“Calm down, kruxa. I mean you no harm,” he said to me.
I wanted to tell him that all vampires ever did was harm, but my mouth was still gagged.
He reached down for his boot and pulled out a dagger. I squirmed under him and tried to break free. It was hopeless. He was too heavy and I was too weak. But he didn’t stab me with the blade like I thought he would. He cut open the material gagging my mouth and severed the ropes on my wrists and ankles. The stone tied to me dropped to the ground. Once I was free and able to stand I wasn’t sure what to say to him.
Tobias stood before me and offered the dagger.
“Take it,” he said. “If it will help you feel better.”
I snatched the dagger without hesitation and held it in my shaking hands. My skin touched his just enough to feel how cold he was.
“Who are you?” I asked, my bottom lip quivered from adrenaline still pumping through my veins at the thought that I had narrowly escaped death.
“They know what you are now. You must leave,” he said. “Leave and never come back.”
I didn’t know what century I was in exactly. Perhaps medieval times from the way Tobias was dressed.
His eyes were fresh from a recent kill and drinking his fill of blood. I didn’t trust him but he had just saved my life. He cut away the ropes binding my body and preventing me from escaping.
“But where will I go?” I asked. “This is all that I know.”
“As far as you can get to live quietly. Keep the dagger. You might need it.”
The memory started slowly dissipating. My eyes took in the sight before me as reality eased its way back into my mind.
Tobias had lost me in an ancient life. And saved me from death in another. As it turned out, Nathaniel wasn’t the only one who spent a good portion of his life watching over me.
I crawled out from Nathaniel’s strong arms and stood up from the bed. He reached for my hand.
“I have to go,” I said quietly.
He pulled me in closer. Even with him sitting on his bed and me standing he had to look down at me. There was something about his height, the strength in his muscular arms, and the way he drew me in that made me feel safe. Wanted. Desired. In a way I never thought I would even want to experience again. He changed that.
“Don’t go yet,” he said. “Not right now.”
I shook my head. “If you trust me, if you really do, please let me go. There’s something I have to do.”
“What if I said I didn’t want you to?”
I gave a small sigh, not wanting to let him go either. And knowing that I needed to. “If we allow this to happen, the vixra will punish us both. You know that.”
He cupped my face in his hands. “Yes, I know.”
“There has to be another answer. Another way.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want another way that involves not having you with me, Harper.”
“Then let me see what I can do. Let me go this once and when I return I won’t leave again.”
I could see in his old eyes that he was weighing the thought. Tossing ideas around and trying to find a way to convince me to stay. And yet, he knew just how stubborn I was. He couldn’t talk Georgeanna into staying either.
“The last time I let you do things on your own you almost got yourself killed,” he reminded me.
I stood there in silence, trying to tell him with my eyes what I hoped he already knew. That I didn’t want to leave him right now. That I would love nothing more than to have him embrace me again and never let go. And I meant it. The man who broke into my house, put a knife to my throat, kept secrets from me, and who was in the witchling world considered to be my mortal enemy was the one man I didn’t want to disappoint.
If this was what marking felt like when it wasn’t even complete yet, I couldn’t imagine the level of devotion we would have for one another if my blood finished the job.
Nathaniel’s armor was back on. The pieces that he allowed to fall to his side slowly reassembled to where I only saw the severity that reminded me of who he was and what he was capable of.
I expected him to lash out at me. To tell me that I couldn’t go. I would only put myself and others in danger. At least that was what his expression told me.
Well, that was the answer I was going to get but not in the manner I thought I would receive it.
He pulled me in close and refused to let go. He forced his lips back on mine. Then he lifted me from beside the bed and lay me down underneath him once more.
He kissed every part of me. My neck. My collarbone. My chest. Then he found my lips again. My legs were wrapped around his back with little else to occupy my thoughts other than his body moving over mine.
He broke the kiss and peered back down at me. “I told you to stay once before and you wouldn’t listen. I’m not making the same mistake again by leaving. And neither are you.”
“Nathaniel, both our lives might be ruined if we do this. You know what the vixra will do.”
‘Not to mention that Georgeanna still loves you. I can’t do this. I’m not a thief.’
My blood told me otherwise. It told me to give in. To let Nathaniel take this as far as he wanted. To be his in any regard that he might desire.
“Don’t fight me anymore, Harper. You know it’s not worth the effort.”
He didn’t care. He didn’t care about any of it. The magic inside my blood was in complete control. There was only desire in his eyes. And that desire was consumed with thoughts of me.
I didn’t pull away again. Nor did I try to stop him. I let his lips fall back on mine as he deepened the kiss. As he banished any thoughts of Caleb from my mind. As he tore away each shred of my clothing one by one. As he worshiped me in ways I never thought possible.
I should have known a vampire as old as Nathaniel would know a thing or two about how to please a woman. On how to make a woman want to hold on to him and never let go. And that’s exactly what I did. I held onto him and didn’t let go. For the moment.
Chapter 8
I listened as the wind outside blew harder. A storm was brewing over the mountains in the distance beyond the trees. I could see lightning strike down at the earth through Nathaniel’s bedroom window. It felt as though it was a warning. A warning that more was to come. That the storm had only just begun. That I needed to follow the trail it left behind and not a single thing I wanted to protect was in my power to do so.
Nathaniel held me in his arms. His strong arms that once latched onto me the night we met and wouldn’t let go now refused to let go for an entirely different reason. My face rested under his chin as he slept, allowing me to feel the cool length of his body. He wasn’t entirely warm yet. My blood wasn’t done marking him. There was still time.
‘But time for what? I don’t want to mark Tobias. And I can’t anger the vixra. Or have Georgeanna turn on me. This can’t happen. There has to be another way.’
I tried to shut my eyes to sleep and force my mind to relax. To not focus on Caleb and what he might think of me for what I had just done. Or Georgeanna and the pain it would cause her to know that I had potentially taken the man she wanted to mark one day. And the anger that would likely consume Arthur’s eyes once he learned what was happening. Then there was Tobias’s betrayal. The way he lied to me then attacked Nathaniel once he realized why Carlton was dying beneath him in a pool of blood on his living room floor. It was all because my blood was marking Nathaniel. And I never even knew it was happening.
I shook my head, trying to urge the thoughts away. I opened my eyes to take one more look at the storm brewing outside in the mountains. Only I didn’t see the window. Or the storm. Or Nathaniel’s bare body stretched out against mine.
I saw Tobias. Another memory was slowly coming back to me.
Tobias was looking down at me in the middle of an abandoned cobblestone street.
I was wrong. He wasn’t looking at me. At least not in the life I was well-acquainted with. He was looking down at ano
ther version of me. A past life. One I hadn’t seen yet. I was reliving more past life memories.
‘That damn potion doesn’t seem to be helping at all.’
Tobias pushed me back into the wall of the alley and pressed his body up against mine. This was no normal encounter. I didn’t try to stop him. I wouldn’t dare. I cared about him too much. I wanted him near me. And I didn’t want to leave him.
His lips crashed into mine and I didn’t hesitate to kiss him back. I craved this moment for months. Ever since I first saw him.
When he finally broke away I thought I might start to tear. Because I knew it would be the first and last time he kissed me. And maybe even the last time I ever saw him.
“Please don’t make me leave,” I stammered. “I don’t want to keep running.”
Tobias’s clothes were covered by a long cloak. He opened it up to pull me in closer and I got a sneak peek of his attire. Once again, it wasn’t of this time. Far from it. It was of another century. Not as old as the previous time I saw him, but also far from modern. Something a man from his late medieval paintings might wear.
Tobias took my face into his hand. I could see the battle going on in his mind behind those eyes. Those eyes that hadn’t aged a day but had seen so many things. A burden he was forced to carry. A burden I didn’t want him to carry.
“I can stay here with you,” I whispered in his ear. “My blood might even mark you.”
“I told you what the vixra want from you,” he said. “They want you to mark me. To control your entire life. Every finite detail. If you stay you will never escape them.”
“If I run I will always be running. I’m trapped either way and I’d rather be trapped with you than without you.”
He ran his hand down my hair, flattered by the thought of me being willing to withstand the unthinkable if it meant I could be with him. Was this how other women reacted around him? Willing to do just about anything? I didn’t like the idea that he was able to do the same with me. But then again, this didn’t feel that way. It felt…natural. Like a bond that was repeatedly built and unable to be broken. We had been married in our first life together. In the hills of ancient Scotland. He found me again after I had been reborn and urged me to run after my village tried to drown me. And now he was doing it again. Was this the pattern in each life I had lived? I would always run, just like Georgeanna said. But it was Tobias urging me to do so?
In this life, I ran because I was frightened of him. Of what marking him would mean. In the life I was witnessing now I wanted to let it happen. He wouldn’t allow it.
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” he said to me. He was no longer amused by me or the least bit flattered. He was serious. Too serious. The type of severity that made mortal men shake in their knees.
He wasn’t saying this because of me. He was saying it because he was enjoying the power. The power he had already amassed as a vampire. He wasn’t ready to be marked yet. I could sense apprehension seeping from his skin.
I flinched away from him in anger, not wanting to face him even though he was all that I could see in that dark corner of the dirty street.
“You would choose to stay in this wretched state over being with me?” I argued.
“Run. Run and I will find you,” he said. “I swear it.”
I looked back at him with hope in my eyes. With the innocence of a girl who didn’t know any better. Only I did now. He meant he would find me in another life. Not in this one.
I wanted to reach out to this girl. The girl that was me centuries ago and was dealing with larger forces than she could possibly comprehend. To tell her that yes, he might care. But he cared about being a vampire more. And that wouldn’t stop for many centuries to come. It was hopeless to wait for him.
I swallowed hard, not wanting to accept the offer he placed before me but knowing he was too stubborn to be convinced there was another way. “Take me to the dock. I’ll go. But promise me once I reach Germany that you will find me.”
“I promise,” he whispered, pulling me in for a final kiss that I already sensed could very well be our last. Then he placed a pouch in my hands.
“Take these,” he said. “It’s enough for you to build a new life.”
I opened it to find it full of silver coins. “It’s too much, Tobias.”
“No,” he said defiantly. “It’s just enough.”
He brought me to the wooden ship with enormous white sails and watched as I got on board. By the time I turned around to wave goodbye once the ship made way to leave, he was nowhere to be seen.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again. Before me was the window with the storm brewing in the nearby mountains. The curtain hanging to each side of the window with the light spattering of rain hitting the window. And Nathaniel laying by my side, resting peacefully with me in his arms.
‘Did Tobias do the same to Georgeanna? Did he convince her to leave as he did in my other lives?’
I slowly sat up straight and gently moved Nathaniel’s arm away, hoping I wouldn’t stir him. Then I eased my feet over the side of the bed and reached for my clothes, dressing as quietly as possible.
Nathaniel made it clear that he wouldn’t allow me to leave. Not when the last time I did so disaster ensued and Emily tried to kill her father. He didn’t give me a choice. I had to leave without him knowing.
Once I was dressed I peered back out the window at the storm brewing in the distance. It was a barreling roll of dark clouds with lightning striking every few seconds. I was headed straight for that storm. I could sense it. And yet, I couldn’t will myself to stay. I had to know more. I had to speak with Georgeanna. And hope she wouldn’t sense what had happened between me and Nathaniel. Or what was about to happen. That I was in the process of marking the man she loved.
‘I have to take my own side. I don’t have a choice anymore.’
I wanted to help Emily find peace, why she couldn’t rest, and I wanted to know if Tobias had misled Georgeanna the way he had me. Nothing and no one was going to tell me what to do anymore. I was taking matters into my own hands.
I walked out of the bedroom and straight to Nathaniel’s front door. I had all my hunting tools with me. My gun with magic infused bullets, a few droplets of vixra blood in my pocket, Lenora’s potion to prevent my past life memories from overwhelming my body, and the wand Daniel gave me in case any other croxa showed up. Who was I kidding? In case Emily showed up. I couldn’t afford to have her haunting me right now.
I quietly opened the front door and shut it behind me. Then for the second time since I had known Nathaniel, I disobeyed him. I walked to the open space where the broken tree was still laying on the ground from when I last tried opening a vixra tunnel using my grandfather’s wand. Only this time, I knew what I was doing. I took the droplet of vixra blood into my mouth and waved my hand through the air, cutting it as if I had a knife in my hand. Then once the tunnel was open, I took a deep breath and stepped inside the vixra tunnel, not knowing for certain what would unfold at the other end.
I landed in a nearby street corner where I wouldn’t be seen as the sun began to set over the tops of the buildings and walked casually on the sidewalk leading to Georgeanna’s apartment. I had no idea if she would be there. If perhaps the vixra had her running their errands. But I had to try. And if I was wrong or she wasn’t there, I could quietly go back to Nathaniel’s cabin and he might never even know that I left.
‘Fat chance. When do I ever get away with anything?’
The second I turned the corner to the stairs leading up to Georgeanna’s apartment I felt something pull me straight off the steps and back onto the sidewalk. I didn’t even have time to brace for the fall before I was laid out flat on my back. A few people walking nearby gasped at the sight of me falling to the ground.
“You alright?” a young man asked as he tried to help me up.
“Yes, I’m fine, thanks. I just slipped.” I hurried up as fast as I could without taking his hand. And
I refused to let him see the shock written all over my face.
There was a cloud of thick black smoke wafting above us, wanting my attention and threatening to barrel down on me if I didn’t get inside fast enough.
‘Not here! Not on the street where others can see. Are you trying to get me killed, Emily?’
I ran to the buzzer to the side of the doors and pushed the button to Georgeanna’s apartment. I heard the microphone turn on but no one responded.
“Georgeanna, it’s me. It’s Harper. Please let me up.” I waited for a response but none came. To my surprise, the sound of the buzzer on the door went off and I pushed it open to get inside. She was home. I could speak to her. But not before I got rid of Emily. At least for the moment.
I took a few steps indoors and reached inside my jeans for the wand Daniel gave me. Only when I turned around, it wasn’t Emily standing there before me in a state that can only be described as a broken and rotting soul. It was Annabel. She stared me down in silence.
“Did you find him?” I asked. My voice was cracking. “Did you find Victor?”
She said nothing. She only stared at me with the same golden eyes she had after I took control of her. The air around us grew thicker and full of static. Then the air went cold. So cold that I wrapped my arms around my chest and saw my breath leave my mouth.
Annabel’s head turned upward, looking at the staircase leading to Georgeanna’s apartment.
I turned to the stairs, trying to figure out what she was telling me. Was I just dense? She couldn’t possibly mean-
I turned back around and she was gone. As if she had never been there. The air in the room was normal again.
‘No! No, she can’t possibly mean that-’
I bolted up the steps, skipping one at a time and lunging down the hall once I got to Georgeanna’s floor. Right before I reached her door, I took out my gun and readied to shoot should I have to.
Witchling Wars Page 57