Blood Sacrifice (The Astral Chronicles #1)

Chapter SevenLuna

Chapter Seven

Luna

My memories were shattered fragments that swirled inside my head. There was an ache in my head that made my ears throb, and my mouth was dry. I tried to catch hold of an image, but it moved too quickly and I was left in darkness again.

The next moment of consciousness found me lost in one of the erotic dreams that made me ache and burn. His flesh was firm under my fingers, his arms strong around me as they kept me safe. I could only ever find him in my dreams, my soul finding his to seek comfort.

“Sleep.” His deep voice had haunted my dreams since the night he saved me. Soft lips kissed my forehead, and those arms pulled me closer.

“I am asleep,” I muttered. “When I’m awake you’re gone.”

I didn’t hear what he said, but there was a low vibration in his chest that sounded like a growl.

Magic users were most susceptible when they slept, our minds open to psychic attack. It was why I had a nightly ritual, and spell bags that I carried with me when I wasn’t in my own room. There was a niggling thought at the back of my head that I was vulnerable, my normal level of protection missing.

I tossed and turned, but the one constant were the strong arms that held and soothed me until I finally managed to open my eyes, squinting against the strength of the sun pouring through the windows.

I groaned, the pain reappearing when I tried to move my head. After a few moments, I managed to roll onto my side and pushed myself up. Nothing in the room was familiar, not even the curtains at the side of the windows. I tentatively tiptoed across the room, searching for a bathroom since my bladder was ready to burst.

The second door I opened revealed an ensuite, and I stepped inside. The woman who stared back at me from the mirror had bruising under both eyes, and a lump at the side of her head that still had dried blood around it that had matted the hair. I touched the lump with my fingertips, wincing at the pain. After I used the toilet, I tried to comb my fingers through my hair, and it was then that I noticed the T-shirt I was wearing didn’t belong to me. It was large and baggy, reaching halfway down my thighs. All I was wearing under it was my pink lace panties.

This time when I met my eyes in the mirror, it was in shock, my hands smoothing over my body. What had happened?

I slowly sat on the side of the bath, trying to piece everything together. My last memory was the tour bus, and listening to a couple behind me arguing about a present he bought for his secretary. Everything became very hazy after that, but there were screams and the bus skidding as it left my stomach somewhere back on the road.

I swear there were gunshots, but maybe there had been fireworks detonating in the distance? There had been a moment when I swore I saw Salvator in the middle of the road… I must have hit my head really hard because it had been an extremely vivid hallucination.

Eventually, I ventured back into the room I had woken in. The muscular back of a man wearing low-riding black tracksuit bottoms was the new view at the window. He slowly turned to face me, and my breath caught in my chest.

It couldn’t be.

Salvator died a long time ago. I had mourned his loss, and lit a candle for him every year at Samhain. Every word I could think of evaporated from my mouth and my knees threatened to betray me as they wobbled. I sank onto the side of the bed, my mind whirling in confusion.

“You hit your head in the accident,” he said. “The doctor said you had a concussion.”

I eyed him warily, beginning to doubt my memory since this obviously wasn’t Salvator. “These are not my clothes,” I replied, tugging the T-shirt.

“The top’s mine, the panties are definitely yours since they wouldn’t fit me.” His eyebrow rose slightly, and my cheeks flushed.

“This is not a hospital,” I pointed out. “The sheets are too good a quality.”

“I prefer not to rough it when I sleep.” He didn’t try to explain why I was in his bed and sleeping in his shirt.

“I need to leave.” I stood on shaky legs, stumbling when I tried to take a step forward.

He was there in an instant, his hands grasping my arms to steady me. I wanted to protest, but his touch soothed me and made me feel safe. My energy drained out of me as I stood staring at his chest.

“You’re safe here,” he said, as if that answered everything. “Breakfast is ready.”

He took my arm and led me out of the room. My stride wasn’t as long as his and I struggled to keep up with him as he moved through what appeared to be a house. Sun streamed through the floor-to-ceiling window in the kitchen. The units were a pale silver colour, an island in the centre of it had chairs around it to give it the illusion of a table.

I sat down, chewing my lip as he moved seamlessly around the kitchen. I hadn’t seen my clothes or phone in the bedroom, and I needed to get in touch with Maia as she would know about the accident by now.

“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but where are my belongings? I need my phone to let my family know I’m okay.” I threaded my fingers through each other on the countertop in front of me.

He turned to face me and butterflies erupted in my chest. Everything about him reminded me of Salvator, and I wondered if this could be his soul reincarnated. He leaned his ass against one of the kitchen units and stared at me.

“Your case and bag are in the spare bedroom as I didn’t have time to search them for surveillance equipment, and that room has inbuilt blockers in it,” he replied. “You are not in a hospital because the rest of the tour was taken there, and a woman matching your description is currently in the morgue. I couldn’t have you taken to the hospital since technically you are dead, so I had a private doctor brought here to examine you.”

I had no idea what I was supposed to say to that. “Is there a reason that people need to think I’m dead?”

“If you’re dead, then they stop looking for you.” He shrugged and continued to watch me calmly as my emotions spiralled out of control.

“Why do you get to make that decision? And who changed my clothes?” I demanded, trying to pull the T-shirt further down over my legs.

“I made that decision because this is my territory and I do not need Balor sending his goons into it and starting a war.” He glared at me until I curled my toes and glanced away. “Every creature or magic user is supposed to let my people know that they are here. It’s how we keep the peace. Two people on your tour ended up dead because they were looking for you. There was a major crash and we had to eliminate the threat sent to retrieve you. None of that would have happened if you had let us know you were here.” He folded his arms across his chest, and I desperately tried not to notice the way his muscles moved and contracted.

“I couldn’t inform anyone as I didn’t know there was a special visa you needed when travelling to Peru,” I snapped, my temper rising. “Since when was this land carved up into territories?”

We both stared at each other, the deadlock only broken when my stomach rumbled.

I watched as he silently placed pancakes onto a plate and handed it to me. He left bacon and maple syrup in the centre of the island. Then he placed a teapot and mugs on a placemat to the side.

“What if you are the one trying to kill or capture me?” I queried, poking the pancakes with my fork.

“Then I’ve succeeded with the capturing, and it would be pointless healing you to poison you.” He raised his eyebrows, as if challenging me to argue with him.

I shoved a piece of fluffy pancake into my mouth, chewing it to prevent me from saying anything. He sat in the chair and proceeded to eat the bacon.

“Are you going to introduce yourself?” I asked before eating another piece of pancake. “I assume you know who I am.”

He chewed slowly, his watchful gaze never moving from me. “I know who you are.”

I felt like screaming because he looked like someone whose ghost had lived in my life for forever, but ghosts didn’t become corporeal just because we wanted to see them again.

“What am I supposed to call you?” I tried a different tactic.

“I answer to most things. Most of my organisation calls me Sir.” He grinned and bit into another slice of bacon.

“Asshole,” I muttered, helping myself to syrup.

“I heard that,” he said in a sing-song voice.

“What big ears you have.” The man was infuriating.

“Not big ears, just enhanced hearing. Want to see my teeth?” His full mouth widened in a smile, and I swear my panties felt too tight.

“People will wonder where I am,” I persisted.

“I already told you, the news has already been released that you were killed in the crash.”

“My coven won’t believe that.” I set my cutlery down, and clasped my hands together on my lap. “We lost too many people without a trace, so now we tend to monitor heartbeats to ensure we know who is still alive.”

I went to stand up to go and find my phone, but another wave of dizziness washed over me.

“For fucks sake, Lunabelle,” he snapped. “Can you not just sit there and eat breakfast?” His strong hands manoeuvred me back into my seat.

“How do you know that name?” I asked in nothing more than a hushed whisper. “I haven’t used that name in a long time.” Almost four centuries to be precise. I used the shortened version of my name when I left this country and headed across the ocean.

“Because it was your name when I knew you,” he said. “You might not remember me, but I still remember you.” He strode from the room without a backward glance, leaving me confused and speechless.

I had no idea what was happening, or how to respond to what had just happened. After what felt like an eternity, I padded through the house in search of the man who owed me quite a few answers. My first result was finding my case on a bed in another bedroom, still locked with my travel bag beside it. My phone was out of battery charge, but nothing seemed to be disturbed in any of my possessions.

I opened my bag and grabbed the toiletries inside, taking myself into the ensuite to try and wash some of the blood and dirt off myself. My body and head still ached, and I felt dizzy every time I bent down or turned. The water on my skin felt divine, washing away sweat and blood. My shampoo stung my head injury, and the water was dyed with my blood as it swirled around my feet.

When I finally felt more human, I stepped out of the shower and wrapped my hair and body in the fluffiest towels ever. I was still pale with shadows under my eyes, but food and a shower had revived me.

I came to a shuddering halt when I exited the bathroom since he was sitting on the end of the bed with his head lowered and his elbows on his legs and hands clasped. My heart stumbled over its beat at the sight of him in a defeated pose.

“I know who you look like,” I said in a low voice. “But that man would have found me if he survived the war. He possessed the only crystal that could have located me.”

His head slowly came up, his eyes meeting mine, and I swear the world slowed on its axis.

“I met him for years in my dreams, walked this world with his ghost haunting me and preventing me from forming any real relationships,” I continued. “His name disappeared from the history of this land until he was nothing more than a memory that lived inside me.”

“The only person who could activate that quartz was a magic user. They told me you were dead and the crystal useless. It didn’t stop me carrying it with me every day.” He pulled a chain from under his T-shirt that he had put on when I was in the shower. Dangling on the chain in an elaborate cage was the crystal I had given him so long ago. I felt the energy of my first spell still pulsing inside it.

I pursed my lips together, my entire world tilting dangerously out of control.

“I searched for years, hoping the crystal would do something to show me your location. In the end, I asked the one witch I thought I could trust—your sister Aisha.”

“Aisha is dead,” I replied. “I felt the cord that connected us through the mother priestess break.”

“She’s very much alive and wanted to personally come to try and identify who Balor was looking for on that bus,” Salvator said.

I sank into the chair beside the dressing table, unable to comprehend all the information that was being revealed. “I need to get home,” I said. “We have witches who can decipher all this.” I vaguely gestured the air above my head.

“This is the only place I can keep you safe at the moment,” Salvator replied. “Outside that door, I have no idea who could be waiting for you.”

I tentatively tried to release my hair as the warm water was turning cold on my skin and a chill was beginning to set in. Salvator was in front of me in a heartbeat, slowly untangling my hair and rubbing it with the towel.

“You don’t have to—” I started, but a low growl stopped me from finishing my sentence.

I sat, staring at the fabric of the T-shirt stretched over his stomach as he gently towel-dried my hair and combed it with the brush I’d left on the dressing table earlier with some of my toiletries.

“I don’t belong in this world anymore,” I said, desperately trying to keep my hands from touching him.

“You’re my mate,” he replied in that low, growly tone that seemed to send goosebumps rising on my skin. “You belong with me.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, considering that he had had four hundred years to find someone else to fit into that role. “I’m not that girl anymore,” I argued.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re my mate.”

He was finishing brushing my hair when I caught his hands. “Salvator, our worlds have changed. Your people need you here, and I have people who rely on me to keep them safe.”

He sighed, his chest expanding and contracting. He crouched in front of me, his dark, almost black eyes boring into mine. “None of that matters, Luna. Everything comes back to the fact that you are my mate. The great goddess decided you were the only woman I will ever want and I am the man who will rip the throat out of any man who looks at you twice.”

My lips twitched at his description because I was sure that wasn’t what being mates meant. “You’ve had plenty of time to find another mate,” I replied softly, even though I knew I had never gotten over losing a man who had left a permanent mark on me.

Salvator shook his head. “You and I both know that I could only do that if you were dead. A lot of shit is finally starting to make sense, including you being in my dreams all these years.”

My eyes widened at his admission. I had believed I was the only one fantasising about us being intimate when I dreamt.

He lifted my hair over my shoulder and onto my back. “Every time you dreamed of me, I was there with you. Every time you screamed my name in ecstasy, I could smell your scent on my skin afterward.”

Fuck!

“None of this makes sense,” I mumbled, unable to look away from his dark, mesmerising eyes. “Maybe I banged my head harder than I thought and am still unconscious?”

His finger traced down the side of my face, down my throat, and over the swell of my breast that was only enclosed in a towel. “Does this feel like a dream?” he asked.

“It feels like my world is spiralling out of control,” I admitted.

“Or maybe it’s spiralling to where it should be,” he said, his head moving slightly until I felt his breath on my mouth.

This was a dream. It had to be a dream because there was no possible way that Salvator was alive and in the same room as me. My eyes fluttered close when his lips touched mine in a light caress, his hands holding my face.

“None of this makes sense,” I whispered. “I—”

His lips stopped mine talking, stealing the words that I wanted to speak. He didn’t push me, keeping his kiss light and stoking a flame deep in my stomach. When he broke away and moved his head back, mine followed those tempting lips.

Salvator tilted my head back to stare into my eyes. “I want to do everything that I’ve craved for the past four centuries, but if I release my control right now, I’ll end up hurting you since you’re injured.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “Right now, I’m fighting the urge to throw you on and bed and claim you until every man who’s been in your life since me is eradicated and only I remain.”

What other men? I had never found anyone who measured up to the void he left in my life. No other man had slept in my bed or shared my body. He had haunted me until I gave up on the idea of trying to find love, and instead concentrated on my career, and building the Chimaera Foundation to give witches somewhere safe to practice their craft.

I gave into temptation and held onto his waist. “You were dead,” I said in a low tone. “I have mourned you nearly my whole life.”

“As I have you, Luna,” he replied, pulling me to my feet.

I stood, my eyes widening as he slowly removed the towel that covered my body, his hands tracing around my shoulders, over my breasts, and finally reaching my hips. He was the only man who had touched me like this, the only one who had that assured touch of ownership.

“You’re even more beautiful that I remember,” Salvator said, his eyes glowing a soft amber. “And I have spent a lot of time with those memories, replaying them over and over again.”

“Salvator,” I whispered, all rational thoughts evaporating in his presence. I felt the weight of his stare, as if his fingers were tracing over my skin and leaving heated trails.

A phone rang in the background, breaking us from whatever spell was weaving around us. He cursed, striding out of the room to snap at whoever was on the other end of the phone. I hurriedly gathered some clothes and disappeared back into the bathroom, closing the door and placing my back to it while I clutched my clothes to the front.

Part of me was elated to discover that Salvator was still alive, but there was a greater part of me that wanted to run. Losing him the last time had almost destroyed me. The adult version of Salvator was more magnetic, his energy drawing me to him in a way that signalled my destruction if I took that chance again.

The woman in the mirror looked like me, but her eyes were too bright and there was a flush to her skin. My trembling fingers touched my lips, remembering the sensation of Salvator’s as they caressed mine.

I was just attaching my pendant when he walked back into the room, stopping to look at the crystal around my neck.

“It makes sense that they couldn’t find you,” he said. “Your entire energy is different when you put that on.”

“Mother priestess told us to hide in plain sight,” I replied, touching the amulet. “This allows me to travel across the world without anyone realising who I am. We’ve worked long and hard to protect witches from persecution.”

“We?” Out of everything I had said, that was what Salvator honed in on.

“At first, I stayed close to the border, but the years passed and I eventually moved east.” I walked past him out of the room, needing some fresh air. “I spent decades walking this world alone, and then I began to find other women like me who could use magic. They taught me different skills, and one by one, we formed a network that now stretches across the globe. Never again will a witch be forced to use her powers or be punished for using them.”

The sun blinded me for a moment when I walked outside, but I needed a connection with nature to help me speed my healing. Salvator’s home was surrounded by a beautiful garden that felt like it was a piece of paradise far from the prying eyes of the world.

“I’ve never heard of a witches’ network,” Salvator replied, taking a seat beside me on the elaborately carved wooden bench.

“That is because you’re not a witch and technically it is a secret organisation,” I said, leaning back and closing my eyes.

“We have magic users in our organisation,” he defended. “Technically, that includes your sister.”

That touched a raw nerve because I had felt her death and that didn’t make sense to me. We had been connected not just through the coven mother priestess had formed but through a sister witch link that was powerful magic, allowing us to sense each other at a primal level.

Exhaustion crested over me as I allowed the sun’s energy to sink into me, the earth beneath my feet grounding me.

“Are there other priestesses from that night in your network?” he asked, his fingertips touching my hand, sending waves of awareness through me.

“A few that I encountered over the years. They are well hidden, some of them in the long sleep,” I admitted.

He turned in the seat, and I felt his gaze boring into me. “The long sleep?”

I finally opened my eyes to look at him. “Four hundred years is a long time to live,” I replied. “The long sleep allows us to sleep through decades. It’s the basis of the faerytale Sleeping Beauty .”

His eyes widened for a moment before he glanced away. “I didn’t know that was possible.” He shook his head. “It seems I have been misinformed about many aspects of magic.”

“Maybe,” I replied. “Maybe not. If you only use one aspect of magic, then you never know the true potential of it, and the real power behind spells. I spent a lot of time travelling to help myself forget, and found a different path along the way. Mother priestess told me to go east and follow my instinct. That’s what I did.”

“And I remained here and am still just a lycan.” Salvator sounded bitter.

“Dire wolves contain magic,” I said. “I’ve met several over the years, and many of them have the ability to cast spells and control the elements.” What I didn’t say was that those black wolves had all been mated, and their abilities flowed from their union to their mates.

“None of this makes sense,” Salvator said. “What bothers me is that you’re walking around with that necklace on, which means no one can detect who you are, yet Balor knew you were in the country. How?”

“Maybe I can answer that question when my head stops thumping,” I replied, touching the lump at the side of my head.

“Come on.” Salvator stood up and held his hand out. “You had a serious concussion and the doctor wanted you in hospital for observation. I was worried you’d be discovered there after the crash.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’re going to lie down in a darkened room after you take some of the medication he left for you.” He grabbed my hand and led me inside. “I’m going to try and find some answers as to why we’ve been misled about the use of magic all these years.”

My lips twitched at his bossiness. Some things hadn’t changed, even in four hundred years. I had snuggled down under the covers in the darkened room when a vision flashed behind my eyes, making me sit straight up in bed.

“Salvator!” I shouted, already stumbling to the door.

He appeared in front of me with his phone in his hand, confused.

“We need to go,” I said. “Now!”

His eyes widened, but he didn’t reply, merely grabbed my case and his bag in the other bedroom on the way past. I unplugged my phone and threw it into my handbag. We hadn’t even reached the end of the drive when the house exploded behind us, the heatwave making me duck low in my seat.

I wasn’t sure how they found us, or even who they were, but someone had just tried to kill Salvator and me.