11. Callie

Ipulled my clothes on and smirked at Magnar as I noticed him watching me.

“Are you going to get dressed?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as he lay still on the cold, hard floor looking just as comfortable as if he were in a four poster bed.

“If I have to,” he agreed. He stood fluidly and retrieved his jeans from the ground before tugging them back on. I couldn’t help but stare a little at the strange new way he moved. It was as if the rugged edges had been shorn off of him and everything he did now seemed almost rehearsed to perfection.

I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to straighten out the tangles that he’d pushed into it. I wished we’d been able to pack for this trip; the further south we got the less signs of old civilisation there seemed to be around us and I was beginning to worry that we wouldn’t end up finding many supplies along the way.

I trailed my fingertips over the bite on my neck, my heart leaping a little at the memory of Magnar giving it to me. I’d been more than willing to feed him from my body but until he’d done it I’d looked on it like a sacrifice I was willing to make for him. I’d never imagined feeding a vampire could feel like that and I couldn’t deny just how much I’d liked it. I wasn’t sure if I should feel guilty about the fact. For as long as I could remember, the idea of a vampire biting me had haunted my nightmares. I couldn’t have thought up anything worse, let alone imagined doing it quite like we just had.

Magnar being turned was confronting in so many ways. He was undoubtedly different now in some respects. But he was also entirely the same. Just like Montana. And the truth of that fact had to equal my own opinions shifting too. There was no more us and them. There couldn’t be. We were all just people who had ended up on different paths. There were good vampires and bad humans and a mix of everything else in between.

“So have I proved myself trustworthy to stay awake now?” Magnar asked as he drew closer to me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling my back to his chest.

“You certainly seem more like yourself again now that you’ve fed,” I replied. “So presuming you keep behaving then I don’t see why not.”

Magnar brushed his fingertips across the puncture wounds on my neck and I tilted my head to look around at him as his brow furrowed with concern.

“I wish I hadn’t done this,” he murmured.

“You seemed to enjoy it enough at the time,” I teased, biting my lip at the memory.

A smile almost claimed his mouth but he fought it off. “I’ve become the monster I always hated. And now I’ve used the woman I loved for-”

I raised my fingers to his lips and pressed them shut as I twisted in his grip to face him fully. “You didn’t use me,” I said firmly. “I offered. And I liked it.” I pushed myself onto my tiptoes and took my fingers from his mouth so that I could kiss him instead.

He groaned in defeat as his hands trailed through my hair.

“I don’t deserve you,” he breathed.

“I’m just glad you’re back to yourself again. Now that you’ve fed you can stop feeling so on edge and we can concentrate on avoiding Valentina and getting to the mountain.”

“And then I won’t ever have to bite you again,” he added firmly.

“Well it’s a long journey so no doubt we’ll get to do that a few more times yet,” I replied, brushing my thumb across his lips and feeling his fangs against my skin with a thrill of excitement.

Magnar gave me a filthy look. “In all the ways I might have imagined our lives together I never could have predicted this.”

“Me either. But we might as well make the most of it while we can. And everyone will be pleased that we don’t have to worry about you losing it anymore too. But you owe Fabian an apology.”

Magnar stilled and it suddenly felt like I was in the arms of a statue instead of a man.

“I’m not apologising to that parasite; he had his hands all over you,” he growled.

I looked up at him with a frown. “You know, you were never possessive like this before and I don’t think I like it much.”

Magnar pursed his lips but he didn’t respond.

“I’m not your property,” I added, raising a brow.

“I know,” he sighed. “I just...this body feels more animal than man sometimes. And it’s hard to contain my impulses.”

“Well you fought against the impulse to bite me for long enough,” I said. “So I think you can work a little harder to control your asshole impulses too.”

Magnar released a breath of laughter. “Fine. But the idea of another man touching you drives me insane-”

“You never used to be this jealous. I was tired and he was carrying me, it wasn’t like we were fucking.”

Magnar sighed. “Next time you’re tired, I can carry you.”

“That’s not the point.”

“I know.”

“So you’ll apologise?” I pressed.

Magnar’s mouth fell into a flat line but I refused to release him from my gaze until he nodded.

“Good. Everyone will be relieved that you’ve fed now anyway. It’s not much fun expecting the guy with super strength to lose the plot at any given second.”

“Super strength?” he teased. “Is that what you call it?”

“For want of a better-”

“Silence,” Magnar interrupted me and I fell quiet as I waited to see what he’d heard.

Magnar released me and stalked across the room, gathering his swords as he moved towards the doorway.

“You know, when you say silence like that, it makes me want to punch you,” I muttered as I followed him, grabbing Fury on the way.

Magnar chuckled softly but pressed his finger to his lips. I strained my ears but couldn’t hear anything as he slipped outside.

Magnar moved swiftly between the shadows in the ruins and I cursed beneath my breath as I struggled to match his pace.

Fury began to grow warmer in my palm and I swallowed against a lump in my throat, hoping that our friends hadn’t come across anything bad out here.

Magnar waited for me with his back pressed to a crumbling wall and I moved towards him as quickly as I could while staying quiet.

I strained to listen again and I stilled as I heard what sounded like a crowd of people shouting with excitement in the distance but that didn’t make sense.

“We need to move quickly,” Magnar breathed.

“Okay,” I agreed.

“I mean quicker than you,” he added, his eyes burning with excitement at the idea.

“Oh,” I replied, remembering what it had felt like when Fabian ran with me before and not entirely sure that I wanted to repeat the process. It had left me feeling more than a little dizzy when he’d returned my feet to the ground. “I’m not sure if I-”

Magnar laughed as he snatched me into his arms and I had to resist the urge to curse him out as he shot forward into the ruins.

The wind whipped through my hair as I clung to his chest and the world moved past me in a startling blur. I couldn’t make sense of it and my brain spun as I tried to comprehend what we were passing.

I closed my eyes and pressed my face to Magnar’s chest as he chuckled and the rumbling tone of it travelled right through my body where it was pressed to his.

My stomach swooped as he leapt skyward and I couldn’t help but peek between my lashes as he bounded between various footholds until finally coming to a halt on the third floor of a crumbling building.

My heart was pounding as he set me back on my feet and a wave of dizziness passed through me, causing me to grip his arm firmly while the world righted itself around me. The sound of the baying crowd was much closer now and fear washed through me as I tried to get my bearings.

I glanced back over the ruins in the direction we’d come from and frowned as I realised how far we’d travelled.

I stumbled as the floor trembled beneath my feet, the ground rumbling as an earthquake shook the foundations of the building.

Magnar crossed through the exposed concrete shell of the apartment block and I hurried after him as I regained my balance, placing a hand on Fury once more.

The blade was near scalding to the touch and I gasped as it screamed warnings to me about more vampires than it could easily count.

I moved to the arch of a window, drawing close to Magnar as we looked out.

The ruins beyond our hiding place were more intact and rows of buildings still stood, lining streets amongst the rubble.

My heart leapt as I spotted Montana racing towards us along the road with Fabian, Chickoa and Clarice at her side. Erik and Julius shot behind them a second later and fear seized me as horde of vampires chased after my sister and the others.

Magnar released a growl of rage and leapt out of the window before I could even react. He slammed down onto the roof of the building beside ours then started running for the edge of that roof, racing towards the road my sister and the others were fleeing along.

I shook my head in denial of the fear I felt as I jumped out after him, drawing on my gifts as I fell.

My stomach swooped as I plummeted down two floors and I rolled as I hit the hard tiles of the roof below.

I regained my feet quickly and raced after Magnar just as he dropped down into the road.

I skidded to a halt as I reached the edge of the building and looked down at the street.

The ground was shaking more violently and my heart raced in response to it.

Montana and the others had made it beyond the building I stood upon and they shot around a corner as I watched them. My sister and the rest of the group disappeared out of sight and I looked back towards Magnar with my heart in my mouth. A portion of the horde who had been chasing them were fast closing in on him as he moved towards a rusted truck which was abandoned at the side of the road.

My heart slammed into my ribs as fear flooded me and the man I loved stood alone in the face of that crowd.

With a snarl of rage, Magnar hoisted the truck into his arms and launched it down the street. I gasped as the large vehicle rolled end over end, the sound of metal slamming into concrete filling the air. It tumbled towards them, flattening the vampires who were too slow to get out of the way and blood mixed with ash to stain the ground.

“Come on then!” Magnar bellowed as the surviving feral vampires scrambled to recover from what he’d just done. “Let’s see how you fare against the gods’ latest creation!”