Lethe's Kiss (Ari & Soren Book 3)

Chapter 2 - Ari

I bolted awake, breathing hard, my heart racing and my shirt damp with sweat.

I was lying in a large, comfortable bed in a spacious room, one wall of which was almost entirely window and looked out on the central courtyard. It was Soren's old room, Soren's old bed, and Soren himself slept at my side, lost in the death-like slumber into which he sometimes fell after taking my blood. Nothing would wake him until dawn, and for this I was grateful.

The last thing I wanted was to worry him with my nightmares.

Especially since I'd promised him I'd be fine staying here, in his father's home. Which was true. Mostly.

The house was beautiful—like an enchanted castle—and felt removed from the rest of the world. It was peaceful and safe, and I had good memories of the place.

I'd fallen in love with Soren here, after all.

Unfortunately, I had bad memories, too, and they were very bad indeed.

Almost exactly two years ago, something awful had happened in this house. Or, more specifically, in the caverns that lay directly below it.

My uncle had died, Soren had been wounded and almost died, and I'd come very close to being ritually murdered over my parents' bones.

It wasn't something I'd found easy to forget, although I'd at least stopped dreaming about it—until tonight, anyway.

Being back in this place had stirred the memories, reawakened old fears, and led to a nightmare that left me shaking and breathless. In it, Soren had chosen not to embrace his vampiric side, and had instead died in my arms.

Now, watching him as he lay at my side, made vulnerable by sleep, I felt a subtle, sharp ache in my chest.

I knew he worried about me, and that he wanted to protect me and keep me safe, but I wanted to protect him just as much. It wasn't always evident—he projected such self-assurance and strength, but there was something fragile about him, too; something beautiful and soft—his deepest heart, maybe—and it was something I wanted to shelter and defend.

Despite being a vampire, though, he was not immutable, and I knew the idea of inheriting his father's territory weighed on his mind. He was coming into his own now, and I wondered how, in years to come and with heavier burdens to bear, he might change.

Having caught my breath and calmed the nerves rattled by my dream, I leaned over him, brushed a stray lock of blond hair away from his face, and kissed his brow. Then I got up and went to the wide windows overlooking the inner courtyard, and stood looking out at the falls, which were lit with a silver sheen by the moon.

The black silhouette of a crow told me Al was out there, sleeping perched on the balcony rail, and Mormo was somewhere in the forest nearby—Volkir had assured me the woods were full of deer, and that there were no humans for miles around.

I didn't like the idea (I might be married to a vampire, but I was still a vegetarian, myself) but she had to eat, and we hadn't brought along any food.

Gazing across the courtyard, I could see the windows of the room on the opposite side, where I'd stayed the first time I was here, and outside of which I'd first encountered Al—as a pathetic, injured ball of feathers who'd just crashed headlong into a glass wall.

It had also been the first time I'd ever used magic, and it hadn't been a very pleasant experience for me.

I was grateful for Al nonetheless; I may have saved his life, but he'd returned the favor more than once.

As I watched, a gust of air carried a spume of mist upward on its breath, a ghostly veil dissipating in the dark, and my mind went again to the shadowy entrance of the caverns below.