Passion After Dark (42 page)

“
I think you have made your point little one, in more ways than one. I have a contract drawn up, well, perhaps contract is too strong a word, but it is a document that outlines what I expect from you two and the consequences should you violate any of the stipulations of the document. Would you both like to see it?” His eyes shifted between Dominick and I.

I glanced over at Dominick
who was still fuming at Fabian touching me, kissing me and I knew his pride had been dented that he had not been able to stop his sire, that it was my abilities that in fact had taught Fabian a well deserved lesson.

“
Dominick.” I said his name softly, placing a hand on his arm and feeling the tension in his body. I needed him to stay calm. Despite everything and it being obvious that I could more than take care of myself, I needed my poor raging vampire to not do anything to stir things up again.

Finally his eyes shifted to mine and I could see the confused mix of anger, frustration, love but most of all there was t
hat look that only a man who felt his manhood had received a huge blow could harbour. I knew instantly what his expression meant. He thought he had failed me that he couldn’t protect me but he could. He was all I cared about, he was my hero, my saviour, my safe port in this confusing, potentially dangerous world of being vampire. I needed him and I needed him to realise that he was still my hero even if he couldn’t overpower Fabian. Fabian was his sire and by nature would always be stronger than those he turned. I wasn’t stronger than Dominick because I couldn’t use my power on him and I needed him to realise that and not look at me with those stunning blue eyes that showed a wounded soul hidden in their depths.

“
I love you baby. Please don’t anger him. Let’s listen to his written demands and counteract with ours, ok?” I spoke softly and saw him nod before his gaze shifted to his sire.

“
You would do well to listen to Allegra Nick.” Fabian said and I turned to him incredulously. He was still trying to make out he was in control here after what had happened?

I smirked at him and raised my hand, pretending to admire my fingernails and I saw the brief flash of fear in his eyes.
‘Ok, let him have his moment Allie’ I told myself. No man liked to have his male ego dented and Fabian’s had taken one hell of a blow, so time to back off and play the diplomat now and we could all leave this meeting today happy with the outcome.

“
Show me this document of yours Fabian so I can see what you’re expecting of us.”

I watched hi
m pull the folded sheets of paper from his pocket and hand them to me. Dominick’s curiosity momentarily overshadowed his dented pride and he looked over my shoulder as we both read what Fabian had stipulated.

It was fairly straight forward and surprisingl
y reasonable coming from him.

Request To Forfeit All Contact

With Those Listed.

1.
       
Allegra Anderson and Dominick Cavallo will leave the country within 48 hours.

2.
      
You will not return at any time to any part of Australia.

3.
      
You will have no further contact in any way with Fabian, Lucian, Damien or Francesca.

4.
     
Should you violate these rules in anyway it will result in the death of Dominick Cavallo.

5.
      
If you think you can exact your revenge on myself Fabian Sorensen should it be necessary to perform rule No. 4 then I accept that I will probably die in the process but I will leave this earthly plain safe in the knowledge that you Allegra Anderson will live an eternal life without the man you love.

6.
      
I Fabian Sorensen shall in return, should you both follow my requests, leave you both in peace.

7.
      
I will make no attempt to find you at your new location.

8.
     
I will not come after you in anyway unless of course rules No.2 and/or 3 are broken.

9.
      
You have my blessings to go and live your lives as free of the vampire lifestyle you both can.

As these rules are in writing, they are binding by vampire law.

……………………………………
. Allegra Anderson.

…………………………………… Dominick Cavallo.

…………………………………..Fabian Sorensen.

This contract will come into effect immediately, this time 02.15am January 12,
2013.

The last line was penned in by Fabian before he handed it back to us to witness his addition. So we had a date and time to work from now.

We both read over the contract and although there were certain things I thought Fabian was fooling himself into thinking he could control, I said nothing and although Dominick tensed alongside of me, he too realised it was best to stay silent and sign this foolish document if it meant we’d be free. The time of just 48 hours to leave was perhaps the most difficult request to comply with as we’d had no opportunity to look into flights, passports, nothing.

Still money talked. We could probably buy whatever documentation we needed to get out of the country so quickly.

Then there was Frank and Cassie. I had to act and act quickly to put in place what I wanted to do for my house mate and friend. Frank could suffice with some vague text message for now and I’d deal with him from Italy. The third book was done and published so he wasn’t likely to start harassing me until he got back on the ‘doing interviews’ bandwagon.

We could do this in that time constraint I realised. It would be tight, but that was Fabian, always wanting to test us.

“The time we have to be out of the country might be difficult.” I told him. “We have passports and airfares to arrange. Some flexibility with that might be necessary.”

“
Very well, you can have up to an additional 48 hours Allegra. I’ll make a note of that on the contract. Now, to give you both time to make your arrangements, I suggest you take your leave once you both sign.” He said, his pale eyes shifting between us and I didn’t need him saying it twice.

Hastily we signed the contract, Francesca took it to the library, the library I didn
’t realise the house had while she ran off copies of it and armed with ours and Fabian still carrying the original, we bowed and left them, hopefully never to see any of them again before we flew out of the country.

Epilogue.

Fabian.

Fabian sat with the newspaper held up as he read the headlines for the 14
th
of January, 2013. It was blazed across the front in big bold letters, complete with photos that showed wreckage strewn and little more than blackened hulks barely recognizable as parts that once belonged to a passenger plane that had been in service as a chartered plane for the last few years.

A slow, smug grin came over his face as he read the article.

  
Privately Chartered Flight Bound for Italy goes down in Fireball.

It seemed the flight that Allegra and his defiant son Nick had been booked on
had developed some sort of electrical problem and had gone into a steep dive before slamming into the ground not long after taking off from Sydney Airport on the mainland of Australia.

“
Such a shame.” He whispered with a false note of sadness. “It seems everyone on board had died. Shame about the pilots and the couple of cabin crew but sometimes these things were unavoidable.”

The article said that one of the maintenance crew had a grudge with one of the crew and had tampered with the plane which led to it
coming down.

Fabian chuckled to himself. He always won. Did they seriously think he would be satisfied with a piece of paper telling them what they could and couldn
’t do? Did they think that he would believe that she wouldn’t use her power to knock him from his position as leader? He didn’t like what Allegra had done to him and although he’d desired her intensely, he was angry that he’d never been able to fuck her and furious with what she’d done to him with that strange light that came from her. No, the only solution had been to remove the threat of them permanently.

Cassie.

Cassie swiped at the tears when she read the newspaper article about the privately chartered plane that had been deliberately tampered with by a disgruntled employee and had led to the deaths of all 7 people on board, two of those people being Allegra Anderson and Dominick Cavallo.

Her best friend and her boyfriend were dead
on their way to Italy. They must have been going to see his family or something since he had been Italian.

Whil
e she sat, partially in shock and succumbing to the tears that threatened, there was a knock at her door. Brushing a hand over her cheeks to wipe away the moisture, she got up to go and answer the door.

A courier stood there holding an official looking en
velope out to her. “Miss, I need you to sign for this.” He said, holding his delivery book and a pen out to her.

Once she
’d signed and closed the door again on the retreating back of the man, she made her way back to the lounge and sat down again to open the envelope.

She pulled out a pile of legal looking documents and stared at them in confusion for a while until finally what she was seeing and reading began to penetrate her shell shocked brain.

It was legal paperwork from a lawyer that Allegra had apparently been a client for. There was a neatly penned letter from her friend which reduced Cassie to tears again and she couldn’t read for a while until her tears had stopped enough to let her see clearly.

My Dear Cassie,

As you know I am madly in love with Dominick and have made the decision to leave Australia and go and live with him in his family home in Italy. Since this has probably come as a bit of a shock to you and you may be wondering what will happen to you now, I want you to know that as my best friend I have set the ball in motion to make sure you are looked after.

As you will see from the paperwork enclosed, I have had the title deeds changed into your name
so my home is now yours. Since I have great wealth and little use for it plus Dominick has more than enough money for us to survive on for long beyond our normal lifespan, I have had $2,000,000.00 transferred into an account for you. (See details inside).

I
’m sorry to leave you like this but I hope you meet someone soon and have a happy life and please don’t feel guilty about the money I’ve left for you.

I love you, take care of yourself.

Allegra. xoxoxox

When Cassie had finished reading the letter from her friend, she burst into tears again and sobbed uncontrollably for several minutes befor
e finally getting herself under control and looking through the rest of the paperwork which was the title deeds for the house, now in her name and the bank details for the account which held the two million dollars.

She was in shock at what her friend had
done for her and the timing made a knot form in her stomach. Had Allegra known something was going to happen to suddenly decide to leave her the house and some money? It was crushingly ironic that the paperwork was dated just two days before her and Dominick had died in the plane crash.

Overcome with another round of tears, she dropped her head to the lounge and sobbed until finally exhausted, she drifted off into a troubled, restless sleep.

Frank.

Public Announcement:

It is with great sadness that I announce that the renowned author of the Kiss Me Series that has been highly successful for the author Allegra Anderson and sold over 45 million copies worldwide has passed away in an unfortunate accident when the chartered plane her and her boyfriend Dominick Cavallo were in came down due to deliberate sabotage by a maintenance worker.

She will be sadly missed.

Dominick.

“Cara, wake up, we’re coming in to land.” Dominick shook the beautiful woman by his side that he intended spending all of eternity with and now thankfully they could with nothing or no one looming as a threat to their happiness.

She yawned, her eyes opening and he got his first look for the day at their bright green/brown depths. “
Dominick, did I sleep long? Oh god, look. I can see land, we’re landing?”

He chuckled. “
Yes cara, we’re here, we’ve arrived. That below us is Italy, see how stunning it is? We made it we outsmarted him. How do you feel?”

Allegra.

I looked up from my reclining position in the plane’s luxurious seat and met Dominick’s mesmerizing blue eyes that were filled with so much love, a love that was all for me. How the fuck had I got so lucky?

“
How did I get so lucky?” I put my thoughts into words as I looked up at him and he smiled, that smile that showed his perfect white teeth to me.