Five Hundred Years Ago
The vampire disappeared right in front of their eyes.
Eric hated it. It was the most annoying ability those cursed creatures had.
When they knew it was a losing battle, they avoided all contact with werewolves. Because once a werewolf got their claws or fangs into their undead bodies, they couldn’t get away.
With the vampire gone and the High Priestess done with her ritual, he rushed to the altar and fell to his knees. He unfastened the ropes around Ruby’s limbs and gathered her in his arms.
Tears blurred his sight as he called her name, stroked her face, embraced her limp body close.
She was gone.
It felt like someone had reached into his chest and tore his heart out. How could he have such a connection to a human?
He had never understood his feelings towards her.
At twenty eight, he was yet to find his destined mate. He should have met her about a decade ago. He assumed she was already dead.
Was that why he had been able to fall for her so hard? It had been torture loving her from a distance, knowing they could never be together.
If she hadn’t been from the tribe his clan was sworn to protect, he would have revealed his true nature to her. Maybe she would have let him claim her, make her like one of them.
But she was the tribe’s princess. He couldn’t be with her without exposing that his entire clan was made up of werewolves.
Keeping their identity hidden was the top priority of every clan member. They were strictly forbidden from turning any humans from the tribe. Or getting into sexual relationships with them. Breaking the first rule was punishable by death. Anyone found guilty of the second crime was banished from the clan.
To have her, it would have meant giving up everything. She would also have had to leave everything behind if she agreed to be with him. How could he ask her to leave everything she cared about behind?
“You lied about the sacrifice,” he said when the High Priestess stepped close.
“What did you want me to do?” she asked. “How many of your brothers did her people kill? They have to fear us, respect us. Otherwise they’ll always hunt us down.”
“Did it have to her? You could have chosen one of the killers!”
“It had to be her. I had a vision.”
He blinked as he looked up at her. “What are you talking about?”
“She slaughtered werewolves in droves. She was…something I cannot explain. Like one of us, but also like a vampire.”
He scoffed. “Are you insane? Ruby is human!”
“My visions are always right. If she lived, she would have destroyed us all. I couldn’t ignore that.”
“So you killed her just because of your beliefs?” he placed Ruby down gently. “Is her life worth nothing to you?”
He rose to his feet, and the High Priestess clearly saw the murderous intent in his eyes. She sucked in a breath and took a step back. “I did this for our kind. We have lost so many already. She was a threat, and our Goddess was kind enough to reveal it to me. It was my duty to get rid of her.”
Eric took a step toward her. “The Goddess, you say? What does she think of your sacrifice?”
“You are right. I cannot make a human sacrifice to our Goddess. I also cannot change fate. The ritual I performed will only lock her soul for five hundred years. She cannot be reborn until then. When she comes back, maybe our kind will be better suited to fight her. Not now, when we have suffered such a setback.”
“I don’t care why you did it. It’s taboo to harm humans, and you’ll be punished according to our laws.”
“As long as I can protect our people,” she said, “I regret nothing.”
Eric fisted his hands and looked back at Ruby. He had sworn to protect her with his life. He had failed at the one thing he could do for her.
Behind him, the High Priestess frowned. In the vision, the princess bore a star-shaped mark above her breast.
But when she had tied the girl to the altar before beginning the ritual, she had noticed that she did not have such a mark on her.
She didn’t think much about it.
It was her she had seen in the vision. Maybe the mark was not a birthmark but an injury she could have attained later in life.
There was no need to mention that to the prince.
If he thought she had been mistaken about her vision, he wouldn’t wait to let the court deal with her. He would kill her right away.
Rather than stoke his anger more, she had an offer. “Would you like to be here when she comes back?”
“What?” he asked, looking back at her.
“We are reborn too. But even if you were reborn the same time she was, you would not find her. If I trap your spirit in this world, you can keep your memories and choose when to come back.”
“Trap my spirit?”
“When the time comes, you would need a host. But there’s a price.”
Eric did not think about it. There was nothing to think about. He could not protect her in this life. He would give up everything to be able to protect her in the next. “Name it.”
“You’d have to give up your life,” the High Priestess said.
“What do you mean?”
“I can only trap your spirit if you are alive.”
He was quiet.
“I’ve seen your future,” she told him. “You do not have much time remaining.”
He swallowed. “How much?”
“Less than two years.”
Two years. So, even if things had turned out differently, he wouldn’t have been around to protect her for much longer. He would have failed her anyway.
The knowledge that he never would have had any kind of future with her tore his heart. Why did he have such rotten luck?
“Once you find a host, you’ll have the same lifespan before your spirit dissipates. That’s the amount of time you’ll have to find her.”
“Thirty years is a long time,” he said.
No amount of time was long enough to be by her side. He wanted to be there through eternity.
But if thirty years was all he could get, he would make the most of it. He would not waste a single second of it. He would not hesitate the same way he had in this life. No rules or laws were going to keep him away from her.
He bent down and gathered her body in his arms. Rising, he carried her out of the shrine. He would bury her next to her parents, and he would see that she had a proper send-off, befitting a princess.
After that, he would take care of what he could in the little time he had.
He owed it to her and all the people, both his clan and the tribesmen, to get rid of that vampire. He also had to reconcile the two groups so there were no more killings. Some of his kin were eager for revenge, ready to forsake their oaths and risk the Goddess’s wrath.
He would make sure it did not get to that. He would rebuild as much of their defences as he could, identify the Alpha who would take over after him, and make measures to ensure this tragedy would never happen again.
Once he was done with that and before his time was over, he would ask the High Priestess to perform the ritual.
For the next several weeks, his efforts to flush out the vampire bore no fruit. Had he left?
He hoped not. If he didn’t kill him with his own hands, he would never be at peace. What if he came back to terrorise the people once he was gone?
He never found the vampire.
The vampire found him.
It was a couple of months later. It was the middle of the night and he was sitting in his study, racking his brain for how to lure the vampire out.
He had sent word to other werewolf communities all around, but none reported seeing him. Had he completely disappeared from this part of the world?
One moment, he was staring blankly at the wall across the room, and the next, the vampire was sitting on the other side of his desk.
He didn’t hesitate.
He was out of his chair and over the desk in two seconds flat. It was enough time for the vampire to get away, but he didn’t.
He remained in the chair and let him topple him to the floor. Eric pinned him to the floor and wrapped his hands around his throat. “How brave of you to show up here,” he hissed.
“I come in peace,” the vampire’s voice sounded in his mind.
He tightened his hands. He knew it was no use…it was not like he could strangle him to death.
“She would be proud of you,” the vampire said.
How dare he talk about her?
Eric reached back to his waist and gripped his dagger. He held it to the vampire’s neck. He would need a bigger blade to cut his head clean off, but for now, this would have to suffice.
The dagger was a special blade that would weaken him and keep him from teleporting away until Eric could get his sword…or simply tear his head off with his hands.
“I have an offer,” the vampire said, seemingly unspooked by the blade at his throat.
“Does it involve bringing back all the lives you took?”
“It involves saving the ones that remain.”
“You? Saving lives?”
“Believe what you want to, but I never wanted to put her in danger. This is the least I can do for her.”
Eric had known the vampire was fixated on Ruby in some sort of way, but hadn’t yet figured out how. When vampires got fixated on a human, it was because they craved a taste of their blood.
But this one… This one acted like he hadn’t wanted her dead. It was unfathomable. But then again, he also walked in the sun. As far as vampires went, there was something wrong with him.
“What,” he gritted the word out. He had made the mistake of letting him go the first time they met. Should he be considering making a deal with him?
“You and I both know the peace you’ve managed to bring back here is fragile. Both sides are dying to wipe each other out. The moment you look away, it’ll be a war.”
Eric wished the vampire wasn’t right.
But he was.
He knew it would take time for the werewolves and humans to truly accept each other. But it had only been a few months after the killings, and the animosity was still brewing under the surface. At the moment, they were united in vigilance against the vampire. But what about when that threat was gone?
They would become each other's' enemy.
“I can make them forget,” the vampire said. “It’ll take time, but I can do it. It’ll be like nothing ever happened, and your community can live together like before.”
Eric frowned. He knew vampires could mess around with people’s minds. But could he really take away so many memories from so many people?
“Why do you care?” He didn’t have a fucking heart. So why was he here, trying to make amends?
“I don’t know.”
Eric frowned. He shouldn’t trust a vampire. Because the moment he let his guard down, he would be defenceless against him. Like back when he poisoned him.
But this asshole actually sounded, and even looked, sincere.
“Let me give you my blood.”
“What?”
“If you have my blood in your veins, I cannot control you.”
“I’m not drinking your cursed blood.”
“Do what you want, then.”
Alexander looked up at the werewolf, waiting.
He was ready to die again. The past two months had been nothing short of agony. If that was how he was to spend eternity, he didn’t want it.
The princess haunted him day and night. At night, he had either of two dreams. One where she dug a dagger into his heart, and another where he drained her of blood.
During the day, the images from the dreams refused to leave his mind. He couldn’t tell which destroyed him more–the hate in her eyes when she dug a dagger into his dead heart, or the fear in them when he drained her.
If he was to forget about her, it wasn’t happening yet. He wondered whether it was the Maker’s doing, to punish him for going against her plans for him. Was she cursing him with this pain, making an example of him for any other who flirted with the light?
The werewolf pulled back and rose to his feet. Alexander followed.
“Fine,” Eric said through his teeth.
“What?”
“I’ll drink your fucking blood.”
As the clock struck midnight, an unlikely deal was made.
A werewolf and a vampire, brought together by the love for a human princess none of them would ever have.