mercury30: I'm glad that you still enjoy it!


Chapter 33: Broken Promises

I remembered what it sounded like to have rainfall on the silent expanse of a lake, your belly vulnerable and turned up to the open sky above. I knew what it sounded like - those sudden sounds of something hitting silence, filling up a container that was already full.

I felt that now as I stared at the hulking giant slouching into my clearing, my back prickling in mounting alarm. I didn't know him. My shoulders hunched as I straightened, mirroring his steps as he circled. I didn't know him but...but I felt like I should. I felt like I should have been…

I bared my teeth, a low hiss slithering from my lips as he kept moving, every muscle beneath that dark tank top of his rolling with feline grace. The dizzying feeling of going from predator to prey was altogether bewildering.

A golden brow quirked slowly, his head tipping to the side as he watched mean with those burning arctic eyes. Something in his expression tightened before slipping into distant amusement, his lips peeling back to flash those deadly points. Fangs. My eyes ticked from them to his hands - massive, big enough to strangle me in a second - and then back up to his gaze. Vampire.

"Do you remember me?" A soft edge had entered the gravel of his voice, his head tipping forward invitingly as we stared at each other.

My nose scrunched and I drew back a few feet, making more distance between us. I didn't like that question particularly. It confused me.

I knew that he was a challenge and hadn't I just been wallowing about the lack of competition?

"Ah," a short breath left him, his smile curling bitterly.

It was a strange expression on a vampire like him. My eyes roamed along the strong column of his neck, the stubborn tilt to his brow. He was handsome.

I blinked, a sudden thought making me pause. "Will you fight me?"

The answering blink was both incredulous and chagrined, his lips twitching. "Fight you?"

I didn't think it was a hard concept. I inched a bit closer, closing some of the distance. "Fight… you know what fighting is, right?"

A noise somewhere between a laugh and a huff rushed out of him, his eyes widening in disbelief. "Listen, little mare-"

My fist slammed into the impressive muscles tightening his abdomen, pain reverberating up my arm at the almost impenetrable quality of his body. I blinked. Vampires were this indestructible? Water rushed into my mouth. I had been picking fights with the wrong sort of people.

Before I could take a breath and try and reassess my options, one powerful arm swept out, spinning me until hard bark dug into my back. He had barely even winced when I had punched him. Had he even felt it? My eyes darted along the hard planes of his face, trying to determine if the pinched cast to his eyes was from my attack or...something else?

"Runa," his voice was low, shivering through me like the after-effects of a live wire. His closeness seemed almost criminal, the hard planes of his chest cradling me, making this moment almost seem intimate. Blue orbs searched my own. "Come on. You have to be in there somewhere."

Pleading. He was pleading. I almost laughed. I could feel the edge of my mouth tipping up, an odd little exclamation of glee worming it's way up my throat as I stared up at that devilishly handsome face.

It seemed like an odd thing to do at this moment - when I wanted to kill him. I wrestled my arm from out of his hold, bringing it down on his elbow with enough force that his grip loosened. A silly leap of joy tightened my stomach, his eyes widening a fraction as I looped one of my legs around his and grinned.

Dirt and dried leaves ploomed around us, grit matting my hair and clothes as we tangled, his big body struggling to wrestle away from mine. He was holding back. I felt it in the almost gentle way that he grappled with my arms, trying to shackle me down without bouncing my head off the ground.

"You're not going to win like that, vampire!" I giggled, rolling and taking him with me in a flurry of colorful curses. His big hands went to my waist, tossing me to the side and into a bush with enough force that the air rushed out of me.

"My name is Eric," he snarled and before I knew it he was twisting us again until I was huffing beneath him, his thighs pushed between my own, hips keeping my lower half pinned down while those massive hands slammed my wrists to the muddy floor above my head.

"Eric." I rolled the word around on my tongue, feeling a zing of something spark along my taste buds. I liked the name. It felt right to say it like that. My eyes narrowed, catching the slight softening in his lips, the way his eyes darted to my mouth. I said it again, slower. "Eeerriiiiccc."

I could have sworn a tremor went through his body, his eyes blazing a searing blue. Oh, I liked that look.

I liked teasing him more.

"Why don't you want to hurt me, Eric?"

Somewhere back toward the house a woman was crying, her voice rising and falling in either ecstasy or pain. I couldn't tell anymore. They all sounded the same after 24 hours. My eyes roamed the regal planes of the man on top of me, taking in the harsh cut of his cheekbones. He was looking at me like he wanted me to say something - something specific. I had no clue what.

The words spilling from my lips felt tantalizing. Or maybe that was because of the expression that had started to darken the lines of Eric's face. "You can. I could see it the moment that you walked toward me. You could end this fight whenever you want to." My lip popped out in a false pout. "But instead you're just restraining me? That's no fun."

A low sound to feral for a growl shivered through his abdomen, tickling my stomach. "Glad to see whatever that maenad did to you hasn't changed your mouth."

Interest prickled through me, something in his words making me pause. I was… hadn't I always known that this wasn't right?

Everyone in that house wanted an end. I could sense it in the way that their voice rose in screams that bordered on despair. I could see it in the absent way that they took pills and alcohol. They wanted an escape.

And maybe that was the reason I had let Maryann lead me around for so long.

Because I couldn't deal with the things that I continued to do under her influence.

I could feel the bitter edges of my own smile, the jagged way that my lips seemed to cut into my own flesh. "You should go, vampire Eric." I batted my eyes up at him, hating myself for giving him the warning. Hating that I even felt the urge to do so. "Before you do something to this poor body that you don't want to."

Something seemed to snap, his shoulders hunching as his fangs snapped just centimeters from my face. His whole body was cocooning me now, the moon all but eclipsed by his hulking form. Distantly, I heard another roar of laughter mixed with guttural cries. They were dancing now. Maryann had always loved to see them withering around an open fire.

"I thought you were stronger than this," he snarled. My insides went cold, all of my attention snapping up to him.

"What?" I hissed, rage starting to tinge the corner of my being, catching fire slowly and then all together.

His lips curled bitterly. "To think that you could be subdued by such a lesser creature. A maenad? They were pushed to extinction days after Rome fell. Although, I suppose I shouldn't expect less from the likes of mares."

Stomach twisting with rage, I snapped my teeth up at him. "Coming from the spawn of fleas itself. When Vikings weren't too busy running away after they sacked villages, I suppose you could be found praying to the likes of my kind."

His eyes snapped down at me, blazing. "I never mentioned that I was a Viking, Runa."

Words stuttered and died on my tongue, blank surprise making me pause. He… he hadn't. Sudden panic squeezed down on my windpipe. How - Pain lanced across my mind, forcing a gasp from my lips.

Fear made my lips numb. "Don't - don't do -"

Soft breath rushed over my lips, stilling me, followed by even softer words. His nose nudged my own, gently, almost lovingly. "Come back to me, Runa." Those words spoken from him reached inside of me and wrapped around my heart, holding me captive until I could barely breathe. "I don't know why you're still allowing her such control but please - I beg you."

The world blurred, a sudden sob jerking from my lips. I was out of control, breaking apart like a piece of wood slowly being carved away. I was still here because I deserved this. I had given into my base urges and - and I could feel them all around me. I could see their faces every time I shut my eyes. I felt their last breath like it was my own, choking from my body.

And now - Air vanished from me, each breath harder and harder to draw as the tears came faster and faster. And now I had killed someone who hadn't wanted to die. I had killed a mare.

I deserved to rot in this eternal damnation forever. I deserved to wake up everyday seeing the life slowly leave their eyes, hearing their final whimpers ringing through my ears.

"I - I can't-" I sobbed brokenly. Pain like no other sawed through my mind, cutting away at tendons and bone. God, I had blood on me. I had blood on my shirt and smearing along my hands. A scream ripped from my lips, half-mad from the effort of pulling away from Maryann and half-crazed from the blood - so much blood. My eyes rolled, trying desperately to cling on to something. How many - how many had I - "I - I can - can't-"

I hated how gently he held me. I hated how soft his lips were against my temple. How his head pressed into the curve of my neck as another scream ripped from my throat, my whole body arching up. I wanted to tear myself apart. My nails dug into his back, ripping through the thin layer of his tank top until I scored the clean skin beneath, making him hiss.

"Come back to me," he whispered into my collarbone, into the vulnerable skin of my throat and the tears tracking my face. "Come back to me. Runa. Please. Come back-"

"You were supposed to come," I sobbed. My fingers shook. Gods - I could feel their blood between my fingers, crusted underneath my nails. I wanted to die - I wanted to die - "You told me to wait! YOU TOLD ME YOU WOULD COME!"

"I'm sorry." The way his voice broke made me sob harder, my head aching, my throat raw even as I let out another wail. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I'm sorry."