Mortiswood: Kaelia Falling (Mortiswood Tales Book 2)

by Gina Dickerson

  ‘What do we have exactly? You kept you and me a secret from Kaelia until you were forced to tell.’

  ‘And that was wrong of me. Do you remember what I said to you back at the academy before I left?’ Calix asked, desperation straining his voice.

  ‘I don’t care!’

  ‘Yes, you do!’

  Thom laughed. ‘He is trying to change your mind, Cadence. You are more than capable of deciding for yourself. He cannot offer you anything. I, however, offer you everything.’

  Calix continued hurriedly. ‘I said, “I’m mad about you, Cadence. You infuriate the hell out of me but you make me feel alive. If I don’t return, don’t ever think it’s because I forgot about you; I could never forget you.” It was true then and it’s still true now. Please don’t do this. Don’t become a Draugr.’

  Cadence looked from Calix to Thom and back again. ‘Yes, I remember now. I called you selfish for telling me such a thing and then buggering off. Things have changed since then. I tasted immortality, and,’ she paused, casting an intoxicated, lustful glance at Thom, ‘I liked it.’

  She swooped on a fallen branch, lifted it and swung it at Calix. ‘You should never have tried to stop me, Calix. If you had left me alone to become a Draugr, I would have returned the favour and left you alone. Do you know how mad you made me by imprisoning me in Jade’s body? My blood is boiling and I feel stronger than ever!’

  Calix jumped backwards, tripped on an uneven tree and landed on his bottom. Scrabbling, he narrowly missed being squashed by the hefty branch as Cadence swung it down with such force it splintered into chippings. He cowered on the ground, afraid of her.

  ‘She is already becoming stronger!’ Thom’s eyes roved lasciviously over Cadence as he towered possessively above her. ‘It is too late now she is mine, the transformation is kindled!’

  Calix seized the opportunity to scramble into the cover of the trees where Bryson the Vallesm lay unconscious. From behind the wolf’s motionless body, he watched Thom and Cadence. Rejection stabbed at him. Cadence had chosen Thom over him and chosen immortality over humanity. His head spun. Had he ever really known her?

  * * *

  As the remaining husk of the branch fell from Cadence’s hand, her human form fell away also. It was not as painful as she had expected. In fact, it didn’t hurt at all. Peering through her eyelashes, she sashayed seductively towards Thom as the remnants of her human body disintegrated. Her new body stretched, tearing her clothes, until she was half her size again and her skin paled into a faint blue tone. Her bobbed, chestnut hair grew longer, the locks becoming wilder. With her fingernails stretching into dark-blue jagged points, she placed her hand in Thom’s, and shivered with anticipation of her new life.

  ‘You are beautiful.’ Thom grasped Cadence’s head in his hands, kissing her hungrily, pushing his tongue into her mouth. ‘Say it.’

  Cadence instinctively knew what he meant. ‘I am yours.’ She arched her body against his.

  Thom tore the tatters of Cadence’s remaining clothes from her until she was naked, his eyes devouring the sinewy strength of her newly born Draugr body. Reaching out, he grasped her left breast in one hand and lowered his head, his long, black ponytail falling over one shoulder, and roughly suckled her nipple.

  Cadence moaned pleasurably, grabbing the back of Thom’s neck, forcing his mouth harder against her. She swayed as Thom released her and stood watching him, a lustful quivering shaking her to her core. She reached for him, wanting him in a way she had never wanted anyone before. He stepped back, teasingly.

  ‘Please.’ She stretched her hands out.

  Thom laughed and pulled her to him, wrapping his long arms around her. ‘Not here. We cannot devour each other properly here.’

  ‘Then where?’ Cadence pressed against him, lifting a naked leg around his waist. ‘I need you.’

  Thom dipped his head and sucked at her neck, gently piercing the skin with his ragged teeth. He licked the blue blood dribbling from her wounds before replying. ‘And I want you. We will return to the Drauguri Sea where we can be alone and swim naked. You will give yourself to me. You are my bride. You belong to me and me alone.’

  Cadence’s eyelids fluttered delightedly. The newness of becoming a Draugr electrified her, senses were awakened she had not known existed before. She could feel Thom’s power inside her, in her veins, her mind, even in her fingertips. It was a marriage comparable to no other. There was no need for a ring, she was bound to him. Her body pushed towards him without her even needing to think. This, she reasoned, was the price of immortality. She had to be his, both in mind and body.

  ‘I belong to you,’ she said obediently. ‘Always.’

  With an unearthly screech, Thom wound his hands into Cadence’s hair, forcing her to gaze upon his hideous face, and they both disappeared into the ground in a plume of violet smoke.

  * * *

  Chapter Eight

  ‘That should do it.’ Bay, marble table in the centre of the library opposite yet another grand fireplace, closed the reference book he had used to strengthen the protection spell surrounding the castle. ‘What? Why are you staring at me like that?’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘As if I have three heads.’ Bay patted his face, head, and shoulders. ‘Nope, still only have the one.’

  Kaelia swung her legs down from the stone window seat she had sat in while Bay had performed the spell. She had watched on, apparently Bay had been learning spells since he had turned twelve. Something else he had kept secret from her. The way he had hidden the fact he had always been destined to become a Vallesm.

  Bay pushed his chair back and carried the book from the table, returning it to its position within the multitude of wooden shelving running around the marble walls of the library. He pushed the long sleeves of his fitted t-shirt up to the elbows and sauntered over to Kaelia. Gently, he wiped a tear away from her cheek, with his finger.

  ‘Why are you crying?’

  ‘For years I hid my powers from you. It all began when we were young and you fell from the monkey bars, do you remember?’

  Bay nodded. ‘How could I forget? It was the day your father died.’ He closed his eyes. ‘I can still hear the thud of when the car hit him.’

  Kaelia gulped down a sob. ‘It was the first time my powers showed themselves to me but I couldn’t save him. I tried but he was already dead. Then when we stopped at the service station on the way back from the Huntington Park college trip, my powers came again and The Salloki sensed it.

  ‘I really thought you died on the cliff top, Bay. I’ve spent the best part of a year grieving you and wishing you were still here. You don’t know how much I’ve missed you. You told me you loved me then poof you were swept over a cliff and I thought your body had been carried out to sea. I had these dreams, they seemed so real. We were together, at Northdown Park, it was always night except for when I dreamt of you as I fell into the Sleeping Death spell—it was sunny then and I knew that dream was different.’

  ‘They weren’t dreams, Kaelia. We were really together. Do you remember when I said “I told you how it has only ever been you...is that it? Do you want me to say it all again? Because I will. Every day, all day. I love you, Kaelia, it’s only ever been you.”?’ Bay squeezed next to Kaelia on the stone ledge, pressing his solid thigh against hers. ‘And do you remember how lightning split a tree in half and it almost hit you?’

  Kaelia exhaled, her bottom lip wobbled and she bit it to stop the trembling. ‘I hoped,’ she whispered. ‘I really hoped it was real but it seemed...’

  ‘As if it were a dream?’

  Kaelia nodded. ‘How were we able to connect in my dream when you were locked in your Vallesm?’

  Bay smiled. ‘I think it’s all down to how much we love each other.’ He tapped his chest and then hers. ‘We share a connection and I think our dream-selves were able to find each other because of our connection.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me in our dreams that you weren�
��t dead?’

  Bay frowned. ‘I wish I could have, I’m so sorry I couldn’t. It was the curse Bran had placed upon me; it stopped my dream-self being able to recall some things. Sometimes I would think something then, bam, I’d hit a mental brick wall. I was all fuzzy.

  ‘When the wind took me over the cliff I thought I was a goner. I swear I crapped my pants! All I could think was how I wouldn’t get to spend my life with you. Then, I was falling. I hit the sea, tasted it. It was dark and I awoke on a beach miles away but I was a wolf. I could still think normally but I couldn’t speak. I ran and didn’t stop until I returned to Margate.

  ‘Dad was horrified when I turned up at our little house in the town. He knew it was me, of course, and we could communicate when he too was in his Vallesm.’

  ‘Why didn’t your father tell me what had happened to you? I assume he knew about me being The Chosen One?’

  Bay reached for Kaelia’s hand. ‘Of course he knew. The whole magical world knows now. He didn’t think it was safe to contact you. He was the one who told me to protect you while I was locked in Vallesm. All the while he was desperately trying to find a cure to break me from the enchantment forcing me to remain wolf.’

  Kaelia squeezed Bay’s fingers. ‘You saved me that first night when a Dybbuk found me at my home. If you hadn’t turned up I could have been forced to join with Thom or Bran to save myself.’ She laughed, remembering the night. ‘Although, when I saw a massive wolf on top of my car I was completely terrified. You’re very intimidating when you’re a Vallesm.’

  ‘Sorry. I tried to let you know it was me. Couldn’t you see my love for you with every look I gave you? I kept willing you to understand within the wolf it was me.’ Bay tenderly stroked Kaelia’s hair. ‘I couldn’t leave my girlfriend to deal with all that crap alone. You still are my girlfriend, aren’t you?’

  Kaelia gazed out of the window, across the castle grounds and into the treetops beyond. ‘Why do you even need to ask?’

  ‘I was there through it all, remember, even if I couldn’t speak with words at the time. I saw how you reacted to Bran. I know how much it hurt you to leave him in Hel’s realm. I’m not stupid.’

  Kaelia eased off the stone window seat and wandered over to the next window further along in the wall. The stone mullion was cool to the touch and, pushing aside the velvet green curtains, she rested her forehead against it. ‘Then you should know how much I despise him.’ She kept her back to Bay, for some reason her cheeks were warm.

  The clip-clop of Bay’s footsteps marked his path and stopped behind her. ‘Don’t worry, I understand. This has been a confusing time for you...for us both. I’ve had to watch you as a damn wolf.’ He thumped the wall, cursing as his bones cracked. ‘Unable to touch you, to tell you how I feel or to even let you know I was there for you. It was torture. I had to watch you hurting, to listen to you cry yourself to sleep that first night in the cave yet I was unable to comfort you. All I wanted to do was to hold you and tell you everything would be okay.’

  ‘You brought me a rabbit to eat!’

  Bay’s lopsided grin was sheepish. ‘Sometimes the wolf instinct took over. I had a lot of adjusting to deal with! I can’t tell you how much I was hurting inside.’ He tapped his chest where his heart was. ‘In here, I too, was crying.’

  ‘And I thought you were dead!’ Kaelia folded her arms across her chest. ‘At least you knew I was alive. I mourned you, Bay.’ She gulped. ‘I never thought I’d find such closeness as I had with you, with anyone else again.’

  Bay’s voice was strained. ‘At times I thought you had, with Bran.’

  Kaelia’s shoulders stiffened. ‘I told you, I despise him.’

  ‘I saw how the power charging between you both, excites you. When you two combine, there’s magical electricity. Even I can sense it when you touch him; can taste your heightened energy on the air.’

  ‘You make it sound as if I can’t control myself when I’m around him.’

  Bay’s voice was pained. ‘Every time you touched him was a knife in my heart. Every look you gave him, cut deeper.’ He grasped Kaelia and turned her to face him, his eyes searching hers. ‘Am I still the one you really want? I know it has been a while since the day on the cliff and we have both changed so much. We have grown, Kaelia. I hope it is not apart.’

  Kaelia tiptoed and gently kissed Bay. ‘You have always been my best friend. For a brief moment you were my boyfriend. Then you were my wolf, and you loved me, and I loved you—depending on you to be there to fight with me.’

  ‘You’re talking in the past tense.’ Bay smiled lopsidedly, his cheek dimpling.

  Kaelia kissed him again. ‘Now I think you were my Marrock all along. You must be he. You are my knight, and yes, you are the one I want.’

  ‘I can’t dare believe I am Marrock but you are right, I will always protect you. I would defend you to the death. Without you, I am nothing. When you left me for Mortiswood Academy, I couldn’t breathe. Eating did nothing to quash the emptiness left behind and that was why I was almost dead when you returned. In my dream as I lay wilting away I dreamt I was human again and able to call your name.’

  ‘I heard you! It was why I came looking for you when I did!’ She clasped Bay’s hands within hers, her eyes moist with the sheen of tears. ‘But I didn’t hear words, I heard your Vallesm howl.’

  ‘See? You really do love me. Bran’s not the only one you have a connection with. Our connection has united us far longer than you have known him.’

  Bay lifted Kaelia into his arms, covering her face with kisses, and carried her to the large rug sprawled before the fireplace. The soft glow of the log-fire illuminated the multi-tones in her hair as Bay softly laid her down. Spreading out beside her, the flames caught the hints of amber in his brown eyes.

  His voice when he spoke was deep with longing. ‘Where were we before Bran stole me away from you?’ He leant over and lightly flicked her lips with his tongue. ‘If I remember correctly, we were somewhere between kissing and ripping each other’s clothes off!’

  ‘Actually, I think you were obsessing over a packet of pickled onion crisps!’ Kaelia twisted to face Bay, wrapping her arms around his neck, losing her hands in his hair. She kissed him, remembering how she had felt when they’d first kissed, how much she had wanted him. Indiscernible words of a gently sung song floated on the air, distracting Kaelia.

  ‘Do you hear singing?’ she asked, pulling away briefly. ‘Is there anyone else in the castle other than us?’

  Bay shook his head. ‘We’re all alone and I only hear you. There is no singing.’

  ‘You must be able to hear it. Calix couldn’t hear anything earlier but I could.’ Kaelia strained to listen but this time she heard nothing.

  ‘And neither could I, even though I was a wolf with excellent hearing. I think the singing is all in your head, now shut up and kiss me!’ Bay traced the curve of Kaelia’s hips with his hands. ‘I spent so long not being able to touch you, I don’t want to stop.’

  Kaelia surrendered again to Bay’s kissing before tugging his top from his body and smothering his bare chest with hot, urgent kisses. His chest was firm beneath her lips, his body far more toned than she had remembered but the taste of his skin, and his touch were like coming home. Every contour of his face was familiar. The way his eyes hooded with passion when he looked at her made her heart skip a beat. She traced the outline of his lips with her finger. This was it; this was what she had wanted, for Bay to be alive and for him to hold her in his arms, to experience everything with her.

  She pulled off her own top and wriggled out of her jeans. Keeping her eyes on Bay’s face, she unhooked her bra and let it slip to the floor. Shaking her head, her long, russet curls cascaded over her milky skin that was faintly spattered with red freckles. The tips of her hair danced into gentle flames which she flicked across Bay’s bare chest. Reaching down to kiss him, the weight of her breasts pressed against him and he groaned.

  Swiftly, Bay grabbed Kae
lia’s waist and flipped her onto her back. Rocking back onto his knees he cast his eyes from the tips of Kaelia’s toes, over her curves, to her face, bathed only in the warm glow of the fire. Struggling from his own jeans, he peered down at her.

  ‘I love you, Kaelia.’ He returned to her and entwined his limbs with hers. ‘It’s only ever been you and it always will be. Now, this is much more preferable to a fumble on the cliff.’

  Kaelia murmured against Bay’s neck, nipping teasingly at the soft flesh. ‘I would have to agree.’

  Bay froze. ‘You didn’t, you know, with Bran?’

  An imagined image of her with Bran flashed through Kaelia’s head and she swallowed. ‘Never.’

  ‘Hang on.’ Bay jumped up and raced from the room before charging back mere seconds later. Launching at Kaelia, he jumped over her, threw himself down beside her and pulled her to him.

  ‘You’re always protecting me!’ Kaelia giggled.

  Bay blushed and sat up. ‘This is your first time, isn’t it?’

  Kaelia reached up and hooked her hands around his neck. ‘Bay Masters, if I didn’t know better I’d say you were trying to stall.’

  ‘I want you to be happy.’

  ‘You’re making me happy. Now shut up and kiss me!’

  ‘It’s just, I did, with Georgina.’

  ‘You think I don’t know that? Anyway, I don’t want to think about Georgina, I don’t want you to think about Georgina. In fact, I’m going to make sure you forget all about her!’

  Kaelia pulled Bay down to her and kissed him until his fears fell away. Her hands glowed but this time she was no longer concerned about hiding her powers. She knew the light wouldn’t hurt him and they knew everything about each other now. She gasped as their bodies merged and Bay held back. Smiling, Kaelia arched her hips, running her hands over the neat swell of Bay’s buttocks until she and he moved effortlessly together, lovers united in perfect harmony as the flames of the fire danced on beside them.