For All Eternity (The Black Rose Chronicles) Read Online Free

transition. It must not be permitted to happen again.”
    “Why do you want me to help? There are others who are older and more powerful.”
    “You know very well why I want you,” Valerian replied tersely. “Lisette is the undisputed queen of all vampires, and you, my difficult darling, are her logical successor.”

C HAPTER 2
    Maeve was particularly hungry and rather weak, having missed her feeding that night, and she was impatient with Valerian and his penchant for high drama. She turned to look up at him, there by the towering windows in the studio of her London house, and folded her arms. “Suppose I tell you I have no desire to be the vampire queen? What if I simply want to go on living strictly for myself, the way I always have?”
    Valerian’s smile was almost—but not quite—a smirk. Even he would not have dared that, for he knew better than anyone that she was his equal, in power and in skill. “I would not believe a word of it—there is something of your heroic brother in you. Besides, you have no choice in the matter, darling. It seems to be fated.”
    “Fated,” Maeve scoffed quietly, but she felt troubled on some deep level of her being. “Nothing is fated for vampires—we are not a natural creation, remember. We have no place in the grand scheme of things.”
    “Alas,” Valerian said, with another of his theatrical sighs, “you are right, my darling, but you are wrong, as well. Some thousand years after the first vampires came into being on Atlantis, other supernatural creatures waged war against our kind. Blood-drinkers were forced into hiding, and still we were nearly destroyed. Then, in meditation, one of the elders saw a vision—a battle between Lisette and a new queen, blessed—if that’s the proper word—with powers more formidable than any vampire has ever possessed.”
    “What does that have to do with me?” Maeve snapped, fearing sorely that greatness would be thrust upon her, whether she desired it or not. She liked her existence just the way it was, though she would have preferred to be spared the grief Aidan had caused her, of course. “There are other strong female vampires, you know. Your friend Pamela, for instance. And then there is Dimity—”
    “Do not waste my time,” Valerian snapped, interrupting Maeve with an imperious wave of one hand. “Pamela loves her own pleasure too much, and it is rumored that Dimity consorts with angels. There is no one but you, Maeve. You must help me destroy Lisette before she regains her former strength and wreaks havoc on the natural and supernatural worlds alike.”
    Maeve was honestly baffled. “Why do you care?” she asked. “Pardon my saying so, Valerian, but you aren’t known for your generosity and self-sacrifice—especially on behalf of human beings.”
    Valerian turned his head for a moment, but Maeve saw nearly fathomless grief in his magnificent profile all the same. Saints in heaven, she thought, he misses Aidan even more than 1 do.
    “I’ve changed,” he said finally. He looked at her again then, with a mischievous, slanted, and slightly haunted grin. “Somewhat.”
    Maeve felt a small rush of affection for her old friend and erstwhile adversary but offered no response to his statement. Instead, after a few poignant moments had passed, she sighed and said, “I must feed—the sun will be up soon.”
    “You’ll think about what I’ve said?” Valerian asked.
    Maeve gave a reluctant nod and watched with grudging admiration as the other vampire drew back, swirled his expensive cape, and vanished into a shifting vapor. She’d never known another nightwalker with Valerian’s flair for showmanship.
    Maeve’s temptation to return to the American Civil War, and thus to Dr. Calder Holbrook, was monumental. As an exercise in self-discipline, and because she would be damned and double-damned before stooping to consort with a mortal the way Aidan had, Maeve turned her thoughts in another direction.
    She blinked and