My Eternal Soldier

by Krystal Shannan

  If anyone knew what it was like to lose a mate, it was Diana. She’d been trapped in a prison in the Veil for a thousand years, separated from her mates.

  “Killían. We were betrothed. He was a strong, compassionate man. He and his brother were our Jarl’s most respected warriors. We were to be wed two weeks after the day I died.”

  I lifted the cup of blood to my lips and took a long drink. Power flowed from Diana’s blood into my veins, filling me with energy. Nothing quite compared to Drakonae blood. But even the rush her blood provided wasn’t enough to make the pain of losing Killían fade.

  “You loved him,” Calliope stated. “Have you ever been able to love another?”

  I shook my head and put the empty glass on the table. Diana wiped moisture from the corners of her eyes with her cloth napkin.

  “Did you know the necklace is Elvin?” Diana asked, laying her napkin down.

  A frown pulled at my mouth, and I raised my head to meet her gaze. Why would the necklace be from her world? “I didn’t.”

  “I never really noticed it before, but the stone is a stunningly cut Goddess Sea diamond. The purple hue in the center of the stone gives its origin away.”

  “Are you saying my necklace is from the Veil?”

  Diana nodded. “Elvin men gave their intended a Goddess Sea diamond as a pledge of their love.”

  I frowned. Killían couldn’t have been Elvin. I would’ve known. “He was a Viking. Just like me. He and his brother came from the territory north of ours after a raid wiped out his village.”

  “Some Elvin escaped before the Incanti took complete control of the gate. They likely sold and traded many things from the Veil when they arrived. I’m sure that is how Killían came to have the piece.” Diana sighed and reached for another bun, swallowing it in only three bites before reaching for her fourth one.

  “Baby’s making you hungry, isn’t he?” I grinned, hoping they would go for the subject change. I didn’t want to talk about the only man I’d ever loved. The only man I’d ever been able to love. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t tried to move on over the years… but I had never wanted any other man like I still wanted him. My mind still daydreamed of him. I could still feel his arms around me whenever I lay down to rest.

  “I swear I don’t know how I fit it all inside me.” She leaned back against the booth and licked her sticky fingers. The scent of honey and cinnamon clung to the air around the three of us. “I remember starving during my first pregnancy. It’s amazing that I was able to carry Mikjáll to term at all. If it hadn’t been for that Elvin woman sneaking extra food to me...” She paused, her face darkening with pain.

  “It’s in the past, D. You are here now. Healthy and reunited with both your mates and your son. How is Mikjáll adjusting?”

  “He’s quiet. We haven’t spoken much. He refused to live in the Castle. Right now he’s staying with Jared. Miles and Eli keep telling me to give him time. It’s just hard. I don’t want to miss any more time with him.”

  “Losing someone is the worst pain imaginable.” I rubbed the medallion and stared hard at my friend. “I’m sure this Jared…person is a good guy. He’ll help him find his bearings.”

  Diana nodded. “Jared MacKay is the fire chief. At least that’s what they call him. He works hand in hand with the sheriff, Alek Melos. Both of them are broody and loners. I guess if that’s what he needs right now, then that’s what I need to let him have.”

  “Nothing wrong with a broody, silent man,” Calliope chimed, grinning from ear to ear. “Sometimes those are the best kind to have around when you are surrounded by obnoxiously loud Lycans.”

  “Calliope!” Diana turned, shushing the Siren.

  A couple of guys across the diner turned to stare for a moment. Their eyes flashed yellow with annoyance before they returned to their rather loud conversation. I shook my head and turned to the amused Siren. Poor Diana was turning pink with embarrassment. Her high breeding made her always look for the politically proper way to handle a situation.

  “Apologize to Liam and Finn. And then go apologize to Kasey and her kids over there by the wall. That was rude,” Diana hissed.

  “You’ve been here a few weeks, and you already know everyone’s name. And I’m not apologizing. If they don’t want to be called loud, they should be quieter.” Calliope snorted. “Listen to them over there hooting and hollering like a bunch of rednecks. You’d think it was a hundred years earlier, and they didn’t have a care in the world besides watching sports and drinking beer.”

  “Calliope, I’d think I died and gone to heaven if the NFL started up again,” one of the male Lycans hollered from his table.

  “When you finally keel over, Liam, the NFL will probably start fresh just to spite you,” she shouted then leaned over to Diana. “Liam used to play professional football before the Riots.”

  Diana shrugged. “I don’t know what football is.”

  “A game that Americans loved before their country fell apart,” I answered. “Big guys ran a pigskin ball up and down a field, tackling each other to try and keep the opposite team from scoring points.”

  The two Lycans rose from their table, came over, and very unceremoniously shoved their way into our booth.

  “Hey, wolf man!” Calliope growled as she and Diana scooted farther into the booth to accommodate Liam’s massive frame.

  Finn slid in next to me, and I glared, but didn’t say anything. I was used to Lycans —especially the alpha males that always did whatever the hell they wanted.

  “What Calliope isn’t telling you, Eira, is that she loved football, too. She could scream and curse with the best of us at the big screen,” Finn replied, his deep voice rolling from his chest like warm honey.

  “What I miss most is oogling all those tight asses,” Calliope returned. She seemed perturbed, but I caught a flicker of amusement in her sparkling brown eyes. The woman was a terrible flirt. It had probably been her intention all along to seduce the two Lycans into sitting with us.

  I sighed. Football hadn’t been a sport I enjoyed. I much preferred the MMA style fights and other hand-to-hand combat sports. Even the obstacle courses were more interesting than chasing a damn ball up and down a field of painted grass.

  Didn’t matter now, though. Public sports didn’t exist anymore. There were still underground fights, and I usually sniffed out two or three each time I was in a big city. Still, it was dangerous. Law enforcement would arrest anyone caught participating in or betting on those type of events. I preferred to keep as low a profile as possible. I was already wanted for smuggling in two of the five North American Republics.

  Maven strolled by the table. “Did you need anything else?”

  “A sandwich would be good,” Diana said before downing the last bit of water in her glass.

  “Sure, sweetie. Guys, were you going order or just bug them about football?”

  Liam and Finn grinned at Maven and stood from the booth. “We already ate, Maven. Thanks, though. Gotta get over to Dallas today and bring back a load of supplies for the hardware store. The shelves are a bit sparse.”

  “I noticed you were out of rope,” Maven purred, sliding her gaze from the Finn’s toes all the way to his laughing, brown eyes.

  “You would notice that,” he shot back, a grin splitting his face.

  Once the two Lycans left the diner, both women quickly focused their attention on me again.

  “Can I see the necklace for a moment?” Diana asked.

  “It’s just a necklace.” I didn’t want to take it off. I never did. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d removed it from my neck.

  Calliope shook her head. “It’s your link to him.”

  “He’s dead,” I said, anger rising in my chest. I considered Diana’s outstretched hand for a moment.

  Why was I being irrational?

  It wasn’t like she wouldn’t return it.

  “Are you feeling alright, Eira?” Diana asked, dropping her hand to the table.<
br />
  “I’m fine.” I reached behind my neck and pulled the corded chain over my ponytail. A shiver coursed through my body as I held the amulet in my palm.

  She took it from my hand, and I could’ve sworn a spark passed between my hand and the amulet.

  “Did you see—” Calliope pointed to the amulet Diana was now holding.

  Diana nodded.

  “What the hell do you two know that I don’t?”

  “The amulet is bonded to you, Eira. It can only do that if it was given to you by an Elvin male,” answered Diana, extending her hand across the table.

  I snatched it from her palm and pulled the chain over my head, feeling better as soon as it touched my skin.

  “It’s interesting that even as a vampire, the magick held her heart. I never knew it was that powerful,” Calliope stated.

  My eyebrows furrowed, and I stared at the Siren. Her lips were pulled down into a frown. I turned my gaze to Diana and saw pain in her eyes.

  “What? Spit it out, D.”

  “The amulet kept you from being able to fall in love with another man. When you accepted it from Killían, it sealed your heart for him. It’s Elvin magick. He had to have been Elvin,” she repeated. “It wouldn’t have activated otherwise.”

  If I’d had a heartbeat, that statement would’ve made it stop.

  Chapter Five

  KILLÍAN

  Opening the closet door in my bedroom, I pulled out a black t-shirt. Not much else to pick from. My entire wardrobe consisted of a few pairs of jeans, dark cargo pants, boots, and dark t-shirts. When the weather turned cold, about six weeks out of the year in Texas, I wore the one leather jacket I owned. No need for anything else.

  Seeking revenge for the death of my brother powered my existence.

  I had caused his death. A fucking distraction in the heat of battle. Everything happened so fast, but I saw it every time I closed my eyes… that is, if I didn’t relive Eira’s death instead.

  Another death I’d caused.

  My brother would say “think of all the lives you’ve saved,” but all I could see were the two I’d lost. The two lives that meant more to me than thousands of others. Those were the two I couldn’t save.

  Yanking the t-shirt over my head, I stared at the wall of my closet through the few shirts hanging in front of me. The secret panel wasn’t obvious, but I checked every morning to make sure it hadn’t shifted or come ajar.

  No one had come pounding on my door yet. The patrols I’d stopped and talked to hadn’t reported any suspicious activity from the SECR border. At least no more than usual.

  I’d caught a five-man SECR spy team yesterday.

  They waited for their end in my barn.

  I took a deep breath, taking in the scent of stale, musty air. My house needed to be aired out, but I didn’t like to open the curtains, much less the windows. Someone was always watching, and I liked my privacy. The refrigerator and stove didn’t work, but the microwave did, though it made any food cooked in it taste like cardboard. But I kept it clean. My mother would be proud of that.

  The house was powered via my personal generator, which also ran the well in the yard and pumped fresh water through the house. The plumbing was on a septic tank. I didn’t need anything from the city, and no one ever needed to come hunting for me. Even the mailman promised never to come back after a heart-to-heart talk with my sword.

  I closed the closet, grabbed my jacket from the bed, and exited the house through the patio door. The unusually icy wind bit into my face. I squinted and shook off the discomfort. The job had to be done, and a little cold weather wouldn’t slow me down.

  The clinking of chains and garbled cussing greeted my ears as I slid the massive barn door to the side and slipped inside. Yanking a string near the door, I paused for a second while my eyes adjusted to the low glow of the single bulb hanging from the ceiling.

  Against the far side of my barn, chained ten feet apart, were five SECR soldiers. They were good at what they did. They’d managed to sneak past the border patrols and not come up on any of the radar sensors. But their fatal mistake had been snooping around the road to Sanctuary. I might not be a citizen of the supernaturally charged town, but I wasn’t about to let anyone mess with them.

  The Pixies in Rose’s Cafe asked me every time I came through why I wouldn’t move in. The reason was simple. I didn’t want anyone to depend on me. Outside of the town, I could do more good. No one would grow attached to me, and I wouldn’t become attached to them. I could eliminate threats before they even knew they existed, and those damn SECR soldiers were constantly trying to infiltrate. Like they were searching for something… or someone.

  Didn’t matter. They all had the same fate coming, regardless of what they were hunting for. I would make sure none of them ever found it. Now that I’d seen the Blackmoors alive and well, I wondered if it was the Drakonae they sought. Didn’t really make sense, because I’d been killing SECR soldiers ever since I moved into this house. Miles and Eli had lived in Sanctuary as long as I remembered. It was Diana who was a new addition to the town. I hadn’t visited since she’d arrived.

  “You’ll die for this, asshole,” one of the chained men said, his voice dripping with hatred and loathing.

  “Probably not,” I answered, rubbing my hand over my mouth. “But just for that, I’ll give you a chance to go first.”

  “First?”

  I narrowed my eyes and held my mouth in a tight line, enjoying the glimmer of fear taking residence in his gaze, but trying not to show it. At least one in every group talked big and thought he could tell me how things would happen. They always thought their precious republic would send reinforcements as a gallant effort to rescue them. But I knew where to find the sensors embedded in their shoulders and had already used a stun wand to disable them.

  “If you think your people can track you, you’re wrong. I disabled your locators.”

  The bold one opened his mouth to speak then snapped it closed.

  I let just the beginning of a grin start to show.

  Pulling a sword from the wall closest to me, I tossed it to the center of the room. It clanked on the concrete floor, capturing the attention of each of my prisoners.

  “You get one chance. Win, you go free. Lose… Well, let’s just say you won’t like that option. But it’s definitely the most common.”

  “No one fights with swords,” the man huffed. “Let me fight you hand to hand, and I’ll take you down.”

  “You don’t have to use a sword,” I replied, walking forward and picking up the sturdy blade. I twirled it a few times and sighed. “But you do have to pick a blade.” I pointed to the wall where I’d taken the sword from. There were several choices. Short swords. Long swords. Scimitars. Daggers. I’d collected blades from every corner of the world over the years.

  “The shorter dagger on the left.” The man stood, his chains clinking against the floor. He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders.

  Confidence. I could appreciate that in an opponent.

  Nodding, I hung the broad sword back on the wall and took down the dagger. I dropped the smaller weapon in the center of the floor as I walked toward him. His choice didn’t matter. I could kill him no matter which weapon he chose.

  He extended his manacled arms toward me. I pressed my thumb to the security reader on the electronic steel cuffs and stepped away quickly as the chains dropped with a clang.

  I stood off to the side as he rushed to the center of the room, grabbing the dagger. He held it up toward me and snarled. “I’ll kill you, asshole. You’ll wish you’d killed me while I was in the chains.”

  Reaching behind my head, my palms gripped the hilts of the two samurai-esque swords I carried with me everywhere. One was mine; the other my brother’s. They slid from their sheaths with a grating sound that was music to my ears. The perfectly balanced, perfectly weighted, razor sharp dragon steel blades were the original swords my brother and I had carried from the Veil when we escap
ed.

  His eyes widened to the size of tea saucers, and I allowed the wicked grin I’d been holding at bay to spread across my face.

  “I thought you would use a dagger, too.” He gulped audibly.

  I shook my head slowly, letting his mistake take root deep in the pit of his stomach. “You assumed wrong.”

  ***

  I drove the shovel into the hard cold ground. Lifting a heavy load of soil, I tossed it to my right —onto the mound covering a fresh grave. He’d fought well, and his death had been swift and clean. It made a point to the other men. Tomorrow I would give another the chance at his freedom.

  Glancing across the land behind my barn, I took a deep breath. Dozens of pine saplings swayed in the wind, their crisp evergreen scent filling the air. One for each grave.

  Chapter Six

  EIRA

  I wandered through the large lodge the Masons purchased decades ago in Ada to use as a headquarters for the pack. Chad nodded to me as I passed an open living space. He and several other guys were crowded around a coffee table, playing cards.

  Continuing down the hallway, I reached the kitchen and sat on an empty stool at the island counter in the center of the room. Charlie had her back to me, cooking her favorite chili. The scent of tomato sauce and cayenne powder was strong, mixed with hints of coriander, cumin, garlic, and oregano.

  She turned, releasing a sharp gasp of surprise. “You always sneak up on me like that. A girl could use some warning.”

  “You’re a Lycan. You should be able to hear everything,” I answered, a grin splitting my face.

  “Everything except a vampire trying to be sneaky,” she muttered, shaking the chili spoon at me. “When did you get home?”

  “Just last night.”

  “How is Diana?”

  “She’s doing well. The pregnancy is making her eat like one of y’all, though.” I chuckled, still astounded after all these years at the appetite a grown Lycan possessed.