Midnight Eclipse (Paranormal Viking Romance, Completed)

Chapter 32: Through Time

Björn twirls the blood-soaked dagger skillfully in his hand, reminding me of a certain trickster god made famous in movies. His whole presence looks lighter, no longer burdened by the predator sharing his form. Standing in the cemetery where the bones of his brethren turned to dust long ago, he looks over the domains that used to be his, now dotted with colorful houses and smattering motor boats. With the wind tousling his messy shoulder-length hair--where no treatment of shampoo has straightened the natural wave--he bears an aura of magnificence. A wild and free man walked out of a long-gone era.

The fact that he's buck-naked may also add to the wild and free image. The white fur coverings Björn usually wears around his shoulders and waist have disappeared along with his predator self. I turn my gaze away not to blush as certain... parts dangle freely in the polar wind.

While averting my eyes from the shameless Viking--who appears completely unbothered by his lack of clothes as he climbs atop one of the surrounding rocks--I rise from where I fell during my escape and brush grass off my knees. My entire body feels discombobulated from being chased by a ferocious predator. I sincerely hope I never have to go through that again.

"Are you alright?" Mikk asks, reaching out a hand to help me get on my feet.

I hesitate before answering, trying to sense every limb of my body. Perhaps the still-pumping adrenaline hides pain. Remembering the swat from the giant bear paw, I look toward my pant leg and find frayed fabric from claws. But underneath are no bleeding gashes. All I see are blue glowing lines, like the symbols that are now gone from my face.

"I'm good," I mumble as if I'm trying to convince myself of this as well. "Gudrun must have healed me."

Like a dog hearing its name, Björn--who has crouched atop a fallen rock to gaze upon the still-shaded sun--snaps his head toward me. "Gudrun? Hvat?" he asks, apparently now speaking Old Norse. Or I guess he was speaking his native tongue the whole time I've known him but now whatever magic translated his words to my ears is moot. So that's... not very handy.

Björn throws out another long harangue of indecipherable syllables while looking around the field, probably in search of his love. He may be free but he's still alone. And now mostly unintelligible to non-Old Norse speakers.

I listen for Gudrun's voice in the wind, to hopefully be able to help Björn find her, but it appears to be gone from my head along with the magical telepathic translation.

"I don't know where she is," I tell Björn in my native language, hoping that the common origin of Old Norse and Swedish will aid him in understanding my words. "I can't hear her and she didn't give me more instructions."

Knowing Gudrun, which I think I do by now, her guidance probably would have been infuriatingly incomprehensible anyway.

With a worried look, Björn gazes toward the obscured sun. A sliver of light peaks through behind the dark moon. I know what he's thinking: she has to come soon, or it'll be too late. The fate of being stuck in the wrong time without his love may be dawning on him.

I look toward Mikk, whose eyes are filled with concern. We thought Gudrun would come after the curse was broken, riding on a magical wave or something, but now, neither of us is sure how to proceed. If Björn is still here once the eclipse has passed, we may very well be co-parenting an unruly Viking lost in time.

"GUDRUN! GUDRUN!" A desperate call fills the old graveyard. I look back toward Björn and find him standing atop the fallen boulder, expelling a cry at the top of his lungs.

I sincerely hope no eclipse-sightseeing tourists are about to stumble upon us, as a naked man with wild eyes stands yelling atop a rock.

But the cadence of Björn's cry for a lost beloved strikes a chord in my memory. I've heard someone cry out a name with such fervor before; when I just arrived on this island.