The Soul Mate (23 page)

Gerik had become the opposition of life. He
needed nothing now. He was a self sustaining powerhouse all rolled
into one man.

I laid my hand on his heart where only one of
his rune tattoos had remained untouched by his anomalous
transformation. I swallowed back a fresh wave of tears as I traced
the three interlocking circles.

Without warning I was flat on my back and
Gerik’s hands gripped my hips. Brilliant blue eyes instead of black
looked down at me.

“It’s better this way,” He rumbled. “Without
the blinding need, yeah? I didn’t think it would be but… I can
think clearly and really feel you Trinity. Really smell you.”

His nostrils flared wide and black fangs
lengthened past his bottom lip. I should have pushed him away but
it was beyond my ability as a woman. As a human. As a lesser
creature in the presence of a god.

This magic far surpassed the soul mate bond.
It was darker, dangerous and terrifyingly more powerful than
anything I’d experienced. Worse even was my awareness. My head was
clear, my thoughts my own, my ability to discern right from wrong
was still in tact and yet I was helpless against him, against his
nearness and his intoxicating power.

“I want to show you,” He murmured. “I need
you to know that I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I would never have
hurt you.”

“Do it,” I rasped, overcome with feelings I
had no description for. “Show me everything, all of it.”

Digging my fingers in the waistband of his
jeans, I yanked on them, forcing his hips in-between my thighs. “I
want to feel everything that you feel", I told him.

Gerik’s beautiful eyes squeezed closed,
leaking fat tears. Without thinking, just feeling, I quickly kissed
each one away.

Gray eyes opened, wielding raw power. He held
me tightly when I would have flown backwards as images and emotions
that were not my own assaulted me.

Flash.

I felt fear. I was racing towards…me? The
carnival, I was seeing myself at the carnival the day Gerik saved
my life. Someone is screaming at not to go back there, that we’re
surrounded. “Gerik!” They scream, “We have children here! We will
have to leave you!” I ignore them, I have to... Because I need
her.

And when I see her I am horrified. She is
running from a horde of monsters, all trying to kill her.

I’m using my magic but it’s so hard to
differentiate who is human and who is not in the mass hysteria and,
god dammit, I’m not going to make it. I’m going to lose her before
I even touch her.

I am in time. I snap the neck of one, just as
he swiped at her hair.

The moment I touch her I feel whole.

Flash.

I am watching her/me sleep, inhaling deeply
the scent of flowers that always surrounds her. I can’t bear it
anymore, she cries every night for her sister and she won’t even
look at me. I want to comfort her, touch her. No, I need to touch
her. The need throbs, and at times it actually hurts. I keep
thinking if I can’t have her soon I will die.

I reach out to finger her hair, her cheek.
God it’s so soft. Just like the rest of her. Her soft skin, her
soft body. Even her lips look soft.

I can wait for her, I can. No, I can’t. I
can. I should and I can.

I’m going crazy. I need to touch her. Just
once. I cannot be this close to her without touching her. A throat
clears. I glance at Becki. She’s pointing at the door. Reluctantly
I leave.

Flash.

I’m watching her/me from across camp. She’s
helping the women cook today and I’ve seen her smile twice already.
When she smiles, her dimples show and I can’t help but smile too.
And those eyes…

Someone has beaded her hair, probably Becki.
Thank god for Becki. She has done wonders with her.

Her dress flutters in the breeze and my gaze
ends up on her gently curved hips. I want to grab them and wrap her
beautifully sculpted legs around me.

She’s not wearing a bra today; her breasts
slope naturally against the thin material, and bounce with her
movements. My muscles are twitching again, my insides coiling,
heating. I’m going to go mad.

Shandor and Xan are staring at her again. I
wonder if anyone will care if I burn their eyes out of their
skulls. Maybe their mami’s?

Flash.

Onyx. I need release. I can’t look at her
face, her too thin lips, and her hard straight body. It’s not what
I want.

I ache for Trinity’s curves, the softness of
her body, and the fullness of her lips. I want to see emeralds
looking back at me and feel her long, black hair draped across me.
I want to smell the rainbow that is her. I want to feel whole when
I come, not drained and empty.

I’m not going to look at Onyx anymore. I’m
going to flip her over and close my eyes. Close my eyes and
pretend.

Flash.

Xan took what was mine. The most brutal and
beautiful part of claiming my woman, my soul mate, he stole from me
and took as his own.

Does she actually love him?

It. Hurts. So. Bad.

I should kill him. Only, how can I? How can I
fault him for wanting her? She is everything. She is-

I am going to kill him.

I have to get out of here. Now.

Flash.

“Gerik!” I gasp as my emotions and thoughts
became my own again.

“Was any of it real for you?” He asked,
looking away, but not before I’d glimpsed the pain and desperation
that shone brightly in those blue depths.

“Or was it all…” He closed his eyes and
trailed off, his fists clenching.

My heart broke for him. It broke for all of
us who’d been forced to yield to the otherworldly powers of Nature.
A power so great she thought it her right to play with people’s
destinies like pawns in a game of chess.

“Gerik?” I pleaded, cupping his face. “It
was… there were times when…”

My tears finally fell as I realized that I
could tell him something that wouldn’t have to be a lie.

“Gerik, you gave me everything. You gave me
absolutely everything.”

And he had. If it hadn’t been for Gerik, I
would have succumbed to the same fate as my little sister. Without
Gerik, freeing myself from the ties that had bound me to him all
these years would have been impossible because I never would have
met Xan. So it was true, Gerik had given me everything. He’d given
me life and more importantly… love.

Grabbing me tightly, he brought me face to
face with him. “That’s all I needed to know,” He whispered
hoarsely.

Heat exploded around us.

“Wait!” I cried. But it was too late. The
sounds of the ocean had filled the air. The scents of Pine trees
and Cinnamon grew stronger, surrounding me. Gerik’s eyes, blue and
beautiful, captivated me like even the most glorious of sunsets
could not.

I could only watch, unable to move of my own
free will as he intertwined his fingers with mine. A glowing white
light began to form in between our palms. Whispers of black mist
trickled through our fingers, wrapping their darkness around our
joined hands.

The air was thick with magic, magic that had
no where else to go but inside of me. Tendrils of magic began to
sliver through me.

Millions of faces and places overtook my
vision, strangers all of them, yet somehow they seemed eerily
familiar. Somehow I knew them, knew that we’d shared the soul
inside of me.

These were the others my soul had collected
on its endless journey of finding its counterpart, time and time
again, lifetime after lifetime, love after love.

“I know you,” I said to Gerik, in awe of our
ageless connection. “I’ve always known you.”

He said nothing as the power between us grew
stronger and brighter. The foliage was blooming around us; the
trees had grown thicker, the grass higher and greener. Fresh scents
of life perfumed the air as everything began to blossom full and
fat succumbing to Gerik’s power.

My head was spinning. Somehow Gerik was
reconnecting us using his magic. I could feel it, the way people
who have bad bones can feel when it’s going to rain. I could feel
him inside of me somehow, only more. He was everywhere, all at
once, taking over, taking control.

The magic was pushing wildly against my hands
until I felt as if could no longer contain it, would soon be unable
to hold onto to all that power and yet I couldn’t seem to let it
go. Something inside me felt as if I had been waiting for this
moment all of my life.

Then, in an explosion of white light and
black shadows, Gerik released me. The magic in the air burst and
shattered into a million tiny fractures of light and dark that
sprinkled down upon me like rain and disappeared into my skin.
White hot fire exploded inside of me and the scents of summer
filled the air.

Everything was suddenly within my reach. I
could hear the heartbeats of animals from miles away. I could sense
the storm that hadn’t yet broken through the clouds two towns over.
I could feel the earth beneath me pulsing with foliage yet to break
free. Colors I’d never dreamed existed before appeared, and sounds
I shouldn’t have been able to hear burst through my ears. I was
connected to life, to all living things.

Then a dark cooling balm fell over me and
winter permeated my senses. Crisp, cold air and fresh snow,
loneliness, starvation and…death, surrounded me. Shadows came
bearing down, pressing their burdens upon me and with them they’d
brought the weight of the world.

All the life I had only seconds ago felt was
suddenly wrought with darkness and death. The heartbeats became
ticking time bombs, the storm clouds, a death sentence. Just as I
had connected to the living, I was also now connected with the dead
and dying. Both conflicting powers surged within me, warring with
each other in an unbeatable battle before finally having no choice
but to settle peacefully inside of me.

Exhausted, I went limp and collapsed in
Gerik’s lap.

“That, Trinity,” Gerik whispered, just before
everything went black. “Was me taking what has always been
mine.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Transylvania, 1078 A.C.E.

Treime hung limply from her chains in Lord
Silviu Torc’s bedchambers, bruised and bleeding, her limbs aching
and throbbing.

She watched silently through one slightly
swollen eye as her captor cleaned his hands and face in a bowl of
water before pulling on his shirt and hose, followed by his
tunic.

“
I would release you from the chains,” He
told her as he slipped into his shoes. “If you would only reveal
the secrets of your magic to me.”

Treime shook her head. “I have told you I
have no magic." It was true. Treime had tried and failed to call on
Emilian’s magic to set her free a number of times and had felt
something far more terrifying than anything Lord Torc could do to
her.

Instead of the light magic that had once
filled her, she felt only darkness. Something she didn’t dare
touch.

Lord Torc’s laughter could be heard
reverberating throughout the entire castle. “You take me for a fool
Gypsy wench! I saw your magic with my own eyes! Do you mean to tell
me you enjoy being strung up on my wall while I treat myself to
your favors?” He laughed again, a cruel cold sound.

Treime couldn’t stop the lone tear from
falling or the wince as the salty drop landed in a fresh cut on her
face.

“
You are a monster,” She whispered, her
lips trembling. “You have beaten my baby out of me and used my body
in ways I hadn’t even thought possible. You killed my family, my
people, in cold blood and for what, for a few pieces of gold, some
secrets?”

Lord Torc grew silent as he watched her cry,
something Treime had learned was never a very good sign.

Picking up his sheathed sword and belt, he
strode toward her. He lifted her chin and kissed her deeply. She no
longer had the energy to fight him. Feeling no resistance from her,
he tossed his sword and belt behind him and lifted her body against
him.

Her tears fell harder as he kicked off his
shoes and began tugging down his hose. “You are mine now wench,” He
growled against her neck. “Body and soul.”

The door was suddenly flung open and two of
his soldiers rushed inside. Lord Torc turned on them, his face a
mask of fury.

“
We are being attacked my lord… it’s…
it’s…” The boy stumbled over his words, not quite knowing what to
say.

“
Well, speak up! Who is attacking us and
why aren’t you killing them?”

“
It’s just one man my lord,” An older
soldier replied, his face deathly pale, his hands
trembling.

“
One man!” Lord Torc roared, grabbing his
sword. “You imbeciles!” \\

The older of the two soldiers edged further
into the room. “It is just one man my lord…but it is death he
brings.”

Both soldiers suddenly grabbed their throats,
clawing desperately at their skin. Blood began to pour from their
eyes, their noses and mouths as they crumpled to floor.

Lord Torc, unsheathing his sword, turned to
Treime and pointed the tip of the blade at her heart.

“
Witch!” He screamed. “What have you
done?!”

Treime smiled sadly at him. “It is what you
have done my lord, not I.”

Lord Torc’s chubby face grew red with rage
and with one thrust he plunged his sword into her heart and
twisted.

Treime screamed as streaks of blinding pain
shot outward from her heart into her chest.

Lord Torc gasped suddenly and began
struggling for breath. Falling to his knees in front of Treime, the
sword, still in his grasp, was wrenched from her body. Hot blood
spurted from the hole in her chest as her heart tried
unsuccessfully to keep beating. Her vision began to swim.

Then suddenly ice began to form over the
wound and slowly coat the rest of her body, numbing her. She felt
nothing now but cold. Slumping in her chains, she waited for the
peace death would bring her, when she smelled it…