Love's Eternal Embrace (6 page)

Diarmuid glanced at his brother then Glamis.
His jaw tightened as he clenched his jaw, struggling with what he
was taught, and what was right. Good and evil had been drummed into
his head, but Liam remembered Diarmuid as a child when he
questioned and did not follow blindly. His brother came here to
slay a demon, but the demon didn’t look or act like the evil he
expected. Finally, he gave a curt nod. “Do it,” he said.

She tilted her head to the side as her gaze
leveled on Diarmuid. “If I change him and it works, he will be like
me.”

His nostrils flared as he drew in a ragged
breath. “God gave us the power of choice and my brother has made
his.” He turned to leave, to walk out of the forest and not know
his brother’s fate, but at the last moment, he turned and spoke
again. “I have witnessed evil and you, my lady, are not it.”

She nodded her thanks of his acceptance.

Then Diarmuid disappeared, the foliage and
trees hiding his departure.

Glamis’ gaze touched Liam. Her long fingers
caressed his face as she leaned down to kiss his lips. “I love
you,” she told him before she drove her fangs into his neck.

Liam tried to hold on, but he felt so tired
and cold. His heart stuttered, thudding slower against his chest.
Death hovered near, waiting to grab hold and take him away.

Chapter Twelve

Twilight proved the best part of the day,
where the colors of the morning still lingered in the sky, but the
sun’s rays could not cause harm. Glamis stood at the open door. Her
mahogany hair billowed behind her as the breeze lifted the strands
off her shoulder. Her fine threads molded to her figure like a
lover’s caress. “I long for you, Liam. I long for your kiss,” she
said to the wind and closed her eyes.

“I long for those things from you as well, my
love.”

Her lips curved, making her features more
beautiful than anything he’d ever seen. “Liam, you have
awakened.”

He lived the life as a
Dearg-due
for
years now, but years were nothing when the race lived centuries. He
strode toward her, wrapping his arms around her. She leaned against
him. As a human, he used to think she felt cold to the touch, but
not anymore.

“Do you miss it?” She turned in his arms. “Do
you miss the sun?”

“Sometimes.” He would not lie to her. “Do not
worry, I shall live.”

She chuckled as she met his lips. Her fangs
grazed him, drawing blood. He growled before taking her mouth
hungrily. They fed off each other to sustain life, the way it was
meant to be for a
Dearg-due
.

He didn’t fear death now. He only feared
leaving behind what life still had to offer. Being Immortal only
proved true as long as an enemy did not know of your
weaknesses.

Glamis and he had spread stories about the
legends of vampyres, whispering in playwrights and poets’ ears.
They were the muses for the arts, a ploy to keep them safe from the
humans’ ignorance of the species. Eventually the
Dearg-due
would be only a myth and nothing more.

“I have added more written words to the
book.” He handed her the vellum page he’d been working on for the
last few days.

She glanced down at what he’d written, his
script strong and sure. Her laughter made him smile.

“I do not believe I have penned a
comedy.”

“Oh, but you have. Garlic and holy water will
keep the fiend at bay. A
Dearg-due
may be defeated by
building a cairn of stones over its grave.” Her brows rose. “Who
will ever believe such nonsense? We do not sleep in graves.”

“That is the point, my sweet. We will pass
this information along and soon our existence will only make for a
good story told on a starless night.” He pressed a kiss to her
lips.

“But you have stated truths as well. You
revealed how the sun could harm us.”

“All myths and legends have a bit of the
truth in them, do they not?”

“Hmm… yes.” She exposed her neck for his
caress. “You should add how we are passionate creatures. Mmm… Right
there.” She paused to let him nibble near her ear.

“Go on, tell me what else to write,” he
encouraged.

She turned in his arms. “How about I show
you?”

His lips curved. “The night is ours. Seduce
away, my love.”

The End

Author’s Notes: What inspired
Love’s
Eternal Embrace?

The Legend of the
Dearg-due

Vampires have inspired poems and stories
throughout the ages. Even though the names vary naming this
blood-sucker, every culture has a legend.

The Irish
Dearg-due
literally
translates to blood-sucker. In one of the legends, the
Dearg-due
is a female demon that rises from her grave to
seduce men, dooming them with just one kiss.

A Celtic legend tells of a fair maiden named
Dearg-due. She was so beautiful all knew of her. She could have
married any man, but she fell in love with a local peasant.
However, her father would not allow the marriage. He forced her to
marry a wealthy man to secure a financial future for the family.
The husband mistreated Dearg-due and she committed suicide. Legend
states she is buried in a small churchyard located near Strongbow’s
Tree in the village of Waterford. One night, Dearg-due avenged her
fate, rose from the grave, and lured her father and husband to
their deaths.

The legend differs, but it is believed a
Dearg-due
will rise from the grave to seduce men and lure
them to their deaths by draining their blood. It could be every
full moon or a few times a year. Some say it is the anniversary of
her death. There are only one or two stories stating she can change
into a bat-like creature, but most claim she cannot shapeshift at
all. There are a few legends that say she does not drink blood, but
sucks out the life force, until the victims slowly wither and
die.

Where Did Ireland’s Forests Go?

At one time, Forests covered two-thirds of
Ireland. In the Middle Ages, the forests were communally owned and
appreciated. If the trees were unlawfully cut down, the person
would be fined. The English and Anglo-Irish nobles kept their
estate grounds forested for beauty and for hunting.

When England’s Tudor armies began their
conquest in Ireland around the 16th Century, they began to cut down
the forests. With the trees went the wildlife. Wild boars vanished
in the 17th Century for lack of acorns and even squirrels became
extinct to Ireland. The last wolf was shot in southwest Ireland
near Killarney over two centuries ago.

The Knights Templar in Ireland

The Knights Templar, formally known as the
Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, once
was one of the most famous Christian military orders. The
organization, started in the Middle Ages, existed for almost two
centuries.

Around 1129, the Order was a favored charity
and grew in memberships and power. They were among the most skilled
fighting units of the Crusades, but the non-combatant members took
care of the financial end, starting the early form of banking and
building fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land.

When the Holy Land was lost, support for the
Order faded. Rumors about the Orders’ secret initiation ceremony
created mistrust.

King Philip IV of France owed a debt to the
Order and took advantage of the situation. On Friday, October 13,
1307, he orchestrated a coup to end the Knights Templar’s rule. On
that day, the Orders’ members were arrested.

The Knights Templar in Ireland arrived around
1169-71 when the Norman invasion took place. Due to the Orders’
secretive nature, there is little known of their activities in
Ireland. They did own extensive estates of land, mostly in Munster.
At the time, seventy-five percent of the island was a Norman
colony, but the Templars’ military activities in Ireland were
limited. In the Gaelic Irish annals, they are not even mentioned,
proving they had very little interaction with Gaelic Ireland.

They did however recruit Knights to go to the
Holy Land. Many joined to relieve financial burden to their
family’s estates. The Templars also had a profitable farming
enterprise in Ireland.

On February 2, 1308, the Templars in Ireland
were arrested and placed in Dublin castle. The Orders’ lands were
seized by King Edward II. The trial didn’t take place until
February 6, 1310 and ended on June 6, 1310. The trial was at St.
Patrick’s Cathedral just outside the wall of the city of
Dublin.

The Templars were charged with denying
Christ, spitting on the cross, homosexuality, and worshipping
idols. Torture played a big role in France to secure confessions,
but in Ireland it seems it wasn’t used. The Templars never admitted
guilt and none were found guilty.

In 1312, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order.
In France, the Grand Master Jacques de Molay and a dozen other
Templars were burned at the stake in 1314. In Ireland, the Order
was simply dissolved and the Knights were released. Portugal was
the only European country where the Templars were not persecuted
and arrested.

There were three divisions of ranks in the
Templars: The aristocratic knights, the lower-born sergeants, and
the clergy. They were required to be of knightly descent and to
wear white mantels. The knights wore a white surcoat with a red
cross and white mantle. The sergeants wore a black tunic with a red
cross on front and back and a black or brown mantle.

The red cross was the symbol of martyrdom,
and to die in combat was considered a great honor, assuring their
place in heaven. The Knights were equipped with heavy cavalry, with
three or four horses and one or two squires.

There were seventy-two clauses defining the
ideal behavior of a Knight. A few of the clauses were: Eat meals in
silence. Eat meat no more than three times a week. Do not have
physical contact of any kind with women. This included contact with
members of their own family.

For more on the Knights Templar, visit:

Irish History Podcast

Knights Templar Wikipedia.org

The Legend of the
Dearg-due
and other
Vampire Lore:

The Ultimate Vampire Resource Dictionary

Vampire Folklore by Region, Wikepedia

Classic Vampire Poems of Interest:

Der Vampire
by Heinrich August
Eckenfelder (1748)

Lenore
by Gottfied August Bürger
(1773)

Die Braut von Korinth
by Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe (1797)

Christabel
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(date unknown)

Thalaba the Destroyer
by Robert
Southey (1800)

The Giaour
by Lord Byron (1813)

La Belle Dame Sans Merci
by John Keats
(1819)

Lamia
by John Keats (1820)

The Vampire Bride
by Henry Liddell
(1833)

La Morte Amoureuse
by Theophile
Gautier (1836)

The Vampyre
by James Clerk Maxwell
(1845)

Le Vampire
by Charles Baudelaire
(1857)

Les Metamorphoses du Vampire
by
Charles Baudelaire (date unknown)

The Vampire
by Rudyard Kipling
(1897)

About the Author:

Karen Michelle Nutt resides in California
with her husband, three fascinating children, and houseful of
demanding pets. Jack, her Chihuahua/Yorkshire terrier is her
writing buddy and sits long hours with her at the computer.

Her Book,
Lost in the Mist of Time
,
was nominated for New Books Review Spotlight Best Fantasy Book of
the Year Award 2006.
A Twist of Fate
was a nominee for Best
Time Travel P.E.A.R.L. Award for 2008.
Creighton Manor
won
Honorable Mention P.E.A.R.L. Award 2009.

Her new passion is creating book covers for
Western Trail Blazers
and
Rebecca J. Vickery
Publishing
. In her spare time, she reviews books for
PNR-Paranormal Romance Reviews.

Whether your reading fancy is paranormal,
historical or time travel, all her stories capture the rich array
of emotions that accompany the most fabulous human
phenomena—falling in love.

Visit the author at:

http://www.kmnbooks.com

Stop by her blog for Monday interviews, chats
and contests at:

http://kmnbooks.blogspot.com

Please read the variety of works by Ms.
Nutt: