My Soul To Take (13 page)

“What did you just say?” Maisera demanded, getting to her feet.

“Tobar’s daughter?” Aishe screeched. “That’s my boy’s baby!”

“No,” Becki whispered, her eyes clouding over. “Tobar is her tată.”

Aishe’s mouth fell open.

“Becki!” Nico yelled.

“Please, mamă Sava! You’re still her
bunică!” Becki cried, ignoring her husband. “With both my mamă and tată gone, she needs you!”

Maisera c
rossed the few feet between her and her grandson and slapped him across the face. Once. Twice. Three times. Tobar’s head whipped back and forth under the onslaught.

“
Nu am fost niciodată atât de dezamăgită în toată viața!” she yelled and slapped him again. “Since you choose to act like a child, I should treat you as one and take the strap to you!” she hissed, slapping him again. Tobar’s nostrils flared with anger but he stood tall and took his beating like a man. Frate knew he deserved it.

Maisera pointed a
t Nico. “Dă-i fiica sa!” she snapped. “Now!”

Nico looked about ready to take Tobar out back and chop him into firewood, but no one argued with Maisera. The seventy-something-year-old woman could, and would, magically wipe the floor with anyone who pissed h
er off.

As Nico handed over the bundle of baby to Tobar, the two men glared at each other. Then Tobar took one look at his daughter’s tiny, red face and dropped to his knees.

Tears in his eyes, he looked over to Becki. “Vă rog să-mi permiteți a fi tatăl ei,” he whispered, hoarsely. “I promise I won’t fuck up this time.”

Crying, Becki nodded. “
Fiica noastră va avea doi tați.”

Tobar and Nico stared at each other, both looking unhappy but resigned.

“Thank you,” Tobar whispered to Becki.

“Mamă Sava?” Becki wh
ispered, looking at her former mother-in-law with pleading eyes.

Aishe pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed dramatically. Shaking her head, she sniffed loudly. “Of course I will not forsake the copil. After all, she’ll need someone in her life that will instill a decent set of morals.”

As Maisera looked around the room and into the faces of the members of her clan, the pride in her eyes was evident. “Ei, acesta este clanul meu.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

SPRING

Today was supposed to be my first trip out of the park since last fall. But, instead of raiding, Gerik wanted to take me somewhere that he had deemed “special”. He wouldn’t tell me where or what this mysterious place was and, even worse, he wanted to fly me there. I found him outside, shirtless and barefoot, with his wings jerking restlessly behind him.

I swallowed hard. “Are you sure we can’t take the Jeep?”

“There’s not enough gas to get us there. So either way you’re going to end up in the air, Trinity.”

My stomach roiled at the thought of being up in the sky with nothing but a pair of arms keeping me from falling to my death. The one and only time I had ever flown with Gerik had been mere minutes after his initial transformation. I hadn’t had the time to protest, everything had happened so quickly. But I remembered the panic very well. Very, very, well.

I would never drop you.

I stuck my tongue out at him.
Maybe not intentionally.

Rolling his shoulders, he shifted impatiently.
Let’s go, Trinity.

I shook my head. “I can’t do this. I’m sorry but I just can’t.”

I had just turned around when his tail snaked around my ankle, curled up my calf, and yanked my feet right out from under me. I didn’t even have time to properly scream before I was falling face-first toward the ground. I flung my arms forward, ready to brace my fall.

But I never fell.

Using only his tail, Gerik flung me upwards and released me. Twice I cart-wheeled through the air before that damn tail of his wrapped around my waist and deposited me into his waiting arms. I was still reeling from the acrobatics when his wings streamlined and he leapt off the ground and into the air.

Then we were airborne and I was watching the ground quickly rush away. I buried my face in Gerik’s chest and screamed at the top of lungs.

Trinity, shut up and open your eyes!

No!

TRINITY!

NO!

TRINITY! OPEN YOUR EYES!

NO!

Please?

I cracked a lid. It didn’t look like we were catapulting to our death so I opened my other eye.

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out…I squeezed them shut.

Oh my gods, Gerik, we are going to die!

Look at me, Trinity.

The minute my eyes locked with his, my fear lessened.

Would I let you die?

Not intentionally, no.

He sighed, exasperated with me.

You can’t hear it, Trinity, but I’m growling at you.

The longer we flew, the more comfortable I became. Eventually I was able to look at something other than Gerik’s face. I watched fat, heavy clouds roll by alongside us and every so often, a lone bird would pause in flight to check us out. It was peaceful, much more so than the land below. It wasn’t wrought with memories of a world marred by the remains of a destroyed civilization. The sky had remained untouched by the destruction below, making me feel as if not quite everything had been lost.

Told you so.

Shut it, bird man.

The bond filled with amusement.

******

As we flew through Pittsburg, my thoughts immediately turned to Shandor.

Why didn’t you kill him
? Gerik asked, listening.

Because he is Shandor. Could you have killed him?

Yes.

Yes? Just like that? No questions asked?

Yes.

But—

No buts. That thing you were talking to may have looked like Shandor, sounded like Shandor, and acted like Shandor, but it wasn’t. Shandor’s dead. What you were interacting with was the disease that killed him.

But—

NO BUTS! Eventually, Trinity, I’m not going to be me anymore! And I might not be around to protect you! Give me the peace of mind that comes with knowing you are not going to be striking up conversations with those things!

I didn’t agree with him. Not even a little. But I didn’t want him to be worrying about me either, so I changed the subject.

Gerik?

Hmm?

Is it the end of the world?

I don’t know.

Why else would something this catastrophic happen to humanity?

I have no idea why it happened. Or how. It just did, yeah?

Don’t you believe that everything happens for a reason? That everything is fated, part of nature’s grand design?

No.

No? What’s this? Gerik Hjemsäter, Gypsy extraordinaire, no longer believes in destiny?

Not since you, Trinity. You are mine in every sense of the word. Without me, there would be no you. Your life wasn’t supposed to have had any meaning or purpose until I found you. You were meant to remain in a stasis of sorts, while you waited for me. And only for me were you to blossom into the woman you were meant to become; my woman. Only to me should you have been able to give your body. Only me should you have ever been able to love. But that isn’t what happened, yeah? Instead, you turned away from me, became stronger without me than you ever were with me. You became independent and self-sustaining…and then you fell in love with someone else.

Even though I knew he was only stating facts, hearing that my life before Gerik had no meaning or purpose really stung. True, I hadn’t had any friends or any sort of social life whatsoever. I hadn’t had any goals or lifelong plans that were set in stone. And maybe I’d had the personality of a lost sock. But my parents had conceived me, right? They had wanted me and loved me; I knew that to be true. Yes, I had been born for him and yes, I shared his soul, but what about the rest of me? I had served a purpose before Gerik. My life had meaning. I had been a daughter and a sister and I had loved my family with every fiber of my being and, gods, did it hurt to think that those four amazing people, so important to me, had meant nothing in the greater scheme of things.

Trinity, I’m trying to tell you that I agree with you. After everything that has happened, I
can no longer believe in a nature-controlled grand design. Nor do I believe that there is a purpose for everything. Shit just happens, whether you want it to or not, and sometimes even the most powerful of us cannot do a damn thing about it. Nature included.

Destiny is what you make of your life?

Yes. Our soul, as old and as powerful as it is, was not able to dictate our future. When all was said and done, we decided that we were going to complete the joining and be with one another. Or rather, you decided. I’d been on board from the very beginning.

I burst out laughing.
I fucking love you.

I love fucking you, too.

I snorted.
Jerk.

Gerik’s body veered sharply to the left and he let his wings drag, slowing down, readying to land. I watched the ground beneath us quickly rising up. Just as I thought we were going to crash, he again lifted his wings, pulling back until his feet touched the ground. He landed perfectly, without so much as jostling me.

I took one look around and burst into tears.

Leaning against a rocking ledge, Gerik watched me with a satisfied smile playing on his lips. “It’s called Hawk Mountain.”

I stared down the mountain at the forest of white pine trees below, just taking it all in, the sights and scents of blossoming life surrounding me.

It was paradise in the midst of a war zone. It was wonderful.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” I whispered.

He grinned.
Anytime, beautiful.

Beautiful. My stomach fluttered. Gerik had never had a nickname for me. Beautiful was perfect. Gerik made me feel beautiful.

“I love you,” I murmured, standing on my tiptoes, reaching for him, wanting up and into his arms. He picked me up and lowered his face to mine.

While he loved me with his mouth, I pulled his braids forward, slipping the pony holders off and ran my fingers through the long, silky strands. After freeing his braids, I dropped my hands to his neck, to the smooth, hard scales there and then up over his face and onto his horns. They looked just like they felt, like polished black bone. As I caressed them, he shivered.

“Your Achilles heel,” I teased, loving his reaction to my touch. “Who knew a dragon’s erogenous zone would be in his horns.”

“And what of yours, Trinity,” he rumbled. His hand slid up my shirt and he lightly raked his claws over my breast.

I went limp in his arms, panting, “More.”

He flashed me an arrogant grin, looking so very male and incredibly full of himself.

“Don’t get too cocky,” I scolded. “There’s only one Eros in the world.”

He winked at me. “The Greek god of love and desire. How fitting. Doesn’t he, too, have wings?”

Yes, he did. I had walked myself right into that one.

“If I’m Eros, beautiful, who would that make you?”

Psyche,
I thought, remembering the story my daddy had told me.
She was Eros's human lover that was eventually made immortal so they could be together forever.

“Psyche…” he murmured. “It’s Greek for butterfly, you know. Always transforming. Kinda like you.”

“Maybe I’m Medusa instead,” I said, giggling. “And can turn you to stone with just one look.”

“You have no idea how right you are,” he murmured, slipping his tongue back inside my mouth. “I’m rock hard right now.”

Pervert.

Your pervert. Always, only ever, yours.

I marveled at his words. That someone as simple as I was had a hold over this magnificent creature. Full of strength and power, looking like a warrior god of old, both fearsome and beautiful.

“Trinity,” he laughed, grinning down at me. “You scold me for being too cocky and then you compare me to a god.”

I huffed. “That’s different.”

******

That night we slept deep inside the forest and made love on the soft, earthy-scented ground, surrounded by the sort of magic that only nature in her purest form could create: life so colorful, so magnificent and peaceful, that one couldn’t help but be affected by it; to be pulled inside of it, to die within its sweet caresses; and be reborn anew, greater and stronger than before; all because nature’s lingering presence has been burned forever into your soul.

At sunrise, I picked wild flowers for hours. I was in my element here, a place I had never known existed but recognized instantly as a home.

Sitting amid a pile of flowers, my body, my magic, connected to Earth, was how Gerik found me. I had two chipmunks in my hands. Birds of all colors perched on the trees surrounding me and a family of rabbits stood only a few feet away. Several doe and a few fawns had begun approaching me but were wary of Gerik and kept a good distance away.

Gerik burst out laughing.

“What?” I asked, feeling a blush creep up my neck.

He grinned. “You’re goddamn Cinderella, Trinity. All you need is a fairy godmother, yeah?”

“Whatever,” I said, “Besides, I liked Belle better…or Ariel. Ariel was a mermaid. It just doesn’t get any cooler than that.”

He snorted and smoke billowed from his nostrils, sending my posse of wildlife scattering in fear.

“
Now
what’s funny?”

“Belle.” He laughed and pointed first at me, and then himself. “Beauty and the Beast.”

I shook my head. No way could Gerik ever be considered a beast. Even in beast form, he was by far the most beautiful male I had ever seen.

“So what you’re trying to say is I’m beauty?” he asked, “And you’re the beast?”

I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. Holding my belly, I fell backwards on my bed of flowers and rolled around, laughing louder and harder than I had in all my life. The joyful sounds bounced off the surrounding rocky ledges and echoed all throughout the valley below. It seemed as if the mountain was laughing with me.

“Oh gods,” I breathed. “Enough with the comparisons. We might be powerful and you might have horns on your head but we are still just plain old Trinity and Gerik, not mythological gods or fairytale creations.”

“Yeah?” He smiled at me. “I like the sound of that, beautiful.”

He lay down beside me and stared up at the bright blue sky, his eyes crinkled with happiness. “Trinity and Gerik,” he murmured softly. “Just plain old Trinity and Gerik.”