Age of Vampires- The Complete Series

by Caroline Peckham

  My eyes locked with Magnar's as he tried to get close again and a silent promise passed between us.

  We'd kill this goddess. Come hell or high water. And we would fucking well do it together.

  The ground ripped apart at Magnar’s feet and I released a shout of fear as he teetered on the edge of it, about to fall into the dark abyss opening up behind him.

  “No!” I yelled, pushing my legs to their limits in a desperate bid to reach him.

  I stumbled back, my boot slipping on the top of the crevice Idun had carved into the hill. The rocks at the edge of it crumbled beneath me and I cried out as I fell.

  I slammed Venom into the ground as I tipped over the edge of the hole and grunted with the effort it took to cling onto the blade as my weight hung suspended beneath it.

  My boots scrambled against the crumbling earth and I glanced down at the unending chasm below. If I fell there would be no coming back from it. No vengeance for my father. No death for this deity who toyed with our souls. No life with the woman I loved.

  I snarled as I heaved myself higher and my blade juddered as its purchase in the soil started to give way.

  My heart crashed into my throat as the sword slipped again and I released my left hand from it, clawing at the soil in a desperate attempt to pull myself up before it gave way.

  My heart shuddered with realisation as Venom split through the soil. My hands flailed, my gut soared. The chasm was going to swallow me whole and everything I'd ever hoped for would be lost.

  A hand grasped mine and I grabbed hold of it with a harsh breath, my life hanging in their arms.

  My blade swung uselessly at my side as I gripped my saviour's hand with a savage determination to survive. Erik hoisted me skyward and I managed to hook my leg over the edge of the fissure as he dragged me back onto solid ground.

  “Let’s end this,” Erik snarled as he yanked me to my feet and I could see the grief of his loss deep within his eyes.

  I scanned the battlefield anxiously. We were the last two standing against the deity and somehow that felt right. Like it always should have been that way.

  “Let her see me,” Erik said, tightening his grip on my hand. “I’ll draw her to you.”

  “And I’ll gut her,” I growled in agreement before releasing him.

  Erik nodded determinedly and he turned from me, running towards Idun as I pulled the ring’s protection away from him.

  Idun shrieked triumphantly as she spotted him and a line of fire burst from the ground beneath his feet. Erik leapt away, catching a rock in his grasp and hurling it at her with his inhuman strength.

  I lifted Venom high and sprinted towards her, dodging the fire which flared close enough to harm me.

  Flames blossomed again and Erik danced away, turning and running towards me over the destroyed earth as I tightened my grip on Venom between both of my hands, aiming it straight at the deity’s heart.

  Idun snarled, her lip curling back to reveal a row of sharpened teeth as she sprinted after Erik. Predator turned prey. She was charging straight towards my blade and she had no idea of the death which raced to meet her.

  She caught him just before he reached me, her hand closing around the back of his neck before she lifted him clean off of his feet and hurled him into the air.

  A sharpened spear appeared in her hand and she rotated her arm back as he fell towards the ground again, ready to impale him and destroy his undead heart. I ground my teeth in fierce denial of that act; this Belvedere had become a part of my life in ways that were so convoluted it was hard to align my true feelings for him. But I knew in my heart that his death would pain me now and I had no intention of letting that happen.

  I pushed the ring’s influence back over Erik before she could take aim and he crashed to the ground, missing the spear as she hurled it in his general direction.

  Erik lay unmoving in the dirt and I was left alone to face her but he’d done what he’d promised and she was well within range of my long sword.

  With a bellow of rage I charged forward, closing the final gap between us and slamming Venom straight through her chest.

  Idun’s eyes widened with shock and I withdrew the ring’s influence from myself so that she could look into my eyes before she died. I wanted her to know who’d ended her eternal existence.

  Our faces were inches apart, her eyes glowing with the fading embers of her power as the life fled from her body. The world was alive with the pain of this divine being coming to her demise. The air shuddered, the grass rippled in an unnatural breeze, the ground beneath my feet moaned a lament at her loss.

  “You swore an oath to me,” Idun murmured, her final breaths washing over my face.

  “This is me breaking it,” I snarled.

  “You’ve broken your vow. Your life is forfeit.” Idun’s power snared me in its hold one final time as she leant forward and pressed a kiss to my lips.

  I was frozen in place, unable to pull back as her golden blood flowed into my mouth.

  My heart thundered in my chest as her lips fell cold and hard against mine. She released a soft sigh and a warm wind shifted around us, pulling her away from me.

  Her beautiful flesh slowly dissolved into a host of writhing maggots which tumbled across her bones, feasting on the remains of her soul. The pieces of her broken body crumbled to the ground and the grasping hands of the dead reappeared, claiming each and every part of her, dragging her beneath the soil and removing her immortal existence from the world.

  Her power fell to nothing at the moment of her death but still I couldn’t move.

  I dropped to my knees, driving Venom into the ground before me.

  Something was crawling beneath my skin, pooling in my blood and burning within my flesh.

  My heart slammed against my ribs so hard that it hurt. It was a desperate, pleading thing, thrumming in a hopeless effort to stop whatever poison the goddess had given me.

  I lifted my eyes, searching for the face of the woman I loved, aching to see her one last time as a torturous fire simmered through my veins, drawing me closer to death.

  I started shaking, tremors raking through my body as my grip on venom’s hilt tightened and I was fairly sure it was the only thing keeping me upright.

  There was movement all around me but I couldn’t see anything beyond my hands as they clenched the sword. My slayer’s mark burned more fiercely than anything else, the pain driving right down to the bone of my forearm. If I could draw breath I’d have been screaming from the agony of it.

  I was dying. I knew it. I could feel it in the depths of my soul. Something was horribly wrong with my body and the thundering pace of my heart was so loud that I could hear it resounding inside my skull.

  “Magnar?”

  I dragged my eyes up as Callie dropped to her knees in front of me, her golden hair glinting as the sun crested the hill behind her.

  “What’s happening to him?” She looked beyond me, behind me, all around as the rest of them drew closer too.

  The shaking was getting worse and my heart was racing towards a conclusion which I knew I couldn’t avoid.

  This was the price of taking a life from the gods. I should have known that doing such a thing could not be done freely. My life to pay for hers.

  Idun had told me that I would find love but she’d never intended for me to have it. It had been a fleeting thing, never meant for the likes of me. But whilst it had been mine I was happy. Truly happy in all the ways I’d ever hoped to be and more. And if this was all I got to have of it then it was more than I’d deserved.

  Callie reached out to touch my face but I couldn’t feel the brush of her fingers on my skin.

  I met her blue eyes and I was glad that they were the last thing that I would see.

  Her lips moved. She was saying something. I couldn’t hear her anymore. But I could see what it was. I wished I could say it back. Three little words that had changed my whole world and made my life worth living again.

  I lov
e you.

  And I love you more. More than you could ever know.

  My heart pounded.

  Once.

  Twice.

  And then it stopped.

  I hung suspended in that moment of my death as my grip on my father’s sword loosened and I tipped backwards.

  Darkness came for me, swallowing me whole before I even hit the ground.

  If I’d known that this was how it was going to end then I wasn’t sure if I would have done anything differently. But I knew what I would have done the same.

  The pain in my flesh fizzled to nothing. I was empty. Unfeeling. Lost.

  I thought of Callie and of the life we should have had together as I drifted away from her. We should have had so much longer. But the gods had been trying to keep us apart from the very beginning. We’d even been born in different ages, destined never to know of the other's existence let alone find the love we had. And while it had been mine I had cherished it. So I could part this life knowing I’d made the most of what little we’d had. Even if I still dreamed of taking just a bit more...

  “Please don’t leave me.” Her voice was raw, begging, desperate.

  Her tears fell against my skin and they were burning hot.

  She pressed her lips to mine and though I couldn’t move, I could feel the soft fullness of them unlike I’d ever felt anything before.

  Her fingers grazed along my jaw and my skin was alight with the movement in a way that should have made my heart race but it remained still in my chest.

  “Magnar,” she begged again and the sound of my name on her lips pulled me back to her. But I wasn’t sure I was me anymore.

  My eyes opened and there she was, her hand on my cheek and her golden hair falling around us like a curtain against the world.

  Her eyes were the most stunning shade of blue. But I’d never noticed the darker line around the edge of her irises before. I could see every long eyelash which shone wetly with the tears which pooled amongst them. She blinked at me, inhaling sharply as she saw that I was awake.

  “You’re alive?” she asked in astonishment and I could tell she knew that I hadn’t been.

  She kissed me again and my whole body lit with the feeling of her flesh against mine. Every inch of skin sparked and reacted in a way which was at once familiar and totally alien. I ached for her in all the ways I always had and more besides. Her closeness built a clawing desperation in the back of my throat and her scent sailed through me like the promise of my salvation. How had I never noticed the way she smelled before? It was the most delicious temptation of her alluring body and I breathed it in recklessly, longing for more.

  I pushed myself up and I moved so quickly I almost knocked her off of me but I caught her before she could fall. I wasn’t going to let her go. She was mine. And I was hers.

  She pulled back and her relief turned to concern as she cupped my cheek in her hand and the warmth of her skin almost burned against the chill of my own. A tingling itch crept along my skin as every injury I’d gained in this battle and those I’d held before it knitted over, healing until my flesh was made new once more.

  My throat itched and tightened in a way I had no words for and the most beautiful noise filled my ears. I lifted my hand and placed it above her heart, enraptured by the sound of it reaching me.

  Her lips parted but no words came out. My gaze slid down to the soft bobbing of her throat as she swallowed back whatever she’d been going to say. The sun-kissed skin of her neck called to me and I leaned closer, inhaling the most intoxicating scent.

  “Holy shit,” Erik murmured, wrenching Callie back but she fought to stay with me and I caught her hand to keep her close.

  “Get away from him, Callie. He’s not safe,” Fabian warned and rage built in my veins as they spoke to her so.

  She shifted a little, her eyes widening as they raked over me. Seeing every small change and every similarity. I was the man she loved and I was something else too.

  Hands pulled her away and she got to her feet, leaving me beneath her on the floor. I rolled upright so swiftly that I almost beat her to it and all of them shifted back in response.

  “Callie,” Montana breathed fearfully as she gripped her sister’s arm. “He’s one of us.”

  Callie shrugged out of her hold and approached me again as that delicious scent rolled off of her skin, drawing me closer, building on the ache in the back of my throat. And with a comprehension that hit me like a wave crashing against a cliff, I realised what it was that called to me so.

  The one thing I needed above all else.

  What I’d live for.

  And die for.

  Blood.

  My lips parted in horrified wonder as I stared at the transformation which had taken place in the man I loved.

  I reached for him, my hand landing on his chest above his heart and my fingers trembled as I failed to feel any movement. His skin was too cold. His features too perfect.

  He looked into my eyes and I could see the dawning realisation there.

  “It’s alright,” I breathed. “It’ll be alright.”

  “He needs blood,” Erik hissed urgently.

  “There’s still some in the truck we took from the base,” Clarice replied and I saw her speeding away from me toward the armoured truck in the corner of my eye.

  “Step away, Callie,” Fabian growled.

  “He won’t hurt me,” I replied faintly.

  “Brother? Can you hear us?” Julius asked as he moved closer and Magnar’s eyes wheeled towards him.

  This couldn’t have happened. There was no way it could be real. How could the goddess have done this to him?

  It doesn’t change anything. He’s still the man I fell in love with.

  My heart began to race in fierce denial of the truth and Magnar tilted his head as if he could hear it. With a jolt, I realised that he could.

  I took a step closer, reducing the space between us to millimetres as I slid my hand further up his chest, trailing it over his neck until I cupped his jaw. I looked deep into his golden eyes and I could see the torment that raged there as he struggled to accept what had happened to him.

  “It’s okay,” I said again. But it wasn’t. I knew it. He knew it.

  “Here!” Clarice said and she pressed close to me, holding out a silver bottle. I eyed it with a little fear as she twisted the cap free and pushed it under Magnar’s nose.

  “No,” he snarled. And his voice was his but not, like the rough edges of it were gone and a deeper, more seductive note had taken its place.

  “It’ll be worse the longer you resist,” Erik said firmly.

  “No!” Magnar slapped the bottle out of Clarice’s grip and the blood was spilled across the ground beside us, sinking into the dirt by our feet.

  I flinched back a step, withdrawing my hand and Magnar’s face crumpled as he realised he’d frightened me.

  “Stay back, Callie,” Fabian urged, gripping my arm and drawing me away from him.

  A feral anger grew in Magnar’s eyes at the sight of Fabian’s hands on my flesh. He’d never been a jealous man but the look on his face was primal, animal and suddenly I feared what he might do to keep me away from Fabian.

  “Release her,” Magnar growled, his posture dipping so that he looked as if he might spring forward at any moment. The threat of violence clear in his stance. He was like a wild beast, poised to attack, his hands curling into fists as he glared at Fabian in a clear threat.

  “He’s only concerned for her, Brother,” Julius murmured, moving to take my place before him.

  Magnar’s gaze stayed locked on the point of contact between me and Fabian and he bared his fangs. A tremor raced through me as I spotted them. Any feeble hope that I’d been clinging to fled me at that final bit of proof. He was a vampire. The man I loved, whose whole life had been devoted to destroying the undead was now one of them himself.

  Holy shit.

  Fabian hissed in response, pulling me closer possessively. M
agnar shot forward so quickly that I barely had time to scream before his fist collided with Fabian’s jaw.

  Fabian was thrown away from me with such force that I heard his bones breaking from the impact.

  I scrambled back and Montana wrapped her arms around me defensively as my heart pounded adrenaline through my body.

  Clarice cried out in panic as Fabian failed to rise from the spot ten meters away where he’d landed.

  “By the gods,” Erik cursed as he moved to stand before me and Montana. “He’s kept his slayer gifts like Valentina did: he was immeasurably strong before but now...”

  “He’s fucking invincible,” Julius murmured as he moved in front of me too.

  They were all eyeing Magnar like he was a stranger who might hurt any one of us and my heart shattered at the sight. I knew in my soul that wasn’t the case. He was still him. No matter what changes had been forced upon his body.

  Clarice moved closer as well, trying to push Julius back too but he shrugged her off and she was forced to take up position at his side instead. They were afraid that Magnar was going to hurt me and Julius and pain flooded me at the idea.

  Magnar glared at Fabian until he was convinced that he wasn’t going to rise again. He turned his gaze back to me and Chickoa scrambled over to see if there was anything she could do to help Fabian while he was unconscious.

  Magnar frowned as he noted the group of people standing between him and me.

  “Callie?” he murmured. “Don’t be afraid of me... I won’t... you know I’d never hurt you-”

  “I know,” I agreed, pressing Montana’s arms down until she released me.

  “Be careful,” she breathed. “He still hasn’t fed yet.”

  I glanced at my sister and I could see how much this was scaring her but I knew Magnar. And just as I’d trusted her when she was turned, I knew I could trust him too.

  I stepped around Erik and he eyed me like he wanted to make a protest but I guessed what had just happened to Fabian was making him hesitate.