by Luxie Ryder
David’s voice became distant and weak as the sound of her racing heart throbbed loud in her ears, until that too disappeared behind another much louder noise. The ground beneath her feet began to shift like sand, each step she took pushing her further down the hill rather than up it. Confused, she turned towards the beach. Had David felt it too? His reaction left her in no doubt. His gaze seemed fixed on the hillside above her. David eyes widened and he pointed upwards as he shouted something to Amber that she couldn’t hear above the growing roar. David gestured for her to move his way, even as he began staggering away from her. He fell to the sand as he stumbled, his feet pushing against the beach as he tried desperately to put more distance between himself and whatever it was he’d seen.
Amber followed David’s stare, turning in time only to swallow a scream. The hillside and everything on it slid towards her in the surreal stop-motion of a macabre dream sequence.
She stared at a tree gliding towards her, not trusting that her eyes were showing her something real…until a small boulder whistled past her shoulders. Amber flinched and tried to move only to find her feet rooted to the spot by the mounds of earth growing around her ankles.
“Run, woman!” she heard a male voice shout from somewhere above. Amber craned her neck, turning her head to search the dingy half-light for the source of the voice. “Move—now!”
The harsh command broke her stupor, the tone leaving her no choice but to obey, and she turned away to run down the hill.
It wasn’t David’s voice, her mind cautioned, as the rumbling tremors at her back got louder and closer. A dark shadow overtook her, blocking out the light from above as something that sounded like an express train bore down on top of her. Amber opened her mouth to scream in terror but her cries were lost in the deafening roar. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, she tried to keep moving as her feet left the ground.
Her body slammed into something as immovable and unforgiving as a brick wall that knocked her flat onto her back and then fell on her. The hillside continued to move, piling on top of whatever had hit her. Amber opened her mouth to scream again, but she couldn’t draw even a single breath with her face pressed into a soft, pliable mass squashing the life from her.
The deafening rumble of moving earth and the vicious snap of splintering trees faded away as the darkness closed in. The suffocating smell of crushed plants and moist earth filled her nose and mouth and pushed the air out of her lungs, and Amber knew she would die.
A heavy object slammed into the weight holding her down and she felt as much as heard an angry groan that she was pretty sure didn’t come from her. Someone not something was holding her down. David?
A sudden, blinding pain at her temple drew her focus inward…and her last thought as she fell into unconsciousness, despite the screaming agony building behind her eyes, was to wonder how in the hell David had got back to her so fast.
Chapter Three
The woman pinned beneath Bane passed out and stopped breathing. He cleared her mouth of leaves and dirt and helped her as best he could by blowing the last of his breath into her. Amber needed air and wouldn’t survive the pressure piled on top of them or the lack of oxygen much longer. Besides, the smell of her injuries couldn’t be ignored so easily at such close proximity. There wouldn’t be much point saving her from one grisly death in order to subject her to an even worse one. Pressing dirt against the wound stemmed the flow of blood and gave Bane some relief from its intoxicating effects. His brain began to function again as he allowed the instincts he had suppressed in order to stop himself from taking her life, to reawaken.
Wrapping his arms around her torso, he pinned her body against his and gave the earth on top of his back a tentative push. Some of the weight pressing down into him shifted and he pushed again, harder this time, sure now that his actions wouldn’t bring more debris raining down on them as he got to his knees. With one final shove he broke through the leaves, twigs and dirt entombing them. Bane’s arm tightened its grip on Amber while the other reached out to grab at a grotesquely twisted tree root jutting out from the mud. His first attempt to wrench himself and the woman from their temporary grave did no more than drag the fallen spruce towards them.
“God be damned!” Bane twisted the root in his hand, sending the trunk lumbering down a few feet until it smashed to a halt at the foot of a tree that had not succumbed to the shifting earth. He pulled again, succeeding this time in freeing his legs from the sucking mouth of the pit.
A look at Amber’s immobile face told him she was still alive. Her lips and cheeks had a rosy blush despite the waxy mask beneath and he knew she would not have survived underground much longer.
A shuddering screech off to his left tore his attention away from the woman lying limp in his arms and Bane turned to see a large tree rolling towards him as the ground beneath it gave way, threatening to knock them back down into the muddy tomb. Dropping to a crouch, he pressed Amber closer to his chest and leapt clear of the ground in one swift movement, latching a strong hand around a branch fifteen feet above. The bough held their weight for no more than a second then groaned in protest before coming away from the trunk with a loud crack.
Swinging his legs, Bane barely had time to launch himself and his cargo from the fallen limb before it broke off completely. Angling his body to one side to protect the injured woman, he slammed into a larger tree further down the slope and dug his fingers through the bark to anchor them against the hard wood. The immense oak supporting them held firm, impervious to the effects of the earth shifting beneath due to its vast age and size. Bane adjusted Amber’s position in his arms and turned to look for David.
He found the gutless buffoon out at sea, struggling to guide the dinghy over the breakers trying to drag him back to shore. If he had any concern at all for Amber’s welfare, it had not manifested itself yet to Bane. David’s brow creased as he concentrated on fighting the incoming tide but there was something more—cold fear. His gaze flicked upwards to the place where Bane still held Amber before darting away, giving Bane no doubt that he had watched the events unfold.
The cold, grey skies gave Bane the protection he needed to risk exposing his skin to the elements while he took Amber to her friend. He carried her to the water’s edge and gestured for David to return. The fool dropped his head and fixed his gaze on the floor of the boat, as if he hadn’t seen a thing, and rowed harder.
“Arrant coward,” Bane muttered.
Judging by his distance from shore, David must have turned tail and ran as soon as the hillside started to slide. He would be easy to catch, but at what cost to himself and the injured woman? Most likely, he wouldn’t have the strength to row the twenty miles to the mainland, never mind do it with a passenger.
Bane allowed himself a moment to relish the thought of what he might do to David when he yanked him back to shore. Killing him would be easy, fast and very satisfying—given the nature of the man—but to what end? People would still come to look for them soon. Eli, the old salt from the mainland, would be back within three days even if David didn’t survive to raise the alarm.
Bane looked down at Amber’s still unconscious form. Could he kill her in cold blood, catch David and let their disappearance remain a mystery? He rejected the idea almost as soon as it occurred. Nothing he did now could prevent more strangers from invading his home even if the thought of harming the frail creature lying at his feet didn’t repulse him so. He’d hurt her enough already.
The events he set in motion in an inept attempt to spare their lives had spiralled out of control and now Amber might die anyway. Frightening them off of the island had seemed a wondrous idea, until the storm hit. He’d been gathering and piling small rocks and boulders all afternoon in preparation for the controlled rock fall he intended to cause while they were out of camp the next day. Their equipment would have been destroyed and the prospect of staying any longer would be impossible. The couple would have taken enough food and water with them to last until help arri
ved - help they would be forced to summon on their cell phones had arrived. But nature had made a mockery of his plans. The unseasonably heavy downpour had built up against his man-made dam on the hillside, shifting earth already made unstable by Bane’s removal of the substructure supporting it.
Amber’s groan brought his attention back to her. She woke with a sudden, violent jerk as she seemed to recall she had been fighting for survival. Her arms and legs flailed as she fought off some threat only she could see.
Bane took a step towards her, unsure how best to help her. “You’re safe now.”
She turned blindly towards the sound of his voice, her movements now slow and confused, her brow creased in concentration as her shaking hand found the injury at the side of her head and started to pull at the sticky mess covering her hair. Bane suspected the pain had kicked in, brought on by the raise in blood pressure her struggles had caused.
Amber stared at the bright slash of red staining her palm when she lowered her hand and Bane heard her stomach churn. The colour and the smell affected him too, but in a very different yet no less intense way. His teeth descended despite his efforts to stop them and he had to press his lips together to prevent her from noticing his reaction to her blood.
She winced as she tried to sit up, turning her pale face up towards him, her lips trembling under eyes filled with caution and suspicion. “Who are you?” she asked in a hoarse, shaky voice.
Ignoring the question, Bane took a step towards her, intent on carrying her back to the campsite then putting as much distance between them as possible. Amber cringed away, her eyes wide, the fear in them stopping him dead in his tracks. He could hear her heart racing, threatening to burst out of her chest in panic. Bane moved away from her.
“You need help,” he said with as much patience as he could muster. Didn’t the fool woman realise he could have hurt her already if that was his intent? Maybe the bump on her head had shaken loose the little bit of sense she had. The last time a human had been at his feet like this, he’d just taken their life, not tried to save it. Bane didn’t know what to do when actually trying to keep one of them alive.
Amber struggled to get up, stumbling to her knees repeatedly before making it onto her feet. He resisted moving forwards to help, fearing he would only make matters worse.
“I…I think I’m ok,” she slurred as she tilted her head back to take another wary look at him. Her eyes focused on his for a split second, then rolled back in her skull as she passed out again. Bane leapt forwards, catching her before she could hit the ground and swinging her up into his arms.
With one last look towards the dinghy, and a murderous growl he was glad he did not have to suppress for fear of scaring Amber, Bane left David to his fate.
Back at the destroyed camp site, he placed her on a clean, smooth portion of sand and dug out the mangled remains of a cot. The metal protested with a loud, ear splitting screech as he forced it back into some semblance of its prior shape. Next, he dragged the tent from its burial site and realised he had no idea how to reassemble it. Draping it over the bough of a tree at the edge of the beach, he formed a small shelter for her. It would only be enough to protect her from further rain but who knew how long she would have to wait for help to arrive? Taking her back to his home was out of the question. The less she knew of him, the greater her chances of survival.
Within minutes, Amber had been placed onto the small bed under the canopy. Bane covered her in a sleeping bag and knelt at her side to assess her condition. Her heart beat in a slow, steady rhythm but her breath came in thin, shallow gasps. Had she fallen into a coma? Bane couldn’t be sure. Her eyes darted back and forth under paper-thin, pale lids, making her appear to be asleep and dreaming.
As if she knew he had been looking for clues as to her well being, she opened her eyes, revealing very large, dark pupils. Bane jumped back when he identified the smell emanating from her panting mouth. Amber lunged for the edge of the cot and vomited, her body trembling as the contents of her stomach splashed onto the sand. When she had nothing left to throw up, dry heaves racked her body for a few minutes longer until she collapsed back onto her bed. Bane had moved away when the sickness took her. She had no need to see him. He would keep watch over her from a distance until help arrived.
Darkness fell on Bane and the woman he’d had no reason to make his presence known to for fear of frightening her again. Amber had not woken up. Bane settled down to sleep on the other side of the canopy, obscured from her view in case she awoke, as the two days he’d gone without sleep began to take effect. He dozed lightly, awakened often by a sudden movement behind the tarp or the sound of breathing becoming irregular or weak—until a scream rent the air just before dawn and brought him to his feet. He found her, still deep in sleep, but tossing her head from side to side as she mumbled.
“Why, Tom? Why did you leave me?” she moaned, over and over, her facial expression matching the agony in her voice. So, she dreamt of her dead husband? Bane thought back to the conversation he’d overheard, angered anew at the man who had chosen to leave his wife. If he had walked for even a moment in Bane’s shoes, he would have done all he could to stay with her. Bane kneeled at Amber’s side, drawn closer by the all too familiar anguish of her tortured dreams.
Unable to sit idly by as she suffered such agony, he tried to chase away her nightmares with meaningless words and sounds meant to soothe and calm her. A tune from his childhood came to mind and he began to hum, stripping the melody of its sweetness as he forced the notes through his raw, constricted throat. Amber’s plaintive cries diminished after a while as it seemed she began to listen to him. But the serenity that stole across her face brought him no solace as Bane fought off the painful memories assaulting him. Her peaceful, open expression took him back hundreds of years to another time and place—and to another woman who’d been foolish enough to trust him to protect her. Disgust boiled in his blood and he stopped humming when the urge to bellow out in rage and anguish almost overwhelmed him.
Grief tore through him and he staggered to his feet, desperate to escape Mary’s memory. Amber could be in mortal danger if he went to the dark place such thoughts could drag him to. Turning to leave Amber’s side, a touch on his hand stopped him.
Amber stared up at him through glazed eyes with a look of such compassion on her face, he wanted to throw himself at her feet and cry into her lap. Barely conscious and with no idea of what or who he was, she seemed to sense the pain in him. Bane shut his eyes against her pity and made to move away.
“Please, don’t leave me, Tom,” she mumbled, trying to sit and pull him down to her.
Bane resisted her hands until her grip became desperate and the tears welling in her eyes told him she was about to lose control. He relented, dropping to his knees beside her and allowing her to pull his head into her chest. Amber slept again, her hands buried in his hair and her grip on him surprisingly tight, considering her human frailty. Bane tried to extricate himself when he was sure she wouldn’t wake but whenever he moved, her breathing and heart rate accelerated and she clung to him even tighter. He had no choice but to slip his arms under her body and lift her down onto the sand with him before his back seized up permanently. Leaning away to grab her sleeping bag, he spread it on the ground and placed her on it, never moving his head from her chest as he pinned her against him with one hand.
Their close embrace seemed to calm her dreams and stop her torment, but Bane wished he could say the same. Female human contact was not so unknown to him that he couldn’t control his urges, so he simply ignored the bloodlust throbbing in the back of his throat and the hard tension in his groin. No, that wasn’t the cause of his torture. Lying with a woman this way again—and one who looked so much like Mary at that—caused his agony. Bane closed his eyes against the pain brought on by the emotional intimacy of the stranger’s embrace. How many years had it been since he had sunk into a woman’s softness, inhaled her scent and felt her warmth? He’d had cold, barely sati
sfying sex with many women since Mary’s death but he had never been embraced by anyone but her. Even Katerina, with her wild sexual appetites and claims of love, had never held him like this.
Bane grimaced at the thought of his maker. Katerina’s beauty made her everything a man—immortal or otherwise—could want. But she would never have anything more than his body, and it had been many decades since she’d had that. Denying her was the only way he had of punishing her for taking Mary’s life and not ending his. Katerina had condemned him to live forever without the woman he would love until the day he died.
* * * *
Amber continued to smooth Tom’s hair, smiling at the sounds of contentment rumbling through him. He always loved it when she babied him. She sighed, pulling him closer and throwing a leg over his hip. They never usually slept so close.
A noise began to irritate her, increasing in intensity as it went on and on. Was it her cell? She opened her eyes just as Tom moved away from her. Had he gone to answer the phone? Amber wondered if he was having trouble finding it when the noise didn’t stop.
“Tom—answer the damn phone!”
She sat up, confused when she looked around and didn’t see the familiar flock wallpaper of the bedroom in their home. But she wasn’t at home. She was in a tent, on an island.
And Tom hadn’t gone to answer the phone. Tom was dead.
The cell continued to wail inside her jacket pocket and she scrambled for it, desperate to stop the torturous noise.
“Hello?” Amber’s voice came out in nothing but a croaky rasp and she coughed to clear what felt like a solid lump of dust blocking her throat but it wouldn’t budge. She answered again, as loud as she could.
“Amber?” the voice shouted from the other end. “Are you okay?”
“R…Richard. What’s wrong?” He sounded crazed. What on earth had happened?
