Why the hell did he have to be so handsome, Trynn thought, a bit sadly. He should be married to a supermodel, churning out genetically superior babies. Not holed up alone in an expensive hotel room, celebrating Halloween three months early.
Trynn scowled at the screen and tried to resist the temptation to look him up on a social media site.
She rarely bothered with social media herself, usually finding it to be too unreliable a source from which to gain useful information. Yet, in this case, Trynn really wanted to see what she could find.
Unfortunately, without knowing his real last name, the search for Eris yielded no definite results. There was nothing under the fake name he’d given her at first, either.
I’ll just have to go back to his hotel and talk to him again, she thought savagely. He at least owes me that much.
It was that certainty which drove Trynn forward through her morning. She forced down some food—even though food had seemed completely unappealing since her run-in with the bomber—and dressed in comfortable clothes for walking.
It didn’t seem to matter that she was only intending to return to the Merit Lefkosa so she could confront Eris about his crazy story and weird behavior—she still couldn’t help worrying about her appearance. Glancing critically in the mirror, she stared at the dark green canvas pants that she wore with a plain white V-neck t-shirt. She could pass as a tourist, she decided, with her simple tennis shoes on.
She had decided to walk back to his hotel rather than taking a cab, in hopes that the Mediterranean sunshine would do something for her ghastly pale skin. Her short, dark hair was spiked lightly and she pushed sunglasses onto her face to cover the bags under her eyes.
It sort of disgusted her that she was so worried about her looks when she going to meet a man who was plainly as crazy as a box of frogs, but on the other hand, she still felt the eerie connection—not to mention, attraction—to him.
I’m the one who’s freaking crazy. What the hell am I doing stressing out about this?
It was true—Trynn was completely unaccustomed to feeling uneasy around a man. In the past, when she’d had casual relationships, she’d found it easy to be cool and aloof. She’d never been one to settle down in one place, or with one guy. For many men, it made her the perfect girlfriend—in other words, not a real girlfriend at all.
Now, though, she felt butterflies stirring in her stomach, and a sheen of sweat breaking out across her brow.
I just need to get moving, Trynn thought as she slung her handbag over one shoulder. It will be better when I don’t feel so idle.
Walking helped manage her nervousness, and before she knew it, Trynn reached Eris’ hotel. Hoping that the same young man was not working the front desk, Trynn kept her sunglasses on as she stepped into the large lobby.
To her relief, she did not recognize anyone from her last visit. Suppressing a sigh, she pushed her sunglasses up on her head and strolled confidently towards the elevators. No one stopped her, confirming her earlier suspicion that the security was not as foolproof as she had originally hoped.
When she approached the seventh-floor room for the second time, she did not hesitate to knock. This time, when Eris answered, he looked like he had been awake for a while.
“You came back,” was his tense greeting. The curtains were drawn inside the room so that the light was dim, making it hard for her to parse the expression on his face as she stood under the bright glare of the hallway outside.
“I need to talk to you again,” she said, girding herself as if for battle. “You owe me a better explanation than that crap you spouted last time.”
Eris only nodded and moved aside, gesturing for her to come in. She stepped inside and looked around suspiciously for a moment. She’d had the oddest sensation—a cold chill, almost as though something had brushed against her arm as she moved into the room. As she glanced around the dimly lit space, however, she saw nothing.
They sat across from one another in the same chairs as last time, awkward and uncomfortable.
“So, you wanted to talk to me,” Eris said after a moment, his voice heavy and resigned.
Thank you, Captain Obvious, Trynn thought, but she quashed the impulse to be a complete bitch to him. She needed to keep her wits about her so she could make sure all of her questions were answered.
“Yes,” she said, trying to find words to describe her thoughts. “I need to know what happened the last time I was here.”
“What do you mean?” Eris asked, looking at her steadily.
Trynn considered him. He looked genuinely unsure as to what she meant, which surprised her.
“I—” she started before falling silent. How could she tell him that she spent half the night practically humping the mattress in her sleep because of crazy dreams of fucking him silly? There was seriously no good way to provide that information.
“I had some intense dreams last night about you. I know that you must have some sort of…ability to influence others, because of how you handled that guy at the bank.”
Trynn stopped speaking, hoping that Eris would simply confirm or deny her suspicions. He, however, seemed to be in a less than helpful mood.
“Um… okay?” he replied, obviously waiting for her to elaborate.
“Well,” she said in a slow voice, “I wondered if you had done the same thing to me. You know, if you put… like… a mind-whammy on me or something?”
He blinked. “A mind what?”
Trynn felt her face go red. God, she sounded like a complete idiot. “I don’t really have a good word for it,” she snapped. “But I’m also not accustomed to having sex dreams about complete strangers that keep me up half the goddamned night.”
Oh, shit. She’d said that last part aloud, hadn’t she?
Eris started to chuckle, but smothered it when she glared at him. He shook his head. “No, I didn’t put a mind-whammy on you.”
She continued to glare. “How do I know that for sure?”
Eris slowly brought his eyes up to meet hers, his expression intense.
“Because if I had put a mind-whammy on you,” he said, sketching air quotes around the ridiculous words, “it would have felt like this.”
Eris’ eyes glowed with that eerie inner light, and a strange, overwhelming sensation flowed through Trynn’s mind. He was looking directly at her, those unearthly eyes fixed on her face without blinking or turning away. It made her feel like a mouse frozen under a cobra’s cold regard.
Her heart stuttered once and pounded against the walls of her chest, all the blood in her body rushing abruptly south. She gasped and gripped the arms of the chair. Desire surged through her so powerfully that it took every last bit of her self-control not to fling herself forward across the space separating them and crawl into his lap, rutting like a bitch in heat. She could feel her restraint slipping more with every heartbeat as she twitched with longing, trying to keep her disobedient limbs under control.
She was panting, open-mouthed, so hot she was surprised clouds of steam weren’t rising from her skin. Images raced through her mind of Eris plunging himself into her depths… gripping her hair… bringing his lips to her neck. They were so real that she could almost feel the ghost of his teeth against her throat, the dart of his tongue against her sweaty skin.
The ache of raw need between her legs was unbearable, and she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop the onslaught of sensations. Finally, Trynn could take it no longer. She scrambled out of the chair, stumbling towards him on rubbery legs. Her hot palms gripped his arms as she tried to mold her body against his, desperate for contact, for release.
Without warning, everything vanished. The heavy, drugged feeling in her mind dissipated and Trynn could breathe easily again. Although her heart rate remained high, she could feel her body calming as the glow dimmed from Eris’ eyes. He maintained his steady grip on her and Trynn realized, with horror, that he was restraining her, holding her back from climbing his body like a tree.
She gaped at him, aware that he had just reached out with his mind somehow and tampered with her thoughts. Embarrassment and horror coursed through her, making her face burn with shame. It took a moment to lock her knees and get her feet back under her, but then she jerked back so quickly that the contact between them was broken.
Without the burning, ravenous desire for Eris or the electric feeling that raced through her every time their skin came into contact, Trynn found that she felt rather empty and cold.
Fortunately, anger came to her defense an instant later.
“You jackass!” Trynn yelled, setting herself before smashing her fist squarely against his jaw in a vicious roundhouse punch.
To her consternation, the blow barely seemed to register with him. His head snapped to the side, but he merely shook it off and looked at her in shock. Her fist, on the other hand, exploded into agony. She drew it against her stomach, cradling it and gritting her teeth.
She couldn’t suppress the hiss of pain that escaped her lips.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement to her left. As she whirled to see what it was, she caught Eris making a sharp gesture with his hand, though he didn’t speak.
Every single rational thought fled from her mind as her eyes fell on a ghastly creature stepping out of the shadows. Although it was roughly human-shaped, its features were so distinctly inhuman that Trynn immediately knew she was in the presence of a monster.
A monster. A vampire. Jesus Christ, she hadn’t been delusional before after all. Vampires were real. A pitiful squeak rose in her throat as she backed away in sudden terror, her eyes jerking towards the door.
“Please,” Eris murmured, “Trynn. It’s all right. You’re not in danger. Don’t run away again. He’s a friend.”
Trynn looked back and forth between the two otherworldly figures, fear and indecision writ large on her face.
Every bit of common sense she possessed demanded that she flee before she was killed. She knew that the creature before her was powerful. Deadly. Its empty, cold eyes were pitiless and frozen. A chill seemed to emanate from it, infecting her, freezing her soul.
“A friend?” she whispered, looking at Eris, the tone clearly saying that he had lost his freaking mind.
“Yes,” Eris answered, glancing quickly at the monster. “A friend. This is Snag.”
Trynn forced her gaze back to the… creature, and studied him more closely, still poised to flee if he made any sudden moves. “Snag? What kind of name is that?”
The creature—Snag—turned his head a fraction in response, but did not speak. Trynn frowned, her frantic heartbeat slowing gradually as her panic ebbed.
“Yeah, well, it’s nice to meet you, too. I guess. You’re… not human.” Still, the creature did not reply.
Eris sighed and said, “Actually, he’s every bit as human as I am.”
There were two ways that statement could be taken, and Trynn could guess which one he meant. She felt her stomach clench and a cold sensation pass through her yet again. How was it possible that this was happening? She’d wanted answers, but she hadn’t wanted this answer.
“What are you?” she asked, hugging herself. The knuckles of her right hand still ached and throbbed from hitting him. “How can this be happening?”
“Please, Trynn,” Eris said, sounding tired, “sit down. I’d like the chance to try and explain things better than last time.”
That was what she’d come for, wasn’t it? And neither one of the pair had made any move to hurt her—not even when she’d punched Eris in the face. Trynn found her way back to her seat and crossed her arms defensively, still feeling uneasy under Snag’s impassive stare. Now that her panic had faded to manageable levels, she shamelessly studied the gaunt creature on the other side of the room.
His skin was grey and papery, covered in scars. Some looked like claw marks. Some were in the shapes of complex symbols. Some appeared to be from burn marks. He was completely bald, without eyebrows, but his eyelashes were thick and dark. They framed deep-set eyes so black that she couldn’t see the boundary between pupil and iris. Trynn shivered as he regarded her silently, his face completely expressionless.
Eris looked over to him and shook his head. “I know we’ve had this conversation many times, old friend, but you really need to work on your people skills.”
Snag did not answer, but swiveled his gaze towards Eris, the dark depths of his eyes never flickering.
“You were going to answer my question,” Trynn reminded him. She wanted answers, and she wasn’t willing to wait another minute.
Eris nodded and cleared his throat. “You’ll have to forgive my awkwardness. Your presence is… unnerving.”
“You hang out with this guy, and you think my presence is unnerving?” Trynn asked, incredulous.
“It is, though. I never expected to find my lost soulmate,” he said. “When we found Della, I thought it was a fluke. A happy accident.”
Della? Trynn filed the name away to ask about later. “And you’re sure I’m this lost soulmate, are you?”
Eris huffed a breath that could have been amusement or frustration. “Without a doubt. Even ignoring the spark between us whenever our skin touches… I’ve been having dreams, as well.”
“Wait. You mean we’re having the same dreams?” Trynn demanded, taken aback by this piece of information—though maybe she shouldn’t have been.
Eris flickered an eyebrow. “Yes, Trynn. I mean that we’re having the same dreams.”
Silence followed his statement, and Trynn forced out a hollow laugh. “Yeah, right. Sure we are. Look! We can’t be having the same dreams—that’s impossible. If they’re similar, it’s probably just a coincidence.”
“It’s not. I am a vampire, and you are human, yet our souls are connected. We experience certain aspects of our lives together, especially when we revisit old memories.”
“But none of this makes any sense!” Trynn exploded.
“I can’t explain it any better than that to you,” Eris said. “But, I can tell you that reincarnation is real. For example, feelings of déjà vu are nothing more than the mind struggling with an old memory from a past life.”
“Déjà vu is supposed to be a trick that your mind is playing on you,” Trynn said dismissively. “How do I know you’re not tricking me, too?”
“You don’t,” Eris replied in a serious voice, “but I’m not.”
Trynn studied him carefully for a moment. “Then explain more.”
Eris sat back. He was silent for several moments before speaking. “It starts at the beginning of time.”
“Okay, maybe not quite that much,” she said. She might have wanted answers, but she had no desire for a lesson on the entire history of the universe.
“I’ll try to be concise,” Eris said, his tone growing mildly annoyed.
“Fine,” she said with a resigned sigh. “Do please continue.”
“The universe was formed around the forces of good and evil. These forces are the source of most religions. All of them believe in the struggle between good and bad, love and hate. Well, the struggle is real. There are angels and there are demons. Or, at least, there are beings that may as well be angels and demons. One demon in particular, Bael, is the force of evil incarnate on this planet.”
“Like the devil?” Trynn asked, trying to remember all she could from the world religions elective she was forced to take in college. Mostly, she remembered how much she’d hated the damned class.
“In a sense,” Eris said. “Not exactly. He has the power to rend souls and destroy lives. Everything bad that happens on this planet has something to do with him. He is the bringer of darkness, pain, and desolation. The harbinger of filth, disease, and rot.”
Trynn shuddered at Eris’ words, but she did not interrupt him.
“Bael has one great weakness, however. He has no ability to understand the unconquerable power of love. There’s a saying in the Christian Bible that he seems to have forgotten.”
“What’s that?” Trynn asked.
“Perfect love casts out all fear.”
“What does that mean, though?” Trynn asked, drawn in despite herself.
“For him? It means that when he decided to destroy my soul and the souls of my friends, he made one mistake that all of our soulmates exploited.”
Trynn held completely still, listening. Her eyes never left Eris’.
“Their love for us protected us from utter annihilation. Instead of becoming Bael’s undead puppets, we were reborn as vampires, our souls split into two pieces, the Light and the Dark—both contained in one body.”
Trynn blinked once, confused.
“But in saving us, their lives were sacrificed. You were Phaidra, and you died millennia ago. Apparently, I’ve been waiting for your return all these endless years, and never even knew it until I found you.”
“How do you know for sure it’s me, though?” Trynn asked, her voice a bare whisper. “You said you knew without a doubt, but how?”
Eris stretched out his hand and touched her skin. And, yes, there was that same electric current of energy passing between the two of them, making Trynn’s heart race and the hair on her neck stand up in anticipation.
“That… is how I know,” Eris said. “We have already located the reincarnated soulmate of another of my friends. We have a bit better idea what to expect, now.”
“And they had the same zap between them? Like we have?”
Eris nodded. “Exactly the same.”
Trynn wasn’t really sure how to argue with that. Or even, her traitorous heart pointed out helpfully, if she wanted to argue it.
“What does this mean, exactly?” she asked instead. “For me, for you, for this struggle between good and evil that you say is taking place around us?”
Eris scratched his head and threw a long look at Snag, who had not moved throughout the entire explanation. “I’m not certain right now. There’s a lot more to the story, but that’s the basic version. The important thing to know is that Bael will be trying to track you down. He doesn’t want us to reunite because he fears it will fulfill a prophecy. So, he’s going to try and kill you to prevent it.”
Lovers Awakening Page 8
