wanted children, the one thing he could not give her. As a vampire, he was infertile. Yes, they could adopt, but how to explain his strange lifestyle? How to explain why he never aged, while Jeannie did? For Jeannie was mortal and deserved a normal life, growing old with a man who loved her. Sebastian’s fangs pricked his lip at the thought of his Jeannie with another man.

The taste of blood brought him back to the present. Jeannie could never have a normal life. What was he thinking? She was human, yes, but she had otherworldly powers. She came from a long line of powerful healers, dating back to the beginning of time. She could reach deep within herself, harness such feelings as love, strength, hope and self-worth, and pour them out via touch or thought, wherever their essence was needed.

As a child, her touch had healed minor injury; through her teenage years, she had developed emotional and spiritual healing. At the advent of her quarter century, as was the way of her family, her powers had matured, increasing ten-fold. She could now draw on the forces of nature to save life, yet the stronger the energy she used, the more it took from her and the more vulnerable she could be afterwards. She was unable to kill, even to protect herself, and the more she used her abilities to thwart evil in its many forms, the easier she would be to find… for now she wasn’t only desirable for her bubbly personality and stunning looks, she was sought by the demons of the underworld to vanquish death.

She was well aware of her destiny, for she had told Sebastian her history. Her mother had died fighting demons when Jeannie was twelve, and her sister Theresa was currently hard at work with other psychically talented people in a secret government programme. Their father was a sensitive, highly intelligent man, but the healing gifts were passed from mother to daughter and to his chagrin, he could do no more for Jeannie than any other loving sire. With a vague unease her only warning mechanism to alert her to danger, she had few defences until she was able to hone her skills. Sebastian never let it show, but the knowledge terrified him. What if something happened to her while he was under the influence of the Dark Sleep – held in stasis until the sun went down – and therefore unable to protect her?

On the way home from Alberto’s, he had sensed a demonic presence. It was a minor being – a foot soldier, a scout – and he had easily disposed of it, but where there was one, many more would follow, and with Jeannie in their claws, the souls of Hades would be reborn, overrunning the world with evil.

Sebastian shuddered and pulled the collar up on his black leather jacket. A monster he might be, but he had never been evil. He had always maintained a sense of right and wrong. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, sweeping the trees again. They were bare of foliage, their stark black branches spreading across the dark purple sky, rustling eerily as though a thousand voices were whispering. Dying bracken hugged the forest floor, filling the mild February night with the damp stench of rotting vegetation.

He forced himself to concentrate. He must not allow his thoughts to distract him. There was too much at stake, although Jeannie should be safe enough for now. She was hidden in his basement, in his lair, lying fully clothed and insensible on his bed. He had mesmerized her and put a guard on her mind. If he closed his eyes, her image ‒ small, defenceless, innocent ‒ was imprinted there; as well as the memory of her tearful refusal when he had first suggested the scheme.

“What if something happens to you?” she had sobbed, clutching a slender-stemmed wineglass so hard he feared it would snap. They were in his large granite and steel kitchen, and she was stacking the dishwasher. He might not need such things, but he liked Jeannie to have all the conveniences of modern life.

“Nothing is going to happen to me.” He rescued the endangered glass. “Have you forgotten I am immortal?”

“You can still be destroyed!” she spat miserably, turning her back.

Ignoring her resistance, he gently wrapped his arms about her waist and nuzzled her shoulder. “It will take more than one scrawny demon to destroy me, beloved,” he consoled.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” She twisted to face him. Her eyes were glistening and her nose was a soft shade of pink. Something shattered inside him.

“Nothing will keep me from you, Jeannie. You trust me, don’t you?”

She did not answer. “Demons are supernatural, too, Sebastian. If ‒‏ if anything did go wrong, what would become of me?”

“In that unlikely event,” he stated arrogantly, hoping to sting her into retort, “you will awaken as if from a normal, natural sleep.”

It had taken a day or two, but her trust in him – her love for him – had allowed him to overcome her doubts. She had finally consented and earlier he had masked her vital signs so they would not be evident to any seeking her. He hoped it was enough. It had to be. He would not contemplate losing her. Mine! The word pounded in his head in rhythm with the beat of his heart – a heart that until Jeannie had entered his existence had forgotten how to beat.

A tiny sound, no more than the scurry of a mouse in the undergrowth, snapped his head up. He broadened his senses, sent them forth into the night, searching… An instant later a tree on the edge of the clearing burst into flames. Sebastian took an involuntary step backwards – and a tree behind him also combusted. Still he could not feel the demon’s presence. This one was more powerful than the one he had destroyed, to be able to cloak itself so thoroughly. Another tree ignited, then another. Sebastian waited. The heat swallowed the cool evening air and became a living thing itself, shimmering, intense, hungry for more. The vampire swallowed. He had the gift – or curse – of eternal life, but as Jeannie had protested, he could be destroyed. Fire could destroy him.

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