Her Warrior for Eternity

by Susanna Shore

  His confession – heartfelt and true – failed to impress his fellow warriors. “Of course you had to do it. She witnessed you killing a renegade.”

  “I know. But those renegades were interested in her for a reason. We should find out why. Maybe it has to do with the serial killer. She might be in danger.” The mere notion made his bones freeze.

  The others understood that point of view and nothing else was said about it. But they all made kissy noises and jeered at him when they headed to the cars at the end of the night, leaving him to wait for Corynn at the side door.

  He hid in the shadows, watching other girls leave in twos and threes. It was too early for the tubes to run yet, but they were most of them predatory shifters and could take care of themselves. The few humans in the mix were all accompanied by a two-natured. Grant took the safety his workers seriously.

  Then Corynn exited the door and his heart began to race. She paused on the doorstep, clearly looking for him. He took a deep, steadying breath, more nervous about this meeting than he had been about anything in a very long time. He walked to her and her face lit up.

  “May I walk you home?”

  She smiled. “How do you know I don’t live across London? It might be a long walk.”

  Stupid mistake. “It wouldn’t be too long with you.” Amazingly, she didn’t find his sincere statement cheesy, but blushed.

  “Well, luckily it’s only a little over a mile.”

  “We can take a cab too, if you’re tired after being on your feet all night. My friends took the car.”

  “I can walk.”

  He took her for her word and only gestured for her to lead the way. She headed for the Camden High Street, the straightest road to her home. They walked in silence. There was so much he wanted to say to her but couldn’t, so it was better not to say anything. It was enough to look at her.

  She spoke first. “So, in what other life have we met before?”

  Her question alarmed him. She might easily recall the events of that fateful night if he wasn’t careful. But he couldn’t lie to her. “You were a damsel in distress and I the knight in shining armour who came to your rescue.”

  She laughed, delighted, and the sound pleased him so much he almost wrapped an arm around her so he could pull her close and just hold her. “I like that, although I’m hardly a damsel, in distress or otherwise.”

  “Women of this age are very capable.” Only after he spoke did it occur to him that she might not know he was a vampire. But apparently she had been informed about his identity, because she didn’t miss a beat.

  “And they weren’t before?”

  He was from a different age, but he had adapted to modern ideas and wasn’t – he hoped – a sexist idiot. “They were, especially in lower classes. Life was hard and everyone had to pull their share. But in upper classes, women were seldom allowed to show what they could do.”

  She nodded. “Sounds like you speak from experience.”

  “I’ve centuries of it.” She was so much younger than him, young for even a human, but he didn’t feel old. Not with her.

  “It’s odd to know that there are people among us who have lived for centuries yet they never talk about it.”

  “They don’t?” Someone’s age was fairly easy for two-natureds to determine, so they didn’t have to bring it up among themselves.

  “Well, the people at work never make their age obvious. And I have my friend Toby who’s a leopard-shifter, but he’s only seventy-two.”

  “Boyfriend?” His sharp question surprised him, but she only smiled.

  “Just a friend.”

  He thought it best to leave it be. “So, tell me about yourself.”

  “I’d much rather talk about what it’s like to be a vampire warrior.”

  He almost missed a step. Had she remembered? But then he calmed. She must have heard about it at the club. “That about covers it. I’m a vampire and a warrior of the Crimson Circle. I’m more interested in you. Starting with your name.”

  She cleared her throat, embarrassed. “It’s actually Corynn Sparks.”

  “I had a notion it wasn’t Tiffany,” he teased her. “Do people call you Corynn?”

  “No, they call me Cora.”

  “Cora. I like it. Are you a full time waitress or … a student perhaps?” He had almost slipped again.

  “I’m one term short of becoming a Bachelor of Computer Science.”

  “That’s impressive. Computers are a bit of a mystery to me. I can use them, if I must, but I remember the time before them fondly.”

  “And time before cars too?”

  He laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  “I was born to the world where computers already were everyday items.”

  Jeremy tried to comprehend it. “I don’t think I’ve known anyone that young since becoming a warrior.” They walked in silence, trying to adjust their minds to their age difference. “Do you have other interests than computers?”

  “Running.”

  He smiled. “I’m not very good at that either, though I have to run quite a lot in my work.”

  “Why?”

  “Chasing the bad guys.”

  She frowned. “What is it, exactly, that warriors do?”

  “We protect the vampire race.”

  “From what?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.”

  He feared he had offended her, but after a small silence she talked again. “So why me?”

  “Sorry?”

  She hesitated. “The girls at the club told me that Circle warriors are the most sought after and most difficult to get men that go there. I’m sure there were prettier girls at the club tonight, so why me?”

  Her question baffled him. He hadn’t even seen the other women. “I think you are very beautiful.” She blushed faintly, but the look on her face stated she didn’t believe him. He sighed, trying to come up with an explanation that wouldn’t reveal the truth. “I guess you caught me at a weak moment. I was watching my brother with his girlfriend, wishing for what he has, and there you were. It felt like kismet. I had to come to you.”

  She nodded, but he had no idea if she believed him. They had reached her hall anyway and had to stop. “This is where I live. Thank you for seeing me home.”

  “It was my pleasure.” And he truly meant it. “I’d like to see you again. When’s your next night off?”

  “Can’t you meet me during the day?”

  He smiled. “I can, but I’d rather not cut the day short.”

  She smiled too. “I have the next night off, actually.”

  His blood quickened in excitement. He wouldn’t have to wait forever to see her again. “In that case, I’ll pick you up at two. That should give you enough time to rest.”

  “Sounds great.” She opened the door, but he halted her. Unable to resist, he took a gentle hold of her face with both hands and leaned down to kiss her. It was a light brushing of lips, meant more as a gesture. But as their lips met, a jolt of energy, sudden and electrifying, coursed from her mouth to him and through him. She felt it too, and pulled back in surprise.

  “That was odd.”

  “You don’t say.” He gave her another kiss, deeper this time. “Goodnight.” She went in and disappeared from his sight. Only then did he let himself relax.

  Fuck.

  It definitely wasn’t a coincidence that renegades had been drawn to her. If he wasn’t much mistaken, she had the promise. She could be a vampire.

  And that made her a target for the serial killer.

  Corynn was too giddy to sleep. Her mind kept going over the walk with Jeremy, everything that had been said, and what hadn’t, the gestures, the looks – the kisses. That first kiss especially had been unique, its effect on her body electrifying. She could still feel it, could still feel him, inside her cells.

  She tried to talk sense to herself, recalling everything her co-workers had said about warriors’ womanising ways, and Jeremy’s in partic
ular. But how could she believe them when he had been so wonderfully attentive to her?

  Then again, that was probably the secret behind his success with women. But even that thought couldn’t make her calm down.

  Unable to settle, she powered up her computer. She needed to update her journal that she had neglected for weeks. Maybe writing everything down would help her sleep.

  To her surprise, the last entry was newer than she remembered, from the night that she had been fired. Puzzled, she read it through, and the more she read the worse she felt. She hadn’t written about losing her job. She had written a long entry about a vampire warrior named Jeremy Grayson. How excited she had been about meeting him – and how he would come back to erase her mind.

  When she was finished, she felt nauseous. Then she got angry. He had knowingly erased the memory of him and what he had done, and now he had the audacity to return to her. What did he want? To make sure she didn’t blab?

  She should have known a man like him wouldn’t voluntarily woo a woman like her. Of course he wasn’t interested in her. She should have listened to her friends. And as for Jeremy Grayson, she would go nowhere with him tomorrow, or any other day.

  Thoroughly disgusted with herself for being so gullible, she threw herself on the bed. But it was a long time before she could sleep. And when she woke up hours later from a fitful sleep, she was still angry.

  Chapter Seven

  Jeremy prepared for his date with Corynn with eagerness he hadn’t experienced in ages – outside battle, at least. Wanting to dress to impress was normal for him. He had always liked clothes, no matter the century or style, and the modern age had amplified his tendency. Ladies liked a well-dressed man and he liked ladies.

  But never before had he stood in front of his wardrobe and thought he had nothing to wear. Partly it was because he had stayed the night in the Circle’s townhouse, a luxurious Mayfair flat where he kept the bare minimum of clothing. None of it would make him look like a man Cora might appreciate. She seemed like a no-nonsense woman, if her own clothes were anything to go by, a bit nerdy even.

  In the end he put on a plain white shirt, its sleeves rolled up as it was a warm day, and jeans. He could have borrowed clothes from other warriors, but he didn’t want to add to the lie he had already given her by pretending to be something he wasn’t.

  He needed a car for what he had in mind, taking her as far from the City as possible, but transportation wasn’t a problem. The Circle kept cars at the car park underneath the building. Until he discovered why renegades targeted humans with promise, he would make sure her path didn’t cross theirs again.

  He arrived early to his date. Exiting the car, he opened his vampire sense and began to scan the neighbourhood for anomalies. Renegades might be tethered to the City, but they didn’t live there, and had to get there somehow. Some of them might come through here. One of them might discover Cora. Better to be safe than sorry.

  Nothing alerted him, but that wasn’t good enough. He circled the large block that consisted mostly of university buildings. There were some people around, but most were still on Easter holiday, making the scanning easier. There were no renegades near.

  Satisfied, he went to fetch Cora. The closer he got to her room, the faster his heart beat, until he was nearly breathless by the time he stood behind her door. Exercising never left him in this state.

  He knocked on the door, having spied through the door with his vampire sense that she was in. He felt her pause in the middle of the room and then – nothing. She didn’t rush to open the door. Puzzled, he knocked again. “Please, open the door, Cora. It’s Jeremy.” Nothing happened. “Cora?”

  She pulled the door open so fast that if he hadn’t possessed superhuman reflexes, he would have fallen in. “What?” She was so angry he could physically sense it.

  His usual swagger disappeared. He had no idea how to react. “I thought we had a date.”

  “You thought wrong.” She made to throw the door at his face, but he propped it open with his hand.

  “What’s happened?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Could it be that you’re a LYING BASTARD!”

  “You got your memory back?” The words were out before he could control his tongue.

  “A-ha!”

  Fuck. “I don’t understand how that could’ve happened.” He truly didn’t. He was good at wiping memories. What he erased stayed erased, no matter what his fellow warriors feared.

  She deflated. After her animated anger, he found it a heart-breaking sight. He wanted to draw her close, but he sensed her anger wasn’t completely gone yet. She wouldn’t welcome the gesture.

  “I didn’t get it back. I’d written it all to my journal.”

  Double fuck.

  She sighed. “Do you have any idea how violated I feel?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yet you did it anyway?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  He made a helpless gesture towards her, willing her to understand. “It’s for your own protection.”

  “My protection? Wouldn’t I be better protected if I knew about the danger?”

  Since he agreed with her, he could only shrug. “Those are the rules. We can’t let anyone know what the Crimson Circle does.”

  “Everyone at the club knows about Crimson Circle.”

  He brushed the claim aside. “They think we’re glorified vampires, playboys and thugs. They don’t know the truth. No one should, so I’m afraid I’ll have to destroy your notes.” Not what he had imagined he would be doing on their date.

  A slow sneer spread on her face. Under different circumstances he would have taken it as an exciting challenge, but she wasn’t inviting him to play. “Good luck with that, ‘mister I’m not good with computers’. I encrypted it.”

  Jeremy rubbed his face with both hands. “Could you please delete it?”

  “No.”

  “I could make you.” Fear flashed in her eyes, making him feel like a cad. He was not the villain of this play, dammit.

  Except that he was.

  “You are a piece.”

  “I have my people to protect.”

  “And what about me?”

  “You’re mine to protect too.”

  “Like hell I am. I can take care of myself.”

  “Not against this enemy.”

  “Why not? Tell me why they’re so special.” But he only shook his head. She wouldn’t believe him. He could tell her she was a potential target for a serial killer, but then he would have to tell her about her promise. And that wasn’t a topic for a casual conversation.

  “It’s best you forget all about them. Please, destroy your notes.”

  Anger flashed in her eyes. She crossed the small room in a few steps to her desk, grabbed the laptop with both hands, and hurled it with considerable force across the room, where it smashed with a loud cracking noise into the wall.

  “There. Happy now?”

  Jeremy shook his head in awe. “I’ll get you a new computer.” He picked up the laptop from the floor. He might not understand much about computers, but they had people who did.

  “I don’t need it.”

  “You’re getting one nonetheless.”

  “Fine. Now get out!”

  He wanted to explain himself, apologise, but he did neither. He just nodded and left. She threw the door closed behind him and he heard her lean heavily against it. A moment later she started to cry.

  He had never felt more wretched in his long life.

  Corynn didn’t cry for long. She wasn’t the type and it didn’t help anyway. The agony of betrayal and violation remained. She wanted to tear something apart, tear him apart. Throwing the computer at the wall had felt good, but it hadn’t been enough.

  She should go public with what she knew. That would teach him. Social media would gladly pick up her story. This morning, she had discovered thousands of webpages and accounts dedicated to two-natureds of every flavour, the Circle warriors
especially, all maintained by humans with little or no first-hand knowledge about the topic. But it didn’t feel satisfying enough. They would probably believe her, but what about the others? People would call her mad. Worse yet, it might attract the attention of the wrong people. These renegades, whoever they were. Only an idiot would draw the attention of the enemy.

  Of course, the enemy now included one vampire warrior. How could she have been so stupid as to believe a word he said to her? When something appeared too good to be true, it always was. Hadn’t she learned that by now?

  The angry energy inside her required release or it would make her explode, and only one thing would help. Running. And she knew exactly who she would run to. Toby. He was her only friend who would understand the two-natured side of things. With any luck, she would have calmed down and could relate everything to him by the time she reached Greenwich.

  It was less than ten miles and she had run the distance before, so she didn’t hesitate. The straightest route went south towards the Thames, across it over the Waterloo Bridge, and then through Southwark. But the streets were filled with cars, making running unpleasant, so once she had crossed the bridge, she turned to the footpath that ran along the river. It was a longer way, but she didn’t care.

  She didn’t notice the scenery and wasn’t calmed by the gently flowing river. She tried to reach the flow of running, but her mind kept churning in anger. She was furious at Jeremy for deceiving her, and at herself for being so gullible. The latter was especially annoying because it wasn’t the first time she had allowed a man to mess with her mind. Pretty much all her so called boyfriends had done that. She had eventually stopped dating completely, convinced that she was unable to judge a man’s character accurately.

  She had been proven right, once again.

  Toby lived in an honest-to-god castle on Maze Hill, right by Greenwich Park. In addition to the brown brick baroque monstrosity, the estate consisted of many large houses and a park, bordered by a tall brick fence that provided enough space for his entire clan. She hadn’t wondered about the arrangement before – London was an expensive place to live alone and who wouldn’t want to live in a castle – but now that she knew how old he was, she had to wonder how they could pull it off.