“Well I wish for blood to sate my rage, Idun. Step aside,” Andvari demanded, pointing at Julius and fear sped through me.
“You stole what is mine so perhaps I shall steal this from you,” Idun taunted.
Andvari raised a hand as if to strike her, but a vine from Idun's dress whipped out and caught me by the waist, yanking me between them. “I will rip her heart out and you shall never have your debt paid,” Idun snarled and terror snaked into my chest.
“Montana!” Julius cried, struggling to be released.
“Enough,” Andvari hissed. “Have it your way for now, but if your games continue too long I will strike against you personally.”
Idun's laughter filled the air and thunder rumbled above us. “I would gladly accept that challenge.”
Andvari grinned, shrugging his shoulders. “Then perhaps when we meet again, it shall be on a battleground.”
In an instant, the two of them vanished and Julius stumbled forward, sword raised and muscles tensed.
He staggered to a halt where Idun had been standing, releasing a breath of frustration. Thankfully, his injuries were gone.
I sagged against him, the weight of my reality sinking in.
“Andvari wants me to turn,” I gasped, fear pounding through me. Even if I had accepted that some of the vampires weren’t evil, that didn’t mean I ever wanted to become one of them. But if it meant the curse would be broken, how could I ever refuse?
“We will find another way. We cannot trust the gods,” Julius growled and a flame of hope flickered inside me.
“Should we tell the others what they said?” I breathed and Julius’s eyes darkened.
“I fear they would not react well. They already know of Idun’s wrath against them. And I think it would be best to hide the possibility that the prophecy intends for you to be one of those monsters. At least until we can figure out how to avoid it.”
I nodded, a tear trickling down my cheek. “I’m afraid…”
He drew me into his arms, gripping me tight. “Be brave. I won’t let you be made into a beast.”
I nodded against his chest, breathing in the small moment of comfort. But I was sure the second I stepped away, fear would find me again and I’d be devoured by its sharp teeth.
I reached out and my hand swept over silky sheets, the material slipping through my fingers like liquid. I frowned as I pushed myself upright.
I squinted around in confusion at the room which was lit with a deep red light. I was sitting on a black four poster bed and all sorts of strange things were hanging from the walls. There were shackles and whips, gags and ropes... what the hell is this?
I glanced down at myself and found my clothes replaced with some kind of weird leather underwear complete with elbow length gloves.
I began to wonder whose dream I was in just as footsteps sounded beyond the door. I gritted my teeth and used my power over the dream to replace my clothes with black leggings and a blue sweater.
The door opened and Fabian stepped in. Horror clutched at me as I realised whose fantasy I’d stumbled into.
He was wearing a pair of blue jeans but his chest was bare, his sculpted muscles drawing my attention for a moment before I forced myself to stop looking at them. His eyes lit with surprise and his mouth fell open but he didn’t say a word.
My mind spun as I tried to figure out how I’d done this. The only other people I’d dream walked with before had been right beside me in the real world. Had he found us in the ruins? But then how could he have been sleeping?
“You look... different,” he said slowly, taking a step towards me.
I pushed myself out of the bed, feeling vulnerable as he closed in on me and wishing I had my blade. As the thought crossed my mind, Fury materialised in my palm. It didn’t give off any of the energy that the true blade had held and it only made me miss it more.
“I shouldn’t be here,” I said as I tried to ignore the urge I felt to stay.
I looked around as if I might find a door or something which could lead me back out of his dream but there was nothing. I had no idea how to control this new power and no way to get myself out.
Fabian tilted his head as he watched me and his eyes rounded slightly in realisation.
“Valentina told me that some of your kind could walk between dreams. Is that what this is? Have you come to seek me out?” he asked, his eyes shining with hope. He began to close the distance between us and I backed up, holding Fury up to ward him off. But my traitorous heart was pounding in a rhythm that had nothing to do with fear.
“Not intentionally,” I growled. “I don’t know how to control all of my gifts yet.”
“So your heart brought you here?” he asked. He ignored the blade I held between us and moved so close that it was pressed to his throat.
I glared at him, or at least I thought I did but my mouth seemed to be hooking up at the corners as if we were playing some game.
“Not my heart. Just this curse that links me to you,” I replied firmly.
Fabian caught my hand in his and pulled Fury from my grasp. I wanted to resist but I couldn’t bring myself to. We both knew I wasn’t going to hurt him anyway and the thought made a part of me sick while another part sang with joy.
My breaths came quickly as he moved my hand so that my palm was pressed against his chest.
“My heart has been trying to lead me back to you,” he said, his voice rough with desire. My gaze slid over his broad chest and I had to force myself not to move any closer to him. “I can almost feel it stirring when I think of you. Like it wants to beat once more.”
His words were a sharp reminder of what he was and I gritted my teeth as I threw my strength into my arm and shoved him away from me.
“Stop it! You have to know this isn’t real. It’s some trick Idun is playing on us.”
“Why would my love for you be a trick? She has given me back something I thought I lost over a thousand years ago. I haven’t known love like this, I know we’re meant to be together-”
Heat rose in my blood at his words and I was struck with the strongest desire to press him back onto the bed and-
“Shut up! You don’t even know me. How could you love me?” I moved to the wall and grabbed a black leather whip with long tassels hanging from it. “This isn’t love, it’s lust. And I have no interest in your perverted dreams.” I slashed the whip across his chest then tossed it at his feet. A frown gripped his features as red lines appeared on his skin before slowly fading away.
“You’re right,” he muttered and I took a steadying breath as he finally seemed to accept what I was saying. “I wouldn’t want to bring you here. You mean so much more to me than this.”
“What?”
The red-lit room began to dissolve around us, the bed and assortment of sex toys disappearing as a faint breeze picked up.
I looked around, curious despite myself as a burbling stream appeared beside me. Tall trees sprouted from the ground, growing higher and higher until they towered overhead. In the distance I could see a village, though the buildings were all wooden instead of the concrete jungle I was used to.
There was something foreign about the landscape and I frowned at it in confusion.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“This was my homeland. Across the great ocean. I lived here before I was cursed,” he explained.
I turned to look at Fabian again and my breath caught in my throat. His appearance wasn’t that of a monster anymore; his skin was flush with life and coloured by the sun. His beauty was diminished but if anything he seemed more attractive with his features more rugged and a faint scar lining his jaw. He wore fighting leathers similar to those Julius and Magnar used and a long sword was belted at his hip.
“You look like... like one of us. Like a slayer.” I couldn’t stop staring at him, at this version of him who was yet to be cursed. It was harder to think of him as a monster when he stood before me as a man.
Fabian gave me a faint smi
le. “No. Not a slayer. But we were all vikings once.”
I stepped towards him, utterly thrown by seeing him this way. His hair was shaved on one side of his scalp and a tattoo swirled over the exposed skin there. He noticed my gaze on it and raised a hand to it with a smirk.
“Your kind always were fond of tattoos. My immortal form pushes the ink from my skin now, so I no longer have any...”
“Magnar's tattoos are a mark of his gifts, not a fashion choice,” I replied lightly.
Fabian released a growl at the sound of his name. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t mention him here.”
I considered conjuring an image of the warrior to spite him but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I felt like him bringing me to this place was about so much more than reminding me he’d been human once. It was the most personal piece of him. Something that he could only visit in his dreams. There was no way he could have shown it to anyone else before me.
“You just don’t want me mentioning him because you know I’m with him,” I said, trying to keep hold of my own feelings of hatred while my heart was tempted to soften. My eyes were drawn to the village in the distance again and I found it easier to remember myself when I wasn’t caught in his gaze.
“You’re only with him because you’re afraid of what we are,” Fabian hissed.
“I’m with him because I belong with him,” I replied. “And because I love-”
“Don’t,” he interrupted, silencing me. “I can’t hear you say that again.”
I turned back to look at him and found him right beside me. Haunting pain flashed in his eyes and guilt stirred in my gut. I didn’t want to hurt him. But I didn’t want to lie either. Not to him. And not to myself. I had to keep the truth present in my mind or I knew I could so easily be lost to my false feelings for him.
I wanted to step back but the strangest sound caught my ear and my eyes widened as I realised what it was. I reached into the space between us, my hand trembling uncertainly as I laid my palm above Fabian’s heart.
I inhaled sharply as I felt it thundering against my skin. I knew it wasn’t real but the intensity in his gaze made me feel like it was. Like if we’d met a thousand years ago he would have fought wars to claim me as his own and his heart would have beat only for me.
“Did it hurt?” I asked softly. “When it stopped beating?”
A dark shadow crossed behind his eyes and for a moment we weren’t standing by the river anymore. We were in the centre of the village and everything ran red with blood. He was covered from head to toe in gore and dead bodies lay all around. The other Belvederes stood beside us, their faces written with the horror of what they’d done. Andvari’s laughter filled the air.
“More than you could ever know,” Fabian breathed.
I stared around in revulsion at what the god had forced him to do but the scene before my eyes slipped away as if Fabian could hardly bear to look at it.
When it settled again we were standing at the top of a tall cliff, looking out over a stormy sea. The sun slowly broke through the clouds and Fabian stilled as if he were afraid of it. When it finally fell on his skin he didn’t recoil and the golden rays lit a warmth in his eyes which I’d never seen before.
“I never chose to be what I am,” he said slowly and I felt my hatred towards him melting a little as pity pulled at me.
“This isn’t fair,” I breathed as I looked up at him. “You know I don’t want this.”
“You wouldn’t be here if that was true.”
I opened my mouth to object but the look in his eyes made me pause. He seemed so different from the monster I’d built up in my head. There was something desperately vulnerable about him and he looked at me as if I could be the answer to all of his fears.
He seemed to take my silence as agreement and caught my hand in his, pressing our marks together. I gasped as the power which bound us to each other flared intensely.
Fabian moved towards me before I could react, his mouth pressing down on mine as he tried to force me to admit to feelings I refused to have.
Desire pooled in my stomach and I almost gave in but I managed to pull back instead.
“Stop,” I begged him. “I didn’t ask for this, I didn’t want it.”
“Neither did I,” he replied. “But I should have. We’re fated, Callie. It’s written in the very fabric of the stars. The gods chose us for each other-”
I forced my way out of his arms and stepped back, shaking my head. “I don’t care,” I growled, hunting deep in my heart for the part of me I knew was my own.
I’d grown up smothered by the rule of his kind. I hated him and everything he represented. I could never love him. And dressing himself up as a human didn’t make him a man. He was still the monster I’d always feared. Still the enemy I’d sworn to destroy. Still the demon who’d hunted me and forced me into marriage. Nothing he could ever say would change that.
“Whatever the gods might have planned doesn’t interest me. My life is my own. And I refuse to bow to the pressure of some long-forgotten deity. Idun may want us to be together but I don’t and nothing you can say or do will ever change that. I am your enemy. And you shouldn’t forget it.” I backed away from him as my words hit home and his face fell.
“What can I do to make you see that I’m not the monster you think I am?” he begged.
I let out a humourless laugh. “Go back in time and don’t take my mother to the blood bank because she was ill. Don’t let that murderer come for my father. Or your rapist brother kidnap my sister. Or go further back than that and don’t imprison every human who managed to survive the Final War. Don’t treat us like animals only valued for our blood!” I spat. “The list is endless Count Fabian. You placed a crown upon your head and your foot upon our backs. How could you ever think I could love you?”
He tried to follow me as I continued to back away from him and I swiped my hand at the ground savagely. The earth rumbled as a huge split formed in the dirt, carving the soil apart until a giant fissure separated us.
“I can fix it,” Fabian pleaded. “Let me show you how much I love you. I can prove it to you, just let me prove it!”
“How? How could you ever make all of that right?” I scoffed, growing a cage of steel around my heart and refusing to let him breach it again. I would close myself off to him no matter how much it took from me to do so. Idun would not make this choice for me. I would never bow to her will in this. And I would break through every inch of her power even if it cost me my life.
“I’ll fix it. I’ll improve the Realms, I can provide schools and hospitals and... and nicer food... anything. I’ll give them anything you want. Everything you want-”
“Freedom?” I asked, arching an eyebrow in disbelief.
“I... If I could I would. But without a constant supply of blood the vampires can’t control themselves. It wouldn’t help the humans, it would only make them targets. When we feed from the vein accidents happen. Especially if we are particularly hungry-”
“So you claim to love me. But the truth is you love my blood more.” I sneered at him and his face fell.
“I wouldn’t bite you. I would never bite you. I swear it-”
“I don’t believe you,” I hissed.
I walked towards him, crossing the air above the fissure I’d created as if it were solid ground. My clothes shifted around me and my wedding dress returned.
Fabian’s eyes widened hopefully as I moved to stand before him. I snapped my fingers and his human body transformed so that he was a vampire again, wearing the charcoal suit he’d married me in.
I pushed my will against his, convincing him he hadn’t tasted blood in a hundred years.
He clutched at his throat, his eyes widening in horror as I pulled my hair behind my shoulder and tilted my chin so that he could see my pulse pounding in my neck.
I held his eye, waiting as he tried to fight the demon within him which craved my blood above all else.
His lip pulled back, reveal
ing his fangs and he moved towards me. He snarled as he fought against the need which drove him forward and his hand moved to fist in my hair.
His eyes bored into mine and I felt like I could see his heart breaking as the hunger began to win.
An endless second hung between us painted with the truth of what we were.
Fabian yanked on my hair and his fangs slid into my flesh as the beast won. He pressed me against him and groaned desperately as my blood flowed over his lips and pain flared through my skin.
“See?” I breathed and I forced my consciousness away from him with a wrench of effort so that everything around me disappeared.
I sat bolt upright, panting in the darkness as I touched a hand to my neck where the memory of his bite still haunted my flesh.
“Callie? What is it?” Montana asked sleepily beside me.
I glanced at Magnar but he still slept soundly. Julius was on watch outside somewhere and I resisted the urge to dismiss what had just happened so that I could tell her the truth.
I took a deep breath as my heart rate slowed and the dream faded away. “Just the answer to a question that never needed asking.”
“What do you mean?” She pushed herself upright and scooted closer to me, reminding me of the many times we’d climbed into each other's beds after a nightmare back in the Realm.
“I just visited Fabian’s dream,” I admitted uncomfortably, glancing at Magnar again to make sure he was still sleeping. After joining him in his dream before and what we’d done while I was there, I was sure he wouldn’t be happy to know I’d ended up with Fabian instead of him tonight.
“Oh… I’m guessing that wasn’t intentional?” she asked gently.
“No.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “I don’t know how to control my power and this stupid mark obviously led me to him.”
I lay down again and Montana followed suit so that we could whisper to each other from beneath our blankets like we used to.
“And what kind of dream was he having exactly?” she asked innocently but I knew what she was driving at.
My mind fell on the bed and whips that I’d first found when I arrived and I felt colour filling my cheeks. “Well…”
Age of Vampires- The Complete Series Page 84