My Eternal Soldier

by Krystal Shannan

  Killían might have connections in the TR army, but they wouldn’t be so friendly if I admitted to knowing how to smuggle people in and out without detection. Right now, I just needed to focus on how to move the rest of the people in the lake house over the river. That tunnel might be the best way to do it, but if the TR had scouts running the fences, they would see us come out for sure, especially with as many trips as I needed to make. We were bound to be seen. Then the tunnel would be compromised permanently.

  Jared turned to me. “You have to come and go the same way you just did. You can’t go through that firefight.”

  I snarled; the tightness in my chest made me want to rip someone’s head off. I couldn’t do what he was asking, not without feeding each time I made the run. It was more blood than they could give.

  “It won’t work. I’ll be too hungry. I almost killed Killían this time. Each trip will be harder. I’ll need more, not less.”

  “Eira.” Killían’s palms settled onto my shoulders. He turned my body toward his and waited until I met his blue gaze. Strength and determination flowed from him. “You can do this. I know you are strong enough.”

  “He’s right,” Jared added. “Rose wouldn’t be trying to recruit you if you weren’t. You’ve got a strength of will inside you unlike most. You will not fail.” His comment sounded nice, but I was a realist before I was anything else. I would need a lot of blood to do this, and neither of them truly knew how much.

  The hunger from this first trip wasn’t sated. I could hear every pump of each heart within a mile radius. Thump thump. Thump thump. Like a chorus of African drums. Each and every beat coaxed my hunger higher.

  “You don’t know what you are asking.” I tore my gaze from him and looked out across the river. My telescopic eyesight bore down on the units of SECR soldiers grouped along the eastern riverbank.

  Perhaps I could take down two problems with a few bites in the right places.

  A lot of blood was to be had on the east side of the river. Blood that I wouldn’t feel guilty about taking. It wasn’t magickal blood. So I would need more of it, but plenty was available as long as I went about it carefully.

  I had to slow down to feed, and if the soldiers realized what was happening before I could blur away, I’d be cut to pieces by the heavy artillery they were using. Plus I had to move slow enough to be sure none of them had the sweet-smelling poison flowing in their veins.

  When I finally turned to Killían again, my heart was heavy. I’d killed hundreds in my long lifetime. I tried not to kill now unless forced, but this would be a massacre, and the man I loved would be watching it happen. What would he think? How could he still love me after watching me rip the throats out of dozens of men?

  He would see me for the monster I truly was.

  A vampire. An unnatural demon of the supernatural world.

  I knew he had killed and regretted it. But killing and feeding was different than killing for vengeance. Feeding was animalistic, primal, and ugly. Modern society had romanticized the vampire in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, but nothing made drinking blood or killing people romantic.

  “We do what we must to protect our loved ones, Eira. Without you, it will take the others days to arrive. And in that span of time…” His gaze flitted to the ground.

  He didn’t have to finish. I knew what would happen to my friends if I didn’t do what was necessary.

  My stomach clenched, but I nodded and pulled him closer, pressing my lips against his.

  “I love you,” I whispered against his lips before blurring from his arms.

  Chapter Thirty

  KILLÍAN

  As soon as she left my side, I missed her –the evergreen scent of her and the softness of her body.

  Reaching up, I rubbed the place on my neck where she’d fed only moments before. My fingers slipped through the smear of blood left behind. My skin was smooth, healed, but still tingled a little.

  Jared slapped me on the shoulder, startling me out of my thoughts. “Tell your Army pals by the end of this there won’t be any SECR on the other side of the river.” He smiled and ambled off toward the small group of soldiers that had surrounded us just a few minutes ago.

  I took a deep breath. Was that supposed to mean Eira was going after the soldiers? Shit. I ran toward the command center at the gate. Several of the young men recognized me and saluted. I stopped in front of one of them.

  “Who’s running this command?”

  “Commander Park, Master Sergeant North,” the young man spouted off, saluting me again.

  I returned the respectful gesture, even though I wasn’t enlisted any longer. “Point me in his direction. We have a friendly entering the enemy lines.”

  “Yes, sir!” He took off toward a large tent, and I followed.

  We entered, and I waited at the front while he went through the proper channels to secure me a moment with their commander. When the private finally returned to my side, my old friend Thomas Park was with him.

  “Killían. The boys told me they’d seen you on the road recently. And what’s this I hear about you jumping the fence with a vampire and some other guy?”

  “Sorry about that. We were in a hurry, and the bridge was a little crowded.”

  He extended his arm, and I clasp my hand around his forearm as he did the same with mine. We leaned into each other and embraced. Our history went back a decade. Park had been in the same unit with me when I lost my brother. I trusted this man with my life and felt a sense of relief to know he was in charge here now. Eira would be safe with him calling the shots.

  “So where is the vampire? I heard she bit into you,” he said, nodding his head at the red smear on my neck.

  “The jump took a harder toll than she expected. I’m fine, but we have others in our group she’s bringing over next. I need you to call off your snipers and the heavy artillery. She’s going to be thinning out the soldiers on the east bank on her way through.”

  “Of course,” Thomas said. “Corporal Miller,” he said, turning to a large man standing guard at the tent entrance. “Give the order for the sniper team along the fence to hold fire unless targets are wearing SECR uniforms. We have a friendly behind the lines. Also give the order halting all large artillery fire.”

  The Corporal saluted and hurried from the tent.

  I glanced around the tent, taking in the computers, radios, maps, and other gear. The sound of orders being given and reports being taken echoed. The smell of gunpowder and explosives tickled my nose. Adrenaline surged, and for a moment, I missed all of it. Missed the organization and purpose I’d felt.

  Since I’d left, I’d drifted, becoming a vigilante of sorts. Park knew, just like Martins did. They all knew why I left and what I did. But they didn’t care. As long as what I was doing protected the TR, they would let just about anything slide, especially under-the-radar executions of SECR black operatives who had illegally crossed the border.

  Park picked up a couple pair of binoculars and handed one set to me. “Let’s go take a look.”

  I took them and exited the tent. Parks footsteps echoed behind me as I walked toward the base of the fence. Dropping to my knees, I knelt behind the massive steel beams that formed the platform for the huge electric wired barrier between the TR and SECR. Park knelt beside me and lifted his binoculars to his face.

  “South edge,” I said. Several bodies were already on the ground, and I knew she wouldn’t be far.

  “I see them. But not her.”

  Movement behind some shrubs clued me in to her location. The sword on her black glinted for a second. Just to her left a small unit of men, packing heavy-duty automatic rifles approached, making the hairs on my neck stand on end.

  My concern wasn’t warranted. I’d forgotten who Eira was. What she was.

  Not one of the four soldiers had a chance. All of them hit the ground within seconds. My stomach churned only slightly when their heads rolled down the hillside of dead grass.

/>   Eira crouched a few feet away from their fallen bodies, canvasing the area. No alarms had sounded. She wiped my brother’s sword on her pants to clean it and returned it to the sheath strapped to her back.

  “She’s a piece of work, Killían. Where did you find her? We could use someone like that in special ops.” He chuckled. “Of course, what I’d really like is to enlist you onto the force again.”

  “I knew Eira a long time ago.” My voice was quiet, remembering the times I’d trained with her on the rocky hillsides of Rygjafylke, an area on the southwestern tip of the country of Norway.

  “She’s not the one—”

  “The one what?!” I yanked the binoculars from my eyes and glared at my old friend.

  “The one you accidentally killed. Except if that her, she’s not dead.” Park caught my gaze and cocked a confused eyebrow.

  “I did and that’s her,” I answered, turning to the river and raising my binoculars again. “The sword on my back is the one that went straight through her body and the body of the man using her as a shield. Everything happened so fast. Just as I pulled it out, another wave of warriors came at our line. They drove us so far that I lost sight of her body on the ground. When everything was done and our enemies had been cut down… she was gone.”

  “God, sorry, man.”

  I grunted an acknowledgement.

  “But now you know she’s alive…sort of. At least you can be with her, right?”

  “If we can just get everyone home in one piece,” I said, training my sights on the dropping bodies. Every now and I’d catch a glimpse of her as she tore into a soldier. Blood covered the lower half of her face. Her fangs were bared, and the body cradled in her arms flailed against her hold only a few moments before the blood loss and trauma to his neck put him under.

  It was vicious and messy.

  I hadn’t realized how civilized she kept things around all of us. How powerful and lethal she really was. Her hunger when we’d landed on this side of the fence had overwhelmed her so much that she had taken more blood than she meant to. But even in her state of bloodlust, she’d bit carefully. She still hadn’t let herself become wild. But now…now she was ripping men to shreds.

  “Well. I take it back. Now I know why we don’t recruit vampires. Damn, she’s amazing. But I’d be fucking scared shitless if she was on a team with me. How do you handle being bitten like that?”

  “It’s not like that.” I paused. “I’ve never seen her quite so…”

  “Vicious?”

  I nodded. She’d looked straight at me after finishing off another soldier. The embarrassment and shame in her expression made me want to hold her and tell her that even though her vampire side was more terrifying than I’d imagined… I would never fear her.

  She wiped her face with her shirt and blurred from view. “She’ll jump the fence in about ten minutes. I need to go warn Jared.”

  The radio on Park’s belt crackled. “Commander, over.”

  Park pushed the button. “Commander here.”

  “Commander, this is sniper seven. The female friendly took down forty-eight soldiers by my count. Lost visual. Will continue to watch.”

  “Eyes open, sniper seven. Commander out.”

  I crawled away from the fence and stood. Something hit my chest like a mule kick, and I coughed, trying to catch my breath. Air wouldn’t go in, and pain shot through me like I’d been hooked up to the live end of an electrical line.

  “Killían! Fuck.” Park leapt for me and yanked on my arm, dragging me to the ground. His radio crackled to life with shouts from different officers. Park’s voice carried in the forefront of my mind. “Rounds fired! Duck and cover. Find and shoot the sonofabitch that hit Master Sergeant North.”

  The pressure on my chest was so intense. Everything around me was going dark. All I could feel was the pain and the sensation of choking. It was like I was drowning, but there was no water.

  I squinted. Park was over me, and his hands were on my chest. He appeared to be shouting, but I couldn’t hear anything anymore.

  Jared’s face came into focus next to Park’s. He was snarling something at Park as he pulled out a flat glass cell phone from his pocket and turned away.

  Fuck. Everyone knew the satellites were tapped. Why the hell would he call someone on a cell phone?

  The blackness was closing in. The pain from earlier was rapidly becoming a distant memory. It was colder now, too. My sluggish mind strayed to Eira. I tried to picture her face, but the black spots in my vision were growing. No matter how hard I fought to suck in a breath, nothing happened.

  It wasn’t fair. She’d hate me for leaving her again, and it wasn’t my fault.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  EIRA

  As we landed on the other side, my crouched legs took the brunt of the landing, sending shock waves through every fiber of my body.

  Though I was tired, after my smorgasbord of SECR soldiers and an extra sip from Mikjáll before I left the lakehouse with Charlie and Travis, my thirst wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as it had been after the first trip. Confidence surged within me. I needed to feed again. But at least I wasn’t tearing into the closest living being this time.

  “Thanks, Eira,” Charlie said as I released her waist. Travis mumbled the same before following after her.

  Several soldiers were nearby, but none of them said anything to us. I scanned the surrounding for Jared and Killían. Neither of them was in sight.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I carefully sorted through the scents in the air until I came to one that nearly made my knees give out —Killían’s blood. A lot of it.

  I blurred to the place where it was the strongest near the wall and knelt to the ground next to a dark stain on the dry withered grass.

  “Killían!” The scream tore through my chest like someone had run me through. People stared, but no one approached. My vision darkened, and all I could hear were heartbeats. I knew my eyes had reddened, and my fangs were completely descended. Anger seethed through my cold body, and I searched the air again. His body had to be somewhere, and Jared would know where. After I saw him… Then I could kill every soldier in this godforsaken compound.

  Jared’s scent was faint, but it was mixed with much more familiar ones.

  What were Erick and Bailey doing here?

  I blurred toward the scents. Into a tent, past several soldiers, and stopped beside a bed. My Killían lay still, but his heart still beat. He was alive.

  Sinking to my knees, a cry of relief heaved out of me. My hands sought his and squeezed, taking comfort in the warmth of his palm.

  Jared stood on the other side of the bed. Erick and Bailey were at the foot.

  “What happened?” I calmed my rage, and slowly, my vision returned to normal. My fangs retracted, and I took in a deep breath of Killían’s soothing spicy male scent.

  “Sniper,” Jared said softly.

  “He lost so much blood. I saw it outside.” My gaze turned to my friend.

  Bailey’s eyes were filled with empathy. “Jared called us to come. He needed—”

  “Blood,” I said flatly. I’d nearly lost him. And now I owed my friends more than my life. They had saved the only person in the world I truly loved.

  Tears burned trails down my cheeks, and sobs began to shake my body as I buried my face against his chest. The idea of losing him terrified me. I’d only had him in my life again for a short time. But I had loved him for a dozen lifetimes. My heart had never wavered.

  He was the only one.

  Footsteps shuffled around me, but no one asked me to move. Killían lay tucked under a taupe-colored sheet. Machines beeped in time with his strong heart.

  Soft hands touched my shoulders, and Bailey’s scent surrounded me.

  “We take care of our own, Eira. We’ll be outside if you need us.”

  I nodded, grateful for the small bit of privacy they were affording me and for getting here as fast as they had. Both of them had to be exhausted after t
hat run.

  Looking up, I traced Killían’s cheek. “I love you so much. This type of carelessness is completely unacceptable. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” His deep voice rumbled from his broad chest, and a smile spread across his face. He pressed a tender kiss to my palm before his eyelids fluttered open, revealing my favorite color of blue —so light, like the sky in Norway before it snowed.

  “This is not funny. I almost lost you.”

  “How did you return fast enough to save me?”

  “I didn’t. Jared called Erick and Bailey. One of them had to have fed you. I just crossed the fence with Travis and Charlie a minute ago.”

  “Oh.” His hand squeezed mine, an effort to reassure himself as well as me. “I guess it’s nice to know I have friends with vampires on speed dial.”

  “Still not funny. What happened? How?”

  His hand moved to cover my mouth, and I jerked away, wiping tears from my cheek with the back of my hand.

  “It had to have been a sniper they missed. It could’ve happened to anyone.”

  “I will kill them all,” I growled, my voice carrying enough malice to send chills over my own skin.

  “I’m sure Park’s men are already working on that, though you made a pretty serious dent in their forces before you left.”

  “Why did you watch? I didn’t want you to see me like that… to see that side of me.” Shame enveloped my mind like a shroud of doom. What I had done on that riverbank was vicious and barbaric. None of those had men stood a chance.

  Jared’s voice was hushed outside the tent, but I could still hear it. “She has to return for the others. There are still eleven people counting on her.”

  “Give her a minute. She nearly lost her mate. With three of us here now, we can help move the others out as soon as she is ready to go.” Bailey’s reply was little more than a murmur, but it filled my heart with hope. Instead of trip after trip on my own, we would only have to make maybe two passes to carry everyone to this side of the Mississippi.