Chapter Ten - Thomas
Thin rays of morning sunlight spill from the cracks in the wooden walls. Drifting dust motes and the wispy hairs on Ketill’s naked arm turn gold in the glow, and somewhere in the distance a bird sings.
Slowly, blinking away the last dregs of sleep, I run my fingers up and down the hand Ketill rests on my stomach.
I dip into each space between his knuckles, feeling the faint history of scars along the way, fascinated by his short nails and the way his little finger is almost the same length as his ring finger.
“You like my hands?” Ketill asks behind me, his voice quiet as his lips brush my neck.
“Yes,” I admit easily.
He holds up his palm, and I press mine to his. Our hands are the same width, Ketill’s little finger longer, his skin rougher, but…the same. Familiar. Mine.
I rub the edge of my thumb against his thumb.
“Is that a soulmate thing?” I ask quietly. Poking at the new connection that pings in my chest and leads to Ketill, like pushing on a new sense. It feels a bit like the assuredness of being…loved.
“Maybe. You’re my only one.” Ketill twines our fingers and pulls our hands so he can lay kisses on my knuckles.
“So you could have more soulmates out there…?” I ask, scared of the answer and knowing my heart would break if Ketill wanted more than me.
“For other people? Maybe. Not for you. Or me. I’m a selfish man.”
“Oh, are you?” I tease, melting as all those bad feelings are dashed into the darkness, so Ketill and I can cuddle closer under the smoky light.
“Very.” His face nuzzles into my neck. “You’re mine.”
“And you…you’re mine too, right?”
“Of course, treasure.” Ketill kisses my shoulder. “How are you feeling? Any pain?”
“After the train, crashing into the lake, hiking across Scotland or the sex?”
Playful blunt teeth sink into my shoulder, and I laugh. “The sex, obviously.”
I turn into him, brushing my nose against his. Part of me feels ridiculous being so lovey-dovey with a man I met only last night. But the rest of me doesn’t care if it means being ridiculous with Ketill.
“Achey, but in a good way.”
Ketill groans, climbing on top of me and dropping his head into the heart of my chest. “You’re trying to seduce me again.”
I snort, wrapping my arms around his middle. “I certainly am not.”
“You certainly are.” His large hands travel up my sides. “All sexy and sleepy.”
“I’m starting to think you’re trying to seduce me.”
“Of course I am.” He props his chin on my sternum and flashes that single dimple. “Just assume that’s my default when it comes to you.”
My breath hitches as his hands travel over my nipples.
Then I yelp when he slaps my side before jumping up.
“But we’re still being chased by shifters, and now that the storm has let up, it’ll be easier for them to find us. So as much as I’d love to lie in a pile of blankets with you, it’s time for us to get going.”
I roll onto my back. Ketill’s body bathed in strips of sunlight is beautiful. He’s ripped and scarred, the tattoos on the back of his neck wild. His cock half-hard between his thick thighs. His feet wide.
My breath hitches.
“Treasure…”
My attention snaps back up to Ketill’s smirking face.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I might have to sit back on that very nice cock of yours.”
Rolling my eyes, I shake my head and stand, wincing. “You’re a pain in my ass. Literally.”
I expect Ketill to laugh at my joke, but he pulls me into his chest and massages my lower back.
“Do you hurt, Thomas? Was I too rough?” Each question accompanied by a kiss.
“I’m fine, I promise.”
Then he captures my chin and kisses me deeply. “You’ll tell me if you aren’t,” he tells me against my lips.
I nudge him. “Who knew you’d be such a worrywart.”
Ketill drops his forehead to mine, inhaling me. “Me either. It’s very distracting. All I want to do is take care of you and make sure you’re okay.”
“I want the same for you,” I exhale. “It’s very odd.”
“I also want to fuck you stupid.”
Rolling my eyes skyward, I shove a chuckling Ketill.
Ketill kisses me again before pulling away and picking up our clothes that are drying on a rack.
“Who put them there?”
“Me.” Ketill hands me my now dry clothes, pushing me towards the stove where our shoes and the dragon egg sit. “Vampires don’t need much sleep, especially at my age. So while you blissfully slept, I made sure we’d be ready.”
Ketill turns away and heads into the little kitchen with the kettle in hand, while I kneel beside the egg to pet it gently.
“You’re feeling much warmer. Thank you for helping me yesterday. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble.”
The dragon egg, of course, doesn’t say anything, but I swaddle it in one of the cleaner blankets before carefully rolling it into Ketill’s satchel, then get myself ready for the day.
Just as I’m shoving my feet into my shoes, my stomach grumbles. Ketill then appears at my side to hand me a protein bar and a cup of tea.
“Thank you.” I unwrap it and sink my teeth into the chalky bar. “Are you hungry? Do you need more blood?”
“No, treasure. I’ve already taken enough from you anyway, and the village we need to get to is thirty miles away. So I want you as healthy as possible.”
Ketill cleans up while I sling the satchel over my shoulder.
“We weren’t very careful with you yesterday,” I tell the egg, petting the bulge. “But I’ll do better today.”
“Dragon eggs are sturdy little things,” Ketill informs me as he throws the leftover water from the kettle over the fire, steam and the smell of burnt wood soon filling the space.
“My brother Teagan is a sturdy little thing, too,” I inform Ketill, “but also needs a gentler approach at times.”
Ketill takes my hand and leads us out of the safety of the cabin and into the harsh cold. The wind isn’t as bitter as last night, but it chills me all the same, and I huddle the satchel closer as we step towards a pale new sun set into a painfully blue sky.
We begin to walk, frozen grass crunching underfoot.
“Why were you even on that train?” Ketill asks.
“God, that feels like years ago. I’d learned about a prehistoric village at the coast of Sandwick, it’s my last trip before I finish my degree.”
“My little history buff.”
The back of my neck warms, even as my heart flutters. “I want to stand in the places people long ago did, and I guess now I’m…with a thing from history.”
Ketill grins widely.
“Too bad you didn’t experience anything interesting…” I complain, side-eying him.
“The brothels were a lot of fun.”
I huff.
Ketill barks a laugh, the sound filling up the green-and-ice valley. “We never know we’re in history until people study it five hundred years later. But I’m not immune to the past either.”
I perk up. “No?”
“Vampires move through the world, and because of that, we pick up culture, language, and customs easily. It’s how we hide, how we live.
But all this change can mess with our heads.
” Ketill gently knocks the side of his head against mine, and a small smile tugs at the corners of my mouth.
“We lose our sense of self, so we need an anchor, a reminder of who we really are.”
“Like what?”
“Anything. My father collects ice skating magazines.”
My nose scrunches with confusion. “Why?”
Ketill shrugs. “Dunno. Sometimes it’s personal, other times it’s just a fancy that has caught our interest.”
“And what’s yours?”
“Stories. After all my fun, I go home, and I write down all my adventures and who I’ve met and what I’ve done. And I’ve saved them all for a thousand years.”
I grab hold of Ketill’s forearm, my eyes widening. “That would be one of the biggest historic archives in…oh my god. That’s a massive part of history, Ketill! You’ll let me read it, of course. Won’t you? You have to.”
Ketill laughs. “How could I say no to that face?”
I grin so wide my cheeks hurt. “This has to be the best day of my life.”
“Not yesterday when you fell madly in love with me?”
I cock an eyebrow. But before I can say anything, Ketill goes stock still. He turns his head and sniffs the air.
“Ketill?” I ask, worry making me tense.
“Hop on, treasure.” Ketill kneels. “Looks like the shifters have caught up with us and aren’t far away. We need to get going.”
Without another word, I climb onto Ketill’s back with my heart in my throat, before Ketill darts into the rising sun, the warm satchel bouncing at my side.
***
Ketill puts me down when we approach a village. It’s small and cute, the roads made with weather-worn brown stones.
Either side sits squat, thatched-roof homes, and I can imagine in the summer their front gardens are bursting with foliage. Everything is a bit too sad, wet, and cold to be bursting with anything right now.
We stroll past tall black lanterns stabbed into the Earth, a sign welcoming us to Dunbrae Hollow.
“Established in 1295,” I say, reading the sign.
“I wonder if there are any historic landmarks. Scotland, like most of Britain and Europe, really, is absolutely littered with historic landmarks. Robert the Bruce became King of Scots in 1306 after killing his rival John Comyn, so he could’ve travelled through this very village when he was hiding—why are you looking at me like that? ”
Ketill’s lips are stretched wide, eyes sparkling. “I’m just enjoying your history lesson.”
I turn away from him and fold my arms. “You don’t need to make fun of me.”
Ketill drapes his long arms around my shoulders. “And what makes you think I am? Didn’t I tell you I like stories?”
The back of my neck heats. “Most normal people get bored when I start talking history…”
Ketill kisses my neck. My heart flutters, the connection between us pinging like a chorus of bells.
“I am not normal people.” He flashes his fangs, his antics pulling a grin from me. “Now, tell me more about this King of Scots, especially if there’s a bloody battle.”
My lips twist, and after a moment, I spin around to hug Ketill’s arm to my chest, and as we stroll down the cobbled pathway, I tell my soulmate a story of how a man became a king.
***
“A phone box,” I say as we come into the heart of the village—the market square.
It’s quiet with only a few people huddled in coats heading towards the small local shop or the larger local pub.
“Do you think it’s actually still in use?”
“Looks like it,” I say as I go closer to inspect the dull red box. “I should call my brother; he’ll be worrying.”
Ketill fishes out his wallet and drops coins into the palm of my hand. “I’m going to look around. I’m supposed to meet my contact here, but she’s nowhere to be found.”
“Maybe we passed her?”
“Trust me,” Ketill says, “she’s noticeable.”
Ketill brushes a light touch across my cheek as a goodbye before he saunters away.
I pull open the rusted door to the phone box. It slams shut behind me, knocking free a few raindrops that scatter into my hair that I brush away before bringing the receiver to my ear, the dial tone something I can only remember hearing on TV as I key in my big brother’s number.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Kai—”
“Where the hell have you been?” Kai shouts before I’ve even finished speaking. “I’ve been checking the Find My Friends app, and you weren’t moving!”
“Kai, calm down, please,” I sigh, leaning against the glass side that’s already beginning to fog.
“Calm down? CALM DOWN?! I looked up your train, and there’d been an accident!”
“I got off the stop before it happened.” I don’t normally lie to my brother, but I doubt he’d understand that I found my soulmate and we’re being hunted down by supernatural creatures. “I accidentally left my bag behind. I am really sorry I scared you.”
Kai lets out a long breath. “Are you safe then? Where are you? I can come get you if you need. I’m just…also handling a thing with Teagan.”
“Is he okay?” I frown.
Our brother is always getting himself into trouble, normally it has something to do with trespassing to climb something tall, skate down something long or a sex party gone wrong. Or right, depending on who you’re asking.
“He’s fine. You, on the other hand?” Kai argues, using his annoying ‘big brother’ voice. Calling Mum and Dad would’ve been easier.
“I’m fine, too,” I reply, exasperated, before clearing it from my throat. “I…met someone. A new friend.”
“A friend? What friend?”
“Kai. Relax. Jeez. Just a friend, okay? I’m having a good time, and once I’ve got a new phone I’ll text you, okay?”
“What’s the name of this friend? How old is he?” Kai demands.
“Goodbye, big brother.”
After a moment of Kai grumbling, he says, “Make sure he knows if he hurts you, I’ll hurt him back.”
“I love you,” I snort good-naturedly.
“Be safe! Remember to get a phone as soon as possible. And I love you, too, mate.” We hang up, and I leave the fogged-up phone box to find Ketill has returned empty-handed.
“Went well?”
“Kai is worried, but that’s normal for him. You didn’t find your client?”
Ketill scratches the back of his head. “Nah. But it’s still early.”
With Kai’s voice still in the back of my head, a thought rises. “Would your family mind that I’m human? Mine will be shocked you’re…” I wave in his direction. “You know.”
Ketill slings his arm around my shoulder, and we walk through the village. “Nope. Besides, we should hold off on the introductions, anyway. My brothers are spread out across the world, and my father’s lost his mind and is hiding inside some dusty mansion.”
“Er….”
“It happens to old vampires,” he dismisses with ease, and we continue our walk through the sleepy village to find the owner of the dragon egg—only to find something else when we turn into a deserted alleyway.
“Found you,” the shifter with the claw tattoo on his cheek growls, three other shifters behind him.