Chapter 24

 

For two weeks, there were no battles. I could honestly say I wasn’t upset with that. Victor and his brothers were not happy, though. They’d learned nothing useful from Marcus, or the others that had survived that fight. Each time they thought they had a location, it would be empty when they got there.

I wasn’t getting any important flashes to help, only static, as Rafael called my constant unhelpful ones. I also hadn’t found Emil yet and had decided he could hide even better than me. To feel like I was doing something important, I’d been focusing on tracking his children instead.

Victor and I managed to find more time together and for that I was happy, although I saw him fighting his instincts and staring at the gloves on my hand, when he thought I wasn’t watching.

I came down from my tower after an hour of sorting, a little disappointed there were again none that I’d need. As I headed to breakfast, Daxx caught up with me.

“Anything we need to know?” She asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing again today.”

“I can’t say I’m minding the break,” she grinned, “I actually get some time with Troy, but I’d still like to know what Marcus’ minions are up to out there.”

“I never thought I’d be wishing for pieces to fill my head, but I find I am. Not knowing is very stressful.”

“I hear that.” She walked for a moment looking at me. “How are things with Victor?”

I felt my cheeks flush. “They are good. He wants me to share his room.”

“I can see that.”

“Is it a good thing?” I had never had a real room to share before, so I didn’t know if that changed anything.

“If you want it to be.”

I held out my hands and looked at my gloves. “He stares are these when I’m not looking.”

Daxx sighed and put her arm around my shoulders like she did when she had something serious to say. “The need to mark your mate is very strong in the men. They can’t help it.”

I nodded. “From what you told me, when that happened to you, I understand that now.”

“You are very lucky he loves you as he does and is waiting… even if it’s not as patiently as he thinks.”

I smiled, knowing it was true.

She released my shoulder and tucked her hands in her back pockets. “Do you have control over your visions now?”

“I think I do, as best as I ever will.” I confessed.

“Then take a chance, trust fate. She seems to know what’s best for us even if we don’t.”

I sighed. “I read the prophecy for Victor and I have no doubt it’s me.”

She chuckled. “I never did get past the part about the kings.”

“It can be quite puzzling, I suppose.”

“What does it say about Victor?” She smirked. “I know you remember it.”

I smiled. “The justice of righteousness will find, when he’s not looking, a woman that sees all good and all evil from within. She shall hold a place in his heart as no other could. With his seer of truth at his side, the justice will prevail throughout the years of time that remain.”

Daxx stopped and looked at me. “That one is so simple. Why couldn’t the huntress part be that simple? I had to choose between twin kings.” She snorted. “Of course, the seer of truth… that’s you.”

I nodded. “I know it is.”

Her phone rang, she kept walking as she checked it. “Yes! I have a bail-jumper on the other side. I need to kick some ass.”

We walked in the dining room and all the men were already there. The air around them was all much the same. Frustration and worry. They all stood as Daxx and I sat down. I still didn’t understand it, but Mitz said it was manners, and it had taken her and their mother many years to program them that way. If Mitz said it was so, then it must be true.

“Anything interesting today, little sister?” Rafael asked as he poured his coffee.

I shook my head. “Nothing again today.”

“Maybe it is fate’s way of telling us to practice harder, we were a little sloppy last time.” Michael said as he grabbed some toast off the plate.

“There was nothing sloppy about me.” Chase said with a smirk.

“Yes, you should all practice. However, Cristy and I won’t be there today. I have some place I’d like to show her.” Victor said smiling at me.

“You do?” The last time he had somewhere to show me, it was my tower.

“I do.” He nodded. “If you have time to spare.”

I thought for a moment, I had nothing but time as I had no job, I didn’t need to hide. I nodded. “Of course, I have time for that.”

“I’m intrigued.” Daxx said and then looked at Troy.

He raised his hands. “I’m sorry I don’t provide towers and have special places to go… I’m running half a kingdom.”

Daxx frowned and then laughed. “I was going to say I have a bail-jumper to track down.”

“Oh.” Troy nodded. “Take Leone with you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t need help to track a jumper on my side.”

“I know you don’t need help, but until we know what the worm in our cells has going on out there, you don’t cross over alone.” He picked up his coffee and took a drink.

“Fine.” She said and glanced to me and rolled her eyes.

I smirked. This was their routine. I glanced to see Victor not eating as much as he usually did. “Are you okay?”

He smiled. “Yes, we’re transporting quite a fair distance and a heavy meal doesn’t sit well, even for someone that’s done it more times than I could count.”

“Now I’m really intrigued.” Daxx nudged my arm. “Take pictures I need to know where your grumpy bear is taking you.”

She called him my bear or grumpy bear more than she did Victor now, I thought is was cute, but couldn’t tell him that.

I nodded, hoping I remembered how to do that with my phone. “I will.”

~

Victor had been serious about how much your stomach churned when going far away. He made me sit down and put my head on my knees until it settled, when we got there.

“It’s taken me a few weeks to find this place, and several accidental landings in wrong places.” He said softly as I sat there hoping my stomach would settle down. “I had to find somewhere I knew Marcus’ reach could not stretch to.”

Lifting my head slowly I looked around to see we were sitting on a hill, in a field. When I looked to the bottom of the field I saw butterflies. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of orange butterflies, all filling the air. I stood up slowly and took a few steps, then remembered and took out my phone and handed it to him. “Take pictures for Daxx and for me?”

I moved down the hill slowly toward them, they were fluttering everywhere. It was like what I’d seen in my head, though I had no idea Victor was the key. As I got closer, I put my arms out and walked right through them, they were everywhere around me. Some landed on my arms and face, but I didn’t care. This was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. In, or out, of my head.

I turned slowly, my arms out and looked back to see Victor following me with the phone raised, and hoped his pictures were perfect so I could look at them always. When he got closer, I smiled and had to pause when a butterfly landed on my nose. Reaching slowly, I brushed it away and the others that were on me took flight back into the air.

Moving cautiously so I wouldn’t step on any in my path, I went back to him and jumped up to grab his face. I kissed his mouth hard. “I don’t know what to say… this is…” I couldn’t find the words.

“The look on your face says all I wanted to hear.” He told me.

I turned and looked back at them and then pointed to the hill. “I’d like to watch them for a while, without disturbing their dance.” I took his hand and he paused and reached up to my hair, then held out his hand and a butterfly sat on it.

“You had a hitchhiker.” He grinned and raised his hand so it would fly away.

We walked back up holding hands and sat on the top of the hill. Inside I’d never felt more right than I did now. The signs never lied. I got on my knees and looked at his green eyes. “It has to be here.” I told him quietly and took off my jacket.

His brows drew closer. “What does?”

Sitting back down I pulled off my boots and then turned to look at him. “You need to mark me while we’re here.”

His eyes searched my face and he seemed unsure what to say, which was quite odd for Victor.

“You’re sure?” He finally asked me.

I nodded and pulled off one glove and then the other, then got to my knees again and took off my shirt.

He looked around us for a moment and then back to me with a grin. “If any tourist happens along, butterflies won’t be the only thing they get a picture of.”

I felt my face go red and then shrugged. “I don’t care. It has to be here and now.”

Without a word, he took off his boots and then his shirt. “If I’d known I would have brought a blanket…”

I took off my pants and then knelt there in front of him and helped him undo his pants.

When we were both naked, he lay back and pulled me on top of him. He grasped my face between his palms. “I’ve waited forever for you.” He kissed me with such passion I thought I might cry.

It only ever took a few fevered kisses from him, and I needed more. He knew my body and just what I wanted every time. In a few short moments, he grasped my hips and helped me to kneel over him.

“We’ll do the blood bonding in the privacy of our bedroom,” He told me as he guided me to lower my body to take him inside me. “I don’t need some tourist thinking we’re doing some satanic rite on this hill.”

I nodded, and then gasped as he filled me. “I need your mark on me.” I whispered breathlessly.

With a growl his eyes were red and he pulled me down for a kiss. Grasping my hair, he stopped as our breaths were touching. “Fuck it,” he said, “I’m binding you to me in every possible way. I’ve waited five hundred years to have you.” He kissed me hard robbing me of air.

When he released my head, he had a knife in his hand and cut into his chest. In one fluid motion, he had me on my back, his hand grasped over my head. “Take my blood now.” He whispered and thrust into me.

I put my lips over the wound and took in the taste that felt like home into my mouth. He held my hand tighter and rocked our bodies harder then his fangs sunk into my neck and the whole world exploded. My arm was burning, and my head felt dizzy as I rose higher, reaching to climax. I could feel him inside me in more than one way and felt filled and a completion that I had never felt before. When the wound sealed, I lifted my head away and bit into his neck as the first spasm hit me.

He growled in my ear. “Mine for all eternity.”

I don’t know how long we lay there breathing and floating, but I knew I finally had a home and love I’d never had before. We could stay here forever and it didn’t matter. I lifted my left arm and saw an intricate design all over it, even onto my palm.

“I’m trying to find the energy to move.” He said with a chuckle. “No one ever warned me how paralyzing it was.”

“I could run to the moon right now.” I smiled and looked at my arm some more.

Propping himself up on his elbows he looked down at me and smiled. “Of course, you could. You never tire.”

I looked at his arm to see a pattern the same as mine. “I wonder how it knows what marks will work for each couple.”

Slowly moving off me, he groaned. “I don’t think you’ll find a book about that. Only the fates know that.”

“Mmm,” I sighed, “that’s too bad. It’s quite fascinating.”

He handed me my clothes. “Let’s get dressed before we get caught.”

I’d forgotten I was naked laying in a field. With a giggle, I sat up and looked around. The butterflies were still filling the air. I got dressed quickly.

He pulled me back into his arms now that we weren’t naked.

“Thank you for bringing me here.” I stretched up and kissed him.

He held his arm out and turned it a few times. “I honestly believed I’d never see this on my body.” Leaning up on one elbow he looked down at me. “I spent decades hoping and then waiting many more.” He kissed the end of my nose. “Then I grew bitter and decided I didn’t need to wait for a prophecy to come true. A hundred years later, not one of my brothers had settled down, and I knew the prophecy was true.” His green eyes looked lovingly over my face for a moment. “I still don’t think I believed there was one for me until I watched this little woman flit all over Daxx’s apartment with flaming red hair.”

I grinned. “I bet that was a shock.”

He chuckled. “That’s putting it mildly.” He kissed me quickly. “I had this incredible urge to protect you, and wasn’t even sure if I liked you… then I realized you had endured more than I in my long life, and continued to believe there was still good everywhere.” He traced his finger lightly over the tattoo up my arm. “I thought for certain the darkness would swallow me.” Pausing, a strange look crossed his face. “I have fed off the evil in my cells for three hundred years, believing it was how I’d become cold enough to do what I had to.”

“It’s a very lonely job you have. Your brothers help, but in the end, it’s just you to know the right from the wrong.”

He watched me for a moment. “It wasn’t until I understood all that goes on in your head… every second of every day, then I knew I somehow had to have you. That you were the good to balance out all the bad I have seen.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “I told you that you could have me and you ran and hid from me after that.”

Rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, he shrugged. “I didn’t want to hurt you, or force you to decide.”

“And you thought you had given into the darkness? That doesn’t sound like it to me.” I touched his cheek softly.

His phone beeped. He reached around and picked it up off the ground. “You would think there was a limit to how far the signal goes.” He sighed after he checked it. “I have to get back. There’s information on a possible location in Alterealm with more of Marcus’ followers.”

“Are they hiding there while you look on the other side?” I sat up and looked around for my phone.

“It’s possible, I suppose.” He shook his head. “I feel like we’re chasing our tails the last few weeks.”

I smirked. “I’d like to see that.” I nodded. “You with a tail and chasing it.”

He stood up and scooped me up into his arms. “One last look at your butterflies, heart.”

I turned and looked down the hill. “I will always remember.”