Age of Vampires- The Complete Series

by Caroline Peckham

  The wound in my stomach was almost healed and the flesh around my neck was less swollen since my head had been reattached. But the pain of what Erik had done to me drove a hole into my heart. Having my head ripped off by my husband was about the most horrible thing I'd ever experienced. And the worst thing of all, was that it wasn't me I was concerned about. I'd survived it, I was okay. But Erik was still out of reach and that was the deepest pain of all. The fact that he'd wanted to hurt me so badly was unbearable.

  He and Magnar were gone. Lost to us once more. And if we ever got them back, they were going to feel the weight of all Valentina had caused them to do. The idea that we'd never break that necklace and end her spell over them made my entire body ache.

  I gathered up boxes of blood from the warehouse with Clarice, carrying them to the truck waiting for us at the centre of the base. Fabian was busy loading food into it for the humans and a small spark of light ignited in my soul.

  As he turned away from the truck, I threw my arms around him, overwhelmed with gratitude to him for saving my sister from the helicopter crash.

  He stiffened in surprise then folded his arms around me as I gazed up at him.

  “Thank you,” I breathed, not needing to explain why as he nodded.

  “You know I care about her, with or without this.” He showed me the silver cross on his palm as I stepped away from him and I wiped tears from my eyes with the back of my sleeve.

  Miles appeared carrying an armful of fresh uniforms for us to change into. I smiled at him as he arrived, taking one in my size from his arms. He passed them out before tossing a couple into the back seat of the truck for the slayers.

  My uniform was shredded and Clarice was wandering around in her underwear, but I figured we'd better change on the road. We didn't want to waste any more time here in case Valentina's Biters showed up.

  I hopped into the back of the truck, finding my sister asleep with her head in Julius's lap. I moved into the space across from them and Fabian and Clarice followed me inside. Fabian sneered as he gazed at Callie lying in the arms of Julius, but made no comment about it. I was grateful, because the last thing we needed was another argument to break out.

  Warren took the driver's seat and Miles sat beside him in the front.

  “Where to?” Warren called.

  “Anywhere but here,” Miles sighed and Warren pulled out of the base, heading onto the road where the snow was beginning to melt. The evening sky was thick with clouds, turning the world deepest blue as the sun started to set.

  Warren headed south, taking a straight road that shot between sprawling farmlands on either side.

  I tugged off my clothes, balling up the jacket in my hand and wiping the blood from my skin as well as I could. The nightwear I'd kept on beneath it was torn and filthy but I glanced at Fabian and Julius with a lump in my throat, not wanting to bare myself to them.

  Clarice stripped off opposite me, clearly having no such feelings on the matter.

  Fabian turned to Julius with a glare. “Face the window,” he growled. “Don't look at my sister.”

  “I wasn't,” Julius muttered, turning sharply away.

  I glanced at Fabian, gesturing for him to do the same and he smirked before angling himself to face the view. I knew they could probably see me in their periphery anyway but I didn't have much choice as I whipped my pyjama top off and quickly replaced it with the new jacket. I turned further around as I tugged off my torn shorts and pulled the pants on in place of them.

  Clarice dropped into her seat when she was dressed, combing her hair with her fingers.

  Fabian turned back to us, snatching up some clothes from the floor before tugging his shirt off. I eyed the scar on his torso, still pink from where Magnar had stabbed him after the wedding.

  He started unbuckling his pants, throwing me an amused look. “So I can't look at you but you can stare right at my junk all you like?”

  “I wasn't-” I spluttered, but his laughter halted me and I turned away to look out the front of the truck.

  “No one wants to see your tiny todger,” Julius mocked. “And if they did, they'd have to find a magnifying glass first.”

  “Ha. Ha,” Fabian said dryly. “As you can see I have no such problem.”

  I shook my head, unable to believe they were having this conversation right now. Was Fabian just sitting there showing Julius his bits?!

  “You wanna see what a real man looks like?” Julius asked.

  “For fuck's sake, you lot,” Miles called from the front. “Let's not start a whose dick is bigger party. At least wait until we can join in later.”

  Fabian started laughing and Julius actually cracked up too.

  I shared a glance with Clarice as she rolled her eyes.

  I heard them shuffling into clothes at last and relaxed back against my seat.

  “Hey, take the next left,” Fabian called to Warren.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “I know someone who lives out this way,” he replied vaguely.

  “Who?” Clarice asked curiously.

  “Just a girl.” Fabian shrugged as I turned to face him, finding him and Julius fully dressed in new uniforms. Callie had been moved to lay on the bench beside the slayer, sleeping soundly.

  “What girl?” Miles asked.

  “Just take the turning!” Fabian snapped and the truck veered sharply around to head in that direction. Callie stirred at his loud tone and I sensed she was awake as her eyelids fluttered but didn't open.

  “By the gods, you don't mean-” Clarice started but Fabian cut her off.

  “Yes. She'll help.”

  “Why the fuck would she help you?” Clarice asked. “Erik told me what you did to her.”

  Fabian glowered, looking out of the window again. “She's had a thousand years to get over it. I'm sure she'll give us a place to stay. At least until we figure out what to do about Valentina.”

  “Is there any girl in the world you haven't pissed off, Fabian?” Julius asked lightly.

  “Shut up, slayer,” he growled.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked tentatively. “If this woman hates you-”

  “She doesn't hate me,” Fabian bit at me so sharply that I recoiled. He schooled his expression, suddenly seeming anxious as he tried to flatten his hair. “Well she did. But I'm sure she's moved on by now.”

  “What did you do to her?” I breathed, leaning closer.

  Fabian pursed his lips, throwing me a glance that revealed a vulnerability in him I'd never seen before.

  “Well?” I pressed. “If we're going to trust some stranger we need to know about her.”

  Clarice answered for him when he refused to open his mouth. “Erik told me Fabian had a girlfriend back when we were hiding separately from the slayers.”

  “Fiancée,” he grumbled and my eyes widened.

  “Another one?” Julius blurted. “How many bloody women do you need to marry?”

  “I didn't marry this one,” Fabian murmured, not looking at him.

  “She was human,” Clarice went on and Fabian shifted uncomfortably as if he was tempted to make her stop talking. “But Fabian turned her...against her will.”

  I shook my head in horror and Fabian glared at me.

  “Oh stop being so damn judgmental,” he snarled.

  “Fine.” I raised my hands in innocence. “Tell me how it happened then and I'll hold off on judging you.”

  He released a huff of frustration but silence stretched out as everyone waited for him to explain. “She said she wanted to be with me forever. I was a vampire, I thought she meant she wanted to be like me, to stay at my side for all eternity.”

  “But she didn't?” Julius guessed with a knowing look.

  “No,” Fabian said through his teeth. “I turned her...and when she woke as a vampire she...” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Well let's just say she never wanted to see me again and leave it at that, alright? I'm not pouring my goddamn heart out in front o
f a fucking slayer.”

  My brows rose as I gazed at him, sensing the age-old hurt weighing down on him as keenly as if it had just happened. “You loved her,” I gasped, hardly able to believe Fabian was truly capable of such a thing without the will of the gods forcing it upon him.

  He bared his fangs at me. “I said we're not talking about it, Montana.”

  I released a breath of exasperation, turning my attention back to the road.

  Callie stirred and I wheeled around to look at her with hope darting through me. She sat upright with a yawn, her eyes flipping to me. She raised a brow and I could tell she'd heard that entire conversation.

  “How'd it go?” Clarice asked, leaning toward her.

  “Good, I think.” She started telling us about what she'd seen, how Valentina had been forced to show her memories of when Magnar had gone to sleep a thousand years ago, of how Odin had shown up and helped to keep Valentina away from him.

  Callie bit into her lip as she reached the end of her story and I sensed there was more she wasn't saying. “Anyway...I'll tell you all the details later.” She looked to Julius with a frown lining her features but he didn't seem to notice as he contemplated what she'd told him.

  I gazed at her, in awe of what she’d revealed. That another great god had had a hand in our fates. And a possibility struck me so hard that I couldn't contain it. “Odin stopped Valentina before, what if he'd help us do it again?”

  The Belvederes looked at me as if I'd gone mad.

  “You do know who Odin is right?” Clarice breathed.

  I shrugged. “Another god?”

  “Not just any god,” Julius answered. “He's the ruler of all the gods. More powerful than any of them.”

  “So? That's a good thing, isn't it?” Callie stepped in. “Montana's right, he could help us if we can talk to him.”

  “We can't just talk to Odin,” Fabian said sharply. “He requires a great sacrifice to be called upon.”

  “My mother didn't make any sacrifice, she just asked for help,” Julius said and Callie shifted uncomfortably beside him.

  “Well maybe he was feeling generous that day,” Clarice said thoughtfully. “But he doesn't show up for just anyone without an offering.”

  “So we have to...give him some sort of sacrifice?” I asked nervously.

  A tense beat of silence passed.

  “It doesn't have to be death,” Miles said from the front of the car. “Just enough to appease him, to show him the extent of our faith.”

  “Mortal blood,” Clarice added, glancing at Julius and Callie.

  “If he'll help us get Magnar and Erik back, I'll do it,” Callie said immediately.

  “Callie,” I gasped, tears prickling my eyes at her strength.

  She gave me a small smile and I reached across the space between us to squeeze her hand.

  “You've spilled plenty of blood tonight,” Julius growled. “I'll do it. So long as you freaks don't start licking my wounds.”

  “Yes and if you cut too deep it won't be as much of a tragedy if you accidentally kill yourself,” Fabian jibed.

  “You don't have to.” Callie rested a hand on Julius's arm.

  “I want to,” he promised. “I'll do anything to help my brother.”

  A warmth spread through my chest at his words.

  If Odin truly aided us, I could get Erik back. More than anything, I longed to curl into my husband's embrace and lose myself in the comfort of his arms. I missed him so much it was like my heart had been sliced apart and shredded to nothing but ragged flesh.

  Warren pulled the car over to the side of the road and I whipped around to face him. “What are you doing?”

  “Might as well get it over with, huh?” He pulled the parking brake and stepped out of the truck.

  Anxiety bubbled inside me as Clarice opened the side door and followed him onto the dark road.

  We exited after them and I joined my sister as Julius moved to the centre of the ring we'd all created.

  Fabian handed him a knife and Julius took it with a terse smile. “Thanks, bud. I can always count on you, can't I?”

  “Always.” Fabian smirked and Julius fought a grin as he rolled his sleeve back and held the knife above his arm.

  “Wait,” I hissed, my throat tightening at the idea of him slashing his veins open. “Don't we need to do something to call Odin? Like...I dunno, a ritual or something?”

  “Yeah.” Fabian smirked at me and Callie. “You two need to strip off and go dance naked in that field over there.”

  “Very funny,” Callie said, folding her arms.

  “We just need to call him,” Miles said, looking to the sky. “Julius, shout his name when you cut yourself.”

  Julius nodded to him, pressing the knife to his forearm and swiping it across his skin. To his credit, he didn't even wince as blood poured from the clean cut. As the blood dripped to the ground, he turned his face to the cloudy sky. “Odin!” he bellowed.

  I tensed, gazing around us as if I might spot the god emerging from the pressing darkness.

  Nothing changed, except the clouds shifted above and revealed a full moon shining down on us.

  “Do it again,” Clarice urged.

  “Odin we need your help!” Julius cried to the quiet heavens.

  I bit into my lip as I waited for something to happen.

  The seconds passed, ticking on almost loud enough for me to hear them.

  I jolted as a ribbon of moonlight shot through the sky then descended on us like a beacon, bathing our group in a milky glow.

  Adrenaline spiked in my veins as I stared around at the others.

  The moonlight grew brighter until I couldn't see anything but white. I squinted, grabbing Callie's hand to assure me she was still there.

  She gripped my fingers in a tight hold.

  The brightness faded a fraction and the air seemed to split in two, light bending and the sound of rainfall filling my ears. I stilled at the sight of the man who stepped out of the strange fissure in the air beside Julius. Huge, stacked with muscles with a thick black beard encompassing his chin. One of his eyes was stitched shut, but the other was icily blue gazing around at all of us. His aura was the most powerful thing I'd ever experienced and as he stepped closer to me and Callie, we instinctively moved back as a unit.

  “Twins of sun and moon,” he said in a tone that was as rough as waves crashing against jagged rocks. “Have so many years passed already?” He blinked around at our group, his head tilting as if he recognised each and every face before him. “Slayers and vampires standing together...” A smile pulled up his mouth as his gaze fell on Julius. “I thank you for your offering son of Idun.” He raised his palm over the bloody wound on Julius's arm and it immediately knitted back together.

  Julius released a noise somewhere between a whimper and grunt.

  “I can offer you a gift in return for your sacrifice.” Odin reached out to touch the hilt of Julius’s broken sword, Menace, which he still carried with him in a sheath. A powerful glow built along the blade and Julius inhaled sharply as Odin withdrew his hand from it.

  Julius drew the long sword and where the blade had been severed by the chains Valentina had used to capture Erik, a deep rune now glowed, combining the broken pieces and making it whole once more.

  “No blade powerful enough to kill a god should ever have been broken so,” Odin said.

  “Slayer blades can kill gods?” Callie asked in surprise.

  “Of course,” Odin replied with the faintest hint of a smile. “The vampires were given immortality by the fruit which sustains the deities. They themselves are part god so a weapon forged to kill them could certainly kill us too.”

  I placed my hand on Nightmare’s hilt, the blade burning more strongly than ever in the presence of this king of gods and it seemed to writhe with the potential he spoke of.

  I exchanged a hopeful look with Callie. If these blades could kill a god then perhaps we could use them to defend ourselves agains
t Idun and Andvari.

  “So it is time,” Odin sighed and his breath was like an autumn breeze, lifting my hair around me in the strange gust. “My prophecy has almost come to fruition.”

  “Your prophecy?” Fabian asked, his brows stitching together.

  “Andvari called on me to make it...it was never his. Not even he knows the deep secrets it holds.” Odin turned to Callie and I once more. He reached toward me and I shuddered, a wave of energy rolling through my body. My heart beat. Once, twice, then it stopped abruptly as if it had never happened.

  “You have given your life for this,” he whispered, his one eye falling directly on me. “But there is more you must give.” He turned to Callie, raising a palm and her own hand lifted in response, shaking as she stretched her arm beneath his nose. He gazed down at the ring shining on it with a hint of a smile.

  “I am the only one who can see it,” he sighed. “And the only one who does not desire it.” He dropped his hand and Callie's arm fell to her side. “You must return it to Andvari. Lay it in the holy mountain with the treasure and pay the debt...that is the only way for this to end.”

  “No,” Julius said from beyond Odin and the god's azure eye swivelled back into his head as if he could see through his own skull.

  “No?” Odin laughed in a gravelly tone, the sound sending a quake through to my bones.

  “It’s protecting us from Idun and Andvari,” Julius said anxiously.

  “Returning it is the only way to end the curse upon the children of blood,” Odin said.

  “Then we will,” Clarice said, nodding quickly.

  “Yes,” I confirmed. “If that's what it takes to end the curse, we'll do it. But we need your help first.”

  “And we won't do anything unless you agree,” Callie said firmly and Odin's single eye spun toward her.

  “Callie Ford...your veins run hot with the fire of the sun. You have taken steps toward your calling, but you are yet to deliver the promise of the prophecy. The sun sometimes forgets that it hides the light of a million stars beneath its powerful glow. There are many in this world who need you to use that fire to guide them out of their eternal night.” His eye turned to me and a tremor gripped my body. “Montana...you are more willing to give what you know you must. The moon shines brightest in the dark. But it is always there, even in the day. Quiet and patient for its time to ascend. Your rising has been a most difficult transition; you have shed your hatred of those who perhaps did not deserve it. But the losses you faced along the way have left scars on your heart that still misguide your actions...” He contemplated us for what seemed like minutes as the quiet stretched on. Eventually he took a deep breath that drew the hair forward from our shoulders. “Dusk and dawn, the in between. That is where you had to meet. And here we are. Two ancient enemies united as one. And yet...there are two missing.”