“It is Tink. She is dying.”
“No dear, Leif, she is already dead.” She shook her head. “It was the wish of the goddess that she die for her disobedience.”
Leif’s shoulders slumped. He’d lost her. He’d lost so many over the years, but nothing hurt like this. He couldn’t breathe, and a wave of weakness washed over him, like a piece of him had been severed.
She’d been his hope, and now, he stood there, the battle won, his love lost. He’d pushed her away for so long, afraid to open up, afraid to be close to her for fear of what might be, but now he didn’t have that as an option. There wouldn’t be a third chance for love. A third try of them having a chance.
“What did it matter? Hel’s reasoning was correct.” With the quickness of a viper, he reached out and grabbed her by the throat. “You shall bring her back, or I shall end you.”
“You can’t.”
“I can’t what?”
“I’m not stupid. I will not go through the next millennium to be alone. She is my other half, my life, and essence. If I can’t have her back, then kill me now. Put me out of my misery.” The pain bubbled out of him, and he dropped to his knees. “We never stood a chance. She was too good for me, and now, now I will never have that chance with her.”
The ground shook, cracking open.
“No, you misunderstand. She is undead, changed like you. Do you wish me to heal her of her sickness? Or do you wish to be whole?”
“Can’t you ask her?”
“She belongs to her dragon master, and as long as she belongs to him, she will never be free.”
“So, I must choose, either to free myself or her?”
Eir nodded. “I’m simply a handmaiden, here to help. No one is good at saying farewell.” A calmness fell over Leif. “But it is ultimately your choice. Will you save her or damn her, vampire. Or will you heal yourself of your sickness?”
“Then the choice is easy. Her. Show her mercy. I’ve been a vampire for centuries. What’s a few extra going to hurt?”
Leif scrutinized her every movement. She gathered up a cauldron of water, blessed it, then released strange herbs that floated. “Those who are sick need only the smallest of droplets. Once touched, the disease of the wyvern will be washed away.”
He nodded and waited. To cross Lady Hel would be worse than anything else he’d done, and to kill her seemed like betrayal. Splintered, he wasn’t sure what to do. He was still a monster, and even the gods wouldn’t be able to forgive.
He waited for Eir to pour the magic elixir into Tink’s mouth, and for her to drink it. Hearing the first gasp of air, he moved quickly behind Eir, grabbed her by the throat and pushed until he heard the bones snap. There was no cry, no screaming, and no other Valkyrie came to her assistance.
He’d made his choice. Tink would live, and all other vampires would be damned to exist as they were.
Leif fell to his knees, threw back his head, and screamed to the heavens. A hunger he’d not known howled inside. The monster he’d been keeping at bay stepped forward and wished to feed.
He leaned over Eir, pulled her near, and drank her empty.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Leif
Seated on a large boulder, Leif stared out at the river. “Brother, we must give chase as Donovan has escaped,” Erich said, panting.
Leif looked over his shoulder and saw the Wolf general and most of his men waiting. The vampire army had scattered, and the undead soldiers of Erich had either fallen in line with the wolves or crumbled into another heap on the battlefield. He didn’t move and instead tossed another rock into the water.
“Where is Eir?” Erich asked. “Did you do what we’d been ordered?”
Leif nodded and cocked his head to the side, where the beautiful Eir’s body laid. Her empty eyes stared heavenward.
“I’m waiting for Hel to pick her up,” Leif announced. He knew Eir’s life force still rested on his lips.
“Mother isn’t going to be happy about that.” Erich pointed at Leif’s mouth. “Drinking from gods have their own repercussions.”
“Well, I’m already damned. What could happen now? And what do I care? It wouldn’t mean a thing if Tink died.” Leif turned and took in Erich’s appearance. “What do you have in your hands?”
“One of the slobbering wyverns tried to escape with it, so I thought it must be important, and I took it.” He opened the satchel and poured the contents into his palm, and out rolled a shimmering neon green stone with orange and red specks.
“Did the wyvern lose his head for it?”
“And a few other body parts, but this is the beginning. Donovan could be anywhere raising havoc.”
“Yeah, but something tells me that he isn’t going to be raising too much Caine. What you have there is draconite. That is why he was so powerful. Every dragon has one, but the queen wears the crown, the power.”
Erich passed Leif the satchel. “Since you know what this is, you take it. I’m taking the men and moving north. You should take care of Tink. I think she is going to need you when she wakes up.” Before Erich could finish, time stopped. Erich was half in position to walk away, and Leif frowned.
A sigil appeared, and instead of Lady Hel, a group of soul-sucking skeletons with bows and arrows appeared, and they took aim at Leif. In the middle, a skeleton draped in a pitch-black robe manifested, carrying a scythe. “You have taken the health of the gods, and will not harvest. And she will become the light bringer.”
Both Tink and Leif were lifted up. Leif cried out as black wings sprouted from his back through his clothing.
It was part of rescuing Tink. Now she was truly one of Freyja’s dressed in white and gold, as a mighty handmaiden of Freyja. By gifting her with Eir’s elixir, it had erased her debt with Asgard, it seemed, and she could return to doing what she’d always done.
And he, once a monster would now become an even worse one. The feathers continued to cover his body until he turned into a black crow and flapped his wings.
He’d loved her and would never regret that.
In the sky, he soared. Would Hel allow such? He’d done as she’d asked.
He dropped to the ground, and where the Grim Reaper stood, had been replaced with the Queen of Helheim. Lady Hel dressed all in black stood over him.
“You did not follow my orders to the tee, but I shall not kill you,” she said and picked him up. He danced on her hand. “This is only one of the new forms that you shall take. She will be light and you darkness, both working to rid this world, and build the armies for the coming war. During the day you shall soar, and the night you shall walk. I grant you this new position, reaper. Reap the souls of those worthy to fill my halls. These skeletons shall now be at your beck and call.” She tossed up her arm and again, Leif flapped his new wings.
How did he enter this world as a vampire, to now be changed into a reaper of souls? All for love!
Leif dropped back to the ground, and returned to his human form.
With time restore he watched as Erich, confused, glanced around him. “Mother?”
“Yep, she gave me a new job.” He nodded his head toward the handful of skeletons, wielding bows that waited for his next command.
“Well, welcome to the family,” Tink said and pushed up from the ground. “At least she didn’t kill you.” Tink held her head as if it pained her.
“How do you feel?” Leif asked.
“Dazed, a little confused, but I have to find the dragon and make him pay.”
“There are other things that you need to worry about.” Kara came, pushing Philip forward. He lived and seemed more human than monster.
“Isn’t he ill?” Tink asked.
“We are more than capable of helping a puny man, but with this distraction, many of those we’d come to take to Valhalla”—She waved her hand toward the battlefield—“we’ve not combed the field for them.” Kara pushed Philip our way. She picked up Eir’s cauldron and passed it to one of her Valkyrie sisters. “Soon
it must rain to wash these sins away.”
“What are we to do with him?” Erich asked him
“Well, this castle will need someone to take over, might he do that?” he inquired.
It would put everything on track to be as it once was, for the Reformation to come this way and sweep away all of the magic, to return everything to almost normal. Erich nodded his agreement.
“How did Donovan make them?” Tink asked.
“Donovan had enlisted the wyvern to use their spittle to transmit the disease, and then he blamed the witches. The witches are connected to cats, so the humans, fearful, gathered up the cats, which caused the rats to infest. The rats carried fleas that attacked the humans, and since everyone sick had flea bites, but it was the airborne spittle of the wyvern creating Donovan’s army. The stone increased his power, but no more. We have it.” He raised the satchel.
“He was trying to recreate the bubonic plague that had killed millions?” Tink asked.
“He was the one behind the original, the original germ warfare.”
“Except these wouldn’t die; they would become his “vampire” army, weaker and not as formidable as a true vampire, but stronger than humans. And with them, he could take over.”
“To fight who?”
As they all sought to turn and make their way back inside the castle, the straggling motley crew, they heard the screeching sound of the dragon, Donovan, coming back. This time he was alone. It seemed that the wyverns weren’t around to help him.
Leif watched Tink dash off.
“No, Tink. This time he shall not get away.”
He’d never seen Tink move so quickly. Did her master call her back?
TINK
I raced toward the castle. Donovan was too egotistical to flee, to escape and never come back. If this was a dream or reality, it didn’t matter. He would pay for what he did to my family. I should have been panting. But this was the best.
Still a vampire, with increased endurance, but then something happened. I snapped my fingers. Magical blue flames encased them, no wand needed. Yep, what he’d meant for my downfall would be the reason I could now conquer.
Once I made it to the top of the wall, I surveyed my surroundings. This required a plan, a hell of a good one, too. He was flying around thirty-five feet away, which was more than a normal human had ever jumped, but since I was a vampire, I was hoping that the new strength, endurance, and agility would give me the extra oomph I needed to make this plan work.
“Nothing like trial by fire,” I muttered.
I hid behind a column and waited for Donovan to spray fire at those below. From my vantage point, I could make out the arrows and bolts fired his way from the waiting skeletons. They all bounced off of his panzer. I noticed the way he always raised his head.
His neck was indeed unguarded. The scales there could still be pierced with the right weapon.
I counted down, like what I’d done when tracking lightning during a thunderstorm and listened as Donovan again circled and flew by. I watched his every move, timing him. My hands glowed, their fire lighting up the dagger, enchanting it so that it would be deadly to even magical creatures, like him.
Concentrating, I listened to his wings flap and heard his heartbeat still calling to me.
“You are my creation, and I know how to use you as my tool. Do you think you can hide there? Come, little woman, and show me what you’ve got.”
I knew where he was in that space, but also how I couldn’t think of my actions, just do. I’d lived thinking about every action, but right now, if I did that, he’d see my move before I even made it.
I focused in on Jaz, remembering her words: “Sometimes you have to stop thinking of living, and do it. Here, let’s come up with a ditty that will make it so you don’t have to think to do those actions, but can see it through automatically.”
“‘Single Ladies’ it is.” I started to sing the lyrics in my head. Focusing on every bit of the chorus, I waited.
“Your trick shall not fool me.” But his voice wasn’t as strong now. Uncertainty seemed to have snuck in.
Puffing out my cheeks and huffing as if I was doing step aerobics, I then ran for it. Leaping over the wall and, while holding my dagger precisely so, I knew it would hit my target from the side, but not dead-on, and slide downward.
The air whisked by me, and like in slow motion, with both my hands wrapped around the dagger’s handle, the blade punctured the thick scales.
Donovan cried out and bucked his body. His dinosaur-sized head canted up and down, then from side to side. But I wouldn’t let loose, and the more he struggled, the more the gravity pulled, the more my enchanted dagger sliced downward. His green blood spurted out. Pure toxic. But he was my maker. It could do me no harm. His blood ran through me, making me immune to that final attack.
Again he snapped at me. I smiled. This was only part of my plan.
I was his greatest weakness, and now his greatest undoing.
He would pay for what he did to my family and me.
The dagger sliced slowly from thorax down, almost like cutting chicken with a sharp knife. But that would not kill him, only injure him.
Hanging on by one hand, dangling high in the air, I reached in my pocket and retrieved one of the final pellets of Firestarter that I’d taken from the dungeon.
Donovan turned to snap at me with his powerful jaws, and I threw him a little gift, right into his wide mouth. He coughed.
Dragons had a swallow reflex for sure. I’d never seen one spit anything out.
Coming upon a cart filled with straw, I then let go, right before the mighty Donovan exploded into a million tiny bits.
No one messed with my family. I stuck both of my middle fingers up. “Peace, fucker.”
Collapsing into the cart of hay, I stared at the dimming sky. Finally, Donovan’s voice was gone from my head, and I could be free.
“What shall we do with them?” I overheard Kara talking to the other Valkyrie. Right now, Leif and I were stuck here in the 1500s, and that might not be so bad. With all of the vampires out there, we’d need to work together to make this world a better place.
“We’ve survived the latest purge, but for how long? Things have a way of repeating,” I said. “I’m in no rush to get back to the modern age. We have a responsibility here.”
They withdrew to leave us time to recover, I assumed. I didn’t care at this point. There was enough here to take care of.
Leif climbed in the straw cart with me and, together, we stared at the waning sun. I wasn’t sure if this would be the last sunset that I’d see in a while. Now, with the adrenaline dying, pain cut through me. Everything hurt, even my hair.
“Now that was really a great first date.” Leif chuckled.
“Don’t make me laugh. It hurts too much to laugh.” Still, my shoulders shook from the mirth. This was a date baptized by fire, but at least we came out on top.
“You want to look around and clean this up? I hope we have enough servants for that. I mean, green goo will take a while to get rid of. Heck, right now, acid is burning the stone.”
“How is acid eating the stone?”
“Is it like that acid rain stuff they’re always talking about?” Leif shrugged.
“Oh, my gosh, if we stay here, we need indoor plumbing and a heck of a lot of other things.”
Leif turned toward me and I stared at his handsome face. “It will all be okay, even if we don’t return to the twenty-first century right now.”
“You know what—why don’t we give it a go?” He raised his hand and cupped my cheek.
Distracted, I watched the Valkyrie shoot high in the sky with Eir’s cauldron, followed by a light mist.
“And what will that mean? How do you see us becoming a thing?” I hated to ask the question, but I couldn’t base living a life here on what he would do. Emotions could be fickle. He was the prince, so maybe life wouldn’t be that bad.
“It is because the gods granted us a se
cond chance. No longer will a part of me be missing. No longer will I yearn for understanding, acceptance, and even more, love. I never knew what love was until I met you, only you.
“I’ve been here the whole time,” I whispered, unwilling to break the connection between us.
“And I was a fool. But not anymore. My eyes are open, and if you will have me, I will love you until time ends and then love you longer.”
“Before you confess love, shouldn’t we have that second date first?”
He pulled me into the crook of his arm, and I knew whatever we faced, we would face it together. He would be my glorious vampire, and I would forever be the powerful witch.
Finally, I exhaled, and looked into the star-sprinkled night. I whispered the words I’d longed to tell him for centuries: “I love you, too.”
“I hate to cut this short,” Kara said, “but the Queen of Asgard has ruled that you both shall return to the twenty-first century.”
“Before I do such, I must say goodbye to my family.” It pained me to know that I’d lost them, again. Some truths even I couldn’t take. In the end, they’d embraced the magic within us to fight back. I hung my head.
“Your family is recovering like the rest,” Kara said, and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. “The wind carries the healing mist of the gods, despite your horrible act, Leif.”
It took a moment for her words to hit me. They weren’t dead? Hope burst through my chest. “I’m not given a chance to say goodbye, huh?”
“No, as you will still be here in this existence, this timeline, but you must return to your own.” She moved away to where I assumed the portal would open, and turned back to us. “Try to follow directions this time, Tink. The goddess really knows best.”
“But what about all the malfeasance here?” I asked. I pushed up from the hay.
“It’s not like you have much of a choice. The portal awaits,” Leif said.
I wasn’t sure what waited for us on the other side, especially with Jaz and Erich, for if Jaz never awoke Erich from his slumber, and was never bound with the dragon mate, would he even remember her?
A Dragon’s Witch Page 18