by Grey, T. A.
She must be spent, exhausted and hungry now. That kind of spell casting came at a price. He knew, he’d casted his share of magic before. A physical need in his gut screamed at him to go after her, to feed her and take care of her. He would just have to convince her to stay with him. No, no.
He didn’t know how much she’d realized, but she definitely had learned of his lie. Once again, it was all his fault. He hadn’t been able to hide his eyes from her. She was too smart to miss the overpowering guilt he’d felt.
“Where did she go?”
“My men said she ran east along the fissure then disappeared. They tried to track her but couldn’t. She might have used a spell to cloak herself. Or maybe she ported home.”
Alrik froze. An overpowering sensation swept through him. The feeling that he had no control over this situation, over her, and was helpless to everything.
Dread grabbed him by the heart.
Home? She could make a portal and go home? A foul roiling emotion filled his stomach like a lead ball. His fists clenched into hard hammers ready to pound.
“She wouldn’t leave.”
“If she could do what we’ve seen her do, then I think she has enough power to go home and make sure you never touch her again. But, hey, that’s just my opinion.”
Suddenly Aidan found his neck in Alrik’s hand and his head slammed into tree bark.
“Watch what you say to me,” Alrik growled.
He had to go after her. He had to find her. He would because nothing would stop him. After he found her, they’d talk and then...everything would be okay. He’d explain…
Betrayal burned hot inside him like fire.
How could she just leave him? After he took her body…after she kissed him and looked up at him with soft, innocent eyes.
His hands shook with the need to release the high emotions riding inside him.
He needed to get her back. It was a physical ache burning inside him, a panicked throb that wouldn’t ease until he had her safe in his arms. When he got her there, he was going to do more than hold on to her.
“Go, I’m done here with you. I must say I think I can move on now. Now that I’ve seen how far you’ve fallen,” Aidan said, despite the fact that his throat was being squeezed with an iron fist. He sounded as if this wasn’t concerning in the least.
Alrik tried to ignore the vampire’s taunting words. He released his grip then stalked away, heading west. If it took every last one of his days to find her, he’d use them all for her.
“Who would have thought you could love after all?”
Alrik didn’t stumble, but inside he did. His heart skipped a beat, his mind spun circles in his head. He didn’t turn back around. “I don’t love her.” He said it as if to prove to himself he could. Yet, his voice wasn’t strong with the words, his soul not in them.
“Then why are you putting her in danger? She may be powerful, but the queen could just as easily kill her before she could cast any magic. Surely, you know this! That you are putting her life at risk!”
Alrik was far enough away that the vampire’s shouts faded with an echo.
He had to ignore them. He had to because he needed her. Whether she was willing to help or not.
Things had changed. This was more than just a quest to kill his mother and remove the curse. Something had happened between them. Why else did he have this physical need in his gut pulling him towards her and needing to find her? To keep her for himself, always.
There was only one answer to the question to why he had this need.
Surprisingly, he knew the answer and it didn’t scare him. Not in the least.
It might have in the past, but now he saw a spark of light at the end of the tunnel. That light was made from Abbigail Krenshaw. Now he felt up to the challenge; proud and ready to be the man he knew he could be.
A bit of warmth flared in his chest as if he stood near a fire. It ebbed and waved as he stalked the night, tracking her.
He loved her.
This changed everything.
Chapter Nineteen
She didn’t want to cry.
Liar!
Abby sighed and poked her finger into the dirt moving it around.
Okay, she did.
Maybe.
Just a little.
She wasn’t a crier, not really. Sure, she cried when she got that letter from her father, but she wasn’t really a crier. She definitely wasn’t a loud crier either. She didn’t sob or boohoo around. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but she could never let herself do that. It was too embarrassing.
The worse was when she would watch a drama movie with Jenna where the climax comes and a loved one or a dog—the dogs are the worst—dies. Jenna, always the stalwart, watches without expression while Abby cornered in her chair trying to hide her face from the burning tears in her eyes.
Hell, she felt embarrassed crying even when she was alone in her house. It didn’t matter how silly it was, she still felt that way.
She’d walked the whole day. Pain kept her moving like a zombie across unknown environments. A part of her expected to be jumped by idummi demons or maybe a wild plant monster or something, but nope. None of that happened. A whole day passed. She knew that because she’d left Alrik at night and that strange light, similar to the sun but not nearly as bright, came up and then went down again.
Everything hurt, even her eyes felt dry as a desert as if she’d been staring straight into a light bulb without blinking.
She only stopped because one of her legs had given out. Her knee bowed out and sent her crumpling the grassy ground. So she just stayed that way, cheeks in the grass, finger swirling in the dirt.
He would come after her.
How far away was he? God, she hated that she wanted to know but she did, badly. She didn’t want to know out of fear of being caught but at the hope that she might see him.
Pathetic.
She’d been running on anger and high emotions. After the rogue demons started to follow her, she remembered to cloak herself. Surprisingly, it’d worked. Not even seconds after they started off in the wrong directions, talking amongst themselves and trying to figure what had happened to her. It was eerie watching as they started to run in the wrong direction, talking amongst themselves, and trying to figure out what had happened to her.
Abby had learned that little spell from her mom.
Back when she used to practice magic, her mom used to tell her stories. One story was about a witch who could cloak herself completely, turn herself invisible with only a thought and a burst of magic. A witch could even lose her scent, but that required a potion with special herbs that Abby would likely not find in the rift.
So, instead she’d cloaked her body. Did demons have a powerful sense of smell? Probably not, or at least, she hoped not. She was relying on the fact that aside from Alrik’s incredible strength, which was far greater than a human’s and his ability to wield magic, that he didn’t have the nose of a hound. Still she couldn’t be sure so she had just kept walking. After a while, even her stomach stopped its annoying growling.
Damn she was tired. Each time her eyelids drooped it became harder and harder to pull them back up. However, sleep never came. She tried to no avail. Something was wrong with her.
Yeah, it’s called paranoia!
True enough. She was paranoid because she really didn’t want to get caught. Not by Alrik, the vampire, or the demons. She just wanted to be left alone with no more thoughts and worries. She wanted to go home and get back to her job, if she still had one. She wanted to look up her half-sisters, the Bellums, and see if a friendship could be found there. Heck, she even wanted to tell her mom she was sorry and that she understood why she’d done what she did.
Abby curled up along a tree. While walking, she’d tried to find a hiding place but she’d found nothing but long rolling hills and mountains in the distance. There’d been nothing, nada. Of course that’d be her luck. She just knew that if Alrik had been wit
h her he’d probably have found some secret cave that was perfectly safe and much warmer than out here in the open.
Whatever, this spot on the ground was just as good as any. Maybe if she just slept for a little while she’d feel better, the tightness in her throat and chest would ease.
The real question was: could she keep up the cloaking spell while sleeping? She had no clue, but she was about to find out.
Abby’s eyes drifted closed.
Her thoughts refused to slow. Her mind didn’t want to stop thinking about Alrik. Her heart wanted to keep reminding her of how badly it hurt.
Well I don’t want to think about it, she wanted to scream.
Tears pooled in her eyes. She didn’t want to think about how much it hurt to leave or how much it hurt to know he’d been hiding something huge from her. She sniffled and wiped the tears off her face.
As she did, a strange feeling came over her. One of those little sensations you got at the back of your neck when you were being watched. Her eyes popped opened, straining in the darkness as she kept her body still. Something was here. From her view, she saw nothing but more grass at the level of her head with great mighty trees flowering pretty red and pink flowers from above. She hadn’t even lit a fire so she had no light.
That was the thing in this rift. No sun, and no moon. So when the daylight came out it wasn’t nearly as bright as it should be and when it got dark it got really dark. No luminous moon lit the way for her. Her human eyes could only adjust so much and still they left her squinting hard into the night.
Nothing strange stood waiting for her. That left only one other option, which was the worse one.
Moving with agility that surged from a rush of adrenaline, Abby spun around and let a spell fly from her fingertips. The spell was weak, a cloud of fog at best.
Alrik stood there.
Her breath caught, lodged in her throat with so much emotion: happiness, anger, pain. Her chest squeezed tight like being wrapped in a painful bear hug.
With a flick of his wrist, he deflected her spell as if shooing away a fly. She must be weaker than she’d imagined if he could deflect her spell so easily.
Abby gazed up at him. She’d been away from him for little over a day and yet he looked taller than she remembered.
That’s only because you’re sitting on the ground below him, idiot.
Not true, she corrected. He also looked even stronger and more gorgeous than she remembered. His eyes looked brighter and not as dark as they’d been. They were inky black recesses that she could lose herself in but somehow they were lighter than before. How did he do that? How did his eyes change colors like that or was it just a trick of light? Maybe his dark black eyes had never changed at all.
“You thought to leave me?” he asked.
Anguish coated his words and the sound took her back. Out of all things she might have expected if he caught her, the sound of pain wasn’t one. That sound grabbed her by the heart and squeezed until she gasped. God, she did love him.
So stupid, Abby.
Abbigail pushed herself to her knees then slowly stood. There, she felt more in control and more on level with him even though he still stood more than a foot and a half taller than she did.
“Yes.” She had to swallow over the knot in her voice because it took her two tries to speak, and even then her voice came out throaty.
“Tell me why.”
Her eyes traced to the grass. That was easier to look at.
She countered with her own question. “Who is Arianna?”
She watched him from the corner of her eyes and saw his eyes flare with surprise.
“How do you know that name?” he demanded.
Abby met his gaze as her own anger rose. How dare he take that tone with her. After she saved his butt nearly twice if you included the jaheera attack and she was.
He came towards her. Each step sent her heart beat pounding faster and faster. He kept coming until he grabbed her by the shoulders. “How do you know that name? Answer me!”
She looked up into his eyes. What she saw there broke down her anger. He looked panicked, uncertain. God, she hated seeing that look on his face. She wanted to help him, to make him feel better, and to maybe even make him happy. She didn’t want things to be like this.
“You said her name in your sleep,” Abby said, pain masking her voice. “Why don’t you tell me who she is and then maybe you can explain why she sounds so important to you?”
Let it be his sister’s name.
He released his grip on her and started building a fire.
Just like that. Back to work, and back to ignoring her questions.
“Alrik, I swear that if you don’t start really answering my questions, I’m leaving.”
His jaw clenched, and he slammed the wood in his arms down to the ground. She jumped at the violent action. “You threaten me now?” he growled.
“I don’t see it that way, but I guess...in a way, yes, I am.”
He shook his head in disbelief. With a rushed spell and a flick of his fingers, a spark caught and the wood started burning.
She almost thanked him for giving her heat and light. She could see his dark face so much better now.
He took a seat by the fire, set his swords on either side of him within easy reach, and then he pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to her. She caught it without thinking and instantly groaned at what she saw. A hunk of meat. She tore into it with relish.
How did he do that?
Here she’d been contemplating, no, planning to leave him and he managed to stride back into her life and dominate it. He’d manage to give her heat, light, and food within five minutes. Damn, she didn’t know if she loved or hated him right now.
“I was going to mate with her.”
And…. just like that she felt like she’d been socked in the gut with a massive fist. Her stomach churned, threatening to spew up the little bite of food she’d taken. “What’s mating?” She had a pretty clear idea from the word, but she had to be sure.
“I was going to bond myself to her. I had her previous engagement annulled so I could have her.”
“What happened?” To her, she left off the question. Something had happened, something bad, she could feel it in the waves of tension surrounding him.
He let out a hallow laugh. “She died. What do you think happened? She died trying to save me. That damn woman!” He scrubbed a hand across his face, then threaded his fingers through his hair tugging on the hard locks.
She winced, half-expecting to see the strands snap under his harsh grip.
“You loved her,” Abby said over the tight grip on her heart. Each word hurt to say. It hurt even more to think about. “She must have loved you to do what she did.”
His eyes met hers and an odd look rolled over them. A flicker of doubt maybe? “I don’t know if she did or not. She must have cared enough or she wouldn’t have jumped in front of me to take the spell that would have killed me.”
He didn’t even sound certain. Abby’s eyebrows flew up. “Who was casting the spell to try to kill you?” she asked gently.
“My brother.”
“Oh,” she said quickly, not knowing quite what to say to that.
He waved his hand at her shaking his head. “I don’t blame him now. I did. I did for a long time especially after he dethroned me from the crown and banished me from my homeland. No, it was only once I was out in the endless wastes of this forsaken place that I was left to my thoughts. Maybe I did too much thinking, but it wasn’t his fault.
I would have done the same thing in his place. Arianna was the only loose end. She should have been up above in her room. Stupid woman...what was she thinking? I couldn’t even save her,” his voice drifted off becoming soft and hoarse. “I should have but I couldn’t.” He sounded so lost she wanted to do or say anything to get that ragged look out of his voice.
“There’s nothing you could have done, I’m sure.”
Distaste twiste
d his lips into snarl. Suddenly he slammed his feet to the ground and stood in a rush, his hands balled tight at his sides. “I could have saved her! I could have fixed her!” His shout probably could have been heard halfway across the rift.
Abby swallowed hard. “How?” She kept her voice gentle and soft as if she was talking to a hurt animal.
He held his hand out in front of him watching it. Turning it over, he gazed at his palm with an eerie look in his eyes. A wild, crazed look came over him.
“The blood, the royal blood in my veins touches my magic. It heals.” Slowly, he kept turning his hand over and over, over and over.
She could feel the chill of his magic emanating from his hand. “How can you heal?” Healing magic was a tremendous and rare gift, or at least among witches it was. It usually required a variety of tools at the witch’s side: herbs, healing potions, and spells. Of course, what did she know? She stopped practicing a long time ago and both she and her mother considered themselves ‘grey’ witches—that left them somewhere in the middle on the magic scale.
Abby thought back, but couldn’t remember ever meeting a ‘white witch’. They must be rare. But in Alrik’s case he was demon. She’d already learned that the magic differences between humans and demons were great. Even some of the rogue demons, well, all of them had magic powers. However, Aidan the vampire did not.
“How does your healing work?”
He laughed as if she said something funny.
That’s it. She’d had enough of his moping. Abby stood and waited until his eyes met hers, then slowly walked up to him. He eyed her warily. With a quick move, she sat in front of him, right on his thighs with her back to his chest. He tensed beneath her, but as she leaned into his strong chest his body slowly relaxed. She could feel the tension leaving him.
“Spread your legs,” she whispered. Heat flared inside her at her own daring.
But, he did. He spread his muscled, hard thighs letting her fit between his legs. Strong arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her further into his strong, warm chest. A soft sigh escaped her.