Catch Me: Time After Time Page 15

  I’m just about to suggest to her that we should turn around and leave when an arrow flies out and hits her horse's flank causing it to whinny loudly and launch itself into a series of hopping bucks away from me. I catch a glimpse of her shocked face but she is already too far for me to reach. My heel is a split second from striking my own mount’s side to lunge after her when I’m ripped sideways from the horse's back to land hard on the dirt-packed road.

  I’m on my feet in an instant and it takes barely any effort to rip the thick rope from around my upper body that was used to haul me off my horse. My eyes never leave Eden so I see the group of men that rush out and surround her horse. When one of the tallest reaches up and grabs a thick handful of her hair, using it to jerk her out of the saddle and onto the ground, my bellow of rage echoes through the village, causing many to duck and cringe including a few of the men that have quickly formed a barrier between her and me.

  “My Lord! Please know that we have no quarrel with you or Duc de Gaul, but we cannot stand a witch to live, especially so close to our families!” One of the men calls out, desperation and fear thick in his voice.

  My own voice is a snarl as I reply but I never take my eyes from the struggling woman ahead of me.

  “She is no witch! If you harm her in any way I will slaughter every man, woman, and child in this village and then the Duc will burn it all to the ground!”

  I rage at him as I move to push through the group of men. I don’t know why I’m surprised when I feel knives slide into my back from behind in two different places. I know how people become the worst versions of themselves when irrational fear is involved. Eden’s eyes are latched on to me as she screams my name so I keep my monster in check, clinging to the hope that I can keep her from seeing the worst of me and hating me for it. Too many blades slide into my body as I fight them off and at least one has a hint of silver in it that burns my flesh like a fiery brand but still I hold back so as to not have her witness my monster. Half the men are down when an ax buries into my side sending me staggering. I keep my eyes on Eden and see her fighting off the men holding her as my sight begins to blur. She’s free of them and begins running my way when a man rushes out and swipes at her with a sword catching her in the upper arm as she spins away from him. The scent of her blood hits the air and all control I had over my monster is ripped from me as it takes over in the fury that floods through me.

  Eden

  I’m still trying to make sense of what the fuck is happening as two burly men drag me by the arms backwards and away from Luca who is surrounded by his own group of men. It’s all happening so fast. First, my horse goes nuts under me and then some jackass rips me off it by my hair. My scalp is screaming and my hip is numb from where I landed painfully on it when I hit the ground. I don’t have the first fucking clue what they want but based on how many men are surrounding Luca, I assume that they are after him for some reason. I don’t panic yet because, hello, he’s a goddamned vampire so any minute now he’s going to start knocking some heads together. That all changes when I see blood blooming on his white billowy shirt as some motherfucker stabs him in the back right through his body. That’s when I completely lose my shit and start struggling while screaming his name.

  The man pulling on my right arm wrenches it so hard I’m afraid it’s been dislocated. He spits at me. He literally spits on me and I feel a nasty trail of saliva drip down my cheek. His eyes are manic as he yells some shit in French at me that I don’t understand until the last word he says…sorcière.

  That word, that one I fucking know! I look past him and sure enough, standing with a smug fucking expression on her French bitch face is Bridgette. She gives me a sarcastic little finger wave and it’s all I need to see to know that I’m going to be burned as a witch.

  My eyes shoot in every direction and see a bunch of villagers staring back at me with eyes filled with fear and hate. Some stupid part of my brain wonders where the pitchforks and torches are until I crane my neck around to see where these fuckers are dragging me to and yup, there they are. A group holding torches stand in a ring around a post with ropes hanging from it and wood surrounding it. The priest glaring at me with a bible clutched in front of him like a shield is a nice touch but hell no! Not today Satan! Not today!

  I manage to get my feet under me as I’m being dragged and that’s enough to give me the balance I need to kick out sideways. My foot connects with the side of Spitty McSpitterton’s knee and the crunch it makes when it bends to the side like no knee should ever do has a feral grin stretching across my face showing plenty of teeth. He drops down to the side releasing my arm so that I can curl myself towards the guy holding my left arm. He’s not expecting me to curl right up to his chest so it’s easy to swipe the dagger he has sheathed at his side and flip it as I ram it straight up under his chin. His eyes are the size of saucers and I make a grossed out face at the huge skin tag hanging from one of his eyelids and the massive wave of body odor that hits my nose while I’m pressed against him. I gag but swallow down the bile that fills my throat as he topples leaving me a clear view of the shocked lynch mob waiting for me. I can’t help myself when my eyes land on the priest. I shoot him the middle finger and a saucy wink before spinning and running back towards Luca.

  What I see has me screaming his name again in terror. An ax lands deep in his side sending a spray of blood out and he staggers and almost goes down.

  What is he doing? Why isn’t he all red-eyed and fangy to put a stop to this? His whole body is painted with blood and only half the men that surround him are down. I don’t understand why he’s holding back or am I seriously wrong about just how badass vampires are? Either way, I need to get to him to help because he’s swaying on his feet.

  I pick up the pace but movement from the corner of my eye has me spinning away from another attack. A pained hiss comes from between my teeth as the edge of a sword catches my upper arm and slices into it. I feel the hot blood pour down my arm even as I keep spinning to deliver a roundhouse kick to Mr. Slicy, sending him to the ground. Hmm, this split skirt/pants combo isn’t the worst to fight in slides across my weird-ass brain as I snatch the guy’s sword up and turn back to rush to Luca’s aid.

  My feet slow to a stop and I decide it’s best to just slow my roll and let him do his thing without getting in the way because Luca has finally put his big boy vamp pants on and he’s ripping off heads…literally. I step to the side as one goes rolling past me like a demented bowling ball and take a beat to one, admire just how fucking gloriously savage the vampire is, and two, wonder why I’m not cracking up in hysterical terror at the very messy slaughter happening right in front of my eyes. I mean, I know I’m damaged but come on, most sane women would be a quivering puddle of hysteria right about now, right? Shaking my head at how messed up I am causes me to wince when a flare of pain streaks down my arm. I turn away from Luca who is finishing off the last of the dumb fucks who thought they could take him to look down and see just how bad my wound is but my eyes meet that fucking bitch Bridgette’s, she is still standing between two huts but she’s no longer smirking. Her eyes are huge and filled with fear as I slowly switch the sword to my injured arm and take the dagger in my right hand. It’s longer and heavier than what I would normally use to throw but I’m more about making a point than scoring a death hit.

  Sure enough, when the dagger reaches the halfway point in its trajectory towards her it starts to dip meaning it lands embedded in her thigh instead of her chest. She goes down with a squeal of pained surprise but freezes when I take a hard step in her direction.

  “You should run,” I tell her in a bland tone. “If he doesn’t kill you, I probably will.”

  Bridgette’s eyes fill with desperation as she starts crabbing her way back away from me. I leave the petty bitch to it and turn back to see Luca is the last man, or vampire rather, standing surrounded by a ring of bloody bodies. His red eyes are latched on to me and his fangs are on full display as his chest heaves. I take in
the blood that’s soaked his body from head to toe and pray that the majority isn’t his.

  I move toward him and I see him flinch back before his eyes return to their normal grey, his fangs retract and his head drops on his neck as he begins to sway on his feet. I manage to reach him just as he’s about to go over and duck under one of his arms to keep him upright.

  “Luca! Are you alright? Luca, open your eyes!” I beg him as I see the lynch mob from around the pyre heading our way with anger and rage in every step. I look around frantically for a way out and spot his horse not too far away so I start dragging him over towards it. My sliced arm screams in protest and I have no idea how I’m going to get him up on it but I don’t know what else to do.

  “Luca! Wake the fuck up! There’s more coming and I won’t be able to fight them all off. Luca! Please, please, I need you!” I yell into his ear.

  My knees go weak when his head lifts slightly and dazed grey eyes meet mine.

  “Yes! That’s it, baby, wake up. We need to get out of here or we’re both going to die in the next few minutes.” I plead with him.

  My words seem to reach him as his legs get steadier as we reach the horse. He pulls himself up into the saddle and my desperation and adrenaline give me the strength to quickly climb up behind him as he sways and almost goes over the other side after sliding the sword into a loop connected to the saddle. I’m not willing to leave it in case we need to defend ourselves again. I wrap my arms around his waist to try and keep him upright as I grasp the reins and get the horse’s head turned back in the direction we came from and then jab my heel into its side to get it moving at a fast trot.

  My arm is screaming in pain and I can still feel the hot blood sliding down it so I know I need to tend to it soon but all I care about is the man in front of me that I’m pressed against. I can feel his blood soaking through my shirt. I need to get us back to the house so the servants can help me get the bleeding stopped. I don’t know enough about vampires to know if he’s just weakened or if this is something he can die from. All the pop culture lore about vampires that I know doesn’t mean shit in reality and I’m terrified he’s going to die on me.

  I judge we are halfway back to the house when I feel him start to tilt to the side. I clutch at him to keep him up, knowing that I won’t be able to get him back on the horse if he falls but I’m barely hanging on to his heavy weight and it’s just a matter of time.

  Hot tears run down my cheeks as I risk a glance behind us, terrified that the lynch mob is coming after us but all I see is an empty track. That doesn’t mean they’re not on their way, though. I whimper at the thought of them catching up to us with Luca unconscious in the middle of the trail with nothing but me to protect him so I nudge the horse off of the trail and try and steer it into the thick trees that line it hoping we can get far enough to hide if they do pass by. Branches scratch against us and snag on our clothes but we only make it twenty feet into the woods before Luca finally tilts too far and topples from the back of the horse, hitting the ground with a thud.

  I look back towards the track and pray we’ve gotten far enough away so we won’t be found if the mob does come after us and then slide down off the horse. I lead it a little further away and tie its reins to a branch before moving back to Luca. I crash down next to him on my knees and hear a pained whimper escape my mouth at the sheer amount of blood that’s pooling on his back. I bite my lip hard and shake out my arms causing my own injury to spike but I ignore it and get my head straight so I can treat my patient. That’s who he needs to be to me right now. I’m a trained EMT, I can do this but not if I’m panicking so I take a deep fortifying breath and get to work. His shirt has so many holes in it from the many stab wounds that it easily shreds in my hands when I pull it off him. I toss it to the side as it’s too ragged and saturated to be any help. I need to clear the blood and start applying pressure to the worst injuries so I use the only thing I have that’s not already covered in blood. I quickly push to my feet and unbuckle the wide belt around my waist and then shimmy out of the full skirt. I race back to the horse and yank the sword from the loop and then back again where I go to work tearing into the fabric to make long wide strips to use as bindings. Once all the fabric has been cut down, I use a wadded-up piece to clean away as much of the blood as I can from his back. My eyes widen as I see just how many times he’s been stabbed but I shove it away and focus on the deepest, widest wounds. I blink a few times in disbelief thinking that my own blood loss is fucking with my head when I see some of the smaller wounds start knitting together in front of my eyes. It takes me a minute to process that this is probably normal for a vampire but I also see that the largest gaping wounds aren’t healing at all and are still bleeding freely. The worse one by far is the ax wound in his side. It’s so deep I swear I can see the white of his rib bones. I’m making a tortured humming noise in my throat as I fold one of the long strips into a pad and press it against the deep gash and then work a second strip under and around him so that I can bind the pad in place.

  I feel myself baring my teeth in anger that I don’t have my modern kit to tend to these wounds properly. I would sell my soul right now for a few clamps and some quick clot powder. Once I have his back mostly tended to I lean back and crack my neck to the side. Now’s the time to roll him so I can go to work on his front. This is going to be so much harder for me. It made it easier to focus on my work when I could pretend he was just a patient but once I turn him over I’ll be able to see his face and that will go out the window. I feel tears dripping off my chin that I didn’t even realize were falling and lift a hand to wipe them away but both of my hands are completely gloved in his blood so I settle for wiping my face against my shoulders. The pain in my arm is shoved to the background as I lever his body up and over onto his back. Peeling the last of his destroyed shirt away from his body, my breath whooshes out of me when I can only see three deep wounds. Fucking cowards did most of the damage by stabbing him in the back.

  I blink away a wave of dizziness as I make padded dressings for the wounds and use the last of the cloth strips to bind them in place. I’m leaning over him chanting, “Please, please be ok.” Softly and reach out a shaking hand to push some of his sweet chestnut curls from his face with my left hand. A small sob leaves me when a few drops of my blood that’s still running down my arm trickles onto his face. It turns into a gasp when his eyes spring open and his hand comes up and locks onto my wrist with more strength than someone with his many wounds should have. His eyes pin me in place as he turns his head slightly and takes a deep sniff from my arm. The red flames start in his pupils and spread outward until all the grey of his irises and white of his sclera are a solid red. His fangs grow until they overlap his bottom lip and he growls at me. I should be terrified. This is a wounded animal at his most dangerous and he can tear me to shreds but I know with the utmost certainty that Luca will never harm me so I stay perfectly still as the tears stream down my face.

  “Get away from me!” He growls out in a weak voice. “Eden, you need to run as fast as you can away from me. Right now!”

  I shake my head violently. “No! No, Luca. I won’t leave you. You have so many wounds and you’ve lost so much blood. I don’t know what to do! Please, tell me how I can help you!”

  He batters my wrist away from him and turns his face away from me. “You can help me by leaving. You need to start running now. I don’t know how much longer I can hold it back in my weakened state. Your blood…it’s driving me wild with need!”

  I sob as I pull his face back towards me. “Shut up! I don’t care about me. Please, please Luca tell me how I can help you. I can’t lose you. Please, Luca, please don’t die.” I beg as my tears drip down onto his bloody chest.

  His hand comes up and grips my chin tightly. “You would cry for a monster? Beg me to live? You saw what I am, what I’m capable of, and yet you don’t flee for your life?”

  I choke out a sad laugh through my sobs. “You idiot! You aren’t a
monster. I’ve been attacked by monsters, hurt by them. That’s not who you are.”

  The red in his eyes dims slightly and he closes them briefly but when he opens them again they are just as bright and fierce as before. I can see how tight he’s holding his jaw when he grits out, “Then don’t make me one! Your blood is too close. You need to get away before I lose control and take it.”

  I lean back away from him and scan his body and the many wounds. Some of them are already closed up but the worst wounds are not healing at all and that’s when it penetrates the fog I’ve been thinking through since we were attacked. He’s lost too much blood to heal properly. He needs blood. He needs me.

  “Take it!” I tell him in a firm tone. “Take my blood. Drink from me and heal. You aren’t a monster stealing it from me because I’m giving it to you freely. Please, Luca, let me help you!” I command him and then thrust my wrist in front of his mouth.

  He makes a savage snarl and I think he’s going to refuse once again until his hands snap up and lock onto my wrist a few inches apart and then pull it to his mouth. The pain barely registers before my whole body clenches and a powerful orgasm rocks through me. My head drops back as an obscene moan rings out from between my lips as wave after wave of pleasure thrums through me. I can’t think, I can’t speak, I can’t move. All I can do is feel the fireworks that go off nonstop in my body. The only thing that would make this experience better is if his cock was deep inside of me to clench around. It goes on for what feels like a lifetime and I’m only vaguely aware of dropping boneless down onto his chest as my head swims through a sea of shimmering colored pleasure.