Age of Vampires- The Complete Series

by Caroline Peckham

  “That sword cannot be sheathed again until you make a kill,” he hissed, his eyes slipping to Magnar. “It is powerful enough to wipe even a soul from existence. Let us see who it is you end up truly killing.”

  He raised a hand and I shifted in fear as he tried to press his will into mine. He snarled, pushing harder and I felt his powers trying to snare me, but they couldn't get a grip. A light broke out around Magnar and I in a shimmer of gold that circled us.

  “Odin,” Andvari growled. “Well if the king of gods has turned against me in favour of two worthless souls, he will soon learn that I am not to be trifled with.” He stepped backwards into the glass until his reflection faded and he reappeared in another mirror across the hall.

  His form had changed; he was younger, his eyes cat-like and yellow. He stepped from the glass with a twisted smile that raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

  I set my jaw, my gaze trained on him.

  “You took my wife,” I spat, lifting my sword.

  “And how delicious she was,” he cackled and I started running, fuelled by pure rage.

  Magnar sprang to action on my left, charging forward with a battle cry.

  More reflections appeared, ten of them in total, slipping out of the glass and surrounding us. Andvari was different in every one. Young, old, some with serrated teeth, others so achingly beautiful they made my stomach churn. I collided with the one with yellow eyes, swinging Dainsleif in a deadly arc. Andvari moved in a blur of motion, circling behind me and slamming a kick into my spine. I smashed into the mirror and great shards of glass fell around me.

  I turned, slashing the blade through the air with all the skills of my youth fuelling my movements. I'd once been a warrior, and it was poetic that it would end the way it had started. With me running at the god, sword drawn in defiance. But I'd not saved my family that day. And I hadn't saved Montana in the end either. All was lost, fallen to ruin, but I would have his heart and justice would be mind for those he'd taken from me.

  “Just as weak as always, Erik Larsen,” the yellow-eyed Andvari taunted me as I spotted Magnar clashing with several of the god's forms behind him.

  I ran at him again, raising the sword above my head. He threw a punch to my gut, but I swept the blade down through the air and severed his hand from his wrist. The god wailed, stumbling backwards in surprise. I kept coming like a turbulent storm. I rammed the sword through his exposed belly, releasing a hiss through my teeth.

  His yellow eyes met mine in shock.

  “I am not Erik Larsen anymore,” I growled then dragged the blade upwards to sever him in half. Bright green embers burned where there should have been blood and the figure was cast to ash in a flashfire of jade. His eyes were all that remained, staring up at me from amongst the ash.

  Another of his forms collided with me and I hit the ground, rolling to avoid a harsh kick. This one I knew well. The one with sharp teeth, his eyes as dark as the pits of hell.

  He'd mocked me often when I'd called upon his reflection in a pool of water in a forest, a long, long time ago.

  “I am a god!” he cried, leaning down to grab my robes in his fists. I brought up the sword, but he stamped on my wrist to hold me in place. His strength was immense, but nothing compared to my fury. I would not be held.

  “And you will die as Idun died!” I bellowed, rearing up and throwing a punch to his jaw.

  He bit down on my knuckles and pain flared, followed by a sucking sensation which drew the light inside me to the very edges of my skin. I yanked my hand back in disgust and Andvari laughed raucously, landing another kick to my side. I flew across the space, smashing more mirrors and landing in a pile of glass.

  Pain flared across my torn flesh and light spilled from the wounds in a torrent. Several of the forms fell on it, kneeling on the ground and lapping at my lifeforce. I groaned as some part of myself was lost to their mouths. Pieces of my past melted away, memories, friends. I shook my head, clinging on to the single memory that mattered. Rebel was dead. And Andvari was responsible.

  As my wounds healed, I darted to my feet to end every last one of the apparitions.

  “I'll devour you both as I devoured the twins of sun and moon. The light of your souls will fuel my body, lift me higher in the ranks of gods. And you shall cease to exist, just as they did,” the Andvari laughed and every form in the space started laughing too.

  Pain clawed at my insides, tearing at what was left of my fractured heart. Montana was gone. Her light had been devoured by this accursed creature and everything she was had been snuffed out of the universe.

  Magnar cut down one of the beautiful illusions of the god and emerald fire flared in its place.

  “No,” snarled the beast who I'd been fighting and I set my sights on him, wondering if he was the true god or if all of them were somehow part of the deity.

  Dainsleif hungered for death in my hands and I would gladly give it what it wanted. I crashed into the one with serrated teeth, but found myself hitting a mirror instead. I gasped as glass cut into my cheek, turning to find only my reflection cast back at me. But it wasn't truly me. It was him. The way he'd often come to me. My face not quite mine, my eyes endlessly dark.

  Everything in the room faded away until it was just me and him. Nothing else existed.

  I side-stepped to the left and he side-stepped right. My perfect equal in every way. But I had revenge in my heart and a god’s sword in my hands. I would win. And I would never again have my image seized by this creature of hell.

  “I gave you a gift,” Andvari purred in my own voice.

  “You gave me a curse,” I growled back at him, matching every step he took as we circled one another.

  “You had more than a thousand years on earth, more than any man has ever seen. The debt was always going to be high,” he hissed.

  “I paid my debt over and over,” I spat. “And you took the one thing from me you knew I'd never want to live without. How heartless can you be?”

  He held his chest as if an actual heart beat in there. I hoped it did, because I was going to cut it out. “You always knew there was a debt to pay. Your parents wronged me, then you deceived me by hiding under the protection of my ring. You must learn the consequences of your actions,” he said with a low laugh.

  I made my first move, but a glittering sword appeared in his hand at the same moment and he parried my blow. The clash of metal rang out and I swung at him again, left, right, centre. He knew my moves. He was mimicking me somehow, and I knew I had to change tact if I was going to beat him.

  I backed up again, falling into the slow rhythm as we circled once more.

  “I didn't make the prophecy,” Andvari whispered. “Odin designed it. So perhaps it is he you should truly blame...”

  “You were the one who took them,” I said in a deadly tone. “So you will be the one to pay the price.” I slashed at him again but he parried once more, matching me blow for blow as neither of us landed a hit.

  He backed up this time, tilting his head and spreading a sickly sweet smile across his face. My face.

  I needed to find the weakness in him. And I realised with a jolt that perhaps it was my own weakness that he would have in this form. My strength as a warrior had always been in my skill with the blade. But if anyone got behind me, I failed.

  I stopped moving and Andvari halted too.

  I moved my gaze beyond his head and twisted my expression into excitement. “Magnar!” I cried, though he wasn't there. Andvari turned and I shot forward, whipping Dainsleif through the air.

  Andvari lurched aside as he realised his mistake, but I was faster, taking his head from his shoulders with a fierce strike of my blade. Flames burst to life and the form that had haunted me the most fell apart at my feet.

  The room shuddered and Magnar was revealed to me once more. Andvari had him by the throat and was sucking the air as a golden light floated from the slayer's mouth into the god's.

  Anger consumed me and charged my muscle
s with bloodlust. I threw Dainsleif with all my might and it carved through the side of the form holding my friend.

  Magnar hit the ground and I reached him in a heartbeat, dragging him up to stand. He blinked heavily then raised his swords once more. I took up Dainsleif with a desperate hunger in my heart.

  Six forms remained.

  And we would kill them all.

  I blinked heavily as I adjusted to the huge chunks of my past which had been ripped away from me. Lumps of my childhood had been reduced to black holes, pieces of the very things that made me me were just... gone. Consumed by this creature before me and left as nothing in his wake.

  I stood beside Erik as the six Andvaris circled us like a pack of wolves. Venom burned for vengeance in my right hand while Tempest hissed curses in my left.

  They leapt at us as one and I raised my blades with a cry of rage as the power of the deity’s forms collided with me, sending me crashing back into Erik.

  I rolled as I hit the floor, tumbling beneath their legs and scrambling forward as boney fingers clutched at my limbs. Their touch burned, searing away the essence of my skin, devouring my flesh.

  I kicked at them, rolling again to try and free myself.

  An impossibly tall Andvari slammed into me, pinning me to the ground as his toothless mouth pressed close to my face, sucking in a breath of air with enough force to pull my hair towards his lips.

  Golden light was dragged from me again and I could feel the beast hunting for the parts of me that loved Callie.

  “No,” I snarled as an image of her in my arms began to slip from my mind. “Not her.” This foul creation could take every miserable piece of my soul but I would never let him take her from me. My memories of her were all I had left and I would sacrifice everything to keep them with me until the very end.

  I roared a challenge, driving my forehead into the bridge of his nose and black ichor spewed from the wound as he reared back. I head-butted him again, snapping bone and caving in the left side of his face.

  The Andvari tried to rise off of me, releasing my arms as he struggled to back up but I followed him with the rage of my fractured heart.

  I slammed my fist into his face then swung Tempest between us, spilling his guts so that emerald fire burst from the wound.

  The Andvari started screaming, the pitch of it so high that some of the smaller mirrors in the room shattered, glass tumbling to the cavern floor all around us.

  I pressed my advantage, springing to my feet as I swung Venom for his over long neck. The form lunged backwards, raising an arm which met the sharp edge of my blade and was severed. More emerald fire blazed from the wound and I slammed my foot into his chest, sending him flying back into the towering mirror with a frame made of burning branches.

  He hit the glass but instead of it breaking, he fell into the reflection, shrieking in panic as he was sucked inside.

  The Andvari started slamming his fists against the glass and a dark smile lit my face as I realised he was trapped.

  Another form collided with me before I could advance on the trapped fragment of Andvari’s body and I was thrown back.

  I crashed into a row of mirrors to the left of the room and glass shredded my skin as it shattered all around me. I hit the ground amongst the sharp fragments and grasping hands reached for me from every unbroken mirror.

  Erik was screaming on the other side of the cavern as two of the Andvaris tried to pull his arms in different directions and rip him apart.

  I lunged forward, losing my hold on Tempest as one of the hands snatched it away. I charged across the cavern, bellowing my rage as golden light poured from Erik’s soul and into the gaping mouths of the forms as they began to devour him.

  I collided with the closest one, slamming my shoulder into the curve of his hunched back and driving Venom straight through his chest.

  He shrieked in pain as I forced the blade up, poisonous blood coating my hands as I threw all of my strength into finishing this beast.

  Erik fell on the Andvari which still clung to his other arm as he dug his teeth into his flesh. It was shorter than Erik’s midriff but thick with muscle and it clung to him fiercely. The Andvari’s teeth clamped deeply into Erik’s skin while golden light poured into his mouth and he moaned in pleasure as he began to drain my friend’s soul.

  Erik cried out, stabbing and stabbing at it but his blows glanced off of its skin like it was made of metal and only scratches bleeding dark ichor were left on its flesh from his attacks.

  I ran forward, slamming into him and forcing him from Erik’s arm.

  Erik bellowed with rage, kicking out at the dwarf form and knocking him across the room towards the flaming mirror.

  I raced after him as he tumbled across the stone floor, slamming my shoulder into him again as he began to rise and sending him flying into the glass.

  I fell to my knees from the collision and looked up as the Andvari shrieked in panic.

  As he fell through the pane of glass, he merged with the one already trapped there, their features combining into a more gruesome version of the two forms. He took on the stumpy body of one and the sickly pale skin of the other and he wailed as he drove his fists against the inside of the mirror but he couldn’t break out.

  My eye met Erik’s across the room and a snarl pulled at his lip at the three remaining forms moved between us. Venom hungered for more of the god’s blood in my grip and I pushed myself to my feet as I prepared to grant its wish.

  Two of Andvari's forms came at me at once. One with boils lining his flesh and another with a twisted foot. I aimed for the weaker one, swinging Dainsleif towards his crippled leg. I missed the shot as the two of them leapt forward together, digging their nails into my flesh and biting into me.

  I cried out as they started sucking the light from my soul, the strength going out of my body as I buckled to my knees. I threw elbows and tried to get my sword up to meet them but they held me down with a ferocious strength.

  My mind became fuzzy and my thoughts were lost as quickly as they came. More of me was taken, memories of my childhood, my mother, my years in solitude, the battles with the slayers. I ground my teeth, bracing myself against the ground as I tried to recall why I was even here.

  A conversation flitted into my mind with a dark-haired girl, her skin as pale as the moon.

  She cupped my cheek and her eyes burned so bright I knew everything I wanted lived in that glow.

  “I love you,” she said on a breath.

  I felt the pain I'd felt then, the joy tangling with the bitter knowledge that I wasn't worthy of that girl's adoration.

  “I know as well as you do, I don’t deserve that love. I haven’t earned it,” I said, trying to convince her not to fall into the trap of my clutches. “You’re right to push me away.”

  “No,” she groaned, holding onto me as if she needed me as much as I needed her.

  “I should go,” I said, knowing if I remained I would never let her go. And it wasn't fair to place the burden of my curse on her. She caught my hand, shaking her head as that desperate light in her gaze grew stronger.

  “Please don’t,” she breathed. “Please stay with me.”

  “I'll stay,” I murmured what I should have said then as Andvari's teeth sank deeper into my body. “I'll stay forever.”

  A yell called to me from afar and a golden sword slammed into the bodies of the two Andvaris.

  I hit the ground and the haze of light they'd stolen from me slipped out of the burning remains of their bodies and came back to me.

  I sucked in a breath as Magnar dragged me to my feet and I blinked away the fog in my mind. Magnar grinned wildly, angling me to face the final Andvari in the room. The god’s skin was covered in coarse black hair and his face was set into a furious grimace.

  We ran at him again but he stepped back into a mirror, his laughter ringing out as he sprinted through the panes. I threw the hilt of my sword into each one breaking them so that he’d have nowhere left to run.
Following him, hunting, stalking. I smashed more and more as his laughter rang out and Magnar joined me, shattering glass everywhere until only a few mirrors remained.

  Andvari rushed out of one of them, darting forward with a menacing gleam in his eyes. He moved like the wind, a short blade appearing in his grip as he darted past Magnar and slashed open his side.

  Magnar clasped the wound with a hiss and I turned to try and catch sight of the beast who'd cut him.

  A blur of movement in my periphery warned me of his approach and I lunged forward, driving my sword through the air. I slashed a deep wound across his cheek and he yelled in anger, ducking low and slicing along the back of my thigh.

  I kicked out with my uninjured leg, knocking him to the ground and he skidded backwards. Golden light dripped from his blade and he licked it off with a hungry smile.

  “The gods will bow to me when this is done. I will have two more strong souls in my body. The twins of sun and moon were already so powerful but with how long each of you have lived, I will be all the more invincible,” Andvari laughed, running at us again.

  Magnar snatched up the sword he'd dropped and swung both of his blades in his grip. He charged Andvari down and I darted forward so that we could intercept the final form together.

  Andvari ducked and darted, faster than lightning as he moved about us, avoiding the deadly swings of our blades. Anger flooded me, heating every inch of my body as I released a bellow of fury, driving my sword toward the blur of movement in the corner of my eye. A blade grazed my back, the same moment my sword struck its target.

  “No!” Andvari wailed, hitting the floor and scrabbling backwards as black blood leaked from the gaping wound on his stomach.

  Magnar ran forward to help as I drove Dainsleif down into Andvari's chest. Magnar skewered him too for good measure and I released a breath through my teeth as emerald fire burst to life at our feet.

  I gazed across the remaining mirrors in the room, waiting for him to appear once more. But he didn't come.

  The black ash left by his fallen bodies started to shift, moving in an ethereal wind that carried it all towards one another, swirling in a vortex before us. We raised our swords and the floating ashes moved backwards as we advanced. We drove it toward the flaming mirror where the short, sickly pale form struggled to get out. As the ash slid through the pane, it tangled around Andvari and his final form appeared, holding features from each of the fallen mirages.