Chapter 43
Chapter forty-three
Vidar
Sunlight warms Kai, and I tuck a braid behind his ear. I’m careful, my hands too big for my soulmate’s delicate features.
With my shirt, I was able to clean up some of the mess. But once we’re home, he’ll need a bath, and after everything Kai’s been through, he deserves the best; flowers, bubbles, fancy oils. Marshmallows.
A firm hand squeezes my shoulder. “Maker.” Rurik, saying my name like he’s trying to wake me up.
Cupping Kai’s cheek, I run my thumb over his scars. Smiling to myself, he’s all back to normal and perfect. Even the birds agree as they sing in the distance.
“It’s been six hours, Maker.”
Shrugging Rurik’s hand off, I capture a yellow leaf that’s floated down to kiss Kai's closed eyelid. I pluck it by the stem with two fingers and set it free in the breeze.
The ground beside me crunches as Sen kneels, palms on his thighs and for a time, he’s silent.
“While we wait for Kai to wake up, Maker, why don’t you tell me about Kai. I only met him, after all.”
“Sen,” Lucero warns. But my eldest waves him off, nodding at me to start.
Where to even begin?
I trail the curve of Kai’s jaw, how to describe my greatest love when I’ve never been a man of words. Or rather, all the wrong words. How to explain the way Kai makes me feel when he looks at me, a teasing glint in his jade eyes. Or his hidden smile, even when I’ve annoyed him.
How my chest swells with pride every time he faces his fears.
“Kai is my everything.”
And he just needs to wake up.
In the distance, something grumbles. Sen stands, my other offspring coming into view as they circle us.
I don’t bother to look up, even as it grows and the stink of fumes irritates my nose.
“Is that…” Lucero trails off.
The grumbling increases until a small car drives into view. It parks, the engine dying before a door opens and closes.
“Apollo?” Rurik whispers his name.
Hesitant footsteps hit the pavement until the little vampire is standing in front of me, ripped jeans, covered in Forget-Me-Not tattoos, and face lost in the foggy sunlight.
“Hey, Vidar.”
My gaze drops back to Kai. I have no time for anyone else.
I’ll wait forever if I have to.
“What are you doing here?” Rurik asks.
“You alright, Kai?” There’s an unfamiliar quality to Apollo’s soft voice. “I remember that thing I forgot. Sorry it took a while, lad. My head’s all over the place these days.”
Rurik stands behind his mate, and for once, Apollo doesn’t snap at him. Only glides to his knees and looks Kai over.
“Careful,” I warn.
“Always,” Apollo replies gently. “Ya know, Kai, making a human into a vampire carries risk. Sometimes they die.”
I flinch, his words a physical pain. I’m quick to shake it off. Kai isn’t dead; he’ll wake any second.
“But you ain’t all human, are you, lad?” Apollo leans closer, whispering in Kai’s ear like he’s sharing a secret. “Summer didn’t think it would matter. But it does, trust me.”
I tilt over my soulmate, having no idea where Apollo’s going with this, but needing to protect Kai. He’s already been betrayed by one friend.
“I ain’t all the way human either, but I didn’t know that when I was turned.
I also didn’t know there were different rules.
Why would a light mage—or a demon—need to be turned into a vampire, anyway?
They’ve got their own ways to immortality.
It’d be like adding water to water, hoping to make water. ”
“But he can be made immortal, right?” I snap, desperate to hear the ‘yes’.
But Apollo isn’t talking to me.
“I forgot the rules, I’m sorry. It was all too…too much. Too—” Apollo swallows like someone has their fist around his throat. “Too close.”
Behind him, Rurik pales.
“But I know what to do now.” Reaching towards his boot, Apollo pulls out a knife I hadn’t noticed.
“What are you doing?” I demand.
“To make mages immortal, they need a magic symbol carved into their flesh. Right to the bone. All I had were tattoos,” Apollo says, ignoring my growling and nodding to the Forget-Me-Nots over his arms, shoulders and neck.
“Like you, I didn’t know what I was. And like you, I couldn’t stop drawing a strange pattern.
Even inked it into my flesh, hidden between petals… ”
The birds stopped singing, and the only sound is Rurik’s heavy breathing.
“When I died, I had to wait until that strange pattern tattooed onto my skin had settled into my bones.” A blankness fades into Apollo’s eyes, and he says, voice so low it’s hard to hear, “It was dark where I waited.”
Rurik lets out a long, horror-filled exhale. “You were aware inside the coffin the whole time?”
Lucero curses. “How long?”
Apollo doesn’t reply; instead, he runs his fingers over the purple Script on Kai’s leather jacket, the one that’s painted on the breast.
“How do I get Kai back?” I ask, holding myself back from grabbing the other vampire and shaking him.
Apollo's gaze flicks up. “The same rules apply with demons. Even half-demons.”
He waits, holding the dagger to Kai’s chest.
The blade is plain, but all I see is its lethal point aimed at my world. Apprehension nibbles at the desire to have Kai back, my jaw hurting as I work it back and forth.
“He’s suffered so much already,” I tell Apollo. Miserable, pleading. “Hasn’t Kai given enough blood?”
The knife in Apollo’s hand doesn’t waver, but when he says, “One more time,” his voice trembles.
My shoulders drop.
I bow down and press my lips onto Kai’s cold forehead.
“Only soft things for you once this is all done, little prince.”
I draw back, and without another word, Apollo slices into Kai’s chest. I want to bare my fangs with each line carved, my white-knuckled fists trembling at my side.
Luckily, Apollo is quick and pulls away from Kai once he’s done.
A swirling symbol, like a triangle with horns, carved into his ashen skin over his heart.
“Now what?” I ask, throat dry.
“Not long now.” Apollo sits on his heels, watching over my mate. “I’m sorry, Rurik, that I keep forgetting you.”
Rurik drops to his knees next to Apollo, ghost white and tears in his eyes. “I am so sorry, little star. I had no idea what you were. I should’ve…I…”
Apollo lies his head on Rurik’s shoulder, a peace settling over the little vampire. “You have nothing to be sorry for, you didn’t know.”
Rurik circles Apollo in an embrace. Face a ruin of wretched sadness.
“I’m going to forget again when Kai wakes up. My memories—I… they hurt too much to remember. All that darkness, Rurik, the silence…The things that scratched against the coffin’s walls…”
“It’s okay,” Rurik whispers, burying his nose in Apollo’s hair and breathing him in. “Forget me, little star. Be happy and forget me.”
“I’ve missed you so much,” the little vampire tells Rurik.
My attention drops to Kai, where he lies on my lap, giving the two as much privacy as I can spare while I wait.
Soon, I’ll introduce Kai to my sons, and we’ll adopt a horde of children. He’ll give me a tattoo. Maybe he’ll even get one himself.
Soon…
“Please come back to me, Kai…”
What will I do if he doesn’t?
No. I won’t think that way. Kai is coming back.
He is!
And like my thought summoned him, Kai shoots up, the silence shattering as he gulps down air into his heaving chest.
“Holy shit!” he wheezes.
“Kai!” I yell, the ice shattering as I drag him into my lap like a source of heat. “I knew. I always knew. We’re forever. Forever.”
I’m not making sense. I don’t even realise I’m crying until a sob nearly cracks me in half.
“Vidar.” He speaks my name between huge gulps of air, and when light snags on his fangs and shines, my broken heart heals. “I’m awake…”
“You’re awake.” I weep into his braids, filling my lungs with lavender and pencil shavings. “You’re awake.”