by Kresley Cole
"You're beautiful when you're nervous." He gave her a brief, deep kiss.
In a breathy voice, she said, "You've got your sword ready?"
His lips curled into a grin.
"Just... just don't get killed, Bastian." She swallowed. "Okay?"
He took her free hand, pressed his lips to her palm. "I'll endeavor not to."
As he'd done before, she offered up the key. A portal opened. They met eyes, then stepped through, hand in hand.
Into hell.
As though in a quaking black dome, thunder like cannon fire shook the earth. He'd seen it in her dreams, but nothing could prepare him for the reality. Lightning slashed across the sky. All around them, Valkyrie shrieked and pried heads from vampires. Vampires ripped the throats out of any they could overpower.
He'd never seen a Horde vampire in person. They were worse than her dreams. Red-eyed, insane.
"I see them!" she yelled, starting for them in the valley below.
But he was aching to save a Valkyrie from a vampire twice her size who had beaten her down. Kaderin must have seen the look in his eyes. "I know, Bastian! But it won't change a single thing—except that you can die. Or we won't make it back to the door with them both."
He nodded. "I'm right behind you." He still traced and beheaded the vampire from behind. Kaderin frowned at him, but he knew she wasn't displeased. Then they hurried to the flatlands where her two sisters clashed with vampires, battling with long swords, blood splashing up their legs.
When Kaderin stopped and stared at them, swallowing, Sebastian recognized that they were similar versions of her, though one was taller and one shorter. And their coloring was different. One had reddish blond hair, while the other's was darker brown.
Kaderin's eyes were glinting, her breaths shallow. He curled his fingers under her chin, coaxing her to face him. "Let's get them back."
Kaderin nodded, caressing the side of her cheek against his fingers. Then she turned to them and called in their mother's tongue, "Rika, Dasha, come!"
They both looked to her, then back at the fray. "We cannot leave!"
"Come now!"
Rika's eyes widened at her command, and Dasha's narrowed, but they did hurry to her. Kaderin had to remember that she had been sweet to them, gentle with them—
Just before they reached each other, a vampire charged toward Kaderin. Sebastian met him, striking viciously, clearing the way for them.
When Kaderin stood before her sisters, at last, she couldn't find her voice. With a trembling hand, she reached out to cup Dasha's stubborn chin, then brush Rika's glossy dark hair from her eyes. "I-I missed you two so much," she finally managed to say as her tears began to fall.
"Missed us?" Dasha said. "When did you dress differently—and so strangely? And who's that male?"
"There's no time for that, Dash." Kaderin forced herself to be blunt. "The two of you die in this battle. In ten minutes, a vampire takes your heads. And it is my fault."
Dasha opened her mouth to interrupt her, but Kaderin raised her hand. "We must make this fast. I live one thousand years in the future now, and I'm taking you forward to my time tonight. And I'm so sorry, but you're going to lose those years. Forever."
Without blinking an eye, ever-practical Dasha said, "Seems to me that they will be lost as well if we are dead."
Rika put her hands on her knees, bending over and coughing blood. "Kader-ie, I don't understand." She'd already been hurt worse than Kaderin had ever known. "How is this possible?"
"You know extraordinary things happen in the Lore—we've seen them before. We've experienced much stranger than this," Kaderin said. "You're just going to have to trust me now because if we don't get through a certain door, very quickly, I could cease to be."
"If we leave the battle, how could we show our faces again?" Dasha asked. "We'd be known as cowards. You could think us cowards."
"No," Kaderin said. "You would be remembered as dying valiantly in battle."
"No one would curse our names?" Dasha asked.
"Never, I vow it."
Dasha turned her attention to Sebastian. "And the man?"
"His name is Sebastian. I... I love him."
The sisters both tilted their heads, watching him fighting as bodies were piling up around him. He was outright glorious, powerful, everything any of them had ever dreamed of in a male.
And they had no idea they were ogling a vampire.
Dasha whistled. "There is much to love, sister."
Rika coughed more blood. "He is beautiful, Kader-ie." She leaned on her sword, the ultimate sign of weakness—something one simply did not do if one could possibly prevent it. "Then take us forward. Another adventure."
Dasha remained unconvinced. "There's no peace in the future, is there? We still fight vampires?"
"Yes, there are still bad vampires to fight."
"Bad vampires? As if there exist good ones? How strangely you speak."
Rika stumbled. "I'm dizzy. Call for your man."
Kaderin dropped her sword and scooped her up. "Just a bit longer, sweet."
When all around Sebastian lay an assortment of dead vampires, he spotted the past Kaderin fighting.
And stared transfixed.
She wore a golden breastplate and carried her sword and a whip. Though injured, she continued to fight savagely, shrieking her fury and orders over the deafening thunder.
Pointing her sword, she directed bowswomen with their flaming arrows and witches with their spells, as they hurtled their strikes in bright trails at the enemy.
She had blood running from her temple and the corner of her lips, and her blond hair was braided for battle. Her eyes were silver. She was absently marking the vampires she'd killed.
He was awed...
A massive vampire with a battle ax traced behind her. She hadn't sensed him in the melee. Sebastian tensed to trace—
"Bastian, no!" Kaderin screamed over the clamor from behind him. He turned, saw her handing the wounded sister into the other's arms. Kaderin ran for him. "I'll kill you!" He finally let her lead him away, though it went against everything inside him to leave her here.
When they met the sisters at the doorway, Kaderin said, "And believe it or not, I get out of that scrape. He ended up wearing that ax as a hat all night."
Sebastian yanked her to him and kissed her, pride filling him. "You were magnificent."
"Were?"
"Are. Always will be."
"Bastian, we're going back." She gave him a watery grin.
They'd saved them. He had them all here and felt twenty feet tall.
Yet then he spied her sword glinting twenty feet away. "Your sword? I can get it—"
"Leave it, Bastian. It's not important anymore! We have to go!"
No, she loved that sword. He traced to it, snatched it up, and traced back to them.
The injured sister weakly screamed, "Vampyre!"
A blade slipped between his ribs.
41
T old you they'd try to kill you," Kaderin whispered with a quirked eyebrow. She'd begun rolling a bandage around Sebastian's torso, now that Rika had been tended to.
He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck as Dasha burned holes with her eyes. "I believe Dasha wishes she'd sunk the blade instead of Rika," he muttered. "And twisted it."
Kaderin knew she needed to separate Dasha and Sebastian, but she didn't want to let either of them out of her sight. Even as she bandaged him, she couldn't help glancing at her sisters—Rika lying pale on the couch, Dasha beginning to pace—as if they'd disappear.
Sebastian stroked her shoulder. "They're back with you," he murmured. "They're not going anywhere."
"I know. It's just so strange."
Rika and Dasha began speaking in a mixture of old tongues.
"What are they saying?" Sebastian asked.
"They think you have some kind of dark magic to make me want you. That undoubtedly I'm in thrall to you." Once Kaderin finished up with his bandage, sh
e rose and said, "I'll just go put Rika in bed and talk with them in the back for a bit." And explain again that all of us would be dead if not for him.
She didn't miss that his eyes darkened. He thought she was already drawing away.
Perhaps that was the only thing she could do at this time.
She lifted Rika and motioned for Dasha to follow. Dasha did so—after casting Sebastian a savage look.
In the bedroom, Kaderin laid Rika in bed while Dasha resumed pacing. "You knew he was a vampire. And you still fell in love with him? He's fine, to be sure," Dasha added, moving from one foreign electronic object to another, tilting her head as she lifted a clock and then a stereo speaker. "But you risk his turning."
Kaderin sat on the bed beside Rika. "Myst's husband hasn't turned. It's only when a vampire kills as he drinks. So if he drinks an immortal who can't die like that, he'll be immune—"
Her expression aghast, Dasha snapped, "You are not saying that you and Myst offer yourselves up as food."
Kaderin bit her lip. "When you put it like that, it sounds worse—"
"How else can it be put?"
Rika coughed, a rattling, ugly sound. Then, in a faint voice, she asked, "Does he actually live with you here?"
When Kaderin nodded, Dasha said, "You pluck us out of a war with vampires, then expect us to live with one?"
Kaderin exhaled, not even bothering to explain the difference between Sebastian and other vampires again. How could they believe that so readily when it had taken Kaderin weeks to see it?
Dasha lifted a hair dryer and peered down the barrel. "And what in the hell is this?"
"It dries hair." Kaderin reached forward and flipped on the switch. Dasha gasped as she aimed it at herself, then at Rika in the bed, giving Rika a look that could only be described as indicating, "Holy shit!"
When Kaderin pried it from her hands and turned it off, Dasha went straight for the closet, commenting on the clothes and tossing items over her shoulder into a pile to be investigated later. "What happened to the vampire who killed us?" she asked over her shoulder.
In a toneless voice, Kaderin said, "I tortured him until he begged for the sun, and six months later, I gave him his wish."
Dasha stopped and turned, brows drawn, as Rika murmured, "You did that, Kader-ie?"
"I didn't take losing you two lightly." And I won't take having you back with me for granted.
Sebastian had known it was coming, of course. He'd known she would take her sisters and leave him.
"I need time. With them," Kaderin had told him the day after they'd brought the two forward. He'd dreaded it but wasn't surprised. "I've taken them to this future, and they are confused by everything. I have to concentrate on acclimating them. They are my responsibility now more than ever."
He'd been tempted simply to tell her no, and could almost convince himself that part of her had wanted him to do so as well. But she hadn't wanted to choose between him and her family, and he wouldn't put her in that position. Besides, he didn't feel it was merely an excuse—her sisters truly did need extensive help.
He'd thought he'd been behind the times.
Naturally, this future shocked them at every turn, but Sebastian had learned that their first instinct in confusing situations was to resort to violence. Kaderin was right to want to shelter them back among her coven in the Valkyrie's remote manor.
Plus, the two hated being anywhere near him. The mere sight of him tracing put Dasha into a rage and made Rika grow silent and grave—which was almost worse. They were constantly wary and wouldn't let down their guard when he was near, not even Rika, though she needed to sleep to heal.
So Kaderin had shepherded them back to the coven. Once she'd gone, he could do nothing but wait as each day he grew stronger in body but weaker in spirit.
"Does she ever ask about me?" he'd asked Myst after a week had passed.
"She's been busy, Sebastian," Myst had assured him. "Her sisters' English is what you might call 'olde,' and they continue to try to slay anything unfamiliar. Kaderin will come around once they're set."
Kaderin never asked about him. Never called for him. It was as if she were willing herself to forget him. Her sisters were likely reminding her of the strife with vampires, convincing her of her folly for being with him.
"Buy an estate near her coven," Nikolai had advised. "It will be a positive gesture to her and might occupy your mind."
"Do I have enough money to buy an estate? And to live comfortably, if I'm careful?"
"You had Byzantium gold among your riches," Nikolai had answered. "A chest of it."
"What does that mean?"
"That means you are obscenely rich. And Murdoch picked the investments. He has a knack."
Sebastian turned so that Nikolai couldn't see him flush. Both brothers had helped him, expecting nothing in return. "Is Murdoch still living at the Forbearer castle?" He would go to his brother and thank him to his face.
Nikolai nodded. "Just yesterday, he uncovered some promising leads on Conrad and is impatient to follow them all, but he'll return to the castle each dawn. When you're settled with Kaderin, you can take her there to meet him if you like."
Sebastian looked forward not only to seeing Murdoch again, but also to joining in the hunt for Conrad. He wondered if Kaderin would search with him.
Sometimes Sebastian traced to her at Val Hall. From outside the wraiths' reach, he could see her through the windows as she danced with her sisters, throwing her head back with laughter, or played video games, with her face a mask of concentration. One night, he'd watched the three of them sitting on the roof, relaxed, shoulder to shoulder. When Kaderin had pointed out a star, the smallest one had laid her head on Kaderin's shoulder.
How different the stars must look to them now.
How could he compete with them for her love?
Kaderin's sisters were learning the times with her as their guide, but Kaderin was relearning life as well.
She'd found she could tear up at sad made-for-television movies and that she loved braiding Nïx's hair, now that it had regrown in mere weeks. She'd learned that Regin's antics could make her stomach hurt from laughing.
Regin delighted in making fun of Dasha and Rika's old English, though the two were learning the modern version with an astounding speed. "Their 'ye olde brew pub' style of talking creeps me out," Regin had said. "All that thou-ing and thee-ing like they're actors from a Shakespeare festival and won't go out of character." She'd drawn Kaderin aside. "I swear to the gods, Rika said 't'asn't.' What is that? No. Really."
When Kaderin had asked Regin if she was okay about her involvement with Sebastian, she'd answered, "If by 'okay' you mean 'homicidal,' then yes, absolutely." Then she'd added in a mutter, "Your leech gave us two new Valkyrie and brought you back from the dead. Because of his brother, Emmaline lives. If there existed a turn-off-millennia-of-hate switch, I might... squint at it." They'd left it at that.
The only thing that hindered Kaderin's happiness was missing Sebastian.
She knew he was watching the manor right now, looking out for her. He loved her. But this was a difficult time for her sisters, and with each of their missteps and confusion, Kaderin's guilt returned.
Still, Kaderin had begun waiting for the right time to tell them all of her decision. Until then, everyone needed to be understanding of them after all they'd been through.
Dasha and Rika needed to be treated with kid gloves and eased into this time.
"Selfish girl," Myst snapped, shoving Dasha against the wall by her neck, holding her there. "You can't comprehend what Kaderin's gone through for so long. She deserves this happiness. You have no idea how much. And yet you both still sneer at the idea of her with a vampire."
Rika kicked Myst behind her knee, making her stumble and release Dasha.
Rubbing her neck, Dasha said, "It is easy for you to accept Kaderin with a vampire, since you have one as your man."
"It doesn't matter if it's easy or not," Myst said. "
You simply have to accept it—for her. She has happiness within her grasp with a strong, honorable warrior who adores her, and you are standing in their way."
"Myst, we believe even we might come to tolerate her decision," Dasha said. "But you forget, we were on a battlefield with Furie less than two weeks ago. Her nature isn't dim in our minds, as it is in yours. When Furie is found, do you think she would possibly let either of your husbands live?"
Rika added, "Would Kaderin run with this man? Become a fugitive? We would never see her again."
Myst shook her head, though she had the same fears. "Let Kaderin determine this. Let her and Sebastian decide if they'll take that risk." She regarded both sisters. "Kaderin and Sebastian can't live without each other. Mark my words, both merely bide their time."
42
"If Kaderin didn't send for me herself," Sebastian said at the entrance to Val Hall, "then I don't want to be here." Lightning clattered constantly. Smoke and fog inundated the grounds. The old manor was imposing, sepulchral.
"You aren't curious about what you've been called here for?" Nikolai asked. "Even Myst has no idea what this is about."
"All I know is, she didn't send for me." Sebastian scowled up at the ghostly specters guarding the house, and Nikolai slapped his back in sympathy.
"They will not hurt you unless you try to get in without payment or permission."
"I'm not concerned with them." At Nikolai's questioning look, Sebastian shrugged. "After the things I saw in the Hie?"
"That's right, Nïx's origami storyboard. I need to ask her about that."
Sebastian said, "I was just thinking that if this is where Kaderin calls home, she will not like the estate I just purchased."
"You gave Myst carte blanche to pick it out—a bold and reckless move, but one I feel will serve you well with your Bride."
"Kaderin asked for time." Even missing her as he did, he still felt her request was reasonable. He expected eternity with her. Two weeks was nothing. "I am intruding on her and her sisters."