Page 149 of Dark Lover

Sam choked. She hadn’t saved her mother that day and she knew it wasn’t real, but she blinked, because they were on the suburban street in upstate New York where she’d grown up. It was a fall day, just like that day. Red and gold leaves were everywhere.

The white clapboard house where she’d grown up was behind Laura. Tabby’s blue bicycle was in the driveway, its kickstand down. Sam’s bike was red and it lay on its side where she’d dropped it.

Just like that day…

“Sam,” Laura cried, rushing to her. She pulled her into her arms, trembling.

And her mother was warm and alive, her chest rising and falling against Sam’s, her cheek soft, silken. She smelled like citrus and flowers, the Halston fragrance she always wore. Had she time-traveled? Was this real?

Sam realized she was crying. She loved her mother impossibly; she always had. Now, she realized she missed her in a bone-deep way.

What if she’d interrupted the pleasure crime sooner, preventing Mom’s murder?

Laura released her. “Thank the gods you came along when you did,” she whispered, tears in her own blue eyes.

Alarm began. Her mother had become transparent. “Mom! Don’t go!” Sam cried. But she knew Laura was about to vanish forever, because this wasn’t real. This wasn’t happening.

Her mother disappeared.

Sam couldn’t understand where all of her grief was coming from. She held her face in her hands, really close to weeping.

“Satan can give her back to you, Sam.”

Moray’s soft voice vibrated within her. Sam forced herself to straighten. She wiped her eyes, and turned warily.

“I can give you whatever you want,” he said. “I can return your mother to you.”

“Oh, so now you can turn back the clock?” She scoffed. But she was becoming angry. This was as dirty as the game could get.

“I can’t turn back the clock. No one, not even one of your gods, can.” Moray smiled. “But you know that when Fate goes awry, it can be corrected.”

Sam went still. He’d just mentioned one of the most fundamental tenets of the Book of Roses. Had Laura’s death been a mistake? Could it be undone?

“I can undo it,” he said, and his eyes glowed strangely. It was as if he could see everything, and into forever.

The odd fire in his eyes went though her, the way his words were going through her, as if there were no physical boundaries between them. Sam couldn’t think straight. What if Laura hadn’t been fated to die?

“I need you, Sam. I want you. I want you so much that I can let Ian go, if returning your mother isn’t enough for you.” His smile had changed now, too. “I’ve watched you for a long time, since you were a small child. If I can’t turn Aidan, I will take you instead.”

And for the first time in her life, she knew real fear. “Who are you?”

Satan.

Sam backed into a wall.

“I have a thousand faces. Come to me, Sam, give me your soul, and I will give you all that you wish.”

Sam stared and Moray stared back. Her mind was heavy; it was so hard to think. She could not make a bargain with the devil! But what if her mother could be brought back from the dead and Ian could be freed from a life of torment?

Sam?

It was as if Ian’s voice had cut through the fog, lifting it. She blinked, saw Moray, and behind him, a giant dark shadow receding. “Ian!”

He was trying to find her. And as she spoke, she knew she’d never do the unthinkable. She was a Rose.

Moray leaned close. “You will pay if you don’t accept our offer.”

“I am getting out of here,” she snarled.