Heart Two Heart (8 page)

Then I got out of the chair and left the
house. I had some things I needed to pull together in order to make
this happen. But soon, very soon Ulric and I would commingle our
essence and then his heart would belong to me.

There is no safe place for me to go. It seems
no matter where I turn someone recognizes this face and this bodies
scent and wants to kill me. I may have Taini’s body but I don't
have her fighting abilities. Eventually one of them is going to
accomplish killing this body. I took a deep breath and let a sigh
of frustration slip from my lips.

I thought my plan had been a good one. The
plan was simple, even though the spell had been very complicated.
Basically the spell allowed me to switch my consciousness with
Taini’s. It was a win win for me. I would trade a weak and decaying
body for a strong, healthy chupacabra body that would thrive for
thousands of years.

Taini was encased in stone for all eternity.
There was little chance that she would ever be set free from her
prison. The best part was Taini agreed to the spell. By agreeing to
have me cast the spell she would now be trapped alive and aware
until it felt she had paid for all her she convinced herself that
she had paid for her sins. Since I now walk in her shoes I can
honestly say it is going to be a very long time. I laughed at how
easy it had been fool Taini. She all but begged me to steal her
body. Her broken heart made her an easy target.

The spell had been the most amazing and
complicated spell I’d ever casted. I tapped into my core to pull
every bit of magic out that I possessed. I was grateful that it was
successful but it has left me weak and depleted of my magic. My
plan to contain her conscious mind within a statue had been pure
genius on my part.

With her thoughts basically taken out of the
equation I didn't have to worry that she would reach out to her
eternal heart for help. I didn’t have to fight her mind on a daily
basis for control of this body. In fact the only way she could ever
leave the statue is if it was smashed into tiny little pieces.

Releasing her conscious mind however didn't
give her back her body. To repossess her body would require a
reverse spell. It would need to be more powerful if not more so
than my original spell. I have no fear of that since my magic is
depleted and no one else on earth can possibly know the spell I
used.

I huffed in agitation at my depleted magic.
Now looking back I realised the statue had been overkill. Hell, if
I’d just been swapped Taini into my body instead of the statue I
would have saved magic. Then I could have just killed the
human.

Now, I am in a jam without even a little of
my magic I can't defend myself from the skinwalkers. I am strong
but they just keep coming. No matter where I hide they seem to find
me. If I had just a tad of my magic I could alter my scent just
enough to keep them off my trail.

I heard a noise at the back of the alley and
realised the skinwalkers were closing in yet again. I looked behind
me and knew they had the advantage and that I was surrounded. I
growled out in frustration and used every bit of strength I’d to
jump to the nearest rooftop. Running from the skinwalkers was
becoming a full time occupation. Having this strong chupacabra body
was not working out. I needed a new plan.

I have tried more times than I can count to
separate my conscious mind from the stone statue but nothing works.
My heart is throbbing with pain so intense I can no longer focus on
anything but the sheer agony. If I had eyes I would have been
crying. If I had a mouth I would have been screaming in agony. I am
resolute that this is my punishment for my many unpardonable crimes
against my eternal heart and the skinwalker people.

My life is over. I am doomed to forever
suffer and I will never again be able to touch another being. My
body is lost to me, even if I break myself free from this stone
prison I will be a soul without a vessel. I know exactly what the
Vaettir bitch has done to me. I was housed with them during the war
and I saw what the Vaettir were capable of.

I also knew that the very best I could hope
for was that my heart would finally give up and move from this
lifetime to the next. For now however there was nothing for me to
do but wait until my heart felt it had been punished enough for its
sins.

I felt the bed depress and I knew that
Seraphina was sitting on the edge. Her soft clean scent floated
towards me. I found myself enjoying her scent more than I have in
the past. Something about it just seemed to call to something deep
within me.

I turned slowly to look at her. She was
wearing a light yellow sundress and her slightly wavy hair was
bouncing around her face. She looked more beautiful then I
remembered. Her skin all but glowed with an inner beauty that I
knew she possessed. I could tell she was forcing herself to keep a
calm expression on her face. Somehow, I just knew however that
Seraphina was anything but calm.

She reached out and gently touched my face
with her fingertips. I'm not sure why but I suddenly felt tiny
little tingles everywhere her fingers touched me. Even my inner
animals perked up and took notice. I was surprised since I haven’t
felt any of my animals since we left California. Then I watched
Seraphina's reserve slip for just a moment before she forced a
small smile onto her face and finally said

"Ulric, I need you to remain calm. I need to
tell you something but you have to promise me that you will be
calm. Do I have your word?"

I wondered why Seraphina was all worked up. I
found myself listening to her heart race. I could hear the blood
pumping through her veins and I suddenly realised Seraphina was
scared to death. Something deep inside of me didn't like that she
was so distressed. It wanted to calm her and ease her suffering. I
reached out and placed my hand on her cheek in an attempt to
comfort her. Then I opened my senses to try and understand what had
her so afraid.

I heard my mum, pop, Pau and Waylon in the
living room. Their voices seemed a bit strained and I could feel
anxiety pouring off of all of them. Then I heard a female’s voice
that I didn't recognize. The voice for some reason sent tingles
down my spine and my body had an almost visceral reaction. Without
even thinking about it, I found myself sitting upright in the bed.
Then I smelled something. No, I smelled her, my Taini, my eternal
heart. I rose from my bed with the intention of launching myself
into the living room but was stopped by Seraphina's words.

"Ulric, it's not really her. You know that!
The person out there is heartless and evil. Please Ulric! Wait!
Give me a chance to talk to you before you do something you will
regret."

Seraphina's words stopped me in my tracks.
She was right. I’d already seen the truth myself. Taini’s heart is
not in her body. She threw her heart and our love away. She
rejected me and the possibility of our love. Why was she here now?
What did she want from me? Why was she here when just a few weeks
ago she wanted to kill me?

Seraphina sat opposite of me wringing her
hands. Finally she looked at me with her eyes beseeching me to be
patient. When she finally started speaking I realised that even her
voice appealed to me in ways I’d never noticed before.

"According to your Pau, Taini claims she made
a mistake getting rid of her heart. She claims she wants it back
and needs you, Pau and Waylon to help her."

I felt a small glimmer of hope ignite within
me. If she wanted to get her heart back she must want to give our
love a chance. Seraphina seemed to know what I was feeling and I
suddenly regretted the pain that my hope caused her. I was
surprised when I had the desire to whimper at the thought of
Seraphina being hurt by me. I watched as Seraphina seemed to become
even more nervous before she continued.

"Ulric, I really never wanted to have to tell
you this but I know now that have to. I’d hoped that you would one
day come to recognize it yourself. I however am out of time and
well, here it is. I really am your eternal heart too. I know you
don't believe that but I’ve known it since the day I met you. I’m
telling the truth Ulric.

I've spent a lot of time over the past few
weeks trying to figure out how I could prove it to you. I even
considered tricking you into commingling my essence with yours,
just so you would finally understand. But I love you too much to
force you to be with me. Then, today when I talked to Gaho it all
clicked into place. She told me what happened when you were a
baby.

She said that a shaman named Lorena cast a
spell on you that was meant to break your attachment with your
eternal heart and instead link her to you. She said they killed
Lorena and broke the spell but I think it didn't fix our
connection.

Gaho and Waylon both agree. We shared the
insight with your mum and pop this morning while we waited for
Taini to come and they all agree that I am probably right. We were
born for each other Ulric and magic has caused us too much pain and
time already.

Please Ulric, we could be happy together.
Just forget about Taini and let her deal with her own consequences.
She chose this, she rejected you once already. I have always
accepted you. Please give our love a chance. Please Ulric tell her
to go to hell where she belongs."

I was having trouble emotionally processing
Seraphina's words. My inner coyote wanted to howl in shame and
disapproval. He believed her words as truth. He suddenly believed
everything she said and accepted that she was our eternal heart. I
however wanted to disagree; I didn't want to believe that she had
been with me all this time and I’d failed to recognize my own
eternal heart.

I took in a deep breath expecting to find the
scent of a lie, but there was no hint of deception. No smell of
untruth. Seraphina was telling me the truth. She believed she was
my eternal heart and I had to either accept or reject her.

Standing this close to Pau was giving me the
willies. He was in the cell next to mine in the concentration camp.
I feared something in my smell or mannerisms might remind him of
me. Lord knew he was smart enough to figure out the truth. I was
being quick witted so that I could keep him off balanced and
occupied. My main goal was to make sure he didn’t take the time to
think things through.

That shaman partner of his was pretty clever
as well. He asked more questions than he did. If I didn’t know
better I would think he had some experience with the kind of magic
that I’d supposedly used. This house was making me uncomfortable.
There was such a combination of species that really shouldn’t be
mixing and matching. I smelled nagual, skinwalker, human,
chupacabra and something, well other. It was the skinwalker and the
other that was making me even more uncomfortable.

I sniffed again and tried to lock in on who
was emitting what smell. I needed to be sure that someone wasn’t
going to attack me while my back was turned. Skinwalkers were
dangerous and the unknown species could be even more dangerous.
That's when it clicked. The shaman wasn’t the human he looked like.
No… he was Vaettir as well. Hiding in plain sight. Hell, he was the
sexual partner of a nagual and Pau had absolutely no fucking idea.
An Alfar Vattier. I loved it. The Alfar are the most beautiful of
all the Vattier races. They are flawless to look upon and they
radiate charisma. No wonder the stupid nagual fell for him. No
matter, the Alfar wouldn’t rat me out or I would give away his
secret.

Besides, I had one goal in mind. Use any
method necessary to convince Ulric he was still in love with Taini
and wanted to commingle his essence with me. I would lie, cheat,
seduce or steel what I needed if necessary. The moment he shared
his blood with me, the scent of my new body will automatically
change. Then, I can feed off his emotions. I can tap into his
strength at will. Over time his torment from an incomplete
commingling will completely charge my magic back up.

With any luck the fool is so in love with
Taini’s body that he would do anything I asked. I will make sure to
promise him the world and even give him a taste of glory to make
sure he was convinced. It should be as easy as taking candy from a
baby. I smiled to myself at the thought of manipulating the
chupacabra. They are always such fools when it comes to their
eternal hearts. They will accept anything and everything for the
chance of having a happily ever after. Since Taini’s eternal heart
is a chupacabra as well that makes this whole process simpler.

I heard movement and voices coming from the
closed door and found myself focusing on the conversation. It
sounded like a female was begging Ulric to reject me. I waited
patiently for Ulric to tell the female she was crazy, but it
actually sounded as if he might agree. I couldn’t have that. I was
going to have to go in there and show him what he would be missing.
I threw my shoulders back and pushed my breasts out and marched
over to the closed door.

The moment my hand touched the knob it opened
on its own accord. I took one look at Ulric’s face and knew that he
intended to reject me. Before he had a chance to say a single word,
I threw myself into his arms and pressed my lips firmly to his. I
made sure to kiss him with thousands of years of experience behind
it. My kiss was as good as any working woman’s could be. My species
absolutely loves everything about sex. In fact, I have been very
sexually active through the ages and have become quite adept at the
art of sexual pleasure. I know he melted in my arms and his desire
skyrocketed.

Everyone in the room including the stupid
female that I could now identify as a skinwalker could smell his
want and need for me. Just to make sure that I had him where I
wanted him, I allowed my left hand to fall to his waistband and
slip down his pants. I felt and heard his moan of pleasure the
moment my soft hand touched his rock hard manhood. I could feel his
body temperature rising and I knew that rejection was the farthest
thing from his mind.