New Teaser : From the Prologue of In Darkness or Light

Hi everyone,

It's teaser time! Thanks for being so responsive to the poem last Sunday. Here is an excerpt from the Prologue. Release date is this Wednesday. See you then. Happy reading.

Song for this chapter - The Kill by 30 seconds to Mars. (please right click on link to play song in a new tab)

EPOV - Taken from his last night as a Gargoyle

From the corner of my eye I saw Rosalie move, and I heard Aro begin to recite her last rites.

I knew this was it.

I turned unsettled eyes over to her and watched as she fell to her knees before him. Something lurched in my chest when I saw his hand come down on her head, and in a rush of compassion I went to her side. I don't know what came over me in that last moment, but suddenly my heart went out to Rosalie. I felt her desperation. I knew what it felt like to need death more than you wanted it. I knew the poisonous effects of self hatred and bitterness, but I also knew that love could have healed it.

I was unable to give her the kind of love she wanted from me. And even though she stole it from Emmett, I was sure that had she given it time, she would have found that she didn't need to steal it after all.
She shifted her deep grey gaze to me then, and for the first time in two centuries I saw something soft in Rosalie. Whatever it was, it was alien, but it moved me to pity. A single tear rolled down her cheek and I caught it as it fell from her chin.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Aro's grasp tightened around her head, and my heart twisted in anxiety.

“You are the only one I would have with me at the end,” she said, the beginnings of panic claiming her face.

“Thank you,” I said, touching her shoulder. “For giving me something I don't deserve from you. Despite my initial reaction I am moved, and I accept your offer. Thank you, Rose.”

“Do something for me?” She asked.

A sincere smile on Rosalie's lips was shocking, but that entire night had been a sequence of surprises.

“Anything,” I answered, unsuspectingly.

“Kiss me...” she whispered. “It's the last time I will ask. Just so I know what it feels like before I die....”