The Soul Mate

CHAPTER THIRTY

Crouched by a tree, blood still dripping from the enormous black wings that had now fully unfolded from his back Gerik was watching me the way a wild animal watches their prey. It didn’t matter how small the movement, I could rub the bottom of my nose, twitch a toe and his eyes would catch it, his nostrils flaring as if the inconsequential action had stirred something in the breeze.

His transformation was complete. Lock, stock, fangs and a tail.

I was dumbfounded by the sheer size of him. He hadn’t been small before, but now, he must be at least 240 pounds and nearly seven feet tall.

I didn’t have words. Even if I’d had them I doubted I would have been able to speak them aloud.

Arms wrapped tightly around herself, Drina walked up to stand beside Jericho.

“He can no longer stay here,” She whispered loudly, her eyes never leaving Gerik. “There are rules and he has broken the most important one. We cannot allow any more devastation to befall the clan.”

Jericho, with tears in his eyes, looked sadly at Gerik and nodded in agreement.

Gerik’s black eyes burned right through the Baró until Jericho was forced to look away.

“You must go son,” Jericho said quietly, his eyes on the ground. Drina, looking not the least bit sorry, advanced on Gerik.

“There is nothing here for you any longer,” She told him. “You have no clan, no family, nothing.”

Gerik jumped to his feet, his entire body constricting. With a leathery snap, giant black wings unfurled behind him casting shadows over his towering form. Unfazed, Drina still continued toward him. She stopped several feet from him, leaned forward and began speaking to him in hushed tones.

“Mine!” Gerik suddenly roared. Pushing past Drina, Gerik half ran, half flew at me.

I took a brief moment to thank every single god and goddess out there that Xan wasn’t here. I’m willing to bet the Parthenon that there was no bigger high than that gained from fighting a dragon for the love of a girl.

“No!” Jericho cried out, his panic clear. “Do not touch her! Your magic Gerik! Think! Please think about this!”

Then I was airborne. The wind rushed up beneath me and the sky grew closer. I squeaked and buried myself in Gerik’s chest. His grip on me was firm and so, instead of having a full blown panic attack, I closed my eyes and concentrated on remembering to breathe.

Minutes later, we landed somewhere in the woods where the trees grew thicker, larger than the ones near camp. There were no beaten paths to follow. I was trapped.

He set me down gently but refused to let me go.

My fingertips brushed over the hot skin on his stomach and the warm smooth black scales over his arms and chest. Who knew a human being could possess such fire and not incinerate or die from fever.

And the magic. It was all over him. You couldn’t be this close to him and not feel it, not be drawn to it and swept away inside of it. It was as if all life around Gerik had come to a standstill. No birds chirped, no insects buzzed, even the air didn’t dare move, as if it too was afraid of getting sucked away in Gerik’s overwhelming presence.

Gerik had become the opposition of life. He needed nothing now. He was a self sustaining powerhouse all rolled into one man.

I laid my hand on his heart where only one of his rune tattoos had remained untouched by his anomalous transformation. I swallowed back a fresh wave of tears as I traced the three interlocking circles.

Without warning I was flat on my back and Gerik’s hands gripped my hips. Brilliant blue eyes instead of black looked down at me.

“It’s better this way,” He rumbled. “Without the blinding need, yeah? I didn’t think it would be but… I can think clearly and really feel you Trinity. Really smell you.”

His nostrils flared wide and black fangs lengthened past his bottom lip. I should have pushed him away but it was beyond my ability as a woman. As a human. As a lesser creature in the presence of a god.

This magic far surpassed the soul mate bond. It was darker, dangerous and terrifyingly more powerful than anything I’d experienced. Worse even was my awareness. My head was clear, my thoughts my own, my ability to discern right from wrong was still in tact and yet I was helpless against him, against his nearness and his intoxicating power.

“I want to show you,” He murmured. “I need you to know that I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I would never have hurt you.”

“Do it,” I rasped, overcome with feelings I had no description for. “Show me everything, all of it.”

Digging my fingers in the waistband of his jeans, I yanked on them, forcing his hips in-between my thighs. “I want to feel everything that you feel", I told him.

Gerik’s beautiful eyes squeezed closed, leaking fat tears. Without thinking, just feeling, I quickly kissed each one away.

Gray eyes opened, wielding raw power. He held me tightly when I would have flown backwards as images and emotions that were not my own assaulted me.

Flash.

I felt fear. I was racing towards…me? The carnival, I was seeing myself at the carnival the day Gerik saved my life. Someone is screaming at not to go back there, that we’re surrounded. “Gerik!” They scream, “We have children here! We will have to leave you!” I ignore them, I have to... Because I need her.

And when I see her I am horrified. She is running from a horde of monsters, all trying to kill her.

I’m using my magic but it’s so hard to differentiate who is human and who is not in the mass hysteria and, god dammit, I’m not going to make it. I’m going to lose her before I even touch her.

I am in time. I snap the neck of one, just as he swiped at her hair.

The moment I touch her I feel whole.

Flash.

I am watching her/me sleep, inhaling deeply the scent of flowers that always surrounds her. I can’t bear it anymore, she cries every night for her sister and she won’t even look at me. I want to comfort her, touch her. No, I need to touch her. The need throbs, and at times it actually hurts. I keep thinking if I can’t have her soon I will die.

I reach out to finger her hair, her cheek. God it’s so soft. Just like the rest of her. Her soft skin, her soft body. Even her lips look soft.

I can wait for her, I can. No, I can’t. I can. I should and I can.

I’m going crazy. I need to touch her. Just once. I cannot be this close to her without touching her. A throat clears. I glance at Becki. She’s pointing at the door. Reluctantly I leave.

Flash.

I’m watching her/me from across camp. She’s helping the women cook today and I’ve seen her smile twice already. When she smiles, her dimples show and I can’t help but smile too. And those eyes…

Someone has beaded her hair, probably Becki. Thank god for Becki. She has done wonders with her.

Her dress flutters in the breeze and my gaze ends up on her gently curved hips. I want to grab them and wrap her beautifully sculpted legs around me.

She’s not wearing a bra today; her breasts slope naturally against the thin material, and bounce with her movements. My muscles are twitching again, my insides coiling, heating. I’m going to go mad.

Shandor and Xan are staring at her again. I wonder if anyone will care if I burn their eyes out of their skulls. Maybe their mami’s?

Flash.

Onyx. I need release. I can’t look at her face, her too thin lips, and her hard straight body. It’s not what I want.

I ache for Trinity’s curves, the softness of her body, and the fullness of her lips. I want to see emeralds looking back at me and feel her long, black hair draped across me. I want to smell the rainbow that is her. I want to feel whole when I come, not drained and empty.

I’m not going to look at Onyx anymore. I’m going to flip her over and close my eyes. Close my eyes and pretend.

Flash.

Xan took what was mine. The most brutal and beautiful part of claiming my woman, my soul mate, he stole from me and took as his own.

Does she actually love him?

It. Hurts. So. Bad.

I should kill him. Only, how can I? How can I fault him for wanting her? She is everything. She is-

I am going to kill him.

I have to get out of here. Now.

Flash.

“Gerik!” I gasp as my emotions and thoughts became my own again.

“Was any of it real for you?” He asked, looking away, but not before I’d glimpsed the pain and desperation that shone brightly in those blue depths.

“Or was it all…” He closed his eyes and trailed off, his fists clenching.

My heart broke for him. It broke for all of us who’d been forced to yield to the otherworldly powers of Nature. A power so great she thought it her right to play with people’s destinies like pawns in a game of chess.

“Gerik?” I pleaded, cupping his face. “It was… there were times when…”

My tears finally fell as I realized that I could tell him something that wouldn’t have to be a lie.

“Gerik, you gave me everything. You gave me absolutely everything.”

And he had. If it hadn’t been for Gerik, I would have succumbed to the same fate as my little sister. Without Gerik, freeing myself from the ties that had bound me to him all these years would have been impossible because I never would have met Xan. So it was true, Gerik had given me everything. He’d given me life and more importantly… love.

Grabbing me tightly, he brought me face to face with him. “That’s all I needed to know,” He whispered hoarsely.

Heat exploded around us.

“Wait!” I cried. But it was too late. The sounds of the ocean had filled the air. The scents of Pine trees and Cinnamon grew stronger, surrounding me. Gerik’s eyes, blue and beautiful, captivated me like even the most glorious of sunsets could not.

I could only watch, unable to move of my own free will as he intertwined his fingers with mine. A glowing white light began to form in between our palms. Whispers of black mist trickled through our fingers, wrapping their darkness around our joined hands.

The air was thick with magic, magic that had no where else to go but inside of me. Tendrils of magic began to sliver through me.

Millions of faces and places overtook my vision, strangers all of them, yet somehow they seemed eerily familiar. Somehow I knew them, knew that we’d shared the soul inside of me.

These were the others my soul had collected on its endless journey of finding its counterpart, time and time again, lifetime after lifetime, love after love.

“I know you,” I said to Gerik, in awe of our ageless connection. “I’ve always known you.”

He said nothing as the power between us grew stronger and brighter. The foliage was blooming around us; the trees had grown thicker, the grass higher and greener. Fresh scents of life perfumed the air as everything began to blossom full and fat succumbing to Gerik’s power.

My head was spinning. Somehow Gerik was reconnecting us using his magic. I could feel it, the way people who have bad bones can feel when it’s going to rain. I could feel him inside of me somehow, only more. He was everywhere, all at once, taking over, taking control.

The magic was pushing wildly against my hands until I felt as if could no longer contain it, would soon be unable to hold onto to all that power and yet I couldn’t seem to let it go. Something inside me felt as if I had been waiting for this moment all of my life.

Then, in an explosion of white light and black shadows, Gerik released me. The magic in the air burst and shattered into a million tiny fractures of light and dark that sprinkled down upon me like rain and disappeared into my skin. White hot fire exploded inside of me and the scents of summer filled the air.

Everything was suddenly within my reach. I could hear the heartbeats of animals from miles away. I could sense the storm that hadn’t yet broken through the clouds two towns over. I could feel the earth beneath me pulsing with foliage yet to break free. Colors I’d never dreamed existed before appeared, and sounds I shouldn’t have been able to hear burst through my ears. I was connected to life, to all living things.

Then a dark cooling balm fell over me and winter permeated my senses. Crisp, cold air and fresh snow, loneliness, starvation and…death, surrounded me. Shadows came bearing down, pressing their burdens upon me and with them they’d brought the weight of the world.

All the life I had only seconds ago felt was suddenly wrought with darkness and death. The heartbeats became ticking time bombs, the storm clouds, a death sentence. Just as I had connected to the living, I was also now connected with the dead and dying. Both conflicting powers surged within me, warring with each other in an unbeatable battle before finally having no choice but to settle peacefully inside of me.

Exhausted, I went limp and collapsed in Gerik’s lap.

“That, Trinity,” Gerik whispered, just before everything went black. “Was me taking what has always been mine.”