The Soul Mate (7 page)

“
Trin-

Tahyra’s screams are abruptly cut off as her
body whips backwards and a spray of blood arcs through the air in
her wake.

“Trinity!” Gerik pushed me out of the way. A
bright, orange and white flame suddenly appeared in the palm of his
hand. He whipped the burning ball at Xan’s attacker, and the
creature was instantly thrown backwards. Xan rolled immediately
away as she screamed, writhing in pain while her skin melted from
her bones. Her blood boiled and hissed, drying before it could even
reach the ground. When she was nothing but bones, her fangs bared
for all of eternity, the flames dissipated.

Gerik shuddered, his hands shook slightly and
then the fire in his palms winked out.

“Blestemul de vampir,” I heard Jericho
yelling, drawing my attention to him. The last remaining creature
was suspended in mid-air, snarling and snapping at the several men
who’d surrounded it, guns at the ready.

One of the men, I think Nicu, fired. With his
mouth twisted in a disgusting smile the creature fell to the ground
unfazed. Again he was shot, this time blown backwards hitting a
large oak with a sickening thump of flesh meeting wood. Stefan
strode forward and shot him again, ripping a giant hole in his
abdomen, exposing intestines. I gagged and covered my mouth.

Gerik was pulling me behind him. “Don’t
watch, Trinity. They don’t die easy.”

“Other’s will come.” The creature hissed
holding his guts inside of him as the wound began to heal. “They
will keep coming until-

The creatures head rolled away from his body,
his eyes still wide open; his mouth still moving. When his body
crumpled to the ground, Marko was waiting, his machete posed and
ready. Soon the creature was nothing but bloody bits of gore.

I would have collapsed if Gerik hadn’t been
holding me up.

Jericho looked around, his face grim. “Clean
up this mess,” He ordered sharply. “Gunnar, make sure Alana and
Kizzy have double checked the wards. Gerik, Nico, burn these bodies
in the back lot.”

I watched the camp begin to bustle. Bodies
were moved, children were herded into Maisera and Jericho’s RV. I
felt oddly detached, as if this were only a scary movie I’d been
watching and not actually the life I’d been living for months
now.

“Trin?” Xan waved his hand in front of my
face. “Trin? Answer me? Are you okay?”

Was I ok? Was he serious? I burst out
laughing.

All this magic around us and still they had
gotten through. The Romani were no real match for them. If there
had been more, if we had been outnumbered…

Other’s will come
, The creature had
said,
they will keep coming until-

“Until they kill us all,” I murmured. “That’s
what he was going to say.”

“Trinity!” Xan yelled. “No one is going to
kill you, now snap out it!”

I studied his face, remembering how he’d
protected me, shielded me with his own body even. If it hadn’t been
for Xan coming to apologize to me, I would be dead right now.

“You saved my life,” I whispered.

“I did a pretty shitty job of it.” He looked
toward where Jericho and Gerik stood talking. “They saved our
lives. Their magic saved our lives.”

I shook my head. “I would have died long
before they showed up if you hadn’t of been here.” Before he could
respond I hugged him, immediately drawing back when he groaned.

“Xan?” I said, looking him over. His t-shirt
had been shredded in the attack. Tentatively I lifted it up. Deep,
bloody grooves marred the middle of his chest. Fingernails. He'd
been scratched by those obscenely long claws they all had.

I burst into tears, thanking the Gods he
hadn't been bitten.

A bite was a death sentence; he would have
turned into one of those monsters. But the clan would have never
let that happen, they would've killed him first, considering it a
mercy killing. Because once someone turned, they were dead
anyway.

I threw my arms around his neck. Xan groaned
again.

“Oh Gods, am I hurting you?” I looked up at
his face.

“No," He said, grinning. "That feels good
Trin, keep wiggling.”

“Dammit Xan!” I jumped back and hit a wall of
steel that smelled like heaven.

Large hands came down on my bare arms,
steadying me. Heat flooded me. My knees began to shake. The voices
around me blurred into a soft drumming of sound that swam silkily
around me. But my attention was fixated on Gerik’s hands burning
slowly through my skin, layer by sweet layer. Then, Gerik released
me.

“Trin?” Xan was peering down his nose at
me.

I shook my head. “Sorry… what?”

Xan eyes darted curiously back and forth
between Gerik and I.

“Xan Daniel Deleanu!” Drina screamed as she
ran towards us. “What were you doing in harm’s way?”

Xan made a face and Gerik laughed at him.
“Better go get fixed up brother.”

Gerik took the opportunity to drag me
off.

“What is up with all the touching?” I
demanded when we were alone. “Unsolicited touching might I
add.”

He leveled me with one look. “What were you
doing with Xan, yeah? Alone?”

I bit my lip to keep from screaming at him.
The entire camp had just been attacked, Xan had saved my life and
was severely injured because of it and Gerik had the nerve to be
acting like a jealous boyfriend? He was behaving irrationally.

“Nothing was going on, Gerik. I swear.” I
turned to go.

Benyamin Vãduva stepped in front of me
holding little Benyamin Jr.

I smiled at the little boy and tickled his
bare feet.

“Gerik”, He said. “I was just told Marcell is
dead.”

My smiled faded.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I ended up letting Gerik stay the night with
me. Loss is never something one should have to face alone and I had
never met a group of people who were not family and as close as
this clan was. Closer even than most families were.

We lay awake most of the night facing one
another, Gerik on his belly and me on my side, each of us just
watching the other. I concentrated on his breathing mostly,
watching as his chest would rise and fall with each deep intake and
release of air.

“What are you thinking about?” He asked me
softly.

“You,” I answered truthfully.

He blinked. “How’m I doin’?” He asked,
smiling.

“What’s really going on with you and Onyx,
Gerik? I want the truth.”

His chin in his palm, he propped himself up
on his elbow. “I told you Trinity, it’s only yo-

“No.” I stopped him before he could lie to me
again. “I know for a fact you’ve been with her since…” I gestured
between the two of us, “Whatever this is with us has been going on.
So please, don’t lie to me anymore.”

“What do you mean, you know for a fact? You
mean you’ve been listening to the girls around camp, yeah?”

When I didn’t answer him a knowing look
crossed his face. “Onyx and I have been friends forever. I spend a
lot of time with her, yeah?” He leaned over me and pressed a quick
kiss to my lips. “That’s all it is and whatever you hear is camp
gossip.”

I studied him, wondering what to believe.

“Let me hold you, min jente, make me happy,
yeah?

I hesitated, knowing exactly what would
happen the minute we touched.

“Right,” He said, looking away, his
expression pained. “You still don’t believe me?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t.” What I did
know is I wanted him to kiss me again. The warm feel of his lips
still remained and being this close to him wasn’t helping.

“I promised you awhile ago that we’d go slow
and I meant it. Nothing is going to happen tonight that you’re not
ready for, Trinity.”

“Okay,” I said, staring at his lips. “Come
over here then, Viking.”

I readied myself for the feel of his skin
against my own but nothing can ever truly prepare you for full
bodied satiation. His large body engulfed my own, his sweet scents
saturated me, and the sensual power of him filled me to the brim,
spilled over, and then filled me up again.

As he’d promised he kept in control and just
held me, his face buried deep in my hair, my arms clasped over his.
Control was something I was having a hard time holding on to. I
wanted more, so much more.

Was this magic? I didn’t know. Whatever it
was, Gerik was fighting it simply to hold me. I could feel his
muscles straining against his skin, his breath was ragged and
hoarse, and still he did nothing but hold me. I reveled in the
perfect feel of us.

Sometime later I awoke to the sound of the
Frank the rooster crowing, his hens clucking madly as they chased
him through the living lot.

Gerik and I had separated sometime during the
night. He had taken all of the blankets and was using up most of
the bed as well. I lifted up his arm, inhaling sharply at the
contact of our skin and buried myself in the crook of his body. The
heavy weight of his limb settled nicely over top of me.

He stirred at our touching, a smile playing
on his beautiful mouth.

To look upon him in the early morning light,
to see his pale hair shimmering as the strands caught the first
rays of sun, is a truly beautiful gift. He looked peaceful and very
young as he blinked away the remnants of sleep. Those pools of blue
he tries to pass off as eyes shone more brilliantly than even the
clearest of summer skies.

And his body…Oh Goddesses, that body… Like
the statues of the Gods, he is a breathtaking work of art who I
admire with the all the reverence one of his splendor deserves.

A fierce wave of possessiveness I didn’t
wholly understand washed over me. Mine, I thought.

I started as Gerik’s arm tightened around me.
He easily flipped me onto my back.

Looking down at me with an expression just as
fierce as the unexpected emotions coursing through me, my Viking
regarded me gravely.

“And you Trinity, are mine.”

He didn’t give me time enough to respond
before his mouth crashed down upon mine.

Marcell was buried where the wildflowers grew
the tallest and the most plentiful. In time they would once again
cover the ground where the earth had been disturbed in order to
bury his body. The Romani had placed both jewelry and money in the
ground with him for his journey back to Nature. Food and drink were
placed atop his grave, as was their long standing tradition in
reverence of their dead.

Death had crept into camp. No longer was the
inside of camp safe from the destruction of the outside world. We
had been breached, someone had died, and the Romani wore that
knowledge as plain as the expressions on their faces.

The camp still looked the same, chores still
had to be done, the children still laughed and played, we still
burned through the darkness with our fire meetings. Life as usual
went on, but deaths ugly pall had settled over top of us. Something
inside of me feared that this was only the beginning. That very
fear had me thinking how useless I’d been when Xan and I were
attacked. I may not be a Roma and I may not have magic but that
didn’t mean I had to go on being helpless.

I had just finished dish duty when I set out
to find Xan. Near the wood pile, an axe slung lazily over his bare
shoulder, I found him. He was waiting for Shandor to place another
thick log on the wide tree stump used for splitting logs into
firewood.

As usual, he was shirtless as he worked; his
jeans rode low on his hip bones, highlighting the sharp, muscular
cut of his waist. My gaze snagged on the red and ragged slashes on
his biceps and across his chest and guilt settled heavily upon me.
I didn’t do anything to help him. I had been completely
useless.

“Hey Trin-ity,” Shandor said in a singsong
voice, shifting my attention to him. He looked from me to Xan and
back to me with a sly smile on his face.

I scowled at him just as Xan slung the axe
down. Shandor and I had to jump back a few feet in order to avoid
the wood splatter.

“Thanks for the warning.” I shook out my
sundress, now covered in bits of moss and wood chips.

He shrugged not even looking up at me.

He picked up another log, causing the muscles
in his arm to flex and bulge. I stared.

Shandor coughed emphatically. The axe came
down hard again, the wood split with an audible crack, one piece
fell one way and the other fell to the opposite side. The smell of
fresh cut oak tinged the air. Using the crook of his elbow to wipe
the sweat from his forehead, Xan turned to look at me, his dark
eyes cold.

“Something I can do for you fată?” He
asked.

I looked back up at Shandor and saw amusement
riding his features. It had been hard enough working up the courage
to ask Xan for this, I absolutely could not do it in front of
Shandor.

“Can I talk to you for a sec?” I asked
him.

“No.”

Both surprise and embarrassment caused me to
take an instant step back. “No?” I repeated dumbly.

“You got a problem hearing me, Trin?”

“What’s your problem, Xan?” I asked, without
thinking, “Why are you being such a bastard?” Eyes wide at my
mistake, I slapped my hand over my mouth.

Shandor burst out laughing. “Because he is
one!”

Xan slung the axe down into the tree stump,
securing it firmly into the wood. He glanced at me, his demeanor
deceptively calm. Suddenly, he swiveled to the right and landed a
quick punch to Shandor’s gut. He doubled over with a groan.

“Son of a bitch,” Shandor seethed, glaring up
at his friend.

Xan shrugged. “You keep talking about shit
about my mamă and I’ll keep knocking some sense into you
frate.”

Then he turned on me, gripped my elbow and
dragged me some feet away.

“Trin, do me a favor and leave me alone.”

I gaped at him. What was his problem?

“What is your problem?”