Worth Dying For

by Luxie Ryder

  “Don’t move,” she heard Bane say from somewhere a little closer than before but she couldn’t obey. Her legs hit a solid patch of earth and she launched herself upwards, lurching away.

  Her feet caught on every tree stump and weed as she ran but she kept moving, rolling and falling until she could scramble back onto her legs again. Amber had no idea if minutes or even seconds had passed when she heard the bushes rustling behind her. Someone was following her, their pounding feet shaking the ground as they came for her.

  She screamed. “Bane!”

  A dark chuckle sounded close to her ear moments before an arm wrapped around her waist, jerking her backwards. Amber heaved at the violent pressure against her stomach, her arms and legs flapping uselessly when they continued forwards as her body stopped in mid-air. A growl unlike anything she’d ever heard from Bane rumbled through her captor. She struggled against the iron grip around her torso, her fingers pulling at the fabric covering the arm. Any doubt the thing holding her was male disappeared as she felt the hard ridge of an erection pressing into her. She screamed in outrage and fought harder.

  “Yes, do more of that. The friction is delicious.”

  The silky voice seemed at odds with the brute strength being used to hold her prisoner. The man had to be as big as Bane and equally as strong.

  “Solomon, you have two seconds to put her down.”

  “Bane.” Amber whimpered his name when she heard his voice and realised he was close by.

  “No need to fear, my love. Solomon is going to get his filthy hands off you—right now.” The end of his sentence contained a very clear warning. Amber felt an answering snarl go through the man holding her but his grip loosened and she found her feet touching the earth again.

  As soon as she could, she ripped from his arms and ran into Bane’s, screaming from the terror she had been unable to vocalise while Solomon held her so tight. Bane scooped her up and ran down the hillside, shouting over his shoulder for the other man to wait where he was. Amber sobbed into his neck, not lifting her head again until he stopped running. When she looked around, they were on the beach, next to a small boat. Bane had sat them down in the sand, still cradling her in his arms. Her small bag of supplies lay on the ground next to them.

  “I don’t like him.”

  Bane smiled at her, smoothing her frown away with his thumb as the warm night breeze dried the tears on her cheeks. “He scared you.”

  “He scared the crap out of me,” she corrected. “I…I thought he was here to kill me. Why didn’t he?”

  “Things have changed.” He stiffened and looked away.

  “Well it can’t be for the better judging by your reaction.”

  He smiled again without as much warmth. “They are much better. I’m going to need you to be brave for a little bit longer.”

  “Katerina doesn’t want me dead anymore?”

  “That issue has been resolved. We’ve come to an arrangement, shall we say.”

  Amber struggled out of his arms. “No, Bane. I won’t allow you to die instead of me.”

  He got to his feet. “She doesn’t want me dead, Amber. She just wants me. And if I go to her willingly, she will leave you alone.”

  Her relief at the news that they had both been given a reprieve didn’t last as long as it should. She wondered when her priorities had changed so much. The thought of him being forced to endure an eternity with Katerina scared her almost as much as the prospect of dying.

  “What if I refuse to let you sacrifice yourself to save me?”

  “The decision is not yours to make. What’s done is done.”

  She got to her feet and charged towards him, slamming both fists into his chest as hard as she could. His hands flew out and held her steady as she reeled from the impact. Amber pulled free to stare up at him, her breath coming in hard pants and she thought about attacking the big fucking jerk again. But when he reached out to stroke her face with a large hand, her anger dissipated.

  “Malachi, I won’t let you do that for me. There must be some other way.”

  “There is only one other way.”

  Amber couldn’t see his eyes very well in the moonlight but she could guess they would hold the mixture of hope and resignation that she’d seen in them before each time he waited for her answer. He wanted to change her, and in the last few days, she’d come to realise that saving her wasn’t his only motivation. Bane wanted her to stay with him. She shook her head in reply to the question hanging between them in the charged air, not trusting her voice.

  She wanted to scream at him, to beg him to take the decision out of her hands. Amber closed her eyes, willing him to just do it—to change her without waiting to be asked—to make her his victim. She had told him she would hate him for it but Amber knew she wouldn’t. But she couldn’t tell him. That would be the same as giving him permission and her eternal soul would be damned.

  Amber could feel Bane’s breath on her face as he moved closer and she squeezed her eyes shut, afraid he would read her fear and misunderstand the reason for it. Bane pressed her body against his and she tensed, scared now of the pain. His hands moved up to her throat, cupping her head and tilting it back. Amber sucked in a breath, steeling herself against what he would do.

  When his lips closed over hers, she choked back a silent sob. Tears rolled down her face at his gentle, almost reverent kiss.

  “That felt like goodbye,” she said as he pulled away with a sigh.

  “Almost.” He smiled and stepped away from her, turning towards the hills and calling out for his friend.

  Bane took her hands, looking into her face as he explained. “Solomon will take you back. I trust him, Amber, but you can’t antagonise him the way you do me.” She wanted to protest but could sense the urgency of his words. “He will deal with the police regarding David’s death. Just stick to your story. Solomon and I are alike enough to convince them that you described him the first time around.”

  Solomon came into view at the edge of the tree line, walking towards them slowly. The brute at least had the manners to allow them to talk in private, although she suspected he had heard every word.

  Bane jerked on her wrists to bring her attention back to him. “I have to go.”

  Another sob racked her body and she threw her arms around him. “Will I ever see you again?” When he shook his head, she balled her fists up in this clothing and pressed her face against him, sobbing her grief into his chest.”Please don’t leave like this.”

  Bane leant down to whisper in her ear as Solomon got closer.”You have given me so much that I thought had been lost to me forever, and it makes me proud to be able to do this for you. I’m a better man for knowing you.”

  He pressed a kiss into her hair and then lifted his head. “Solomon, take her now.”

  Amber held on tighter, determined not to let go, but Bane pried her fingers from his shirt as Solomon gripped her shoulders.

  “Get off me,” she screamed at Solomon, turning back to Bane and trying to grab at him again. He took a step backwards and out of her reach.

  He looked over her head, speaking to the man holding her. “Take her home now. And heed me when I tell you that your very life depends on getting her there safely.”

  She watched Bane turn and run into the ocean without a backward glance. Amber shrugged off the hands holding her and tried to follow Bane but jerked to a sudden halt as Solomon caught her by the collar of her shirt. He spun her around to face him, lifting her off her feet with a painful grip on her arms.

  “I suggest you don’t give me any reason to ignore the wishes of that romantic fool and bleed you dry.”

  Amber nodded to show she wouldn’t be any trouble, the anger in his black eyes scaring her silent and making her suppress the urge to rail at him for what he had forced Bane to do. She would grieve for Bane once she was safe again.

  Chapter Twelve

  Bane stayed in the water until they had gone, watching them speed away in the boat. He’d a
lmost gone back when he heard Solomon threaten her but he resisted the urge to interfere. Bane had no choice but to trust him.

  Grabbing some money and a change of clothes from the cave, he abandoned his home, rolling a large stone across the entrance to keep unwanted visitors out. Bane left the sheets that still smelt like her on the bed, hoping her essence would permeate the air and greet him if he ever returned.

  The jet ski proved a useful way to travel to the mainland, enabling him to keep his clothes clean and dry when he would usually have swum.

  The cargo hold of a red-eye from Augusta got him to New York before midnight and he snuck onto an overnight flight to central Europe, arriving just before dawn. The wasted hours hiding in the airport until the sun went down took a toll on Bane. By the time he climbed onto the roof of a train from Germany to Romania, he hoped for their sake nobody discovered him. The train got him to Romania—the country nearest to Ulrich’s territory—in less time than it would have taken him to run but the irony of rushing to get to a place he had no desire to be was not lost on Bane.

  He passed through Romania on foot the following night, his progress made slower by the need to be extra careful in a country so familiar with his kind. The local folklore and legends regarding vampires in Transylvania and the surrounding areas irritated Ulrich immensely. A few hundred years of sloppy hunting practises and forays into Romanian villages by his unruly offspring had cemented the humans’ beliefs that vampires lived in the region. This brought many slayers and tourists to the area—but any who crossed the boundary into Vechea often didn’t know they had left Romania and never lived long enough to report on what they had found.

  Vechea would have been a Principality had its rulers been human. Dark, forbidding forest sheltered the land on three sides, the forth protected by the Black Sea. Bane knew very little of the history save what Katerina had told him. Greed and the desire for power had driven first the Romans then the Saxons out across Europe and the continent had been divided into territories. The Fratia de Sange had laid claim to a small corner of the land, fighting off all invaders so effectively, Vechea didn’t appear on any map. The only humans who knew of its existence were either in Ulrich’s employ or dead minutes after they stumbled across the border.

  Bane crossed into the ten mile wide stretch of land between Romania and Bulgaria sometime after midnight on the second day. He hunted first, exhausted by his travels and in desperate need of sustenance before he faced Katerina, and then made his way to the perimeter of Ulrich’s estate. The urge to stay hidden until the last possible moment battled with the need to ensure Amber’s safety. The latter desire won out when Bane remembered it was likely his approach had been watched and reported on as soon as he breached the border. He stepped out of the cover of the trees and crossed the bridge over the river surrounding the fortified town.

  The tall white walls soared high above his head and he fought the panic which arose in his chest as he remembered how effective a prison it had been. He’d thrown himself from a window once, in a vain attempt to die and escape Katerina, but she had jumped too and caught him on the way down. From that day, he’d been chained whenever she was away.

  Large gates, carved of wood made silky smooth by centuries of erosion from the salt in the sea air, opened as he reached them. A young face he didn’t recognise greeted him on the other side and Bane stepped into Vechea for the first time in one hundred and fifty years.

  The city lived at night so the main square bustled with activity as the residents went about their business. In the human world, the town would have been a tourist attraction—the medieval buildings were still in pristine condition, although altered a little to accommodate modern living. But now, unlike the last time he had been inside the city walls, artificial lights, electronic music and the noise of a thousand different TV shows streamed from the windows. Bane wondered if their lazy way of life had numbed their senses. He could barely stand the abuse on his ears.

  Beneath that sound though, another still lingered, one that had always been there. The cries of the humans—men and women captured, imprisoned and fed upon until their tormentors killed them by accident or they died of terror.

  The youth led him through narrow streets lined with market stalls selling clothing and entertainment goods. DVDs, CDs, video games—everything one could want, as well as the equipment needed to play them all. Expensive cars and motorbikes lined the sidewalks, used more as toys than essential modes of transport, Bane surmised. Many things had changed in the outside world in the last century and a half but he’d never dreamt the same changes would be taking place inside the ancient walls of Vechea.

  Bane turned to walk up through a long alleyway he knew led to Katerina’s residence but the youth stopped him.

  “Ulrich wished you to be brought to him as soon as you arrived.”

  “He’s expecting me?”

  “But of course.”

  Bane hesitated, torn between following the summons he dared not ignore, and finding Katerina to ensure she’d kept to her word. Katerina solved the dilemma when she appeared at his side.

  Her beauty hadn’t dimmed in the years since he had last seen her. She still bore the face of an angel. Seductive indigo eyes framed by thick lashes and a rosebud mouth could make one forget she was the monster Bane knew her to be. Her hair hung in a long, sleek curtain to her waist, its baby blond strands catching the light as the breeze whirled it around her head. The skin-tight leather trousers clinging to her shapely legs, and a tiny vest top barely restraining her pert young breasts, were the only discernible changes Bane could find. She no longer wore the corsets and bustles that had been fashionable at the time he left.

  “I’ll take him from here, Jason. You may go.” She dismissed the boy and turned to Bane. “You barely made it in time.”

  Katerina waited for his answer with a benign smile on her face, no doubt oblivious of the depth of his hatred for her and the almost visceral response he had to her presence. Bane inclined his head in a show of deference, aware Amber’s life depended on his ability to keep Katerina in good humour.

  “I am here as agreed. Have you called off your men?”

  “Yes,” she breathed, stepping closer. “Solomon has informed me your little friend is safely back in her hovel.”

  “And Alexandra?”

  “On her way to meet Solomon.” Her perfect lips formed a pout and she gave him a look Bane knew only too well. “Must we talk about such things? Aren’t you pleased to see me?”

  Bane straightened up as she took another step towards him. “Yes, of course. How are you, Katerina?”

  Her forwards advance continued until her body was pressed right up against his. Stretching up onto the balls of her feet, she tried to close the six inch height difference that still separated them and press her lips to his. Bane leant back, avoiding her mouth as his brain searched for a valid reason to delay the inevitable.

  “There’s plenty of time for this later. Your father is waiting for me.”

  Katerina hissed, her eyes narrowing in spite as pushed him away. “Don’t try my patience. Your dowdy little friend will suffer for it if you do.”

  “I am worried about offending Ulrich, that is all. Let me deal with him and then you will have my undivided attention.” He smiled, trying to inject some real warmth into the moment. He would have to do better if he intended to keep Katerina happy. “Do you have any idea what he wants?”

  “Some political intrigue, I imagine. You know my father.”

  “Yes I do, and if he summoned me, I can only imagine it’s important.” He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek, suppressing the growl that threatened as his body rebelled against touching her. “I will come to you as soon as I can.”

  She pouted again. “Don’t keep me waiting too long, Bane. You know the mischief I can get into if I feel I am being neglected.” The words were spoken in Katerina’s soft, lilting voice, but held a very clear threat.

  Bane nodded, averting his eyes lest she
see that the thought of being with her made his flesh crawl. He turned towards her father’s house, distracted from his hatred of Katerina when he saw Ulrich in the doorway to his home, gesturing that Bane should come to him.

  He trudged up the road towards his leader—grateful to get away from the harpy who had ruined his life, but fearful that whatever Ulrich had to say would involve Amber’s fate.

  Did Ulrich know how ridiculous he looked dressed in such modern attire? His expensive trousers and silk shirt hung from his skeletal frame like clothes on a hanger and Bane might have laughed if the being he approached did not wield such power.

  Unlike the many he had created over the centuries, Ulrich and his brothers had been born vampire and looked nothing like their subjects. His skin, although unwrinkled and without blemish, barely covered the bones of his skull. Had there been blood pumping through his veins, Bane would have been able to see it clearly through Ulrich’s flesh. His hair had long since rubbed away, leaving a bald, waxy pate in its place. Ulrich had been alive so long that he'd eroded into no more than a fossil of the being he once was.

  Bane knew his strength had not diminished with the passing of time because, despite his position of privilege and power, Ulrich still needed to eat. He could quite easily have commanded that his food be provided for him—humans caught by his subjects and brought to him for slaughter—but to hunt was his nature and he could not survive without it.

  “You have returned at last like the prodigal son.” Ulrich smiled as if amused by the biblical reference.

  “I regret to say it is not through my own choice.” Bane didn’t bother to lie to his leader, aware Ulrich knew everything that happened in Vechea. His staff watched his other subjects constantly, extending the range of his eyes and ears. Ulrich relied upon the knowledge he gleaned from them to maintain control of his domain.