~Phantom~

Love Never Dies

"Beneath A Moonless Sky"

Erik:"Salvation"

Was there anything more exquisite than this? If there was, I could not fathom it.

She wanted me, was taking me. All of me, she demanded it. By God, I was more than willing to give into her, to submit like a mongrel to her every whim. I coveted her with a need which greatly surpassed that of her own. All I had done was stroke her and kiss her faultless lips, as I had always wanted, but it was enough to stir her profoundly. My touch was driving her as mad as it was me.

"Do not leave me, Erik. Swear it!" Her voice was a deep murmur of plight, despondent desperation over-riding all else.

"I swear it."

Her coffee colored eyes met mine, the trust emanating from within them nearly destroyed me.

I would not think about the morning, about the right and wrong of the situation. Tonight I would banish such thoughts from my mind and give in to all that I desired, to hell with the consequences.

I bent my hungry mouth to her breast, and though I had often dreamt of such delights, I had never dared imagine I might one day act on them. I had all but evaporated as the sound of her rapturous sighs rang in my ears. Her ecstasy laden voice was sweeter than any music than I could have ever dreamed.

"Dear God, Christine. You have no idea what it does to me when I hear you murmur so from my touch. I desire nothing more than to take you and never leave from within you."

"Take me, and do not leave." She was begging again, this time with a completely different need and urgency than before.

I pressed my lips to hers in answer. The longer we kissed, the more ravenous my hunger turned. I began kneading her mouth roughly, more demanding. She gave no protest. She returned my affections with an even more potent degree of want than I. Her petite hands caressed, and pulled at me with more strength than I had ever thought possible. The harder she clutched, the more brutally I assaulted her lips.

"I want you. Oh God, help me – I want you!" I felt like a gargoyle about to tear an angel from its ecclesiastical wings. I was loathsome for defiling her in such a way, yet utterly unable to stop Myself from doing it.

"Take me, for I am already yours."

I did not need another word to prompt me forward. I removed the last of our clothes. I looked down upon her naked body below mine; her beauty so very resembled that of a mythical Greek goddess that I had to take a moment of silence to fully appreciate it, for it was almost too much to stand.

"Exquisite," I was in awe. I had never thought there could be any rival to the loveliness of her angelic face, but her siren's body was without doubt its equal.

With a voracious fire of need, I entered her, heard her sigh of delight, and knew that I was at last whole.

Always a shadow in the night, I had seen lovers furtively make love before and was aware of what it entailed. I had seen the look of bliss that graced their faces as each ascended heights of pleasure I could only imagine but I had never anticipated that the climb would be just as breathtaking. I was consumed with joy. I had not expected it to be so divine.

For the first time in my life, I was home.

I felt no shame as I moved within her, or as I took her with a ravenous fervor. There was no sense of embarrassment for the acts committed. All I could feel was the crushing desire to stay there always. I wanted to remain inside her forever, warm and secure with contentment. Yet, I knew I that I could not.

As that devastating truth was made clear, Christine's body rocked, demanding a new, more furious tempo than the current. No sooner had I obliged then she cried out, her frame pleasantly quivering beneath mine. The tiny fragments of self control that had remained were drained from me, as were my woes. I had poured them into her and she had willingly accepted, welcomed them even.

I had attained my solace.

We held each other in the dark, our hearts rhythmically beating out the dying notes of our passionate composition. I knew that I would never have it again, the harmony that her comfort brought. There was one night alone which I could greedily have my fill of relief. Before I could form another rational thought, I was taking her again. She gasped, but quickly succumbed, again both lost in rapture, hearing a melody that only we could hear.

I was measured this time, wanting to linger in paradise for as long as able. I touched and tasted every part of her, and delighted in the sounds of her cries as she again shuddered beneath me. I didn't give her a moment to recover as I brought my lips again to hers and burrowed deeper into her warmth. She whimpered, and I slowed, gently rocking us back and forth, but she would have none of it. She clutched my back in need, and almost brought me over that sweet precipice of joy, as her unabashed need had us devouring one another in a frenzied dance of souls.

I pulled away and brought my lips to the hollow of her throat and sampled my way to her navel, where I languorously relished in the sweetness of her milky skin. I was lost in the exploration of her flawless skin when I felt her searching hands weave their way into my hair, and with the fervor that matched my own, pulled me into her.

I was there with her, in that primal time of need, and all the years of intellectual evolution had disappeared. We were no more than Neanderthals, taking and demanding without thought, acting solely on the instinct that ruled us. I could hold back no longer, and though I experienced that overwhelming sense of release, it was not without sorrow. I would never lie with her again, and if it was not to be with her, then it would be with no one. We lay side by side, completely still, both contemplating what had just transpired and what it meant.

"I love you." I wanted to cry from the beauty of its sound.

I had sworn that I would not lie to her and I would not – nothing I could ever utter would be as true as my next words. "I love you, Christine."

I gently kissed her doll-like lips and brought her head back down to rest upon my chest. "Hush now, my angel and sleep." I reached for my discarded cloak and lay it across us.

It was early yet, and there was still time. I could allow myself this one last pleasure. I had never fallen asleep next to another human being, and this human was not just any. Christine was the only one who mattered, was the only one I wanted. She was the only one I would ever want. I was certain that no matter the years that would pass, or the hurt it would undoubtedly cause, I would love her with the same intensity as I did in that moment unto death.

I closed my eyes, finally letting go and fell asleep. It was no more than an hour, but in that short span of time I had a dream which would haunt me forever.

It was Christine – luminous in white. It was our wedding, she was my wife! Married – to Christine – I was envisioning my utopia. I had dreamt of the day on which I would proclaim her mine to the world, the day we would be joined and bound for eternity. Nothing could take her from me then. But that there was no one there, had not escaped me. There was not a soul in sight. . . .

Time altered again. . . .

She was pregnant! My beautiful girl was round and full with my child. The splendor of such a vision forced me to forget the missing acquaintances, that before, had so troubled me. For I was going to be a father! She glowed healthy and radiant, no sign that anything might be amiss. That's when it struck me.

What if the baby was not healthy, was not normal – what then?

I could not stay lost in that sentiment of uncertain panic, for time distorted again. . . .

I was in a lamp lit room, looking on as Christine gave birth, a midwife crouched by her side.

"Push now, lassie! Push!"

Christine looked on the brink of death. Sweat rolled down her wan face, and elicited such screams of agony that my soul splintered upon hearing them. She was such a fragile creature, I was frightened that this would be the death of her.

That was not all that I had to fear – a new and more potent horror was upon me. I knew it the very moment I heard the shriek of terror from the midwife.

Then I heard it cry.

Such a sound, my God! It tore at me and ate away the fractured remnants of my soul. I could not look, and yet I had no choice.

Hideous.

Monstrous.

Grotesque.

An Abomination.

All the things I knew myself to be. Of course my son – for that is indeed what he was – would be cursed as well. How could I have ever believed otherwise. . . .

Time again moved before my eyes. . . .

The unimaginable was happening and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Helpless, I was helpless. Christine was dying, bleeding out on our bed and there was nothing to be done. The midwife had fled from the house, leaving the crying creature to scream out its eerily melodious wails alone at the foot of the bed.

Nothing . . . There is nothing I can do, not for any of us. . . .

The same thought played in my mind, over and over, allowing me to think of nothing else. I was trapped in a worse hell than I had ever fathomed exist.

"Let me see him. I beg you . . . let me hold him." Her voice was all but inaudible, she was fading so rapidly, but I heard her plea and it broke through my despair.

I should have never agreed, but I could resist her in nothing. I carefully picked the gruesome little bundle up and when I did, it ceased its cries. I froze and looked down upon the creature of my worst nightmares, an exact replica of myself, and silently I wept. It would live just as I had, cursed for the duration of its miserable life.

What had I done?

"Erik, please."She spoke with more force, though her weak words hardly reached me.

I knew time was running short, she only had a moment or two remaining, yet I could not make my legs take me to her any faster than the snail's pace in which they were moving. I was hesitant to let her see, not wanting her last minute on this earth to be one of disgust.

However, I had nothing to fear.

I placed the small, swathed thing on her chest, helping wrap her feeble arms around it, and watched as her face, now a colorless death mask, lit with happiness the moment it was in her hold.

"My baby – my sweet baby."

Amazing.

She cooed at it as though there was no distortion at all, as though it was not the monster it indeed, was. Yet, why should she not treat it so? After all, she had been able to see past my monstrosities. Of course, she would love it, just as she loved me.

My son had a mother, unlike I, who loved him, And he would never know her.

It was over. He slipped from her hands; I grasped him before he could fall to the ground, and she was gone. Christine, the reason for my life, was dead. All that was left was the child I had never wanted, and a life that I would never have chosen.

I screamed – screamed with the agony of a thousand burning souls. I wished for death. I wanted nothing more than to die. . . .

I woke to find myself lying on the cold ground, Christine still asleep beside me. She was alive, she was fine.

It was a dream, just a dream. But one that only affirmed what I had known before bedding her – what I had always known – I would have to leave her. I could not stay, it was an unwavering certainty. There was no choice, no delusions remaining of living our lives together. I did not want to leave her – God, I did not! – yet, I could never stand by and watch my nightmare become a reality, as I was now unquestionably sure it would.

With a heart of lead, I rose, careful not to stir her while making sure to keep her covered in her cloak. I quickly dressed, sought the lantern I had taken with me to what I had believed to be my final resting place, and sat it beside her. She would need some illumination to find her way out of the depths and back to her Comte.

It killed me, ate at me like a plaque of maggots, made me sick to think about it. I knew that she would return to him, for where else could she go? But my mind, my body, vehemently rejected the notion. Yet, I was leaving her with no choice, because there was no other. This was how our opera would play out.

"Christine. . . ." I bent beside her, deftly tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She looked so lovely, a resting peach of exquisiteness. She smiled in her sleep as I touched her.

"I do not want to leave you, my angel. I must though, I must." No, she would not remember any of this, yet I had to speak it all the same.

"I cannot bear to stand by idly and watch the horror that your life will become if you remain with me. I refuse to submit you to such a fate. But know – please, know – that you have again saved me – and that I love you. I will love you forever."

"Goodbye, my angel."

I pressed my lips to hers for one last kiss; one to sustain me all the days of my life. I would see her again, not in this life, but I would see her. That was her parting gift to me. I no longer desired death in the face of a life without her. I would atone for all my wrongs, so that I might at last be with her in the beyond. Perhaps if I did that, God would grant me that one longing. It was all I could hope for. Yet, it was enough. For the notion of spending eternity with her instilled in me the will to live, to thrive and to be all that I had never realized I could be and more.

I looked upon her sleeping form for the last time, praying that one day she might be able to forgive me. Then I slipped into night, before the sun could rise, beneath a moonless sky, knowing that I had found my salvation. . . .

*Author's Note: A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to grayskies29 for being such a FANTASTIC beta! THANK YOU :) She's helped me edit all my chapters thus far (go back and check them out, I just uploaded the previous chapters that have been edited now).

I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter and find it steamy, but tasteful, lol! I'm all about the characters and the story. While I love me some sex, lmao, it's not all that I want this to be about – though be on the lookout for more steamy scenes coming later (I am going to continue the story. I'm almost done with the next chapter).

Really, thank you all for the lovely reviews. As I said before, they're all that have kept this story going! Much love to you guys!

-Shannon*