Chickoa gazed over the valley at our group huddled by the truck. She took the photo from her pocket and ran her thumb across the picture of her and her husband. “I'll rebuild it, Terry,” she said softly.
Guilt crept into my gut that we'd come here and brought such disaster down on her head. She didn't deserve to be caught up in this mess. But our fates were woven together now. And she was clearly prepared to take on the journey to end the curse for good.
“Is Erik alright?” Chickoa asked me and my gut knotted at her words.
I shook my head in answer. “He's hurting so badly...and he doesn't want me near him.”
She laid a hand on my arm and I glanced up at her, finding understanding in her eyes. “My husband was the same. He always retreated into himself every time something bad happened. But you just have to stick with him, Montana. He needs you more than you know right now. It is the way of some men. But if you give him time and an ear to listen every time he needs it, he'll come around.”
“I hope so,” I breathed, emotion tangling with my veins.
“I know so,” she promised. “I've seen how much he loves you. This is just a road bump. Life has a lot of those unfortunately.”
I gazed at this beautiful woman who must have seen so much more of the world than I could ever wish to. She'd walked this Earth for a thousand years. Lived and loved. And it gave me hope that she could see a glimmer of light right now. Because to me, the world was a dark, dark place where the sun no longer shone.
The trees passed me by in a blur as I shot between them. I should have collided with the trunks and yet somehow it was as easy as breathing to weave between them at this speed. Not that I was breathing.
I stopped suddenly and instead of stumbling as I did so, I skidded through the leaves at my feet smoothly, barely making a sound.
The pain at the base of my throat was growing more noticeable. More demanding. But I wouldn’t give in to it. If I did then I truly was one of them. A vampire. My sworn enemy.
And if I accept that fact then I will have to end my life just as my father did.
I looked down at my hands, turning them over slowly as I noticed the faint scars which had always lined them were now gone. Practicing swordplay had given me countless scars on my fingers over the years and I’d always seen them as a kind of testimony to the hours I’d spent honing my craft and perfecting my skill. Now they were wiped away as if that meant nothing.
My gaze travelled down to my chest. The curve of my muscles seemed even more defined and as I pressed a thumb to my stomach I felt the hardness of my skin as it refused to give under the pressure. It was as though I’d been carved from stone.
My god-given tattoos remained where they’d always been, the runes of the goddess’s gifts marking my skin even after her death. I guessed they truly were gifts and nothing could remove them from me, even her own demise. To my disgust, the mark binding me to Valentina remained in place too and I grazed my thumb across the line of it angrily. Even my death hadn’t released me from my vow to that monstrous creature.
Every other mark on my flesh was gone though. The scars I’d gotten in training and battle, the marks left on my bicep by the wolf I’d fought off in the dead of night a thousand years ago.
I turned my left arm and pain blossomed in my chest as I noticed the star I’d had inked into my skin in honour of my father was no longer there. Every tattoo I’d chosen for myself was gone and my bronze skin now glimmered with a near translucence which looked almost like sunlight.
I stilled as the soft sound of footsteps approached through the trees at my back. I didn’t move an inch, but I inhaled slowly and the scent of her sailed to me on the wind. The burning in the back of my throat grew desperate but I pushed my will against it, refusing to face the reality of what my body desired from her now.
I turned, listening hard until I picked out the steady rhythm of her heartbeat.
“Magnar?” she called to me and every inch of my body responded.
I waited as she drew closer and the sight of her arriving in the small clearing was enough to make me hesitate. I didn’t want to run from her; I wanted to run to her.
My body responded to the sight of her beauty like I was an animal sighting my destiny. Everything about this transformation seemed to have tied my flesh more firmly in line with my instincts. I felt like a wolf in a man's body. And she was my mate.
I gave up on holding myself back and shot forward to close the distance between us. My blood heated from her proximity and the scent coming off of her skin was enough to drive me wild.
She gasped as I pulled up in front of her and I could tell that this change in me made her nervous. But I’d never hurt her. She was everything to me. The idea of causing her pain was beyond unimaginable. I would give my life for hers. I would protect her against everything this world had to throw at her and hold her tightly in my arms until the day she died.
“Are you okay?” Callie breathed as she looked up at me and I could see how unsure she felt in my presence now.
“I’m...” I didn’t really know how to answer her. I couldn’t totally comprehend what had happened to me but while I was looking into her eyes I felt sure of one thing. “I’m still me,” I breathed. “Despite being this...” I gestured to my newly enhanced physique as I struggled to find the right word for it. “And I still love you with the fierceness of a thousand suns.”
A smile captured her full lips and I ached to kiss her but I hesitated as her scent washed over me again.
My new body was a feral thing, filled with carnal desire for her which I longed to obey but I couldn’t deny the hunger I felt as I listened to her heartbeat. Just beneath the perfection of her flesh lay a river of her life force which called to me like a siren in the waves.
“We can fix this, Magnar,” Callie said slowly. “We can break the curse.”
I stilled as I read into her words and I realised what she was saying. “You want me to stay like this?”
“Just for a little while,” she pleaded and I noticed the tears which she was fighting to hold back. “We’re so, so close to ending it.”
I wanted to agree, to do anything at all to halt the pain I could see building within her. But I hesitated. How could I just become the thing I’d spent my life fighting to destroy? How could I abandon everything that had made me into the man I was?
I reached out to trail my fingers along her face and she closed her eyes, leaning into my touch.
The heat of her skin sent desire coursing through me and I gave in to the beast which raged in my chest as I captured her chin and pulled her closer.
She gasped as my mouth caught hers and I released a satisfied growl as she bowed to my demands, parting her lips as I pushed my tongue into her mouth.
Her skin was as soft as silk beneath my fingers and her lips moulded to mine, fuelling my desire further. I wanted more of her, all of her, every inch of her flesh and each drop of her blood.
No, not that. I forced away my desire for her blood as I focused on the indescribable feeling of her body pressed to mine. If I could keep my mind on that then the burning in my throat would pass. I knew I could force it away if I just distracted myself from it enough and Callie’s touch was more than enough to sustain me.
I lifted her into my arms and she was impossibly light with my slayer gifts and vampire talents combined, as though she weighed no more than a feather resting in my palm.
I shot across the clearing, shoving her up against a huge oak tree which shuddered beneath the force of our collision.
Callie hissed in pain as I accidentally drove her against the trunk too firmly. But she didn’t stop kissing me, her hands twisting into my hair as she clung on, dragging me nearer as though she needed this just as much as I did.
I growled, deep in the back of my throat as I released her lips and moved my mouth across her jaw. I caught her chin in my hand and turned her head so that I could claim her throat.
My lips moved against her skin and
the thundering of her heart drove me on. Her skin was so soft and pliant, demanding more of my attention. The smell of her was driving me crazy and I was sure she could feel the evidence of my arousal pressing against her.
I kissed her neck again, an ache building in my throat as I felt her pulse pounding beneath my lips.
My teeth brushed her skin and my grip on her tightened as I groaned with longing, holding her in place as I ached for more.
My fangs tingled hungrily as I brushed them against the flesh of her neck and she stilled in my arms, no longer dragging me closer.
“It’s alright,” she breathed and her hands released my hair as she caressed me gently instead, her fingertips trailing across my shoulders. “You can bite me if you need to.”
Panic lurched through me as I suddenly realised what I was doing and I dropped her, pulling away from her in disgust.
She fell to the floor as I backed up in a flash of movement and I held a hand up between us as she scrambled upright, moving towards me again.
“I’m sorry,” I breathed, revulsion flooding through me at what I’d almost done to her.
“I understand,” she said, her eyes glimmering with pity. “And it’s alright, I promise. You need blood and I would give you anything-”
“Not that,” I begged.
She nodded, accepting what I was saying about it as her eyes moved to scan the clearing. She crossed it quickly, stooping to retrieve a bottle from the ground where she’d dropped it. I knew what was inside that vessel and I shook my head again in a firm refusal.
“I think you should consider-”
“No,” I rasped, though my body shifted towards her slightly in contradiction of my words. “Please don’t force this issue. I can’t do that, I just... can’t.”
“Okay,” she breathed, lowering the bottle as she accepted what I was saying. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. But I promise you it won’t change anything for me if you do... you’re still the man I love, Magnar. Nothing you could do would ever alter that.”
I walked towards her slowly, focusing on maintaining a normal pace instead of shooting forwards again.
“How can you love me like this?” I asked softly. “I’m not even alive anymore...”
“I think you are,” she replied, closing the distance between us again. I raised an eyebrow, unable to believe that she wasn’t afraid of me after what I’d almost done to her.
“My heart isn’t beating,” I replied hollowly.
“But it still belongs to me doesn’t it?”
I nodded slowly. With all the doubts that were flooding me, that was one thing I was sure of. My love for her hadn’t diminished a single bit. If my heart could still beat then it would do so for her.
“So think of it like this.” Callie drew close enough to touch me and she placed a burning hot hand upon my chest above my still heart. “At the second you died, you loved me and when the curse is broken, you’ll love me still. This is just the fleeting moment between heartbeats, the gap between breaths. And while we’re in it, our love burns as brightly as it will once it passes.”
“How can I live as one of them?” I murmured though I wasn’t sure how I could die and leave her behind either.
“You made me a promise; you said you’d be mine. Always. Do you still want to marry me?” she asked, her voice seductive as the image of my life with her hovered on the edge of my imagination.
“More than anything in the world,” I admitted, my voice cracking.
“Then keep your promise,” she begged. “Let’s break this curse and kill Valentina. And when your heart starts beating again and your bond to her is severed you can stand before the gods and claim me for your own. Not because they chose it but because we did. Don’t let Idun take that from us. Don’t let the gods destroy what we’ve fought so hard for.”
I released a sound which was somewhere between a groan and a lament. How could I deny what she was asking of me? How could I consider breaking my word and leaving her to face this life alone? But how could I spend even a minute more as a monster?
Callie pushed up onto her toes and pressed her lips to mine. My fangs tingled as the scent of her blood overwhelmed me for a moment but I pushed it aside, focusing on this creature in my arms. It was hard to believe that the gods had had no part in her creation. She was so utterly right for me that I could easily have thought she’d been designed specifically to be mine.
I was a slave to her desires and willingly so.
My fingers slipped through her golden hair and down her back as she arched into me. A weight settled in my chest as I clung to her and I knew what my answer would be. Of course I couldn’t leave her and walk away from the promise of the life I’d always desired. Even in my wildest dreams I’d never imagined I’d find a woman who was even half the match for me that she was. I would do anything for her. For us. Even allow my soul to reside in the body of a monster if that was what it took.
“Alright,” I sighed against her lips, though I wasn’t sure there had ever been any other answer. If it wasn’t for her I never could have considered this but without her I was nothing and I wouldn’t give her up. No matter the cost. Even if I was damning my soul.
Callie gasped, looking up at me with hope shining in her eyes. “You mean it?”
“I would do anything for a lifetime in your arms,” I breathed. “And I wish to see this curse broken once and for all. We are overdue our happiness and if I have to wait in the moment between two heartbeats for us to take it then I will.”
Callie hiccuped a laugh and closed her arms around me more tightly as she kissed me again.
I doubted there was much in this world that could have pushed me into making this decision but if the woman who ruled my heart wished to keep it even after it had fallen still then I wasn’t a foolish enough man to refuse her.
I headed through the sweeping valley to rejoin the group by the truck, carrying a gallon of milk to feed Callie and Julius on our journey. It wasn’t much, but most of Chickoa’s food stores had been lost to the blazing fire of her home. And hopefully it would be enough to keep them nourished until we found more supplies.
As I arrived back in the yard, I spotted Callie and Magnar returning from the trees. I halted nervously, waiting for them to approach, the tension in the air building as the others stood to attention.
Magnar's eyes swivelled between us then landed on his brother. In a surge of movement, he rushed toward Julius, stopping before him suddenly. Magnar’s jaw was set and an intensity blazed in his eyes that made me anxious.
“Are you...” Julius shrugged, unsure of how to finish that sentence.
“I'm going to remain this way for now. We'll head to the mountain,” Magnar growled, his tone even deeper than it had been as a mortal.
Julius's shoulders dropped and he lurched forward to wrap his arms around Magnar.
Magnar fell stock still and I could tell the thirst was gripping him.
I jogged toward Callie with a frown lining my features. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” she sighed. “But he won't drink.”
I knew Magnar was strong. He'd fight it. But it was only a matter of time before he would simply have to submit to it.
Fabian turned in our direction, evidently hearing her. “I'm not letting you in that truck with him until he's had some blood.”
“Then we'll be here all year,” Callie snapped. “He's not going to drink. He can handle it.”
“What do you know about it?” Fabian hissed and I prepared to get between them as she squared her shoulders. “You haven't the faintest clue of how demanding the thirst is. He won't have a choice in it if he waits too long. And every second he puts it off, the more likely it is he'll lose his mind and bite you.”
“I am not like you,” Magnar called, striding toward us at a fierce pace. “I wouldn't drink blood even if the thirst ripped me apart from the inside out.”
“You're wrong,” Clarice said gently, inching closer.
“You can fight it for a while, Magnar. But you'd be a fool to put Callie at risk when we have bottles of blood at hand. Surely that’s better than biting her or Julius?”
Magnar's eyes scraped over her and fear darted up my spine at his fierce expression.
“I'm not drinking like a parasite,” he snarled at her and I caught sight of his fangs. The others noticed too and Magnar suddenly realised it, turning sharply away from us.
“He won't do it,” Callie reiterated and Fabian sighed his frustration.
Erik stepped out of the truck, his eyes endlessly dark. “Magnar, get in the front. The rest of you in the back. Now. We're leaving.”
“But Magnar-” Fabian started and Erik's glare swung onto him.
“If he won't drink, he won't fucking drink,” Erik snapped and a shudder ran through me at his tone. “And we can’t waste any more time here. Valentina is probably on her way already.”
“Let's go,” Clarice said in encouragement and everyone moved toward the truck, filing inside.
I placed the gallon of milk in the trunk as Chickoa hurried up after us. She’d gathered water from a well for the humans and she quickly put the bottles in the back of the truck with the rest of our meagre supplies. I moved around to the side door, climbing inside and sitting down next to Callie. Chickoa jumped in and dropped down beside Fabian, not seeming to have noticed who she'd sat next to until it was too late to move.
Magnar shot around the front of the truck and got into the passenger seat beside Erik. He slammed the door and the whole vehicle rocked sideways.
“Fucking hell,” Erik cursed under his breath.
“Sorry I...” Magnar trailed off, his shoulders hunching as he shifted away from the door.
As the truck stopped swaying, I turned to Callie beside me. “He'll get used to it,” she mouthed to me and I nodded, praying she was right.
Fabian's hands were curled into fists as he gazed at the back of Magnar's head with concern. After the punch Magnar had landed on him, I didn't think he'd be able to take him on even if he wanted to. It frightened me that if Magnar lost control to the bloodlust, we might not be able to subdue him.
Age of Vampires- The Complete Series Page 167