Aidan didn't seem to mind trading in the sports car; he took an object from the glove box, dropped it into his jacket pocket, patted the vehicle's gleaming hood, and, walked away. He and Neely were rambling down the road in their RV when he took one hand off the wheel and extended a small box to Neely.

"There were only two things in the Connecticut house that I wanted," he said. "Here they are."

Neely's hands trembled as she accepted an exquisite old music box, surely an antique.

When she opened it, a few slow, poignant notes drifted out, then there was silence. She started to rewind the key, hungry to hear more, and that was when she saw the ring glimmering in the worn velvet lining of the lid.

Aidan had pulled the large vehicle off to the side of the road and sat watching her with his heart in his eyes. "According to these strange memories of mine, that ring has been in the Tremayne family for almost a century."

It was a simple piece of jewelry, a wide gold band with a large marquis diamond set at an angle. Inside that magnificent, multifaceted stone glimmered the sunlight of a hundred summers and the sparkle of as many stars.

"It's so beautiful," Neely whispered, slipping the ring onto her finger. It was only slightly too big.

"It can't begin to compete with you," Aidan replied.

That evening Neely found it even more difficult than usual to say good night to Aidan.

Yes, she wanted him to make love to her, but even more than that, she longed to sleep in his arms, naked and trusting.

Neely spent the next day cleaning her rented house and packing up the few personal belongings she'd brought with her when she left Connecticut. She found a store selling antique clothing and jewelry in the next town and bought a lovely old dress of ivory and silk, made sometime in the twenties, along with an ornate sterling silver broach, studded with marcasite.

She hung the dress on her tiny back porch to air through the afternoon and evening, then mended a few tiny tears in the fabric while watching television. Even with everything she had to do, it seemed to Neely that time was pa.s.sing with all the speed of a snail stuck in neutral.

She was lying on the lumpy sofa in her living room, legs sticking straight up in the air and waving her feet back and forth to dry the polish on her toenails, when the jingling of the telephone made her start. She grappled for the receiver and nearly fell off the sofa in the process.

"h.e.l.lo?"

Her brother Ben's voice echoed warmly in her ear. "h.e.l.lo, Sis. So, how does it feel to be almost married?"

"You tell me," Neely responded with a grin. The relationship between Ben and Doris had developed into a grand pa.s.sion, and the two of them were planning a summer wedding.

Ben laughed. "Sweetheart, if you're as happy as I am, then you're doing just fine."

Joyous tears blurred Neely's vision. "How's Danny? Is he glad about having Doris in the family?"

"He's crazy about her." Ben was quiet for a moment. "Neely, you're really sure this is what you want to do, aren't you? I mean, getting married is a pretty big step."

Neely lifted the hem of her T-shirt to dry her cheeks. "I know it sounds strange, but I've never been more certain of anything in my life. I was born to love this man, Ben, and he was born to love me."

"All the same," Ben said grudgingly, "if he mistreats you, I'll take out his teeth. You tell him that for me."

Neely smiled. "Okay, big brother," she said obediently. "I'll tell him, but you don't need to worry your bushy-bearded head, because Aidan Tremayne is a gentleman."

After that, Neely talked to Danny for a few minutes, and then to Doris. When the phone call was over, and everyone had congratulated everyone else, she went into her room to admire her wedding dress, which hung on the outside of her closet door.

The moonlight lent the gown a special sort of magic, catching in the pearl b.u.t.tons rimmed with tiny crystals, making the exquisite, hand-worked lace seem almost new again.

Neely fell asleep admiring it.

Aidan slept with the peaceful abandon only a mortal is capable of, dark hair rumpled, one arm flung up over his head.

Valerian watched him in silence, knowing he shouldn't linger, but not quite able to tear himself away. A thousand times the dark angel had wanted to reach out his hand and restore Aidan's memory of all he had been before, and he wanted that now, as keenly as ever. He even went so far as to brush his fingers lightly over Aidan's forehead, causing him to stir in his sleep, but in the end Valerian drew back.

Rare vampire tears glittered in his eyes. We could have owned the stars, he told the sleeping one.

Aidan rolled onto his side, still deeply asleep, and murmured a single word. And with that one word he broke Valerian's heart.

"Neely," he said.

Suddenly a burst of strangely dark light filled the room. Valerian raised his eyes and felt the most abject horror he had ever known, for Lisette stood on the opposite side of the bed, majestic and evil, plainly restored to all her former powers. Her once-scarred skin was unmarked, her auburn hair was as lush and gleaming as ever, her blue-green eyes bright with triumph, fury, and madness.

She looked upon the sleeping Aidan for a long moment, as if to devour every line and fiber of him, and then raised her eyes to Valerian's face again.

Lisette laughed softly, musically, and Aidan stirred on the mattress, unaware that his soul was about to be stolen for a second time.

"Did you think, Valerian, that I would let him go so easily as all that?" Her face became hard and horrible for a moment; no doubt, she was considering the events of recent months.

"Aidan is mine-my creation, my treasure. I will not give him up."

At last Valerian found his voice. "You must," he said hoa.r.s.ely. "If you have any mercy in you, any decency-"

She laughed again, but it was a silent laughter, much like the unspoken language vampires and other immortals use to communicate with each other, and Aidan did not seem to hear it.

"Mercy," is it? "Decency"! Oh, but that's amusing! What good are such fatuous concepts to me, Lisette, the Queen of all vampyres?

Valerian closed his eyes briefly, searching his mind and his soul for a solution, finding none except to plead Aidan's case and, if necessary, to fight Lisette to the death. He held little hope of success either way, however, for the queen was not one to listen to reason, and she had plainly regained her powers, perhaps even garnered new ones through the peculiar graces of suffering.

Think what Aidan has been through, he reasoned, touching the forehead of the sleeping vampire-turned-mortal. Imagine what he risked, what he endured, to be a man again, to find his way in the mortal world. How can you- even you-take that from him? Great Zeus, Lisette-if you must have a plaything, take me. Lisette glared, plainly displeased, and folded her white arms over the even whiter, flowing fabric of her Grecian gown. You? she scoffed. Do you think me a fool, Valerian? You are as elusive as quicksilver-the moment I turned my back, you would be off dallying with some fledgling. No, I don't want you-you're far too troublesome as it is.

Slowly Valerian rounded the bed, forced himself between Lisette and the still oblivious Aidan. He loomed above the older and more powerful vampire, the first female blood- drinker ever made, and called upon all the showmanship and bravado he possessed.

Go from here, he commanded. This one you shall not have.

Lisette was clearly undaunted. The sorceress drew herself up, and Valerian felt her powers focus on his midsection just before she sent him hurtling backward over Aidan's bed to crash silently against the opposite wall.

Valerian recovered quickly and moved to stand and resist her further, but she struck him again with another of her purely mental blows, and he felt himself paralyzed, not just physically but spiritually as well. He watched helplessly as Lisette stepped close to the bed again, knelt, and reverently smoothed Aidan's dark hair.

Valerian struggled to shout a warning to the sleeping mortal, but he could not force a sound past his throat. He had, he realized, vastly underestimated Lisette's powers.

I will make you love me, the vampire queen told Aidan. I will show you the stars, and we will not be parted again. No power on earth, or in heaven, shall ever separate us.

Inwardly Valerian shrieked in protest, and his helplessness was in those moments the greatest burden he had ever been made to bear, either as a vampire or as a human man.

No power... Lisette vowed again as she bent, fangs plainly in view, to give Aidan the fatal kiss, the one that would d.a.m.n him for the second time, and for always.

Aidan made a soft, sleepy sound, innocent as a child as he wandered in his dreams, and Valerian could make no move to save him. The only response he could manage, in fact, was the sheen of tears that blurred his vision.

Please! he cried out silently to any benevolent being who might be nearby. In the name of justice-this cannot happen!

It appeared there was no hope, for Lisette moistened a patch of skin on Aidan's neck, using her tongue, her eyes raised to meet Valerian's. She was enjoying his torment, the d.a.m.nable, whoring witch, and he swore that even if it cost him his own existence, if it took a hundred years or a thousand, he would avenge the events of this night.

Lisette's long vampire teeth glimmered, pearly in the dim moonlight, and she moved to lunge, to bury her fangs in Aidan's sleep-warmed flesh.

Valerian managed an anguished groan, but he still could not move. Still, the fog in his mind began to clear at last, and he was able to send a single name, in itself a plea for help, echoing into the universe.

Maeve.

In the next instant, just when Lisette's fangs would have broken Aidan's skin and begun to draw upon the healthy blood flowing through the veins and arteries beneath, the chamber seemed to burst with blinding, silvery light.

Valerian's heart surged with hope, though he knew this was not Maeve, or Tobias, or any of the vampires of his acquaintance. No, this was a holy being, sanctioned by Heaven itself, and as such it would surely destroy Valerian.If Aidan could be saved, he didn't care.

The being of light seemed to push the walls out with its power; Valerian was sure the room, indeed the building itself, would explode into splinters. He soon realized, however, that the temporal world was not affected by this phenomenon-even if Aidan had been awake, he would not have seen or heard anything out of the ordinary.

Humans.

Slowly the ent.i.ty took on shape and splendor, and Valerian realized that the newcomer was an angel. It was male and dressed, oddly enough, in the garb of a Spartan warrior.

Lisette had raised herself from Aidan's bedside, abandoning her prospective feast, staring in horror. Nemesis, she whispered fearfully.

The spirit laughed. No one so important, Vampyre. I am Jafar, and I am an ordinary enough creature-what mortals call a guardian angel. He looked fondly upon Aidan, who had begun to toss and turn upon his mod ern pallet. This one is my particular charge, and I am sworn to protect his soul with all the powers of Heaven.

Jafar had not yet spared a glance for Valerian, who was recovering now that Lisette's powers had slackened so dramatically, but Valerian watched the angel in stricken fascination. In all his existence he had never seen a being so magnificently beautiful.

What must Nemesis, one of the greatest angels in creation, be like?

Lisette had backed herself against the wall of Aidan's very ordinary bedroom, her eyes wide with terror.

Go from this place, Jafar told her. And do not come near my ward again, for if you do such a foolish thing, I will be permitted to destroy you.

Lisette made a mewling sound, one that could be heard only in the spirit, like all that had transpired that night, and vanished.

The angel bent over Aidan with a tenderness that was heartbreaking to see and carefully straightened his blankets, the way a mortal father might do for an exhausted child.

With the return of Valerian's physical powers came a serious fear that Jafar would turn his angel-strength upon him.

The splendid creature knew he was there-there had never been any question of that- but his regard, when he finally looked at Valerian, was remarkably gentle. You did an uncommonly generous thing by summoning me back to the mortal's side with your cry of despair, but now you must keep away from him.

Valerian nodded, though he wasn't at all certain he could comply with such an order, even if it came from the most wonderfully frightening being he had ever encountered. He found that he could move, and rose slowly to his feet.

He looked at Aidan, memorizing his features and frame, and then met the angel's gaze once more.

I hope you'll be more efficient in the future, he said, and as he vanished, he heard the seraphim laugh.

Come the morning, Valerian knew, Aidan would awaken and marvel over the strange dreams he'd had.

Vampires and angels, indeed, he would think, perhaps with a chuckle.On Sat.u.r.day morning Neely and Aidan were married in the big gazebo in the center of the town park, with a justice of the peace officiating. Neely's friends from the restaurant came to share their joy, as did Aidan's buddies from the construction job.

Neely felt beautiful in her antique dress, and the whole ceremony pa.s.sed in a glorious haze. When the judge reached the I-now-p.r.o.nounce-you-husband-and-wife part, and Aidan kissed her, she almost fainted with the joy of it.

Duke held a reception for the bride and groom at the restaurant, complete with wedding cake, supermarket champagne, and lots of rice and birdseed.

"I'll look after that car of yours," Duke said when Neely went to him to thank him and say good-bye. He was an old-timer, and it was hard for him to express emotion.

Neely stretched to kiss Duke's freshly shaven cheek. "When somebody comes through who looks like he needs a dented Mustang," she said with a misty smile, "you just hand him the keys and tell him to drive it in good .health."

Duke smiled. "You've got a generous heart, little lady. I always knew that. I know somethin" else, too."

Neely had never been happier, but she felt sad, too, saying good-bye to such a good friend. "What?" she sniffled, still smiling brightly.

The big man planted a shy kiss on her forehead. "That joy will follow you everywhere you go, from now on," he answered. "You stop in and say howdy to old Duke if you're in this neck of the woods again, you hear?"

"You can count on it," Neely answered softly.

A few minutes later she and Aidan left the reception and drove away in their brand-new "caravan," a couple of very proper gypsies.

Aidan, who had bought a suit and tie for the occasion, looked comfortable behind the wheel of the RV-perhaps too comfortable. He pulled off his tie and tossed it over one shoulder, then quickly unfastened the top three b.u.t.tons of his shirt.

"Forgive me if I sound like a b.u.mper sticker, Mrs. Tremayne," he said cheerfully, keeping his eyes on the open road ahead, "but today is the first day of the rest of our lives."

Neely scrambled into the back of the RV to exchange her wedding dress for a pair of jeans, a lavender T-shirt, and sneakers. "That's very profound," she responded, trying to keep her voice light. The truth was, she was thinking about the patch of strong masculine chest she'd glimpsed when Aidan opened his shirt, and wondering when the honeymoon would begin.

"What are you doing back there?"

Neely rejoined her husband in the front of the RV, plopping into the pa.s.senger seat and giving him a sultry look as she fastened her seat belt in place. "What do you think I was doing?" she teased. "Sipping champagne from my shoe? Sprinkling the bed with perfume?"

A slow blush moved up Aidan's neck and glowed along his jawline. He gave her a sidelong glance and a high-voltage grin. "I wouldn't put it past you, you hot-blooded little vixen.

You've been after my virtue from the first."

Neely felt her own cheeks glow, and she sagged deeper into the seat with a soft but long- suffering sigh. "Now what are we going to wait for? Our golden anniversary?"

Aidan laughed, and the sound was rich and masculine, causing Neely to want her husband that much more. "That or the first wide spot in the road," he teased. "Whichever turns up soonest. Great Scot, woman, did you think I was going to fling you into the sheets the moment we stepped over the threshold and have my way with you, right there in the steak-house parking lot?"

This time Neely laughed, too; but her blush deepened, and she reached across to give her husband a playful slap on the arm. Then she squirmed in her seat and said, "Are we there yet?"

An hour later Aidan brought the RV to a stop at the edge of a sun-splashed meadow.

Then he came around to open Neely's door and help her out.

She had looked forward to being alone with her husband, yearned for it, in fact, but now that the time had arrived, Neely suddenly felt shy. "Here?" she whispered.

Aidan laid a hand to either side of her face and kissed her lightly, and much too briefly.

"Here," he confirmed. "Look at the way the sun slants between those trees over there.

There's something cathedral-like about the place."

He was right, but Neely suspected the reverence they both felt came from their own hearts, rather than from the landscape around them.