8. Vameer
Vameer
Iam a warrior. I have discipline.
I groan and grip my cock through my robe.
“Pestinha.”
Our lives are bound, this human’s and mine.
We are two parts of a whole.
She and I are a perfect fit.
She is my reason. For everything.
But… I’m far too aware that the life I have lived, that the choices I have made, mean that I am an enemy to many.
It means that simply being my mate puts a target on her head.
Lust and self-loathing war inside my body.
I was raised with the expectation of finding my mate. But that expectation was always that my mate would be a vampire. And even though my life of warring would always have put my mate at risk, a vampire is much harder to kill.
A human… A pretty brown-eyed female human… She can be hurt much too easily.
Releasing my grip on my cock, I press my hand to my chest.
She will not be hurt.
Not at all.
Not by anyone.
I will find her.
I will watch her.
I will learn who she is.
And then… I will decide if she’s better off without me.
I press my hand harder against my chest.
No part of me wants to leave her alone. Every part of me wants her in my arms. In my bed. In my life until the end of time.
But protecting her is my new purpose in life. And I will do that. At any cost.
Tightening my grip on my sword, I look at the sky and drop my hand from my chest.
In order to find my mate, I need to fuel up. Her drop of blood was enough to get me through my change, but I have a feeling that I have a very long way to travel.
Inhaling the last lingering hints of apple in the air, I turn a few degrees north. And I call on my gravito.
It builds. And swirls. And intensifies.
I step forward.
Another step and I’m at the edge of the cliff.
Then I jump.
My power bursts out of me as my feet leave the earth and I accelerate up, into the sky.
The mountain grows smaller below me. Gets farther behind me.
And I shove more gravito forward.
I go faster. Higher.
I need to find energy. Blood. Sangue. But my power…
It is more.
My change was not just in size. The mate bond unlocked something inside me. An extra level of might.
My mouth pulls into a smile as I push even more gravito out. Going even faster.
The fates paired me with a mate who is vulnerable, so they made me even stronger.
A part of my gravito stays wrapped around me, forming a protective bubble against the wind blowing past me. But enough still breaks through, pushing my hair back.
I breathe. Searching for any hint of my girl.
There’s none up here. But that’s okay.
The fates would not have intervened as they did, bringing her to me, waking me, if I was not meant to find her.
I keep moving north and west. Flying. Searching.
The scent of the ocean reaches my nose before the clouds break enough for me to see it.
I aim lower, changing the direction of my gravito, and I start to descend.
The sun is setting, and when I land on a cliff overlooking the water, the sky is glowing red.
Standing on the rock, no humans in sight, I strip.
My fingers hesitate on my bracelet, but I don’t know if it will get damaged by the ocean water, so I take it off. I slide the bracelet into my robe pocket, then I find a large boulder to set on top of my robe to keep it from blowing away. And I tuck my sword in a crevice for the same reason.
I don’t actually need a sword. There is nothing that a piece of metal can do for me that I couldn’t do with my bare hands. But… I like it. I like having it on me. I like the way it feels against my palm. And I like having the visual reminder for others that I am a creature of violence.
Turning my back to the land, I face the freezing ocean.
Cold water never bothered me before. But with my Fire Touch quiet… and floating chunks of ice visible…
I sigh. This is going to be unpleasant.
Not wanting to prolong the wait, I dive off the cliff, using a small burst of gravito.
I break through the waves a quarter mile out, and the cold is instant. And immense. But the water is clear.
Too heavy to swim like a human, I shove my gravito forward, moving myself farther away from shore.
Below me, as the ocean floor drops away, the water gets darker.
It’s … quiet. Quieter than I remember.
I can’t hear any of the songs I’m searching for.
I go a little farther, then I pause my forward momentum. Not releasing my gravito, because I’d sink, just staying suspended in the water. Listening.
Then I feel it.
The vibration.
The low hum.
I wait a few more minutes, then, from the darkness, she emerges.
Our eyes meet, and she calls out. The sound is so low, I feel it in my fangs.
It’s a happy sound. I know that much. But nothing more.
I continue to wait. She is not one to be rushed.
But then she rolls. A slow spiral. And I take the invitation.
Matching her speed, I move alongside her in the water.
Nothing could hurt me in the ocean. And being beside her, the largest of her kind, I know she understands the feeling of invincibility.
I press my palm to her side.
After waking, after growing, from my toes to the tips of my horns, I’m at least eight feet tall. And the creature next to me is more than ten times that in length.
I smile as I curl my fingers around the front edge of her fin.
She lets out another of her beautiful calls.
I find the blood vessel I’m looking for. And in the darkening ocean, I sink my fangs into the blue whale. And I feed.