Age of Vampires- The Complete Series

by Caroline Peckham

  Anger licked down my spine. Fury raged in my palm. As he struck my foot again, I released a hiss of pain.

  There was no way for me to avoid his strikes let alone try to attack, unless…

  I planted my feet, forcing my attention away from the pain which flared as he hit my left foot and lunged for him with Fury singing its joy in my palm.

  I made it to within an inch of his fighting leathers before he batted my hand aside, almost knocking the blade from my grip.

  “Good,” he commented. “Now just-”

  I twisted towards him again, my movements guided by Fury which had grown hot enough to burn though it didn’t so much as singe my skin.

  I ducked beneath the stick as he swung it for my head and kicked out at the side of his knee. My boot connected with his leg and my ankle buckled from the impact.

  Magnar’s stick swung out, sweeping my other leg out from beneath me. I caught his arm, my legs tangling with his as I fell and I yanked him off balance.

  We both fell into the dirt and Magnar laughed as he caught my arm in his grip, pressing my wrist into the grass so that I couldn’t get Fury close to him again.

  He knelt over my hips, pinning me beneath him and smirked. “That blade is teaching you to fight dirty.”

  I struggled feebly in his grip, forcing the heels of my boots into the mud as I tried to buck him off of me.

  “And you’re all about fighting honourably?” I asked with a sigh, feigning defeat as I laid back in the grass. Fury continued to whisper instructions through my mind though and I glanced at the knife he had strapped to his belt. “Like with that Elite yesterday?”

  “You don’t approve?” He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

  “I just don’t think the bloodsuckers deserve an honourable death. I’d rather do whatever it takes to get the job done than risk my life.” I lunged forward and snatched the blade from his belt with my free hand.

  Magnar caught my hand before I could even release it from its sheath, twisting my wrist so that I was forced to drop the knife. He caught it and leant forward, pressing it to my throat. His hair fell around his face which was just inches from mine as he looked into my eyes.

  “Nice try,” he breathed.

  My heart pounded as I stared up at him, unable to form any response as his close proximity sent my thoughts scattering.

  He held my gaze for several seconds then cleared his throat and stood up. The heat from his body left me and I shuddered as I pushed myself up onto my elbows.

  “Can I try again?” I asked.

  He walked away from me and started rummaging in his pack. “We need to get moving.” He tossed me an apple which we’d found on a tree yesterday. A lot of them had been rotten but there had a been a few that were still edible.

  I caught it and stood as disappointment filled me. I knew we needed to get to the blood bank as quickly as possible but learning to use the skills my ancestors had mastered had set something burning in my blood. It felt good. Right. Like what I’d been born to do.

  “Today you can start to hone your skills if that’s what you want. You can begin by learning to move silently while we travel,” Magnar instructed.

  “Okay…” I frowned at him as he replaced his swords and cloak on his back before shouldering his pack and heading out of the clearing.

  I wasn’t entirely sure if it was just an excuse not to talk to me but I didn’t have a good enough reason to object so I agreed to it. Besides, any skill that I could learn from him might help me when it came to getting my family the hell away from the bloodsuckers.

  I quickly retrieved my coat from beneath the wagon and pulled it on before racing after him.

  “You’re already failing terribly,” he commented as I crashed my way over broken twigs and fallen leaves in an attempt to catch up with him.

  “You could have waited for me,” I grumbled in return.

  He grunted in place of a response, his attention fixed on the ground. I sighed as I fell into step behind him and tried to focus on keeping my feet silent as I walked.

  I followed Magnar in silence as he stalked between the trees.

  He’d been unusually quiet all morning which for him meant he’d basically been silent. I didn’t know if it was something I’d done or just his usual demons haunting him and I hadn’t felt brave enough to ask.

  My thoughts kept drifting to the feeling of my mouth on his skin after he’d released me from the vampires. My imagination itched to find out what it would have felt like if our lips had really met. I thought I’d caught him watching me a few times since our encounter and I wondered if his feelings were in line with my own. Or if I was just trying to convince myself of that possibility.

  Perhaps the hush between us was as much my doing as his. I bit my lip as I considered starting conversations about various topics from our families to our hopes and dreams but I never voiced any of them. I guessed I was afraid of his rejection; if my questions were met with silence then I’d have to face the fact that he might be upset with me.

  After all he’d done to save me yesterday, I could only imagine my actions were the reason for his silence. Maybe he had been in love with someone before he’d slept. He’d told me he’d had to give up a lot of things and leave a lot of people behind. If that was the case then I couldn’t be surprised that launching myself into his arms had forced him to create a distance between us again.

  My gut tightened at the thought of heading south once I’d reunited with my family. I hadn’t broached the subject with Magnar but I was pretty sure he wouldn’t come with us. He’d made it clear that his whole point of living was to kill the vampires and I doubted that tallied up with getting as far from them as humanly possible. The thought made me feel sadder than I would have liked but there was nothing I could do about it. We were on different paths. That was just the way it had to be.

  At least I had Fury back. The strangely comforting blade hung in a sheath at my hip and I found myself running my thumb along its hilt more than once. I enjoyed the way it felt when I touched it; like a cat arching its back to be stroked. The fondness I felt for the lump of metal may have been peculiar but it was like travelling with an old friend. I knew it had my best interests at heart. It wanted to help me. Wanted to be with me. And I wanted to be with it too.

  I’ve made friends with a knife. Pretty sure that counts as insane.

  My foot landed on a pine-cone and it crunched loudly as it crumbled beneath my boot. I froze guiltily as Magnar turned his disapproving gaze on me.

  “You move with all the grace of a pregnant buffalo,” he growled. I’d quickly learned that his teaching technique was firmly in the tough love camp. Minus the love part.

  “Wow, calling me a buffalo really wouldn’t cut it? You had to add pregnant to the mix?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.

  Magnar folded his arms as he regarded me. “You place your feet with no care at all. If someone was hunting you they would find you with ease from a great distance. You do not survey your surroundings as you enter them. Your movements are careless and sloppy. If you do not fix these things then you make yourself an easy target for the monsters who crave your blood. Would you sooner go without my help in fixing this?”

  I’d sooner not be called a pregnant buffalo.

  “Okay,” I sighed. “But maybe you could give me some advice rather than just insulting me when I get it wrong.”

  “You’re right. I advise you to move silently.” He turned his back on me and walked away without letting me respond.

  I scowled at him, stooped down to retrieve the crushed pine-cone and threw it at the back of his head. Infuriatingly, he ducked aside before it could make contact.

  “Next time, try throwing it silently.” He continued to walk away from me and I began to wish that he would inadvertently step on a twig. But of course he didn’t.

  Why the hell was I thinking about his mouth on mine when all I really wanted was to punch him in the head?

  Yeah, keep telling yours
elf that Callie.

  I ground my teeth in irritation as I attempted to stay silent while mentally cursing him in as many ways as I could come up with. He was infuriating, irritating, enraging and so distractingly attractive it drove me insane.

  As we moved on, he kept pausing, ducking low to the ground and pushing leaves aside. The ground had frozen solid in the night and I couldn’t make out any tracks despite his constant observations. I itched to ask him what he was seeing that I couldn’t but I guessed that would go against my mission of keeping quiet.

  As the day wore on, I began to get better at placing my feet and spotting the things which would cause me to give away my movements. Magnar’s insults grew fewer and farther between and I began to believe that I might actually be adapting in the way he’d hoped.

  Magnar paused just outside a clearing, staying hidden in the shade of the trees as he looked out.

  I crept towards him, stopping a few feet away.

  “Better,” he announced in a low voice and the almost-compliment felt like the highest praise after a morning of insults. Not that I let it show on my face, but it was annoyingly difficult not to smirk.

  “So am I going to find out what we’ve spent the morning looking for?” I asked in a whisper.

  In answer, Magnar pointed to the clearing and I leant closer to see around him. Two large, black shire horses chomped at the green grass by their feet. They were tethered together by a half-smashed contraption which I guessed was what had been securing them to the vampires’ carriage before they’d broken free.

  Bloody red stripes stood out on their rears marking the trails made by the vampires’ whips. My gut lurched at the sight. It seemed the vampires cruelty extended to all warm-blooded beings. I felt a natural affinity to the creatures. They’d been slaves to the same wicked masters as I had and they’d gotten free too.

  “How are you with horses?” Magnar asked gently as I watched the beautiful animals.

  “I’ve never seen one this close before,” I admitted. “Occasionally I would see an Elite riding one when they had to visit the Realm but I’d always just head the other way, hoping not to attract any attention.”

  “Then you can consider this your next test. We have tracked these beasts and employed stealth as we approached them. Now it is important that we gain their trust. They will help us to cover more ground and get to the blood bank quicker. We have taken quite a detour and it concerns me that the vampires have held your family for so long.”

  My gut twisted uncomfortably as I thought of them locked in that dungeon. If the horses would mean that we could save them sooner then I’d do it. I’d sworn to do whatever it took and approaching two beautiful creatures was the least challenging thing I’d had to do so far.

  I took a deep breath and stepped around Magnar, ignoring the pull I felt towards him as I passed by. I continued to practice what I’d been learning today, picking my steps carefully and moving silently towards them.

  The closest horse whinnied softly as it spotted me approaching and I started to murmur reassurances as I closed in on her. The second horse seemed a little more nervous but that was okay, he’d been through a lot after all.

  “Hey pretty girl,” I said softly as I held my hand out in greeting.

  The horse turned towards me, tugging her companion around too. She took a step forward and I stilled. They were big. I swallowed a lump in my throat and made myself take another step, forcing my nerves not to show.

  The braver horse shifted closer and pressed her soft nose against my hand. I smiled up at her as I stroked the smoothe hair covering it and gently rubbed her beautiful face. She tilted her head into my palm, enjoying the attention and I was able to grasp the leather bridle which encircled her head.

  Magnar appeared beside me and reached up to take the reins from her back. I continued to pet her as he cut the broken remains of the carriage away and separated the two horses. The stallion began to feel a little braver as he got used to our presence and he moved close enough for me to stroke him too.

  “I take it you cannot ride?” Magnar asked me as he hitched a rope over the mare’s back before tying his pack in place upon her.

  “No,” I admitted, wondering what that would mean for his plan to use them to get to the blood bank. If I couldn’t ride one of the horses then how would we get there?

  “We have no time for you to learn. You’ll ride with me.” He plucked my pack from my shoulders and added it to the mare’s back.

  I eyed him with interest as he expertly secured our things then tied a rope to the mare’s bridle. Next, he cut the long driving reins from the carriage and tied them so that they could be used to direct the stallion.

  Once everything was prepared, Magnar leapt up onto the huge animal. The movement was so swift and precise that I was sure he had done it a thousand times before.

  I backed away as the horse snorted unhappily, chomping at the bit while his nostrils flared.

  The black stallion stamped his feet as he shifted uneasily beneath Magnar. He tossed his head and reared up. I stumbled away in fright, a squeal of surprise escaping me as I tried not to get trampled.

  Magnar tightened his grip on the reins, managing to stay on as the stallion slammed his front feet back to the ground. The horse snorted wildly, trying to toss his head as Magnar fought to control him.

  My back hit a thick trunk and I recoiled against it as the huge animal continued to protest against its new rider. Magnar gritted his teeth and rumbled some kind of command to the beast which I couldn’t make out. The horse reared up again but through some miracle, Magnar held his seat. He wrangled the horse into submission, making it trot up and down in the small clearing as the mare followed.

  I watched them nervously as he continued to make the stallion bow to his commands and the horse slowly gave up on fighting them.

  Magnar directed the beautiful creature towards me and I bit my lip nervously as I looked up at him. The horse’s back was almost level with my head and I had no idea how I was supposed to climb onto him. Or if I even wanted to. That was a long way down if I fell.

  Magnar smiled knowingly as he noted my hesitation and held out a hand. “Come. I won’t let you fall.”

  I gazed at his hand indecisively and he sighed.

  “Do you trust me?” he asked.

  With my life. “Yes,” I breathed as I placed my hand in his.

  His fingers enveloped mine and the rough calluses which lined his palm brushed against my skin. He pulled me skyward, swinging me up onto the huge animal’s back as easily as if I weighed nothing at all and placed me in front of him.

  The horse shifted from foot to foot beneath us and I shrank back against Magnar’s chest as he chuckled at my fear.

  “I’ve got you,” he assured me, wrapping his powerful arms around my waist. My heart thumped with a mixture of terror and something I didn’t want to admit to.

  Magnar snapped the reins and clicked his tongue at the horse who started walking at the command.

  I gasped at the strange sensation as I struggled to hold myself upright, clamping my legs tightly around the stallion’s body.

  “Don’t fight the motion,” Magnar rumbled in my ear, his breath dancing against my cheek. “Let your body move with him.” He tightened his grip, pulling me closer to him so that I could feel his movements.

  I tried to force myself to relax but it was almost impossible while he held me like that. The lines of his body pressed against mine and heat flooded through me as I struggled to force my thoughts away from him.

  “Better,” he commented though I hadn’t done anything other than give in to the urge to press myself against him. My treacherous body wanted to move in time with his and I was shamelessly taking advantage of the situation.

  I frowned as I thought about us parting again and wondered if I dared ask him about it. A part of me didn’t want to know so that I could convince myself there might be some hope for the feelings he was beginning to stir in me. But I had to.


  “I was wondering what you’ll do after we free my dad and Montana,” I asked him, my voice quieter than I’d intended as though that might shield me from a truth I didn’t want to hear.

  “After?” he asked and I wished I could see his face to gain some idea of what he was thinking.

  “Yeah. I mean once you’ve destroyed the blood bank and freed the people trapped there. What then?”

  Magnar shifted his grip on the reins as the silence stretched and I began to wonder if he’d even reply.

  “I must find and kill the Belvederes. I have to finish what I started a thousand years ago.” I wasn’t sure if I detected a hint of regret in his tone or if I was just imagining it.

  My heart sank although I’d always known that would be his answer. After the things those monsters had done to him and his people and were still doing to humans now, I knew there wouldn’t be any other choice for him. He’d been on that path since before my great grandparents were born, he was hardly going to turn from it now. He’d already sacrificed everything he’d ever loved in his pursuit of the Belvederes, and I paled into insignificance beside that.

  We continued on through the trees, heading downhill and moving steadily south. I felt as if the blood bank could be just beyond the next ridge, waiting to end our time alongside each other with bitter finality. We had a few days left together at the most. And though I desperately wanted to get there as quickly as we could to save my family, I hated to think about saying goodbye.

  “You could come with me,” Magnar said, though he sounded like he already knew my answer too.

  “I have to make sure my family are safe.” I shook my head sadly. “We can’t head towards the very people who want to hurt us. I... I have to go with them and get away from the vampires. We have to head south to the sunshine.” A single tear slipped past the resolve I was clinging to and I let it track down my cheek in silence, not raising a hand to remove it. That was it then. After the blood bank we’d be heading separate ways. Neither of us could change our plans and neither of us could ask it of the other.

  Magnar’s grip tightened around me and his thumb brushed a line along the back of my hand. I bit my lip as more tears threatened to find me. It felt like he’d just said goodbye.