My Eternal Soldier

by Krystal Shannan

  I wanted that too. My emotions had run the gamut today, and I’d come to the conclusion that I loved him more than I wanted to argue with him about his past decisions. Still, I was filthy and this barn stank of pain and death.

  “I can’t leave this barn while the sun shines. And once it sets, I have to go.”

  “Follow me. There’s a tunnel between the barn and the house. Once night falls, I’m going with you. Don’t leave without me,” he begged, his voice thick with concern.

  We walked to the side of the barn, and he moved a stack of pallets to the side, revealing a steel grate. He grabbed the grate and lifted it, gesturing for me to climb down the ladder connected to the side.

  The floor was only about ten feet down. I dropped into the hole instead and landed softly. Glancing up, I watched him climb down after me. He stepped off the last rung of the ladder and grabbed a flashlight from a shelf to his right I hadn’t noticed. The light made me squint and quickly move behind him. I could see decently well without the flashlight, but for a human or Other without my extraordinary sight, the tunnel was pitch black.

  A dozen yards into the concrete tunnel, the floor began to slope upward just a little. Soon we reached a dead end, and Killían pushed against the wall, revealing it was actually a door. The concrete scraped against itself, and we stepped into a small storage area —a basement from what I could tell.

  A staircase led up to another door, which I assumed opened into the house.

  “How long have you lived here?”

  “A few years,” he answered. “I have blackout shades on most of the windows. Is that enough to protect you from the sun?”

  I nodded. “Yes. As long as it’s not direct sunlight, I’ll be fine,” I answered, cursing the man who’d taken my ring. Climbing the stairs behind him, I squinted into the brighter indirect sunlight once he opened the door. The clean white tile floor of the kitchen surprised me. The air was a bit stale, but every surface was spotless and barely lived in. It was cleaner than my room at the lodge in Ada.

  “This way,” he beckoned, taking my hand and leading me through the house. The small living room was dim and sparsely furnished with a small couch, one recliner, a side table, and a lamp.

  I followed him up another staircase, loving the feel of his strong hand wrapped around mine. He led me to the right, into a large bedroom, and knelt at my feet.

  “Shoes first. Then clothes and a nice hot shower for us both.”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  Once the laces were loosened on both my boots, he lifted each foot and removed the shoe then the sock. However, his hands didn’t stop there. His fingers slid up my calves, over my thighs, and along my hips until I swayed above him.

  “It’s been so long since I enjoyed being touched.” Closing my eyes, I released a sigh that took with it the stress I’d been holding close since seeing him again. I loved the feel of his hands on me as he undressed me bit by bit.

  “Eira?”

  “Mmmhmm,” I murmured as he slid my pants down my legs.

  “How did you end up in my barn injured like you were?”

  My eyes shot open, and I peered down into his somber blue ones. “My friends and I were betrayed. Most of them were killed or captured. I escaped only because I blurred away and abandoned them. I was bleeding so badly…”

  “You made the right choice. A smart soldier knows when to retreat. A dead soldier can’t return later to save his comrades.”

  “I just hope I can reach them in time. Once the sun sets, I have to make it to Sanctuary. Hannah can make me another ring to protect me from the sun, and then I can go to Savannah. I won’t leave Charlie and the rest of the pack to be tortured and killed by that bastard.”

  “Shhhhh,” he whispered, tracing his fingers along the inside of my thigh. “We’ll leave as soon as it’s dark. It will be good to fight for a cause other than my own hatred. Until then, my only goal is to take care of you and worship every inch of your gorgeous body.” He nuzzled under the hem of my shirt and pressed a kiss to my stomach.

  Grabbing the edge of my ripped up shirt, I yanked it over my head and sent it sailing across the room into an empty corner. Then with a quick snap, I unlatched my black lace bra. It fell to the floor with my pants, and I kicked the pile into the same corner where my shirt had landed.

  He rose to his feet, cupped my chin with his right hand, then brushed away a stiff strand of my dirty hair, and kissed me ever so gently on the lips.

  It was a sweet kiss. The kind you used to see at the end of chick flicks in the early 20th century. The kind where the hero has just promised to love and cherish the heroine forever and her foot pops up as he kisses her in that picture perfect way that only those old romantic movies could pull off.

  Those movies didn’t exist anymore except on the black market. And if you were caught with them, it wasn’t good for you or your family. After the new laws passed and the United States broke into five different Republics, they banned social media, entertainment, pretty much everything that had any enjoyment value.

  When the kiss ended, my eyes opened and met his gaze. For a moment, the man behind the angry soldier shone through. The man Killían had been. The man he could be again. War hardened us all. Hell, living for centuries stripped away a lot of humanity, especially when you lived without someone to share it. Friends were good, but souls craved a mate. It was just how all beings were wired. We needed to love and be loved by another.

  I let him lead me through the door behind us, into the bathroom. He turned the water on, and in a few minutes, it had steamed the small room. After he stripped out of his clothes, I stepped into the shower and sighed as the hot water sluiced over my body. Blood and dirt turned the water at the bottom of the shower brown. Killían’s hands ran over my shoulders. Then he poured a handful of gel into his palm and began massaging it into my scalp. The lavender scented suds slid down my neck, and my eyes closed as he continued to work the shampoo through my long hair.

  “I remember waking with this beautiful hair sprawled across my body like a blanket.”

  A smile curved my lips as the memories of those morning surfaced in my mind.

  “I’m glad it’s still long.”

  “I cut it short in the 1920s. But I hated it.”

  A soft bass chuckle echoed in the small tiled bathroom. “I can’t even picture you with short hair.” A bottle squirted, and cold gel hit my shoulders. His hands massaged my shoulders and worked along each arm, down the length of my spine, on and around my breasts, continuing down my body until he was kneeling in front of me again, rubbing my calves.

  Shifting to the side, I moved my head farther beneath the showerhead and rinsed the soap from my hair, letting the suds slid down the length of my body. Not much on earth felt better than smooth, clean skin.

  Once the water ran clear of suds, I took a bottle of soap from the wall shelf and squirted some into my palms. “Stand for me, Killían.”

  He complied, and my hands began at his shoulders, relishing the feel of his hard muscles beneath my fingertips. I rubbed and traced the lines on his chest, finding myself amused whenever my touch triggered a nerve and made him twitch.

  I moved to stand behind him, rubbing the soap up and down between his massive shoulders. My pebbled nipples abraded his skin as I pressed closer to reach around him. Then my searching fingers found their target, wrapping around his hard shaft. With my other hand, I paid special attention to his balls, massaging them gently until he groaned and leaned against the shower wall.

  “Stop, woman. Or I’ll take you here.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a threat,” I answered, a smile spreading across my face.

  “It’s not. It’s just a courtesy warning that I’ll have you here and then again in my bed.”

  I squeezed his cock a little harder, urging him to follow through.

  He carefully removed my hand from his cock, turned, and pushed me against the steam-warmed tile.

  “I’ll take that
as my invitation to begin.”

  Grinning up at him, my hungry soul drank in the heat blazing from his deep blue eyes. The shower and the bed might not be enough for me before the sun set and life resumed its course. These precious hours, trapped with him in his house, might be the only ones I had. Guarantees were a fantasy. We’d not likely have another chance like this again anytime soon.

  Chapter Thirteen

  KILLÍAN

  Her evergreen scent filled my lungs, just like it always did when I awoke every morning, but this time it was real--not a figment of my imagination. Eira, my beloved, beautiful warrior, was nestled in the crook of my shoulder. Her bare skin was cool against mine. Her long, black hair trailed over my arm and across the white sheets on my bed.

  Turning my head, I peered down into her bright aqua blue eyes. So strange to see them that color, but they suited her. In my dreams, she always had brown eyes, but now those dreams would change. New memories would overwrite my nightmares. Perhaps I could finally find some peace.

  She’d returned to me. As a vampire. But I didn’t care. I had her safe in my arms. That was what truly mattered. Keeping her close was my new mission in life.

  “It’s time.” Her voice was soft and raspy from the cries of passion I’d coaxed from her over the last five hours. I’d lost count of how many times her beautiful body had climaxed, and even for a vampire, she seemed thoroughly spent.

  I knew it was time. The sun had set a few hours ago. Now that darkness had descended, it was safe for her to go outside again.

  She rose from my chest and stared down at me, tracing a finger from my neck to my shoulder. Her blue eyes were rimmed with just a hint of scarlet.

  “Hungry?”

  A frown spread across her face, and she glanced away, guilt replacing the passion I’d just seen. “Sorry. I’m horny, and that usually makes me hungry, too.”

  “Drink, Eira. You only need to ask, and I will give.” I stretched my head to one side, baring my neck to her for easier access.

  “I don’t need it.”

  “Then just take a little.”

  She licked her lips and fixed her gaze on my neck for a moment.

  “Give me a kiss first,” she said, her voice hushed and more tender than I’d heard it all evening.

  I lifted an arm and wrapped my hand around the base of her skull, pulling her mouth to mine. She tasted sweeter than any dessert. Her lips were soft, but so much strength lay behind them. Her life had been a fight, more so than mine. No one knew I was an Other unless I stayed somewhere too long and they realized I wasn’t aging. My eyes were a natural hue of blue. I didn’t have super strength… I just didn’t age.

  Elvin could live for thousands of years. We had natural immunity to sickness. We didn’t fear cancer or other degenerative diseases. But we could be killed, just like humans. My brother had been shot and bled out right in front of me. It could’ve just as easily been me.

  “Be with me, Killían. Don’t fade away to your past,” she murmured into my ear then bit down on my neck.

  “Ahh,” I gasped, feeling each pull she took of my blood. Only the initial bite caused pain. Once the venom from her fangs started to flow into the wound, it numbed it and sent messages to the brain that the bite was pleasurable. Ingenious, really. A predator that could make its prey feel pleasure as its life drained away.

  Eira released my neck, and an involuntary shiver coursed through me as she swept her tongue across the wound.

  “How does that heal it? Your tongue?” I asked, rubbing my fingers across where she’d bitten. I couldn’t feel anything. No scar from the earlier bite or this one.

  “My blood heals the wound.” She climbed over me and off of the bed.

  “Your blood?” The knowledge was new. In all these years, I’d never heard that vampire blood healed. It was a well-kept secret indeed.

  She picked up her clothes from the floor and began to dress.

  I sat up and slid to the edge of the bed. “Don’t we need to clean your clothes?”

  “Nope. They are from Calliope’s shop. They’re clean.” She tugged her shirt on and sighed. “It’s too bad they can’t stitch themselves back together though,” she said, sticking her hand through the massive hole in the side of the black t-shirt. “And yes, my blood is healing. I sliced my tongue on one of my fangs just enough to seal and heal the bite. It only takes a drop or two.”

  “Amazing.” Knowledge for me was a craving, just as the thirst for blood was for a vampire. Our people were hardwired to learn and gather knowledge. The Elvin created dragon steel. We also kept the giant libraries of Orin up-to-date… at least, we had before the Incanti took over.

  “It’s not really something vampires publicize. Can you imagine how the humans would hunt us if they knew?”

  “True.” Walking to the closet, I pulled out a new set of clothes and an extra shirt for Eira. “Here.” I turned and handed her the extra shirt. “It’s too big, but at least it’s in one piece.”

  “Thank you.” She pulled her ragged one off and slipped into mine. I dressed quickly. Sitting on the edge of the bed again, I put on my boots before following her out of my bedroom toward the stairs.

  She paused at the bottom of the staircase and held up a hand, signaling me to freeze.

  “What is it?” I whispered.

  “Men. There are four heartbeats outside the house. They aren’t on the porch yet, but they will be in the next sixty seconds.”

  My gaze drifted to where my swords hung on their perch above the front door. Her hand clamped around my waist, and we moved faster than I could focus on my surroundings. When we stopped, we were standing at the base of the ladder that led up into the barn, and she was holding both of my swords.

  I’d seen vampires disappear from sight, but I had no idea they could carry someone with them when they used their speed like that.

  She held a finger to her lips and then unclasped the double sheath, handing me only one of the swords. I nodded, slipping the strap over my shoulder and securing it in place. She did the same with my brother’s sword.

  We climbed the ladder and tiptoed to the barn door. “Why do you have soldiers looking for you?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

  “Shit.” The dagger. Somehow they had to have found out I had it.

  “What?” She turned back and glared at me over her shoulder. “What are you hiding? Those are SECR black ops soldiers.”

  “We have to kill them first. I’ll tell you after.”

  She narrowed her eyes, her glare colder than sleet in a Texas winter. “Fine.”

  One second she was there, and the next she was gone, the barn door wide open.

  I stepped forward and stopped abruptly as she reappeared directly in front of me, holding four limp bodies by their gun straps. So much for them being highly trained operatives. They apparently didn’t a have a chance in hell against a more experienced vampire.

  She dropped them to the ground with a thud and then crossed her arms over her perfect breasts. “They’re dead. Now what are you hiding in the house?”

  “A dagger. They must’ve used a spell to locate it. No one knew I had it.”

  “What kind of dagger?”

  “One of the Shamesh keys.”

  She took a step backward and audibly swallowed. “You’re kidding.”

  I shook my head. “I picked it up out of a field outside of Sanctuary. It was right after the Snøen mor fought with some guy.”

  “I— You—” she started, but kept cutting herself off. “Snow-en what?”

  “Diana Blackmoor. She was called the Snow Mother. I will keep it safe until the Blackmoors are ready to return to the Veil.”

  “You know D?”

  “D?”

  “Diana. Miles. Eli. You know the Blackmoors?”

  “From a long time ago, yes. How do you know them?”

  “I saved Diana’s life a few months ago and brought her to Sanctuary. I’ve met Miles and Eli a few times in town.” Her f
ace was blank of emotion as she wiped her bloody hands on her pants. A few seconds later, the bloodstains were gone. Just poof, like magick. “Well, regardless of how we both know the Drakonae living in Sanctuary, the SECR was able to locate that dagger. It’s not safe here anymore.”

  I stared at her for a second longer before my brain began processing again. It pained me to think how close I’d been to her all this time. My eyes drifted to the bodies at her feet, and battle mode enveloped me again.

  “There’s a barrel in the barn for their guns and a shovel next to it. I’ll help you bury them after I fetch the dagger.”

  She pursed her lips and nodded. Bending over and grabbing the dead soldiers by their gun straps again, she lifted all four of them as if they weighed no more than a feather pillow.

  I jogged to the front door, unlocked it, and went inside. This hadn’t been my plan, but a good plan adapted to changing circumstances. I sprinted up the stairs and into my bedroom; the musk of sex still hung in the air. I shook my head as if that would help clear it. Fat chance. Her scent filled my lungs, and I felt my need for her grow with every passing second. It was like being an adolescent boy again. My body was determined to make me walk around with a constant hard-on.

  Opening the closet, I pushed aside the loose wooden panel and grabbed the dagger. I tucked it in the waist of my pants and hurried outside.

  When I reached the barn, it was empty. The big sliding door on the other side was ajar as well.

  “Eira?”

  “Out here.”

  I crossed through the dark barn and came out the door on the other side. She was digging a grave so quickly I couldn’t see her actual movements, just the general area her body was occupying.

  Three other fresh graves showed to the right of the one she was currently digging. They were evenly spaced to match the pattern I’d started with the fruit trees that spanned the large field behind my house. How had she known?

  She hopped out of the grave and tossed the lifeless body of the last soldier into the deep hole. A few moments later, the dirt covered him, and she was walking past me with the shovel.