"I am dying", she said, reaching out a pale hand.
He approached where she lay, half-shrouded in darkness, her décolletage barely illuminated by the pale moonlight seeping between the curtains.
"Shush, now, love", he whispered, twining his fingers with hers. he felt her ebbing away, even as the points of her seven-carat diamond ring bit stubbornly into the soft flesh between his second and third fingers.
He knew that, even given as she was to flights of reckless fantasy as to her own frailty, this time would see the end of her. The decades of laudanum and absinthe abuse aside, her addiction to beginning each day with the administering of a tiny pearl of Belladonna to each eye was a habit not best recommended for longevity.
He stroked her white wrist, the blue veins clearly visible beneath the paper-thin skin. She was still beautiful, even at the door of death. Her china-boned face, the allure of an army of painters and sculptors in her lifetime, still bore evidence of the haughty wit and beguiling, fathomless beauty that had entranced artists from all over the globe.
Her eyelids fluttered, flashing the dark orbs of her black eyes momentarily. He felt his breath catch in his throat and almost let out a cry. She focused upon him and, as ever, he felt the knot of her power tighten in the pit of his stomach. He could deny her nothing, nor ever could.
She smiled and the years fell away, leaving her intact as the sixteen-year old she had been when they first met. A lifetime, a universe ago. The world turned on its ancient axis and she slipped away. Just like that. He had always imagined that time would stop the moment she ceased to walk the earth.
The moon veiled itself with a wreath of silver cloud, as if sighing at her passing and he felt the final breath of their life together leave his body. Every inhalation thereafter would be without catching a whisper of her scent, or to speak her name and have her respond.
He kissed her forehead and backed slowly away from her, unable to exert himself to look upon her for the final time. Even as the warmth drained from her, he knew that, somewhere, her life force thrummed in the heart of her daughter. The question was now where to find her.
He approached where she lay, half-shrouded in darkness, her décolletage barely illuminated by the pale moonlight seeping between the curtains.
"Shush, now, love", he whispered, twining his fingers with hers. he felt her ebbing away, even as the points of her seven-carat diamond ring bit stubbornly into the soft flesh between his second and third fingers.
He knew that, even given as she was to flights of reckless fantasy as to her own frailty, this time would see the end of her. The decades of laudanum and absinthe abuse aside, her addiction to beginning each day with the administering of a tiny pearl of Belladonna to each eye was a habit not best recommended for longevity.
He stroked her white wrist, the blue veins clearly visible beneath the paper-thin skin. She was still beautiful, even at the door of death. Her china-boned face, the allure of an army of painters and sculptors in her lifetime, still bore evidence of the haughty wit and beguiling, fathomless beauty that had entranced artists from all over the globe.
Her eyelids fluttered, flashing the dark orbs of her black eyes momentarily. He felt his breath catch in his throat and almost let out a cry. She focused upon him and, as ever, he felt the knot of her power tighten in the pit of his stomach. He could deny her nothing, nor ever could.
She smiled and the years fell away, leaving her intact as the sixteen-year old she had been when they first met. A lifetime, a universe ago. The world turned on its ancient axis and she slipped away. Just like that. He had always imagined that time would stop the moment she ceased to walk the earth.
The moon veiled itself with a wreath of silver cloud, as if sighing at her passing and he felt the final breath of their life together leave his body. Every inhalation thereafter would be without catching a whisper of her scent, or to speak her name and have her respond.
He kissed her forehead and backed slowly away from her, unable to exert himself to look upon her for the final time. Even as the warmth drained from her, he knew that, somewhere, her life force thrummed in the heart of her daughter. The question was now where to find her.