"What if I wanted to come with you, be with you, forever?" she went on.

"Don't be a fool," he shot back bitterly. "This isn't some fantasy. We're talking about eternity. An endless black ether, a vast cloud of emptiness."

"It wouldn't be empty," she said very simply. "You would be there."

She took another step toward him, but he had nowhere to retreat. "You have no idea what you're asking," he said.

"Listen to him, Laura," Cynthia begged. "Get away from him."

"No." It wasn't a word she had used very often. But she used it now, her eyes never leaving his face. She reached out her hand, and he flinched.

"Don't let me touch you," he said. "If I do, you'll die."

"You touched me before," she said. Her heart was racing too fast, but she didn't care. She willed it to go faster, to speed up and burst.

"I've gone back to what I really am."

"And what is that?"

"Power," he said flatly. "Energy. Death."

"And love," she said.

"It's not a fairy tale, Laura!" he cried, and there was no missing the desperation in his voice.

"You love me," she said, very certain.

"What does Death know about love?" He yanked the sunglasses from his face as he loomed over her. "Look at me, and tell me you're not afraid."

She heard Cynthia's piteous shriek, the babbled prayers of the women above her, her father's choked gasp. None of it mattered. She looked up at Alex, into his eyes for the first time.

They were dark, endless, and she knew why so many were terrified of him. In those bottomless depths she could see herself, quite clearly, and she could see the future. The endless night that held nothing but him.

"Why should I be afraid?" she asked gently. "You've always been with me. You always will be, unless I let you go."

"Laura!" her father shrieked, but it was too late. She took a final step toward him and threw herself against his shimmering, vibrating body.

The white light filled the air, blinding her. The crackle of lightning singed around her; thunder shook the earth. And from somewhere far away his arms came around her, wrapping her tight against him.

They stood, bound together, in the midst of a tornado. She raised her face to his, and there was no horror in his eyes. No regret, just a fierce, possessive joy.

"I tried to save you," he said, though there were no words spoken. "Now you've lost everything. You'll be trapped with me throughout eternity."

For the first time in her existence she was exactly where she needed to be. He was warn and strong against her body, and when she looked up into his black eyes all she could see was love. "Even eternity isn't time enough," she said.

She closed her eyes as he kissed her, and the voices faded into the distance. Eternity was just beginning.

Dear Reader,

I've always been fascinated with the relationship between love and death. One is the ultimate light, the other is the ultimate darkness, and the joining of the two is deliciously, terrifyingly extreme.

This is a beauty-and-the-beast fantasy taken to the very limit—there's no pulling back from death, no settling down in an apartment with a two-car garage with the Grim Reaper. In order to love Death, you have to be willing to give it all, with no future, no past, nothing but a deep, velvet now. That kind of complete surrender, and triumph, can provide the ultimate satisfaction. Small things no longer matter—destiny is in force now, and the real world slips away.

For a woman to accept Death as her lover, she has to be very brave, selfless, loving.

For Death to succumb to human weakness, to a human female, he has to be willing to risk everything, as well. Human emotions are foreign, and dangerous. But Death, like his true love, is willing to chance it.

The happy ending for such a union is, of course, bittersweet. But the greatest victories are always so. Prepare to take a dark ride on life's most fascinating amusement park attraction. Death, and its polar opposite, love. And the mesmerizing union the two create.

Anne Stuart

About Anne Stuart

Anne Stuart is a grandmaster of the genre, winner of Romance Writers of America's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, survivor of more than thirty-five years in the romance business, and still just keeps getting better.

Her first novel was Barrett's Hill, a gothic romance published by Ballantine in 1974 when Anne had just turned 25. Since then she's written more gothics, regencies, romantic suspense, romantic adventure, series romance, suspense, historical romance, paranormal and mainstream contemporary romance for publishers such as Doubleday, Harlequin, Silhouette, Avon, Zebra, St. Martins Press, Berkley, Dell, Pocket Books and Fawcett.

She’s won numerous awards, appeared on most bestseller lists, and speaks all over the country. Her general outrageousness has gotten her on Entertainment Tonight, as well as in Vogue, People, USA Today, Women’s Day and countless other national newspapers and magazines.

When she’s not traveling, she’s at home in Northern Vermont with her luscious husband of forty years, an empty nest, five sewing machines, and when she’s not working she’s watching movies, listening to rock and roll(preferably Japanese) and spending far too much time quilting and making doll clothes because she has no intention of ever growing up.

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