Vameer
Mess turned to ash, clothes on, I lie on my back, and my gravito, in its new favorite shade of red, forms a pillow under my head.
“Come here.” I pat my chest.
My mate climbs on top of me. Lying face down, she settles her cheek over my heart.
We’re near the coast. High up in the mountains. No one else for miles and miles. And I’ve never felt more at home.
Because I’m with her.
I stroke a hand down her hair. “Tell me everything about you.”
Her huff is soft. Sweet. “Where do I start?”
I hum, thinking. “What’s your last name?”
Rune’s sound has more humor this time. “Destin. No middle name. Do you have a middle name, Vameer Vadas?”
“No.” I start back at the top of her head and slowly glide my palm down. “I like your parents.” She snorts. “Tell me about your childhood. I bet it was nice.”
She tells me.
About growing up as an only child. Going on trips with her parents all over the world. She talks about how funny it is that she has the same need to move that they did. But hers was to find me. Theirs is just their personality.
Rune tells me that her life has been good, but that she’s struggled with finding meaning. Purpose.
She tells me about her tiny clay vases and how she likes art but doesn’t think she’s great at it.
Rune tells me that she thought she was incapable of sexual attraction. Never understood why she had no interest in others. How she felt like an outsider in a world full of over-sexualized everything. And she tells me that she’s glad I was her first. Her only. Her last.
And she pokes me in the side when I try to apologize for my past. She tells me she wasn’t even alive before I went to sleep. That her parents weren’t even alive the last time I touched another woman.
My mate doesn’t hold any of my sins against me.
And I hold her even tighter to my chest.
“Now you.” She exhales contentment. “Tell me what it was like growing up so long ago.”
I inhale her calmness. “Things were so different then. Things were so different when I sealed myself in that cave.” I continue to stroke her hair, probably comforting myself more than I’m comforting her.
“You’re here. With me. But I find myself feeling…
stressed when I think about how much time I’ve spent without you.
How many times I risked my life.” I swallow and whisper the last part. “How many times I could have lost you.”
Rune shifts and pushes up, her elbows on my chest so she can look at me. “When you say it like that, it stresses me out too.” She says it gently. No accusation. “But we’re here.” She drums her fingers on my body. “You’re here.”
I wrap my arms around her back.
Rune places her hands on top of one another over my sternum and rests her chin on her hands. “How old are you?”
“I was born in the summer, two hundred and ninety-eight years ago. Or so I believe.”
Rune’s eyes widen. “Wow. I mean, I knew you were old. But… damn.”
The edge of my mouth pulls up. “I’m not even middle aged.
” My small smile fades. “I don’t know that I’ll ever shake the guilt I feel every time I think about falling asleep in that cave.
I know I caused pain. Mostly to my brother.
But also to the rest of our family. And there were many I fought beside for decades.
I told them I had something to take care of, that I’d be back.
They probably thought I died.” Rune’s back lifts as she takes a deep inhale, but I keep going.
“I feel bad about all that. But another part of me…” I tighten my hold on my mate.
“I’m glad I got to skip a hundred years.
I came close to death many times in my first two hundred.
If I hadn’t slept… I think the fates knew I would have continued to be reckless.
They knew I needed you. I needed a tether.
So… I slept. And I waited for you where it was safe. ”
Charred apple skin mixes with Rune’s usual sweetness in the air. “You won’t be reckless anymore.”
A statement, not a question. But I still agree. “Never.”
I wipe one of her tears away, catching it on my thumb. Then I lift my hand to my mouth and lick it off.
It reminds me of the apple whiskey I drank in Chile.
“Weirdo.” Rune sniffs but still gives me an indulgent smile. “What were you like as a child?”
“Difficult.”
Her laugh is sudden and loud. “Sorry.” Rune moves a hand to cover her mouth. “I’m sure you weren’t that bad.”
“I was not easy.” I sigh. “I was quick to anger. Had trouble controlling my rage. Would set things on fire without meaning to. My mother used to talk to me about it. Our Fire Touch, it comes from her bloodline.”
“Fire Touch. Is that the name for it, when you turned that guy to ash?”
“Sí. A vampire’s temperature is like their gravito.
The intensity and control vary. Some vampires run cold, like my Uncle Frio.
And some run hot. Like my mother.” I hold one hand out away from our bodies.
“Like me.” My palm glows red, heat rolling out of me.
“Like my brother.” I release the power and bring my hand closer.
Rune reaches out and places her palm against mine, feeling that my skin is back to its usual heat.
“Mother would tell me that my rage was a part of my Fire. Both lifesaving. Both destructive. And it was up to me to learn how to channel my power before it burned everything around me.” My throat tightens as I think of her.
“She never had the same conversations with Volik. She didn’t think he was like us.
But…” I remember the video of Volik facing off with those other vamps.
I remember the way he didn’t back down. I remember the way he torched that guy.
I remember the interview he gave after, the threat, the reference to The Trials, the inference that he was there.
And I accept that my mother was wrong. “Volik and I are more alike than she knew.”
“Parents can wear blinders sometimes. Seeing what they want to. For better or worse.”
“She called him Miracle.”
“Volik?”
I hum. “I was fifteen when he was born. And we all doted on him. It’s almost unheard of for a vampire to have more than one child. Especially that close in age.”
Rune shifts, resting her ear back against my chest. “What was your home like?”
“We lived in a cottage made of stone. Large for the time, with ceilings built for a vampire. It was out in the countryside. My father liked to grow things and spend time with animals, so we had a little farm. Since we are so physically resilient, it’s always been easy for vampires to acquire and keep resources.
We don’t need regular food, so we don’t have to worry about starvation like so many in human history have.
We can see in the dark. Our bodies regulate our temperature.
So we don’t need light, heat, or even shelter.
It’s not comfortable to live outdoors for decades, but it is possible. ”
“So… you’ve always had riches.” I can hear the smile in her tone.
“Sí.” I hold her tighter.
I don’t want to tell her the next part.
We stay silent for a moment, until Rune slides her hands down my sides in a hug. “Are they…” She doesn’t finish her whispered question. Doesn’t have to.
I swallow. “They are gone.”
More burnt apples singe the air. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too. They would’ve liked you.”
More silence.
Rune giving me time.
“My mother liked to garden. The crops were my father’s, but the flowers, the fruit trees…” I blink at the sky. “I forgot about the apple tree.” Pain fills my chest.
Rune’s arms tighten around me.
And… she purrs.
A soft, reassuring sound.
Love presses against the pain, and I breathe.
“She planted an apple tree, but… She did not get to see it bloom.” I slide my hands up under Rune’s shirt, placing my palms on the bare skin of her back. “I was twenty-one when my parents were murdered.”
My mate shudders with her exhale as dampness soaks into my shirt beneath her cheek.
Her purr increases in volume.
And I decide not to tell her the details. Not yet. Not the how.
And I decide I’ll never tell her about that second. That long, awful second, when my mother looked at me.
When our gazes locked.
When she knew.
She knew, and she didn’t want to go. Didn’t want it to be over.
I close my eyes.
No one needs to know about that.
Not Volik. And not the perfect woman in my arms.
“I’m so sorry.” Rune’s words are choppy, but her purr continues.
I push just the tiniest bit of Fire into my palms, warming her. “The story does not get happier.”
She sniffs. “You never have to tell me anything you don’t want to talk about. But sometimes talking helps.”
There are things I’ve seen. Witnessed. That no one needs to hear. But this… This I cannot hide from.
“My sleep was not the first time I failed Volik.” Rune’s fingers flex against my sides, reminding me she’s with me.
“After our parents… I did my best to care for Volik until we moved in with our aunt and uncle. They were good to us. Made us feel welcome. But I couldn’t control the rage inside me.
With my mother gone, it felt like there was no one to help me.
I felt like if I didn’t leave, I’d explode.
And hurt everyone.” I blink my eyes open.
“Looking back, I can see there were other options. Others I could have gone to for help. But I didn’t do that. I left.”
“Where did you go?”
“Rome.” The details are fuzzy. It was so long ago. “I found a group of fighters. The old guard. Vampires who had spent hundreds of years battling for justice. They tried to refuse me. Vampires aren’t mature until thirty. I was still in my twenties. It’s how I have that scar.”
Rune moves her hand up to my shoulder. “You couldn’t heal?”
“The dagger was filled with druid magic. It was meant for my heart.” I press my hands firmer against Rune, absorbing more of her perfect purr.
“That’s how you kill a vampire. A magicked dagger through the heart.
The amount of magic needed depends on the target.
And my enemy had more than enough magic in his weapon. He just lacked the strength.”
Rune traces the line of my scar through my shirt. “I hope you killed him.”
I smile at the clouds. “I killed him.”
“You must’ve gone back home some. Or else Volik wouldn’t have been so determined to find you this last century. And your aunt and uncle wouldn’t have been so happy to see you.”
“I went back to visit every few months. But after a while, I started losing track of time. Months turned into a year. More. They never made me feel unwanted. But bloodshed was all I knew. It was all I wanted to do. Until it wasn’t.
And then all I wanted to do was rest. I walked into that cave no longer knowing myself.
I was The Nightmare. The Killer of Evil.
And I didn’t know how to be anything else. ”
Rune moves so she’s back on her elbows, looking down at me. “You’re Vameer Vadas. Brother to Volik. Son of Fire. And mate to Rune Destin. You are exactly who you were meant to be. And you’re mine.”
I sit up.
Rune drops so she’s sitting on my lap with her thighs on either side of me.
Lightning dances in the air around us, and I place my palms on her cheeks.
“Vampires grow up knowing about mates. We’re told that our mate is our other half.
We know they’ll be perfect for us. But even then…
I did not understand. I could not comprehend how much I would need you.
How instantly I would love you.” Our heartbeat races in our chests.
“I would not change anything I’ve been through.
Not the hard parts. Not the mistakes. Because it all brought me to this point in time. To you.”
Tears drip down Rune’s cheeks as she presses her palms to my chest. “You are the farthest thing from a nightmare. You are daylight. You are the place in the universe I’ve been searching for. And I’m sorry for all the hard parts… But I’m glad it brought you here. To me. Because I love you too.”
Our mouths meet.
And a storm rages around us as I roll Rune under me.