Page 131 of Eternal Surrender

“Do something!” She reached out, pushing against the wall with me.

The space was closing rapidly.

Ingrid backed up against the end wall, and I turned to face her, pressing my body against hers, trying to protect her.

“Damn it, Fabian,” I yelled, “if you harm her, I will find you.” My threat echoed in the small chamber.

Throat tight, it was hard to breathe.

Ingrid faltered. “Please, Fabian.”

“Ingrid. . .” I said. “What’s your biggest fear?”

She clutched my forearms realizing. “I want to enter your world and know it completely.” She glanced over my shoulder, her eyes wide.

I shook my head. “Ingrid, say it.”

“William, my biggest fear is that I’ll fall in love with you.”

The wall pressed against my back and crushed us together.

She screamed. “I’ve fallen in love with you!”

The wall stopped.

And then it started its seemingly effortless journey back. Both of us reached out into the freedom of the space that now surrounded us. The wall reached the end of the room and kept on going.

We dashed to our right, quickly entering a larger chamber.

There, standing before us, was Fabian Snowstrom. “Real freedom is from yourself,” he said calmly. “What other entrapment is there?”

“You could have killed us,” Ingrid said.

“Fear’s more likely to do that,” he answered.

“The wall was metaphorical,” I said.

Reaching around Ingrid’s shoulders, I pulled her close and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, letting her feel she was safe with me. She looked up, her confession laid-bare, and in that moment, we shared something fragile and unspoken. Her words lingered between us, the truth we had both feared, now out in the open, that we loved each other. It had taken an ancient vampire to finally make us say it aloud.

“And you overcame it.” His words filled with wisdom.

She looked around searching for what she needed.

He pointed to his right. “Powder room.”

I gave Ingrid a signal it was safe and watched her head off in that direction.

Thousands would pass above, through the upper chambers, blinded to the world that slept beneath them. They thought they were witnessing mere records of history, and yet here, below them, stood one of its greatest masterpieces—Fabian Snowstrom himself.

The low ceiling and fine brickwork gave the place a closed-in feeling. At the far end of the chamber were three office chairs positioned to face each other. Next to one of them rested a silver flask.

“The journey back is waiting,” Fabian said.

The wall shifted, returning to its original position behind me. I turned to face Fabian again, still unsettled that he’d forced my hand. “Was that really necessary?”

“You were worrying too much about what she’d think of you,” he said. “Wasting time, William.”

I gave a shrug. “Is it really possible to separate?”