10. Cormac
Cormac
I n the nine hundred years I had been alive, I had never been so appalled with myself about lying. But I knew I had to if Aurora was going to trust me. How ironic that to be trusted, I had to be deceitful. If she knew who I was, she would trust me even less. For now, she couldn’t know I was an O’Cillian.
I had often wondered how deep the memory spell the coven was under had gone. Obviously, they didn’t recall the original hunters and coven members were O’Cillians, the magic that turned my father touching each of his siblings.
As I looked into the fire’s flames, it was as though my father sat next to them, but the conversation I recalled was almost nine hundred years ago next to a different fire. “ Cormac, you must understand, ” my father had said. “ I am the first created by an original vampire, a woman so bent on revenge she withstood the grave on her own. Nature must balance good and evil, and so, as this curse has touched me, it will consume my entire family. For our sakes and theirs, we will never meet again. ”
Aurora thought the names were just a strange coincidence, and for now, I intended to keep it that way. But something about her, about her quest, had touched me and clarified my own desires. I did not want my brother dead, and with the hunters and the coven working together, it was a predictable outcome. I had to convince her I was not a threat—convince her to work with me—to understand how he withstood an arrow and remove the power from him.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious to find out if I possessed the same immunity to such wounds, but how did it come to be if that was the case? One thing had become abundantly clear: my parents knew about the Cure. There was only one way the lineage had disappeared from the Coven of the Blood and ended up hidden in a box with my family crest on it. My parents stole it when we ran from the coven. Even beneath the mass of rust, I recognized it. Was this why my parents brought us to America in the first place?
“Mac?” Aurora’s voice edged with concern. “Are you alright?”
I nodded. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”
“About what?” The tilt of her head elongated the side of her neck. Her heart still pounded. I surmised it was because of being trapped with a vampire. With her veins no longer constricted, the delicate aroma of her blood wafted toward me. I wanted to alternate between kissing her neck and sinking my fangs into it. I feared neither would entice her to work with me while I struggled with why I felt such a deep attraction to this woman.
“Nothing. We should leave this place.” I sighed before looking around the room to assess what had been disturbed. I returned to the hole where I had found the metal box and filled it in before stomping on the flames to put them out.
Aurora giggled nervously. “I can’t see anymore.”
“It’s a good thing that I can.” Her infectious look drew me to her. I wanted to run my hand down her cheek just to feel it. Instead, I walked to her and assisted in packing her bag. I placed the lineage securely in straps on the front pocket.
She turned her flashlight back on and scanned the area. She turned to me, following my lead. “I guess that’s all. How do we do this?” Her wavering voice betrayed her nerves.
I cleared my throat. “Can you climb onto my back with your pack on?”
She nodded.
I held the bag for her and helped guide her arms through the straps while she stayed seated to keep off her ankle.
“Are you ready to stand?” I asked when it was situated.
“I think so.” She bent her knees, placing her feet on the ground. I slipped my hands under her arms and lifted her as I would an opulent statue.
“Thanks,” she murmured, balancing on her uninjured foot.
“Ready to keep going?”
She nodded with a slight smile that made my heart twist. “I’m ready.”
I turned away from her and felt her arms wrap around my neck. I placed my hands under her ass and lifted her onto my back. When she wrapped her legs around my center, she grasped with her uninjured leg and balanced the other gingerly across. I battled the imagery in my mind of her in a similar position, with me facing her and my cock buried deep inside her. I clenched my jaw and climbed the wall with a slow, steady movement.
When we were on level ground again, I helped her down. “How are you doing?”
She swallowed. “I’m fine. Let’s just get out of here.”
When I picked her up this time, I cradled her in my arms and carried her to her campsite as the night air closed around us.
“How did you know this was where I was?” she asked.
I placed her down at the edge of the protective circle next to a tree. “I ran into this on my way to the cave. It was obvious it was yours once I knew I was dealing with a witch and a powerful one at that.”
She tilted her head but said nothing, balancing against the trunk.
I looked around for a stick she could use as a cane and located one near us. I darted toward it and back to her. “I’m not going to even try to cross the boundary.” Her face shone under the light of the moon.
“Thank you for coming to rescue me,” she said.
“You’re welcome.” I removed the lineage from the bag. “But I think I’m going to hold on to this.”
“What? Why do you get to hold it?” Her eyes flashed with anger.
“So you don’t run off with it.”
“Like I’m running anywhere at all.” She gestured toward her leg.
I held it out to her between both my hands. “This just guarantees it. We’ll find the Cure together, and then I’ll help you find the vampire.”
She clenched her jaw as her nostrils flared. “Fine, we’ll work together.”
She was undoubtedly not fine, but I had nothing to worry about for the moment with her ankle. The cloth of her bag rustled as she struggled to reach into a side pocket. When she turned back to me, the moonlight gleamed off the blade of the athame she held.
My head tilted, my body frozen. I could fight her off in an instant if needed. She raised her eyebrows right before she used the point to slice into the tip of her finger. The scent of her blood made my head swirl, and I fought the urge for my fangs to descend. The small dome of glistening red grew before she snaked her finger across the top of the pages and down the leather back of the lineage. She placed her finger to her mouth.
“What the hell was that?”
Her blood stained the edge of each page and the back cover, the bouquet sweeter than honey, straining my discipline. I couldn’t let her see that part of me. Not now.
“Insurance. You’ll never clean my blood from it completely, which means I will always find it, no matter how far you take it. So don’t.”
She passed through her magical barrier and hobbled over to the stone with the symbol for home on it. She placed her backpack down before she removed the hammock from inside it and made her way to the stone with the air symbol.
She threw the strap around the tree but missed. “Dammit,” she swore as she leaned over on one foot to pick it up, nearly falling face-first onto the ground.
I stifled a laugh as I leaned against the tree, cradling the lineage against my chest. She was so stubborn. “Are you sure you don’t need any help?”
She turned to glare at me. “And drop the barrier? I don’t think so.”
“I thought I would offer.”
She finally succeeded in creating her bed for the night. She hoisted herself into it, looking at me, watching her. “I expect I’ll find you here when I wake up.”
“Undoubtedly,” I replied, leaning against a tree. She zipped the hammock around her and rustled around, getting comfortable. After several minutes, I could hear her breathing even out as she fell asleep.
Maybe I should run and let her figure out how to catch up with me later? But I couldn’t leave her. Something kept me drawn to her, determined to convince her to work with me to find the Cure. There had to be a way.
I set the lineage on a flat rock just outside the barrier. She wasn’t going anywhere, and I would be back before she woke.