I sparred with Charles until my bones turned to Jelly. It seemed that he was, indeed, as fast as I was. I had only been able to outsped him because of the blood lust.
It was known that being in a state of blood lust had a positive effect on performance. That was one of the reasons it was dangerous. A blood crazed beast with unmatched speed and strength, and a high pain threshold, was a nightmare.
It did, however, feel as though Charles no longer hated my guts unbearably. I had no delusions, though; he would still rather cut me off from Arthur's life since he saw me as an indirect threat. But after today, I would like to think he wouldn't be too glad about detaching my head from my body.
Exhausted, I took a shower and crashed. Sleep came willingly, as if it knew how much I needed rest. But it did not bring with it peace.
Uncle Robert was sitting under a tree next to our cabin. The ground was scorched and bare of any grass, just as it had been when he'd died years ago. The smell of burnt earth and flesh heavy in the air. But our little cabin was still there and trees grew tall and green.
Uncle Robert was cleaning his sword, but as I got closer, I could see that the blood did not disappear from it. He looked up and met my eyes. My heart dropped to my knees. Because instead of his familiar lined smile, there was a sneer on his face.
"It's your fault," his voice echoed all around us though he did not move his lips. I wanted to speak, to move, to do something, anything, but I couldn't.
Paralyzed, I watched as uncle Robert stood up and moved to the hole in the ground I'd just now noticed. He started covering the hole with dirt using his hands, just as I had done to bury his body.
He looked back at me and said, "Come look at what you did."
Then I was standing beside him, looking down at the grave. The body was half covered with dirt, but his face was clear to my eyes. It was Arthur.
A scream lodged in my throat, unable to escape. I struggled for breath, frozen in place by the accusing look in Arthur's brown eyes.
He was gone.
A massive wave of sadness suddenly crashed over me, drowning my lungs and breaking my heart into tiny pieces.
"Elle? Elle."
Arthur was gone.
And it was my fault again. As it had been my fault that my mother died, as it had been my fault that uncle Robert died.
"ELLE!"
I opened my eyes with a gasp. Sucking in air like I had been suffocating. Arthur's face was above me.
"Elle?"
"Arthur," was what I tried to say, but it came out as a strangled breath. My surroundings slowly became clear. My body was drenched with sweat and my muscles were tense to a painful point.
"You're awake," Arthur said. He was leaning over me, his hands on my shoulders. I put my hands on his face, my arms hurting from the tension they had been in. His skin was rough and warm.
"You're alive," I whispered. His eyes, darker than the dark room, twitched. The bond, which had been almost dormant the past few days, buzzed with a sudden burst of emotion.
He turned his face into my palm. "I'm alive."
The heavy rock on my heart refused to go away. I stared at him, unable to believe that he was here. He was not dead.
I caressed his cheek. It was warm and stubbly. The amount of heat he generated and his earthy smell were familiar, a welcome reassurance.
Slowly, my heart calmed down and my sense of reality came back. It had been a horrible dream. But it was just a dream. Arthur was alive.
I pinched his cheek. He raised an eyebrow. Yep. He was alive.
Air left my lungs in a loud whoosh and my arms dropped. Arthur disappeared. I heard him go into the bathroom.
Sitting up in the dark room, I ran my palms down my face. My cheeks were wet. I had been crying. No wonder. The intense feeling of sadness and loss left my heart sore. I rubbed my breastbone, wishing the soreness would go away.
Arthur emerged with a small towel. He sat beside me and put it on the back of my neck. It was damp. The coolness felt nice, it woke me up some more and shook off the last vestiges of the nightmare.
"A nightmare?" he asked. I nodded. Just thinking about the dream had my insides tied up in knots again.
I didn't want to talk about the nightmare. I didn't want to talk about the guilt and the fear that still wouldn't disappear.
"I guess your meeting dragged on," I said. "You said you'd find me when you were done."
Arthur's eyes bore into mine. He seemed to see more than I let on. Fortunately, he didn't pursue the subject. "Yes. It took longer than expected."
"Trouble back home?"
"Nothing urgent," he said. "You wanted to talk."
"Yes." I removed the towel from my neck. It floated to the bathroom on its own.
"You're handy," I mumbled.
"Mhm."
He was looking at me. I picked at the blanket on my lap. When I realized I was fidgeting, I stopped.
This was ridiculous. Why was I nervous? This was not me.
I glared at Arthur. He was making me do things I wasn't used to doing. He raised that insufferable eyebrow of his, looking a bit amused. Asshole.
"Why did you close the bond?" I asked. His amusement died. Huh. Take that.
"Get used to it," he said, rising to his feet and towering over me. "There are times when I will have to close it."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because," he said, slowly, "there are times when the bond will only channel things I do not wish you to feel."
I frowned. "I think I should decide that myself. Besides, you don't get to pick and choose what you share of yourself with me. I need to know. Everything. The good and the bad."
He didn't respond. And it was clear he didn't agree.
"Also, what if something happens?" I asked. "If something happened to you, I won't know because the bond is closed. How am I supposed to come riding to the rescue like the knight in shining armor that I am?"
"Elle..." he looked at the ceiling and closed his eyes. I sighed. Why were relationships so difficult?
"Also, I'm sorry for breaking my promise," I rushed out. "I know I already said it, but..."
Arthur sat down on the bed, facing me. He looked at me, without really seeing me. It was several minutes later when he spoke.
"I fear very few things in life," he said, his eyes on the bedspread between us, "very few things, indeed. Before I met you, my biggest fear was ... the future. Immortals who have lived long lives very rarely like to think about it. It is a daunting thought, when you have lived an eternity, to have another ahead of you. Especially when one is alone."
"But you weren't alone," I said.
He looked up and smiled. "Was I not? Being surrounded by people does not necessarily make you less alone. In a way, I am lucky to have so many loyal people around me. But no one was truly... mine. Until Toby. And after he passed, I was back to being alone. Except after him, I knew what it was like to have someone of my own, and so I felt the loss even more deeply."
His hand raised, his thumb brushing my bottom lip. "You make it better. You make me look forward to the future. When I close my eyes and think of the years ahead, it is you I see with me. Elle, I cannot lose you, too. I do not think my old heart will survive."
I pursed my lips and blinked quickly, swallowing past the boulder in my throat. "What if... what if I really go insane? What if next time, I don't come back to myself. I can't-" I shook my head. "I don't want you to have to put me down. If I truly go crazy, you will have to do that. I don't want you to have to do that, again." Not after he already took his son's life once.
Arthur pulled me closer, enclosing me in his arms. "You will not go insane."
"You can't know that for sure!" I said even as I laid my head on his shoulder. It felt like I could finally breathe properly for the first time in days. My magic settled down, peaceful and quiet.
"Sure I can."
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, your highness."
His hand found the back of my neck and squeezed. "I do know."
"How?"
"I just do. Trust me on this," he said, and it was an order, not a request.
"I will if you promise to keep the bond open."
His hand snaked up to my hair, his fingers threading in my knotted locks. "I will open it, but-"
He froze. I frowned. "But?"
"Shh."
I raised my head and looked at him. His head was cocked to the side, his eyes on the closed window. Alarmed, I focused my senses and strained my newfound sensitive hearing.
At first, I heard nothing. The night outside was deathly quiet.
Wait a second...
There was no sound at all. The woods outside Arthur's palace should not be this quiet.
"What's going on?" I whispered. My magic swirled in my blood, uneasy.
"Something is coming." He waved a hand. The window opened, letting in a slight chill. Arthur took a deep breath and snarled. He was on his feet between one breath and the next, heading to the door.
"Stay here!" he barked over his shoulder.
So I picked up my sword and shoved my feet in my boots, all the while trying to get a whiff of the scent that alarmed Arthur. There was only a hint of it, but I remembered it well from back home.
The stench of low level demons.
Arthur was already gone from the hallway when I emerged, but I could hear his voice downstairs along with several others. The castle shed the cloak of sleep and came alive in five seconds.
It was chaos downstairs. Charles and Amanda were running out the front door as I got closer, armed with swords and followed by half a dozen vampires.
Arthur was in the midst of a heated discussion with Harvey and Kat, while all around them the house staff bustled about.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Someone sicced a horde of demons on us," Marianno said, coming through the front door, a tablet in hand. He waved me closer as he joined Arthur and the others.
The video he played looked like surveillance camera footage of the woods surrounding Arthur's palace. The infrared camera showed no sign of perturbation for several seconds. The woods were calm and deserted.
"This is the outer security perimeter," Marianno said.
Then the earth opened.
As we watched, something literally crawled up through the dirt, just like a mole. But this was not a small animal. The creature pushed the earth out of its way with sharp, curving talons that protruded from short stubby fingers. Long arms followed, the skin looking wrinkly and embedded with dirt. Then a bald oval head emerged, its top slightly pointed.
The creature, its upper body out of the ground, opened its eyes. They were mere slits, but they emitted a startling glow. Its nose was flat, and its mouth sported two long incisors protruding from the middle of its upper lip like a rabbit. Except that unlike a cute, fluffy rabbit, this horrid creature's teeth looked pointed and sharp.
The demon climbed fully out of the hole and stood on its hind legs. Its shape was vaguely humanoid, but its arms were unproportionately long compared to the rest of its body, its talons touching the ground as it stood in a slight crouch.
Not even a second later, about a dozen more demons crawled out of the ground. They all looked the same, safe for some height differences.
The first demon who crawled out ran forward, disappearing from the camera's view. The rest followed it, and the screen was of a peaceful night in the woods again. The freshly turned earth was the only proof of the demons' existence.
Marianno stopped the video. "This is what we're dealing with. This video is from a few minutes ago. Right now, these creatures are surrounding the property from all sides, trying to get past our security."
"Numbers?" Arthur asked.
Marianno's expression sombered. "Hundreds."
I sucked in a sharp breath. These tremendous numbers of demons reminded me of what we had faced back home.
"Too many..." Kat mumbled, her eyes gone bright.
"How are we holding up?" Harvey asked.
"So far, we're holding our own," Marianno said. "But you know demons. They are fighting machines. And these ones seem dead set on getting past our soldiers to the castle."
"Let them," Arthur said, a calculative glint in his eyes. "Let them in."
We all looked at him like he was crazy.
"I want you to make an opening for them," he explained. "Make a hole in the security line around the castle and herd them there. They'll go willingly once they realize there's no resistance at that point."
"What are you planning to do?" I asked.
Arthur's eyes turned darker, his voice deeper. "I've quite a bit of frustration to let out," he said, raising the hairs on the nape of my neck. "I will deal with them."
___ ___ ___
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