4. Callie

The dank boathouse we’d found to take cover in smelled of rot and mildew which wasn’t exactly what I had pictured when hoping to find shelter.

The meagre fire Magnar continued to care for was resisting every effort to get going, which meant my hopes of warming up and feeling a little more human again were dwindling by the minute. Everything was damp and refused to burn with any true heat. I longed for a real fire which might just banish the wet from my bedraggled dress, but I was beginning to lose hope that it would ever set light properly. Even my slayer gifts couldn’t keep out this level of cold.

Rather than stare at Magnar while he worked, I paced up and down the wooden jetty beside the water in some vain effort to coax a little warmth into my limbs and stop my mind from racing.

Julius had gone in search of supplies but I didn’t hold out much hope. Aside from the wooden structure we’d claimed for our shelter, the landscape around us had looked close to deserted from the water.

Very little had been left standing here after the Final War and this battered boathouse had been the only viable option for miles.

He’d left the cell phone with us and had shown me how to call Erik’s number, but the bloodsucker hadn’t picked up when I’d attempted it.

I’d called so many times that I’d lost count. It just rang and rang endlessly, leaving me in this eternal torment. How could I be sure the transformation had even worked? She should be a vampire by now. Her body should have healed. So why hadn’t she called me? Was she angry with me? Or had something gone wrong? I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything at all and the not knowing was tearing me apart.

I released a scream of frustration and slammed my foot into the jetty beneath me, my strengthened muscles splintering the wood and breaking a hole right through it.

I regretted the outburst instantly as pain lanced through my ankle as I wrenched my foot back out of the hole and the jagged wood tore through my skin.

I swore, turning my anger onto myself as blood flowed over my bare foot in payment for my stupidity.

Magnar got to his feet, abandoning the pathetic fire as he approached me, his brow furrowing as he drew closer.

I wanted to punch something. I wanted to punch Erik fucking Belvedere in his stupid lying face. He’d promised to call me. I’d let him take her from me because he’d made me believe it was the only way, and now I had no idea what he’d done with her. He’d taken my sister from me for the second time and I had no way of knowing if I’d ever be able to get her back. She was one of his creatures now. And if he’d lied about letting me speak to her once she was turned, then he could just as easily have been lying about everything else too.

“Take a breath,” Magnar murmured, and I turned to glare at him.

“You take a fucking breath,” I snapped.

My anger was the only thing I had left in this moment and if I let it go too, then I wasn’t sure what would remain of me.

He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at my tone as if it amused him rather than riling him like I’d been aiming for. “You’re bleeding.”

“No shit.” I stomped away from him, but he caught my arm before I could get more than two paces.

I spun back towards him, fully intending to hit him or start screaming or do anything at all other than fall into his arms sobbing.

Magnar released a heavy breath as he pulled me close to his chest and my tears fell against his skin as something within me began to shatter despite all my best efforts to hold it together. I didn’t know what to do. I felt so helpless and hopeless and utterly alone without my sister. I didn’t even know if she was still her anymore and it was eating me up.

I couldn’t bear not knowing. She might need me. Or she might never need me again. But how could I even begin to try and deal with any of it when I just didn’t know?

“When we were hunting the Belvederes a thousand years ago, we often had to split up. My mother didn’t always know where I was and after what became of my father, the fear of something happening to us would sometimes grow too hard for her to bear,” he said gently. I had no idea why he was telling me this but I managed to rein in some of my tears as I listened to the deep rumbling of his voice. “She was born of your clan and she shared your gifts. So when she wanted to know that I was alright, she would come and find me. In my dreams.”

I sucked in a deep breath as I realised what he was suggesting. If Montana was sleeping now then maybe I could find her in her dreams. I didn’t know how likely that was, but her body had been so badly damaged that it could at least be possible. Fabian had slept a lot when he was recovering from the wounds Magnar had given him after the wedding. So maybe she’d be resting now as her immortal form repaired her broken body.

“Okay,” I breathed, wondering how the hell I was supposed to sleep with everything charging through my brain like a stampede. “But I don’t know if I can sleep now. I feel so wired up, like there’s a fire burning beneath my skin and I’ve got too much energy to spare.”

“My mother didn’t have to sleep to use her gifts. She would simply close her eyes and hunt for whoever she needed,” he replied softly, his fingers tangling in my knotted hair before tugging slightly, angling my face up to his so he could look at me.

But I couldn’t handle the intensity of his stare or face the truths which lingered there in his eyes.

My mind spun with the possibility of his words though and I pushed out of his arms, dropping to the floor so I could lean against the wall and close my eyes.

“Can I at least look at your wounds while you try?” Magnar asked in exasperation.

I peeked up at him from beneath my lashes as he crouched down in front of me. “Sorry for biting your head off,” I muttered.

“Don’t worry about it.” He pulled my ankle into his lap and tutted as he eyed the splinters lodged in my skin.

I bit my tongue against the pain as he started to remove them, and I turned my attention back to finding Montana.

My eyes fell shut and I opened myself to my gifts, trying to remember how it had felt the last time I’d hunted for someone’s sleeping form.

I pictured Montana clearly in my mind, focusing on the feeling of her, the familiar shape of her soul taking form within my imagination until I could almost reach out and touch it.

After several long seconds, I felt something tickling on the edge of my consciousness and focused on it, throwing myself towards it and sucking in a sharp breath as I began to fall. My gut lurched as I tumbled into the place between dreams where a thousand stars marked all the sleeping souls I could ever wish to find and satisfaction pulled at me.

The feel of Magnar’s hands on my ankle slipped away from me as I danced closer to the stars and I fell into the power of my gift.

I stared around, searching for anyone who felt familiar to me. At first, there didn’t seem to be anyone I knew but as I concentrated, I noticed one of the points of light shone a little brighter than the others.

I drifted towards it, reaching out as I tried to work out who it was. Erik’s presence washed over me and I recoiled, drawing back as fear ran down my spine. I still didn’t trust him despite what he’d seemed to do to help us. He’d taken Montana from me and he hadn’t kept his word about contacting me since.

I searched the space around him, hoping to find my sister’s presence but there was no one else sleeping nearby.

I hesitated.

I’d visited Fabian’s dreams twice but my bond to him made him feel somehow safer to be around. Erik was something...else. Everything Magnar had told me about him was more than enough warning for me to be cautious, but Montana seemed to have seen something entirely different in him.

There was only really one way for me to find out about him for myself though.

So I took a deep breath and pushed my consciousness into his.

* * *

I summoned Fury into my hand as the dream materialised around me, feeling safer with the blade in my grasp even if nothing in this place was real. I blinked against the bright light that greeted me and looked up in confusion as I took in where Erik’s dream had taken me.

A periwinkle blue sky opened up endlessly above my head and the sun beat down, warming my skin like it was the middle of summer.

The heat was uncomfortable in the winter clothes I’d given myself so I switched my outfit to a thin blue shirt and a pair of denim shorts, the clothes fizzling into existence on my skin.

A warm breeze rustled the long grass and it tickled my knees as I looked out at the sweeping landscape. I was standing on a hill which rolled away from me before ending in a glittering blue lake, nothing but nature all around.

Halfway down the hill, I could just make out the shape of someone lying in the long grass.

I glanced about once more, unsure if sneaking up on a monster was the best idea. But I’d already come this far and I wasn’t about to turn back. Besides, I reminded myself that I could take control of this dream at any time. He wasn’t the one at an advantage here and I needed to remember that.

I stalked closer and found Erik laying in the grass beside my sister. She was holding his hand and twirling a daisy between her fingers above them. His head was turned towards her and he smiled as he watched her toying with the small flower.

They were both dressed for the hot weather and his skin wasn’t pale and translucent, it was warm and lightly coloured by the sun.

The false Montana noticed me and a wide smile lit her face. “Shall we swim, Callie?” she asked excitedly, sitting up and pointing at the lake.

She pulled off her shirt, revealing a black bra which was weirdly shiny. She removed her shorts too and was wearing matching bottoms beneath them. I guessed they were intended for use in the water but there was a small issue with that.

“You can’t swim, Monty,” I reminded her.

She stared at me for several long seconds, blinking more times than was natural. “Shall we swim, Callie?” she asked again, the dream version of her unable to do more than play out its role in this place.

I sighed and shook my head. “You go. I’ll join you later.”

“Okay,” she smiled brightly and jogged away from us towards the lake where I noticed Clarice, Fabian, Miles and another male vampire I didn’t recognise swimming already. Except when I looked more closely, I realised they weren’t vampires; they were human too.

“Come on, Callie,” Erik said teasingly as he pushed himself upright. “Don’t you want to join in?”

I got the weirdest sense that we were friends in this dreamed up scenario and the ridiculousness of the idea sent a shudder racing down my spine.

I observed him for a moment, trying to gauge whether or not he’d realised what I was. He was acting like he hadn’t, but I knew by now that everyone I visited worked it out pretty quickly.

“Maybe I just don’t like the sunshine,” I replied with a shrug, willing a rain cloud into existence.

As its dark shadow fell over us, goosebumps covered my skin and I fought the urge to shiver.

“Come now, I think we both know that’s a lie,” Erik replied with a smirk.

The cloud dissolved and the sun beat down on us again. He raised an eyebrow at me tauntingly and I surveyed him with suspicion. This wasn’t the monster Magnar had described and yet I knew every foul tale of this creature to be the truth. So was Erik Belvedere a man or a monster? Or was he simply both depending on what mood took him?

I heard someone approaching us and looked up as Fabian jogged our way. He was beaming at me, his arms outstretched as if he expected me to step into his embrace. I could tell this dream version of him was supposed to be with me. False memories fluttered over me of the four of us spending time together like some weird happy family and I balked instinctively.

I scowled at the dream Fabian and swiped my hand angrily, causing him to disappear entirely.

“As if that would ever happen,” I said irritably.

“This is my dream,” Erik countered. “So if I like the idea of you making my brother happy then that’s what you do here. Is that so bad?”

Fabian reappeared and I gritted my teeth in frustration as Erik wrangled the dream from my grasp.

“He’s a murdering psychopath and the last time I saw him I ripped his head off. So why the hell would you ever think I’d be happy with him?” I glared at the false Fabian and his head fell off a fraction of a second before I stabbed Fury through his heart and he dissolved into dust which blew away on the breeze.

I could feel Erik trying to regain control of the dream, but I hadn’t come here to play games with him. I stole the sun from the sky and filled it with stars instead. I imagined Montana out of existence then filled the lake with the biters who had attacked us in the Hudson.

As Erik’s family started screaming, I forced him back into his vampire form and made him watch them bleed.

His will batted against my own as he tried to reclaim his dream and banish the nightmare but I had it under my control and I wasn’t letting go.

“What happened to my sister?” I demanded.

Erik bared his teeth, revealing those sharp fangs, and I could feel the fear he was trying to contain.

“Release my family and I’ll tell you,” he growled.

I glanced at the lake which was slowly filling with blood as the biters fed from his siblings. They were dragged beneath the surface one by one and the water fell still.

Erik stared at the bloody lake, his hand clenching into a fist.

“What’s the matter?” I asked coldly. “Don’t you like having your family taken from you?”

“Alright, I get it,” he muttered as he turned back to face me.

“I really don’t think you do,” I hissed.

The hill disappeared and we were standing outside the Blood Bank with Wolfe glaring at me, his eyes full of murder. He leapt towards me but my father pushed me aside, taking the wound which had been meant for me. I let Erik feel my pain and see every drawn out moment that led to my father’s death, made him suffer through every second of it just as I had.

I didn’t allow him to speak as the view shifted again to our tiny apartment. He gazed around at our squalid living conditions, his face written with shock as he took in the two little girls whispering together on the threadbare couch, their cheeks a little too hollow, their waists a little too narrow.

The door burst open, causing us to scream in fright and the vampires flooded in, dragging our mom away while I hid beneath the table with Montana, our tiny fingers curled around each other’s as our father begged and sobbed.

My pain was gilded in fury and I couldn’t help but relish the way each truth lashed at the creature standing beside me, forced to bear witness to his own crimes.

“This is nothing compared to what the rest of our kind suffered. Tale after tale of agonising reality lays at your feet, Prince Erik, if only you cared to look for them,” I sneered.

I let it all fade away and gave the dream to him once more. Erik dropped his eyes and I could feel shame pouring from him in waves, the truth of him filling this false landscape and offering itself up to me. He’d never intended for the Realms to be like that. He’d thought he could trust Wolfe to do as he’d been instructed.

But I wasn’t sure if his regret meant much to me. I could understand why Montana had felt she could forgive him as I tasted his remorse on the air, but I wasn’t convinced that I could. She always had been the more forgiving of us, the more understanding. But his kind had taken everything from me and he was one of their rulers, so surely that made what had happened to us his responsibility? And claiming ignorance just didn’t seem like a good enough excuse to me.

“So. Tell me what’s happened to my sister,” I snarled. I’d come here for a reason and I didn’t want to waste any more time wondering.

“She’s fine,” he said, abandoning the games he’d been trying to play with me and aiming to appease me instead. “Better than fine; she’s incredible.” He began to conjure an image of her in her vampire form but I shook my head, willing it away again.

“Don’t,” I breathed. “I don’t want to see her like that...not yet. I just, can’t.”

Erik nodded sadly and I could tell he was disappointed but he didn’t press the issue.

“She really is okay,” he said softly, reaching out like he might touch me, but I recoiled.

“So why hasn’t she... I mean, you promised she’d call me. Does she blame me? Does she wish I hadn’t let you do it, or-”

“No,” he said quickly. “She’s glad I managed to save her in time. I hope that it means something for the prophecy too. I think she’s just afraid.”

“Afraid of me?” I asked in confusion.

Erik eyed me like he thought I was being dense on purpose. “Well you don’t exactly like our kind, do you?”

The way he said ‘our kind’ sent a shudder through me. It was like he was claiming her as his own. Like she was his instead of mine now. But becoming a vampire wouldn’t change anything about what made the two of us, us. At least not if I had anything to do with it.

“Well she isn’t your kind,” I replied angrily. “She would never do any of the things you’ve done.”

“We were all human once,” Erik reminded me, and I wondered if he knew I’d been thinking that exact thing earlier or if it was just a weird coincidence.

“Perhaps. But the things you’ve done with your immortality have turned you into monsters. I know what you did to the slayers. What you did to Magnar’s father.”

“You realise you’ve only heard one side of that story?” he asked irritably. “Why don’t you let me show you mine if you want to cast judgment?”

I frowned at him, half wanting to refuse but the scene around us was changing already and curiosity got the better of me.

Everything fell dark and I could feel the years piling upon each other as Erik tried to refuse the hunger. He fell into madness, Andvari’s taunting voice calling out to him in the depths of his despair. He was so lonely, so empty and so, so hungry.

A shaft of light fell on him and an arm pulled him from the darkness. Fabian carried him, running, fleeing, racing to get somewhere and when they arrived, there it was. Blood. The deepest most desperate desire of Erik’s tainted soul, all that the darkness had left him with. The answer to all of his prayers. As Erik fell towards the battle I felt Andvari’s glee and his power flooding into him. He used Erik just as he had in the battle with Magnar; stealing his will and urging him to kill over and over again until all that was left was blood.

When the god finally let him be, no one remained but the four devils, coated in the blood of their enemies. Just one slayer was still alive, glaring at the Belvederes with hate in his eyes. I could see Magnar and Julius in him. I knew who he was.

It wasn’t hate that drove Erik to turn him. It was pity. Regret. And Andvari whispering in his ear. He wanted him to have a chance to see his family again. He hadn’t meant for him to harm any of them.

Once he was a vampire, Magnar’s father raced away from them and the memory faded.

I swallowed a thick lump in my throat as I struggled to deal with what I’d just seen. If it was true - and I was convinced he couldn’t lie to me here - then it did change things. At least I thought it did. And perhaps Magnar and Julius would agree too.

“You still murdered the rest of the clans a hundred years later,” I breathed. “If you felt so bad about it then why fight them that day?”

In place of answering, images flooded past me so quickly that I couldn’t count them. Magnar and Julius chasing the Belvederes across the sea, hunting them to the ends of the Earth. Every time Erik and his family tried to hide from them, the slayers would show up again, hell-bent on killing them. Years passed and even after Magnar and Julius disappeared, the slayers kept coming.

“We had no life at all while the slayers still lived. It was war. I’m not proud of it but it seemed like the only way at the time. Us or them.”

“And now?” I asked.

The ‘us’ was down to three as far as I knew and the ‘them’ numbered in the thousands.

“Now... I think the gods were to blame all along. They cursed my family and made us what we are. They created the slayers and set them against us. They used our hatred as a distraction so that we forgot who was really to blame for our misery.”

“Well you were all stupid. I knew Idun was the problem from the first moment I heard that bitch’s name,” I growled.

Erik gave me a dark smile and I was struck with this weird sense of camaraderie toward him. “Then maybe it’s time we figured out what to do about it.”

I hesitated. The idea of taking on the gods was sorely tempting but I had more pressing issues than deities at the moment.

“The only thing I want to do right now is see my sister,” I replied.

Erik’s gaze darkened. “I don’t think that’s a good idea for a while. She might have trouble resisting the call of your blood. If she were to hurt you, bite you, then I don’t know if she’d ever forgive herself.”

“She’d never hurt me,” I replied instantly.

Erik’s jaw ticked, and irritation filled me as I could tell he didn’t agree.

“Just because she’s like you now, don’t start thinking you know her better than me,” I snapped before he could say anything to contradict me. “So just get her to call me. Because if you don’t, I’ll come for her myself and if you want to stop me, you’ll have to kill me. And you can find out how much she loves you after that.”

I didn’t give him the chance to respond as I stepped away from his dream and moved back to my own body. I didn’t push myself into wakefulness though. I needed to rest and my best chance of sleep would be to stay close to it now. I just hoped to be woken by the cell phone ringing soon. Or Erik Belvedere was going to find out that I always kept my promises.