Prologue and first chapter:
Prologue
Grab Fate by the throat – Ludwig van Beethoven
2080 A.D.
When the moon rose, full and luminous, its soft silver rays glanced off the various windows of the steal monster that was the city’s second biggest skyscraper. In the front corners, the building boasted bay windows, some covered in blackout curtains. The moonlight hit one of these special windows and caused the curtains to slip open, not making a sound, on their light-sensitive track. In through the bay window, past the blackout burgundy velvet curtains, the moonlight poured a silver glow over the whole room.
A small, female, lithe figure, with wavy chocolate brown locks and soft pale skin, lay curled up on the left side of a lavish four-poster bed draped in gauzy fabric in shades of cerulean. She looked like a delicate little faerie covered by dark cerulean sheets.
Ember’s dark eyes with long lashes fluttered open. She yawned wide, her dainty curved fangs bared, and stretched her arms over her head. The simple symbol of her clan was tattooed on her left wrist. She was from the Sidhean clan, clan of vampires who have mixed blood from the sidhe.
She rolled over; a dreamy smile on her cupid-bow lips, only to find the bed to her right was empty. She quirked an eyebrow in confusion and shook her head to clear some of the muddled effect the death-like sleep vampires succumb to had had on her. She then furrowed her forehead when she realized the bed beside her looked unwrinkled as if no one had slept in it.
There was an almost eerie hush in the house. She listened with her extraordinary hearing and could not detect even the faintest sound of any other person in the house.
“Rowan?” She called out uncertain. She got no answer. Rowan. A tentative mental call to him answered in silence.
She stumbled out of bed, twisted in the sheets, tripped and fell. “Rowan!” She yelled out louder, still to no avail. Her voice seemed to echo back at her, taunting her with merciless glee as she sat there. She jerked the sheets free, untangling herself, then pulled the sheet over her naked form and got up to head to the closet, feet silent over the maple hardwood floor. Recessed lights in the ceiling blinked on over her head as she walked and shut off behind her conserving light.
She opened the sliding door walk-in closet with a push of a button on the touch screen next to it, to put on a robe and search the house. She let out a startled cry, dropping the sheet. Her things stretch on and on with no sight of anything belonging to anyone else.
She spun to the rest of the room; getting dizzy as she twirled and twirled, not finding a trace of anyone but her.
The knickknacks she’d collected over the years, the paintings she bought-everything- was hers.
Her heart raced as she threw on a black silk robe and fled the room.
The hallway seemed to go on forever; the walls were bare of paintings by Rowan.
Everything looked the same in the living room at first glance, until she looked to the large computerized fireplace. It should have had pictures of her and Rowan on the mantle, including their wedding pictures. There were only pictures of her, her friends, and her family.
She turned to the living room wall, which, up until yesterday, had a large mural TV, which rotated between screens and featured things painted by Rowan, and saw it was just a blank blue wall. She went from room to room finding no trace of Rowan.
Using the touch screen wall phone, she tried calling his cell phone and his work number but she was told by the automated voice that she’d reached numbers that had been disconnected or were otherwise no longer working. This usually meant the numbers didn’t exist. It was if he didn’t exist.
Her mind reeled.
A ball of panic built in the pit of her stomach- the kind of panic that caused hysterics.
Chapter One
Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired – Robert FrostThe phone rang out, merely a clear and soft chiming of bells, but it caused Ember to scream at the unexpected noise. Ember turned in slow motion to the digital monitor beside her to see who was calling.
Sunday’s name showed in a funky orange font across the screen. Ember felt a sudden sharp pain and realized she’d been clenching her fist so tight her nails were slicing the meat of her palm. She relaxed her hand; the small crescent wounds that had filled with blood closed in seconds. She spoke. “Answer visually.” The phone stopped ringing and the screen lit up as Ember shook a little and closed the robe tighter over her small-endowed figure.
Sunday looked out at Ember from the monitor, looking so clear and perfect it was like she was actually sitting in the room with Ember. With strawberry blonde loose curls that fell to kiss pale freckled shoulders and big emerald eyes, Sunday looked even more like a faerie than Ember did. She wore a black shredded tank with silver stars dotting it and offbeat dangling star earrings. A ring with a black bead on it pierced the center of her full lower lip and a black bead was nestled in her tongue.
“Good morning, Emmie!” Sunday squealed. Then her face fell a bit as she saw the panicked looked on Ember’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“Sunnie, he’s gone.” Ember responded, a tremor starting in her lower lip.
“Who’s gone, sweetheart?” She questioned. “Is it Jack?” She probed, referring to the large white and black mutt that Ember owned.
As if on cue, he padded into the room and looked up at his mistress, looking a little worried himself as he could sense something was wrong.
Ember looked down at Jack, the dog she named after a character in one of her favorite fantasy movies about a princess, a forest boy, unicorns and a demon wanting the powers of their horns to cause ever-lasting night. She patted him on the head in an absent manner. She looked back up at Sunday’s expectant face and shook her head. “No, he’s fine; it’s Ro.”
A perplexed look took over Sunday’s face. “Who?”
“Rowan, Sunnie, \Rowan.” She emphasized.
Sunday still looked confused.
That is when Ember lifted her hand, waggled it at Sunday to show off her ring and she noticed there was nothing on her finger. It became clear at that moment that Rowan no longer was real or at least not in her world. Ember could almost hear the world as she knew it shattering into billions of tiny fragments and then there was a strange whooshing noise and she fainted, her body crumpling in a heap on the hard wood floor.
*****
The moon seeped through the open bay window, streaming in and bathing the room in silver. It lit the two sleeping forms intertwined together on the lavish four-poster bed.
Her wavy chocolate locks spread out over his tanned chest and pooled on the cerulean comforter beside him. She had one pale and delicately formed arm flung over his stomach and a long leg intertwined in his.
The cerulean comforter lay over their legs, showing only their outline, and revealed part of the Celtic inspired tattoo across her lower back. A white gold Claddaugh ring with diamonds encircling a blue diamond heart, tiny diamonds decorating the crown and a matching band with tiny inlaid diamonds fit against it graced her left ring finger. There was a dreamy smile across her cupid bow lips and her dark eyelashes fluttered against her pale cheeks.
His long golden locks were tousled and spread across the cerulean pillow behind his head. His chiseled face was slack with deep sleep, but long blonde eyelashes fluttered, foretelling of dreams. A white gold, but much more masculine, Claddaugh ring sat on his left ring finger. The smile twitching at his full lips hinted that the dreams were pleasant. He’d one strong arm curled around her, dark against her pale figure. It contained an intricate dragon tattooed in black across his shoulder, its tail trailed down to the bottom of his bicep.
The moonlight beamed in and seemed to brush across his eyes.
He opened deep hazel, almost cat-like eyes and looked down at her, a look of such devotion and passionate un-faltering love shown out of his handsome face.
Sleeping, he thought she looked like a nymph or maybe a faerie.
Sensing something, she stirred, opened her dark eyes, and looked up at him. A glow came to her face that was so bright it could have rivaled the moonlight streaming into their window.
“Good morning, Emmie.” He said, his voice gruff with sleep, but still very pleasant. It always reminded Ember of a certain bald action hero, typecast often as a lover of fast cars with a badass attitude, from the early 21st century. Ember loved to watch his movies.
“Morning, Ro” Ember responded. Rowan told her a few times he thought she sounded like what a faerie should sound like.
Rowan beamed down at her and said, “Stay right there, I will go make breakfast.” He disentangled himself from her and then leaned in to kiss her; he lingered against her lips. Sliding out from under the comforter, Rowan made a move to stand up.
Ember stopped him by trailing one finger down his muscular back. She traced over the finely detailed Celtic knot between his shoulder blades that he’d done a couple weeks after they wed and then down the rest of his bare back.
He turned his head to smirk at her, bent over to ruffle her hair with affection and then stood up. Feet moving in silence over the gleaming maple wood floors, he walked toward their bathroom. As he walked, the recessed lights did their thing, coming on automatically in soft glow above him and then turning off behind him.
She watched him walk, admiring the way his muscles flexed and relaxed as he moved, especially his taught behind. A naughty smile with delicious thoughts behind it fell across her lips as she watched.
Rowan went into the bathroom to clean up. The bathroom was almost sterile it was so clean, but that was easy when tiny, spider-like robots routinely cleaned everything after any shower or use of the sink or toilet. He washed his face, brushed his teeth and even shaved. Pulling his shoulder-length hair back into a loose ponytail, he smiled at himself in the mirror and thought again how lucky he was to have Ember. He left the bathroom, pulled on a pair of boxers, and went to make breakfast. That was one of the things he didn’t use much technology for.
In the kitchen he hummed a random tune as he made Belgian waffles with diligence and care. He poured two glasses of synthetic blood and put it all on one cedar wood tray with a blue rose picked fresh from the garden.
Ember lounged in bed, smiling at thoughts and memories of Rowan and his touch. She waited for his return with breakfast and then maybe some more loving. A giggle escaped at this thought.
They still acted liked newly weds.
*****
Sunday was shaking Ember, trying to wake her up. “Come on Emmie, please wake up.” She knelt by her in her black almost gravity defying pants as they seemed not to be connected to anything that would hold them up and were missing large chunks of material. They showed off the orange stars tattooed at her pelvic bones and the swirls and stars across her lower back. One could also see she wasn’t wearing underwear as there were no straps. Sunday had pulled her hair back into pigtails, showing of her playful side and also the Tuathan symbol on the back of her neck. She curled her bare toes with their black polish up and then relaxed them over and over, which she did as a worried habit.
Embers eyes finally fluttered and opened. She was a bit groggy and confused. She saw Sunday sat up so fast the room swiveled a bit then righted it self.
“You ok, love?” Sunday asked with concern, brushing a few locks of Ember’s hair behind one of her ears
.
“Not exactly.” Ember’s voice cracked as she spoke.
“Now who’s this Rowan you got so upset about?”
“I-I don’t know.” Ember shook just a bit.
Sunday quirked an eyebrow and worry shown in her emerald eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Well, until yesterday, he was the love of my life.” She took in a shaky breath; vampires don’t need to breath but sometimes taking in a little air stilled Ember. “But he doesn’t exist anymore, I don’t even know if he ever did.” She looked into Sunday’s eyes. “I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. Up until I woke up this morning I had spent the last three years with Rowan Sterling, heir to the Sterling genetics fortune. Him and I were even talking about kids. We met when I went on a much needed vacation after that horrendous break up with Indigo.” She paused. “Did I go out with an Indigo?”
Sunday looked at Ember a very serious look on her face. “Yes, of course. He was that big CEO of that TV mural company that has those big rotating screened murals that showcase paintings and also turned out to be a big jerk. You’ve been dating here and there since then, but nothing serious. And it has been three years.”
Ember nodded, “Well at least that is still the same.” She also thought how odd it was that she remembered having one of those TV murals when she was with Rowan. She shook her head and continued. “So, as I was saying, I met Rowan at a time in my life when I didn’t want anyone. He told me later that he fell for me the moment he saw me, but I needed some convincing. Rowan was a hopeless romantic and made me laugh almost as much as you do. After spending two weeks trying to get me to give him a chance, I gave in and I started to fall for him in no time. He took me on a whirlwind trip around the globe for two months and I had never had that much fun or laughed that often. We were together a year before he proposed with a gorgeous Claddaugh ring in a piece of decadent home made, it was made by him because he owned a bakery, chocolate cake,” Ember paused at the memory with a small smile, then continued, “and we got married in a small church in the Gaelic countryside, the only real countryside that exists, with a Celtic wedding ceremony.” Ember chewed her lower lip and looked at Sunday. “You were my maid of honor.”
“In one of the few church’s that still exists?” Sunday questioned. A political war in 2050 ended in the abolishment of most religious ideas and themes in hopes of a more harmonious existence. There had been too many religious wars and it had torn apart just apart every place around the world.
Ember nodded in agreement and then gave a shivering sigh.
Sunday looked a little lost as to what to do, and then she pulled Ember into a tight embrace. “We will figure this whole mess out together Emmie. It will be ok. Everything will work out for the best, you will see.”
Ember rested her head on Sunday’s shoulder and broke down into trembling tears. She didn’t think it would ever be ok again.
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