Delia
Every excruciating step took me toward what I hoped was the right way. I went as fast as I could but finding my footing had proven difficult. I’d stumbled and fallen so many times that I felt like one of those people in a horror movie who couldn’t travel more than two feet without eating dirt with the killer fast on their heels.
But maybe that wasn’t so far from the truth. No way the council wouldn’t order the others to find me and bring me back to justice. They could take me easily in the state I was in. At least they’d all seen me run off in the opposite direction than the one I’d actually taken, and Harmon had been too wrapped up in the arrow sticking out of his shoulder to notice which direction we’d gone when we ran away. At least, I hoped so anyway…
But what would the council think about their golden boy imbibing himself with magic to get the upper hand? Had he always utilized magic? Had that been why he was generally superior to everyone else when it came to his fighting skills?
Nothing would surprise me about Harmon anymore. The thought that I had been determined to spend my life with him made me sick now. He wasn’t the person I thought he was, and I deserved so much more.
He wasn’t strong or noble or anything at all like he’d pretended to be.
Liam, on the other hand… Had I been wrong about him from the beginning, too? He’d proven loyalty by saving me when he didn’t have to. And at any time during our travels he could have ended my life and didn’t. In fact, hunger was apparent in his eyes when he looked at me, but it wasn’t the type of hunger I’d expect to see in a vampire’s eyes. No, he looked at me like there were no other women in the world he’d rather be near. He looked at me like he wanted to ravish me.
But then maybe I wasn’t seeing him clearly either. We were both still under the witch’s curse and likely would be until we either died or I gave in and became his queen.
A light through the trees caught my attention, pulling me from my thoughts.
Theodosia.
Pushing my way forward, the closer I got to the cabin, the harder it was to move, like my feet were stuck in thick sticky mud or quicksand.
Trudging forward, I pushed with all my strength until a dark figure appeared before me.
The apparition had long straggly hair and wore a black cloak. Bony hands protruded from the ends of its sleeves, pointing a slender finger at me.
“Why have you come here, slayer?” the apparition hissed. “You aren’t welcome in my woods.”
The figure balled its hand into a fist and my throat tightened, trapping air in my lungs and preventing oxygen from entering.
“I’m here,” I sputtered and gasped for any small amount of air I could get. “For… Liam.”
The tight grip around my throat loosened, but it didn’t let go completely.
“Liam? As in the king?”
I nodded as she released her magical grip. Oxygen rushed into my lungs, giving me a slightly dizzying feeling as I struggled to recover.
“Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place?” the voice said. Its tone lighter and becoming more feminine. Nothing like the terrifying hiss that I’d heard moments before.
My eyes focused on the shape of the creature as its form changed. Its hair softened, changing from gray to a beautiful shade of honey brown. The black on the cloak drained away, revealing a beautiful crimson color, and the flesh on its hands began to resemble that of a vibrant woman.
“I’m Theodosia,” she said. “And you look like you could use a little help. Sorry to be so rude a moment ago, but slayers are not usually here for anything good.”
“How did you know I was a slayer?” I asked, rubbing the front of my neck.
“Oh, well, you have that look about you, I suppose. Come along,” she said.
My body lifted off the ground and floated just behind Theodosia. The sensation was strange, but not altogether terrible.
Once we entered Theodosia’s home, she placed me gently on a chair that sat close to a window in the kitchen and went about fetching a cup and water.
She sat down beside me and offered me the cup. I took it, brought it to my lips, and gulped the liquid down quickly, thankful for the coolness and the way it quenched my thirst.
“Not so fast, dearie. You don’t want to choke.”
That’s rich coming from someone who was just choking me a minute ago.
“More?” she asked.
I nodded. “Could you spare something to eat? I don’t care what it is or how small.”
“Of course… Peanut butter and jelly?”
I wasn’t much for PB and J’s, but it sounded absolutely divine at that moment. “Yes, please.”
A moment later she returned with more water and the sandwich.
“Now, what can I do for the king? He’s been awakened, I take it?”
“Yes. Two days ago,” I replied and took a bite, chewing quickly.
“I can’t believe it’s been twenty years already… Were you the one to break the curse, my dear?”
“Yes,” I said, shame dancing in my voice as I looked away from the witch and took another bite.
“Oh, come now… No need to feel that way. You should be proud to have awakened such a man,” Theodosia said, the corner of her mouth pulling up as she went to take a sip of a cup of tea that had been cooling on the table. “That one’s a keeper.”
“I don’t know about all that,” I said, trying to downplay how I felt about him. “But he’s hurt. Badly, and if we don’t help him, he’ll be asleep again, and this time, no one will be able to wake him. He’s been stuck with a dagger that we can’t remove. It’s been spelled to put him to sleep. He fights it, but his strength is almost depleted. I may have wasted too much time here already,” I said, eyeing the other half of the sandwich in my hand before placing it back on the plate.
“Hmph,” she said and rolled her eyes. “No doubt my sister is the one who concocted that one.”
“Your sister?”
“Yes. Theodona.”
“Was she the one to put him under the first time?”
“No. That was my other sister. Theodora… I’m not sure she’s still around these parts. Haven’t heard from her in about… Well, about twenty years, I suppose. She was in love with a slayer who promised to marry her, despite his chosen occupation. I warned her that he couldn’t be trusted, but love blinded her. When she found out I was right and that he had no intention of keeping his word, she did the only thing she knew would hurt him. Made it so he couldn’t kill his enemy and that his daughter—I’m presuming that’s you—would be the only one to kill or wake the king.”
I nodded, and said, “Yeah, that’s me. Please do thank your sister for ruining my life next time you see her.”
Theodosia chuckled, and said, “Your life as you knew it. You’re much more suited to the next one. I assume being the queen is what you wanted, considering you woke him up instead of piercing his heart.”
“No, I had no choice. The spell blinded me and turned me away from what I should’ve done. Even now, it tricks me into believing I could love him.”
“You were made for William, and he for you.”
“William?” I asked.
“Yes…”
“He told me his name was Liam,” I said, realizing that Liam must be short for William the moment I said it.
“Well, yes, dearie, but there are very few who have the privilege of calling the king by his preferred name… Most respect him too much to address him so casually.”
“You said we were made for each other. You really believe we’re mated?”
“Yes. From the moment you were created in the great beyond, you were destined to find your way to each other. He just had to wait a millennium longer for you than you did him.”
“So it was always my fate to unite with him.”
“Simply put, yes. My sister has the ability to see auras, and William has a unique one. From what she’s told me, it’s purple with starbursts of bright blue and shimm
ering silver peppered throughout. She said that none rivaled the brilliance and beauty of his… That was until she saw yours… She’d seen it surrounding you the very first time she saw you and told your father this eventually. Your father being who he was, refused to believe what she’d told him about you. But from that day forward, he made it his life mission to kill the king just to be on the safe side in case he was wrong, and she was right. Theodora cast the spell that put William to sleep, making it so he couldn’t be killed. If you want to know the absolute truth, you were never meant to kill him, only to bear his children and continue the royal bloodline. She lied to your father in order to try and stop him from killing William himself. She knew the twenty-year sleep would be merely a nap for the king, so she did what she felt she had to do.”
“It’s true then that there are different kinds of vampires?”
“Yes… Most of the ones your kind hunts were created by the blood exchange, but there are those like Liam who are born vampire. Pure female vampires cannot conceive, their bodies aren’t designed to carry a child the way a human’s is, and male vampires must seek out the human created to carry his children.”
“But if a human female turns, how is she able to get pregnant? Doesn’t her body die?”
“Not quite… Human women possess the necessary organs to create and carry life. That doesn’t change once they turn because vampires aren’t really altogether dead.”
I shook my head, confused by it all, and said, “So it’s not love then, is it? It’s some sort of what? Weird vampire mating thing? The way I feel about him is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. Like I don’t want to exist in this world without him. His soul calls to mine and always has. From the moment I kissed him… I feared it was love. I couldn’t even admit to myself that that’s what it was because it’s so crazy… But it isn’t love at all, is it? It’s a trick to get me knocked up?”
“You can be fated to bear a vampire’s children, but it doesn’t guarantee love. Magic cannot forge love, dearie. Trust me on this. If it could, I’d have moved on with someone else ages ago,” she said, rummaging around in her cabinets, pulling various bottles and containers down from shelves. “And what you’ve described sounds like love to me, or at least in my experience anyway.”
“You were in love?”
“Yes,” she said and poured different liquids and powders into a cauldron, stirring it vigorously. “One of yours actually, but they sentenced him to death years ago. He wasn’t a slayer. Just a citizen of Mallory Falls. He ran a market there. When I close my eyes, I can still see the softness in his eyes and feel the way I fit perfectly into his arms… It’s almost enough.”
“Oh my,” I said. My eyes widened, and my mouth started to drop open as the pieces clicked together in my head. “He’s not dead. I spoke to him in the dungeons just last night. He comforted me and told me how he’d been condemned because he loved a witch.”
Theodosia turned, a tear welling up in her eye. “My Samuel? Alive?”
“He didn’t tell me his name, but it has to be him. How many townspeople have been arrested for loving a witch? It just has to be him.”
“Perhaps,” she said, turning back to the cauldron. Grabbing a ladle and a bowl, she poured some of the liquid into it and popped a lid on the top. “Take this. You need to pour it directly onto the wound. It’ll subdue the magic long enough to pull the blade out. He must also feed, and it has to be from you. Not only will your blood satiate him, but it has healing capabilities boosted by the water you drank earlier.”
“That was magic?”
“Yes. You needed a pick-me-up. Feeling better?”
“Actually, yes. I don’t feel tired or weak at all. Thank you,” I said, standing and taking the container from Theodosia. “I promise to help you get Samuel back in any way I can.”
“Thank you,” she said. “It seems unreal that he’s been there this whole time, but I’ll get him out one way or another. Should I need your service, I’ll be in touch, dearie.”
“I don’t have a phone anymore,” I said dejectedly, sad mostly at the fact that I no longer had a device to read my books on. “They made me leave it behind.”
“Don’t need one,” she said with a smile. “I have other ways to reach you, but you should take this.”
Theodosia reached into her pocket and took out what looked like a tiny glass ball with shades of iridescent purple and pressed it into my palm.
“What is this?” I asked and inspected the object.
“Be careful, dearie… You’ll want to take that back with you. Break it open and it’ll provide protection for ten to twelve hours. I always keep one handy just in case. It’s like a cloaking spell. I figure the king will need to rest before trying to venture away from this place… Now go. We’ve wasted too much time as it is.”
“Thank you, again,” I said, pocketing the ball and hurrying back toward Liam.
I held the container close to my body, careful of where to step as I went along. At this pace and my renewed strength, I’d be back to him in no time.
A smile crossed my lips as I thought about saving Liam’s life and how happy it made me feel that I wouldn’t be losing him today.
The vision of the two of us side by side, just like in my dream, flashed through my mind. Could Theodosia have been right? Were my feelings not magic-driven? It was an awful lot to take in that fate had meant for me to be with Liam all along, but was it true that love didn’t factor into it and the way I felt wasn’t manufactured by the stars? Once I got Liam out of this predicament and the two of us to safety, I vowed to make Liam tell me everything he knew about vampire mates and the parts they played in one another’s lives.
Before I could think much more on the topic, an arrow whizzed by my head.
11
Delia
“Did you really think you could get away?” a female voice asked.
“Yeah, your bitch-ass isn’t so tough without your vampire protecting you,” the voice of a man sneered.
Two people stepped out from the foliage. Kit, the slayer who Harmon had been in love with the entire time we were together, and her brother Gabe. Oh, if there was anyone other than Harmon’s ass I wanted to kick, it was Kit’s.
“Get her, Gabe,” Kit said.
Gabe ran full-force toward me and I dropped the container into the bush at my side, hoping the lid wouldn’t come off and spill its contents, guaranteeing I’d lose Liam for good.
Just as Gabe was about to reach me, I did a back-flip and kicked his chin as my legs flung over my body. I hadn’t even known I could do a back-flip until that very second. Theodosia’s brew was likely to blame for the sudden burst of agility.
He fell backward as I landed on my feet and took off running toward him. Before he could get up, I kicked him swiftly in the head, knocking him out cold.
“Come at me,” I said, turning toward Kit, motioning that I was ready for her.
Kit didn’t hesitate as she pulled a knife and pounced.
The two of us tumbled to the ground as she crashed into me, but I got the upper hand and straddled Kit’s body a moment later. Pinning her arm to the ground with my knee to keep her from stabbing me with the knife, I delivered blow after blow to her face.
Blood flew form Kit’s nose as she struggled to free herself. She managed to knock me to the side with a quick thrust of her hip. Once I was on my back, Kit took the knife and sliced at my arm and neck area as if she were aiming for the jugular, but I managed to block her from doing so.
The pain of the blade slicing into my skin caused my adrenaline to surge. I pushed Kit off of me and grabbed the knife, determined to kill her with it. I’d never felt the urge to kill the way I did right then. Something deep inside raged forward and it wouldn’t be subdued until that bitch was dead.
“Let her up,” Gabe said from somewhere behind us.
I looked over my shoulder to see him propping himself up with one arm and holding the container with the concoction Theodosia had
made in the other hand.
“Let her go or I’ll dump out whatever the shit this is.”
“No,” I shouted. “Put it down, and you’re free to go.”
“Let her up,” he said and popped the lid off the container.
“Fine,” I said, standing and stepping away from Kit. “Now put it down.”
Kit scurried away from me and over to her brother.
“Hey, you asked me to put it down,” he said, standing up and pouring the liquid on the ground before he dropped the container.
“No,” I whispered.
Scrambling over to the container, I hoped maybe some of the liquid had been spared.
A few drops remained in the bottom. The rest pooled on the dirt as it began to seep into the ground. Frantically, I scooped at the muck, trying to salvage as much of the potion as I could, hoping the dirt wouldn’t contaminate it and that there would be enough to save him.
Once I got as much as I could back into the container, I ran fast toward Liam, praying that I wouldn’t find him already sleeping.
12
Liam
Darkness spreading, my eyes struggled to focus on any object in the tiny room. What had been gray and dull moments before was now mostly black.
My only wish is that she doesn’t blame herself and that she gets away from the lunatics in Mallory Falls. She deserves to thrive out in the world, and as much as it pains me to think it, I hope she finds someone who will love her and worship her the way she deserves to be worshipped.
My essence faded by the second. No hope now, I thought to myself. This is it.
The door to the tiny cottage flung open a moment later. I caught her scent before she said a word.
“Are you still with me?” Delia asked between gasps of air.
Every ounce of strength I could muster is what it took to simply answer, “Yes.”
“I don’t know if this will work or not,” she said and poured something gritty and cold on the wound. “I was attacked and lost most of what Theodosia gave me, but maybe it’s enough.”
Beyond the Veil (Vampires of Velum Mortis Book 1) Page 9