by Adam Johnson
“Then no deal,” the troll said, turning his back to the giant vampire. Why wasn’t he afraid?
“Wait,” Caroline said. “What do I have to do?”
The troll turned back around as I admonished Caroline for even considering such an offer. “Have dinner with me,” he said.
“That’s it?”
“For the next hundred years.”
“No!” I shouted.
Gallus held up his hand to tell me that he had this under control. “How about for the next twenty-four hours?”
The troll crossed his arms and sighed. His face scrunched up in concentration as his gaze flipped back and forth between Caroline and Gallus. “Fine.”
“What kind of negotiation is that?” George whispered in my ear.
“I don’t know.” But with one look at Caroline, she actually seemed…excited. “Are you sure about this?” I asked her.
Bobbing her head up and down, she smiled. “Yeah. I want to see something new.”
“Oh, you’ll see something new,” the troll grumbled and I instantly went into protection mode again.
“Oh no, buddy. Don’t you dare think anything inappropriate. She is a child. You will protect her.”
The troll rolled his eyes at me and looked up at Gallus. “We good?”
“No, we’re not good!” I cut in. “I want you to promise me that you won’t let anything bad happen to her in your…your world or whatever. Or I’ll hunt you down and pour salt all over you.”
Gallus chuckled as he stood, pulling me under his arm again. George and Caroline couldn’t hide their amused looks, but the troll simply appeared aloof—as though he couldn’t hear a word I was saying.
“Salt?” Gallus asked.
“Yeah,” I said, glaring at the troll. “I heard that works.”
“Whatever,” the troll groaned. “We good?”
Gallus glanced at Caroline and waited for her nod. “We’re good.”
I mimicked shaking salt out onto the ground in warning to the troll. Everyone laughed at me and watched as the troll simply walked through the stone wall.
“What the hell?” George mumbled.
A moment later, the metal door unlocked from the inside and the troll pulled it open. “There. Done,” he said. He walked over to Caroline, grabbed her arm and with a pop, both of them disappeared.
“Oh, my god,” I whispered, fear skittering down my spine. “That probably wasn’t a good idea.”
“Don’t worry,” Gallus said, stepping toward the door, “Trolls are actually very kind to their women. They worship them.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Liar,” George cut in, floating between the two of us. “But whatever. Caroline was annoying. It’s nice to be rid of her.”
“She’s coming back,” I shouted to the backside of a semi-translucent George. He ignored me like always.
“Okay, George,” Gallus said, “What do you see?”
The room looked like a food cellar times a thousand. The space stretched on and on. Most of the walls were covered with shelves that extended into the darkness. I looked over my right shoulder and saw a lantern that started right up when I tried. “Got to love kerosene,” I said when Gallus looked at me in surprise.
George was floating around somewhere, Gallus not far behind, while I simply stood near the door. I didn’t want to go into the dark and scary place. Let the boys with night vision do that. I thought I heard a few noises echoing through the space, so I took one step back closer to the door.
That was when I felt the hot breath of something unknown breathing on my hand. “Gallus?” I whispered, too afraid to look down. “There’s something in here with us.”
A growl followed by a snarl echoed through the space.
Oh shit. Was that a dog?
I scrambled toward the darkness, the creature blocking me from my escape. “Gallus!” I called again.
A pair of red eyes glowed at me. Nope, not a dog. At least not a regular dog. I spun around, only to see another pair of eyes boring through my soul. Two hounds. Both growling. Trapping me against the wall. Shit.
“Elise, don’t move,” Gallus shouted from behind a shelf. He stepped forward slowly, placing himself close enough to pounce.
“What are they?” I breathed, too afraid to even move my mouth.
“Hell Hounds. Ivar must have put them down here.”
“Well….shit,” I groaned. “Now what?”
“I think I found it—” George stopped speaking and dropped the scroll in his hand when he saw what was happening with the dogs. “No way, are those Hell Hounds?”
“You know about them?” I asked, still keeping my eyes on the glowing red ones focused only on me. I thought things like that were just exaggerated stories.
“I’ve heard about them.” George sounded way too happy.
“So, what should I do?” I asked both of the men.
Gallus shifted his feet ever so slightly. “Don’t let them bite you or—”
One of the hounds jumped forward and grabbed my lower arm. I screamed as his teeth sank into my skin even though Gallus was on him in a second. He flung the beast sideways into the opposite wall, its body cracking when it smacked the stone. George started working on the second hound, dodging in and out of its form and tormenting the thing with his ghostly wiles. Gallus rushed to my side just as a shadow filled the metal doorway.
“Fenrir, enough!” Ivar’s voice boomed through the small space and the hound instantly ran to his side and sat down. Ivar’s gaze fell on each of us, finally settling on the cuts inflicted by his other hound. “You’ve been bit.”
He didn’t ask and Gallus took that as a challenge. He immediately jumped to his feet and bounded toward Ivar. But with one flick of his hand, Ivar directed Fenrir to intercept. “I will kill him too,” Gallus roared.
“You can’t kill a Hell Hound,” Ivar spat, looking over to where the other creature still lay unmoving on the ground. “Although it looks like you came pretty close.”
“He bit her. For no reason!”
I didn’t like the panicked tone in Gallus’ voice. What would happen to me?
“You broke into my library,” Ivar said coolly.
“Library?” George asked.
Ivar smiled at the ghost like he was a child. “Yes, my library of contracts.” He pointed toward the scroll in George’s semi-transparent hand. “Looks like you found what you were looking for. May I ask, which soul?”
No one said anything at first. But when Gallus knelt beside me and examined my arm again, he sighed and answered. “Jerry.”
“Ah, yes. Jerry the Representative.” Ivar nodded toward the scroll again. “He asked for quite a bit.”
The pain in my arm suddenly grew into a raging fire of agony. Heat crept up my arm and into my neck, the burning worse than any pain I’d ever felt before. I looked down to see the wound turning black and dripping something darker than blood. “What’s happening to me?”
Ivar shrugged. “You’re dying.”
“No!” Gallus shouted, holding my head as the room started to spin. “There has to be a way to fix this!”
“Do you want that contract?” Ivar asked, slinking further into the room.
“I want Elise to live!”
“Me too,” George whispered. I tried to smile at that but my face muscles wouldn’t work any more.
“I can give you both if you want,” Ivar teased.
“Stop fucking around!” Gallus growled. “Tell me what I need to do.”
“It’s simple,” Ivar said. “Give her your blood.”
George sucked in a breath and Gallus jumped away from me like he’d been stung. “No,” he whispered.
“Give her your blood and you will walk away with the contract and the girl.” Ivar’s tone pierced my skin, but I was too weak to give him any snark.
“You know I can’t do that,” Gallus said.
“Why not?” George cried. “Save her, you stupid vamp!”
Ivar laughed and walked over to his still quiet hound. “The ghost is correct.”
Gallus glared at George before returning his concerned gaze to me. “Elise, I can’t. You don’t understand—”
“It’s okay,” I breathed. And whether I meant that it was okay for him to let me die or okay for him to give me his blood, I didn’t know. I didn’t fully understand the significance of sharing blood with a vampire, and right now, my mind wouldn’t have been able to comprehend any kind of reasoning.
I started to cough, dark liquid falling out of my mouth and onto my beautiful costume. Gallus held me tight, saying something to me in a language I didn’t know. George floated back and forth behind Gallus, screaming at him. Ivar sat in the corner and laughed. It all echoed in my ears as my vision started to tunnel. The black spaces around the edges felt calm and inviting, and I was very tempted to succumb.
“You’re losing her,” Ivan cooed.
Gallus looked at me with wide eyes brimming with tears. “Elise, I’m so sorry.” And just when I thought I was on my last breath, I felt Gallus shove something into my mouth. “Drink it, Elise. Please, drink it.”
“Come on, Elise. I don’t want to have to find a new medium.” Leave it up to George to take the sentimental route.
The liquid gushing into my throat was cold and thick and tasted like metal mixed with something else—almonds? No, why would Gallus have blood that tasted like almonds. I was being silly.
“How much?” Gallus growled over his shoulder to Ivar.
“That should probably do it.”
Gallus removed his wrist from my mouth and lifted me off the ground. I instantly started to feel better, as though his blood was chasing away the poison of the hound. My heart beat stronger, my vision started to clear, and my arm stopped burning. “Wow,” I said to no one.
Gallus walked us toward the door, George following closely behind. “Why, Ivar? Why?”
“What are you talking about, gladiator?”
“Why did you make me do that?”
I saw Ivar tilt his head and smile at me in a way that set my creep-factor on alert. “Because I’m old and I’m bored. Now you’ll never be alone.”
“What does he mean?” I asked as we walked out of the cellar. Ivar didn’t follow, but George stayed super close to both me and Gallus. “Will you please explain?” I asked the giant man carrying me to safety.
“Not now,” he growled.
If not now, when? I wanted to ask him, but as we reached the kitchen and started to make our way outside, I suddenly felt sleepy. In fact, it hit me so fast, I wondered if Gallus had somehow commanded me to close my eyes, because the last thing I remembered was the sound of the violins playing Greensleeves as we exited into the night.
December 25th
I didn’t know how long I’d been out, but when I woke in my bed next to Gallus, I had a mini panic attack. Not that I didn’t want to sleep next to him, but I didn’t remember exactly how we got into this position. And that wasn’t something I usually did.
“What happened? What time is it?” I asked, feeling pretty great. No pain. No soreness. I just had to clear my head.
“How much do you know about vampires?” he asked. He sat on the edge of the bed, fully clothed and back facing away from me.
“Not too much actually. Why?”
“Because what Ivar made me do,” he cracked his neck before continuing, still refusing to look at me. “It bonded us together.”
“How?” If I was being truthful with myself, I didn’t mind the idea so much.
“Blood sharing. It’s not taken lightly in our culture.”
“Okay…,” I didn’t like the way he sounded full of regret.
“It means I will need to be close to you.”
“For how long?”
He finally turned to look at me and I didn’t like the way his handsome face seemed tired and sad. “Forever.”
I swallowed. Okay. Forever. I could handle that, right? “How close?” I whispered.
He tried for a smile, but it didn’t really work. “Close.”
I scooted up so that I was sitting and looked out the window. Snow was falling hard and I couldn’t stop my giggle. “It’s a white Christmas,” I said.
“Elise, do you understand what I’m telling you?” Gallus shifted a little closer and rested his hand on my knee. The comforter blocked our skin from touching, but I could still feel the electricity shooting between us.
“Is this real?” I asked.
“What?”
“My feelings for you? Or is it the blood?”
His crooked grin melted my heart. “It’s not the blood. That connection is only one way.”
I blushed, embarrassed by what I’d just confessed. “Oh.”
“Look, we’ll figure this out. I’ll find a place nearby and we can—”
“Why don’t you just stay in the guest room for now?” When I saw his reaction, I immediately tried to pull back my offer. “I mean, tonight. It’s snowing.”
He chuckled and wrapped his arm over my shoulder. “One step at a time, right?”
“Yes.”
Leaning forward, Gallus pressed his lips gently against mine. I quickly responded and wondered if it was his blood driving me crazy or if it was just him. I liked the idea of him being close by my side for the next fifty or sixty years. I mean, I’d be crazy to pass up an offer like this. When I pulled back from the kiss, I gazed up at him. “Do you only like me because of the blood?”
He smiled and kissed my nose. “No, Elise. I liked you the minute I stepped into your house. I told you, you’re different. Not boring.”
“Huh. Well, we’ll see what you think in a year.”
“In a year?” he teased.
“You’re stuck with me now, buddy. And I confess, I’m not really that interesting.”
He glanced at the bedroom door where Caroline and George hovered close by, arguing about something. She must have enjoyed her time with the troll if the smile on her face was any indication. George had his arms crossed and rolled his eyes at everything she said.
Gallus laughed and pulled me closer. “I think you are the most interesting person I know.”
I snuggled against him, wondering exactly how this was all going to work out. We were bonded. Or at least he was bonded to me. But I liked him. A lot. And I didn’t want him to leave my side. So, as I stared out the window and watched the snow fall, I resolved myself to this new energy Gallus had awoken in me. He was mine and I was his.
And that was the best Christmas present ever.
****
You can read more about Elise and Gallus in TOUCHING EVIL, the first book of The Leila Marx Novels. Gallus also makes an appearance in the companion novella SCORCHED, which features a main character from Leila’s world.
TOUCHING EVIL:
With one touch, Leila can see it all.
Leila Marx is trying to put her life back together after her fiancé is murdered. When Detective Garrick Pearson enlists her help with a difficult case, she is thankful for the distraction and the opportunity to use her talents as a touch clairvoyant. Leila and Garrick delve into the mystery behind a series of missing teenage girls and mummified corpses while discovering their own growing attraction to each other.
Conner Hoffman is an intriguing lawyer and striking half-demon who enters Leila’s life unexpectedly. Although her visions are terrifying, she is fascinated by his charm and his legacy. When it becomes evident that the murders are linked to a paranormal event, Conner introduces Leila to a world unbeknownst to ordinary society. She suddenly finds herself immersed in supernatural politics, sorcery, and danger as she becomes the killer’s next target.
Staying alive will mean relying on friends, accepting the unbelievable, and trusting in her heart again.
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About the Author
Amber Garr spends her days as a scientist and nights writing about other worlds. Her childhood imaginary friend was a witch, Halloween is sacred, and she is certain she has a supernatural sense of smell. Amber is a multiple Royal Palm Literary Award winner and author of the bestselling novels The Syrenka Series, the award-winning Water Crisis Chronicles, Second Rising Series, and Georgia Girls Series and The Leila Marx Novels and Novellas. When not obsessing over the unknown, she can be found dancing, reading, or enjoying a good movie.
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