“I will give each of your immortal friends one extra minute in the clutches of the curse. That way, when all those who stand against them find themselves human once more, they will have the time to cut through them before their own transformation occurs. It would be a shame for them to return to humanity just in time to die at the hands of an enraged army after all.”
Andvari smiled wickedly and it felt as though an icy hand was gripping my heart.
I looked at my sister with tears welling in my eyes. How could I agree to him taking her soul? But if I didn’t then what? Even if we could leave this cave we’d be killed by the army waiting for us outside. At least this way we could save the people we loved. And if I had to die for anything then I knew in my heart it would be that.
“We’ll be together?” Montana asked. “Wherever you take us?”
“Yes,” Andvari purred eagerly. “Your souls are useless apart. I will keep you together for all of eternity, though you may wish in the end that I hadn’t.”
My lower lip started trembling at his words. He wanted our souls for some foul reason of his own design and I couldn’t begin to imagine what it might be. But despite the fear coursing through me, I knew that we had no choice. I would give my life for Magnar. For Erik, the man my sister loved. For humanity and the chance for the world to heal again.
Montana took my other hand and as I looked into her eyes, my tears came flooding past the last of my defences.
I would make this sacrifice ten times over if I could spare her from the same fate.
“Then we are agreed?” Andvari asked eagerly. He swept closer, his breath washing over my skin as my pulse thundered in my ears, desperate to beat as many times as possible before it had to stop.
I didn’t look at the cruel god, refusing to allow his face to be the last thing I saw in this unforgiving world.
I kept my eyes on my sister instead, clinging onto her hands like they were all that kept me rooted to this spot.
“Yes,” we breathed as one and Andvari reached out to place a hand upon our shoulders.
Montana’s eyes widened with wonder as the vampire curse was stripped from her and her features returned to their beautiful human imperfection. Her cheeks flushed with colour as her heart started beating and mine slammed against my ribs almost painfully in response.
Her return to life only lasted half a second before I felt the chill of Andvari’s grip on my shoulder slipping beneath my flesh.
I gasped, taking my final breath as his fist closed around something deep within me and the tightness of his grip seemed likely to suffocate everything that made me who I was.
I reached for Montana in a way that was anything but physical as he plucked our souls from our bodies and the flesh which had once housed us tumbled to the floor of the cave.
Darkness prevailed, filled with pain and loss and longing but somewhere amongst it I found her, crying out to be united with me one final time.
My soul clung to hers with a desperate, aching need and for one last moment, I fell into her embrace before the arms of death stole even that from us.
And we were no more.
“We have to get to Valentina!” I shouted to Magnar as he ripped off limbs with his bare hands. A mound of broken vampire bodies mingled with the dust, forming a ring around us.
Several more sprang onto the pile to intercept us and I split the earth open again, taking the living and the dead with it.
Magnar stumbled back from the ledge as the great fissure left us with a handful of our enemies.
We slashed through the final Biters blocking our path to Valentina and Magnar leapt to my side as we sprinted into the forest.
Trunks whipped past me, a veil of green. I was moving so fast the world was nothing but a speeding blur in my periphery. Magnar matched my pace, our boots ripping up the mud beneath our feet and spewing it out behind us.
A Biter ran to intercept us and was dashed to pieces as he met the full force of our bodies colliding with him like a truck.
A blade stuck out of my arm and I yanked it free with a hiss of pain, throwing it forward with the speed of a bullet as I spotted Valentina's entourage up ahead.
The male it hit turned to ash and Valentina glanced over her shoulder with terror in her gaze. She raised her hands and the heavens crackled expectantly. Lightning sped toward us, so blindingly white it was as if she was bringing the entire sky down on our heads.
She planted her feet, screaming fiercely, the sound raking against my eardrums. The lightning forked down from every direction and I shifted the earth, trying to bring it up to shelter us.
A boom sounded behind us in the mountain and a ripple of impossibly strong power ripped every tree around us from its roots.
Magnar and I hit the ground, carving a great crater in the earth as we skidded forward under the immensity of the shockwave. The storm flashed and died above us and every ounce of light in the world seemed to falter with it.
Silence reigned as I clawed my way over the mound of earth before me and Magnar moved at my side; two warriors united in our single cause. We crested the dirt and my gaze fell on Valentina and the surviving group of Biters beside her.
She gasped in horror, slamming a hand to her chest. A beat reached my ears, then more and more of them, clamouring in the chests of our enemies.
Valentina's cheeks flushed with colour and she shook her head, fear spewing from her eyes as she looked toward us.
They were human. All of them.
I glanced at Magnar, reaching for my own heart as he did the same. Nothing came in response.
His lip peeled back and he rose to his feet as the world seemed to shudder around his gallant form.
I rose beside him, my thoughts abandoning me. All I knew was that our enemies were human, weak, wholly vulnerable. And we were not.
Magnar and I charged forward, ripping the Biters apart as they tried to scatter in vain. Blood and bone broke under my hands and no ash came. They fell apart, their humans forms shattered beyond repair.
Valentina remained standing, backing up step by step. She knew she couldn't run. Defeat flared in her gaze and terror clutched her beautiful features.
“No – please!” she begged, falling to her knees and clasping her hands together as she gazed up at us in a desperate prayer.
Magnar strode forward at my side and I bared my fangs, the fury at what this woman had done to us thickening the atmosphere.
I caught her by the throat, a hunger for revenge singing in my veins.
“We have the right to bite,” I snarled, heaving her into the air.
Her screams bled into every space inside me as I dug my fangs into her neck and ripped into her flesh with no desire for her blood. Death was what I wanted, painful and enduring.
She slapped and kicked and thrashed, but her mortal body held nothing of the power she needed to defeat me.
I shoved her to the ground again, spitting her blood out. Magnar raised one of his swords over his head. “For my mother!” he roared, slashing it down through the air in a deadly arc.
Valentina's shrieks were cut off as he beheaded her, his blade slamming into the ground with such magnitude that the earth was carved apart.
Her blood mixed with the soil as her ruined body lay at our feet.
The mountain boomed again and another wave of power flooded the land, this time like a rush of wind, forcing us to our knees side by side as the air battered us. Magnar rested a hand on my shoulder and I laid one on his, gritting my teeth as the gods' took hold of our bodies. Their strength dripped through me, wave after wave and my immortal flesh changed under the onslaught. My blood grew hot, near boiling then simmered, simmered, simmered to a deeply human warmth.
The quiet ache in my throat faded to nothing and I felt my fangs retracting and smoothing out.
I gasped as my heart thumped, then again and again, jolted to life as electricity charged my veins and drove blood through it for the first time in over a thousand years.
&
nbsp; My body weakened and my muscles tightened against the strange tide that rolled through me. The wind died and quiet rang in my ears.
I rose to my feet and my legs trembled beneath me. I sucked in a long breath of air, my lungs expanding, my chest rising. My heart quickened in response as I dragged in another deep breath.
I was alive. Human. A monster no more.
Magnar stayed on his knees and I eyed the flush of colour in his cheeks, mortality shining from his skin.
I shut my eyes and relished the fluttering beat of my heart beneath my palm as everything I'd ever wanted came to fruition. The prophecy had come to pass. We'd paid our debt. And no divine power or immortal existence could ever compare to the human body I was returned to.
I was me again; a man who'd been living in a shell, frozen in time, captured by a curse and was now, impossibly, free.
I sagged forward on my knees as the curse of immortality was ripped from my body and my heart stirred within my chest. I released my hold on my blade, pressing my palms to the floor as I doubled over, and every human sensation came flooding back to me.
My lungs inhaled deeply and exhaled again in response. Not because I felt like doing it. But because I needed to.
My heart thumped solidly in my chest. And again.
A deep laugh fell from my lips as it kept going, falling into the familiar rhythm I’d missed so much while I was a monster.
My shirt was torn open across my chest and my gaze caught on the flesh above my heart. My laughter grew as I spotted the clean skin there where the tattoo binding me to Valentina used to reside.
A cool wind gusted around us and goosebumps raised along my skin in response. I ran my tongue over my teeth and no longer found the sharpened canines of a beast waiting to puncture flesh.
I looked up and found Erik beside me, his face lit with the widest smile I’d ever seen as he held a hand to his own chest, feeling his heartbeat for the first time in over a thousand years. I wondered what the hell it would feel like to have waited so long for it; the few weeks I’d spent cursed had already made me forget some of this feeling. To him it would be barely more than the distant memory of a dream and to feel it again after so long must have been more than a little baffling.
I pushed myself to my feet and gazed about at the battlefield, squinting as I adjusted to the change in my eyesight. The fine details of the world were lost to me again but I found I didn’t miss them. I could still see the glow of the setting sun and the glimmer of the first stars meeting in the unnatural sky above me and both were as beautiful as they needed to be.
“They did it,” Erik said in astonishment. “They actually fucking did it!”
I stared in disbelief at the difference in his features as a human man looked back at me. His skin was flush with life though it was aching for the touch of the sun and his smile was completely altered now that his mouth was lacking fangs.
“Brother!” Julius bellowed in excitement and I looked around just in time for him to barrel into me and knock us both back into the dirt.
I laughed as I clung to him fiercely, delighting in the warmth of my own skin as his didn’t burn against me for the first time in weeks. He placed a wet kiss on my forehead and I shoved him off, tussling him to the ground and gaining my feet again.
I lifted my swords from the dirt and was surprised at how heavy they felt in my grip. I still had the gifts of the slayers but I’d clearly grown used to the immense strength that the curse had leant me during my time under its spell.
Erik was clinging to his siblings and Clarice was crying tears of relief and sorrow for the brother who never got to feel this freedom.
I turned back in the direction of the cave and strolled towards it, sheathing my blades on my back as I went.
“Callie?” I called excitedly, wondering why she hadn’t returned yet.
The curse was broken and our life was waiting for us. I intended to take her in my arms and march her straight up the aisle just as soon as we got back to some semblance of civilisation.
I crossed the battlefield at a quick pace, wiping the worst of the blood and dirt from my face with the back of my arm as I went.
Erik bellowed Montana’s name with as much longing as I felt to be reunited with her sister and ran to catch up with me.
I turned as he approached and his foot caught on a rifle left abandoned on the battlefield. I caught his arm before he could face-plant onto the ground and a deep laugh left my throat as his lips parted in surprise.
“By the gods, I don’t think I’ve had to concentrate this much on walking in... well I guess in nearly thirteen hundred years!” He laughed loudly and slapped my back by way of thanks for me saving him from falling.
I couldn’t stop smiling as I approached the cave, expecting Callie and Montana to step out at any moment.
“Callie?” I called again, wondering why she still hadn’t appeared. Surely they’d be as desperate as we were to get on with our lives now?
“Rebel?” Erik yelled and his voice echoed back from the dark space beneath the mountain.
There was no reply and I frowned, stepping forward to cross the threshold of the cave but a deep power resonated through the air and I was unable to step over it.
Erik tried too and the smile fell from my face as he was also denied access to the mountain of the gods.
“Where are they?” Clarice asked as the others drew closer behind us.
I gritted my teeth and tried to force entry to the cave again but the air was like a writhing, living thing and it wouldn’t let me pass.
A thunderclap sounded in the heavens and the noise of it was so loud that I flinched as the mountain shook in response. I turned to see what had caused it and the sky parted above us, letting through the brightest rays of light which came from neither the sun nor the moon.
Odin leapt from the crevice in the sky and landed with an earth-rattling boom in the centre of the battlefield.
I pulled my swords from my back as I turned to face the ethereal being. The last time I’d come face to face with a deity I’d killed her and earned my own death in return. I didn’t intend to let my guard down against one of the gods again.
“So,” Odin rumbled as he surveyed us through his one icily blue eye. “It is done.”
I glanced at my brother and he shifted his weight so that he stood between Clarice and the king of gods.
“Where are the twins?” Erik demanded and Odin’s gaze swivelled to him.
“They have paid the debt,” he said darkly. “You should be glad of what they’ve done for you.”
“I am,” Erik breathed. “But where-”
“How does mortality suit you?” the god asked. “The world is set to rights once again. Was it worth the price?”
“Let us into the mountain,” I snarled, taking a step towards him as my gut twisted at his words.
“Opening the door between realms is no simple thing,” Odin growled. “What would you offer me in return?”
“Haven’t we paid our price in blood with this war?” Fabian demanded. “Surely the death surrounding us is enough to sate you?”
Odin eyed the battlefield as if he was seeing it for the first time.
“If you enter Helgafell you may not like what you find,” the god warned as he dropped to one knee and pressed his hand into the blood which stained the battlefield.
“Let us in,” I demanded as my heart pounded with concern for the woman I loved. She should have come back to us by now and this deity knew more about her fate than he was letting on.
“As you wish,” Odin sighed and a wild breeze whipped around us, sending dirt and blood flying through the air. A heavy pressure washed over me and when the power of it faded and I opened my eyes, the last rays of sunlight illuminated the entrance to the cave.
Odin stepped back into the wind and we were left alone before the entrance to the mountain between plains.
I exchanged a glance with Erik and his brow was furrowed with concern as he moved t
oward the entrance.
With a deep breath I stepped inside, keeping my swords ready as I went. This place reeked of death and the promise of the beyond. We were about to cross into the realm of the gods themselves and I was afraid of what we might find.
We moved through the dark passage at a fierce pace, the only sound around us the clamour of our footfalls. I started running, sprinting, desperate to find Montana. To have her in my arms, see the life in her eyes and feel her heart beat against mine.
Everything I'd ever wanted hung in these final moments between now and reuniting with her. As soon as she was at my side, I'd take her far from here and never look back. We'd start our life together. A real life. One where we'd grow older, make a family, be happy.
But none of that was possible until I had her back.
My heart beat with panic for the first time in so many hundreds of years. I struggled to get used to all of the new sensations coursing through me. The cold licked my skin and rose the hairs across my arms. The blood of the battle had soaked my clothes and was drying against my flesh, the sticky film plastering my shirt to my chest.
My breathing grew ragged as we charged on and I heard everyone panting around me in a similar fashion, our mortal bodies racked by the limitations of humanity. But none of that mattered; if anything, I treasured the way my muscles laboured and my heart hammered. I was a true man and with this body I would find my wife and never let go of her.
A golden light grew up ahead and I spotted the source as a huge door came into view. The structure was shimmering and smooth, lit with the power of the gods. We slowed to a halt before it, searching for a handle. There had to be a way forward. Montana was on the other side of this door. She had to be.
I moved forward, taking hold of the edge of the metal and yanking with all my strength. Magnar moved to help me but our combined efforts were futile. My nails broke and I stumbled back at the bite of pain that seized my hands.
“Fuck,” I hissed, glaring at the door before throwing a sharp kick to it. My knee jolted uncomfortably and I gritted my teeth, gazing back at the others.
Age of Vampires- The Complete Series Page 186