The Soul Mate (24 page)

The forest. Sunshine. Emilian! Her soul
rejoiced! He was alive! Walther and he would live; they would carry
on the clan!

Feeling herself being lifted and finally free
of her chains she struggled to speak and failed as her breath now
came in short, desperate pants. Soft, sweet, lips pressed against
her. Tears, not her own, rolled down her face.

Unable to speak or move, her eyelids now to
heavy to open, Treime used the only power she had left to say
goodbye to her beloved. Using their connection, she sent him a
vision, the happiest moment in all of her two and twenty years.
With what little energy was left inside of her she pushed the
memory forward, felt it flow through their bond and release into
him.

Then, Treime took her last breath and closed
her eyes for eternity.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

I came back to consciousness alone. Gerik had
left me. In his placed remained a whole lot of magic and no
instruction manual. Like a sixth sense I couldn’t help but feel
what was now readily available inside of me. Both powers, light and
dark, were equally strong and dangerous in their own right and I
had no idea what to do with them.

Anger flared inside me, somehow, despite
everything I had done to prevent our bonding Gerik had managed it
anyway. Had he always had the power to join us without the physical
aspect or had it been his transformation to darkness that had
allowed it to occur? I suppose it didn’t matter much now, the how’s
or the why’s of it, it was done and somehow I had to figure out
what to do with it.

A Skin Eater, female, wearing only her bra
and underwear and looking as if she had been living in a mud
puddle, jumped out from behind a nearby tree.

Shaking and afraid I began backing away,
looking for anything I could use as a weapon when my hands began to
glow. I stared in astonishment at the glowing white sparks and
black wisps of smoke that were gathering in the palms of my hands
then dissolving almost as quickly as they had formed.

The Skin Eater lunged at me, hissing as her
feet left the ground. Startled and panicked, I began flailing my
hands around wildly, hoping for the best.

In mid jump, the Skin Eater was suddenly
flung backwards by an unseen force. It was something I had
obviously done but had no idea how I did it or if I could do it
again.

Scrambling to her feet, red eyes wide with
confusion and fangs, she came at me again.

“Oh, fuck me!” I screamed, and shook my hands
again in her direction.

She exploded in ball of fire. Orange, red and
black flames ate her up within seconds leaving me staring at a pile
of steaming bones.

More fire formed in my palm, freaked out I
flung them straight into a nearby tree. Several startled birds flew
out, leaving behind a spray of flaming leaves. Seconds later, when
the entire tree burst into flames, I turned and ran.

It took me the better part of the day to find
my way back to camp. When I breached the clearing, at first seeing
nothing but an empty clearing didn’t surprise.

Until I noticed the wards. For the first time
I was able to see them. The transparent bubble surrounding camp was
now clearly discernable to my newly enhanced eyes. As I walked
slowly through, I felt the wards ripple with power, familiar power.
My body responded to the magic used to make the wards, recognizing
it.

To my surprise they were clearly discernible
to my newly enhanced eyes. The wards were one large transparent
bubble, rippling with power. I sensed it pull apart and tremble
slightly as I walked through them, closing instantly behind me.

The sight in front me was exactly the same as
it had been outside of the wards. An empty clearing. I thought back
on Jericho’s panicked words when Gerik had taken me from camp.
They’d left because of Gerik, and because of me.

As I wandered the clearing, stunned at what
Gerik had done to me, not only bonding us for all eternity but he’d
started the chain of events that had led to my abandonment. I had
nothing now, no spare clothing, no food and no place to live. The
worst, I was completely alone.

How could he claim to care about me and still
have done this? Because, I thought bitterly, Gerik does whatever he
wants.

Approaching the back lot I found the remnants
of our attackers. Piled high in what had been the place of clan
meetings, parties and dances were the blackened bones of nearly a
dozen Skin Eaters.

And further back, where Marcell had been
buried, nineteen more graves had been hastily dug and covered. No
matter how fast the men had worked, nineteen graves would have
taken longer than a day to dig. Exactly how long had I been
unconscious?

Unsure of what to do next, I thought about my
options. I could wait here and see if the raiding party would
return. Yet, if the clan was rejecting me, who was to say Xan
wouldn’t as well. Or, even if he accepted the new me, what he never
returned here? What if the Gypsies had some magical way of
contacting each other? I wouldn’t know. No one except Xan had told
me anything about how magic works and what it’s capable of and even
he had just given me the basics.

The possibilities were endless. Xan could
have already found out what happened and rejected me or he could
have been told an entirely different version of recent events and
still have rejected me. Or, he could know nothing at all and when
he reunites with the clan, find me gone.

In the end, I left. I followed the well worn
tracks of the raiding parties out of the mountains, coming quickly
across a gravel road. After hours of walking, I encountered a small
town, giving me my first real glimpse of what the world had become
since I’d gone into hiding with the Gypsies.

Cars sat empty in the road, some with keys
still in the ignition. Clothes and purses, souvenirs from a world
that had ended, covered the street. The decayed remains of both
animals and human lay half eaten on the sidewalk, in the ditches,
some still in their vehicles. The shops lining the street had been
looted, windows smashed, doors hanging on the hinges, some had even
burned to the ground.

The world had become a graveyard.

The sound of heavy breathing had me turning.
Far enough down the road that I wasn’t able to make out any
distinct features, I saw a Skin Eater coming quickly toward me. Its
bare feet pounding on the pavement thudded in time to my racing
heart.

I took a deep, shaky breath, in through my
nose and out through my mouth. I already knew I could kill it, I
just wasn’t sure how exactly. Fire, I thought, and instantly a
small orange and black streaked flame formed in my outstretched
hand.

I threw the ball of flames the way I watched
Walther and Gerik toss their magic at each other. The fire hit the
Skin Eater in its midsection and instantly spread over its entire
body.

The sound of another heartbeat, pumping blood
faster than any human heart could, was close by. I surveyed the
street and found a second Skin Eater, easily discernable as male,
peeking out at me from behind the bed of a truck.

His eyes went wide with fear when he realized
I’d found him. That one of these creatures was afraid of me, was
enough to give me the courage to do what I did next.

Air, I thought, instantly feeling a breeze
sweep over me and accumulate in my palms. As he turned to run from
me, I didn’t think, just whipped the air in his direction, wanting
to stop him.

In mid run, he suddenly lifted off the ground
as the air I’d threw at him whipped around him like a tornado,
freezing him in place.

Wary, I approached him slowly, sweaty from
fear and quivering from adrenaline.

He growled at me, mostly I think, because
that’s animals do when their cornered.

“You,” I demanded, sounding a lot more sure
of myself than I actually felt. “Are going to give me the
directions out of this fucking town.”

EPILOGUE

Long Island, NY, 1990

“
She’s beautiful.” Shannon Petros looked
at her husband with tears of happiness streaming down her face.
“God she’s absolutely beautiful and perfect Angelos, look at those
eyes!”

Angelos stared at his tiny daughter in the
way only a father stares at his newborn child, with a sort of
dumbstruck look. She stared right back at him with stunning, deep
emerald green eyes. If it wasn’t for her olive skin and jet black
hair he would have sworn his wife had cheated on him. Shannon’s
eyes were blue and his were such a dark brown they looked almost
black.

“
I finally have a sister! It’s about time
Daddy.” Teodora punched him in the arm, grinning from ear to ear.
“Only why’d you wait so long? In a few years I’ll be old enough to
be her mother!”

“
Eh.” Angelos looked at his eldest
daughter, and smiled. “She’ll just look up to you, instead of
fighting with you.”

“
So did you guys decide on a name?”
Teodora looked back and forth between Shannon and him.

Shannon grinned at her stepdaughter. “Trinity
Shannon Petros.”

Teodora laughed with delight. “Awesome,
another ‘T’ name!”

Angelos shared in his daughter’s laughter. “I
only need one more daughter now and I shall have my own
“Moirai”.”

“
Here we go again,” Shannon
groaned.

He touched Teodora’s cheek. “There were three
Greek Moirai. The first was named Clotho, the spinner. She spun the
thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle.”

He ran the tips of his fingers down his new
daughter’s cheek. “And second was Lachesis, the drawer of lots. She
measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her
measuring rod.”

Then with a laugh he patted Shannon’s belly.
“And lastly there was Atropos, the inevitable. Who would choose the
manner of each person’s death by cutting their life thread with her
abhorred shears.”

Shannon groaned again. “How depressing for
our non-existent child!”

“
Oooh, Daddy", Teodora cried out, "There’s
a little boy in the doorway!”

Standing, Angelos peered at the little blonde
boy who couldn’t be any older than seven or eight, standing in the
doorway to Shannon’s hospital room. “Are you okay son? Are you
lost?” He asked.

The little boy shook his head, no.

“
Poor thing looks so sad,” Shannon
whispered. Then louder, asked, “Where’s your Mommy and Daddy
honey?”

The little boy refused to look at her when he
answered. “They died,” He said softly.

“
Oh Gods,” Teodora whispered. “Daddy, I’m
going to go get a nurse” Standing up, she straightened her top,
then quickly left the room.

“
Would you like to meet my daughter?”
Shannon asked the boy.

He nodded.

The little boy approached the bed slowly and
stood on his tiptoes to peek at Trinity. His deep blue eyes widened
when he saw her.

“
She smells so pretty,” He said, looking
awe struck.

Angelos laughed. “Girls always do son, its
how they reel us in.”

Shannon shot her him a dirty look. He grinned
back at her.

“
Can I touch her?” The boy asked.

Shannon glanced at Angelos who shrugged. “Why
not?” He said, “I see no harm in it.”

Shannon tilted Trinity down a bit so the boy
could reach her. Trinity’s big green eyes widened at the sight of
him and she let out a tiny coo. Angelos laughed. “Son, I think that
means she likes you.”

The boy smiled, his blue eyes shining. Just
as he was about to lightly graze her cheek with the backs of his
knuckles, Teodora walked back in. A short, plump nurse wearing pink
scrubs was following closely behind her. Seeing her, the boy’s hand
fell to his side.

“
Oh honey, how you find yourself up here?”
The nurse asked the boy. “You’re godparents are here, they’ve come
to take you home with them. Come with me sweetie.”

The boy glanced back at Trinity.

“
Come along Gerik,” The nurse repeated,
her hand outstretched. “Jericho and Maisera are waiting. Everything
is going to fine. I promise you.”

After one long look at Trinity, Gerik took
the nurses hand and together they left the room leaving the Petros
family staring sadly after them.

###

Book two of the Holy Trinity Series will be
available in Fall 2012.

Glossary of Definitions:

Ah, lepo dekle na lep večer
= Oh,
beautiful girl on a beautiful evening.

Aphrodite
= The Greek Goddess of love,
beauty, pleasure and procreation.

Ares
= The Greek God of war.

Athena
= The Greek Goddess of wisdom,
war, the arts, industry, justice and skill.

Baró
= The leader.

Blestemul de vampir
= Curse of the
vampire.

Balaur
= Dragon.

Cai fundul
= Horses ass.

Ciocănitoare
= Woodpecker.

Diklo
= A scarf Roma women wore over
their hair to symbolize their status as married.

Eros
= The Greek God of love.
(Cupid)

Eşti în siguranţă
= You’re safe.

Fată
= Girl.

Fata mea
= My girl

Fiul Meu
= My son.

Fetita
= Girl.

Frate
= Brother.

Gaje
= Anyone who is not of Romani
descent.

Gypsy
= A member of a nomadic,
Caucasoid people of generally swarthy complexion, who migrated
originally from India, settling in various parts of Asia, Europe,
and, most recently, North America.

Himeros
= The Greek God of sexual
desire.

Rom
= A Male Romani.

Roma
= One or more Romani people.

Romani
= An entire ethnic group.