by Lisa Olsen
“That’s the best part. It’s a meteorite.”
“As in from outer space?”
“Yep. It’s part of the Gibeon meteorite that was found in Namibia in 1836. They say it’s a remnant of the early solar system, possibly part of an extinct planet or moon. It’s millions of years old.”
A real meteorite? How shiny was that? I hadn’t said anything though, I was too busy studying it, and Bishop’s face fell.
“It’s disappointing now, isn’t it? I’m sorry, I should’ve realized you might take it as an engagement ring.”
“No, this is seriously cool. This is way shinier than any old engagement ring. This sucker has been out there in the black, on the raggedy edge of space. It’s perfect, thank you.” I threw my arms around his shoulders, hugging him tight.
“Do you really like it?” he asked, his cheek resting against my head, and I pulled back to look at him.
“I love it.”
And I’d loved him. I remembered it clearly, but then, I’d remembered loving Rob too. And while I felt a pull to Bishop now, it was impossible to pick up right where we’d left off without all of those memories to fill the gaps. The trouble was, now I wasn’t so sure I wanted all of my memories back at once. What if I remembered some awful things between Bishop and me too?
I tucked the ring into my pocket and wandered into the great room, still unsure what the right course of action was. Bishop looked up at me as I entered with an uneasy smile, as if he wasn’t sure how to interpret Rob’s departure. All I could manage was a faint smile, and I looked away, not ready to jump into his arms right on the tail of my break-up with Rob. Because even if we hadn’t actually been together, it’d felt real for the past couple of days, and I still had a lot to process. It left me doubting my own judgment. What if I opened my heart to Bishop and he betrayed me too?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Bishop had done his best to ignore the argument in the study, but with super hearing, it’d been impossible to avoid all of it. He got the gist that Rob had lied about having amnesia, and something to do with him carrying on with the woman who’d come to the house earlier. Beyond that, he understood that Anja was distraught.
It made his blood boil to think that Rob could treat her that way, and he had half a mind to go in there and make him pay for upsetting her. But when he’d caught the utter desolation on Rob’s face as he left, he understood there was nothing he could’ve done to Rob that would make him feel any worse than he did already. Did it make him a bad person for feeling a ray of happiness in Rob’s exit?
When Anja came into the room, she wasn’t wearing Rob’s ring on her finger anymore. Did he have a reason to hope? Bishop offered her a tentative smile, but she only glanced at him after a weak smile. All he wanted to do was gather her up in his arms and tell her everything would be okay, but he probably wasn’t the best person to offer her comfort when he was jumping up and down inside that they’d broken up.
Bishop cleared his throat, looking for a distraction. “So, let’s talk about our alternatives for fixing Jakob, now that Rob, Carys, and Aubrey are gone.”
“There is no hope now,” Jakob declared, staring forlornly into the fire.
“We don’t know that, Jakob,” Anja said, laying a comforting hand on his arm. “There has to be something we can come up with.”
“This is the only spell I am knowing,” Nelleke said, looking as downcast as Jakob, possibly more. “I am not well versed in magic beyond these. If there is another way, I am not knowing it.”
“What if we found another witch?” Anja suggested. “Rob said his sister is one, and okay, so not a lot of what he said was true, but maybe we could ask her? Or if not, we can at least find another one.”
“His sister’s a witch, sure enough,” Mason said, looking up from where he held Hanna’s head in his lap, lightly sifting his fingers through her hair. “She’s also batshit crazy. There’s no telling whether she’ll help him or not.”
“This would be a lot easier to do if we remembered everything,” Bishop muttered. “How are we coming on that memory spell, Nelleke?”
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Anja said in a quiet voice. “Painful memories might be more distracting than anything else. I don’t think I can stand any more horrible revelations today.”
Shit. What else had Rob told her?
“What do you want to know? I’ve got you covered,” Mason offered.
“Well… Why Jakob got the way he is would be nice to know,” Bishop replied, but Mason winced.
“Oh, you got me there. I didn’t even know he was sick.”
Jakob shrugged. “I do not know.”
“I know why,” Nelleke volunteered. She told the story of a curse Jakob had set on Carys and Anja, so that if they fell in love with their progeny, their progeny would wither and die. That Jakob had compelled Carys not to love Bishop, so he had escaped the curse for centuries, but that Rob had suffered from the moment Anja turned him.
“You really did that?” Anja demanded, her anger surging.
Jakob hung his head. “It sounds like something I would do.”
“Oh yeah, I know this part,” Mason nodded. “He totally did that curse stuff, it was pretty fucked up.”
“So is that why I stopped loving Rob? You compelled me not to anymore?”
“No, you refuse his compulsion,” Nell explained. “Instead, you find a gypsy to break the curse, but she is needing a sacrifice.”
“What kind of a sacrifice?” Anja gasped.
“A piece of your heart. Only Jakob is stepping in to make the sacrifice. You cut out some of his heart, and since then, he is slowly diminishing. This spell is the only thing to save him that I am finding.”
“Then the curse was lifted?”
“Yeah, you guys beat the curse,” Mason said. “I just had no idea it’d left the big guy so weak in the knees.”
Nell’s head tilted in confusion. “It is his heart that is being weak.”
Bishop’s hopes sank lower with each new revelation. It all confirmed that Anja was reconciled with Rob, and explained some of his convoluted past with Carys. She’d been willing to sacrifice a piece of her heart to save Rob before Jakob had stepped in. How could he compete with a love like that? What if things weren’t over between her and Rob after all?
“Why couldn’t you just use Maeja’s blood to fix her up?” Mason asked.
Why did that name sound familiar? “Who’s Maeja?”
“She is known as the virgin goddess, beloved daughter of Odin. She is the last remaining Ellri who is not corrupting herself with human blood. And she is also my mother.”
Anja’s brow crumpled in confusion. “How can she be a virgin and your mom at the same time?”
“Maybe she’s only half a virgin?” Mason snorted.
This was starting to sound like a viable option. “Would her blood work?”
“It is said her blood is healing all. But the gypsy say Jakob can not receive a cure of Maeja’s blood, the sacrifice must be made.”
Anja frowned at that. “Do you really think it could reverse the curse if we cheat and use Maeja’s blood after all this time? You said he’s been diminishing for a while, that sounds like plenty of sacrifice to me.”
“Yes, it is more than a year,” Nell nodded. “I do not know, but there is this risk. This is why we are seeking the spell.”
“Then if the curse is put back into place when we fix you, couldn’t you compel Carys not to love Bishop?” Anja added, and it warmed Bishop’s heart that her first thought had been for his safety and not Rob’s. Or was he reading more into that than he should?
“If she even still loves me,” Bishop pointed out. “She took off with Aubrey, remember?” But more importantly, “And do you still love Rob?”
Anja shook her head, her eyes going to the indentation on her hand where the ring used to sit on her hand. “Even so, I’m not sure I want to take the chance that he might die.”
“I think we h
ave to risk it,” Bishop stated, holding up his hand when she looked up in alarm. “It’s not an instant death sentence, right? We’ll have time to deal with it if the curse comes back into effect.”
“Ah, from what I understand, it fucked you up pretty bad, buddy,” Mason chimed in. “Rob was more like a slowly weakening thing, but since you’d been cursed so long ago, it was pretty much instant agony. At least, that’s what you told me.”
Bishop kept forgetting that this man was one of his closest friends, and apparently knew more about his past than he did. Beyond that one flash of memory, he didn’t remember Mason at all.
“No deal then.” Anja shook her head. “We can’t risk it without Carys close by. She’ll need to be there for Jakob to compel if needed. And I’d need to have Rob nearby too to see how he’s feeling when it happens.”
“Something tells me neither one of them is in the mood to help out with this right now.”
“Can’t you make Carys, Rob, and Aubrey go through with the original spell?” Mason asked Jakob, but it was Nell who replied.
“No, Jakob is so weak, his compulsion is not working all the time now.”
“Well then, I say we risk it,” Bishop decided, rising to his feet. “Worst case scenario, you can stake me and put me into torpor until you hunt down Carys and compel her not to care for me, and you can compel Anja right away if Rob starts feeling the least bit sick.”
“But…” Anja started to say, but Bishop faced her down.
“It’s the only option we have right now. It’ll be okay,” he added softly, hope flaring at the concern he saw in her eyes.
“What about Hanna?” Mason asked. “Do you think Maeja’s blood will do the trick for her too?”
“It couldn’t hurt to try it,” Anja shrugged. “You’re definitely welcome to come with, or we can bring back some of her blood if you don’t think we should move her. Do you think Maeja will help us, Nell?”
Nelleke hesitated long enough to make Bishop’s scalp prick with apprehension. “I am not so sure this will work. Maeja is not liking Jakob.”
“Why not?”
“Because she banish him from the vale for the past two hundred years. They are parting not so well after a brief, but boiling love affair.”
“Boiling?” Anja snapped her fingers. “Oh… I get it. Maeja is your mother and Jakob is your father. And it did not end well.”
“That’s what you get for being a deadbeat dad,” Mason smirked. “Even if she still hates Jakob, she could want to help Hanna though, right?”
“Yes, I think she would be willing to help in this,” Nelleke nodded.
“What about Jakob?” Anja asked. “What are we going to do if Maeja is still holding onto that grudge and refuses to help him?”
“We could steal some of her blood while we’re there,” Bishop suggested. “Even if she’s an Ellri, we might be able to overpower her.” Especially if they had surprise on their side, provided Nell could be counted on to hold her tongue. He’d already started working on a strategy when Anja shook her head in disapproval.
“We can’t do that. We don’t know how much blood we’ll need. Plus, stealing wouldn’t be right. There’s only one way to do this. You’ll have to apologize to her, Jakob.”
Jakob’s shoulders came up as she leveled her gaze at him. “How can I apologize for something I have no memory of?”
“It is possible Maeja will be pleased if you prostrate yourself before her. Beg for your life,” Nell considered aloud.
“That’s it then, time to grovel, big man,” Mason grinned. “Beg if you have to. Flowers, candy, expensive jewelry, the whole shebang. Chicks dig that.”
“We’re doing this then?” There was a note of fear to Anja’s voice, and Bishop gave her what he hoped was a reassuring look.
“I think it’s our best option for now, don’t you?”
“I guess so. It’ll be worth it for Hanna at the very least.”
“What about your memories?” Mason asked. “Are you going to do the spell to restore them before we go?”
The tension ratcheted up several notches in Anja’s shoulders at the suggestion. And even though he wanted to remember everything he’d missed with her in the worst way, it couldn’t hurt to let it go for a while longer if she needed the time to process what’d happened with Rob.
“One thing at a time,” Bishop said, and Mason’s brow crumpled in confusion.
“But…”
“We’re vampires, right?” Bishop cut him off, his gaze still riveted to Anja. “We have a long time to figure things out.”
The pinched look around Anja’s eyes softened. “That’s true, I guess we do,” she smiled faintly, and he knew he’d made the right decision.
“Spoiler alert – you two end up together,” Mason added in a stage whisper that made them both smile, before Anja looked away.
Bishop rubbed at the back of his neck. “Right, well, we can talk about that more later. It’s still early, I don’t see why we can’t leave tonight.”
“I will make the arrangements,” Nell volunteered. “The jet is preparing very quickly.”
“Where are we going?” Mason asked.
“Oslo.”
“As in Norway?” he gaped.
“Cool beans.” Anja stood up, rubbing her hands together. “Good thing I packed my fuzzy socks.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I looked in on Mason, who sat beside my sister, her lifeless body tucked into a narrow cot, strapped down at the rear of the plane. Even though she hadn’t moved a muscle for any of the legs of the journey, he’d stuck by her side, holding onto her hand, occasionally talking to her, cracking jokes, trying to get her to smile.
“How are you holding up? It must be awful to see her like this.” I knew she was my sister, but I didn’t feel anything beyond the common concern I’d have for anyone in her situation.
Mason looked up, his lips lifting slightly. “I’ve gotta admit, it’s hard. What I wouldn’t give for one of her smiles, or even one of our epic fights.”
“You fight a lot? I thought you were getting married.”
“Oh, hell yeah, we fight all the time. That doesn’t mean we don’t love each other. Besides, making up’s the best part.” He waggled his eyebrows at me until I laughed.
“I wish I could remember her. Tell me about my sister.”
“Ooh, you should’ve asked me when we got on the first plane, it’ll take way longer than the rest of this flight to tell you how wicked awesome she is,” he grinned. “But yeah, I’d be happy to give you the highlights.” Mason stood up and stretched, his shoulders taking up most of the space in the aisle. “But first I’d better wet my whistle.”
“Nell got us a fully stocked bar up front.”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
I followed him up to the front of the plane, past where Jakob and Nelleke dozed, and Bishop sat hunched over his laptop. Mason cracked open two beers, keeping them both for himself when I waved one away.
“How do I begin to tell you about Hanna?” he sighed, slouching comfortably. Mason went on to talk for a full forty-five minutes about how much he loved every single thing about her, from her quick wit and sharp mind to the way she looked in a pink bikini. I was left with a pretty good sense of what she was like as a person, and she sounded like someone I’d be friends with. More than that, I could see how besotted he was with her – the way his voice changed when he spoke about her, and the light that came into his eyes when he remembered something new to tell me.
“It’s easy to see how much you love her,” I said after he’d disappeared into a private memory, a loopy smile on his face.
“Yep, she’s got my balls in her dainty but surprisingly strong hands, alright.”
“I guess that’s why we’re still friends,” I mused aloud, smiling at the confusion on his face. “I mean, technically you did kill my sister, right? Shouldn’t I be ticked off that you made her a vampire?”
His face fell. “I didn
’t have a choice, she was dying.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I didn’t meant to bring up an unpleasant memory.”
“It wasn’t one of my top five days, for sure,” he admitted. “The idea of losing her scared me to death. And it was so fast, one moment she was sitting next to me, smiling and the next she lay broken and bleeding in my arms.” He swallowed uncomfortably, taking a long drink of his beer. “Yeah, that was not my best day.”
“I’m sorry. What happened? Was it an accident? Or… do you not want to talk about it?”
“It’s so weird you not knowing about it.” Mason shook his head, taking another sip. “I thought it was an accident at the time, but then we found out later that the fucker who rammed into our car was Volkov… which means nothing to you. He used to be in charge of the Order until you skewered him with a red hot poker.”
“I did what?”
“To be fair, he had been torturing you, Rob, and Bishop for hours, so you can kind of see why you thought he deserved it.”
“Why would he ever be torturing us?”
“Oh, that’s because you wouldn’t tell him who your Sire was, to protect Jakob.”
“Why would Jakob need protecting? Isn’t he an Ellri and he can do anything he wants?”
“Yep, only he was hiding out from Lodinn, who was another Ellri out for revenge against Jakob for killing his wife a crazy long time ago… There’s really not an easy way to tell this story out of order.”
So my sister had almost died because I’d been protecting Jakob’s identity. I wondered again if it was the smartest idea to help fix him. Maybe I should ask Nelleke to restore my memories?
“And Volkov didn’t stop with your sister either. He ambushed you guys at your house the same night, and ended killing Gunnar and Lee. He even tried to kill Bishop.” Mason shook his head. “He wanted to decimate anyone you cared about.”
It was strange to hear him talking about people that’d died because of someone’s revenge against me, people I supposedly cared about, but couldn’t remember at all. Gunnar and Lee… how had they fit into my life? “What happened to him? To Volkov?”
