“You woke me,” is what he said. Not really an explanation. “You. Not your brother.” I wasn't sure what that meant.
I said nothing. The Svante a familiar weight in my hand. I could hold it against his balls for hours. Of course, thinking that had me thinking of other parts of me I’d prefer to hold against that particular section of his body.
Hakan smirked. And then he started laughing. Son of a bitch could read my mind.
“You are Kan Büyülü,” he said. “I am Mhachkay.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I demanded.
“It means we are destined to be together.” I glared at him. He reached down and gripped the sword, and then removed it from his nether region.
Maybe I let him. Maybe I was luring him in, and I’d grab a stake. Any minute now.
Hakan pressed his body against mine.
“We do not join with Enchanted,” he whispered. “We Entwine them.”
I stilled. He leant down and brushed his lips across mine.
“I would not let you die, Hanımefendi,” he said. “You are mine.”
“Entwine?” I whispered back, trying to fight the compulsion to lean into him.
He cupped my cheeks.
“The Mhachkay have much magic. It is what has protected us for millennia. Our magic is unrivalled bar for one being.”
Let me guess. “The Enchanted.”
Hakan lowered his forehead to mine. “Together we are stronger. Apart we are weak.” That was a kindred saying. Symbiotic the relationship. Is that what Entwining would be?
I shook my head and stepped back.
“You could have explained all of this,” I growled.
Hakan smiled. “You had to earn my trust.” I snorted. All this talk of ‘destiny’ and he was still testing our compatibility.
“When did I pass muster?” I asked.
“When my Erbörü referred to you as consort.”
Ediz had called me that back in Istanbul. Four days after I’d arrived in Turkey.
I stared Hakan in the eyes and said, “Try that again, vampire, and I will slice off your balls.”
Hakan grinned. The lunatic.
And then the Dark Shadow said, “I have them.”
I spun toward my friend’s vampire-within and saw where the Hundr was looking. Away from the mountain. Toward Ljósálfar.
My brother lived. So must Alain.
But what had they become now?
21
It Is The Start
The moon, I decided, made me thirsty. It was so large. So there. A massive weight pressing down on my spine. We’d been marching for what felt like hours. Had left the cover of the mountains a long, long time ago. And now we hid in amongst tall, purple, swaying grass whenever we heard the beat of oversized wings above our heads.
The going was slow for that simple reason alone. But the thirst seemed to be the one thing I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about.
We’d drunk our fill at the river before the Dark Shadow starting hunting my brother and Alain across the plains towards Dökkálfa. But that seemed like a lifetime ago. And the longer it took to reach the border, the more I thought about that river. And the more I did that, the harder it was not turn around and return to its crystalline water and drink until I could drink no more.
I stopped walking. Breathed too deeply. Then looked over my shoulder.
“It is not real,” Hakan said from beside me. “The yearning. The thirst. It is not real.”
Motherfucking fairies.
“A spell?” I managed, licking my lips.
“A powerful one,” Hakan confirmed. “You have fought it most valiantly. It has just ramped up because you have not fallen for its charm.”
“How can you tell?” I hadn’t even connected the dots, and he could read so much into our situation?
“I am Mhachkay. We are made of magic.”
I took a step toward Dökkálfa. The Dark Shadow had paused when I did but started hunting again as soon as I moved. Ediz and Goran had both slunk off into the grass around us, guarding our flanks. I walked beside Hakan, who had not spoken until now for whatever reason.
Maybe he was testing me again. Am I still worthy? I wanted to ask.
“You’re vampyre,” I said instead. Never give an inch. Rule number two of the Nosferatin charter.
“I am.”
“So what exactly does Mhachkay mean?”
“We are the survivors. Those of our kind who have not lost their twin soul.”
“All Nosferatu have twin souls,” I argued. It was what I had grown up believing. A Nosferatu has a human soul and a vampire soul. However, when they meet the final death, their human soul, which has remained with them throughout their turning and undead life, goes with their twin; their vampyre soul, directly to Elysium. Dark takes over upon turning, upon becoming Nosferatu, and Dark does not allow a further chance at life upon final death.
“No, hayatim. According to my kind, that is not true.”
“And your kind know everything?” I snapped. I didn’t like my father’s beliefs being questioned.
Hakan huffed out a breath, staring out at the purple-blue grass, unseeing.
“To the Mhachkay,” he said, “the human soul is lost upon Turning. But there are some who still have two.”
“The Mhachkay.”
“Yes.”
“I think you’ve been misled.” Or were naive to believe in such fairy tales.
“The twin soul,” he went on, ignoring my snide comment, “allows us certain advantages over our Nosferatu brethren.”
“Such as?”
“Magic for one.” I had seen some of this magic for myself. Hakan could walk between worlds; that’s what he’d called it. He could create portals anywhere and use them. The fact that he hadn’t here in Ljósálfar only meant their wards were strong. Goran hadn’t been able to create a portal, either, and Hyrða were some of the most powerful fairies in Dökkálfa. Hakan had also been able to break a ward on my home in Auckland once. Using Luc’s blood, tied as it was genetically to mine, to enter and then mine again to exit afterwards. He’d called it a spell, but to activate spells you needed magic.
I couldn’t argue with the evidence, so I just grunted.
“For another, we can do this.”
A shimming light burst out of his skin, eclipsing the brightness of the moon momentarily, and then standing where the vampire had been was a mottled brown barn owl. As tall as my shoulders, as broad as three of me, the owl cocked its head, blinked owlish eyes at me, and then stretched its wings.
“Your vampire-within,” I said breathlessly.
The Dark Shadow had stilled and watched the owl predatorily. But Hakan was no longer a man with the tableau of his vampire-within over his features, like Georgia appeared to me with her Dark Shadow. He’d actually shifted into the owl. There was no man to be seen.
The owl let out a hoot and then in a move too fast to track, bent forward and pecked at my fingers.
“Ow!” I yelped, flinging my hand back and shaking out the sting. It didn’t really hurt, but it was the indignity of the thing. When I looked down at my fingers, blood was beading across three. I glared at the owl. It hooted again.
And then light burst and the owl merged with the man, and Hakan Bahar stood before me.
“The owl is not my vampire-within,” he said, settling his shoulders as if he still had feathers to smooth. “The owl is my twin soul. Its heart beats with my heart.”
I tilted my face away, let my rapidly beating pulse settle, fell into a meditative state I’d used many times before.
Hakan’s vampire-within shifted at the edge of my vision. I stumbled back a step, my eyes blinking. For a second, I’d thought I’d seen my father’s dancing dragon. But this dragon was nothing like Michel Durand’s vampire-within. Its wings were smaller, as if an afterthought. Its neck was longer, its tongue more serpent-like. Its scales were a grey almost as if made of pure stone. I wondered if it could even fly or whether
its weight would be too heavy for the woefully undersized wings it sported. It stood on four stumpy legs with wicked sharp nails. I thought it was a bit like a gryphon, but that didn’t seem quite right.
“We call it a zilant,” Hakan said, well aware of what I’d been doing. “A wyvern.”
“And nothing to do with the owl,” I managed. He shook his head.
“Two hearts,” he murmured. “Two souls. The zilant is my vampyre heart and soul, the owl is my Mhachkay heart and soul.”
“And your human one?”
Hakan held my gaze and said nothing.
“You’re born this way,” I guessed. He nodded his head.
I let a soft breath of air out.
The Dark Shadow shifted, drawing my attention. She’d crouched down, while we’d talked and played. If you could call scaring the shit out of your enchanted whatever-the-fuck-I-am-to-him playing. Goran and Ediz were hidden, I couldn’t even tell how far they’d roamed.
“We need to keep walking,” I said, taking a step toward Georgia. Hakan fell in beside me, not saying a word. The silence stretched, an uncomfortable one full of shadows and questions unanswered.
Why had he shown me that? Why give away such a tactical advantage? The owl looked like it could do damage. I glanced up at the night sky and thought perhaps it could even take on the winged creatures the Ljósálfar were using to hunt us. Two hearts. Two souls. It meant something. I shook my head, unable to work all the intricacies out.
I realised I hadn’t been thirsty for the past half hour. Hadn’t even thought of returning to that river. I licked my lips now, but the urge to drink didn’t compel me. My throat was still parched, but naturally so.
“Did you use magic on me?” I asked Hakan in a growl.
He smiled. The Mhachkay owl blinked. The zilant’s tongue flicked out. OK, that was creepy; I could see all three. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to stop seeing all three of Hakan’s guises now.
“It is the start,” he said.
“The start of what?”
He kept walking, picking up pace as if to outrun me. Then threw over his shoulder, “The start of Entwining.”
If I had a vampire-within, I decided, it’d have frickin laser beams for eyes. I drilled imaginary holes into the back of Hakan’s skull and then got distracted.
Fucking naked arses!
Hakan’s laughter drifted back to me and stroked soft fingers down my arms.
22
I Am Nosferatin; I Don’t Run
We felt the Ljósálfar wards break. A rolling tsunami of power washed over the swaying purple grass flattening it and anything hiding amongst it. I was thrown back on my arse, my head hitting dirt, my arms pushed flat against the ground as wave after wave of fairy magic stole over my body, stealing all strength and suffocating my lungs.
Several long moments later the magic dissipated and Hakan was standing above me, hand outstretched, murder in his cyan and silver eyes.
“They have crossed into Dökkálfa,” he said, pulling me to my shaking feet.
“How did they break the ward?”
“Dark destroys,” he said.
Ediz and Goran appeared out of nowhere, the shifter more Erbörü than man, but I could have sworn he’d been all Erbörü before the ward had crashed. Georgia flashed to our sides, her eyes red, her fangs down, a vampire growl rumbling from deep within.
“That was unpleasant,” my friend said. What happened to the Dark Shadow? Georgia rolled her shoulders. “I think Luc and I need to have a little chat.”
I huffed out a breath, relieved my chest no longer hurt. And then promptly felt guilty for not feeling heartache. Hakan’s hand came to rest in the small of my back, as if he could sense my disquiet.
“We must cross now,” he said, urging us forward. “The Ljósálfar will scramble to raise the ward again.”
“And without the Enchanted’s Light we will be stranded,” Goran added.
“I have a name, you know,” I growled, stomping after the Hyrða.
“Apologies, My Lady, but what should I call you?”
“Ellie,” I said, sick of titles and the responsibilities that accompanied them. “You can call me Ellie.”
“It would not seem respectful.”
I just sighed. Then smiled. He’d asked a question. I met the guard’s eyes. He waited patiently.
“Call me Ellie, and we’re even.”
“It is done,” he said, returning his attention toward the grass plains around us.
We walked in silence for several minutes and then spotted the scorched line that indicated the former Ljósálfar ward.
“They burned it away,” Georgia said.
“So much power,” Ediz muttered.
So much death. The grass was burned to a crisp, trees that had dotted the border were no more than blackened fingers stretching toward the stars. Scorched skeletons of tiny Fey creatures lay scattered along the edge.
“What were they?” I whispered.
“Veðr,” Hakan said. “Wind Fey.”
“Ours,” Goran growled. “Not theirs.”
“But they’re on this side of the border,” I pointed out.
“They are harmless. They roam freely. Live in amongst the leaves of trees and keep them healthy. They are not a threat to the Ljósálfar.” And so they let them live on their land. And my brother had just killed them.
I had to assume there were more veðr than those lying decimated here, but it was a hollow hope when faced with such Darkness. What was Luc becoming? What was Alain now he had joined with that much Dark?
I stepped over the downed creatures, scuffing up soot with my bare feet, and walked into Dökkálfa. Within minutes of us crossing the border, we felt the ward go back up. The ribbons, which had been urging me onward, settled. And then Goran produced a portal for us.
“We go to Earth,” I said resolutely.
“My King requests your presence,” the Hyrða answered.
“Every minute of delay will cost us.”
“Hayatim,” Hakan said, laying a hand over my wrist where the Fey bracelet was manacled.
Damn it, he was right. I couldn’t access my Light when it was banded. My best bet was Aliath now and asking the Dökkálfa King for a favour did not sit easily on my stomach.
The ribbons twisted in agreement.
I nodded my head and stepped through the portal, Hakan on my heels, the others following.
And stepped out into the middle of the Dökkálfa throne room. It was empty, save for Aliath.
His eyes landed on Goran and then skimmed over everyone else to settle on me.
“Goddaughter,” he said. I snorted. “The boon has been met.”
“The rescue was unsuccessful,” I ground out.
“That is beyond the parameters of our agreement.”
“You’ll offer no further help,” I said, keeping my tone steady. He didn’t answer. It wasn’t a question and Aliath, King of Dökkálfa, was playing by Fey rules.
We’d outstayed our welcome. My mind conjured up the picture of the burned to a crisp veðr or maybe it was the ribbons reminding me.
Guilt had me lowering my head.
“Ah, sweet Ellie,” Aliath purred. “You are not leaving empty handed.” His eyes settled on Hakan. And then shifted to Goran beside us. “And I offer you an escort.”
“That is kind,’ I said carefully, unsure how to turn down the gift of a Hyrða. “But there is another favour I would prefer.”
Aliath cocked his head, letting a little of his Fey heritage show; watching me very much like a bird would a worm just like Terrin had done. I thought of Hakan’s owl and the confusion I felt about his revealing it. Had Goran seen what Hakan was? Did Aliath already know?
I pushed the need I felt to protect the Mhachkay away and concentrated on the immediate problem.
I lifted my arm, displaying the Fey bracelet.
“I see,” Aliath said, stepping closer. Hakan growled. Aliath ignored the vampire, and reached out for
my hand. “It is good,” he said. “Well made. Look at the craftsmanship.”
“Don’t, El,” Georgia warned, garnering a raised eyebrow from the King.
Fey silver charms humans. Part of me is still human. But only a very small part.
“The silver bands my Light, but no more than in an arena,” I said, my eyes on Aliath, but the answer for my friend.
“Yes,” Aliath said, running long fingers over the intricate decorations. “And yet my cousins could not band your brother.”
The Ljósálfar had used other means to contain my twin.
“They paid for their error,” I said.
Aliath lifted vivid green eyes to mine. I felt tears stinging and blinked them away rapidly. “His death will have caused a vacuum,” the King said, speaking of Prince Terrin’s demise. “The Ljósálfar will take some time to rally. But it is not the Royal House you should fear.”
“I fear no one.”
“Spoken like a true Durand.”
I smiled.
Aliath pulled back from the bracelet, folding his hands in front of him, a fatherly look dimming the vibrancy of his eyes. I could look at him without my own eyes smarting. Small mercies. But power still oozed from his body and pressed against mine.
“There is a sickness in the Light Fey,” he said. “One we have not been able to counter.”
They were certainly sick fucks, I’d give him that.
“You have met it before, this sickness.” I had? I blinked at the King, unable to ask. “A parasite that eats at their souls.”
The ribbons shifted, showing me another memory. This one back in Auckland at the ghouls’ sports bar. The vampire I’d face off against then had been wild and unstable. At the time, I’d questioned how he’d become rogue and not pulled on every Nosferatin in the country.
And then the image shifted to the Iunctio council room and the fairy who had stolen me and been killed by the vampire governing body’s borrowed power.
Blood Entwined (Blood Enchanted, Book 2): A Vampire Hunter Paranormal Romance Series Page 12