Lyra felt lousy and she couldn’t understand it. She just felt blue. Sitting down, she wondered why she felt like crying until she examined her feelings. They weren’t hers. This wave of depression was coming from Sav. Feeling a bloody tear trail down her cheek, she wondered what could possibly have made him feel like this. She tried to push it out of her mind, knowing he was newly married. Maybe he’d had that inevitable first fight with his wife. She’d tried to stay away since he’d gotten engaged, though that hadn’t worked well. However, since this didn’t seem like a life threatening problem, she stayed where she was and tried to deal with his emotions.

But over the next week, his feelings only got worse. By the end of the ninth night, Lyra couldn’t deal with it any more and took off to find out what was going on. She made the short flight from London to Dublin and landed in front of the house rather than the balcony she had used before he’d gotten involved with Dara. She knocked at the door and waited, wondering what she was going to find.

Dara opened the door and looked Lyra over. She stood back and said, “Can I help you?”

“I’m here to see Rick,” Lyra said quietly.

“I’m sure you are. Listen, why don’t you stupid sows just leave him alone at home. Should have fawned all over him last tour, cuz I don’t think he’ll be going out with the band next time,” Dara said hatefully.

“Mrs, Savage, I’ve known Rick longer than you have, I assure you. Now, if you don’t mind, I want to see him!” Lyra said coldly. “He called me, so would you please tell him that there is an old friend here to see him now!”

“You can wait out here while I see if he wants to talk to you,” Dara said, slamming the door in her face. After a few minutes, Lyra realized that Sav wasn’t coming. She listened to her link and found him in his bedroom, so she flew up and peered into the window. His back was to the window and he was reading a book in the dim light. There was no way Dara had even told him she was there. She knocked softly at the window and Sav jumped, knocking over the lamp and breaking the filament on the bulb. The room was plunged into darkness as he spun around and stared out the window. Then he opened it and said, “Lyra! You scared the hell out of me!”

“Sav, luv, what’s wrong? You’ve been so sad this past week and a half! Why are you sitting here in the near dark. I know there’s an overhead light!” she said in a flurry of words. She went quickly to the switch before Sav could stop her and the light flared on above. When she turned back to Sav, his hands covered his face and he said quietly, “Lyra, please, I don’t want you to see me like this!”

She watched as he crossed the room and leaned against the wall, shielding his face from her view. She went to him and said, “Sav, luv, what’s wrong? Why won’t you let me look at you?”

“Cuz, my face is, well, it’s not the same anymore,” he said softly, tears evident in his voice. “I look awful now and I don’t want anyone to see it.”

She turned him around forcefully and pulled his hands away from his face, looking gently into his eyes. There was no denying he looked different. The biggest shock was that only one of his eyes blinked. And she could see that his mouth wasn’t moving quite right either. Her soft eyes examined him quietly while he waited for her to scream or spit in his face. He was ready for anything but her acceptance at that point in time. She pulled him gently into her arms and said, “Sav, you’re still a beauty to me, regardless of what’s happened. I know you inside, so it’s all right, okay baby?”

He stared at her as she asked, “What’s wrong? Do they know what happened yet?”

“It’s called Bell’s Palsy. They don’t know if it will ever go away either,” he said quietly. He laid his head on her shoulder, letting his tears come finally. Lyra’s own tears flowed, the pain he was in almost too much for her to bear. Then he looked up at her and whispered, “If I became one of you, would it go away?”

“Yes, it would,” Lyra said, certain he wasn’t really thinking of it.

He bared his throat to her and said almost inaudibly, “Please, luv, do it now.”

Lyra turned his eyes back to her and said, “You don’t know what you’re asking, Rick. Is your face so important to you that you’re willing to give up your life for it?”

“My ’life’ as I know it is over,” he said angrily. “My wife has done nothing but call me a freak since this happened. How can I go out and perform if no one can even look at me? Can you tell me that?” The sadness Lyra had felt intensified and she wondered how much more Sav could take of it.

Lyra felt her blood begin to boil as what he said sunk in. His wife? She was the one pumping these lies into his head? Lyra wanted to kill her and Sav saw her fangs start to come down. Misunderstanding, he moved his hair aside and said, “Please, Lyra, just do it.”

“How long before she comes up to bed?” Lyra hissed softly. Her teeth ached, wanting to drain Dara’s life away for what she’d done to him.

Puzzled, Sav said quietly, “She hasn’t sleep in my bed since it happened. According to her, she might get pregnant and have some horrible-looking child. And that would ruin her career.” Lyra started pacing the room and Sav could feel the fury pouring out of her. Before he could stop her, she jumped out the window and flew back to the front door. Sav could hear the doorbell ring and ran to the door, trying to beat Dara there. But she’d been closer and opened it with an exasperated sigh. As soon as she saw Lyra, she said hatefully, “He doesn’t want to see you, so you can just leave.”

Dara started to slam the door in Lyra’s face, but Lyra flew in and grabbed her by the throat. Sav came into the room just in time to save Dara’s life by screaming, “NO, LYRA, DON’T!”

Lyra froze. Dara tried to scream, but Lyra’s hand was far too tight on her throat to allow that much air to escape. Her eyes were locked on Lyra’s razor sharp fangs that were, at that moment, dangerously close to her throat. She whimpered as Lyra turned to Sav and asked softly, “Why not? She doesn’t deserve to live after the shit she’s done to you.”

Dara’s eyes were as big as moons as she looked over at Sav, pleading with him without a word to stop Lyra. He crossed the room and put a gentle hand on Lyra’s arm, easing it away from Dara’s neck. Dara stumbled to the far side of the room, screaming, “WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE?”

Lyra turned slowly towards her and hissed, “A vampire, bitch. Do you really want proof, cuz I’d love to show you!”

“Lyra!” Sav begged. “Please, she’s still my wife.”

Without taking her eyes from Dara’s, Lyra said in a low voice, “I can fix that.”

“LYRA!” Sav yelled. “Stop it!”

She looked at him and saw the fear in his eyes, fear she just might carry out her threats. She walked over to him and ran a gentle hand over his cheek. She looked deep in his eyes and asked softly, “Do you really want me to spare her?”

He nodded silently, then said, “I couldn’t live with myself if you killed her.”

“Well, I refuse to let her get away with what she’d done to you, luv. But she’ll live, that I promise you,” Lyra replied. She headed for Dara, who was quickly backing herself into a corner. Grabbing her chin, Lyra looked into her eyes and started whispering in a soft drone. Dara could only stare at her, mesmerized by the look in Lyra’s eyes. In a few minutes, Dara turned slowly away from Lyra and headed wordlessly into the bedroom where she’d been sleeping. Sav grabbed Lyra’s arm and said quietly, “What did you do?”

“Oh, she’s just going to bed. But I don’t envy her the nightmares I’ve just planted inside her head,” Lyra said with a wicked grin. “She won’t remember me being here tonight, but every time she sees me, she’ll feel nothing but absolute terror from those dreams. And she‘ll never spout her poison again.”

Relief mingled with sorrow in Sav’s eyes. He couldn’t have taken much more of Dara’s nonsense, but it still hurt him just the same to know she ever thought that way about him. He knew then, only two months into his marriage, that it wasn’t going to last. She’d done exactly what Lyra had warned him she would months ago. Left him to deal with his wounded heart while she went on with her life without a care. Lyra saw his tears and pulled him into her arms, wiping the tears away with a gentle hand. Then she whispered softly, “She never deserved you, Sav.”

“Or maybe I didn’t deserve her love,” he cried, his broken heart on open display.

Lyra took his chin in her hand and forced him to look up at him, saying quietly, “No, Sav. She’s less human than I am. She has no compassion, no heart. Well, I have a heart and it belongs to two men. And only those two men. You know that, don’t you?” She felt him nod mutely against her shoulder and pulled away just enough to kiss him softly. Her lips ran over his face, a whispering caress across his eyebrows, his nose, and his mouth. She kissed one eyelid gently, then near his open eye as well. And for the first time in a week and a half, he didn’t flinch away from a woman’s touch. Then he heard her whisper, “I love you, Sav. Only two men have meant as much to me as you. Joe and a man long, long ago named Ronan.”

“Who was Ronan?” Sav asked, suddenly curious.

“He was my mortal husband,” Lyra said, her eyes going a bit distant for a moment before returning to Sav with a smile. She suddenly felt just how bone weary Sav was. He hadn’t slept well in over a week. Leading him to his room, she pulled him into bed and put her arms around him. His emotions were still in turmoil as he laid his head on her shoulder with a sigh. She smoothed his hair back from his face and said, “Sleep, my love. I’ll leave in the morning, but I’ll stay close by if you need me.”

“Thank you, Lyra,” he murmured, his eyes already beginning to close as he rested against her soft body. Only when she heard his soft snore did she let herself fall asleep.

The next morning, just before sunrise, Lyra woke and slipped out of the bed. She kissed Sav gently and pulled the covers back over his body, then flew out the window before he woke up. Dara slipped into his room a while later and crawled into the bed with him. As she did, he woke up and said, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m sorry for everything I said, Rick,” she said quietly. “I was really wrong to say any of it.”