Valkyrie Divided (Pyralis Book 2)

by Brandy L. Cunningham

My mouth opened in shock. Was he serious? “This is where you’ve been, since you…” my voice broke on a sob. I couldn’t even mutter the word.

  His mouth crashed down on mine, devouring my lips in a lust filled, punishing kiss that I never wanted to end. My breasts were pressed roughly to his chest, his arousal pressing harshly into me, and all I wanted was to stay like that forever.

  When he lifted his mouth away from mine, we were both panting wildly, and in his eyes, I saw the darkening of desire. “Why can’t I remember you, from before my death, Aeron?”

  His eyes narrowed, and Aeron shook his head. “I don’t know, Valkyrie. I remember you…in that golden gown, in that moonlit garden, in the woods, at your window, in the arms of your lover, I remember all of it, every single time I’ve seen you, it’s etched into my memory, and it won’t leave…”

  I swallowed. He remembered it all? Blinking, I felt the fiery tears roll down my cheek, and I wondered why I could cry here, in this infinite place. A sensation tugged at my mind, and images of fire and blood flashed at the back of my mind, and the smell of death and ash drifted to my senses. My eyes returned to Aeron’s, and my lip trembled. “I don’t know what’s happening to me…”

  Running a hand down my face, Aeron cupped my chin, pulling my face to him for another lingering kiss. “Valkyrie, whatever it is, you are not bad. You are not evil. Keep fighting it. Keep believing.”

  I could feel a tugging sensation, and I glanced around wildly. I knew, somehow, that I was leaving this place, that I was leaving him, and I clung to him harder. I didn’t want to leave him.

  His face was tortured as he too clung to me. “Valkyrie, please, hold on. Don’t give in to the darkness, I’m coming. I swear, I will find my way back to you…somehow…” my body was fading, and the image of Aeron flickered before me, but his voice stayed with me as he bellowed. “I will come back to you…”

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  12

  Down Memory Lane

  My eyes flew open, and my body crashed into the ashes on the ground with a sickening thud. Around me, the charred remains of a steel structure groaned and smoked. Only a minimal amount of steel beams had remained erect after the blast of my inferno tore through the structure of the Witch’s home. The ash beneath me was still warm, and I stared in fascination as the ash parted and my body seemed to materialize, as though I had been remade from the ash on which I lay. I realized it was very likely that that was exactly what was happening.

  My lungs rasped as they sought to fill themselves with air, and my body ached with a pain I hadn’t felt since before the Halloween where I died. If this was rebirth, it hurt, badly. Popping and cracking filled my ears as my body was once again reborn, but this time, I realized, was monumental. I hadn’t been reborn as I had nearly twenty years ago. In fact, I had risen from the ashes of my own death. The spell of reincarnation must not have failed after all. I wasn’t completely sure how I felt about all of this, but foremost in my mind was the memory of what had occurred in that infinite blackness.

  What it meant, I couldn’t begin to imagine. Was there even a remote possibility that Aeron wasn’t actually dead? As I lay there in the cooling ashes, I could still feel the brand of his body where it had pressed mine, and I could feel the sensation on my lips where his had devoured mine. But, it wasn’t possible…the sting on my lower lip made me blink. Slowly, I lifted a hand to trace my lip, and I jerked back in surprise when my finger brushed a cut, causing a hint of pain. Pulling my hand away, I studied the smear of dark blood that stained the tip of my finger. My eyes widened, and my mouth hung open. I had felt Aeron’s fang pierce that exact spot as his mouth had been on mine.

  My eyes darted around me, but all I could see was the gloomy shadow of the sky, and the endless sand of the desert. A wind stirred then, forceful and warm, as it tunneled around me, lifting my hair into its vortex, and stroking my naked skin in a soft blissful touch. A voice floated on the wind, kissing my soul. “I will find my way back to you…never done with you…Valkyrie…”

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  Watching the Witch with the mahogany hair as she spoke to Rafael, I found myself puzzling over her. What I should have been thinking about was my sister, and the fact that she had exploded in a blast of inferno that had sent most of the steel building combusting across the sky like the human’s firecrackers. Instead, I stood here like a besotted fool, watching her, thinking about her. Yes, Valkyrie was on my mind too, but Tamyra was the most pressing matter I chose to focus on.

  The woman was different, she was attractive, damn attractive, but it was more than that. She avoided me as often as possible, and it seemed that being with Valkyrie was the only way I could weasel my way into the Witch’s circle. She shunned me, ignored my perusal of her, and the other day, she’d blasted my ass with a bolt of electricity when she had caught me trying to spy on her as she bathed in the river. Can’t blame a man for trying…right? What it was about her that had me so enraptured, I couldn’t begin to guess, but I seemed unable to forget about her.

  Beside me, my captive groaned, and I sent my elbow into her head, effectively knocking her unconscious once again. Looking up, I found both Rafael and Tamyra watching me. Shrugging, I lugged the small woman forward and deposited her at Rafael’s feet.

  “Here you go, Rafael. One creepy-ass-tree Witch. Careful with her, she’s real sappy.” I chuckled to myself, but apparently the other two didn’t have much of a humorous side. I sobered. “How long do you think it will take Valkyrie to come back?”

  Rafael studied me for a moment, and I wasn’t sure if he found me amusing, or annoying. Then again, I had never been able to tell with the wizened old Witch. “I cannot say.”

  “All right, well, I’m going to check in with Chandler then, whilst you two get our guest settled.”

  When I couldn’t actually find the Gargoyle, I stalked through the camp, looking over provisions, studying some new Casts which I hadn’t encountered before with fascination. Imagine, spider Shifters. Shaking my head, I couldn’t believe I had never known about the existence of such creatures. Moving along the edge of the camp’s perimeter, I stopped, peering into the silent woods. A creepy feeling came over me as I looked into the many trunks that popped up from the forest floor. The sight in there was distracting, and could be misleading. I smiled as the image of a small dark haired Valkyrie running in and out of the trees came to me.

  She had always loved the forest, with its imposing trees and mysterious shadows. I had followed her many times into the woods near our father’s home. No…my father’s home, not hers. It was still hard for me to believe that my twin and I shared different father’s. Releasing a sigh, I leaned a hand against a redwood trunk.

  A twig snapped behind me, and I narrowed my eyes, sniffing the air, but I didn’t look over my shoulder. I knew who hovered there. “Did you get the guest settled, Tamyra?”

  She stepped around me, looking at the tree against which I leaned. “These have always been my favorite. Do you know that back in Oregon they were everywhere? I watched your sister once when she was about three. Her parents had taken her to the edge of the woods for a picnic, and she kept staring into the shadows that hovered beneath their canopy. I knew before she acted that she was going to try and go in there. Her parents, her human parents, they turned their back for only the briefest second, but baby Valkyrie had already wandered on her chubby legs into the boughs of the forest.”

  Lifting her mesmerizing blue eyes to mine, she smiled. “The trees sang to her, and I knew she could hear them. She went straight to a giant redwood and babbled to the tree. I had to shoo her back out before her parents became frantic, but I knew she was special.”

  I tilted my head to the side, comparing her story to my own memories. “Interesting. As children, I remember her going to the trees too, but it was always the darkness, the shadows she went to, not the trees.”

  Tamyra frowned. “You’re worried about her, aren’t you?”

  Pulling my gaze from hers
-though it was exceedingly difficult-I focused on the darker spots in the woods. “I am. My sister has always had a shadow lurking over her, for as long as I can remember, and seeing her tonight, watching as the darkness consumed her…” Turning back to Tamyra, I asked, “Well, you saw her with your own eyes.”

  Tamyra blinked slowly, absorbing my words. “I did see her. You are right, there is a shadow that hovers…but Valkyrian,” her eyes beseeched me. “Valkyrian, do not pass judgment on her yet. I’m not so certain that the shadow is evil. I think…”

  When she trailed off and didn’t finish her words, I prompted her. “Yes, Tamyra? What do you think?”

  Shaking her head, she replaced the look of contemplation with a smile. “Nothing. I think she will be okay, and she will work it all out in the end.”

  As I looked at her, I wished I could share her optimism. In my heart, I knew secrets the enchanting Witch didn’t, and I knew that when Valkyrie found them out, she would be even more lost.

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  My limbs ached, and my body felt weak as I walked among the boulders and between the giant coniferous trees. I hadn’t felt so…new since the day I had been reborn in the ashes of my hometown in Oregon. That Halloween was nearly a year behind me, and now that another Halloween was approaching, I found it interesting that I was brand new again. Unfortunately, the process of rebirth hadn’t washed away the evil side of me as I had hoped it would. I could still feel it nestled in me, like a coiled cobra waiting to strike.

  In truth, I had hoped that I would find those darker parts of me cleansed in the burning ashes I had left behind, but I had known it was futile to hope for such things. My lip burned where Aeron’s fang had pierced it, and I still couldn’t wrap my mind around what had occurred in that place, wherever it was. None of it made sense to me. As far as I knew no spell of reincarnation had been muttered upon Aeron’s death, and as far as I knew, I was the only one with the capabilities to be reborn. I admit however, that I am pretty ignorant, and the chances that something existed without my knowledge was highly probable.

  There really was no easy way to explain what had happened to me today. I had died, and been reborn in my own ashes, like the legendary phoenix. I had seen Aeron there in the void, whether it was my mind or the place between death and living. I was sure that a physics expert would be leaping with joy to have experienced such a state of nothingness, but I wasn’t a physicist, and I had no clue as to what had happened or where I’d gone. My brain felt like it was stuffed to capacity with unanswered questions, undecipherable riddles, and unfindable memories. One thing I was starting to realize, however, was that certain things seemed to be triggering my memories.

  So, I decided to give that theory a try. I headed to one of the few places I knew of, or remembered that connected Aeron and me. The place I went-which I knew existed on the East coast-had meaning for me in so many ways, and for so many reasons. I hadn’t been to this place in roughly three-hundred years. In fact, I didn’t remember where this place was or how to get there. I needed help, and I was hoping that help would come to me. I wasn’t ready as yet to go back to camp, to face Tamyra and my brother after losing control the way I had. I needed to piece things together a little more first.

  A place existed in my mind, and I could see it without the fog of uncertainty that seemed to touch everything else around me. The image was clear in my mind, and the path that would lead me there was clear. I knew where I would find it, I only hoped she would be there. Long ago, my sister had taken me to the ocean. The memory itself wasn’t clear, and many chunks were missing, but I could see enough pieces that I knew the gist of the event. I had been very young, not even a teenager yet when my sister had brought me to her secret place.

  In my mind’s eye, I could see her, deep red hair billowing in the strong sea breeze, bright blue eyes flashing with merriment. She was only a teenager then, but already she was a stunning beauty. I could feel the connection between us as if it stained the memory. Belladona had been both my sister, and my mother, in many ways. Older than I, she had always looked after me, and I could still feel the love she had felt toward me like a residue along the rock cliffs as I came closer to her secret place. I could smell her, her unique scent lingered everywhere here, as though a part of her resided here always.

  I paused, the view of the beach down below me mesmerizing and beautiful. Wind buffeted me, and I had to hold myself in place to keep from being tossed about by it. The ocean washed across the sand where the two collided in angry crashes, and farther out, I could see the roiling demented waves rising to incredible heights. Nothing in this world seemed unaffected by the unusual series of eclipses that had taken over our skies and Mother Nature herself. Closing my eyes, I sucked in a deep breath of salty air, lavender blossoms, and Belladona.

  Memories fluttered to the surface, and I watched a youthful version of myself as I ran barefoot along the soft sandy beach. Her dress bellowed out around her, her long dark hair whipping about in the wind. Behind her, Belladona laughed, trying to catch up in the thick sinking sand. I watched them halt, laughing and hugging, and I watched Belladona lift a slender arm, and point toward the far end of the beach. Opening my eyes, the image vanished. My cloak whipped in the wind, and I had to shove my hair out of my face.

  Moving down the steep incline of the cliffs that bordered the beach, I headed in the direction my sister had pointed. The way down was treacherous, it always had been, and I slipped several times, cutting my hands. I was grateful for my fast healing abilities as this happened several times during my trip down into the cove. When I finally reached the bottom, I allowed myself to indulge for a moment in the urge to relive a memory. Looking down at the soft white layer of sand and ground up shells, I crouched, sinking my fingers into the silty softness, and scooped up a handful, smiling as I watched it filter through my fingers and pile back up on the ground.

  Lifting my gaze, I scanned the horizon, taking in everything I could. The wind would blow away the evidence of my footprints soon, so I didn’t worry about covering my tracks. With my boots sinking deeply into the shifting sand with each step I took, I made my way slowly to the farthest side of the beach where the sand ended and the jagged rocks of the cliff reached its fingers out, abruptly ending the sandy beach, and sinking itself into the sea. The rocks that made up the cliff were sharp, rough and dark colored. Here and there, climbing plants and sea grass made their home along its outcropping, but for the most part, it was barren.

  When I had walked as far as I could go, and the sand disappeared, I stood with the icy cold water washing over the black leather of my boots, and I peered upward at the cliff face through my unruly dark hair. My eyes scanned the rock with the precision of a predator. It didn’t take long for me to find it, a small black spot amongst the dark colored rocks. It sat roughly thirty feet above the beach, and I knew from experience that the tide would move in, and the entrance would be completely inaccessible. Unless, of course, you had wings.

  With a shifting of my shoulders, I braced myself as my giant black wings emerged. Flexing my back, I waited for everything to shift into place, and then I jumped into the air, my feathered wings catching the rough wind, and jerking me upward. Letting my wings hold me there for the briefest of moments, I hovered, enjoying the feel of the wind beneath my wings, the spray of the sea stinging my face as it crashed into the rocks. Slowly, with wings beating forcefully, I moved myself upward, closer to the dark fissure on the surface of the black rock.

  Upon closer inspection, I realized that the shadowed area on the cliff was actually the opening of a crack in the cliff itself, where a large crevice existed. From down below on the beach, the area looked incredibly small, but up in the sky, hovering just outside of it, it was easily the size of large van. Propelling myself forward into the opening, I landed softly upon the ledge, my wings furling behind me, and my vision sharpening to take in the obscurity of the cave. Here, her smell was even stronger, wafting out of the cave like perfume on the breez
e. I smiled, stepping farther into the secret lair of my beloved sister.

  How I found her, however, was not exactly as I would have expected, or hoped for. My heightened vision took in the lavish furnishings of the cave, finally landing on the large bed. Upon the bed, I saw my sister, her naked form writhing in ecstasy, and above her, the naked contours of her lover. His platinum hair gave him away, and I blinked, somewhat embarrassed, and somewhat amused to find them so…intertwined. Viren’s nude backside was toward me, and he moved above my sister’s curvaceous body like an animal devouring a long-hunted meal. Their moans reached my ears, their voices breathless, and the words they whispered much more endearing than I would have expected.

  This wasn’t sex. This wasn’t fucking. It was something far more profound, far more touching, and I hadn’t realized that our kind were capable of such sentimentality. Such, devotion. On silent feet, I spun about, my body fading to black, and I moved to the edge of the rock ledge, lowering myself to sit with my legs dangling over the ledge, I sat there a long while, allowing my sister and Viren their privacy whilst I revisited my time with Aeron from earlier that same day.

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  “Val? Valkyrie is that you?” Belladona’s sweet voice filtered through my thoughts and penetrated my brain, rousing me from the many things I had been pondering.

  Twisting about, I looked behind me, right into my sister’s vivid blue eyes. She stood with a sheet wrapped precariously around her slender waist and well-endowed chest, her eyes wide with shock. Sending her a childish grin, I shrugged. “Yeah it’s me, mostly anyway.”

  Belladona let out a shriek. “Viren! I told you I smelled her…” her delicate red brows drew together slightly as she regarded me. “Although…your scent has changed, little sis.”

  I laughed quietly, rising and stepping toward my sister with the intentions of embracing her. My intentions were thwarted, however, when she leapt back in alarm, her blue eyes suddenly turning untrusting. At first, I didn’t understand what was happening, but as my gaze flicked toward Viren’s, he nodded his head in the direction of my wings, which I had forgotten about, and it all clicked into place.