by J. N. Baker
The woman—Seraphina—headed our way before ducking into a doorway that suddenly flashed into existence. Inky shadows surrounded us as the flickering illusion followed her into the dark room. A hand whipped out of nowhere, grabbing her by the wrist and throwing her into the nearest wall. Eleventh-century Baldric pressed his big body into hers, pinning her against the wall as his hands found her face.
“Hello, my love,” he purred, running his nose along her jaw. “You have been keeping me waiting.”
She smiled sweetly at him, slender arms sliding over his shoulders, fingers tangling in his long locks. “Am I not worth the wait?”
“Always.”
With a hard yank, she pulled his mouth down to hers, allowing him to consume her with a passion she very clearly reciprocated. He growled against her lips as she hiked her legs around his middle and I knew where this was headed.
“I get it,” I told Baldric. “She loved you with the heat of a million suns. What are we seeing here? Move it along, will you?”
Present-day Baldric was absolutely riveted by the staticky scene before us, his very violet eyes glued to Sera and his past self like a movie he couldn’t pull himself away from. His chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, his one hand clenching at his side. There was a look on his face of longing…and heartache.
“Baldric,” I said a little more softly.
He shook his head, his eyes dimming slightly. “Sorry,” he said. “I suppose I wanted to remember for myself as well.”
The scene around us vanished, Sera and eleventh-century Baldric disappearing with it. When they reappeared, Sera was draped across Baldric’s bare chest, a sheet hanging loosely around them. She traced the markings on his chest with a finger.
“So, what kept you so long?” he asked.
She gazed up at him, eyes shining with love. She looked at him the way I imagined I looked at Josh. “William had something important to talk to me about.”
“When does he not?” eleventh-century Baldric and I said at the same time, and present-day Baldric’s lips quirked.
“He is planning a secret meeting,” she told him, seriousness entering her voice. “I think he is finally trying to make a move to overthrow the king.”
“I see,” he mused. “So, he is finally doing it. And the others—where do they stand?”
“He has their full support,” Sera replied, her face grim. “He has them hungry for power, Baldric. We have to stop him.”
He nodded, sliding out from under her. “We will,” he told her, tossing aside the sheet and pulling his pants back on. “When is this meeting? I do not imagine it is happening now seeing as you lured me into your bed.”
“Lured,” she scoffed. “You could never resist me.”
“Nor you me,” he countered. “Now, when is the meeting.”
Sera wrapped the sheet around herself as she glided off the bed. “Tomorrow night, after the king’s feast.”
He nodded. “I will be there. I do not want you to say anything until I arrive. We need William to continue to believe you are on his side so he will keep you in the know.”
“Understood,” she said, closing the distance between them as if she couldn’t resist being near him. I knew the feeling, just not with him. “Should we warn the king?”
Baldric ran his knuckles down her cheek and shook his head. “No, not yet. Let us see what happens at the meeting first.”
“I should have said yes,” present-day Baldric said from beside me, more to himself than me.
No one was immune from the “what ifs.”
The scene around us flickered and changed once again to one that was vaguely familiar, though not nearly as detailed. The ceiling stretched out above us into a vaulted roof and the room expanded around us, banners lining the stone walls. The image itself was a bit blurry compared to William’s, but I knew it was the same room I’d been shown before—and the same round table sat in the middle of it.
Around that table were six people deep in conversation, all dressed in the finest clothes. The women—aside from Seraphina—had jewels wrapping around their necks and arms. It looked like there were diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds in their hair and lining their dresses. The men were covered in gold medals and finery that made my eyes hurt. I didn’t remember them being so decorated in William’s version.
Seraphina stood beside Gwendolyn, William’s late wife. Her face was hard as William pointed to a map on the table.
The doors burst open and eleventh-century Baldric stormed into the room, his long hair tied back in a braid over his chain mail armor. There were no guards to stop him from entering a meeting I assumed no one else knew was occurring.
“Tell me I have not heard true!” Baldric roared.
Edward stiffened, moving around the table to stand behind Sera, hovering over her like a marionette ready to control his puppet. Sera’s eyes instantly went to Baldric and I could see the longing there. Hell, I could feel it.
“I suggest you hold your tongue, Baldric,” Edward bit out, his hand coming to Sera’s waist. She stepped out of his touch almost immediately. “We will not tolerate that temper of yours.”
“We are in a meeting, Baldric,” William told him. “What is it you want?”
“A meeting I was conveniently not invited to,” Baldric retorted. “Am I not one of the Chosen, William? Should I not be here as well?”
None of them had a response to that.
“Or is it because you know I do not support your desire to overthrow our king?” eleventh-century Baldric continued and William’s eyes momentarily widened. “There are no secrets among lovers,” Baldric said, his violet eyes landing on Sera, and Edward snarled.
Seraphina moved to join Baldric and Edward grabbed her by the wrist, yanking her back to his side. “He is unworthy of you,” Edward spat. “You will not be with him. You are mine.”
“Unhand her,” Baldric snarled, hand falling to his sword’s hilt.
“Enough,” William bellowed. “I strongly suggest you drop this matter at once, Baldric. It would be wise to remember who and what you are.”
“It is you who should remember,” Baldric ground out. “The Chosen were never destined to rule. We were sent here to serve.”
The image around us flickered momentarily and a wave of nausea washed over me as the two ancient men continued to argue, tossing around the same lines I’d heard from William’s illusion, only from different mouths.
“We have served long enough,” William said, stepping forward. “God has not bestowed upon us this kingdom to be common peasants. He gave us this land—these powers—so that we might rule over it. We will no longer do the bidding of lesser men.”
“King Arthur is not fit to rule,” Edward said, shoving Sera back into the arms of one of the other women—I thought her name was Valeria. “This world deserves so much more than that human. They deserve us. We will rule them all. You can either join us or die with the rest. Though I would much prefer the latter.”
“That is grounds for treason, or have you forgotten the law?” Baldric snapped, his eyes continually darting to Sera. Then those eyes fell to Gwen. “You cannot believe in this. You cannot possibly believe we should be overthrowing our bordering nations—our own king—just to rule. We cannot destroy alliances we have been building for centuries. We finally have peace. Do you mean to throw that away for power?”
Gwen’s green eyes glistened as she bowed her head. William stepped in front of her, blocking her from Baldric’s view.
William took another step forward. “You are either for us or against us.”
“I will never support what you are doing. And my men will never follow you.”
“We do not need your men and we do not need you,” William said, his eyes never leaving Baldric’s. “You are hereby banished from this kingdom for killing the king.”
“What?”
Edward appeared behind Baldric, seizing his arms before Baldric could unsheathe his blade. In a blur of movement, the
other man—I remembered him as Damon from William’s illusion—helped to restrain Baldric as Valeria and Gwen held Sera back.
“No!” my doppelgänger screamed, flailing against the two women. “You cannot do this, William! He is one of us!”
William stood toe to toe with Baldric. “He is not one of us. Not anymore. He has made his choice. Take him away.”
“No!” Baldric raged. “You will pay for this, William!”
As the image around us began to fade, Edward leaned in close as he twisted Baldric’s arm. “I win. Now she is mine as she always should have been.”
Baldric slumped in the chair beside me, sweat pooling across his forehead as he tried to catch his breath.
“They…they killed the king shortly after that and blamed me for it,” he said, panting. “There were those who believed them, but most of my soldiers were loyal to me. They knew I would have given my life for the king. I never would have killed him. They followed me to the bitter end. I did everything I could to stop William and the others and to get Sera back. But it was not enough.
“I watched Edward drag her to the battlefield and put a dagger through her heart. I tried to get to her—Lord, how I tried. But I was too late. I do not even recall taking Edward’s head. Next thing I knew, it was on the ground and I was covered in his blood. In the end, I failed. I failed her, and William was able to get away. I should have killed him then. Maybe then we would not be in this situation.”
Baldric ran his hand through his sweat-slicked hair and I was surprised to see it was shaking. “It was not me who made a deal with the Devil,” he continued. “It was William. After the war, he sold his soul for limitless power so that he might one day rule. He has been trying to achieve that goal ever since, and I have been trying to stop him.”
I found I was once again pacing the room, wearing a hole through the stone floor as I digested his words. “But…but you’re a vampire. A damn blood-sucker!”
He let out a breathy laugh. “A gift from God,” he said. “Much like yours. Gives a whole new meaning to ‘drinking the blood of Christ,’ does it not?”
I whirled around on him. “You lie!”
Using the arms of the chair, he pushed himself to stand. He took a shaky step toward me. “I do no such thing. You asked for my truth and I gave it to you. And my truth is the only truth.”
“How am I supposed to believe you?” I snapped. I couldn’t believe him. There was no way. “You could simply be showing me some cooked-up fantasy as you claimed William did. You have no proof!”
Baldric’s eyes, not quite black and not quite violet, never left mine as he started to remove his metal hand, setting it on top of the book he’d been reading when I came barging in. He then reached over his shoulder and grabbed hold of his shirt, peeling the long-sleeved thermal up and over his head.
I gasped as he tossed the shirt to the ground at my feet, my eyes scanning his muscular build. “Where are your markings?”
“You want proof?” he asked, ignoring my question. “Here is your proof.”
And then he turned around and I stumbled back a step.
“Holy shit…”
“H-how?” Standing in Baldric’s chambers with his bare back to me, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
I forced my feet forward until I was standing directly behind the monster I’d been told destroyed the world. Reaching out, I ran trembling fingers over the sunburst marking that stretched between his shoulder blades, a marking that matched the one on my breastbone almost identically. Though, where mine was pure white, Baldric’s was mostly black.
He stepped out of my touch and bent to retrieve his shirt off the floor before moving across the room to put distance between us.
“You ascended,” I breathed. “But how?”
“The same way you did,” he replied, pulling the thermal over his head and concealing the marking once more. “Clamabit ad me…”
The air left my lungs.
“He calls to me,” I whispered the translation William had taught me after my own ascent before collapsing into the chair behind me.
Baldric nodded. “I was drawn to the stones and the Lord changed me, just as He changed you.”
“I-I don’t understand.”
“I did not understand at first either,” he admitted. “Sera was gone. William had escaped. Our once-beautiful kingdom was in ruins. Everything I ever had or wanted was gone in an instant. I wanted it all to end. I had planned to do that very thing in the place it all began—Stonehenge. But I suppose the age-old human saying is true: The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways. For when I tried to end my own existence, He gave me a new one. God took me and made me better so I could stop William. He gave me purpose once more. I will not rest until William is dead. Until he has suffered as I have.”
“Why didn’t you tell me from the beginning? Why keep it a secret when you had to know it would change my opinion of you?”
He shrugged as he sat on the edge of the bed. “You were not ready to hear the truth. And perhaps I had hoped you might come to see I was not the monster William portrayed me to be on your own.”
I shook my head. “But the sun. The disasters around the world. Pulling the continents together. The billions of deaths.”
“William,” he said with absolute finality that had my head spinning.
“I’m going to be sick,” I muttered.
“As I told you before,” Baldric continued, “it was William who made the deal with the Devil, not me. He has many powers you are unable to see.”
“But William said—”
“William lied,” he snapped, suddenly looming over me, pitch black eyes boring into mine as I shrunk into the chair. “He has been lying to you from the very beginning. He would have said anything to keep you in his clutches—to control you for his own personal gain. He probably kept vital information from you to keep you weak; made you feel inferior, even after your ascent.”
How many times had I felt William was keeping me in the dark about our kind—about our world? How often had he kept things from me on purpose in order to control me?
“I am right, am I not? He always liked to have the upper hand. Had to feel he was above all others. It is why he felt he deserved to rule this world. And he will stop at nothing to rule it,” Baldric went on to say.
“I have spent centuries trying to stop him, but his power has only continued to grow. I joined the military and worked my way up the ranks in a number of countries and over a handful of centuries, expanding my army and trying to save as many lives as possible. I had hoped my position—and the positions of many of my generals around the globe—would help me to prevent further casualties when William finally had the power he needed to strike.”
“But William…” The words died on my lips at the look Baldric shot me. “Once a vision is seen, it cannot be changed,” I said instead. “It will always come to pass. You never would have been able to save them no matter what you did. Those destined to die would have always died.”
He cocked his head to the side, one eyebrow lifting. “Is that what he told you to keep you from acting?”
I opened my mouth to speak but no sound came out.
Baldric sat in the chair next to mine once more. “It is true that once a vision has been seen, it will always come to fruition,” he said and I breathed a sigh of relief that was short-lived. “But you can always alter the outcome. Life can be preserved.”
“He told me I couldn’t do anything,” I said, my voice wavering. How many times had I asked William to act on one of my visions? How many times had I begged to do something—anything. “He said there was no point.”
“Of course he did,” Baldric replied more calmly than I liked. “You are a smart girl; use your head. He is the one destroying the world around us. Why would he allow you to save anyone? He wanted them dead, my dear. He wanted to dwindle this world down to something he could rule over.”
Easier to control the few than the many.
; “I could have saved them?” I wasn’t even sure the words were audible.
“Some, yes.”
I doubled over the side of my chair and emptied the contents of my stomach onto the floor.
William had ripped me away from those I loved and turned me into a monster against my will. He’d forced me to kill for the “greater good.” You are going to help us change the world, he’d told me. Instead, I’d helped him destroy the whole goddamn world. The last seven years of my life had been a fucking lie. I was merely a pawn in William’s game.
Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I stood and paced the room as it teetered around me.
“When I discovered you were a seer, I wanted to take you from him. Since my gift of sight is no match to yours, I had hoped you would be able to help me save additional lives before William struck. And then, when I heard of your resemblance to Sera, well…as the humans say, icing on the cake. But when you ascended, that was when I knew I truly had to have you. I knew you were the key to defeating William once and for all. He wrongly believes he is the rightful ruler of this world,” Baldric continued. “He wants the title of king for himself.”
“And you don’t?” I snapped, pausing in my pacing to hold up the wall as the room continued to spin.
“Better me than him,” Baldric bit out, fangs extending. “I will never let him rule this world. I will rule it instead and I will give the people what they want—what they deserve.”
“The Chosen were never destined to rule,” I whispered his own words from a millennium ago. “We were sent here to serve.”
Baldric stiffened in his seat, his back to me. “Better me than him,” he said again. “He will pay for what he did to me—to Sera. He cannot win.”
I pressed my forehead against the cold stone. The large room suddenly felt a hell of a lot smaller. The walls were closing in around me. I wanted out. I had to get out.
“I need to go,” I breathed, stumbling toward the door.
