Made of Scars

by Eden Wildblood

  He was whispering truths to her as they continued their stand off, and at first she thought it was from inside her head, but then she saw a footprint on the ground and remembered how he could disappear at will, like on the beach.

  He’d done the same now and was there beside her, showing her the way. His whispers filtered into her ears and Wynter’s heart began to race.

  Could he really be serious? He had to be.

  “Kill her, Marcus,” Marcella cried, but the ancient vampire dismissed her with a wave of his hand. She wasn’t put off and shook her head, her eyes wide. She was finally beginning to see what Marcus was too blind to accept. “She will never surrender to you and the jinni has too much of a hold. Have done with this now before it’s too late!” she tried.

  Her words worked in Wynter’s favour and Marcus finally turned his attention upon the Priestess rather than his possession. He bellowed at her to leave, and the witch took a begrudging step away. Wynter thought it had to be for the safety of herself and her child rather than in submission though. She had the impression witches didn’t cower so easily before vampires.

  While his back was turned, Wynter looked to her side where she could feel Brodie’s presence and nodded her head in agreement with his plan. It was time they fought back. All of them.

  She then watched as Jakob’s still lifeless body was lifted off the floor by the invisible force of her jinni friend and was flung with incredible force at the window across the other side of the room. It shattered with ease and half a second later, Jak was gone.

  Thanks to Brodie he was finally away from Marcus. Away from his hordes and his Priestess. She only hoped the force of the crash or the resulting fall wouldn’t do him more harm, but she trusted in his strength and ability to heal all ills. And of course, Brodie’s promise that her soul mate would survive the ordeal.

  She, on the other hand, wouldn’t be so lucky.

  But Wynter didn’t hesitate.

  She shot up and took off across the room as fast as her feet could carry her, and before Marcus or his still retreating Priestess could follow her or detain her again. Once she reached the wall of glass, she leapt out of the jagged opening Jakob had left at the ready.

  Wynter jumped straight out of a fourth floor window with the biggest of smiles on her face. She could see Jak lying in a heap below, but he wasn’t dead, she could tell. The air was cold against her skin but felt refreshing and she breathed a deep lungful of it as she descended at speed towards the ground.

  She felt not even an ounce of sadness. Just courageous righteousness. This was the right thing to do. She was free at last, and thanks to what came next, would remain so.

  The ground was quick to claim her, but she didn’t care. She had already resigned herself to such a fate, and knew now how she’d been lied to. Death wasn’t what was going to take her. It was instead a creature who caught her in his solid arms at the bottom. The man who was no longer made of black mist but somehow of flesh and bone. He was real. Alive. He had the darkest shade of black skin she’d ever seen and deep green eyes. He was whole. And beautiful.

  “Brodie,” she whispered with a smile before letting out a cry as the pain from her fall finally took its hold. Her body ached all over, as if every bone was broken and every nerve snapped in two. And then, a wholly different sensation washed over her. She felt as if her broken body was somehow decimating piece by piece.

  As it melted away, she felt herself changing, while her consciousness somehow lived on unaltered.

  Wynter knew she was tied to the man holding her, and she found his heart calling to hers—or at least what was left of it. The calling promised her safety and a home at last. A place to recover from the pain and grow stronger once more. A chance to gain powers of her own and immortal abilities the likes she couldn't believe. And that could only mean one thing. Brodie’s mission was complete. He had taken what was left of her life force and utilised it as his own.

  Of course he had, otherwise he would not be whole.

  And good, she thought.

  He deserved it.

  Wynter lifted her hand in an attempt to see her flesh and bone one more time, but all she could see was that strange mist. Hers was white, rather than his black, and it was thin. More like a veil than a heavy haze, but she understood how it would become denser as time went on and as she grew stronger again.

  Blissful clarity swept over her, and she realised then how there was no more pain. No more fog clouding her mind or judgement. She was utterly free from all the chains that'd once bound her and she now yearned for nothing. Not life. Not death. Just more of this wondrous feeling.

  And love.

  Her love.

  “Welcome to the world, young jinni,” Brodie whispered to her with a smile, and his green eyes lit up as he watched her transform, “together we will do great things, just like I promised, but for now you must rest. Let me take care of you until you're strong enough to materialise.”

  Wynter knew what he meant. She needed to be patient and learn how to live as a jinni. She would have to follow his instructions and let him guide her, otherwise she would never be strong enough to show herself and reunite with Jakob in her new form.

  She leaned towards Brodie on instinct, much like she would when needing to be held, but this time it was completely different. She seeped into his body until she found her place there within him, already waiting and open in invitation.

  There was no bottle or lamp like the myth, but a place within his heart for her, and as soon as Wynter was nestled inside, she felt like she was a part of him. She could see through Brodie’s eyes. Hear his thoughts and sense his emotions.

  Was this what it'd been like for him when things were the other way around? It had to be. No wonder he’d known so much about her, and of course known when to appear and save her life.

  Wynter was awestruck as she watched through his eyes, and saw Brodie pick up Jakob’s even more broken body and carry him away at breakneck speed.

  His mind was a chaotic array of different threads of thought as he spirited the three of them away, but one stood out amongst the others. Her host was making her a promise. He would keep Jakob safe. Keep him close. The three of them would travel together for eternity while Brodie and Wynter lived within each other’s relative bodies to gain strength. While they shared one life force and made the union work, just like they had these past few weeks.

  It was going to be okay. He was going to make it so.

  But then there was another thought running through Brodie’s mind that made Wynter wish she was strong enough to talk back. To set his new plan on another course. He couldn't hide it, and stopped trying when he sensed she was onto him.

  “No,” she called, watching as Brodie peered down at the vampire out cold in his arms with an ulterior motive on his mind, “don’t hurt him.”

  “I won’t. Not right away at least,” Brodie whispered aloud in answer, and she knew then he’d heard her plea. “But I will have my vengeance, Wynter. He has to pay.”

  He then opened his mind to her further, showing her just what kind of wretched life the jinni had been forced to live. He’d taken host after host, and always left them for dead afterwards rather than let them turn into one of his kind, and all because he couldn't bear sharing his life with someone new. Not after losing his soul mate over a century before. Like vampires, jinni souls could merge with those they loved and were bonded, however when one was taken, the other was forced to live on. Obliged to carry on without them, even if they're left broken in the resulting years of their immortal life.

  “But why Jakob? What did he do to you?” she begged, and Brodie showed her another of his intense memories. One that made her want to cry, if that was even possible.

  He’d spent ever such a long time hating vampires in general, but more this one vampire in particular. The vampire who had killed his bride.

  The same vampire now unconscious in his arms and at his mercy.

  The man Wynter loved with all
her heart.

  She wanted to scream in pain for them both, and could see now just what Brodie had been through in the aftermath of losing the woman he loved.

  Brodie had mourned the love of his life. He’d laid low. Bided his time. And now, he had the chance to exact his revenge. It hadn’t been his initial plan, but after taking on the job of Wynter’s protector, Jakob had crossed his path by some fluke, or fate, he didn’t know. Didn’t care either.

  And now Brodie was going to use what time they had to make sure he paid for what he’d done.

  “You and I are one, Wynter. Two jinni’s who now share power and are bound to one another for eternity. But we are not soul mates. We will take turns at sheltering each other, offering a place of solace while the other grows strong enough to become whole again,” he said out loud as he continued to put as much distance between them and Marcus as possible, “but you are nothing more than a voice in my mind now. I am the driving force, and I shall do as I please. It’s your job to understand my needs and support me, just as I did with you.”

  “But…” Wynter tried, however she knew she had nothing to argue with.

  He was right. Brodie deserved his vengeance. She would have been the same. Hell, Jakob would’ve done the same if Marcus had eventually turned her rather than allow her escape. It was what you did when you were truly and irrevocably in love, so who was she to try and stop him?

  “Your soul merged with this vampire’s, but mine didn’t. I am not immune to his charms or oblivious to the things he has done. He will repay his debt to me, Wynter. I will control his fate until my cycle ends and it is your turn to become whole. And then the pair of you can have your time in the sun once again, when you can repair whatever damage I have done.”

  Wynter fell silent and then conceded, and she retreated further into the void in which she now resided so she could try and switch off while she focussed on healing herself.

  She didn’t want to so much as think about what was going to come next, much less see it through the eyes of the man intent on torturing her poor beau, but knew she had no choice other than to accept it.

  They both owed Brodie a debt, one that would be repaid in full. And for Jakob, that time was invariably here.

  Thirteen

  Brodie took Jakob far away from Marcus and his witch. As far as he could manage in the initially tight head start he had. But he knew the vampire and his soldiers would be hot on their heels. They wouldn’t be able to follow Wynter’s essence now that she was hidden, but that wouldn’t stop them from being able to track either his or Jakob’s scent if they were cunning enough. He needed to get them either in the air or across the sea. Nothing else would break that trail.

  It was a good thing the jinni needed neither sleep nor sustenance, and he didn’t stop moving forward until he reached their initial destination—an airstrip off the west coast of Scotland. He’d moved from on foot to in a hire car, and every time the vampire in his grasp stirred as if to wake, he swiftly snapped his neck again to ensure there was no fight. And no engagement. Not yet at least.

  He wasn’t ready. After almost a century spent in his dematerialized form, Brodie was finally whole again, and it actually felt rather strange. Almost alien. He’d survived by drawing just the right amount of strength from his many clients over the years, but never to fruition. And when he’d agreed to take Wynter on as a charge he hadn’t presumed this time would be any different. None had lasted long enough to see the process through until the very end.

  None but her.

  Like with all his other contracts, the Priestess had hired him on the proviso that it would never happen. He’d been assured that Wynter would be sired before he could drain her essence entirely and turn her into a Jinni, but the human girl had proven too strong for both the witch and her master. She had resisted them and taken a wholly different path, and now because of that she had given him true life because of her actions. Brodie could’ve never seen it coming.

  He looked down at the bracelet around his wrist as he drove. The black beads were just trinkets, a symbolic ode to his black misty form, but the white bead was the key. It showed him just how strong Wynter was, and at present, the white mist within was barely even there. She had a long way to go before she would be whole and Brodie would have to give up his human form so that she could live again. Plenty of time to allow him the chance to get some payback.

  He stopped the hire car just long enough to switch to another hired ride, this one an executive saloon, complete with driver. He made out his friend was passed out drunk, and bundled Jakob into the back seat before their driver headed directly for the airstrip.

  They sailed straight through the checkpoints reserved for humans and lesser beings without stopping. Those sorts of control checks and regulations were not for the likes of him. He might not have been wholly present for hundreds of years, but his affairs had always remained in order.

  Brodie had no debts, only assets, and he had managed them well from afar with ease. It was precisely the reason he was headed to this particular airstrip in the first place. He owned a helicopter charter company outright and so ordered the driver to pull up right beside one of his most expensive choppers. This would do nicely.

  Brodie liked the finer things in life. He’d always strived to have the best, and even though he hadn’t been whole for an incredible amount of time, he still had everything he needed close at hand. The clothes he’d chosen to materialise upon himself were perfect. His black hair was of course quaffed to perfection, and while he was tall and slender, he made sure not to look down on anyone. Arrogance was not a fine trait in his eyes.

  “Good afternoon, sir. Welcome back,” one of the attendants said when he spotted him, and he greeted Brodie with a broad, practised smile. He’d never met the young attendant before, but the jinni knew exactly how the man standing before him, along with all the others who worked for his company, had been briefed for when the time came for the illustrious Mr Brodie Cruikshank chose to appear. They had been given a description of his appearance and knew not to ask questions, other than to offer their help, or else face instant dismissal from their reclusive boss.

  He was a phantom, after all. A ghost. He’d never been present during meetings, and except for the odd visit in his misty form when he’d remain invisible, Brodie would liaise purely via the telephone or on email. Humans weren’t allowed to see the truth about what he was, and probably never would be. But still, Brodie had made sure that every single one of his employees knew his face and how if he visited they should approach only to see if he needed anything from them. And in this instance, he did indeed need one thing from the human standing in wait of a response, and so the jinni simply offered him a polite nod.

  “I have some cargo in the back seat. Be a dear and load it for me, would you,” he told the young man, who got the shock of his life when he opened the door and found what he clearly thought was a dead man laying strewn across the back seat.

  He did the right thing and didn’t say a word as he acted exactly as Brodie had ordered, and with an audible deal of exertion he lifted the limp vampire up and out of the car. He then also heard his new aide breathe a sigh of relief when Jakob stirred and groaned as he was being strapped in.

  He began mumbling something in Russian the boy didn’t understand, but it didn’t matter. One word stood out loud and proud.

  “Wynter,” Jakob croaked in his accented way of pronouncing her name, “where is she?”

  It’d be sweet if he wasn’t continually being such a damn nuisance by waking up before Brodie was ready to deal with him. “Wynter…”

  Brodie was still doing his pre-flight checks so he shouted to his new assistant.

  “Tell him she’s alive. Tell him everything is going to be okay,” he said, and then an idea struck him. Where they were going would be no humans for Jakob to drink from and that simply wouldn’t do. He could survive months without it, but his body and mind would go into a sort of frenzy before he would then l
ose himself, becoming nothing more than a mindless brute. For Wynter’s sake Brodie couldn't allow that, plus he needed him sound of mind so that his torture wouldn’t go on the back peddle to his hunger.

  “It’s okay, she’s alive,” he heard the boy saying, and Brodie could tell it was sinking in. Jakob was still very much out of it but he was coming around, and fast. Back to a world in which his precious Wynter was no longer his human soul mate, but a jinni. A creature stronger and more powerful than even him—the notorious vampire assassin. The devil of the night who took any life if he was paid handsomely enough.

  Did he so much as ask why? Did he even care? Brodie seethed just thinking about their shared past again and he moved faster. He wanted that vampire strung up and in some of the agony Brodie had been forced to suffer, and as soon as possible.

  “Come with us,” he then told the boy, whom he swung around to face him. The young man opened his mouth as if to answer, but he didn’t let him. “He needs you to care for him in ways I cannot. We’ll be gone for a while. Three years, five at the most, and I’ll pay you handsomely for it.”

  Brodie could tell he was keen, he just needed one last push. And he was more than willing to give him it. “I’m talking millions. You’ll walk away with more money than you’ll ever need for just a few years of giving yourself over to a job I can assure you won’t be like anything you could imagine. I have a secret task for you, and a way of helping out your fellow man. What do you say?”

  Desire flashed between the boy’s eyes and Brodie knew he had him. Men of this time always wanted to be the hero. They wanted to save the world, or blow shit up, and whichever way his mind was working, his new comrade was definitely on the hook.

  “I’m in, just let me go home and tell my mum—”

  “There’s no time for that,” Brodie cut him off, “you can call her from the chopper and I’ll buy you everything you need. This is incognito, my friend. We’re talking national security kind of stuff. Are you in or out Mr…?”