The vampire pulled back, her icy blue eyes darkening with lust, as she watched the human moan and gasp in pleasure. Her blood-soaked lips tilted into a smug smirk as she leaned forward, her fingers moving quicker between the human’s thighs, causing the human’s moans to grow sharper and more frequent. Then, finally, the woman threw her head back and let out a soft, euphoric cry.
The vampire licked the woman’s neck, slowly and sensually, licking away the blood that remained on her skin. She chuckled as the woman shuddered and writhed beneath her. Then, she gently withdrew her hand from between them.
The human woman stared up at the vampire with a dazed, blissful expression. Her brows furrowed in confusion. “Is that blood on your mouth?”
The vampire smiled and kissed the woman with her blood-stained lips. “You drank too much mead,” she said against the woman’s lips. “Go to sleep.”
The human, exhausted from their lovemaking and from the loss of blood, nodded drowsily and closed her eyes, drifting to sleep almost immediately.
The vampire climbed out of the woman’s lap and stepped back. She sighed pleasantly as she raked her hands back through her long, brownish-blonde hair, letting it fall in messy waves over her shoulders, falling over the light chainmail armor that she wore. Her fair skin looked flushed from feeding, and a thin stream of blood leaked from the corner of her lips. “Enjoy the show, perv?”
Erik grinned at her teasing. “You, my friend, are shameless,” he laughed.
Kara leaned against the edge of the table, a crooked grin tilting at her lips. “You expect me to believe you’ve never fucked a girl in a mead hall before?”
“Oh, no. I’ve done that loads of times. What Viking hasn’t?” he snorted. He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “But I haven’t fed in the middle of a crowded hall before. Speaking of…” He tapped his finger against his own lips.
Kara nodded in understanding and wiped the blood from her lips with two fingers. “They’re all too drunk to notice,” she muttered. She licked the blood from her fingers casually, as if she weren’t the least bit afraid of anyone seeing it.
Erik glanced back at the human. “Er…aren’t you going to finish?”
Her lips tilted into a wicked grin. “What makes you think I didn’t?”
He snorted at the innuendo. “Fair point,” he laughed, watching the rise and fall of the human’s chest, her breathing slow and steady, “but I was actually referring to the blood.” He shifted his gaze back toward Kara. “You left her alive.”
Kara’s smile instantly faded. “That’s none of your business.”
Her sudden hostility took Erik by surprise. “Kara,” he said, a bewildered frown pulling at his features. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I just noticed that she was still alive, and…well, Alana told me that we’re supposed to kill them.”
Before he could react, Kara snatched him forward, her fingers clutching the front of his shirt, and she placed the tip of a sword against his throat. “If you speak a word about this to Alana,” she growled in his face, “you will regret it.”
The crowd of Vikings roared in delight as one of them noticed Erik and Kara’s exchange and alerted the others. If there was anything that Vikings found more interesting than mead and sex, it was a good fight. They began to chant.
Erik’s green eyes widened in shock. “I won’t,” he told her. “I promise.”
Kara released him, much to the disappointment of the excited, drunken crowd. She slid the heavy longsword back into the scabbard, attached to his belt.
Erik glanced down at the sword as she returned it. “You threatened me with my own sword?” he asked incredulously. “When did you take it from me?”
“If you have enough self-control, you can stop before you kill them,” Kara told him. “But Alana doesn’t like it when you do that. She gets jealous.”
“Oh,” Erik said, frowning in surprise. “But I thought we needed to kill them because when they wake up, they’ll remember. They’ll know what we are.”
“It’s a risk,” Kara admitted, “one that we’re not supposed to take.”
“Then, why do you do it?” Erik asked curiously.
“It’s none of your business,” Kara snarled, crossing her arms, causing the leather underclothes to stretch tight over her arms. “Why are you here?”
Erik stepped back, still stunned by Kara’s sudden hostility. In the few weeks that he’d known her, since his own transformation into a vampire, he had never seen Kara like this. She had always been so playful and friendly. “I wanted to ask you a question,” he said, scratching his head nervously, mussing his wavy, blonde hair. “Er…where is Alana? I need to talk to her.” He held up his hands in a show of surrender and quickly added, “Not about what just happened.”
Kara raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess. You want to give her a flower?”
Erik’s jaw dropped. “How,” he sputtered, “did you know that?”
Kara had been leaning against the table with her arm tucked behind her, but she stepped forward now, producing the blue orchid from behind her back.
Erik gaped. “What? How?” he sputtered. “When did you take that?”
Kara tossed her head back and laughed, clearly enjoying herself at his expense. “I took it from your bag,” she said, pointing at the leather sack that he had slung over his shoulder, filled with clothes and supplies, “at the same time that I took your sword.” She glanced at the orchid in her hand, examining the dark blue petals. “You picked her a pretty flower? What kind of Viking are you?”
Erik scowled at her, unamused by her mocking attitude, and snatched the orchid out of her hand. “The kind who is in love with a beautiful woman.”
Kara rolled her eyes. “In love,” she scoffed. “Right.”
Erik frowned. “Look, I understand if you’re jealous, but…”
“Jealous?” Kara interrupted, laughing. “You think I’m jealous?”
He shrugged. “Well, you and Alana are together. It would make sense.”
Kara rolled her eyes. “You don’t know me well enough yet, I suppose, but I’m not really the jealous type. Alana has plenty of lovers. It doesn’t bother me.”
“What is it that you’re feeling, then,” Erik asked, “if not jealousy?”
All of the humor seemed to leave her face, all of the sudden. “Pity.”
Erik scowled. “I don’t want your pity.”
“I’m sure you don’t,” Kara said. “I’d be disappointed if you did. You’re a Viking, after all,” She sighed, “But the thing is…I’ve been through this before.”
“You’ve been through what?” Erik asked.
“This,” Kara sighed, waving her hand. “The pretty flowers and cutesy shit. I was head over heels in love with her, too. Blindly in love with a sociopath.”
“I know she has some…issues,” Erik said, “but maybe she can…”
“Change?” Kara interrupted, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” Erik said. “Love is a powerful force. It can change people.”
“I thought that once, too,” Kara said. “I thought my love could heal her. I thought that, deep down, beneath all of that craziness, there was something good in her.” She sighed. “But I was wrong. You’ll see, just like I did, that she will never change. And the more you love her, the worse she’ll tear you apart.”
Erik swallowed uneasily. “Can you just tell me where she is? You must know. You fed from her last night, which means you’re bound to her right now.”
Kara turned away from him, returning to the human woman, who sat, slumped, in the chair with her head leaned against the wall, sleeping peacefully. “I think she’s at the lake,” Kara sighed. “I can feel its icy water on my skin.”
“Thank you,” Erik said, surprised that she’d answered him, after all.
Kara reached down and pushed a stray, blonde curl out of the woman’s face. “It’s a beautiful flower, by the way,” she added quietly. “Alana will love it.”
“Thanks,�
� he said again, his brows furrowing. “I hope so.”
“Can I trust you?” Kara asked, her icy blue gaze shifting toward him.
“What do you mean?” Erik asked, confused by the strange question.
“Can I trust you not to mention the human to Alana?” she clarified.
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, of course, Kara,” he assured her.
“Thank you, Erik,” Kara said tiredly. “I appreciate that.”
Erik stared at her for a moment, stunned by the difference in her attitude, the crack in her tough façade, and he suddenly realized that he could feel her sadness, her weariness, and…her concern, even, for the human that she’d just met. In that moment, he realized that Kara wasn’t what he’d always assumed her to be. She was tough, yes. And playful and mischievous. But she was also compassionate and maybe even…good. “I’ll see you later, Kara.”
She raked her fingers through her ash-blonde hair. “Sure,” she sighed.
Erik slipped out of the rowdy mead hall, leaving Kara with the sleeping human, and began to hike down the mountain, toward the icy, blue lake that set at the base of the mountain, surrounded by trees. The hike took longer than he expected, and he spent most of the hike thinking about what Kara had said. He’d noticed, since becoming a vampire, that the relationship between Alana and Kara was pretty dysfunctional…to say the least. They enjoyed each other sexually, still, but there was so much bitterness and resentment in Kara when she was with Alana. He wondered when things had become that way between them. If what Kara said was true, then, at some point, Kara had loved Alana, just like he did.
He found Alana at the lake, just as Kara had guessed.
Erik froze when he reached the bottom of the mountain, his brows furrowing in confusion. The glassy, blue lake stretched before him, light reflecting off of the surface of the water from the bright full moon and stars. Several feet out into the lake, he saw a female body, sinking deeper and deeper into the water, her white-blonde hair floating above her body, her pale, bare skin almost luminescent in the glassy, clear water. Her soft, feminine scent drifted toward him, reaching him near the shore, but it seemed fainter than usual, hidden by the scents of trees and water. He listened to the slow, weak pulse of her heart, noticing that the time between each heartbeat stretched too long, as if she were dying. Erik tore off his heaviest clothing—a sheepskin cloak that he wore over his tunic and trousers—and kicked off his shoes. Then, he jumped into the lake.
The icy water seemed to send a shockwave down into his bones, instantly freezing his skin, muscles, and blood. His body suddenly felt heavy beneath the water, like stone, and he sank beneath the surface, unable to move his muscles. But he kicked and pushed with all of his strength, and slowly, his muscles began to move, warming and thawing as he swam through the icy lake. His arms encircled the small, petite, female body that floated in the water, and he turned, slowly trudging through the water, toward the shore. The weight of her small, soft body and the heavy, icy water were no match for his supernatural strength. When he finally reached the shore, he lay her body down in the grass.
Erik knelt beside her in the grass, cold water dripping from his remaining clothing and his long, wavy, blonde hair, and he placed his hand on her face, tilting her head to the side. Her skin felt icy against his palm, even colder than the water had felt against his body. Her shoulders jerked as she convulsed and coughed, choking and spitting up mouthfuls of water. Then, her dark blue eyes fluttered open, pinning him in place, and her lips curved into a strange smile.
“Erik,” she murmured, her voice cracking. “You saved me.”
His brows furrowed. “What the hell were you doing, Alana?”
“I wanted to know how it feels to drown,” Alana explained with a smile.
Erik raised himself up with his arms, his face contorting in shock and bewilderment as he stared down at her. “Why would you want to know that?”
She shrugged weakly and coughed. “For future reference.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and exhaled slowly, frustration building up inside of him, tightening in his chest. “Alana,” he sighed, “that is…insane.”
“Oh, relax,” Alana groaned, her voice slowly becoming less hoarse and more audible. She rolled onto her back, deliberately exposing her fully-nude, freezing-cold body to him. “I’m fine. Drowning doesn’t kill vampires.”
“It’s not your physical state that I’m worried about,” Erik muttered.
“I’m cold,” Alana pouted, poking her bottom lip out at him. “Would you get my dress from that tree branch over there?” Her lips curved into a seductive smile. “Unless, of course, you’d like to warm me in another way.”
He stared at her, stunned that she was actually offering him sex just minutes after drowning herself. “I’ll get your dress,” he grunted as he stood up.
Alana laughed weakly, “Erik Olafsson just turned down sex?”
Erik walked over to the thick-bodied tree that set at the edge of the lake, its leafy branches spilling over the water, and he snatched the thick, blue dress off of the branch. “Yeah, well, I’m a little cold myself right now,” he grumbled.
“Aww,” Alana cooed, spreading her legs, “someone’s in a bad mood.”
Erik turned back toward her and froze, his gaze sweeping over her bare, alabaster skin that glistened with drops of icy water down to the exposed place between her legs. As always, his body responded to her beauty, and despite his frustration with her and his exasperation at her insane behavior, he wanted her. “Would you stop doing that?” he complained as he tossed her dress at her.
She caught the heavy, lacy dress in her hands, her body curling forward in the most seductive way as she sat up. She smiled at him. “Stop doing what?”
He scowled at her. “You know what you’re doing.”
She leaned back, her drenched, pale blonde hair falling behind her shoulders. “I always know what I’m doing. And I’m always so good at it.”
Erik scooped up his cloak and threw it around him, relieved that the warmth of the cloak seemed to penetrate the chill that felt as if it had taken up permanent residence in his body. “I brought you something,” he told her.
She leaned forward, excitement sparkling in her blue eyes. “A gift?”
“Yes, Alana,” he said, bending to grab the long stem of the blue orchid from where he’d dropped it. He walked over to her and knelt in front of her, leaning on one knee as he held out the flower. “It reminded me of you.”
Alana’s brows furrowed as she took the flower from him. “Why?”
Erik’s gaze darted down toward the orchid in her hands, lingering on the orchid’s dark blue petals, and then, he looked back at her, his lips curling up into an adoring smile as he stared into her dark blue eyes. “It matches your eyes.”
For a moment, Alana just stared at him, wide-eyed. But then, to his surprise, her dark blue eyes began to glisten with wetness, and she began to sob.
“Alana?” he said, his eyes widening in shock. He darted forward quickly and gathered her thin, wet body into his arms. He pushed her wet hair back with his hands, and he wanted so badly to soothe the pain that he knew she was feeling. But he couldn’t control his abilities yet, and his own emotions were mirroring her pain at the moment. He kissed her forehead. “What is wrong?”
“The flower,” she sobbed, clutching him tightly. “It’s so pretty.”
Erik kissed her shoulder affectionately. “I know. And so are you.”
She leaned back in his arms so that she could look up at him, tears spilling from her dark blue eyes. “Why do you treat me so strangely?” she asked.
He frowned. “Strangely? What is strange about giving you a gift?”
“I don’t understand it,” she said, her brows furrowing. “When I was human, no one ever gave me anything. They only took things.” A choked sob bubbled up out of her throat. “You and Kara—you’re the only ones. And…I don’t understand what it means. I don’t know what I am supposed to do now.
”
“It means: I love you,” Erik explained, his heart breaking from the pain that he could feel emanating from her, “and you’re just supposed to accept it.”
Alana stared down at the blue orchid. “It’s so pretty,” she sobbed.
“I’ll go back and get more,” Erik offered, “as often as you want.”
“I love this memory,” said a familiar, accented voice.
Erik froze, a sense of cold dread washing over him as he recognized the voice—Alana’s voice—the same voice he’d heard just a moment ago, coming from the shivering woman in his arms. Except now…that voice had come from behind him. He slowly turned around, his brows furrowing, and his eyes widened in shock as he found Alana standing behind him, dressed in a thin, pink dress that barely reached her thighs, molding perfectly to her delicate curves. As he watched her plump, pink lips turn up at the corners into that wicked, seductive smile, he suddenly realized that he couldn’t feel her in his arms anymore.
Alana’s smile deepened. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”
The lake and the mountain seemed to suddenly dissolve, the entire memory dissipating in an instant. Erik looked around, shocked to find himself in his bedroom, lying beneath a red, silk sheet, no longer dressed. His brows furrowed as he glanced up at her. She stood at the corner of his bed, still wearing that modern, pink dress, one hand on her hip and a sensual smile on her lips.
“This is a dream,” Erik realized. “I’m dreaming about you again.”
“Clearly,” Alana laughed. “It’s not the eighth century anymore, is it?”
Erik didn’t react to her snarky remark. Instead, he stared at her, horrified exasperation twisting at his expression. “Why do I keep dreaming about you?”
Alana smiled and climbed onto the bed. She crawled forward, and Erik watched her warily as she straddled him, her knees on each side of his legs. Her dress rode up around her hips, her thighs bare as they pressed against him. He clenched his jaw as she intentionally pressed herself against his groin with only the thin, lacy fabric of her panties separating them. She leaned in close, her pale blonde hair falling forward, tickling his face. Her lips brushed against his as she whispered, “Don’t you remember what you said in the memory? You love me.”
The Tomb of Blood Page 6