1. Callie

Silence echoed endlessly over the water. I stared at the gentle swell of the waves as the moonlight highlighted them beyond the back of the speed boat and tried to hold the shattering pieces of my heart together.

I chewed on my bottom lip, wondering if it had already happened. Had Montana changed beyond all recognition? Her features smoothed and perfected? Her canines filled with venom and sharpened just the right amount to pierce human flesh and give her the one thing she would crave above all else?

Perhaps she’d already awoken and had realised what had happened to her. What I’d let happen to her. Would she hate me? Would she wish I’d let her die a mortal death? Or would she forgive me for my weakness? Maybe she’d even like being a monster…

I’m so sorry, Monty. I should have saved you. This should never have happened.

I reached out and touched the freezing water with my trembling fingertips, trying to distract myself with the bite of cold, but nothing could dull the fear I felt for my sister. It had all happened so fast in the end. She’d been there with me, warm and alive until somehow she’d been falling and then-

I closed my eyes and tried not to re-live that moment, tried not to hear the horrifying crack as she’d struck the ground, tried not to break over how close I had come to losing her, tried to convince myself I hadn’t lost her at all.

Julius had taken us out to sea, chasing the horizon until New York City was reduced to a cluster of glimmering lights in the distance and our blades had stopped burning with the proximity of so many vampires. Then he’d cut the engine.

The silence stretched between us and I knew that the brothers had no idea what to do now. We’d brokered some kind of fragile peace with Erik Belvedere, united over our hatred of the gods. But what did that mean for us now?

He was still our enemy. Even if he had wanted to halt the fight in the end. It didn’t change anything. And yet it changed everything.

I wished the phone would ring, this endless torment of waiting for news burning me up from the inside out. But I had no idea what I’d say to my sister when she did call. I’m sorry? But was I even sorry?

You’re selfish. You couldn’t bear to lose her, so you cursed her instead.

But hadn’t she been considering the idea of turning anyway? She’d been the one to insist the prophecy wanted her to be a vampire. And though I’d never have agreed to her doing it under any other circumstance, with her body broken beyond all chance of recovery, what other choice could there have been?

Magnar still hadn’t said anything to me about what I’d done. He hadn’t spoken a word about the choice I’d made, and I hadn’t dared broach the subject because I knew exactly how he felt about it. He wouldn’t have made the same choice. But I could feel the unsaid words hanging between us like this heavy weight which just kept growing, making the air simmer with tension and my frayed nerves shiver within every piece of my flesh.

I should turn to him, open my mouth and say...well what could I really say? He’d killed his own father rather than see him walk the Earth as a vampire.

I didn’t need to ask him if he agreed with what I’d just done. I knew he didn’t. Given the opportunity, I couldn’t even be sure he wouldn’t end Montana’s immortal existence if he saw her again. My actions went against everything I’d sworn to do when I took my vow.

Or did they?

If this ended in us breaking the curse then Montana would be human again. The vampires would all be destroyed and reborn in mortal bodies. So perhaps my actions were following the path I’d chosen. If creating one vampire led to the end of their reign, then it had to be worth it. But I was trying to convince myself of the truth of that with everything I was. I only wished that gamble hadn’t had to be made with my sister’s soul.

I twisted my mother’s ring on my finger and wondered if the gods had figured out that I had it. They’d certainly felt its power when I’d forced them away from us, but would they have recognised what was being used against them? Magnar thought they’d want to take the ring from me if they knew I had it, but I wondered how they’d ever be able to retrieve something they couldn’t even see.

There were so many questions twisting through my mind and nowhere near enough answers.

The boat shifted as someone moved towards me and I closed my eyes, withdrawing my fingers from the water as whoever it was took a seat beside me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear what the slayers had to say to me but I guessed the least I could do would be to hear them out.

“I’m sorry,” I said before he could speak. “Not for choosing what I did; I can’t bring myself to regret that. But for the position it puts you in. Both of you. I know you think that that fate is worse than death but I... I just couldn’t say goodbye.”

“Normally I’d have to agree with you,” Julius said and I turned to him in surprise, having expected it to be Magnar beside me if I was being entirely honest with myself. Or perhaps hope was more accurate than expectation. “But your sister had plenty to say on the subject of her becoming one of them. She thought it might have needed to happen, even before she had no choice in it. And I think she would have asked the parasite to turn her in the end if she believed it meant the curse could be broken.” He spoke the words with a roughness that betrayed his own dislike of them, but I could tell that he was trying to see this situation from all angles, trying not to hate everything about it on principle alone.

I looked up at him and my heart swelled with hope as I clung to his words like they were a life raft upon a tide which had been hell-bent on ripping me away with it.

“You think she would have chosen this? She would have wanted to turn instead of dying?” The idea would have been unthinkable just weeks ago when we’d been two girls from Realm G but after everything we’d been through, I really wanted to believe he was right. That she would have chosen a life as a vampire over a death as a mortal. Not for her own sake. But for the idea that she might have been able to change the fates of everyone tangled up in the curse the gods had given to the Belvederes so many years ago.

“I think she wanted to solve the prophecy,” Julius replied slowly. “And that she was willing to sacrifice a great deal to try and do so.”

“So maybe I did the right thing?” I breathed hopefully.

Julius glanced at his brother before answering, though I didn’t dare follow his gaze, and a dark look crossed his eyes. “I think if the curse ends up broken then any kind of payment will turn out to be worth it.”

“But?” I asked, sensing how carefully he was picking his words and that there was a lot he wasn’t saying.

Julius shifted in his seat and looked at Magnar once again. I forced myself to follow his gaze, chewing on the inside of my cheek as I waited for the words I’d been trying to avoid hearing. Because I already knew how they felt about it. Their own father had begged for death rather than live with the vampire curse. And Magnar hadn’t hesitated in giving it to him.

With some difficulty, I forced my eyes to meet with the golden gaze of the man who I had laid my heart out for, who I had sworn an oath with, and who I owed my life to countless times over. The silence stretched as we looked at one another, my emotions too raw and bruised to hide, while his were a roiling tempest of the unknown. But my heart still upped its pace beneath this weight of his penetrating gaze, my breath still catching in my throat as he stripped me apart piece by piece with nothing but his endless stare.

“But nothing,” Magnar said, surprising me. He leaned against the wheel and continued looking down at me in that way which stripped me bare. If I wasn’t utterly delusional, then I could have sworn that wasn’t anger or hatred simmering in his sandstorm eyes. “If Montana had to do this to break the curse then it isn’t for us to cast judgment on her. The parasites have developed ways to sustain themselves without killing so she should be able to survive this transformation with her soul as close to intact as is possible. Now we can only hope that her guesses about the prophecy were right and that she won’t have to remain a monster for long.”

I stared at him with my lips parting in shock. I’d expected him to hate me for the choice I’d made. I’d thought that this would have created a divide between us so great that even with the gods forced aside, we would still struggle to be together. But that wasn’t the truth I found in his expression.

I pushed myself to my feet and approached him, the boat rocking beneath me as I moved and making my steps slower as I adjusted to the unfamiliar motion.

Magnar watched me come for him, his gaze drinking me in, his posture rigid, but it felt more like restraint than rejection.

I reached up to touch his face, my fingertips scraping across the stubble that graced his strong jaw line. The blood and filth of battle still coated his skin, though now it had begun to dry and flake away, revealing the man beneath the mask of the monster.

“Thank you,” I breathed, knowing what it must be costing him to alter his views on this. To go against everything he had been raised to believe in and fight for. But I knew what the cost of such consideration had to be. If he was able to believe Montana could be saved, then that would open up all kinds of doubts about what had happened to his father. Or what the vampires were, deep down inside. They’d all been human once after all.

Magnar’s fingers brushed down the length of my arm until he reached my hand and took it in his. He ran his thumb over the ring which still shielded us from the gods and it throbbed beneath the power of his touch.

He said nothing more and I could almost feel the pressure of his world, his beliefs and even the foundation of all he was cracking beneath him, but he did not break. Didn’t even buckle. Because he was made of something far more powerful than simply the gifts of the gods and that was why I had been his from the moment he’d shoved me up against that wall.

“So what now?” Julius asked as he leaned back in his seat and put his feet up on the chair in front of him. He was looking brighter already, the colour returning to his skin as his gifts helped him to replenish the blood he’d lost to Erik in their fight, and I was relieved to have one less thing to worry about.

I squeezed Magnar’s fingers and looked around us at the water which stretched on and on, the waves rocking the speedboat beneath our feet. A cool wind blew, raising goosebumps along my skin and I could feel an ache in my stomach which spoke of a desire for food.

I still wore the white dress Idun had given me, though it was now so stained with Fabian’s blood that it had turned mostly red. My feet were bare and my body cried out with fatigue.

The others weren’t much better off. Their clothes were torn and bloodied and countless wounds marred their flesh, slowly healing with the aid of their gifts but surely still causing them plenty of pain.

We hadn’t grabbed our packs when we’d left the island and the speedboat was open to the elements, leaving us exposed and vulnerable on the open water. We couldn’t stay out here long, but I had no idea where we were supposed to go. I only knew that I didn’t want to travel far from Montana. She could be awake already and I needed to see her as soon as possible to apologise and to make sure that whatever had happened to her now, she was still herself. That she loved me as her sister, that she was still in some way human.

“Have you checked the cell phone?” I asked, shaking off my mounting fears.

Julius pulled it from his pocket and glanced at the screen with a small shrug. “Nothing. It could be hours before she calls. Or days. Who knows how long it takes a new paras- I mean, vampire to think of anything other than blood?”

I tried to ignore the fact that he’d nearly just referred to Montana as a parasite but the sting of his words drove deep into my chest.

“Then we need to find shelter,” Magnar said, pulling me against him so I could feel the warmth of his skin and hear the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath my ear. “Is there anywhere that we can go which will be safe from the vampires without taking us too far away?”

Julius pursed his lips as he considered it. “We could head north of the city. Maybe find somewhere along the coast to hole up so that we can use this boat to escape again if necessary. I don’t think many vampires live outside of the city limits, so it should be safe enough.”

“Let’s go then. We need to find fresh supplies and get some rest. Who knows what trials we’re going to have to face next?” Magnar replied, casting a dark look towards the sky which I knew was aimed at the gods.

I flexed my fingers. The shield provided by the ring would continue to conceal us from their wrath and I had no intention of removing it any time soon.

Julius nodded and got to his feet, heading for the wheel. I let Magnar guide me down onto the leather chairs at the back of the craft and he pulled me into his lap as Julius started the boat up.

I curled myself against him, the ache in my chest lessening slightly as he wrapped his strong arms around me and the heat of his body banished a little of the cold from my limbs.

“This moment will pass,” Magnar murmured into my hair, his fingers tracing back and forth across my thigh in a soothing motion. “Every moment does. And when pain strikes its deepest, each second which slips by beyond it will lessen that ache. The world will keep turning and the sun will shine brighter, some days more than others. You will be ready to bask in it when it does.”

The boat wheeled about in the inky water as Julius turned it north and loosed the throttle. I settled myself against Magnar’s chest, allowing his presence to ease the knot of anxiety within me and relaxing just a little.

Icy droplets sprayed around us as the powerful vessel carved a path through the sea and we bounced over the waves as our speed increased, the motion lulling me towards a sleep my aching body begged for.

I closed my eyes, letting my thoughts drift to memories of my sister and I as children. I’d always been the reckless one, getting myself into all kinds of messes through boredom or sheer stupidity. But she’d been right by my side; getting me out of trouble and fixing the problems I’d created. She’d always been able to solve every issue and I’d relied on her to help me in every way imaginable.

If anyone stood a chance of solving this riddle and ending the vampires’ curse, it was her. It had to be. Because I refused to believe it had all been for nothing. I refused to accept that this was our fate: to stand on opposite sides of a war we’d never chosen to take part in.

No. We’d never been divided in anything in our entire lives. So the gods had drawn battle lines and set us apart? I didn’t care. I didn’t dance to their tune anymore. Perhaps vampires and slayers had been created to destroy each other, but that would never define us. Because we had something so much purer than hate. We had love.