Someday
He watches her sit in quite contemplation, unaware of the private battle being fought within her. All he sees is the rich mane of chestnut hair cascading around her perfect face. The firelight dances in her wonderous green eyes and sets of the red-gold highlights in her hair. The flickering shadows dance along her face, causing him to stare in fascination. Suddenly, she gets and crosses the room to look out the window. "You don't know what you ask." she says in a quiet voice. It is the kind of voice that makes a man tremble and a woman envious. "I do know. I'm asking to stay, to live, to love you, forever." His plea is a passionate one. She resists the temptation to run into his arms. She only turns to look at him. He is handsome, almost beautiful. And so much like her Captain of long ago. Tall, broad shouldered, light brown hair and doe brown eyes. She could not and would not condemn him to her fate. "You're so very alive and vibrant. I can't do this. Please don't ask me." She bows her head under the wiehgt of this unwilling words. "Forever is a very long time. And nothing lasts forever, not even something like me." "Elena, I will love you forever!" His words contain that conviction of his heart; would it be the same in a hundred years, two hundred years? "I will follow you where ever you go. Let me be there. Let us conquer the world together!" Her breath catches in her throat. She is thrust back hundreds of years to a similar scene when she was so very young and innocent... and alive. Her Captain saying those very same words. They could have been uttered by the same person... She shakes herself out of the memory, not allowing herself to feel the pain buried so long ago. "Oh Devan..." She says his name with such love that he almost throws himself at her feet, pleding his eternal love once more. "You can't know the life I lead." She allows the fangs to show; her voice, a whisper. "The long years, a sleep like death, and the hunger. That exquisite desire, so terrible and so beautiful..." She turns to look out across the city. "You don't know what it is like to see the first rays of the dawn always with a hint of fear and desire or to see the last rays of a sunset, always feeling sadness and longing. To remember the warmth of those golden rays and to know they would kill you now. I love you too much to condemn you to that." "No please. I don't want to ever leave you. I want to be like you." He begs as her heart breaks at the sight of his anguish. She crosses the room to hold him. The touch, electrifying. He clutches her as if she would disappear otherwise. She remembers the lonely years, seeing him for the first time, how he reacted to finding out what she was, the true, endless love and his promise of eternal companionship. There had to be a way, a compromise. "Perphaps," she whispers into his hair, "perphaps in 50 years or so, when you have grown tired of living and are ready to die. I will be able to do what you ask and show you a now, different world, but now you are too alive and full of passion. Live out your life and enjoy every moment of it." Devan looks searchingly into her eyes, trying to read into her soul. "Is that your final answer? I will have to wait decades before I can truely be yours?" She nods her head, not trusting herself to speak. "Then I will wait. Until then, I will live and love until it is my time. I love you and nothing will change that!" She only kisses him in response; a kiss that brings a soft moan from both of them. "You must go now, for the dawn is near." He lets her go reluctantly. "I will see you tomorrow night then." He says as he leaves. His heart is so full of love that it aches "We will be together, forever." He promises. Elena turns back to the window once more. A rosy glow over the horizon tells her of the coming sunrise. Perphaps it will come true. Perphaps she had finally found her final love. But so must could go wrong... Her thoughts drift back to her first love, her Captain and then back again to Devan. The love and longing almost overwhelm her. "Someday." she whispers to no one, as a single perfect tear appears on her perfect face.
Written for Robert Hill, Dec 92
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