***
The air around had the stale scent of rotten fish.
Rotten fish and something else.
Tristan held my hand and kept me close as we walked across the boardwalk that led down to a lonely hut made of zinc sheets, thatch and sticks. Looked like a bigger version of a beaver dam with an added touch of protection provided by the zinc sheets.
The place itself looked like an old fishing port with areas you could fish and rickety boats drifting in the water. There were no people around. Then again I didn’t know if people lived here. It could have been other types of beings.
Wherever we were, I didn’t like it. It had an eerie vibe that didn’t sit well with me.
I was surprised that such a beautiful portal led us to somewhere like this. But then I remembered Tristan saying I wouldn’t like it.
He stopped mid stride and slipped his arm around me.
“Stay close to me baby.” He leaned down and whispered in my ear.
I held on to him. “I’m with you.”
He looked around us and frowned. “Not looking for a fight. My girl and I are just here for some answers,” he shouted.
I couldn’t see who he was talking to. I would have been more taken with the fact that he just called me his girl but suddenly I could feel the heavy presence of something dark.
No, not just one. A few somethings.
Within a blink they appeared in the sky. Ugly, very ugly women with long white hair and wings with spikes on them. Their faces were a cross between a lizard and a pig. Green and black scales covered their bodies that had a human appearance.
“Fucking hell,” Tristan sneered.
“You must have come for a fight day walker if you stepped on our land,” The biggest and ugliest one said.
The sight of them threw me and I didn’t know what to do. It felt like weeks ago when I was huddled in a corner watching everyone fight around me. I couldn’t do anything.
“What are they?” I whispered.
“Banshees,” Tristan answered.
“Tristan let’s just go.” I tugged on his shirt but he didn’t budge.
“No, there’s someone here who can help us.” He looked back to them and shouted. “Leave us passage to the seer, I don’t want to hurt anybody today.”
“Sounds like a threat to me.” The main banshee said and released a sound unlike anything I’d ever heard.
It was a shrill, high pitched squeal that reverberated through my body. My nerves tingled from the sharp sensation and my ears hurt.
Tristan growled and clapped his hands loud creating a bang that shot two of the banshees out to the air. He waved his right hand and another banshee got sucked through a portal then the other turned to dust.
But hell, as soon as those were taken down ten more appeared. And another batch of ten. We were vastly outnumbered.
“Leave this place.” They all cried as one.
“No!” Tristan bellowed.
I glanced at him and beheld his fearsome composure. Fearsome and formidable he stood his ground. He was staying and fighting for me.
His answer though just made them more angry. Together they flew toward us, coming at us as a swarm. I had to do something. I put up my hands and screamed, “help us!”
The second I said that my guardians flew out of my arms. The two gold dragons soared through the sky and released a blast of gold fire that took out all of the banshees. That was all it took.
We watched them circle around and land in their human form. The two women looked from me to Tristan then back to me and bowed.
In the same instant they transformed again and flew back into my arms.
“Fuck,” Tristan smirked.
I looked at him and smiled. “My God, they really came when I needed them.”
“They did and they were amazing. Come on let’s get what we came here for and get the hell out of here.”
“What is this place Tristan?”
“It’s the netherworld. Neither here nor there. Good place to hide. It moves every hour but I can track it through the water. Not a lot of people know that.” He looked proud of himself.
I was impressed. “That is way cool.”
He tugged on my hand and led me to the hut. Once there we went inside and saw an old bald man sitting on a mat with his legs crossed. He had his eyes closed.
“Thanks for getting rid of the pests.” The man smiled.
Tristan tightened his grip on my hand. “Thought you could have gotten rid of them yourself. Why didn’t you?” Tristan asked him.
“Saw this day coming.” He opened his eyes and I jumped, huddling closer to Tristan.
The man’s eyes were a dark red like blood but had two pupils inside. The pupils were black. He smiled and his forked tongue whipped out like a lizard.
“Don’t be scared baby,” Tristan said to my mind.
“What is he?” I asked him returning the thoughts.
“I can hear you, both of you. Tristan, son of Victor of the Order of Raphael I thought you’d have better sense than that. I’m a seer. I see all and hear all. Come sit, bring this extraordinary woman to me.”
Tristan looked hesitant and that worried me. Giving my hand a gentle squeeze he ushered me to the seer and we sat in front of him.
The seer looked at both of us, his horrible eyes making my skin crawl.
“This is interesting. A vampire and a witch. Don’t get too much of those. And especially not someone like you my dear.” He focused on me.
“We came here for some answers,” Tristan began. “I know you are wise. My father told me so.”
“Your father was a foolish man. I told him he’d lose the love of his life no matter what he did and he never listened. Instead of loving your mother every day for whatever time he had left with her like I advised, he wasted the time by going to the ends of the earth to find ways to protect her.”
I looked at Tristan and saw the strain in his expression.
“I didn’t know... that.”
“It wasn’t for you to know. Until just now, because I’m going to give you similar advice.”
“How similar?” Tristan straightened up and looked worried.
“I’m going to tell you the path before the two of you is very uncertain. You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you came from.” He focused on me and leaned closer. It freaked me out even more when another two pupils appeared at the top of his eyes. “This one, this woman’s past has been erased. I don’t know where she came from. The only person who knows such a thing is the person who did the erasing. Such lengths. What are you girl? Not just a witch, but very powerful. More than me.”
I looked at Tristan who was already looking at me.
This was all too much.
All of it.
I couldn’t bare it. Everyday seemed to get worse. So much worse than the day before.
I returned my focus to the seer. “How do you know I’m more powerful than you?”
“I just do, I can accept defeat when faced with a stronger opponent. I can tell you too that there’s only one way to make something, or someone more than what they are. It’s not what old Abram says. Not purity. Not keeping magic pure. It’s by combining powers. One being with another. It worries him, but not for the reason you think.”
Oh my gosh...
Holy shit. Oh my God.
I got it. In that instant I got it.
I just understood it all. Sure I wasn’t just a witch. I was part witch and something else. Not just some powerful being that just came about.
“What is the reason?” Tristan asked.
The seer shook his head. “Not telling. I’m told I can’t tell you that part. That part’s for you to work out. There’s so much more to this story, for you Tristan, son of Victor, former head of the order I tell you this... do not be afraid to love her. You call her yours, make sure she knows it’s true.” The caution looked like it struck something in Tristan. “You can leave now. I’ll take the riddanc
e of the banshees as payment. They were horrible things.”
Tristan helped me get up and didn’t let go of my hand once. Not even to open the portal.
It was night when we stepped back to his room in Saphiro.
He didn’t say anything to me for a good ten minutes.
“It’s true.” He finally spoke.
I searched his eyes not quite knowing what he meant.
“What’s true?”
“When I tell you your mine. I mean it.”
“That means a lot to me, It does. You are mine too.” I straightened up. “Why would he say what he said to you?”
“The seer tells you what you need to hear most. The most important thing to you personally. He told me that because I never believed in love, until I met you. And, before that I was a womanizing asshole. I take after my father in a lot of ways, but not the good parts. When my mother was alive he loved her fiercely, when she died he just went through women like he breathed air. I never thought that maybe he was hurting because of the loss of my mother, I just thought that’s the way you should be.”
“What happened to her?”
“Demon. It killed her. We’re pretty much immortal but not impervious to everything. I never saw the good things he did as anything worth following, just the bad stuff. I’ve never met anyone who’s ever made me want to try to be good.” He released my hand and I just watched him. “Not till you.”
I remembered when Ariyah got with Eric. She didn’t know him long at all. I worried it was too fast, but I told her to keep an open mind.
Now I understood how she felt. I understood but I wasn’t allowed to feel happy because of all the other shit I had to deal with.
“Tristan, I think I could be dangerous for you.”
“I don’t care. That’s the part he wanted you to know. The seer works in riddles. My feelings weren’t important in that conversation. It was supposed to be about you. Giving me that little piece of advice made me say what I’m saying to you now. You have me Gabrielle. Whatever you are, you have me.”
A tear ran down my cheek and he caught it. I was completely comforted by his words, just like all the other times.
“I wouldn’t have gotten this far without you, and I want to be yours in whatever way that means because I can’t get you out of my head.” I smiled.
He cupped my face. “Stay with me, don’t go back to the castle. I should keep you here. There’s something going on and I don’t know what it is.”
“Won’t it make it worse if I stay?”
“He knows, Gabrielle.” He gazed at me long and hard. “Abram knows you’re only half witch. He knows.”
A chill ran down my spine. “You think so?”
“Oh yes. He knows. He knows too that the etherstone wasn’t just some random thing thought up by this Caleb. You aren’t linked to it, but you’re a threat. At the meeting he said your guardians were able to open a portal to Pandir. That would tend to suggest they were able to resist the power of the etherstone. But I don’t think it was them.”
“What do you mean?” My nerves spiked as I listened and took in his words.
“I think that was you. I think that was you Gabrielle. I think your power allowed them to open the portal and it was you who was able to resist the etherstone’s power. Guardians can’t do that. The seer said you were more powerful than him. few beings are. While you don’t know your true powers, you’re in the dark My Lady.”
My mouth hung open and my lips trembled. “I feel like you’re right.”
“I think I am. So, here’s my theory on your ability to walk the dream plane. I think you surpass abilities and you unlock the way. Like a key. You break down the walls of magic and basically do what you want. It’s like a combo of everything.”
“Me Tristan? I don’t know. That sounds like too much. I just...”
“Baby, if you tell me that shit about advertising again I’ll... I don’t know what I’ll do. Just forget about that. This isn’t Kansas anymore.” He chuckled. “It’s like you said about how you got to the dream plane. You were watching a western and suddenly you were there. I don’t know how it all works but that’s my theory and as no one else knows how your powers work you get the bonus of feeling your way through this, just with me.”
I smiled up at him, that was the most answers I’d had. It was definitely something to work with, although there was so much more to think about.
“I have to go back Tristan. I have to. They’ll look for me and it will be worse. I can feel it. I need to find out why my past was erased. Someone in that castle must know right?”
He dipped his head and brought his hand up to his temple. “Yeah. Someone in the castle will know.”
“That sounds like a witches spell.”
“A very powerful witch.”
“Or a Mage?” Claire, she would know. Maybe she knew more than she was saying.
“Fucking hell Princess, you’re treading on eggshells here. Claire is... I don’t know. She just does whatever Abram tells her to. There was a time when she wasn’t like that, but she is. When I took you back to the castle the other week I heard her talking to Pru. I got the impression that she doesn’t want you to use your powers either.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Tristan, she’s the best person to speak to. Someone with her capabilities would know about erasing someone’s past.”
“Okay, talk to her but I need you to still be careful.”
“I will.”
He tightened his grip on me. “Stay with me tonight.”
I nodded. I’d already been with him for most of the day, I might as well stay.
It would be good for me to be with him tonight.
Chapter 9
Tristan
***
I left her asleep in my bed before the sun rose.
I didn’t want to leave her but I had many things on my mind that needed to be sorted out, preferably before I took her back to the coven.
That damn coven, I didn’t want her to go back.
She was right though. Keeping her with me for longer than I had would be bad. It would raise suspicion and then they would look for her. They wouldn’t be able to get into Saphiro, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be able to get to her.
There was Ivan and Virgil to consider and so far they didn’t have one iota about her. Not a damn clue that I’d had a witch in our lair all these weeks. Our mansion was more like a fortress, so big that I could get away with it but they should have been able to sense her presence.
I knew they couldn’t. I guess they had their own stuff going on. Ivan always had something going on but was secretive. Virgil was similar but knew how to loosen up. At least the two of them were out of my way.
Where I was now was a place I never planned to return to.
The woods of Mortimer. Lycan territory.
Lucian’s pack of wolves roamed here. I was certain he already knew I was here. He’d pick up my scent.
The enemy, of my enemy is my friend. Father taught me that too. Him and my uncle, Neo. Neo was the one who showed me passage to these lands.
Lycan and vampires had a lifelong feud from the old days. Centuries ago. No truce on earth would ever fix that. However, some ideas in common just might be able to force some sort of agreement to work together.
Before I could even get to the cave where Lucian lived three wolves appeared. Females. I heard they were more deadlier than the males.
Never tested that though.
They watched me as I walked past and didn’t stop me. Meant I was being allowed to enter.
Lucian sat on a large stone throne sharpening his knives. He lifted his blonde head and looked at me with silver eyes.
Silver eyes that turned brown when he smiled. Not a smile of welcome. This was one that humored me.
“What are you doing here vampire?” he asked.
“Thought I’d stop for tea. Such a lovely night to waste. Don’t you think?”
&
nbsp; He laughed. “Right, tea? You have some death wish coming here.”
“You can’t kill me.”
“Should we test that?”
“Would love to but time is of the essence.” I smiled moving closer to him.
He sneered. “Eager to get back to the witch in your bed.”
I laughed again. I couldn’t hear werewolves thoughts but I didn’t need to. This guy especially was like an open book. He thought I was sleeping with Pru.
He believed that little disagreement we had back at the meeting was evidence of that. He didn’t realize it was simply because I got on Pru’s nerves, and she really couldn’t stand me.
“Yes, actually I am very eager. Although I have to inform you that the witch in my bed isn’t the witch you expect. Not your witch.”
He growled at me and his eyes flashed silver again. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Of course, let’s play stupid. Or, you can play. I don’t have time for that shit. You’re dumber than you look if you can’t see the way she looks at you, but don’t worry I think it’s just me who sees it because those meetings are so boring that I’m busy seeing stuff others can’t see. Like the amount of fucking bull shit that comes out of Abram’s mouth.”
Got his attention with that.
“I’m listening. What do you want? Why are you here? We do not like each other.”
“We?” I motioned from him to me. “I’ve never done anything to you and you’ve never done anything to me. Nothing I know of any way.”
“Lycans and vampires, Tristan. We do not get along.”
“You’re the only other person I know who doesn’t trust Abram.”
“I don’t trust him. That is correct and in light of recent actions he’s taken upon himself we will be leaving the council.”
“Wow.” A truce for well over two thousand years and he was leaving just like that.
“Yes, wow. I have to do what’s best for my people. I sense there’s a war coming and I will not be some kind of fool and watch it come and not do something to stop it.”
“Nor will I. That’s why I’m here. The etherstone should not go to the shadowlands. You and I both know this. I’ll bet you also thought about the whole thing a lot over the last few days and came to the same conclusion I did.”
Tempted by The Vampire Page 7
