Exquisite Breath of Darkness

by Candice Stauffer

  “Locksley Falls?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re injured, aren’t you?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “How bad?”

  “Bad enough,” he answered.

  “I can’t get you. My arms are tied up behind my back. Can you come closer to me?”

  She heard movement accompanied by curses and grunts, and then he said, “Turn around, and I’ll untie your wrists.”

  As he started to work on the knots, she asked,

  “Where are the vampires?”

  “They left us.”

  “Why?” Mia asked. “And why did they put us together?”

  “They want you dead, and they want me to kill you.”

  “What?”

  “They believe I’ll kill you to save myself. And they believe that by doing so I will become like them. I have certain inherited abilities they want to utilize.”

  “Is there any chance you would do it?” She paused. “Kill me?”

  “No.” He laughed at her.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “The thought of killing you or any other woman to save myself is very funny to me. I know you think I’m a blood-sucking murderer, but lucky for you, I’m not.”

  “You heard me?”

  “No. When I first told Joseph you’d stumbled into their trap at the cemetery, he warned me that you aren’t fond of vampires. He also warned me that if you should decide to kick my ass, I was to bend over.”

  Mia smiled. “Joseph has a great sense of humor. How do we get out of here?”

  “Not we, you.”

  “I’m not leaving you here even if you are a vampire.”

  “I’ve lost too much blood. I’m not strong enough to make it out of here. I can lead you out, but you’ll need to allow me to merge my mind with yours for a few moments.”

  She really didn’t want to ask, but she had to. “You could make it out of here if you had blood?”

  “I’m not taking blood from you.”

  “You don’t trust yourself?”

  “I’ve never been this depleted.”

  “I’ve poison in my blood. Joseph said it was used years ago by a religious group attempting to cleanse lycans. Will it hurt you?”

  “No. My body would neutralize or expel the poison.”

  “If you take my blood will I be like you?” she asked.

  “No. You would have to take my blood. And don’t even think about it—you won’t be getting any blood from this vampire. I’ve no intention of being bound to a woman for the rest of my life.”

  “Ha. Ha. Very funny. Just do it.” She held her arm out. “Take what you need. I just want to get the hell out of here.”

  “No. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Don’t make me kick your ass. I’m not leaving you here. If you stay, I stay. If I have to stay I going to be pissed.”

  “You’re a stubborn woman.”

  “I know. And I’m also mean enough to kick your ass while you’re too weak to fight your way out of a paper bag if you don’t do as I say.”

  He took her arm and brought it to his mouth. “I can make you unaware.”

  “No. Just do it. Take my blood.”

  Wincing, she closed her eyes as his fangs sank into her wrist. When he pulled them out she felt his mouth move over her skin as he sucked and swallowed her blood. She tried to block out what was happening. It didn’t work, but to her relief it wasn’t long before he was helping her up and putting his arm around her shoulder.

  “What do you think are you doing?” She immediately tried to push him away.

  “The walls are jagged and sharp, and you can’t see anything.” He pulled her back under his arm. “I’m not trying to make a move on you. Anyone can see you’re most definitely not my type. I’m just trying to prevent you from being torn to pieces.”

  “You think I’m not good enough for you?” she asked.

  “Not exactly. It’s just that I prefer women to be more agreeable. You argue way too much for my liking. I would get a terrible headache if I spent too much time with you.” When she laughed out loud, he said, “I wasn’t making a joke. I was being serious.”

  She decided talking to him wasn’t a good idea at all. She remained silent as he led her through a maze of dark tunnels.

  “Can you see the light down there?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s our exit point,” he said.

  He kept her close and led her to the opening. The closer they got to it the louder the sound of moving water became. When they finally reached the exit she knew why.

  “Here … right here?” Shaking her head, Mia stared at the curtain of rushing water. “No. There’s no way … but … nope. I hiked to the bottom of the falls a few years ago. I know what’s down there. It’s not happening. I’m not jumping.”

  “You have a fear of heights? Being lycan I wouldn’t have guessed you would have any irrational phobias.”

  “Don’t even try playing mind games with me. Manipulation won’t work on me. There’s nothing irrational about having the brains to realize jumping to my death on jagged rocks is going to hurt like hell.”

  “Take my hand. I won’t allow you to be hurt.”

  “No.” She started to pace back and forth. “There has to be another way.”

  “If I instruct you to jump and you end up smashed on the rocks below, what will Joseph do to me?”

  That brought a smile to her face. “Kill you.”

  “Perhaps he will, but only after he creates some very painful and ingenious forms of torture to use on me.”

  “You have a good point.”

  He took her hand. “On three.”

  “On three.” She nodded.

  “One … Two …”

  “Wait!”

  “What?”

  “Can’t you just do the disappearing thing that Joseph does?”

  “Yes, but not with you.”

  “Are you saying that you’re jumping so I don’t have to do it alone?”

  He laughed out loud. “Whoa now.” He held up his hands and took a step back. “Don’t get all clingy on me. I’m no white knight in shiny armor seeking the admiration of a pretty little damsel in need of rescuing. I’m jumping because no matter what happens down there, it will be much more pleasant than what Joseph will do to me if I don’t do it.” He took her hand again.

  She yanked her hand out of his. “Forget it! I’m not doing it!”

  “I’m kidding. Nothing bad will happen to you.” He took her hand once more. “They’re coming—we have to go now. Don’t let go of my hand. On three. One … Two … Three …”

  Hand in hand they ran toward the curtain of water and jumped through it. The fall seemed to last for forever, and somehow she’d let go of his hand. She hit the water hard. It was cold. She fought to reach the surface, but her body wasn’t cooperating.

  She felt Caleb take her arm and yank her close. He wrapped his arm around her from behind and brought her to the surface. “You weren’t supposed to let go,” he teased.

  “I really hate you right now.” She turned to face him.

  Treading water, he kept a hold of her arm. “Can you swim?”

  She started to tread water. “Yeah. But it’s so damn cold.”

  He pointed. “Swim with the current to the shore. I’ll follow you.”

  Her arms and legs grew completely numb, but she managed to stay afloat. It took a lot of concentration to force her body to function, but eventually she made it to the shore. Once she got there she didn’t want to move, but he grabbed her arm.

  “Get up. We can’t stay here. We have company.”

  She stood up. “Where?” She looked to where he pointed to the top of the falls. “Who is it?”

  “Demetri Demidov,” he said.

  “That is not good at all.”

  “No, it isn’t. That’s why I said we shouldn’t stay.” He glanced around and then pointed. “The forest is denser over there. If
we’re lucky we’ll get lost in it.” He started to drag her by the arm.

  She yanked her arm away. “I got it. I can walk.”

  “Walk?” He urged her to move up the embankment by placing his hand and the center of her back and giving her a shove. “We need to move a little faster than that. Run!”

  She sprinted into the forest, and he followed.

  ~ Nineteen ~

  JOSEPH STARED AT a thick, nearly solid mass of black clouds moving toward him. He felt something touch his mind. It wasn’t Mia, but he sensed it would lead him to her. A deep male voice whispered in his mind using an ancient language that sounded familiar but that he couldn’t quite translate. He could tell it was a compulsion, though. He could’ve easily protected himself from it, but he didn’t fight. Regardless of what was about to happen, he knew it would lead him to Mia.

  “Snap out of it, Joseph,” Haden said. “Fight it. It’s Demetri.”

  Joseph felt Haden attempting to fight the compulsion for him. “Let it happen, Haden.”

  “Damn it, Joseph! He’ll kill you. You can’t help her if you’re dead. Do something to fight it.”

  “No, he can’t.” Joseph stumbled as the black mass slammed into him, but he remained on his feet. Several voices chanting the same ancient language accompanied the man’s voice.

  Everything started spinning. Faster and faster the world whirled around him. No—he was spinning. The voices stopped. All was silent. His stomach rolled, and he closed his eyes in an effort to stop it, but the sensation of spinning increased. He fell to his knees.

  Joseph. He felt Mia’s familiar touch a second before he heard her whisper in his mind. I need you now. Right now.

  Mia, show me where you are, and I will come to you. All at once the voices began chanting, and her presence in his mind vanished. Panicking, realizing he’d made a mistake by allowing Demetri to pull him so far into a compulsion, Joseph tried to stand. He felt Haden take his arm to help him, but it was too late. Utter darkness closing in on him, he fell to his side. He felt his spirit rise from his body and soar to the heavens.

  The next thing he knew, he was standing behind Mia. Unable to move, he watched her for several moments. His dragon was angry. The ancient instincts that had always led him in battle were screaming at him. Something was wrong, but he ignored it. Mia was beautiful. It was a perfectly exquisite moment. She was his miracle. She was the meaning of his life. Seeing her, being close to her after being apart, was like coming home for the first time.

  His dragon clawed at him. It asked: How she was there? How he was there? And why? He pushed his dragon’s instincts aside. The questions didn’t matter. He was with Mia again. He would never leave her side. Nothing could take him away from her.

  He slowly pulled her into the circle of his arms. “I was afraid for you.” He tightened his arms around her, holding her as close as possible against his trembling body. “I missed you so damn much, Mia.”

  “It’s too late.” He heard despair in her voice. He felt her pain. “You said nothing could ever prevent me from reaching you. You said you would follow wherever I go. I believed you, Joseph. Why didn’t you come for me?”

  “No.” But it was true—he’d failed her. A sense of being defeated washed over him. All hope was lost. His heart ached deeply for her, for himself. But wait—he was there with her, wasn’t he? He tried to remember how he got there, tried to focus. But he couldn’t.

  “I can’t stay here. I have to go now, Joseph.”

  “You’re not leaving me. I’m not leaving you.”

  “I don’t have a choice. I can’t stay here with you. You’ve known from the day we met that I’m not the one. You wanted it to be me, but I’m not. The pain you feel for losing me will only last until you find her. She will be your true love, your eternal love. And you can’t find her until I’m gone.” Tears glistening in her eyes, she turned within his arms to face him. “It’s okay. I’m okay.” She stood on the very tips of her toes to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss his cheek. “I must go away from you, but I’ll always love you, Joseph.”

  Lifting her up off her feet, he held her tight against his body. “You are the only woman I will ever love. Your companionship, your love, is the air I breathe. I can’t survive without you. I’m never letting you go.”

  “You don’t have a choice, Joseph. Just as you lived two thousand years before I was even born, you’ll live thousands more.” He didn’t put her down or let go of her, but she was no longer in his arms. She stood just out of his reach. “I’m dead.”

  “Death means nothing to me. I can follow you anywhere, and I have. I’m here with you now.” But he still couldn’t remember how he’d gotten there. He decided it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was with her. “I love you, Mia, only you, forever you. Being with you is all that matters to me.”

  “I’m not the one for you. If I had been your true mate you would’ve found me in time. You know it’s true. We aren’t connected in the way of true mates.”

  “I won’t give you up.”

  “You already did.” Mia turned away from Joseph, but she glanced over her shoulder at him. “I called out to you. I tried to touch your mind. I needed you. I begged you to come to me before it was too late, but you didn’t because, though you won’t admit it, you knew I had to go away for you to find the right one.”

  “No. Do not say that. Do not even think it. I’ve been searching for you ever since you were taken. I never gave up. I kept searching for you though I couldn’t feel you.” He frowned. Why couldn’t he feel her? Why couldn’t he hear her? How did he get here? How did she get here? He was forgetting something important. “You’re the love of my life, Mia.”

  “You couldn’t find me, Joseph. That alone is proof I’m not the true love of your life.”

  “You’re wrong.” He caught her shoulder and turned her around. Then taking her chin, he forced her to look up at him. “You belong to me. I belong to you.” He swept her hair from her face with gentle fingers. “I love you, Mia.”

  “It’s too late for us. Time doesn’t matter to you. It never has, and it never will matter to you. You’re immortal so you don’t feel time as I do. It matters to me. It always has, and it will always matter to me. Though my body decays, you will live on. And you will find your true love. Don’t feel sorry for me. Don’t be sad. My pain is finally over. You’ve known it all along, and now it’s time for you to accept the truth. We were pretending. We never belonged together.” Pointing, she looked down over the edge of a waterfall he couldn’t remember being there before. “Through my death you’ve been given the freedom to seek your destiny.”

  Looking down, he followed her gaze and found himself at the bottom of the falls standing over Mia’s lifeless body. She was face up, her lifeless eyes staring up at him. Her arms and legs were unnaturally twisted and sprawled out on the boulders as ice-cold water from the falls crashed down on her.

  “Mia, my heart, my soul.” He didn’t need supernatural abilities to assess her injuries. Her bones were obviously crushed, her flesh torn and bruised. “You cannot leave me.” He crouched low and lifted her body into his arms. “You are my life.”

  Her head lolled to the side to rest again his chest. She was too cold. He had to act quickly. He had to find her before her spirit moved too far away and she was lost to him for forever. He looked down at her, tears falling from his eyes. Her face, her beautiful face was marred with horrible bruises and deep gashes.

  Sorrow and rage filled him. Adrenaline surged though his bloodstream and caused his entire body to shake. With his grief so powerful, his need to be with her so urgent, he could kill himself. He could inflict a severe enough wound to his body that would allow him to force his spirit from his body.

  “Wait for me, Mia.” Her lifeless body weighed nothing. He fell to his knees. “I’m coming to you.” He’d never felt such horrible anguish. He’d never imagined anything nearly as painful.

  He held her close with one arm,
and then he held out his hand as he conjured up a razor-sharp blade. Pressing the blade to his throat, he rocked her lifeless body.

  “Stop! It’s a trick, Joseph!” Haden’s voice boomed all around. “It’s Demetri! You have to fight it!”

  Joseph looked up at Haden. “She’s dead.”

  “No.” Haden grabbed Joseph’s arm, preventing him from slicing his throat. “You’re in a trance. It’s a spell. None of it is real. Wake up, Joseph.”

  “Look at her, Haden. She’s dead. I can’t survive without her—I won’t. Let go of my arm, or I will kill you.”

  “You know it’s not real. You haven’t found her yet. Demetri wants you to believe she’s dead so you’ll give up your spirit. Don’t allow Demetri to win. Fight him. Wake up. If you try to follow Mia by taking your life you will lose her forever.”

  That was it. That was what he couldn’t remember. It was an ancient spell, a compulsion. He dropped the blade and bent his head to press his lips against her cold, bruised forehead. He worked to unravel the spell. It was a manipulation of the truth. She was at the falls, but she was still alive.

  Joseph opened his eyes. “The falls. I found her. Mia is at the falls.”

  Haden reached for Joseph’s hand to help him up. “That was too damn close, Joseph. What the fuck were you thinking? I can’t believe you allowed Demetri to take possession of your mind.”

  “You would’ve done the same thing if you couldn’t find Caylee and you believed it would allow you to find her. I can feel her now. I think she’s unconscious, but she’s alive.” Mia, I’m coming to you. He leapt into the sky like a rocket, taking the form of the dragon as he placed a hedge of deadly protective spells around her.

  Joseph. Oh, Joseph, I hear you. Do you hear me?

  Yes, I hear you, Mia.

  We’re surrounded by vampires. And Demetri is close by. But they haven’t found us. I thought it was you. I thought you were hiding us.

  Us?

  Caleb is with me. They put us together. They wanted him to kill me. He was injured and too weak to help me escape from them, so I gave him my blood.