An Endless Love
Live For the One I Love
Kristina returned to bed a few minutes after the call ended. She leant over Erik's head and pressed a light kiss to his lips to wake him. When he did not stir, she brushed his hair from his forehead and kissed him again.
"Erik. Erik, wake up." He blinked up at her, his gold eyes clouded with sleep. "Good morning, love." She kissed him again, which this time, Erik returned.
"What time is it?"
"A little before eight."
Erik frowned and pulled the pillow over his head. He had stayed up until just after dawn, reading the novel he had taken from Kristina's apartment the evening he had helped her pack. The book, where Sinclair had found his wife reincarnated in Victorien, had been a fascinating read. As he made his way through the book, the similarities between Sinclair, Victoria and Victorien's story was incredibly similar to the bond he shared with Christine and Kristina.
"I have only been asleep for four hours," he grumbled after a yawn. "It had better be important."
"It is; Doctor Morton called." She had the enjoyment of watching Erik bolt upright in the bed. The pillow fell to the floor. "He's coming over. He will be here in half an hour. I thought you might like to know. Get dressed, baby."
Erik bounded out of bed and rushed to the walk in robe. "Did he say anything? Was your blood compatible? Kristina, I need to know," he asked, looking at her over his shoulder as he let his shirt slip to the floor.
"He didn't say anything." Kristina hugged him when she saw his face drop, her cheek resting against his shoulder blade. "He wants to discuss the results with us together."
Half an hour and a lot of pacing later Erik had Kristina open the door to Doctor Morton. She looked at the several bags he carried with great interest…and anxiety.
"I have some very exciting news for you both," Doctor Morton said cradling a cup of coffee in his hands. "Kristina's blood is compatible with your own, Erik. I did a full blood analysis and she has an abnormally high antibody count."
"Is that good?" Kristina asked, confused. She did not like the word 'abnormally'. Erik wrapped his hands around Kristina's, silently offering her the support and reassurance that she needed.
"Very good news," the doctor assured her.
Erik sighed in relief. He raised their joined hands to his lips and pressed a light kiss to Kristina's hand. "I will no longer be a vampire?" he asked, daring to hope that everything would work out.
Doctor Morton nodded his head. "I am very hopeful that the cure will be successful. You see I believe that the very first vampire's blood was infected with the vampire virus. Then when he or she passed on their tainted blood to their fledglings – is that the right word?" he asked Erik. When he nodded, Doctor Morton continued his explanation. "Then the fledglings too were infected with the virus which they in turn passed on to any other humans they turned. The sharing of blood between a sire and a fledgling is what causes the spread of the vampire virus."
"And you're sure it's only transmitted by blood?" Kristina looked Erik with concerned eyes.
Erik and Morton nodded, both noticing the way Kristina's shoulders slumped with relief, much to Erik's agony. Kristina all but begged him to turn her in Doctor Morton's laboratory, but now, she was not quite so eager to become one of the undead. As hurt as he was, he could not blame her.
"Since the vampire virus is carried through our blood, we don't need to take the blood of our fledgling. The fledglings need to take a vampire's blood and then that's the end of it. By sharing blood, it strengthens the bond between the two vampires. That's why I have never allowed you to take my blood, ma moitié. I don't want you to live a life of existence." He cupped her cheek with his hand, his eyes burning into hers. Aware of the doctor's presence, Erik reluctantly pulled away from her, brushing the back of his fingers down her cheek.
"The transfusion process seems to be working exceptionally well. I am hoping to find a cure for werewolves and zombies also. My research has shown that the three creatures are all infected with variations of the same virus," the doctor rambled.
Erik nodded impatiently. He really did not care for the virology lesson. All he wanted to know were the results from the doctor's tests.
Refusing to be put off by Erik's attitude, Doctor Morton continued, "Well, the three creatures are all turned through a bite. My research is yet to confirm whether werewolves and zombies spread their virus through blood or another bodily fluid."
"The cure, Doctor?" Kristina prompted. She was well aware of Erik's impatience and was hoping that he would not shout at the other man. They could not risk antagonising the man if he was to cure Erik.
"Yes, the cure. Well you see, I believe when a vampire receives a transfusion from his or her donor, who, like you, Kristina has a high vampire virus antibody count, the antibodies fuse with the antigens in the vampire's – Erik's – blood. Once your antibodies bind with Erik's antigens, the antibodies act to destroy the vampire virus, slowly ridding the body of the virus."
"Doctor Morton!"
The doctor winced at Erik's sharp tone. "If you both are happy, we can begin the transfusion now."
Erik watched as the doctor drew fresh blood from Kristina, who made a point of studying the top of Erik's head – anything but the blood being drawn from her arm. As Doctor Morton added several chemicals with unpronounceable names to Kristina's blood, she turned to Erik.
"Are you sure about this, Erik? Do you really want to give up your eternal youth and beauty for me?"
He just nodded and touched a shaking hand to her cheek.
Oblivious to what was going on around him, Doctor Morton began fitting the cannula into Erik's vein. For hours, Kristina and the doctor watched Erik carefully for any adverse reactions to the transfusion.
"How long will it take for him to be cured?" Kristina asked softly as she reached out to touch Erik's face. She could not look at the blood-filled drip, but instead focused all of her attention on Erik's face. Over the last four hours, she had noticed the colour slowly returning to his cheeks. He had the same colour in his face as if he had just taken blood.
"It took my mother twelve hours to be cured. Erik has been a vampire for a lot longer. It may take a few days."
Kristina began to twist her hair around her finger as she looked between Erik and Doctor Morton. She stood, pressed a light kiss on Erik's red lips and went downstairs to refresh the bowl of water she had been using to sponge his face. When she returned a few minutes later, she wiped Erik's face again and took his hand in hers.
"He will be okay, won't he?" She kissed Erik's hands, silently praying that he would be cured.
"I hope so," Doctor Morton confessed softly. "The transfusion is almost complete. I will stay another hour and observe you both to make sure you're okay. I have to get back to my lab, but I'll call on you on my way home to make sure Erik's all right."
"How are you feeling?" Kristina asked as she pulled the mask from Erik's face to tenderly sponge underneath.
It had been five days since the transfusion and still Erik was a vampire. He had not taken any blood; Doctor Morton said it would be detrimental and possibly deadly if he did. So he was bedridden, too weak to move, leaving Kristina to try and nurse him back to health.
"I've felt better," he said wryly.
"I am not sure that this is working." She finally said her concerns aloud. She had tried so hard to be positive for Erik's sake, to hide her anxiety, but it was beginning to wear thin. She could no longer pretend to be optimistic as she watched him fade away. "Erik, you have been stuck in bed for days. You are feverish and in pain. You are still a vampire!"
"These things take time, Kristina. You cannot expect one hundred and twenty-eight years of vampirism to be cured in a day."
Kristina sank down beside him and pressed a series of light kisses over his face, feeling foolish and unsupportive for her outburst. "You're right, of course." Erik needed her strength if he was to get through the next few days. "Are you feeling any better, honestly?"
She climbed onto the bed beside Erik and burrowed into his side, offering her strength. Finding strength from deep within, Erik wrapped his arm around Kristina's waist. He raised his head from the pillow and kissed her cheek. "I think my tremors have stopped. My lungs feel as if they are burning, but I still have a headache." He held out his hand for her to observe the reduced trembling.
"I wish I knew a way to help you more, Erik. I feel so useless." She held his hand in hers and pressed a kiss on his fingertips.
"You are helping more than you know, ma moitié," he responded on a raspy breath. "Just having you here with me is enough." Erik allowed her to help him to sit up and hold a glass of water to his lips. After taking a sip of water, Erik continued, "I need you to focus on your singing. I do not want your performances to suffer because of your concern for me. Do you promise?"
She gave a teary nod. "I promise." She wiped his forehead again and bent down to kiss him. "If anything happens, I want you to call me on my mobile. I don't care that I'm performing."
"Make sure you don't have your phone on your person onstage, Kristina," Erik said softly, a hint of playfulness in his voice.
She pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. "I'll give it to one of my dressers," she promised with another kiss. "I have to go to theatre. I love you."
Running down the stairs without looking back, Kristina headed out into the street and hailed a cab. Settling into the seat, she put her sunglasses on as she finally allowed herself to sob. The pent up emotion burst free, causing her mascara to run as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes. With a hiccup, she wrapped her arms about her waist.
Erik would be fine. He had to be fine. The cure worked well for Doctor Morton's mother. It would work for Erik. She had watched him suffer from a violent, feverish fit that lasted for half a day. His face vacillated between white and red, and his body shook with severe shivers. Surely if Erik did not become human, he would remain a vampire. He would not die.
She gave a loud sob as the thought occurred to her. She had never considered the possibility that he could die because of the ineffective cure. She always saw him remaining a vampire or turning human; she had never considered his death as a possibility. The tears came harder and louder.
She could not lose him.
After having Erik at her performances for so long, Kristina found it odd not to have him watch her. It had been more than a week since he had seen her perform. She had kissed him, fluffed his pillows, kissed him again and then left for the theatre in the mid-morning with plenty of time to make her call time for the matinee.
Kristina sighed when the curtains fell on the final act. She was exhausted by the performance and also looking after Erik. She could not remember when she had more than an hour of interrupted sleep. She gave her cast members a tired smile as she waited for her cue to go out for the curtain call.
"Three hours 'til we have to do this all again," an ensemble member muttered with weariness to a fellow member. "I hate two-show days."
Kristina and Marina turned around to see who was complaining and smiled. Many of the cast members felt the same way. Two-day shows took a lot out of the company – and also the day.
"Are you going home to check on your man?" Marina asked softly as they stood together in the wings. It had taken a lot of perseverance and effort, but she had finally got Kristina to confess to being with Erik – in front of other members of the company, too. The fact the Alex saw them together, she was certain, contributed to Kristina finally deciding to announce her relationship with her music teacher.
Kristina nodded. "I'll be back in time for tonight." She would probably leave her makeup on in order to save time.
Marina nodded and gave Kristina's shoulders and encouraging squeeze, knowing that she would be back in time for the evening show, and ran out onto the stage for her bows.
The cast had heard the promise that Kristina would be back in time for the evening's performance several times in the last week and assumed that her partner was suffering from the flu that was going around. Kristina was terrified that Erik would never recover from his vampirism. She could barely sleep from worry. If he was not better by the end of the week, she was going to give him some blood; Doctor Morton's advice be damned. She could not sit back and watch him suffer any longer than she already had.
She shook her thoughts away and walked onto the stage with a bright smile and a deep curtsey for the audience. After sending a kiss to the three sections of the audience, she gave Marina a grin and then waited for Anthony to join the company on stage.
As the entire company made its second curtain call, Kristina heard a buzzing in the back rows of the cast. She gave Anthony and Marina a confused frown. When the audience joined in the chatter, Kristina turned around. What on earth was going on?
Erik was approaching her from upstage.
She let go of Marina's and Anthony's hands and stared at him. She was slightly aware of the audience members talking amongst themselves in confusion. No one could understand why this strange man had suddenly appeared.
"Erik?"
He smiled at her. It had been too long since he had seen her in her costume. She looked so beautiful dressed in her period costume; he had never seen her looking more like Christine than she had at that point. Erik continued to walk towards her and picked up her cold hands. Pressing a kiss to the back of her hands, he looked into her eyes, which were already filling with tears.
"You're here! But it's daylight! God, you're here! I was so worried you would never recover," she said through her sobs. Her microphone was switched on as she finished speaking and her voice and tears echoed through the theatre. The only thing that prevented her shock from showing when she realised that everyone could now hear her conversation with Erik was years of performing. Blinking back tears, she gave him a beatific smile. She reached out to him and ran her hands over his cheeks and mask, assuring herself that he was actually there and not a figment of her exhausted imagination.
He grinned boyishly at her. "I'm sorry I was late for your matinee. But I am here, ma moitié." He paused significantly. "I love you, Kristina." The audience sighed at Erik's heartfelt announcement. He too had been given a microphone so that the audience would be able to hear what he was saying.
Kristina laughed brightly, aware that she was the only one who understood the significance of his comment. Erik pulled her into his arms, murmuring his love to her in her ear, totally oblivious to the fact that the audience could hear him.
She burst into tears again, sending mascara down her cheeks as he continued to whisper in her ear. "I love you, Erik." She raised a hand to touch his cheek.
Erik fished his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped Kristina's tears from her cheeks. "Will you marry me, ma moitié? I have learnt just how precious life is. My life will be meaningless without you; I cannot live another year without you. I need you beside me for the rest of our lives." His French accent grew more pronounced with his emotion. "Say that you'll marry me." He fisted the fabric of his trousers in an effort to control his anxiety.
Erik knew the moment the virus was out of his body. Feeling instantly better, he threw himself from the bed and opened the curtains, standing in the sunlight without fear for the first time in over one hundred years. The simple pleasure that everyone took for granted was a gift for Erik. In that moment, standing in the sun, Erik made up his mind. He was going to ask Kristina to marry him. Naturally, he had considered it as he lay in bed for several days, but since he was cured, he knew now was the right time. And she would say yes; there was no other answer. It had never crossed his mind that she would actually turn him down…and in public!
She looked at Erik as fresh tears fell down her cheeks. When he again wiped the tears from her cheeks, she gave a shaky smile. She could not believe that Erik was here – in the theatre – in broad daylight – and he was asking her to marry him!
The audience held its breath as it waited for Kristina's answer.
"Yes! I'll marry you!" She smiled when he kissed her again. "Oh, Erik."
Realising that he had not thought to buy Kristina an engagement ring – and that the audience would expect that he present her with one – Erik pulled the ring from his finger and slipped it on her left hand. He lovingly caressed her hand and wrist with both hands. It would do for now. The audience – and cast – applauded. Finally recalling that everyone had been carefully listening to their conversation, Kristina and Erik turned to face the audience and bowed. Still facing the audience, he raised Kristina's hand to his lips. They then shared another kiss before Erik joined the cast for one final curtain call. When the cast, still smiling at the audience's applause, stood up from their final bow, Erik pressed another kiss on Kristina's hand. She tilted her head back and smiled with joy, noting with a silent giggle that her lipstick was smeared at the corner of his mouth.
Once the curtains were finally closed, the cast rushed up to Kristina and congratulated her and more nervously Erik. It was such a relief to them all to see one of their company leaders happy after being miserable for so long. Marina gave her a tight hug and looked at Erik over Kristina's shoulder.
"So this is Erik? It's about time you introduced us. He's quite good looking isn't he?" she finished in a much softer tone in Kristina's ear. She found the mask a little off putting. But as long as you ignored the right side of his face, he was very handsome. He had an old fashioned look about him; he looked as if he belonged in one of Jane Austen's novels.
Kristina looked at Marina – who was now standing in Anthony's arms – with a bright smile and took a step back so that she was closer to Erik. He stood behind her, with his hands resting protectively, possessively on her upper arms. His lips were turned up slightly at the corners as he watched Kristina and her friend.
"Yes, he is," Kristina agreed with a smile as she glanced over her shoulder to look at Erik and raised her hand to touch his. He smiled at her and dropped a kiss onto her temple. She continued to gaze up at him. Forgetting about Marina and Anthony, she stood on her toes and kissed his jaw.
Marina sighed at the sight of the two lovers being so openly affectionate. Suddenly feeling that she was intruding, she gave Anthony a nudge and pulled him from the stage.
Once the stage had cleared of everyone, Kristina turned to Erik and threw herself into his arms. He caught her effortlessly; not at all concerned by the hoops she was wearing under her costume.
"I have been so worried, Erik; so worried. I wasn't sure that you'd recover. I was scared that Doctor Morton was going to kill you. I don't know what I would have done if you had died." She blinked back her tears and smiled softly when Erik wiped at the single tear that ran down her cheek. "I love you! More than you could ever know."
Erik held her tighter and kissed her lips softly. He had to assure himself that he was fine and would not be leaving her. "I am not going to die, Kristi; not for a long, long time."
"How is that possible? You were dead."
"Undead. My body has been in a state of stasis for a century, and now that I'm cured, all of my processes are functioning just as they should. It's as if the last one hundred years never happened." He gave her a small smile of relief. "I love you," he sang softly for Kristina's ears only.
He kissed her nose and watched as Kristina transformed right before his eyes. She went from an anxious young woman to a tease as she ran a finger down the contours of his mask before pressing another kiss on his lips.
"Now that you are cured, do you think we could have a church wedding?" she asked, pulling away from him slightly so that she would be able to assess his reaction. His golden eyes glowed with love for his new fiancé. "We can now be married in a church during the day. That's a very Victorian thing to do, isn't it?"
Erik smiled and kissed her again. "Very Victorian. It sounds perfect. As long as we are together, it will be perfect. Actually, I have something for you." He reached into his pocket and retrieved the Crucifix she had taken off for him all those months ago. It still amazed him that he could touch it without his fingers smouldering.
He loosened his grip on her waist to clasp it around her neck but Kristina would not allow that. When Erik tried to slip the necklace into her hand, she shook her head, refusing to accept it.
"I don't need it, Erik; I will never need protection from you." She smiled serenely at him and pulled his head back down to hers, forcing him to kiss her. She finally pulled away and led him back to her dressing room, her arms wrapped tightly around his. Erik returned the pendent to his pocket.
"I cannot believe you are here! You're here at the theatre in the middle of the day! You just proposed to me on a stage in the middle of West End in front of a full house! I never would have asked that of you." She gave a little laugh and kissed him again. "How am I possibly going to concentrate on tonight's performance?"
Erik shook his head and pulled Kristina into his arms. "I know you wouldn't have asked it. You have been living in my world for long enough, ma moitié, that it is about time I learnt to live in yours. Anything you want, and it is in my power to give you, is yours."
Kristina gave him a delighted smile and kissed him again. "I have you, Erik. What more could I possibly want?"
