Belle Morte Bites (Belle Morte 4.3)

Ruth: Part One

Hamburg, Germany, 1806

Isabeau Aguillon was pulled from a dream by the feeling of soft, warm lips on the back of her neck.

"Are you awake?" Ruth murmured in her ear.

"I am now."

Isabeau rolled over, and Ruth wrapped her arms around the vampire, sighing contentedly as she snuggled under Isabeau's chin. She smelled of the cheap soap that they had both been using, but on her it smelled sweeter than any flower.

Isabeau closed her eyes as she listened to the soft thump-thump of Ruth's heart. After Aileana had left her, Isabeau had abandoned Scotland and had travelled to Germany, where she had spent two years enjoying a brief string of sexual encounters with German girls, before she met Ruth.

Falling in love again was the last thing she wanted to do, especially when it hadn't been that long since Aileana broke her heart, but the heart wanted what the heart wanted.

And Isabeau's heart wanted Ruth Huber.

Isabeau had only been living in Hambourg for a month when she met Ruth, literally running into her one night when Ruth was making her way home after a long day of work. The collision hadn't been anyone's fault, but Ruth, exhausted and hungry, had blamed Isabeau, and had furiously cursed at her in the middle of the street. Under any other circumstances, being shouted at by an angry German girl was not something that Isabeau would consider appealing. But there had been something about Ruth's small stature, dwarfed by her rage, something about the glitter in her brown eyes, shadowed by those thick eyebrows, and something about the creative insults she hurled, that had sparked a flame inside Isabeau.

She had waited until Ruth had calmed down before asking if she was alright, and Ruth had been so surprised that Isabeau hadn't responded with anger that she hadn't quite known what to say.

They had started talking, and a soft, warm attraction had soon blossomed between them. Over the past two years, that attraction had bloomed into real love.

"Did I tell you that I saw Georg this morning?" Ruth asked.

After two years together, Isabeau still hadn't told Ruth that she was a vampire, though she'd thought about it almost every day for weeks. Instead, she'd given Ruth the same story that she'd given other humans in the past – that she had a rare sickness that meant she couldn't be exposed to sunlight for too long at any one time. Ruth had calmly accepted that a relationship with Isabeau meant spending most of their time together when the sun went down.

"What did he say?" Isabeau asked.

Georg was Ruth's elder brother, living a few streets away. Once she had a large family. Now it was just her and Georg. Well, her and Georg and his family.

Ruth eased out from under Isabeau's chin so she could look up at her. Isabeau stroked her thumb along the dark slashes of Ruth's eyebrows. Beneath them, Ruth's brown eyes were troubled.

"He talked again about moving out of the city," Ruth admitted. "He's really scared."

"He must hate me even more," Isabeau muttered.

She had met Georg and his family on a handful of occasions – of course introduced as Ruth's friend rather than her lover – and Georg had never made any secret of his hostility towards her.

Ruth winced. "Please don't take it personally. It's just because you're . . ."

Isabeau knew.

Georg hated the French.

Isabeau was French.

Austrian by birth, Georg had once been the eldest of five, born to a moderately wealthy family. His mother had died giving birth to Georg's youngest brother, leaving his father to raise four sons and Ruth, the family's only daughter.