The Soul Mate

The Holy Trinity - 1

By

Madeline Sheehan

For Sean and Cayden

PROLOGUE

Bulgaria, 1056 A.C.E.

“The screaming has stopped Emilian. Time to go.” Ferka gestured toward camp where Zora Petulengro’s brutal birthing screams had since seemed unending. Emilian had never been so thankful before that he’d been born a boy.

He had no desire to go back to camp even though a few minutes ago he’d felt the sudden urge to run straight there, straight to… that baby.

That baby, that little girl that was to become his. No, she was already his. She had been given to him, as a gift of sorts. They would be bound together as soon as he could muster up enough courage to make his feet move. She would become his bride when they were of age and eventually bear his children.

He closed his eyes. His soul mate. He’d scoffed at his tată and mami when they’d spoke to him of this foretold prophecy. How could a seven year old have a soul mate? How could he have a soul mate?

But Emilian wasn’t just any seven year old. He was the first born son of Baró Gavril Drágon, the leader of their Romani Clan, who already had more magic than his full grown tată. Magic that would grow too powerful for any one man to contain, without going mad. He would need to have an outlet, a vessel with who to share his gifts with. Which was where this baby came in.

“You look green friend, but methinks you better go before the Baró comes looking for you himself.”

Ferka was right. Green or not, the wrath of Baró Drágon was indeed something to be feared, especially if you were his son. Dragging his heals in the dirt Emilian began to walk slowly back to camp.

“Where have you been, you cowardly little fleabag?!”

Emilian winced as his mami grabbed him by the ear and yanked him in the other direction toward Zora and Boldo’s wagon.

“You were supposed to be close!” He didn’t answer her; he knew no answer was good enough for Violca Drágon when she was angry.

As his mami dragged him across camp much to the amusement of the entire clan, Emilian could only stare longingly toward where the horses were tied. Wishing he could yank free of his mami’s hold, grab a horse and be gone from here forever.

Boldo thrust open the small wooden door of the wagon as they reached the steps, his large overbearing frame dwarfing the entire structure. The look of disfavor on the large man’s face belied any happiness Emilian thought the man might have had for the birth of his new daughter.

Cowering beneath Boldo’s simmering glare both he and his mami slipped into the wagon and approached his tată. Lying on a pallet of rushes in the corner, Zora was holding a tiny bundle in her arms. Zora looked exhausted, covered in sweat with small bruises under her eyes. A pile of bloodied rags lay near a bucket of equally bloodied water.

“Come here Emilian” Zora said hoarsely, a strained smile on her face. “You must touch her; make her yours, so there will never be another.”

Ignoring the dark penetrating gaze of his tată, the anxious stare of his mami and Boldo’s disapproving glare, Emilian instead focused only on Zora, the only person who was treating him with any sort of kindness.

On skinny shaking legs he knelt down beside her, waiting with bated breath as she unwrapped the small bundle pressed tightly against her breast. A tiny head covered in black fuzz appeared along with an even tinier fist. The babe was sound asleep.

“Wake up, love.” Zora stroked her daughter’s cheek. The baby blinked sleepily a few times and opened her mouth in a toothless yawn. Emilian fought the urge to smile. Just because she was adorable didn’t mean he had to like her. Then she opened her eyes wide and the entire group gasped.

“Green?” Violca squawked.

“What does that mean?” Boldo demanded of the Baró. No Roma had green eyes. They had varying shades of brown, some almost black, other’s had hazel or even caramel colors but not a blue or a green among them, it was simply unheard of. Gavril stared at the tiny girl as a smile began to spread across his face.

“She is perfect my friends do not fret for green represents balance, harmony and stability, everything that Emilian will need. She is everything we could have hoped for.”

This answer seemed to delight the parents. Violca however continued to study the baby with narrowed eyes.

“It is time.” Gavril lowered himself down on one knee, Violca and Boldo following. Together they said the proper Romani blessing over the two children, binding them together in love, family and clan. Their union had been foretold by Nature and would be upheld by the very people who had sworn their lives to protecting Nature’s blessings and gifts.

“Touch her child.” Zora urged, smiling at Emilian.

Deciding on holding the tiny hand presented to him, Emilian leaned forward to touch only the babe’s fingertips. But when he crept closer his body responded to the nearness of her and without thinking he kissed the baby’s cheek instead, breathing in her scent. Shocked, he stumbled backwards and landed awkwardly on his backside.

“Son?” Gavril asked. “Did it work? Did you feel something?”

Struck dumb by the sweetest perfume he’d ever scent, Emilian couldn’t yet speak. He could only stare at the most beautiful pair of sparkling green eyes he would ever see.

CHAPTER ONE

Catskills Mountains, NY 2011

Too afraid to move, I continued watching with trepidation at the daddy longlegs spider that was poised directly above where I lay. It was a creepy looking little devil, with its tiny little body and obscenely long spindly legs.

Bugs, I am convinced, have been placed on this earth to make my life miserable. Then again, there wasn’t much that didn’t make me jumpy these days. The end of the world will do that to a person.

I blew out the breath I’d been holding as the spider took off running. It skittered across the stained browned, canvas ceiling of my 1980’s pop-out tent trailer and disappeared. “Ugh,” I told no one in particular. “I am having a bad day.”

“The day hasn’t even started yet, woman. It isn’t possible for it to be bad.”

I huffed at Becki, my trailer mate. “You don’t consider waking up to giant arachnids hovering over your head, waiting to eat you, a bad day?”

I ducked the pillow that came flying from the other end of the trailer. It hit the canvas wall directly above me, where probably, possibly, hundreds, maybe thousands, of hungry daddy longlegs spiders may be living.

“You could have scared the spider back out!”

“Trinity, it’s a spider.”

“Do you know how vengeful spiders are?” I asked in my haughtiest voice. “Especially to the Greeks?”

I couldn’t quite tell, since her head was still buried in her mattress, but she mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, “Here we go again.”

“Well.” I continued. “The Greek Goddess Athena…” I paused. “You know who she is right?”

“How could I not? You talk about her all the time.”

I chose to ignore that comment.

“Anyway, Athena and a mortal princess named Arachne had a competition to see who the better weaver of the two was. Arachne won and Athena was furious. So she destroyed Arachne’s tapestry and cursed the princess to live a life full of disgrace. Arachne, unable to bear the weight of her curse, hung herself. Then, Athena took pity on her and brought her back to life… but as a spider!”

“Trinity, if I had known living with you was also going to be a constant lesson in Greek mythology, I really would have reconsidered.”

“How would you like to be brought back to life as a spider? Wouldn’t you be angry? Vengeful even?”

Becki scowled at me as I sat up. Her long, black curly hair was hanging in front of her dark brown eyes, but I could see enough of them to know if looks could kill, I would have been dead two or three times by now. Becki was most certainly not a morning person.

“Good morning sunshine.” I grinned at her.

“I wish I could turn you into a spider.” She grumbled, cocooning herself inside of her blankets until all I could see was the tips of her toes.

I was about to respond with another little tidbit of Greek Myth when I smelled it: Christmas in the middle of July. The sticky sweetness of fresh pine trees and the thick, pungent odor of cinnamon flew in through the open window alongside the warm morning breeze.

“Gerik’s coming.” I told her, jerking my head toward the doorway. The scent of the man preceded him wherever he went.

The screen door swung wide open and a 6’4” shirtless Viking came bounding through the small doorway, dwarfing the entire trailer, bringing with him his unique scent. He always smelled so amazing, so intoxicating… only to me. The one and only time I’d asked another person if they smelled what I did… Well, I’m pretty sure Alana still thinks I’m insane.

Gerik paused just inside the doorway and shook out his long, soaking wet hair, spraying water everywhere.

“Oh. My. God,” Becki moaned. “Why is everyone against me today?”

He turned to grin at her while stretching his long muscular body. The magical runes tattooed on his chest and arms rippled with the sinuous movements.

Gerik looked like none of the other Gypsies in this Romani camp I had been calling home for the past few months. Most of the men and women in camp were of Romanian origins and had darker shades of skin combined with dark, alluring features. Others had olive complexions but they too had dark hair and eye colors.

Gerik was different. He was strong and tall like most of the Roma men, his forehead wide, his cheekbones high and predominant, but that was where the resemblance ended. Like many of his Scandinavian ancestors, his hair was the color of ripe wheat and his eyes were a deep, ocean blue, that misted and swirled like a stormy sea. Gerik’s nose was proud and strong, unlike the majority of low rooted muzzles, and his jaw was strong and square, standing out around the many rounded chins in camp.

Needless to say, Gerik was like nothing I’d ever seen before.

I watched him wipe his wet face and chest with his t-shirt before slipping it on; easily picturing him covered in heavy animal furs and a horned helmet. Before I knew it, I was giggling.

Becki was watching me. She rolled her eyes. “Yes Trinity, we all know how sexy Gerik is.”

Her correct assessment of my thoughts embarrassed me, but Gerik hadn’t been paying her any attention. As usual, his focus was solely on me.

“Do my braids, yeah?” He held out his pony holders.

My giggles turned into full on hysterics. Gerik always wore his hair in two long braids that hung down his chest, making him look even more the part of the Viking warrior. I patted my bed. “Come Viking, I’ll plait yer hair before you go off to battle.”

Still grinning Gerik grabbed the corner of my old red quilt and with one quick tug yanked it off me. I shrieked and lunged for my covers, managing to keep the sheet over my legs.

“Ugh!” Still in her pajama’s, Becki jumped out of bed and shot us a disgusted look. “It’s a little early for the mushy stuff. I’m out.” The screen door slammed hard behind her as she stormed out.

Gerik and I exchanged confused glances. Since I’d come to camp, Becki hadn’t been a gracious morning person, but she never been outright mean.

I scooted closer to him when he sat down, taking the beaded pony holders out of his hand. The sheet that was still covering me slipped down my legs. I followed his gaze to my underwear and exposed thighs.

The air in the trailer grew hot and heavy, thick with anticipation. I knew without having to look up that Gerik’s eyes had turned gray.

Gerik made me tremble with want. He could make me forget everything around me except for him. Even without the knowledge that Gypsies still roamed the earth and that magic truly did exist in our world I would have felt the power in this man.

He was a force of nature and muddled my brain with energy the likes of which I’d never felt before. He zapped my body of will and strength just by being near me. Gerik was the stuff Gods and Goddesses were made of. But a Viking God. Well, actually a Gypsy God, but tomato, tomáto.

His hands slid up my sheet covered calves, the material of the sheets thin enough for me to still feel the rough and calloused skin on his fingers, caused by years of physical labor. The kind of labor you didn’t see in the world I had been accustomed to.

I couldn’t stop the shiver that tore through me in appreciation of his masculinity.

Gerik was strength incarnate; it showed in how he carried himself, how he spoke and now in how he was deliberately and oh so slowly and very neatly sending me down a path he knew I wasn’t ready to travel.

I pushed at his chest. “Stop,” I whispered hoarsely. Gods, he was just too much, too intense, for someone as inexperienced as I was.

His voice was a deep rumble in his chest when he answered, “Is that what you really want?”

I was breathing heavily, our lips so close, his hands still gripping my sheet covered knees. It was a sliver of sanity he had allowed me to keep, one I was thankful for. If Gerik touched me, skin to skin, I would be los-

“Gerik!” I gasped as he gripped my naked thighs. Roughly pulling me underneath him, he was suddenly situated overtop of me.

Heat flooded me as his hand slid up my t-shirt to wrap around my waist. Everywhere he wasn’t touching began to shake with the need to be in contact with him.

Gerik and I had this crazy chemical reaction to each other: something that I’m sure scientists would have loved to have gotten their hands on and studied until there was nothing left of us but blood and guts.

We were like that ridiculous song, “Just one look, that’s all it took.” Except in my case it was, just one touch and Trinity turns to mush.

“Tell me to stop Trinity. Tell me to stop right now... and I will.” He ran his lips across my cheek, then down my neck where he sucked softly and my body involuntarily clenched. Gods, he was such a liar.

My skin tingled, my limbs trembled, and my body’s sensitivity heightened to unbearable amounts, as the fever of his touch raced through me. I couldn’t tell him to stop because I couldn’t speak. I was so desperate for him, so focused on the completion of our joining, how magnificent it would be.

He wasn’t playing fair at all. Once he touched me, he knew I was lost to a world of only sensation, where only feelings ruled. Awareness of the outside world was sucked away to a teeny tiny part in the back of my brain that I could barely reach.

Stop! Stop! I thought over and over again. This wasn’t right, wasn’t the way I had imagined losing my virginity. Not in haze of magic and desperation. As if he’d heard my silent plea, he released me. I scooted backward until my butt hit the canvas.

“Trinity...” His voice was, so ragged, so full of hunger, full of… everything a girl would want to hear in a man. “I didn’t mean...”

“Save it,” I snapped, trying to shake the haze of lust that, to my embarrassment, so easily consumes me in his presence. He stared at me for a moment, then, in a quick singular movement reminding me of an acrobat, jumped off my bed.

“You touched me.” I accused, trying to right my clothing. “Skin on skin. We made a deal Gerik: we would only do that if we prepared each other. Which…” I gave him a deliberate look. “You definitely did not.”

He didn’t even have the decency to look apologetic. He stood there, in all his Viking glory, looking as proud and as indifferent as ever. If it wasn’t for his refusal to meet my eyes, I wouldn’t have even known he was feeling anything at all.

“It wasn’t a conscious thing, yeah? I got… caught up. Don’t freak out.” He ran his hand through his wet hair and headed for the door.

“Gerik?” I called. “Do you think that maybe someone could fix us?” I braced myself for his anger. It always surfaced when I brought this up.

He took a deep breath before answering. “There’s nothing wrong with us.”

“But…it’s magic, it’s got to be.”

“Trinity,” He said, turning to face me. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you: no one cast a spell on us. There are no witches casting love spells, like in your Greek stories. And before you even suggest it again, there are no fairies either. The magic the Romani possess is ancient and was gifted to our people by Nature. It isn’t something that is thrown around for silly little things like love or lust spells. But that’s all I can tell you about it, my little Gaje princess. You know the rules.”

Yes, I knew them. Being a Gaje, a non-Gypsy, I wasn’t privy to the Roma secrets, the origins of their magic, or their true history. Unless I was allowed to marry into the clan, something that would only happen if I cut my ties with the Gaje world completely and a council of elders deemed me worthy. Then, a ceremony that consisted of purging my Gaje blood would be performed, all before the marriage could even occur…

According to their laws, it was forbidden for me to even live here. An apocalypse changes everything.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Stupid rules.”

He shrugged. “They have protected my people for centuries.”

“Fine, whatever. You go on protecting your Viking sex hoodoo and keep me in the dark,” I pouted.

“I’m not purposely keeping you in the-

He paused and his eyebrows rose. “Did you say Viking sex hoodoo?”

I narrowed my eyes and snarled. “Don’t make fun of me!”

“So what you’re saying is, no one is actually attracted to me, hmm?” He grinned “They only want me for my long ship and battleaxe skills, yeah?”

I couldn’t look at him when he started flirting with me; it was nearly as bad as him touching me.

I cleared my throat, embarrassed. “You are such a guy.”

“You want me too, Trinity.” He spoke softly. “And don’t pretend it’s magic.”

I couldn’t share the sentiment. “Shoo.” I waved him away. “I need to get dressed.”

CHAPTER TWO

The Romani camp was in set up in a clearing, roughly the size of a football field, in the Catskills Mountain Region of New York State. The Gypsies had strategically parked their trucks, vans and motorcycle trailers in a circle surrounding camp. Outside of the clearing a thick forest surrounded us on all sides.

Camp consisted of three main areas, the biggest being the very center, where a hodgepodge of RV’s, trailers and two and three room canvas tents were parked in neat rows, called the living lot. The trailers ranged in age and style from a typical 70’s aluminum Winnebago to top of line Recreational Vehicle’s that could comfortably house families of five. Every home had their own small fire pit for cooking, heating water and individual light, since propane was hard to come by these days.

A small stream ran through the front lot that deepened into a water hole which the clan utilized for bathing. The front lot was used mainly for chopping wood, cleaning dishes, laundry, and gutting and cleaning the animals hunted in the area. It was also home to a family of chickens and one mean as hell rooster that I’d nicknamed Frank after my old next door neighbor who refused to give out Halloween candy.

The back lot was strictly for fire meetings. A large fire pit had been dug out for entire clan gatherings. The area was roomy enough for nearly eighty clan members to fit comfortably together.

Everyone was already hard at work, working in sync together like a well oiled machine, when I’d left my trailer. That was the way of the Gypsies. Not even an end of the world like assault could stop them from living their lives the way they always had.

At first it had seemed impossible that I would somehow be able to fit in among this close nit group of people, half of whom were related in some way.

I was an outsider, a Gaje, someone that they learned through generations of persecution, deportation and genocide not to trust. After hearing portions of their history, mainly of the relatives lost in the WWII concentration camps, I really didn’t blame them.

Yet, when Gerik had brought me here, no one had questioned his judgment. Jericho Popa, the Baró, leader of the entire clan, and his wife Maisera, had welcomed me with open arms.

When Jericho made a decision it was final, he had final say and was the enforcer of the Roma Laws. Their legal structure had totalitarianism written all over it but from what I had witnessed in my time here, both he and Maisera were kind and fair and loved every one of the clan members as if they were their own children.

As always when I left my trailer, part of my personal morning routine, I checked to make sure the wards that surrounded camp still held. The wards were a magical wall of protection, invisible to the naked eye. It protected what was held inside and kept what lie outside from entering. It didn’t, however, keep us from seeing the horrors it held at bay.

Today, the number of creatures our camp had attracted seemed to have grown. I counted six of them staring around confusedly, wondering why they could smell us yet couldn’t see us. That was Romani magic for you. Unless you were Roma, you couldn’t see it. Those standing on the outside of the wards see nothing but an empty clearing…just like I would see if I were out there, with those…things. I shuddered at the thought.

They looked human enough. I suppose that was because not all that long ago they had been human. Then everything changed. I lost everything: my family, my friends, and the world as I’d always known it.

Two of the creatures closest to the wards suddenly bolted across the clearing, toward the edge of the forest line where a lone deer had wandered. Simultaneously, fangs bared, they ripped into the squealing animal and within minutes tore the poor creature apart. Then, sated, eyes glowing red, they turned on each other.

Those creatures were a deadly combination of both animals and humans. They not only possessed great speed and agility with heightened senses, and the incredible ability to heal instantly, they also had the power of reason making them the ultimate predator.

“Trinity?” I jumped as a hand came down on my shoulder. Stefan Sava, a man around my father would have been if he was alive, was smiling down at me.

“You’re shaking, child. Come away from here.” With a big arm around my shoulders, Stefan pulled me from the gruesome sight beyond the wards and began walking me back to the innards of the living lot.

I saw Gerik sitting by a small fire near the tent where food was prepared. Made first thing in the morning and kept heated all day, it was available for the clan to eat at their leisure. I would have gone over to him if not for the prostitute sitting next to him. Onyx, not really a prostitute, had a long standing thing for Gerik. Whereas typically I find the Gypsy women gorgeous, Onyx just reminds me of a cheap impersonation. Maybe it’s the emptiness I sense inside of her.

I watched her press her tiny, devoid of curves body up against his in an obvious sexual invitation. For a moment I fantasized that he would tell her exactly where she could shove her “been around the block and then some” ass, even though I knew he wouldn’t. He never did.

As I continued to stare, I was growing more and more jealous by the second. According to Becki, Gerik and Onyx had been an on and off item since Gerik was 17. Now at twenty-nine, their twelve year relationship made our couple of months look like chump change.

I knew I didn’t have any right to feel as I did, I didn’t have any sort of real claim on Gerik. I had made that perfectly clear to him time and time again refusing to make any real commitment to him. It wasn’t for his lack of trying. I just couldn’t seem to wrap my head around what was really between us.

But watching him with her, seeing the hunger in his eyes heighten as her actions grew bolder, stirred something ugly inside of me. I had never been outwardly jealous of my two sisters, but being an averagely pretty girl in a family of supermodels will give you a complex whether you want one or not.

Both of my sisters had taken after our father: Greek born with black hair, dark brown eyes and flawless olive skin. With their slender sleek frames and legs that went on for miles, both men and boys alike had gone out of their way to stare at them.

I suppose I was an odd mix between both my father and my mother, a 5’2” second generation Irish spitfire with blue eyes, flaming red hair, and a pale freckled body with curves that rivaled Betty Boop’s. Then there were my eyes. Not one person in either side of my family had bright green eyes.

“Ah, Trin. Looking most miserable this afternoon.”

Xan Deleanu.

The guy loved getting under everyone’s skin. I was starting to think it was his mission in life. He was frustrating, annoying and downright arrogant.

Shirtless, wearing only a pair of weathered green cargos and work boots, he was covered head to toe in chunks of mud and bits of wood. A pair of goggles sat atop his mound of waist length dreads currently tied up in a thick knot.

Xan wasn’t classically good looking, or quite as muscular as Gerik was. His body was built more like a boxer, more meat, less definition, but raw strength all the same. He had beautiful, dark bronze skin and sharp exotic features that gave his face a hardness he used to advantage: his bad boy image.

“When did you get back?” I asked him. Last I’d known, he and a few others had gone on a supply raid a few weeks ago.

“This morning.” Xan’s dark gaze looked back to where Gerik and Onyx were huddled close and he smirked at me. I shifted uncomfortably, wanting to avoid his merciless teasing.

“How was it out there?” I asked, curious about the state of the world.

“Worse. A god damn ghost town full of Skin Eaters.

“Skin Eaters?”

He shrugged. “Gotta call em’ something, right? But, you don’t wanna hear the gory details.”

He was wrong; I did want to hear them. I wanted to hear everything about the outside world. I’d been in camp since the very beginning of the disaster, with my ear glued to a radio until the batteries had run out. After that, I’d begun bombarding the raiding teams for as much information as possible. But he interrupted me before I could push.

“Next time we go for a raid, can I get you something? Maybe some Midol? Or I could just offer my own services. It’s so obvious what your needing, Trin.”

It was my turn to smirk. “Xan the fact that you even know what Midol is makes me happy enough. I’m feeling better already.”

His grin turned upside down and he scowled at me. “I have a mamă you know.”

I nodded knowingly. “Uh huh, I’m sure that’s why.”

Xan pulled a black t-shirt from his back pocket and wiped the sweat off his face. Next, he pulled a cigarette out from behind his ear and a lighter from another pocket. He took a long drag, blew the smoke out slowly and then pointed the cigarette at my chest.

“You’d be a worthy sparing opponent Trin…if only you didn’t have those pesky boobs distracting me all the time.”

I didn’t answer him. I was momentarily fascinated by a bead of sweat running down his chest, I watched it hit his rippled abdomen and dissipate into his skin.

Xan snapped his fingers in front of my face as the corners of his lips began to curve. “You with me fată?”

I glanced up at his face, embarrassed. This morning’s encounter with Gerik had left me feeling quite unsatisfied. I could only hope Xan hadn’t noticed what was wrong with me.

“You know he’s only using her to take the edge off. They’ve been doing that dance since we were kids. I don’t really understand what the hell is up with you and Gerik and I don’t really care. But if you want me to take that lush little body of yours for a ride…”

My head snapped up. Xan was grinning at me.

“It’s not like it would be a chore, Trin. Not with those sweet curves of yours and that long black hair …damn fată, how many times could I wrap that ponytail of yours around my hand? Five, six maybe?”

He snapped his teeth at me and I felt my entire body flush.

Bastard.

Xan caught my fist long before it connected with his stomach. Not that my punches would have done him much damage anyway.

“You know where to find me…”

He released my fist with a wink and headed toward his motorcycles, his movements hard and predatory. Whereas Gerik reminded me of a large cat, his movement’s fluid and graceful despite of his size, Xan was more like a bear. He would never waste time stalking his prey, he’d barrel right into it, his jaw wide open, without thinking twice about it.

He was reckless in a way no one else in camp was. Not only was Xan an adrenaline junkie but there was a chip on his shoulder that was dug in deep. It made him cocky, hot-headed and downright mean at times. I believe it had a lot to do with the fact that he’d been born without magic in a clan of Gypsies that held magic in such high regard. He had a Gaje father, some biker that his mother Drina had some whirlwind love affair with. His father hadn’t been allowed to join the clan and Drina hadn’t wanted to leave.

Like the rest of clan, he too followed the carnival circuit. Xan had performed dangerous show stunts riding his bikes, but unlike the rest of the clan, he’d developed outside relationships with the Gaje world. He’d grown extremely good at refurbishing old motorcycles and selling them, amassing in quite a lot of connections outside of his Roma life. Some thought he might have even preferred life outside the clan. Or so Becki had said.

The smell of cooking meat and steaming vegetables finally tempted my empty stomach enough to bring me meandering over to the food tent. Becki and her mother Jaelle were dishing out stew so I helped myself to a large bowl.

“Saw Gerik.” Becki pursed her full red lips and winked at me. Becki and I weren’t just roommates; she was the closest thing I’d ever had to a best friend. She was only two years older than me, and had befriended me instantly upon my arrival. We shared a common interest in a lot of things, especially our hatred of all things Onyx. Hell that made us soul mates in my opinion.

“Yeah,” I muttered. “I screwed up but-”

“Bah!” Jaelle jumped backwards causing her enormous breasts to bounce as she spattered stew all over herself. “Too hot!”

Taking a helping of stew herself, Becki threw an arm around me. “Taking a break, mami.”

Outside, we leaned against the back of a truck. She didn’t say a word. That was what I loved about Becki, she wasn’t chatty and annoying. She didn’t push. She was just there when I needed her and let me come to her in my own time.

“It happened again this morning,” I sighed.

“Woman, you need to just let nature take its course. You’ll feel a lot better once you get it out of the way.”

“He’s going to want more than that and I can’t give it to him. I can’t even bring myself to give him that. I’m not ready.”

“You might change your mind once you take that ride.” She cut her dark brown eyes at me, a knowing smile on her face.

“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes. “Clan living…” I shook my head.

“Hey! It was a long time ago. But it was…” She grinned. “Memorable.”

“Speak of the devil.” She nodded back toward the food tent. Gerik was rounding the corner, coming directly from the living lot.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “His hair is braided.”

“Let it go. It’s just hair.” Becki muttered.

“I doubt it was just hair.”

His long, blonde hair was braided with a few new beads woven throughout them. I always braided his hair in the morning and took them out in the evening; he had me doing it for the past two months and it had become part of our routine. I liked it, it felt…good and not just because being near Gerik felt abnormally good. I had always brushed my little sister Tahyra’s hair and styled it.

Three guesses at who braided it today? I wondered at what else they had done? My stomach knotted at the thought of them together intimately.

“Nice hair,” I said without thinking about it first. That was me, always doing without thinking. My mouth had a brain of its own. My daddy always said one day it was going to get me in a world of trouble.

He froze mid-step at the sound of my voice and turned to look at me. “Don’t start this with me, yeah?”

Start this with him? What a joke. He completely crossed the line this morning and he knew it.

I crossed the distance between us, my body instantly reacting to the nearness of him. I ignored it, as much as anyone could ignore an onslaught of emotional and physical perfection. But he didn’t, he never could or would; his eyes grayed and his face tightened.

Willing my frustration and lust to turn to anger, I shoved hard against his massive chest. He didn’t move. I was suddenly sick of all these men and their bodies made out of solid rock. Give me a pudgy stomach to sink my fist into. I’d at least like to hear a nice grunt or something. Any sort of acknowledgment of pain. Even a little grimace would’ve been nice.

I pushed him again. In return he heaved forward with his chest. It was just a small movement but it was enough and I stumbled backwards.

“Is something wrong Trinity?” His nostrils flared. “Something you want to talk about?”

I laughed. It wasn’t a nice laugh and I shouldn’t have done it but there was no middle ground when it came to Gerik. In order to ignore this anomalous attraction, I had to try and shut down completely. I became cold and distant, repressed my brains normal responses to him to be flirtatious and sensual. It was the only way: black or white. There was never any gray area with Gerik and me, unless it was the color of his eyes and that color that was for me and me alone.

I turned to leave but he snatched my wrist causing heat to flare where he touched me. It shot up my arm, arrowed through my chest making my breasts swell and ache, then spiraled down toward my stomach before settling in between my legs.

I faltered.

It took every ounce of sanity left inside of me to glare at him but I managed it and he glared right back, unwilling to release me.

Both our bodies were tense and strung as tight as wires as we silently fought. He wanted everything from me and I wanted… Well that was the problem wasn’t it? I didn’t know what I wanted. The emotions pouring out of us were already past excessive and well on their way to redundancy.

“You feel that, yeah?” He leaned downed and pressed his lips to mine. His kiss was like a shock to my already overloaded system. My heart was thumping hard and fast against my chest feeling like, at any moment, it might explode.

“That’s me inside you, Trinity. I’ve always been there and always will be.”

I gasped against his mouth as my body betrayed me and swayed forward, collapsing against him. The electric sensations he was somehow creating within my womb spread like wildfire across nerve endings. My insides writhed and stilled, thrashed and throbbed until the final explosion left me grasping to stay standing, fighting for breath, as it threatened to end me completely.

Gerik held me steady against him until the quivering inside of me had subsided, and I was again able to hold my own body weight. Nevermind the fact that I was still breathing quite heavily.

“Feel better?” He whispered, his breath against my cheek beginning to stoke a fire inside me that had yet to die. A fire I feared, that with Gerik, would never die.

I swallowed hard and tried to nod.

“It’s only you, Trinity. I keep telling you that, yeah?” He tilted my chin up until I was drowning in his two deep blue pools of blue. I never wanted to leave his arms, never wanted to let go, never-

“Gerik?” Becki said softly, appearing next to us. “Trinity and I have clothes to wash and if you don’t let her go, we’re not going to get them done before daylight runs out.”

I’d never been so grateful for dirty underwear before.

I followed Becki to a large metal basin where three large piles of clothes waited for us. She threw me a large clump of soap and I dutifully started scrubbing clothing against a washboard.

I had never before been a big fan of manual labor. It had also never crossed my mind that someday I would find myself burdened with such a large amount of it either. Here my days are longer than ever before, eaten up by washing clothes and dishes, cooking and serving food and playing with children who are not mine. I fall into bed at the end of the day bone tired with aching muscles and sore feet and yet…I feel a fulfillment that I can honestly say I’d never experienced before.

Technology, even the simplest forms of it, had made people’s lives so much more accommodating but it had also disconnected us. But here, in this Romani camp, we are forced to interact just to survive. It was a forgotten way of life, yet, to the Romani it was all they’d ever known and they worked hard to keep it that way.

Staying in tune with the earth and keeping their families close, passing knowledge along to the next generations was what the Gypsies considered the right way to live. They never wasted a thing. They didn’t litter or purposely pollute. Everything had a use or a purpose. The land we lived on was sacred, it gave us life and in return they gave back to it. That, to me, felt right and I respected them for it.

“So…” Becki said.

I paused in my scrubbing to rub the itch on my nose with the inside of my elbow, careful not to get soap on my face. “What’s up?”

“How would you feel about cooking duty tonight?”

I narrowed my eyes. “No one cooks at night, what are you talking about?”

“I’m supposed to make jerky tonight, but I promised Hockey I’d meet him in the back lot later.” She scrunched her face up at me like a cute little puppy dog.

“Pretty please, Trinity? I’ll be your best friend!”

I rolled my eyes. “You already are.”

She jumped up, clapping her hands. “Great! I so owe you one! I’ll be right back, I’m going to go tell him we are on for tonight.”

She ran off, her hands still covered in soap.

Hockey and Becki had been together for a few months. They were polar opposites. Whereas Becki was loud, Hockey was quiet, Becki liked to drink and Hockey didn’t, Becki wouldn’t read a book to save her life and Hockey constantly had his nose buried in them. Becki had dated half the guys in camp and I’m pretty sure Hockey hadn’t dated anybody until Becki. Still, they were pretty adorable together; she did all the talking while she dragged him around behind her.

“Trin, do you ever smile?” Xan appeared out of nowhere and threw a large green duffle bag at my feet.

“Didn’t you already fill your harassment quota for the day? I asked.

“I’m just dropping off dirty laundry, not here to fight.” He nodded at the canvas bag he’d left at my feet. “Mostly Pitti’s underwear and socks. Knock yourself out.”

I groaned. Pitti Moldoveanu had the smelliest feet in the world.

“Xan?” I called out as he turned to leave, wanting to ask him something that maybe only he might have a familiarity with.

He turned, one eyebrow raised, his eyes dark and hard. I thought about his explosive temper and changed my mind.

“Never mind," I said quickly.

“Fată, what’s bothering you?” He leaned up against the basin a few inches from me, too close for comfort, his dark eyes always assessing. I always felt uncomfortable around him, exposed in a way I wasn’t used to feeling.

“Your father couldn’t stay with the clan because he wasn’t a Roma right?”

Surprise lit his features and for a moment I didn’t think he would answer me.

Then, “Yeah.”

“So what makes me any different? Is it just because it isn’t safe out there? If it was would I have to go?”

Xan just stared at me, his body ridged. I gathered his father was a sore subject.

“I don’t know,” He finally said. “Now, my laundry?” He nodded toward the bag and walked away.

I huffed. “Jerk.”

CHAPTER THREE

Serbia, 1065 A.C.E

“Emilian! Emilian! Hurry, before my mami sees!” Treime giggled at his surprised look as she tore past him. Colorful petals now sprinkled the countryside as her long black hair blew out behind her. The wildflowers and intricate braids that had been woven into her hair for the earlier festival were both lost to the wind.

His footsteps behind were a heavy stampede. Her little heart began to race in anticipation the louder and closer they grew. Treime’s excitement was palpable; it was easy to ignore the dirty looks and nasty comments from the Gaje villagers as they ran past them.

Treime let loose a scream of frustration as the tips of his fingers brushed against her back. He was gaining on her. Again.

On a whim she changed direction toward the village well near the outskirts of the forest, but she hadn’t been fast enough. Emilian’s hands slipped around her middle and in mid run she was swung up through the air as Emilian began to laugh.

He crushed her against him and twirled until she gasped for air.

“Ah puţin o…” He laughed harder. “You’ll never be faster than me. It’s just not possible.”

His dark brown eyes flashed gray as he set her down and tapped her on the nose. Treime stomped her feet and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why?”

Emilian shrugged unapologetically, still grinning. “Well for starters because you’re 9 and I’m 16 but mostly because you’re a girl.”

Treime, suddenly angry, grabbed his wrist and released forth a string of the most unfeminine curses she could think of.

She waited for Emilian to start laughing. He always did when she cursed. He’d taught her most of them. Instead he’d grown unusually quiet, his eyes somewhat unfocused as he stared down at her.

“Emilian?” She shook his wrist, feeling his warm skin twitch under her hand. Treime loved the way their skin warmed when it touched. It never did that when she touched anyone else and she’d never told anyone about it either.

She wanted it to be their secret. Someday, she though, when she was older, she would tell Emilian about it too.

Emilian jerked his arm out of her grasp and frowned at her. Treime’s lower lip started to tremble. Did he know? Was he mad?

“Go home Treime, no more playing today.”

“But Emi-

“Go.” His eyes had turned gray and Treime’s entire body warmed at the sight of them. Whenever Emilian’s eyes changed color, all she wanted was to be closer to him, to hug him, to hear his stories, and the songs he sung, even though she’d heard them all a hundred times before.

“Don’t make me say it again Treime,” Emilian’s eyes flashed white with anger. Treime backed slowly away from him, no longer recognizing her friend. Suddenly, Emilian’s fist shot out, connecting with the solid stone wall surrounding the well. With a scream, Treime ran from him, stopping only when she found a wide tree trunk to hide behind.

He brought his hand back to him covered in blood.

“Are you hurt?” A small voice asked.

A village girl was approaching the well clutching a large bucket to her chest.

“I could help you,” The girl said.

Slowly, he turned toward the villager and Treime watched in astonishment as her best friend smiled at the silly girl.

Was he going to talk to her, a Gaje? They thought the Romani people were thieving beggar scum. Her clan had to move all the time because of people like her.

Holding out his injured hand for the Gaje girl’s inspection, Emilian waited until she was close. Then, using his good hand, he pulled her forward and her bucket fell to the ground. Treime saw his magic before the girl did. It was just a small amount of fire that Emilian pressed against the girl’s chest.

Where a typical village girl would have probably run screaming if a Roma boy had kissed her, this girl melted into Emilian’s arms. She watched as Emilian led the love struck girl into the woods, already untying the laces on her bodice.

CHAPTER FOUR

That night sleep never came.

After spending hours knee deep in salt water, soaking sliced meat until I felt salted enough to hang myself on the drying rack, I should have been tired enough to sleep for days. Instead I ended up tossing and turning. Eventually, I gave up trying and wandered out into camp.

I could see the Popa’s fire pit burning high. As I walked toward it the low hum of male voices and the sweet sounds of a violin grew louder.

Jericho, the Jankovic brothers Lajos and Marcell, Mihai Asenov and his son Shandor, Xan, Gerik, Stefan Sava Sr. and Hockey, without Becki, all sat around the fire drinking out of Jericho’s large jug of homemade Plum Ţuică.

Gerik saw me before anyone else. He always knew when I was near. My skin heated at the memory of what had passed between us earlier and I looked away, embarrassed. When I looked back at him he was smiling brilliantly, the happy expression having reached his eyes. My breath caught at the exquisite sight of his features lit up with happiness. Every line on his face was symmetrical perfection, every plane and hollow, an artistic masterpiece. Gerik wasn’t just handsome or attractive; he was the masculine definition of beautiful.

Marcell looked up at me and smiled or grimaced, I could never tell the difference. “Ah lepo dekle na lep večer,” He grunted.

I didn’t understand a thing he said. Marcell and Lajos spoke only Slovenian, neither bothering to speak English or any other language. I was convinced they both could but simply wouldn’t.

I looked around at the varying faces and ages, “Boys night?” I asked, not wanting to intrude if it was.

“Not at all. Please join us.” Jericho motioned to the chair next to him and offered me the precious Romani drink. For the first time ever, I was seeing Jericho with his long salt and pepper braid unbound. His hair hung long and thick down his back and even though he had to be in his sixties, maybe even seventies, he was a very handsome man.

I took a long pull of the sweet liquor and savored the slow burn down my throat and the warming sensation in my belly. “Mmmmm. My daddy would have loved this.”

“Your father liked his spirits?” Stefan asked.

“He was a big fan of Absinthe and Ouzo.” I grinned remembering when my daddy gave me my first shot at 16 and I coughed myself into a ball on the floor.

“Man after my own heart.” Xan chimed in.

“I’m assuming Trinity, we have you to thank for three fresh batches of jerky?” Jericho smiled broadly at me, the lines around his eyes crinkling up. I nodded, grimacing. “Thanks to Becki I’ll probably never get the stink out of me.”

Shandor laughed. “Where is that roommate of yours?”

That was a good question. I was also wondering where Becki was. She hadn't been in our trailer when I'd left and she wasn't out here.

“Sleeping”, I mumbled trying to avoid Hockey’s questioning gaze.

“Mmm…hmm.” Shandor drawled shooting Xan an amused glance.

Hockey flipped the brim of his hat up and turned toward Shandor. Shandor was one of few males in camp who had short hair; it had been shaved into a bleached blonde Mohawk when I’d first arrived in camp. Months later, his natural dark brown hair around the hawk had grown in significantly giving him a very cartoonish skunk like appearance. But his good looks made up for his desperate need for a haircut. Dark olive skin with flirtatious caramel eyes and a lean muscular body had the girls taking a second or third glance but his attitude was another story altogether. In my opinion, he wasn’t worth the trouble.

“What?” Shandor put his hands up, palms forward in a submissive pose. “Just asking where she was?”

“Trinity?” Hockey looked at me. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

The question caught me off guard. Hockey, although Becki’s boyfriend and often in my presence, barely speaks to me. Not that I’d ever taken much offense to the lack communication between us since Hockey lacks communication with nearly everyone in camp.

When I didn't answer him, he bit his lip and looked at the ground.

I looked around. We had become the center of attention in this small group. No longer talking, everyone was now staring at me and Hockey, whose half hidden face had become bright red. I took another swig out Jericho’s jug and jumped up, suggesting that we go somewhere else to talk. I chanced a glance back at Gerik. I shouldn’t have. I’m positive he was channeling his Norse ancestors as they went A-Viking.

“Has Becki seemed… off to you lately?” Hockey paced back and forth beside the creek while I soaked my feet in the warm water.

Startled by the strange question, I glanced up at him. “Not that I noticed really, why?”

He waited a minute before answering. “No reason,” He said, kicking a rock into the water.

“Did something happen tonight? Did you guys get into a fight?”

He sat down next to me, his face twisted in confusion. “Tonight?”

Oh. Shoot. So she hadn’t been with him tonight and unless I wanted Becki's problems to become my own I needed to change the subject quickly.

“I… uh… so what do you think is off about her exactly?”

He began to fidget, taking his hat off and on, nervously run his fingers through his hair.

“I feel like she’s hiding something from me, she seems distant and unhappy…” He trailed off, staring at something in the distance. Gerik was standing near the swimming hole. Everything about him told me he was annoyed.

Hockey stood up quickly and cleared his throat. “I’ll talk to you later.”

I wiggled my feet in the warm water and leaned back on my elbows. I was actually glad for the interruption. Whatever Becki had been up to tonight I certainly didn’t want to get in the middle of it.

Hockey walked quickly away giving Gerik a wide breadth.

“What was that all about?” Gerik asked, taking a seat next to me. I shook my head. I wasn’t going to tell Gerik anything about Hockey and Becki’s personal business.

“Is something going on with you two?” He asked.

Used to his jealousy, I looked up at him with what I hoped was a mysterious look on my face and in a low voice with a sinister undertone said, “There are things of which the Gaje cannot speak of to the Romani. For the protection of my people, it is forbidden.”

He narrowed his eyes. "Hockey isn't a Gaje."

I had to laugh at him. “Are you actually jealous of Hockey?”

He didn’t answer.

“Have I ever told you about Phthonos Gerik? The Greek spirit of jealousy?”

He smiled. “No Trinity, you haven’t. Yet.”

He bumped shoulders with me, causing the tiny hairs on my body to stand to attention. The contact made me shiver.

“You’re cold, yeah?” His voice was a throaty whisper that stroked my senses wide awake.

“Come here.” He pulled me over him and settled me in between his legs, tucking me in close against his body, with his arms across me. The instant he'd touched me, fire licked across my skin causing my body to arc upwards on a gasp. He grasped my arms to hold me down and keep me firm against him. Rubbing my arms slowly, up and down, I eventually calmed to his touch.

Using his face, he brushed the hair away from my neck and rolled the soft skin there between his teeth. I tilted my head to give him better access and ground my body backwards into his. The friction caused the heat between us to flare hotter as the need for him burrowed a deep tunnel inside of me.

Then he kissed me.

Oh, Aphrodite.

“Please,” I panted, now fevered with need and desperate for completion. I dug my fingernails into his thighs. “Please Gerik.”

“Anything Trinity. Just tell me what you need…” He spoke to me in a chorus of barely audible growls.

I grabbed his hand and put it where I needed it most.

My world went dark with pleasure as the fierce, desperate ache inside of me was replaced with a small flame of desire that grew bigger and stronger with every touch and sensation until I couldn’t take it anymore. Like a match thrown on gasoline, I simply erupted.

As hot as a summer on the beach of Skala and a soft as the waves of the Aegean Sea, I came apart in Gerik’s arms.

The scents of freshly ground cinnamon and ripened pine needles continued to caress my senses as I lay limp against him. Gerik was Christmas in the summertime.

Gerik was...everything.

The next day I found myself squeezing my eyes closed in fear as Marko Siwak caught Xan around the neck and slammed him down hard on the ground. He then turned, fell to his knees breathing hard as if that final action had taken the last bit of energy he’d had.

Becki’s twin brother, Indiana, roared his enjoyment at the turn of events. There was apparently no love lost between Xan and him.

Fifi Horváth squealed in delight as Xan shot up, grimaced as he spit blood and lunged at Marko, tackling him from behind. The two of them rolled for some time, fists flying. The sound of flesh pounding on flesh was making my insides roil.

I seemed to be part of a small majority. The dozen or so others watching the fight were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Every blow that caused pain, every tackle that took a man down, every trickle of sweat and blood was an aphrodisiac, especially to the Horváth triplets.

Xan, who’d managed to pin Marco down on his belly, had the poor guys arms wrenched behind his back in a very unnatural position.

Grinning nastily, Xan bared his teeth at the crowd. “Nadya!” He shouted.

Jericho and Maisera’s granddaughter, the youngest Popa at twenty-three years old stood up and brushed the grass and mud off her tiered rainbow colored skirt.

“What do you think of your man now mea dulce fata?” Xan taunted.

Nadya, hands on hips, narrowed her pretty brown eyes. “I think I’m going to have a hard time telling him what a cai fundul you are with him under your boot!”

Even with his face in the dirt I could hear Marko laughing.

“Who’s next frate’s?” Xan bellowed helping Marko up. He released him with a friendly shove.

This was a typical afternoon for the guys. Hours upon hours of physical labor was never enough to tire them out. They had to beat each other bloody, bruised and broken in order to call it a day.

Cupping his hands around his mouth, Shandor yelled, “Hockey! Come on man! Get over here!”

Cutting wood near the chicken coop, Hockey waved them off. Becki’s stark look of disappointment didn’t go unnoticed by me. Why Hockey’s lack of participation bothered her was beyond my comprehension.

In my opinion the frighteningly masculine display was utterly unnecessary to prove one’s worth. No matter how beautiful their muscles looked as they tightened and released, gathering a nice coat of shine the harder they worked at bringing their opponent down, it hardly determined what kind of person they are. It only proved they could kick some ass. Not that I had much experience in the way of relationships, but it seemed that there had to be more to it than winning wrestling matches if it was going to work.

“I’ll fight you, brother.” Gerik strode forward, his hands shoved in his pockets. Shandor both snickered and giggled, sounding like a deranged hyena.

“Oooh damn,” Loiza Siwak breathed, watching Gerik take his shirt off. “I have always been so jealous of Onyx. That Gypsy bitch gets that beautiful man naked every single night.”

She turned toward the Horváth’s and lowered her voice, “My tent is right next to Onyx’s and you should hear the two of them go at it. Oh. My. God.” In a romantic gesture, Loiza put her hand over her heart. Hearing that, the Horváth’s began to giggle like thirteen year old girls.

Becki turned toward me, eyes wide, and I immediately looked away, my stomach clenching. I’d had my suspicions, it was hard not to since I had seen them disappear together and heard tidbits of rumors around camp, but hearing firsthand that they were together every single night by someone who lived right next door to Onyx was like a punch in the gut.

Xan was pouring some water over his already torn and bloodied fingers. His bottom lip was split in several places and blood was trickling from the corner of his mouth but his dark eyes were alit with pleasure. The word crazy came to mind as I watched him.

Cracking his destroyed knuckles and rolling his shoulders, he faced Gerik, smiling impishly. I shook my head. What an idiot.

Gerik, smirking, threw the first punch. His fist shot out with ridiculous speed and Xan’s head was thrust back with an audible crack. His footing wavered as he stumbled backwards but he caught himself before he fell.

The girls went crazy.

Xan’s smile had disappeared. In its place was what was going to be some nasty bruises.

They rushed each other like bulls, heads down and horns forward…er, fists forward.

I jumped up.

“Where are you going?” Becki looked shocked that I would even consider leaving this useless testosterone laden display.

“I can’t watch this.” I gestured toward Gerik and Xan. Xan was face down in Gerik’s chest, pummeling his abdomen. With both arms wrapped around Xan’s neck, Gerik was trying to wrestle him to the ground.

“Want me to tell you who wins?”

I gave her a wry look. “I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Fire meetings were our once a week version of a party. The entire clan gathered together for a lavish spread of drinks and food, storytelling, music and dancing. The celebrating usually lasted long into the night and sometimes didn’t end until the first sign of the sun.

Tonight I had been asked to tell a story, since I’d made it my business to tell them all the time anyway. I couldn’t help myself. My Daddy had been a born story teller and I’d grown up regaled with tales of Greek Gods and Goddesses and the mythology of Greece long ago. To me, it was as cherished as the stories in bible were for others. I knew the myths and legends like the back of my hand and loved re-telling them.

I waited until most of the children had gathered around me; the Moldoveanu Family twins, Pali and Mala, were taking up space on both of my knees while little Benyamin Vãdura sat directly in my lap.

Maisera, sitting with Jericho, held up her hands signaling silence to the clan. As silence descended, she smiled at me, her many wrinkles causing her face to crinkle like a ball of crumpled paper.

I scanned the crowd quickly, not focusing on anyone in particular. I didn’t see Gerik, didn’t smell him and exhaled a sigh of relief.

“Do you all know the legend of the mermaid?” I directed my question at the children. A lot of them shook their heads yes.

I smiled. “Are you sure?”

“Do they come from Greek, Trinny?” Daniella asked.

“Greece,” I corrected her. “And yes, they do. Everything does.” A collective groan followed my statement and a lot of laughter.

“Who can tell me what a mermaid looks like?”

Pali pulled on my hair. “Nakey,” He said very seriously. The men in the crowd roared with laughter and Pali, startled, looked confused by the reaction. I hugged him and whispered, “You’re right, ignore them.” Pali grinned, proud of himself.

“Mermaids are usually naked. They have the torso, arms and head of human but they also have the tail of a very large fish.”

“How do they take a crap?” Stevo Moldoveanu shouted.

“Ow!” He cried as a cup was thrown at his head.

“Anyway,” I continued, shooting him a dirty look. “This story is about the very first Mermaid, a Macedonian Princess named Thessalonike, who lived in a time so long ago no one knows exactly what year this story took place.

“Was she beautiful?”

“Yes Daniella, very. All princesses are, especially Roma Princesses, like you.”

The little girl grinned revealing several missing teeth.

Her brother was Alexander the Great…” I paused, “You all know who he was right?” A bevy of small heads shook their heads back and forth. I groaned.

“Ok, well that will be a story for another time. All you need to know is he was a great warrior, a great king, and he loved his sister Thessalonike very much. He also loved adventures and during one he discovered the Fountain of Immortality-

“What’s immorodally?” Adi’s big brown eyes were full of innocence. She reminded me of a young Tahyra when our father would tell us the same stories.

“It’s living forever without getting older.”

Little Benyamin Jr.’s eyes went even wide.

“But I want to get older,” He cried out. “I want to be big and strong like tată and Hockey and Xan.”

“I am definitely bigger than Hockey.” Xan’s voice cut through the chuckles. Hockey gave him a mocking grin, then went back to chewing on a blade of grass.

Benyamin Sr. came and collected his son, pulling him into his lap. “You’re going to grow big son; you have nothing to worry about. Let the poor girl finish her story.”

“So,” I continued. “Alexander found this fountain and took some of its immortal water and brought it home. The story goes that he bathed her hair in the precious water-

“Why?” Mala’s face was scrunched up in confusion. “Why not drink it?”

I sighed. “I’m not really sure why.”

“Dumping it on her hair sounds pretty stupid to me.” A few of the other children murmured in agreement with her.

“Well, whether it was stupid or not, that’s what happened. Not long after, Alexander died in battle and a grief stricken Thessalonike tried to kill herself by jumping into the sea. But, because of the immortal water her brother had washed her hair in, she didn’t die.

Instead, she turned into a mermaid, an immortal mermaid who forever swims the seven seas. Whenever a ship would encounter her, she would ask the sailors a question, the same one every time. “Does Alexander the Great live?” She would ask. If they answered incorrectly, she would transform into a Gorgon, sinking the ship and all its sailors to the bottom of the sea. But if they answered correctly, telling her that “Yes, Alexander the Great lives and still rules as King”, she would allow them to pass safely.”

“But that was a lie, cuz he was dead.”

“Duh, Dani, but she was crazy, she turned into a Gordon and killed them. Wouldn’t you lie to her?” Benyamin piped up.

I laughed. “A gorgon. They have giant gold wings and huge claws and fangs with scales like a snake. They were the most feared of all sea monsters.”

“See, Dani.” Benyamin stuck his tongue out at his sister. “You would have lied too.”

Hockey’s little sister Simza stood up. “Trinity?”, She asked. “Maisera always tells us what the story means afterwards, what does your story mean?”

Oops. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“Well… ” I heard someone snicker at my hesitation causing my face to flame. The guys were going to eat me alive unless I got my act together.

Think Trinity! Think! I tried to channel my daddy.

Taking a deep breath, “It also shows you the importance of accepting what the Gods have granted you. Alexander was already a great warrior with great power. He should have never stolen the immortal water. He was never meant to have it and neither was his sister. The story shows the consequences of his greed. Instead of being thankful for everything the Gods had blessed him with Alexander ended up dying and his sister was forced spend eternity grieving him in the form of a monster, killing innocent people as a result.”

Simza nodded slowly, smiling, “It’s like dark magi-

“Sim!” Aishe yelled. The warning in Simza’s mother’s voice was clear. The little girl shut her mouth, gave me a small smile and took off toward her mother.

Aishe couldn’t have been anymore obvious. I was an outsider, an interloper, a Gaje. To speak of magic in front of me was forbidden. Between learning that Gerik’s on again/off again relationship with Onyx was definitely on and once again being called out as a Gaje in front of the entire clan, I suddenly didn’t feel much like being social.

The start of the music was a happy reprieve from my dark thoughts. A heavy drum beat had begun and the clan whooped with delight. Intrigued I headed toward where the crowd had gathered. Drums had never been used at fire dances since I’d been at camp.

The immergence of two male figures, both wrapped in bear furs complete with the bear head that concealed their identities, was a fearsome sight. Their beady eyes, formidable fangs and sharp claws cast menacing shadows from the firelight.

As the two men began to dance, heads down, feet pounding and bodies swinging, so did the clan, stomping their feet and clapping their hands along with the resounding thunder of the drums.

The bear’s movements were starkly different and yet somehow in sync with each other. It reminded me of something Native American.

There was a natural energy forming around them. Their movements were electric and the rhythm was addicting. You couldn’t help but be affected by it.

I didn’t even notice Drina standing beside me. She nodded toward the dancers, her expression one of admiration and also sadness. “Beautiful isn’t it?”

I wasn’t sure beautiful was the word I would use to describe it. Beautiful seemed far too tame a description. It was awesome, ferocious and unique.

It was downright seducing.

“So you’re a bear dancer.” I teased, finding Xan leaned up against a tree, expertly juggling his giant bear headed fur and a bottle of gin while smoking a cigarette. His face was swollen mass of blue and purple.

“You looked pretty into it,” He murmured.

“It was cool,” I admitted, a blush creeping up my neck. “I’d never seen anything like it. So, who was the other dancer?”

“Tobar.” He said on a big exhale of smoke.

“Tobar! Quiet, introverted Tobar!”

Xan shot me an amused glance. “One and the same, although he’s not so introverted as all that, just ask Becki.”

Becki?

“My father taught us. He’s a Blackfoot Indian. Or half anyway.”

“Truly impressive heritage,” I said, genuinely meaning it.

“It is what it is.” He took another swig of his gin. “At least the asshole gave me something before he took off.” He gestured to the bear skin.

“You miss him,” I guessed.

Xan’s dark eyes bored into me. “Not so much anymore. He’s been gone for twenty years.” He took another drag off his cigarette and offered it to me.

“Now I’m just kinda pissed he left me somewhere I don’t really belong. I’m a goddamn mechanic in a clan of some of the most powerful Roma in the world.” He looked down and snorted.

I could identify. I didn’t belong here either. The fire meeting tonight had, once again, painfully driven that stake a just a little deeper.

Even Gerik, who claimed to care for me and desire me, still wouldn’t share so many things with me. Things I knew he could easily share with Onyx, a fellow Roma. I had to question how anything between us could ever be real when a wall of secrets would always lay smack in the middle.

“See you later fată.” Xan nodded at Gerik, who had wandered over to us and was watching me curiously. Probably wondering why I had been avoiding him the entire day. No bruises marred his perfect face. A whisper of pity for Xan slithered through me. Gerik won everything, got everything he wanted.

“Frate,” Xan said to Gerik. He left quickly, walking toward the fire pit.

“Where have you been? And why are you smoking?” Gerik asked. “I thought that after…" He trailed off. I mean, I thought we were good.”

Good? What did that mean?

“Everything is fine.” I tried to walk around him but he mimicked my footsteps and blocked my way.

He shook his head. “You are avoiding me.”

I sighed. “I’m not. Honestly.”

Skepticism crossed his features.

“I’m really not. I just needed some…” I paused thinking of how Simza had almost accidently betrayed some magical Roma secret in my presence and had been shushed by her mother.

I shot him a hard look. “I needed some Gaje time.”

He rolled his eyes. “You can’t take it personally Trinity, you’re not one of us, you can’t expect an entire culture to change their ways overnight because you have hurt feelings.”

“No,” I said, agreeing with him. “I don’t.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Gerik, it isn’t them I expect anything from.”

He narrowed his blue eyes in confusion while I continued to stare at him.

“Me,” He said flatly as realization hit. “You expect it of me even though you know I can’t, yeah?”

"Can’t? Or won’t?” I shot back.

Gerik drew himself to his full height, his legs spread wide and his jaw set in a hard line. He laced his hands behind his neck causing his t-shirt to pull up, exposing his abdomen. My breathing increased as the thin cotton stretched tight across his broad expanse of muscled chest.

I drank him in, the sight of him, the smell of him, all instantly steering me away from my anger. All my previous hurts fled as the magic that compelled me to react to Gerik in this manner infused me. Unwillingly I took a step closer to him.

My reactions to him never went unnoticed. With his hands still around his neck, he took a step forward as well, his eyes now burning gray.

“Let me come home with you tonight,” He whispered.

My body screamed yes. The blood streaming under my skin itched and burned to move forward, to touch skin to skin, and fuse with this man.

“I can make you feel better Trinity. You know I can make everything better.”

My will broke and although Gerik’s facial expression hadn’t changed, his eyes shone brilliantly with triumph.

“Are we interrupting?” Shandor’s head appeared in between us. He was grinning like a jack-o-lantern. Behind him were two of the Horváth triplets, an arm slung over each of them.

“Oh Gods,” I mumbled, shaking my head clear.

“And sometimes you make everything worse,” I pointedly told Gerik.

Gerik continued to stare at me until I felt like I had empty holes where my eyes had been. I had never thought of him as anything but Gerik, but for the first time he looked frightening. Between his height and his impressive muscular stature, he was a formidable sight. Add the ridged set of his jaw and the moonlight glinting off his eyes, he looked downright scary.

He turned abruptly then, nearly knocking into Xan and Fifi. His long legs ate up the distance back to the living lot in a matter of seconds.

CHAPTER SIX

“Gimme the bottle Xan!” Fifi whined jumping on Xan’s back.

“Chill fată.” He took a swig and passed the bottle upwards to her.

“You okay Trin?” Xan’s dark eyes missed nothing.

I didn’t answer him.

“I do believe this is a first frate. A fată ignoring you!” Shandor mocked from beneath the eager lips of the youngest triplet, Magdolna.

Fifi burst out laughing, causing her to lose her footing around Xan, who hadn’t been holding onto her. She landed hard on her bottom. Still studying me, Xan reached down to snatch his bottle back from her. “You’re free to join us if you’d like.”

I snorted. The thought of being the fifth wheel in their drunken orgy didn’t sound the least bit fun. I shook my head and turned to go.

“You think you’re too good for us, Gaje?” Fifi’s pretty face was scrunched up in a scowl and she was pointing a long, red fingernail at me.

“She’s just playing hard to get, aren’t you?” Shandor released Magdolna’s face for a few seconds to grin at me. Yep, I thought. Definitely a hyena.

“Yeah, that’s it,” I muttered. “As I walk home I am going to be wishing one of you had begged me to stay and partake in… in whatever the hell this is? Gypsies gone wild?”

Xan’s eyes narrowed.

Fifi balled up her fist and struck a very menacing pose for a 5’3”, 110 pound girl. Xan, smirking, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back.

“Aw Trin, you’re selling yourself short. I seem to remember just last night by the creek seeing a very public-

“XAN!” I shouted over him as realization dawned. “Shut. Up.”

His smile was lazy but his eyes were as sharp as knives, ready to slice straight through any dignity I had.

“Please…” He mocked, his lips curving into a wicked smile.

“Please…” He repeated. All eyes were on me now.

“So did he Trin?” Xan’s tone had gone from mocking to downright acidic. “Did Gerik give you what you needed? Cuz, from where I was standing, it sure as hell looked like it.”

Shandor and Magdolna exploded in laughter behind me.

“You are such a jerk,” I hissed.

“Aww Xan…” Fifi slipped in front of him, wrapping her arms around his neck, lifting her chin. “You made the little Gaje slut upset.” Giggling seductively, she went up on her toes, moving in for a kiss.

Using her hair to angle her head the way he wanted it, he kissed her back. Within seconds Fifi was mewling softly, rocking her body against Xan’s.

I was instantly jealous. Not of Fifi’s rendezvous with Xan, but of the freedom she had to do as she pleased. At any time she could pull away from him, he had no supernatural power unwillingly tethering her to him. I didn’t have that luxury.

Xan glanced up and caught me staring. My face heated. Whipping around, I stalked quickly in the direction of the creek.

“I should ask that Até lover to get me some Xanax instead of Midol,” I sputtered.

“If you didn’t call me a… whatever the hell you just called me, I just might do it.”

I closed my eyes and blew out a breath. He must have literally thrown Fifi off of him to catch up to me this quickly.

“Why in all the Gods are you following me, don’t you have females in need of your expert services?”

He grinned. “You’re a female.”

I nearly choked. “Not when it comes to you.”

“Fată, if I was after that sweet stash of yours, I could have already had it.”

I gaped at him. “You did not just say that to me.”

“It’s true though, isn’t it?” Xan began individually cracking his knuckles as he looked up at the sky, his face a portrait of arrogance. “I’ve seen the way you look at me, like you’re soaking wet and need me to wring you out until you’re good and dry.”

I think I had a mini heart attack just then. “You piece of-

“Whoa! Trin! Back up the hate truck. I just came over here to apologize. I was way out of line back there fată. What happens between you and Gerik is none of anyone’s business.”

He continued to grin. “But don’t be embarrassed about being caught in the middle of the big ‘O’. You looked damn good all heated up.”

My jaw went lax. I had no idea how to respond to that.

“Your idea of apologizing is very odd,” I told him.

He took a very deliberate step toward me. “Want me to try again?” He asked in a low voice.

Feeling like a cornered rabbit, I immediately put my hand up and took a step backwards. “I thought you weren’t after my… uh… whatever you said.”

Xan froze and covered his face with his hands. His shoulders began to shake with laughter.

“What?” I asked him, confused.

With a loud guffaw, he looked up at me and burst into full hysterics. “You’re too goddamn innocent for your own good, you know that?” He continued laughing at me.

Feeling like a complete idiot, I did the only thing left to do, I turned to leave. “I really hate you,” I told him.

“Wait!" He called after me. "Fată-

A scream sliced through his words, more screams followed. I glanced back. Xan’s head was whipping back and forth.

Suddenly rushing me, Xan grabbed me from behind. His arms were like bands of steel across my stomach.

“Wh…what?”

“The wards are down!”

My stomach dropped. I looked around, noticing nothing at all different about the camp, but I wouldn’t notice the differences; I had no sense of magic at all. Apparently having a Roma for a mother at least gave you the perception of magic, something Xan obviously had, even if he didn’t actually have any powers.

A loud growl had my head jerking to the left.

“Xan!” I whispered, as he began herding me over toward the circle of vehicles. We slid in between one of the large panel vans and a truck.

“I know!” He hissed. “I heard it!”

We stood there, my back pressed to his stomach, barely breathing, listening to the sounds of shooting and yelling from the living lot. What was actually only minutes felt like hours.

“The wards are back up,” Xan breathed against my face, his breath smelling strongly of whisky. Hearing that, I nearly collapsed in relief.

A sharp peal of laughter from behind us had my stomach leaping back up into my throat. Xan’s grip on me tightened, his fingers dug painfully into my hipbones. His heart was hammering a wild rhythm against my back.

A blur of skin in front of us caught my eye. Then another, this time to the side of us.

“Fuckers are surrounding us,” Xan whispered. He let go of me long enough to fumble with the leg of his pants. When his arms returned, he was checking the chamber of his gun. A cacophony of throaty masculine laughter echoed around us.

“You think to kill us with that, human?”

“I think I’ll kill you with my bare hands if you take one more step,” Xan shot back. It only made them laugh harder.

Freaking out, I clutched Xan tighter.

“Run Trin,” Xan whispered into my ear. “I’m going to distract them. As soon as they make a grab for me, just run.”

“I can’t,” I managed to choke out. I was terrified. There was no way I was going to take off running into what would surely be my death.

The creature in front of us stepped out of the shadows, revealing himself. I couldn’t contain the tremor of terror that rippled through me or the gasp that found its way out of my mouth. Seeing his grin, a mouth full of fangs already dripping blood, caused my terror to skyrocket. Had he fed on someone from camp? Was Becki alright? Little Benyamin? Adi?

Xan tensed, ready for the attack. “I mean it Trin." He ground out, "You’d better run.”

“I can’t,” I told him, through chattering teeth.

“Stupid girl,” He spat at me.

Before I could respond, chaos erupted. Gunfire boomed in my ears, followed by garbled howling growls.

The face of the creature in front of us exploded just as he sprang to attack. A mess of blood and bone sprayed wildly upon impact. Xan turned me roughly in his arms, then hoisted me up and over him. He ran from the scene, clutching me tightly to him.

Small battles were being waged all around us. The creatures, although few, were much stronger than humans, much faster, and healed at the speed of lightening.

But these were no ordinary humans they had decided to try and make an evening snack out of. I had wanted a lesson in Roma magic and I was about to get one, up close and personal.

“Xan!” I screamed, able to only watch as a naked blur of breasts and fangs tore through the trees and launched herself at us. He jerked a hard left toward the living lot but wasn’t fast enough.

My breath left my lungs in one big ‘whoosh’ as we hit the ground hard. Xan quickly pushed me away from him and began struggling valiantly with the creature that’d jumped astride him. She slashed wildly at him with talon tipped fingers. With both hands wrapped around her throat, he struggled to fend off her fangs. He was going to tire long before she was.

Frozen in fear, I could only watch. He was going to die right in front of me, just as my baby sister had, and I was helpless once again, unable to move.

The screams were deafening. The grinding metal and whirring motors of the carnival rides could no longer be heard above the sounds of human terror.

“Trinity!” Tahyra screamed, trapped behind a wall of people, trampling each other in an attempt to flee. I could only stare as the gruesome mass of blood and limbs surged forward, enveloping her.

“Trinity!” She screamed again, her arms outstretched, reaching for me.

“Trin-

Tahyra’s screams are abruptly cut off as her body whips backwards and a spray of blood arcs through the air in her wake.

“Trinity!” Gerik pushed me out of the way. A bright, orange and white flame suddenly appeared in the palm of his hand. He whipped the burning ball at Xan’s attacker, and the creature was instantly thrown backwards. Xan rolled immediately away as she screamed, writhing in pain while her skin melted from her bones. Her blood boiled and hissed, drying before it could even reach the ground. When she was nothing but bones, her fangs bared for all of eternity, the flames dissipated.

Gerik shuddered, his hands shook slightly and then the fire in his palms winked out.

“Blestemul de vampir,” I heard Jericho yelling, drawing my attention to him. The last remaining creature was suspended in mid-air, snarling and snapping at the several men who’d surrounded it, guns at the ready.

One of the men, I think Nicu, fired. With his mouth twisted in a disgusting smile the creature fell to the ground unfazed. Again he was shot, this time blown backwards hitting a large oak with a sickening thump of flesh meeting wood. Stefan strode forward and shot him again, ripping a giant hole in his abdomen, exposing intestines. I gagged and covered my mouth.

Gerik was pulling me behind him. “Don’t watch, Trinity. They don’t die easy.”

“Other’s will come.” The creature hissed holding his guts inside of him as the wound began to heal. “They will keep coming until-

The creatures head rolled away from his body, his eyes still wide open; his mouth still moving. When his body crumpled to the ground, Marko was waiting, his machete posed and ready. Soon the creature was nothing but bloody bits of gore.

I would have collapsed if Gerik hadn’t been holding me up.

Jericho looked around, his face grim. “Clean up this mess,” He ordered sharply. “Gunnar, make sure Alana and Kizzy have double checked the wards. Gerik, Nico, burn these bodies in the back lot.”

I watched the camp begin to bustle. Bodies were moved, children were herded into Maisera and Jericho’s RV. I felt oddly detached, as if this were only a scary movie I’d been watching and not actually the life I’d been living for months now.

“Trin?” Xan waved his hand in front of my face. “Trin? Answer me? Are you okay?”

Was I ok? Was he serious? I burst out laughing.

All this magic around us and still they had gotten through. The Romani were no real match for them. If there had been more, if we had been outnumbered…

Other’s will come, The creature had said, they will keep coming until-

“Until they kill us all,” I murmured. “That’s what he was going to say.”

“Trinity!” Xan yelled. “No one is going to kill you, now snap out it!”

I studied his face, remembering how he’d protected me, shielded me with his own body even. If it hadn’t been for Xan coming to apologize to me, I would be dead right now.

“You saved my life,” I whispered.

“I did a pretty shitty job of it.” He looked toward where Jericho and Gerik stood talking. “They saved our lives. Their magic saved our lives.”

I shook my head. “I would have died long before they showed up if you hadn’t of been here.” Before he could respond I hugged him, immediately drawing back when he groaned.

“Xan?” I said, looking him over. His t-shirt had been shredded in the attack. Tentatively I lifted it up. Deep, bloody grooves marred the middle of his chest. Fingernails. He'd been scratched by those obscenely long claws they all had.

I burst into tears, thanking the Gods he hadn't been bitten.

A bite was a death sentence; he would have turned into one of those monsters. But the clan would have never let that happen, they would've killed him first, considering it a mercy killing. Because once someone turned, they were dead anyway.

I threw my arms around his neck. Xan groaned again.

“Oh Gods, am I hurting you?” I looked up at his face.

“No," He said, grinning. "That feels good Trin, keep wiggling.”

“Dammit Xan!” I jumped back and hit a wall of steel that smelled like heaven.

Large hands came down on my bare arms, steadying me. Heat flooded me. My knees began to shake. The voices around me blurred into a soft drumming of sound that swam silkily around me. But my attention was fixated on Gerik’s hands burning slowly through my skin, layer by sweet layer. Then, Gerik released me.

“Trin?” Xan was peering down his nose at me.

I shook my head. “Sorry… what?”

Xan eyes darted curiously back and forth between Gerik and I.

“Xan Daniel Deleanu!” Drina screamed as she ran towards us. “What were you doing in harm’s way?”

Xan made a face and Gerik laughed at him. “Better go get fixed up brother.”

Gerik took the opportunity to drag me off.

“What is up with all the touching?” I demanded when we were alone. “Unsolicited touching might I add.”

He leveled me with one look. “What were you doing with Xan, yeah? Alone?”

I bit my lip to keep from screaming at him. The entire camp had just been attacked, Xan had saved my life and was severely injured because of it and Gerik had the nerve to be acting like a jealous boyfriend? He was behaving irrationally.

“Nothing was going on, Gerik. I swear.” I turned to go.

Benyamin Vãduva stepped in front of me holding little Benyamin Jr.

I smiled at the little boy and tickled his bare feet.

“Gerik”, He said. “I was just told Marcell is dead.”

My smiled faded.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I ended up letting Gerik stay the night with me. Loss is never something one should have to face alone and I had never met a group of people who were not family and as close as this clan was. Closer even than most families were.

We lay awake most of the night facing one another, Gerik on his belly and me on my side, each of us just watching the other. I concentrated on his breathing mostly, watching as his chest would rise and fall with each deep intake and release of air.

“What are you thinking about?” He asked me softly.

“You,” I answered truthfully.

He blinked. “How’m I doin’?” He asked, smiling.

“What’s really going on with you and Onyx, Gerik? I want the truth.”

His chin in his palm, he propped himself up on his elbow. “I told you Trinity, it’s only yo-

“No.” I stopped him before he could lie to me again. “I know for a fact you’ve been with her since…” I gestured between the two of us, “Whatever this is with us has been going on. So please, don’t lie to me anymore.”

“What do you mean, you know for a fact? You mean you’ve been listening to the girls around camp, yeah?”

When I didn’t answer him a knowing look crossed his face. “Onyx and I have been friends forever. I spend a lot of time with her, yeah?” He leaned over me and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “That’s all it is and whatever you hear is camp gossip.”

I studied him, wondering what to believe.

“Let me hold you, min jente, make me happy, yeah?

I hesitated, knowing exactly what would happen the minute we touched.

“Right,” He said, looking away, his expression pained. “You still don’t believe me?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t.” What I did know is I wanted him to kiss me again. The warm feel of his lips still remained and being this close to him wasn’t helping.

“I promised you awhile ago that we’d go slow and I meant it. Nothing is going to happen tonight that you’re not ready for, Trinity.”

“Okay,” I said, staring at his lips. “Come over here then, Viking.”

I readied myself for the feel of his skin against my own but nothing can ever truly prepare you for full bodied satiation. His large body engulfed my own, his sweet scents saturated me, and the sensual power of him filled me to the brim, spilled over, and then filled me up again.

As he’d promised he kept in control and just held me, his face buried deep in my hair, my arms clasped over his. Control was something I was having a hard time holding on to. I wanted more, so much more.

Was this magic? I didn’t know. Whatever it was, Gerik was fighting it simply to hold me. I could feel his muscles straining against his skin, his breath was ragged and hoarse, and still he did nothing but hold me. I reveled in the perfect feel of us.

Sometime later I awoke to the sound of the Frank the rooster crowing, his hens clucking madly as they chased him through the living lot.

Gerik and I had separated sometime during the night. He had taken all of the blankets and was using up most of the bed as well. I lifted up his arm, inhaling sharply at the contact of our skin and buried myself in the crook of his body. The heavy weight of his limb settled nicely over top of me.

He stirred at our touching, a smile playing on his beautiful mouth.

To look upon him in the early morning light, to see his pale hair shimmering as the strands caught the first rays of sun, is a truly beautiful gift. He looked peaceful and very young as he blinked away the remnants of sleep. Those pools of blue he tries to pass off as eyes shone more brilliantly than even the clearest of summer skies.

And his body…Oh Goddesses, that body… Like the statues of the Gods, he is a breathtaking work of art who I admire with the all the reverence one of his splendor deserves.

A fierce wave of possessiveness I didn’t wholly understand washed over me. Mine, I thought.

I started as Gerik’s arm tightened around me. He easily flipped me onto my back.

Looking down at me with an expression just as fierce as the unexpected emotions coursing through me, my Viking regarded me gravely.

“And you Trinity, are mine.”

He didn’t give me time enough to respond before his mouth crashed down upon mine.

Marcell was buried where the wildflowers grew the tallest and the most plentiful. In time they would once again cover the ground where the earth had been disturbed in order to bury his body. The Romani had placed both jewelry and money in the ground with him for his journey back to Nature. Food and drink were placed atop his grave, as was their long standing tradition in reverence of their dead.

Death had crept into camp. No longer was the inside of camp safe from the destruction of the outside world. We had been breached, someone had died, and the Romani wore that knowledge as plain as the expressions on their faces.

The camp still looked the same, chores still had to be done, the children still laughed and played, we still burned through the darkness with our fire meetings. Life as usual went on, but deaths ugly pall had settled over top of us. Something inside of me feared that this was only the beginning. That very fear had me thinking how useless I’d been when Xan and I were attacked. I may not be a Roma and I may not have magic but that didn’t mean I had to go on being helpless.

I had just finished dish duty when I set out to find Xan. Near the wood pile, an axe slung lazily over his bare shoulder, I found him. He was waiting for Shandor to place another thick log on the wide tree stump used for splitting logs into firewood.

As usual, he was shirtless as he worked; his jeans rode low on his hip bones, highlighting the sharp, muscular cut of his waist. My gaze snagged on the red and ragged slashes on his biceps and across his chest and guilt settled heavily upon me. I didn’t do anything to help him. I had been completely useless.

“Hey Trin-ity,” Shandor said in a singsong voice, shifting my attention to him. He looked from me to Xan and back to me with a sly smile on his face.

I scowled at him just as Xan slung the axe down. Shandor and I had to jump back a few feet in order to avoid the wood splatter.

“Thanks for the warning.” I shook out my sundress, now covered in bits of moss and wood chips.

He shrugged not even looking up at me.

He picked up another log, causing the muscles in his arm to flex and bulge. I stared.

Shandor coughed emphatically. The axe came down hard again, the wood split with an audible crack, one piece fell one way and the other fell to the opposite side. The smell of fresh cut oak tinged the air. Using the crook of his elbow to wipe the sweat from his forehead, Xan turned to look at me, his dark eyes cold.

“Something I can do for you fată?” He asked.

I looked back up at Shandor and saw amusement riding his features. It had been hard enough working up the courage to ask Xan for this, I absolutely could not do it in front of Shandor.

“Can I talk to you for a sec?” I asked him.

“No.”

Both surprise and embarrassment caused me to take an instant step back. “No?” I repeated dumbly.

“You got a problem hearing me, Trin?”

“What’s your problem, Xan?” I asked, without thinking, “Why are you being such a bastard?” Eyes wide at my mistake, I slapped my hand over my mouth.

Shandor burst out laughing. “Because he is one!”

Xan slung the axe down into the tree stump, securing it firmly into the wood. He glanced at me, his demeanor deceptively calm. Suddenly, he swiveled to the right and landed a quick punch to Shandor’s gut. He doubled over with a groan.

“Son of a bitch,” Shandor seethed, glaring up at his friend.

Xan shrugged. “You keep talking about shit about my mamă and I’ll keep knocking some sense into you frate.”

Then he turned on me, gripped my elbow and dragged me some feet away.

“Trin, do me a favor and leave me alone.”

I gaped at him. What was his problem?

“What is your problem?”

“You’re a complication I just don’t need in my life.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

He raised both hands in the air in an exasperated gesture. “Do you see me hanging around girls like you? Girls who can barely take care of themselves, let alone know what to do with a guy? I’m not sure exactly what you’re thinking fată. That because we shared some life threatening experience together we were going to become best friends?”

He snorted. “Sorry Trin, not gonna happen.”

Shocked and hurt I could only stare at him, unable to do anything about the tears that were forming.

“You…you…are…” I choked on my words as the tears began to fall.

“Yeah, I know what I am.” He gave me a humorless smile. “Now go find Gerik. He’ll give you a hug and make it all better. Probably should go before he see’s you talking to me anyway.”

His reaction to me, his hurtful words, suddenly made some sense.

As Xan turned to go, “He threatened you, didn’t he?” I asked quietly.

Xan paused.

Feeling bolder I continued, “He threatened you to stay away from me and you’re listening because you’re afraid of him!”

It was absolutely the wrong thing to say to a guy like Xan.

He closed the distance between us quickly, his dark eyes blackening with anger, the kind of anger only a guy like Xan knew. Anger that grew heavy and deep in between years and years of resentment, festering like an infected wound until the flesh was so decayed there was no going back, no healing from the pain.

“Fată,” He growled, leaning close to me. “I’m not scared of anything, just didn’t want my mamă to have to bury me is all. Probably would upset her.”

“Oh,” I whispered, swallowing hard. “Yeah, it probably would.”

“So what then, Trin?” He asked, his voice low and his body close enough that I could smell the scent of wood and sweat on his skin. “You want to go fuck somewhere?”

“What!” I sputtered. “No! I only wanted you to teach me how to fight!”

His eyes widened and he took a step back. Amusement spread across his harsh features.

“And”, I continued, “shoot a gun.”

“Shoot? As in shoot a real gun? Why?”

“I don’t ever want to feel that helpless again,” I told him, referring to the night we were attacked.

A look of in intrigue lightened his features and I could’ve sworn he was fighting a smile.

“Okay,” He finally said.

“Okay?” It couldn’t be this easy.

He made a face. “Yes, Trin, I said okay.”

He came forward again and I tensed at his nearness. “Do you know why I’m gonna do it?”

I shook my head, unable to speak.

“Because fată, I’m not afraid of Gerik.”

Then he kissed me.

My shoulders hit the nearest RV with a loud thud as he pushed me backwards. When I gasped in shock, he used the reaction to force his way into my mouth, not caring whether I responded to him or not. He continued to trespass, taking what he wanted, giving nothing in return.

It was a kiss meant to show dominance. He wanted me to know how much he didn’t care about Gerik. How much he didn’t value his life.

There was nothing exciting or sexual about it.

That wasn’t even the worst of it. I could have dealt with Xan’s impulsive display of control, his reckless need to prove that Gerik’s strength or magic wasn’t a concern of his. It was the wrongness of the kiss that truly shocked me. It was the revulsion that shot through my senses and the pain that prickled my nerve endings, all because of one kiss.

I instantly recoiled from Xan, trying hard to end the kiss. My mouth was like one of two repelling magnets desperate to get as far away from the other as quickly as possible. Eventually he pulled away from me, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. I almost fell over trying to get away from him.

“Next week after your chores. Front lot on the opposite side of the creek. If you’re not there Trin, don’t come near me again.”

I watched him stalk away, while I stood stock still, still reeling from the kiss. Had Gerik done this to me? Had he cast some sort of guy repellent spell?

Having never kissed any other guy aside from Gerik, and as of two seconds ago, Xan, I wouldn’t know. I’d suddenly wished I’d taken advantage of all of those guys who had asked me out on dates.

I found Becki sitting on the front steps to our trailer staring forlornly at a patch of grass in front of her.

She looked up as I approached. “Bad day?”

I shrugged. “More like painfully educational,” I said. “You?”

“That about sums it up.” She went back to studying her grass.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Hungary, 1070 A.C.E

Treime felt him before she saw him, smelled the sweet perfume that was Emilian and her stomach fluttered in anticipation. It was the perfect ambush. He never spoke to her anymore. He even went as far as to purposely avoid her at times, so she was determined to get him alone and rekindle their friendship.

“Treime! Treime get your skinny butt back to camp!”

She giggled. God how she missed him. She was shivering, not because of the snow but from the knowledge that she just might get to touch him tonight. It had been so long since she’d felt the warmth their skin could create by just a mere touch.

Shifting purposely in the tree branch, she caused a lump of snow to drift to the ground. Emilian looked up immediately and scowled at her.

“Get down right now, brat!”

She stuck her tongue out at him.

“Get down Treime!” He growled. “Everyone is exchanging gifts tonight for Yule and I don’t want to be stuck out here in the cold with you.”

Treime sniffed, insulted by his cruel words.

No matter how hard she tried, he refused to pay her any attention. He paid other girls lots of attention. She watched him sneak off with them all the time. Had even caught him kissing other clan girls, while she got nothing more than glares, dirty looks and lots of lectures.

At 10 and 4 years she was dreaming of her first kiss, had even had several boys try to kiss her but she had been repulsed by the prospects. It had to be Emilian. There’d never be anyone else, but there must be something wrong with her since he seemed to hate her so much.

“TREIME!” He roared.

“Okay, okay.” She jumped down, falling hard on her bottom. Emilian laughed as Treime tried desperately to wipe the snow off her kirtle.

“You’re soaking wet now,” He scolded.

“What do you care?” She threw back at him, defiantly crossing her arms.

He threw his arms up in the air and shook his head causing his long brown hair, now damp from the snow, to fall in his eyes. “You’re right. I don’t. Now go.” He pointed in the direction of the camp.

Tears stung her eyes. She never understood what she had done to deserve such treatment?

“Treime! Start walking!” Emilian grabbed her arm. “Get mov-

Treime? Oh, Treime, why are you crying? I didn’t mean…”

She looked up at him through watery eyes. “Why do you hate me?” She whispered though chattering teeth.

“Hate you?” He laughed as he captured her cheek in his palm. Both of them instantly felt the heat their touch caused. Treime gasped and Emilian closed his eyes. When he opened them again he took a moment to swipe a few of her tears away with his thumb. “I don’t hate you.”

“But…but you never play with me anymore. You never talk to me, we never run. You just yell at me and–

“Treime, stop.”

Treime looked up at him. His brown hair was covered in snowflakes and his breath was coming out in short little white puffs. His brown eyes had turned gray and what she saw in their depths made her want to weep.

Emilian had once been her playmate and her best friend. He’d always be the most handsome boy she’d ever seen but now… he was what? Emilian was a man now, full grown, who thought her still a child. She knew she didn’t belong in his life at all.

Emilian sighed, a deep heavy sigh, and Treime knew this was the moment where he would tell her to leave him alone for good.

“I wanted to let you have your childhood for as long as you could. For as long as I could stand it…”

“I don’t understand?”

“Puţin o, it’s simple. We are betrothed. We have been since you came into this world as a red faced babe.”

Treime’s heart stopped beating. Betrothed! To Emilian? This was the best Yule gift she could have gotten! Emilian smiled seeing her face light up and gathered her in his arms. Suddenly she needed more of him. She wanted to be… even closer to him. She was burning from their contact in a way she had never experienced before. Grasping frantically at his furs, she tightened her hold on him and aligned her body with his.

Emilian stiffened at the intimate contact.

Treime flushed, embarrassed at his rejection of her.

“All of those girls Emilian!” She accused. “You can kiss and touch them, but not me! Don’t even try to deny it! I have seen you!”

She screamed when he tried to reach for her again. “God only knows what else you did with them!”

“I am one and twenty, Treime and you are seven years younger than me. A child! I…I just…” When he didn’t say anything else Treime stomped her feet and turned away. Tears formed again in her eyes.

“You were betrothed to me! And you…with them! You are a liar and…and you are IMMORAL!”

I had to!” Emilian bellowed, startling her. “You were and still are a child!”

“I’m not a child!” Treime yelled. “And I will never marry you!” Even as she said the words she knew they weren’t true, there was no one else she would ever want but the man in front of her.

Hurt and angry, she took off fleeing through the woods.

It didn’t take long for Emilian to catch up to her. He was still faster, still bigger and much stronger. He swooped her up from behind and swung her around through the air.

“You’re acting like a child,” He said, breathing heavily as he placed her gently on the ground, still clutching her from behind.

“I’m not a child,” She whispered, on the verge of crying again. Treime hated herself for feeling so vulnerable and for being so weak. It had felt as if Emilian had possessed her very soul since the first day she could remember, but it had never been the same for him. She ached so badly inside she wanted to scream, to beat the earth from the unfairness of it all until it bled with understanding.

“You will marry me Treime. I have waited for you and will continue to wait until you are old enough, but then you will marry me.”

Emilian spun Treime roughly around and shook her. His eyes were dark, his anger hot and thick around them.

“You have no say or choice in the matter.”

“And you always get what you want, don’t you?” Treime thought of the Gaje girl at the well so long ago when she’d felt the touch of Emilian’s magic. She wondered how many other girls he’d used magic on to get what he wanted.

Emilian’s eyes widened.

“Little one, I didn’t force her,” He said gently. “All the magic did was intensify what she was already feeling.”

Treime started. “How did you know what I was thinking?”

Emilian smiled. “We’re special Treime, but you… you were special before you were even born. The Baró and all the elders knew that you were coming and that you were to be mine.”

“You’ve known about us since before I was born?”

“I did. I was terrified of you at first. Then I saw those big green eyes of yours and you smelled so beautiful and…”

He tilted his head smiled at her again, a different kind of smile, one that made her feel not so childish and caused a warming sensation low in her belly.

“And what?” Treime’s cheeks heated under his gaze.

Emilian’s lips met hers in a soft kiss that was slow and sweet and achingly tender. When he pulled away Emilian cupped her cheeks in his hands and their eyes locked.

“I kissed you puţin o. And I knew then I was forever lost.”

CHAPTER NINE

And I thought learning how to use a gun would be challenging. Xan wanted me to learn how to breathe. But not before he gave me a speech about it.

“Stress is gonna screw you up. Breathing correctly will help you with both fighting and shooting. It’s gonna relax you and get your blood flowing properly.”

He had me lying down on the grass inhaling deeply through my nose and exhaling twice as hard through my mouth.

“Focus on ridding all of the tension in your body, especially your hands.” He kept repeating. “Your hands need to be steady, that’s the most important thing. Steady hands.”

Steady hands. Steady hands. He said it so much I was afraid I would be saying it my sleep.

“How do you feel fată?”

I yawned. “Fine.”

“Good. Let’s get started then.”

Xan didn’t hand me a shotgun like most of the guys carried. Instead he gave me a small gun, a smooth black semi-automatic. His reasoning for this?

“I give you anything with a higher caliber fată and your delicate little self isn’t going to be able to operate it.”

I kept my mouth shut. I wanted to learn how to use a weapon, not fight with Xan about what kind of weapon I should use or what a sexist pig he is. I was a little disappointed though, I’d seen the bigger ones blow huge holes in those creature’s. That was the kind of power I was looking for.

That afternoon he taught me how to take out the magazine, how to empty it, reinsert it, and had me doing dry fire drills all morning. It was mind numbing. By lunch time I wanted to shoot him, only I had no bullets in the gun.

“What’s that look for Trin? You think I’d let you near me with a loaded gun before you know how to use it?” He grinned. “I may be beautiful but I’m not stupid.”

“It’s so hot.” I whined. It was late afternoon, the temperature was unbearable, and the extra fires that had been lit around camp were only uncomfortably adding to the summer heat.

Xan was sitting on the grass, the guns in-between his spread legs. He wiped his forehead on his shoulder. “Speaking of, would you tie up my hair? My hands are filthy.”

I trudged over to him. “I don’t have any hair ties.”

“Just tie it up in one big knot.”

Thick with pencil thin dreads, his hair hung down to his waist. I separated the dreads into two handfuls and tried to tie them together in a giant bow. He laughed as I struggled. It didn’t look nearly as neat as when he did it himself.

“Your hair is annoying.” I plopped down next to him. I watched, fascinated by how he disassembled and reassembled the weapons which such ease.

“But beautiful,” He said in a mock serious tone. “My mamă said so.”

“She has to say that. Not only is she your mommy, but she does your dreads for you.”

I stuck my tongue out at him and quickly slipped it back in my mouth when he tried to grab it with his greasy fingers.

“Ugh, gross,” I yelled and rolled away from him right onto a rather large and familiar pair bare feet.

Oh Gods. I looked up. And up, and saw Gerik looking down at me.

“What are you doing?” He practically growled.

“Nothing,” I said, closing my eyes and congratulating myself on my superior ability to make a bad situation worse with my horrible conversation skills.

“Okay,” He drew the word out slowly. “Then come with me, yeah?” Bending down he offered me his hand as if he actually expected me to take it. I looked at his hand. Was he crazy? Did he actually think I was going to touch him right here in front of Xan?

Realizing his mistake, he retracted the hand and shoved it in his jeans pocket. I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked up at him. His lips thinned as he realized I wasn’t going to be standing up anytime soon.

“I think I’m just, uh, gonna stay here for awhile,” I hedged.

His eyes blazed pure white, all color had disappeared. “Why?” He bit out.

I glared at him, suddenly angry that he was angry. “Because,” I retorted, sounding childish.

Xan laughed loudly. “Oh for shits sake frate, Trin just wants to learn how to shoot, that’s all. Why don’t you go re-learn how to breathe normally and by the time you’re done with that, she’ll be back in your lap again. Safe and sound and untouched.” Xan emphasized the word ‘untouched’.

Gods, what exactly had Gerik said to him?

Gerik glanced at Xan then back at me, the muscles in his face twitching. I sucked in a breath. He was going to lose it. I stood quickly, ready to go to him before he did anything stupid.

“I’ll see you later, yeah?” He said surprising me as his eyes bled back to blue. “But Trinity?”

I raised my eyebrows in question.

“Don’t touch his hair again.”

Embarrassed by Gerik’s display of ownership, I refused to look at Xan as Gerik walked back to the living lot.

“You okay?” Xan asked after awhile.

I nodded jerkily.

“Good. Catch.” He tossed a dirty rag at me. “Make yourself useful before we start dry rifle drills.”

We worked in silence for a few minutes. “Did Gerik ever tell you the deal with his hair fată?”

I gave Xan a mocking look. “They’re braids, what’s to tell? I figured he’s vain about his hair. Sorta like you.”

That earned me a loud snort.

“The braiding and unbraiding of the hair is a ritual of sorts you know, one that has been passed down from the several Scandinavian family clans for hundreds of generations. Before men would go to battle their women would plait their hair, locking their strength and power in place, keeping them safe until they came home to them again.

They kept their braids in until they came home and only their women would be allowed to take them out, unlocking the warriors from their battles, bringing them peace once again.”

My heart fluttered a little. I thought of the many times I’d slid my fingers through the first undone braid, letting the silky strands glide over my hand. Gerik’s entire body would relax as if he was deflating. After I unwound the second braid I would massage his head while his long hair spilled across his back in small waves.

“What if they never made it home?” I asked.

“They died with the power tethered to their souls, it would follow them into their next life so they would be reborn again just as powerful. Or so the stories go… but who really believes that sort of crap?”

I was rendered speechless. What did one say in response to a story like that? More importantly, why hadn’t Gerik told me? Gerik and his secrets were starting to wear on me.

Xan stood up wiping his hands on an already dirty cloth. “Let’s go Trin. Pick up the rifle; I want time to wash before the dance tonight.”

I didn’t have much in the way of clothing except a pair of patched over jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of flip flops that had seen better days. Everything else I’d accumulated was either on loan from around camp or Becki’s. So I let Becki drag me to Jaelle’s tent to get ready for the fire meeting and dance tonight. The fire dances were special to the Romani and you didn’t attend one looking like a hobo.

Jaelle put my hair up in several braids, beaded with brightly colored wooden beads of all shapes and sizes. Becki let me borrow a handful of her bracelets and necklaces, some store bought, others beautifully handcrafted. A sleeveless tunic the color of violets that hit mid thigh with one of Becki’s chunky leather belts finished the look.

“I’m keeping this,” I told her, admiring my reflection in Jaelle’s mirror as I smoothed the tunic over my hips.

Becki glanced at me over her shoulder as she continued to rifle through an old trunk of clothing. “I don’t mind.” She threw a bundle of scarves over her head. “You needed something pretty anyway.”

For the first time in a long time, I had to admit, I did feel rather pretty.

The camp always felt majestic during fire dances. The fires seemed to burn brighter and a sense of togetherness filled the air. The tension I seemed to always carry with me would ease and for just a little while I could relax and enjoy myself.

The women always wore their finest. Complete with gauzy dresses and heavy jewelry, they paraded colorfully around camp. The married women were less extravagant and paired their ensembles with traditional fine spun silk headscarf’s called diklo’s.

The children were freshly washed. The men, both young and old, donned their colorful dress shirts, neck scarves and just like the women, they too appreciated an abundance of necklaces and bangles.

The guitars and violins sat by the fire as their owner’s waited in anticipation to put them to use. Coffee and water, a daily staple for all, waited on a table by the fire. Fresh vegetable stew from our small but plentiful gardens and hand woven baskets full of fresh berries and dried fruits had my mouth watering. It was a veritable feast.

I wondered what brave soul had ventured out of the wards just for the berries.

Several rabbits and a turkey slow roasted on a spit nearby. Shandor’s little brother, Simonice, looked up from his job at turning the delicious meat and grinned at us.

Becki tugged on my arm. “Look at Jericho!”

Jericho had brought out the barrels of liquor he distilled himself. Laced heavily with fruits and sugar, the Romani love it. I, on the other hand, always felt like I needed a good tooth brushing afterwards.

“Gather, children. Gather round the fire.” Maisera motioned to us all.

Tin cups were passed out and filled; I inhaled the fruity fermented scents of the liquor and sighed in pleasure. After the first sip my body instantly warmed. I laid my head on Becki’s shoulder. “I so needed this.”

Xan plopped down heavily beside me and clinked cups with me, almost spilling the precious alcohol.

“Watch it,” I told him.

“Touchy, touchy.”

“This, little Gypsy, is a precious commodity.”

“First of all Trin, there ain’t nothing little about me.” He winked and smiled that gods damn cocky smile. “And second, I have my own stash in my trailer. I don’t go on those friggin’ raids for nothing.”

“Yes,” I said dryly. “Because food and medical supplies are nothing.”

“I don’t have any damn magic like everyone else; every time I go out there I’m risking my life. I think of it as a reward of sorts for my efforts.”

“I don’t have magic either, Xan.” I told him.

“Yeah well, you weren’t raised here.”

I nodded, not wanting to imagine a lifetime of being an outsider. “That must have been hard,” I said.

Becki leaned over me. “Poor, poor Xan. His life has been full of oppression and suffering.”

“Mind your business puţin sora.”

“You know Xan, it’s kinda gross that you still call me ‘little sister’, especially after-

Xan’s eyes went wide and he nearly knocked me over trying to reach Becki in order to slap his hand over her mouth. The rest of her sentence came out in a muffled garble. She bit down hard on his thumb and he snatched his hand away quickly.

“…you and I drank that bottle of-

His hand went back over her mouth. “Would you shut up?” He yelled.

Xan cleared his throat, still glaring at Becki. “Are you going to behave? There are children around.”

Apparently propriety had become important to him in the last ten seconds.

She nodded but I could see the laughter dancing in those chocolate eyes. Stupidly, Xan removed his hand.

“…rum we stole from Jericho and screwed each other’s brains out.” She finished in one big rush, grinning from ear to ear.

I never thought it possible for Xan Deleanu to be embarrassed. I was wrong. If looks could kill… Xan would have burned Becki to the ground. Becki, unfazed, laughed so hard I thought she was going to pee herself.

“I heard that story before.” Hockey’s little brother, Stevo winked at Becki as he sat down next to her. His long hair was wet and glistening from his recent bath.

“Let’s get one thing straight Becki,” Xan said, “That was probably the closest thing to rape a guy has ever experienced,”

I turned toward Becki, frowning, and before I could stop myself, “Is there anyone here you haven’t slept with?” I asked her, perhaps a little too loud.

Alana, a heavyset blonde with an enormous set of breasts, cuddling her three small children looked over from her conversation and frowned at all of us.

With her mouth agape, all humor gone, Becki glared at me. “I’m sorry Trinity? Jealous?” I winced at the acid her voice. “It must be hard being the only person in the world who has never had sex.”

Stevo’s mouth fell wide open. Embarrassed, I scrambled to my feet and took off across the fire pit, but not before I saw Xan's head jerk up in surprise.

I ran straight towards Gerik, not caring that Onyx was sitting with him. He shot me a questioning look as I sat down. I just shook my head, and kept my eyes fixed on Jericho and Maisera who were now standing, their hands clasped and raised.

Silence had fallen across the fire pit, a sign of respect for the couple who cared for everyone like they were their own.

“Tonight we tell the story of Mullo.”

CHAPTER TEN

The little ones ran forward, always the most eager for story time.

Maisera settled next to Jericho in their lawn chairs, their elbows hooked loosely together. She gave her husband a smile so sweet that I swear I saw sparks fly. The bond they had with each other was not only a joining of bodies but of something much deeper. They were truly one entity in two bodies. It was glorious, it was ageless, and it was everything. Together, they were beautiful to behold.

I caught sight of Onyx’s skinny fingers creeping over top Gerik’s denim clad leg. I watched her squeeze the individual muscles in his thigh and start possessively massaging him. Brushing her short black hair out of her eyes, she caught me staring and smiled.

“Mullo,” Maisera began. I immediately looked away from Onyx.

“Was born centuries ago, the eldest son to the Baró of a Roma clan. He was powerful Rom, blessed by Nature with all the magical elements. Back then, Romani were not welcome in the Gaje world and had to travel many miles. This particular clan had settled peacefully, deep within the Carpathian Mountains, far away from the towns and villages that had condemned them.

But they were not alone in the mountains. A Gaje lord with a hunger for power that could never be sated lived among them. It is said that the day he attacked he spared no one his brutality, not even the children, in his attempts to learn the secrets of their magic.

The Baró’s two sons had been away from camp that day. They returned home to find the blood strewn remains of their people. Everyone had been slaughtered, even the children.

Mad with revenge, the eldest son walked for days thinking only of the vengeance he was to exact on his enemies. His body grew gaunt, his clothes torn, but still he walked. Upon his arrival, the guardsmen laughed at the solitary Gypsy who thought to take on an entire fortress of armed men. They laughed until they looked in his eyes.

Bottomless pits of black despair. He spared no one he found. No man, woman or child who crossed his path that day had been safe from his madness.”

I shivered hearing this. Gerik’s braid tickled my shoulder as he leaned close. “Are you cold?” He whispered. I shook my head without looking at him.

“Mullo,” Maisera continued, “had called upon dark magic to seek his revenge. And in this life nothing is given freely. There are consequences to every action. In return for his bloodlust, he will now always hunger for blood. For cutting short the lives of hundreds of innocent people, he was condemned to live out their lives and the lives of their unborn children and their unborn children, in a never ending cycle. He will never know peace or life without suffering. He has been condemned to a life of eternal pain, shrouded in darkness.

It was said that he never again left the fortress, and that anyone who dared venture up into those mountains was never heard from again.

Mullo, was the name given him. It means, the first Vampire.”

“Freaky, yeah?” Gerik was studying me intently.

Four months ago I would have laughed at that story. Written it off as just another campfire tale or legend that had been tossed around over the centuries. Gods knew how many I’d listened to my father tell. I knew Greek mythology like the back of my hand but, despite how many people believed otherwise, I hadn’t taken it at all seriously.

But now? And after everything I’d seen? What had Jericho said when he’d had one of those creatures suspended in mid air? “Blestemul de vampir.”

I had no idea what the rest meant, but ‘vampir’ was clear enough. Is that what those things were? Vampires? There went that whole ‘dark and sexy vampire lurking in the shadows’ theory.

“Uh, yeah", I said, "Is that story true?”

“Maybe,” Gerik finally answered, sounding blasé. “Haven’t been to the Carpathian Mountains lately to check it out.”

I shot him a dirty look and he laughed. The deep, throaty sound resonated through me making me feel soft and comfortable. Similar to the sensation I use to get after taking a long hot bath then snuggling down deep under my covers.

“Dance with me Trinity,” He asked softly.

The dancing had just begun and both the young and old were already spinning around the bonfire. The Roma who were not dancing were tongue clacking, hand clapping and clicking wooden spoons together in time to the fast past melody. Hearing Gerik’s question, Onyx stood. The amount of hate in her eyes could have fueled a small city for a decade or two.

“Um…” I tried to look anywhere but at Onyx. “Maybe that’s not such a good idea.”

Gerik glanced up at Onyx who immediately tried to hide the fact that she’d been giving me death stares but Gerik had seen her. Getting to his feet, something silent and inexplicably intimate passed between the two of them and she softened. She shot me one last look of disdain before walking away.

The longing I glimpsed in her eyes was enough to knock me out flat.

“She loves you,” I whispered, feeling horrible.

“No, you don’t understand.” He reached for me and I scrambled backwards. “Don’t touch me!” I fled from him through the throng of dancers.

Grabbing a bottle of rum out of a startled Pitti’s chubby hands, I took off toward the empty side of end lot to find a private place where I could still enjoy the music. I loved the music in camp. It was free and magical, just the like the Gypsies.

As the violins whined, while the fiddles wailed, and the guitars strummed faster and faster, the foot stomping and hand clapping grew louder and the people more raucous. The Mousai Goddesses were here tonight, of that I had no doubt. I could almost picture them twirling around the dancers, unseen to human eyes, as they frolicked and giggled, spelling them with the need to keep dancing.

I danced alone in the dark. My braids flew and my dress billowed around me as I spun around. Shimmying and swaying, my bracelets and beads shook and rattled to their own unique beat. The more I danced, the more I drank, letting the alcohol soak its way into my bloodstream, working its own kind of magic. Soon a sense of delirium and a delightful skin tingling numbness took over.

I soon lost myself inside the music of the Roma and to the inhibitions of alcohol. Both were drugs I didn’t need right now clouding my mind. But nothing was as bad as those deep blue eyes that were watching me from the shadows. Gerik was the worst drug of them all. I’d been pretty even keel my entire life until I’d met Gerik and experienced the kinds of pleasure only he had ever brought me. The exquisite places his body would take mine would stay with me for days afterwards. I’d be left empty, imagining the highs I still had yet to reach and knowing it was only Gerik who could bring me back there.

Large hands caught my waist and swept me off my feet. Gerik pulled me against him. “You’re beautiful you know? I could watch you dance all night.”

“You could,” I laughed. I felt suddenly bold, a combination of the alcohol and his nearness. “But I’d get lonely dancing all by myself.”

Before he could respond, I kissed him hard and let the heat building slowly between us flare.

“Trinity,” Gerik gasped for air as I eagerly went for his lips again.

“What?” I asked, pulling his pony holders out of his braids and running my fingers through the wavy strands, freeing them. His chest heaved against mine as his breathing grew ragged.

“You’re never going to be alone again.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Xan finally added something new to my regime. Only instead of putting bullets in the guns, he’d decided instead to teach me how to relax. When I asked him how any of this pertained to fighting he gave me a pointed look.

“When Skin Eaters are chasing you down, fangs chomping at the bit, slathering and sloshing all over the place, ready to rip into you, make you dinner, and use your bones for dessert picks, what exactly do you want to be focused on?”

I swallowed hard picturing just that. “Shooting them the head,” I answered timidly.

He laughed.

“Say you are overwhelmed with fear for your life, you’re alone, being chased and those monsters are closing in on you and you only have one gun. Tell me, what are you going to do?”

I shrugged. “Try and shoot them all in the head?”

“Good luck with that.” He sighed. “It’s hard but if you can relax enough to not be overwhelmed when you are in danger it might just save your life. It’s important to have a clear mind with multiple targets. Shoot at one while you’re kicking another. When he’s down, shoot the other, it might be the only way you get out alive. But you’re not going to be able to do any of that if you are half crazed with fear.”

“Wow,” I said, surprised by the conviction in his voice. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you so serious before.”

“I can leave", He threatened. "Right now.”

“Okay.” I quickly conceded. “Let’s relax me.”

He stood behind me, had me close my eyes, shake out my arms and neck in an attempt at clearing my mind.

It didn’t exactly work.

“Forget about camp Trin. About everyone here. Don’t think about chores or Gerik’s bad taste in hair styles.”

I snorted.

“Just erase your mind. Think of a chalkboard and wipe everything away. Take deep breaths, remember, in through your nose out through your mouth, just like I showed you.”

He walked around me. “The mind is a pretty awesome thing fată, you can lose yourself inside it if you want. Let the world disappear. You just have to remember to pull yourself back out again.”

We were near the edge of the front lot, surrounded by all things green. Xan had picked this particular spot because of the oak trees, their large canopy’s, the tall grass and wildflowers growing around them. “It was peaceful”, he’d said, “the best place to relax.”

We were close enough to the creek, that I could hear the faint rushing sound of water over the rocks, and every so often the chirp or caw of bird. The buzzing of insects would get loud and then quiet as they flew around me. I could hear the faint drone of voices, it was impossible not to, but we were far enough from the living lot that it wasn’t loud or distracting.

“Good,” Xan said. “Good. Don’t forget the breathing.”

Pssh. As if he’d ever let me.

“Fată, before you completely let go, choose a word or phrase, something to ground you as you slip away. Something that will remind you that you need to come back to me.”

I felt Xan’s warm breath against my ear as he leaned in close. “And remember Trin, your safe here, the wards are strong and I’m not leaving. Eşti în siguranţă.”

Eşti în siguranţă. I’m safe. Something that felt like déjà vu flickered inside me.

A kaleidoscope of reds, blues, purples and greens flashed before me. I watched them change shape and form as they danced across my line of sight turning themselves inside and out. I became transfixed, mesmerized, as I cascaded further into the deep recesses of my mind.

My vision of colors and shapes tunneled than widened as a burst of white light broke through the colors.

I felt soft and feathery grass beneath me. The rush of water, pouring down the side of the mountain ledge into the deep warm springs, filled my ears, soothing me.

I smiled. He was singing again. For me, only for me. How had I lived this life without him by my side? My past was unfathomable to me now. He was everything; he was my now, my future, my forever.

Something was tickling my arm. A spider! I hated spiders! I screamed, jumping up and shook the nasty creature off me, screaming even after the insect was gone.

Warm arms wrapped around me from behind, the contact electrifying and instantly soothing. I sighed against it, reveled in the familiarity, the passion and the love I found there.

“I’ve got you Treime, you’re safe here. I’m not leaving. You’re safe.”

I’m safe.

“Trinity?” Someone was tapping on my forehead.

“Trinity?”

I blinked my eyes protesting the intrusion. A shadow of a man stood in front of me. “Trin? Wake up.”

My heart jumped. “Xan?” I opened my eyes.

Xan was looking at me strangely. “You did really well… Where did you go fată?”

“I’m not really sure.” But I felt as if I’d just been torn kicking and screaming from a really great dream.

He studied me for a second longer. “Come on you’ve got drills to do, then you get to use me as a human punching bag.”

“Live drills?”

Xan grinned at the anticipation in my voice.

“Not yet.” He tapped me on the nose like one would a child and I stuck my tongue out at him.

“You keep doing that Trin and I’m going to be forced to kiss you again.” He leered at me. I quickly put my tongue away.

“Was it really that horrible fată? Kissing me?” His tone suggested annoyance. Xan, I assumed, didn’t get rejected very often.

Uh, I didn’t want to have this conversation. I looked at my bare feet. The very tips of my toes were still painted hot pink. Nail polish. Who would have thought it would ever be so unattainable? I thought of Fifi and her bright red nails and almost laughed at the idea of her being willing to share nail polish with me.

“Trin?”

Okay, so he wasn’t going to drop it. I didn’t know Xan well enough to know the best way to mollify his ego, or if such a thing was even possible.

“Xan,” I said, still trying for avoidance. “How about we get back to practice?”

“Trin,” He responded, more than equipped to beat me at my own game. “How about you answer the question?”

Ugh.

“It was… um… interesting,” I finally said.

He narrowed his eyes. “In what way?”

I blew out a breath. If he wanted the truth, then I’d give him the truth. It was no more than he would do if the situation was reversed. “In a not so good way,” I conceded.

It was almost if Xan had been expecting an answer along those lines. He didn’t seem surprised, just quirked an eyebrow and turned around, suddenly very interested in the guns he’d brought to practice. I felt bad and I wasn't quite sure why, it wasn’t as if Xan had trouble finding girls.

The more I thought about the kiss the more I wondered about my reaction to it. I hardly found Xan unattractive, quite the opposite. It hadn’t been me that was personally repelled by him it had been something… else.

I was willing to bet that whatever was wrong with me had nothing to do with me and everything to do with Gerik’s power over me.

I left practice with a bevy of questions for Gerik. Starting with his hair braiding legend, I was going to throw in a splash of “why do I have my own special brand of male repellent” and eventually end with a big old bowl of “what the hell is really going on with us and don’t give me that ‘we’re special crap’ any more”. I wanted answers, no more vague responses.

“Hey Trinity.” Stevo smiled as I walked past him.

My body instantly recognized Gerik’s the closer I got to his side of the living lot. The pull was stronger than I’d ever felt it before. I was almost to his trailer when my body clenched, and a sudden burning need to touch Gerik took me over. I started jogging for his front door.

“Trinity!” Stevo re-appeared out of nowhere. “Don’t go in-

I burst through the door.

“there,” He finished.

The door to Gerik’s small room was closed but the sounds coming from the tiny room were unmistakable. Mortification set in. The draw to Gerik had been incredibly strong without him near me. I’d been able to sense his pleasure and I’d wanted him because of it. I felt suddenly nauseated but glad for the sickness. Who wanted to experience the pleasure of someone else’s sex?

“I’m sorry, Trinity.” Stevo looked like he was about to cry. At sixteen he was even younger than Tahyra had been when I’d lost her. He wasn’t nearly as reclusive or as shy as his older brother Hockey, but he was still very sensitive.

I shook my head, unable to speak.

“Come on, let’s go get some coffee.” Stevo held out his hand. I grasped it just as Gerik’s bedroom door opened.

“Shit,” Gerik said, reaching behind himself for a blanket to cover his nakedness.

“Nice to see you, Trinity,” Onyx piped up cheerfully, her head peeking out from around Gerik.

I could only stare. Sweaty and flushed, his hair a mess, Gerik looked like the poster child for sexual indulgence. My body instantly responded, and the burning need for the man in front of me had unfortunately resumed. Apparently magic co-exists separately from my brain cells.

“Can we help you with something?” Onyx asked, “Or are you just going to stand there and gawk?”

Oh holy Goddesses. I’d never wished anyone dead until now. That man is mine and I will wage war against her the likes of which no one has ever seen. May the birds of Ares pick the skin from her bones and vultures use her leftovers to feed their young.

Squeezing Stevo’s hand, I ground my teeth together, trying not to explode.

“He is mine,” I told Onyx, my voice shaking, “You-

“Trinity.” I jumped at the sound of Gerik’s voice. He was staring down at me with his beautiful blue eyes, all knowing, and full of guilt.

Gods, what was wrong with me? This wasn’t me. I didn’t wish people dead over guys I’d only known for a few months.

I cleared my throat, just to make sure my voice didn’t break. “Stay away from me, Gerik. I don’t ever want to see you again.”

Smiling with satisfaction, Onyx disappeared back into his bedroom.

Something cold and painful slithered through me and I felt the need to take back what I said. My betraying body still begged to go to him, to touch him, and connect with him on any level.

“Don’t fight it,” He whispered. My eyes flared. I couldn’t be certain if he’d spoken the words aloud or in my mind. But it didn’t matter. How dare he sleep with her then have the nerve to tell me to accept the fact that I had somehow been magically shackled to him?

I pressed my palms to my temples and screamed within, forcing the need for him back to bowels of my mind.

He winced.

The feelings fled abruptly. And I left.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“What has gotten into you fată?” Xan had his hands up, palms facing front. I jumped forward, rocking from my heels to my toes. With my head down and eyes up, I slammed first my right fist into his right palm then my left fist into his left palm.

“Working off some pent up aggression?” He asked, grinning at me as he jumped backwards, beckoning me with two fingers. “Come and get me baby.”

I rolled my eyes and with my arm, wiped the sweat off my face. “Don’t tempt me.”

“You couldn’t take me,” he said, grinning, “I’m too much man for you Trin.”

“You’re too much something,” I agreed.

His already dark and deadly looking eyes grew even darker. He punched his own palm and put his hands up again. “Let’s go then, put some of the energy you waste talking my ear off with your useless Greek stories into your punches.”

I narrowed my eyes.

With his teeth bared, he shook his head causing his dreads to fly out, all around him.

“That’s it, get real angry Trin. Then come over here and show me just how angry you are. Maybe then you might get close to landing something resembling a decent punch.”

I ran at him with everything I had.

He sidestepped my first punch, and then easily blocked my next two, all with an infuriating grin on his face. On a whim I pretended to aim for his jaw and instead dealt him a solid blow in the stomach, then ducked. When he lunged for me, I spun out of his reach, only I wasn’t fast enough. His hand wrapped around my arm in a bruising grip.

I had a small window of time before he was going to crush me to him, bringing me down hard on the ground. This had happened too many times already and I was ready to go straight to Hades and take Persephone’s place before I let it happen again.

As Xan turned me toward him, I quickly brought up my knee, deftly turned my hip over and snapped my leg outward from the knee delivering the deadly strike against his shin with the ball of my foot.

Eyes wide, tottering on one foot, Xan fell to the ground. His hold on me weakened and his hand slid down my arm. Realizing what was happening, he tightened his grip as it was about to slide past my wrist. With one hard pull he yanked me down with him. I fell in an unceremonious sprawl on top of him.

“Who showed you how to do a roundhouse?” He gasped.

I giggled. “Marko.”

He flipped me over, pinning me underneath his massive body, bringing me face to face with the cynical curve of his lips, the sharp pull of his cheekbones and the exotic slant of his dark alluring eyes.

My pulse quickened.

My mouth dried.

My body heated.

And none of it was magically induced.

I pushed at his chest suddenly terrified of what was happening to me. “Get off me!”

“And if I don’t?” He asked, his tone nonchalant.

I might turn to Jell-O. “I’ll scream.”

He laughed, the sound deep and throaty and full of pure masculine dominance, daring me to scream as loud as I liked. “Afraid I might try and kiss you again fată?”

Oh Goddesses.

I licked my lips. “Pp...Please don’t.”

His grip on my biceps flexed. His mouth thinned.

“Right.” He jumped up and offered me a hand, lifting me to my feet. “I had forgotten how horrible it was.”

Actually, I’d been so caught up in my reaction to Xan that I’d forgotten how awful that kiss had been. I’d never before experienced the conscious desire of wanting someone. Not really, not like this. With Gerik I always felt like I’d suddenly ran right into a brick wall of lust. This was the opposite, softer, giving me time to access my feelings.

This must have been what other girls had been acting so freakishly crazy about my entire life; the reason for their obsessive behavior about hair and makeup and finding the perfect outfit. Now their endless conversations about boys, boys and more boys that I could never seem to find any interest in, made perfect sense.

My stomach did a funny little tap dance and I had a fleeting worry about my own hair.

“So…” Xan began, “How about some live rounds?”

I looked up, surprised.

“Gotcha!” He said and took off running.

“Xan!” I screamed, running after him. “I’m so going to kill you!”

He grinned over his shoulder, “That would mean you have to catch me first!”

If I’d had to guess at how long it was going to take Gerik to show his face and beg forgiveness from me for being a man-whore, I’d of said a day or two. I’d based this guess on how’d he’d never before been able to leave me in peace for more than a few hours at a time.

I’d never of guessed he’d actually avoid me for almost two entire weeks.

I had just settled down near a low burning fire for reading hour with Alana’s three little ones, Adi, Daniella and little Benyamin Jr. Hockey’s little sister, Simza, and the Moldoveanu twin’s Pali and Mala. We were reading one of Maisera’s books, an older version of Grimms’ Fairy Tales, the leather bound cover cracked and worn.

“Can we talk?” Gerik asked, interrupting the woodsman’s assault on Snow White.

“I’m busy.”

“I’ll wait, yeah?”

“I’ll be awhile.”

“Trinity,” He pleaded with me. I looked up at him, noticing the small black and blue marks on his neck. From Onyx. Jealously, immediately followed by anger, flooded me. I couldn’t take much more of this. Here he was, more than likely wanting to talk me back into our dysfunctional relationship when he was wearing physical evidence from his other one.

In the end it was the tired, defeated look about him, the fact that his hair wasn’t braided and the dark circles under his eyes, that did me in.

Despite my anger and all my confusion about us, seeing him hurting, hurt me. I nodded my answer and continued reading. And reading. I read until most of the children had gotten bored and wandered off. Gerik had to have known that I was intentionally making him wait as long as possibly but he didn’t say a word. He continued to sit patiently as I read story after story until Alana came by to pick up Benyamin Jr., who was asleep in my lap.

I closed the book and let out a long, suffering sigh.

“What do you want?”

“Can we talk somewhere private?

I folded my arms across my chest. “Here is good. Plenty of people around to witness magically forced orgasms.”

Gerik swung towards me, his face red, his nostrils flaring. His eyes were white, no slow bleed of colors; it had been instant, just like his anger.

“I would never hurt you,” He said, glaring at me. “I was trying to show you what is between us, what more could be between us if you would just let go.”

Was there something substantial I needed to let go of? Or was this a metaphorical jump I was supposed to take? Gerik never made any sense when he started talking about us.

“Why won’t you just trust me?” He spat out. “And stop blocking me!”

Blocking him?

“Oh, I don’t know,” I murmured, “Maybe because trusting you would require you not lying to me about things like SLEEPING WITH ONYX!”

He had obviously prepared himself for this very discussion. The mention of her name and the fact that I had started yelling didn’t seem to faze him at all. I tried to reign in my steadily rising anger, hating that I felt anything at all about Gerik and his girlfriend when I didn’t want to.

If I agreed to “let go” as he put it, would he keep her as his mistress?

“What about her?” He asked me, suddenly a picture of calm.

I huffed. “You tell me? Why did you lie to me about her? If you want to be with her then just be with her! Why bother with me at all? I’m not like you, I don’t have magic and the Gods know how hard I’ve been fighting this thing between us! You say we are special, Gerik, but what is so special about us? Our deranged little love triangle?”

“You don’t understand!” He roared, reaching for me. “It’s so hard having you here and not being able to be with you! Really truly with you!” Grabbing my shoulders, he roughly pulled me toward him, until we were nose to nose.

“You’re everything Trinity, EVERYTHING!” He shook me violently making my teeth rattle. “I need her to… or…I don’t know...she’s-”

Wearing a tank top today had been an epic mistake. His hands were on me and heat was pouring through me from his touch. I fell limply forward pressing my face against his and moaned. Gerik grabbed my hips and in one swift move brought me forward, over him. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he stood.

“I’m taking you back to my place,” He said. “We’re going to finish this. Right now.”

I mumbled something in response, too busy pulling up the bottom of his t-shirt in order to caress bare skin to worry about talking.

“Damn,” He growled, as I went for his neck. “Don’t stop.”

Stop? I wouldn’t dream of it. Gerik was all I wanted. He was my everything. My life before him was nothing; a faint memory at best. He was my present and my future. He was my forever.

“Move,” Gerik ground out harshly. He’d stopped walking and I wiggled against him, whimpering. Why in all the Gods was he stopping?

“Looks like Trinity is going to be missing practice today,” A familiar voice said, laughing.

Something niggled in the back of my mind. Practice?

Gerik growled loudly, the sound reverberated through his entire body, vibrating against mine. I mewled loudly, grabbed his chin and thrust my tongue into his mouth. He responded immediately.

“How ‘bout I get that door for you Gerik? You look a little busy?” Several people laughed, causing cold slivers of embarrassment began to worm their way into my overheated body.

Suddenly, I knew something wasn’t right.

Then I was falling, falling from Gerik’s arms and onto his bed. Contact was broken. Oh Gods dammit. I was furious. More than ready to kill the Viking on top of me.

I punched Gerik in the stomach, hurting myself and not moving him an inch from his predatory position above me. Sore now, I cradled my hand against me.

“You’re promises are nothing but crap!” I shouted.

I felt sickened, suffocated and… furious by my circumstances. This wasn’t right. I was sure of it now. This wasn’t love, it wasn’t even a prelude to love. This was twisted and hurtful. It was wrong on so many levels, full of lies and bereft of reality.

Gray eyes bled to blue. “Trinity, please…”

“No.” My voice stayed firm despite the budding emotions rising inside of me at the sound of panic in his voice.

“No,” I repeated, more for myself than him. I was so Gods damn weak in his presence.

“This isn’t right; this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. This is magic, or whatever, but it’s not real. This isn’t how people end up together.”

“Not real, yeah?” His voice raised. “What keeps those monsters out of camp then? What killed that thing attacking Xan?” He thumped his chest with his fist. “I was born with magic inside of me. Are you saying I’m not real?”

“But I won’t ever know just how real any of it is, will I?” I shrieked. “You won’t explain any of it to me? You won’t explain what’s wrong with us! Do you really expect me to just blindly trust you?”

His eyes dropped and I knew then that he would never tell me what was going on between us. He would protect the secrets of his people even at the cost of my sanity. We could marry and have children who would be privy to information that I never would be. I would never truly know Gerik.

“We’re done here.” I pushed at his chest. “Get off me.”

“We’ll never be done.” The words were a whisper across my senses. I hadn’t actually heard them, I’d felt them. Could still feel them actually.

We locked eyes.

Words can be interpreted many ways depending on how they are spoken. Gerik’s last statement to me could have been spoken as a beautiful promise, but instead he’d blackened those words and used them to threaten me. Several tense heartbeats passed before he let me up.

“You’re mine, Trinity,” He called out as I shut his bedroom door behind me. “You already know that though, yeah?”

Hands shaking I walked out of his trailer and came face to face with Stevo, Hockey, Shandor, Marko and… Xan.

“Trinity!” Stevo jumped up from the picnic tabled and rushed up to me, his face wrought with worry. “Are you okay?

“She’s fine,” Shandor drawled. “Just a little overexerted is all.” He laughed. “Right fată?”

Horrified that they witnessed what had just happened, I ran from them. I ran straight across the living lot, and directly to my trailer. Locking both doors behind me, I crawled into bed.

“You’re mine.” Gerik had said.

Possessive much?

Well, I didn’t accept.

I belonged to no one.

The next afternoon I went to practice full of trepidation and wasn’t surprised when Xan wasn’t there. He had told me that if I wasn’t serious about practice not to ever come near him again. Watching me crawl all over Gerik like a cat in heat while I was supposed to be practicing was probably enough reason for him to believe I wasn’t taking it seriously.

Then there were the feelings I’d experienced in his presence. How in the world was I going to deal with that?

I came across him leaving Drina’s trailer with a leather satchel of foul smelling herbs.

“Have fun?” He gave me a bitter smile.

I closed my eyes, embarrassed. Why Xan had to keep finding me in compromising situations, I didn’t know.

“I’m really sorry about missing practice.”

“I told you if you weren’t serious, not to waste my time fată.”

“No!” I grabbed his arm when he started to walk away from me. “I am serious! Please, you don’t understand!”

It looked as if he didn’t want to understand from the way he was frowning at the grip I had on his arm.

I unwillingly released him. I very badly needed someone to talk to and Becki was no longer an option. She’d barely said two words to me since we’d equally insulted each other. Not that I’d seen her long enough to tell her I was sorry. No longer sleeping at home, she had been ditching her chores most days as well. Xan however, felt the same bias about magic that I did and maybe somehow that could work in my favor.

“There is so much more going on with me and Gerik than you think,” I told him.

He made a disgusted face. “And this concerns me how?”

“It doesn’t, but I need someone to talk to and I don’t have anyone else.”

He laughed. “So I’m last on the list, huh fată?”

“No!” I blew out a breath. “This thing with me and Gerik…it’s not normal. It has to be magic. But because of who I am, I’m not privy to it. I just get to feel all the horrible after effects without understanding what’s happening to me.”

I watched Xan study me, wishing I had some sort of clue as to what was going on inside of his head.

“Xan!” I stomped my foot. “He has some kind of control over me!”

He just continued to stare at me, rolling his bottom lip between his teeth.

An idea stuck me. The last time Xan had kissed me it had it been awful for me. There had been an unseen force that had been trying to push him away, making me feel… wrong. If I could just show him…

“Xan!” I shouted needlessly. He was half a foot away, staring straight at me. Standing up on my tiptoes, I wrapped my arms around his neck and crushed my mouth to his.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Xan reached for me, with a look on his face that had my stomach fluttering. I watched his fingers intertwine with mine. Painstakingly slow, he began to rub the palm of my hand with the pad of his thumb. I snatched my hand back.

“No,” I told him, shaking my head.

He gave me a crooked smile, his eyebrows rising. “No? So you don’t want to understand magic then? Fine, let’s just get started on practice.”

I sighed. “No. I mean yes. Yes to the magic but no to the hand flirting. Practice later.”

Xan’s eyes sparkled dangerously. “You want to understand magic you need to understand connection. Everyone is connected to each other through magic, through Nature, through sex-”

“Okay Don Juan, just forget I asked.” I uncrossed my legs and readied myself to stand.

“It was just a joke Trin. Relax.” He leaned back on his elbows.

“Smoke?” Xan pulled a cigarette from behind his ear. I nodded. Why not? It’s not like there was anything better to do these days than get lung cancer. It seemed like one of the more pleasant ways to go.

He sat up and pulled a lighter out from one of many pants pockets and lit it for me. Digging around in another pocket he emerged with a pack of cigarettes and shook one loose for himself.

“Drink?” He asked, pulling a flask out of another pocket.

I started laughing.

He frowned. “What?”

“You just remind me of the guy in prison who can get whatever you need or something.”

“Oh yeah, been to prison fată?”

I blushed. “Yeah, I was a bad, bad girl.”

He snorted. “Who can’t shoot a gun.”

I scrunched up my nose at him and made a face. He responded by snapping his teeth at me, a gesture that had my heart racing.

“So you think I got it all in my pants, huh Trin?” He grinned.

Blushing again, I looked away.

Instead of teasing me more, he lowered his voice. “Explain this all to me one more time Trin, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it. You say Gerik has some sort of power over you?”

I swallowed. “I can’t control myself around him. He calls all the shots, it doesn’t matter if I don’t want anything to do with him, the second he touches me I turn into....” I lowered my eyes, embarrassed.

“A sex crazed porn star,” I whispered.

Xan rolled his eyes. “You don’t need to understand magic to understand what’s happening. It’s real simply fată. Gerik is one powerful Roma and he’s been given every natural blessing there is. He’s using magic to get what he wants and what he wants right now is you.” The bitterness in Xan’s voice wasn’t hard to miss.

“There has to be more to it than that,” I told him. “I get the feeling he knows what I’m thinking sometimes. And the way he smells, why doesn’t anyone else smell it? And why does it hurt when I kiss you?”

“Alright, say there is something magical going on between the two of you that Gerik had nothing to do with.” Xan looked skeptical. “That leaves Natural magic. Something no one can fight against.”

I threw up my hands in exasperation. “I wouldn’t know, would I!”

“Alright Trin, what if I were to tell you that Natural magic is just as paramount to life on this world as the sun? That magic has its dirty little hands in everything and everyone. That it’s in the air you breathe, the food you eat and without it you wouldn’t have ever even been born. None of us would have existed, humans and animals alike. What if I told you all of that Trin… what would you do? Succumb to Gerik’s twisted version of love?”

My mouth did a dying fish thing.

“I… is uh, is everything you said true?”

“Before I say anything, I want you to know that I’m breaking a whole lot of rules by discussing this with you. Jericho would kick me outta here without a second thought if he knew.”

“Then why are you doing it?”

He shrugged, then gave me a lazy smile. “I want something.”

Of course he did. This was Xan after all. The guy should just start handing out his price list.

I sighed, “What do you want?”

“A kiss.”

My stomach leapt into my throat. The kiss outside of Drina’s to prove to him that something was off about me had gone very wrong, which of course had been the point except it had been even worse than the first time. Not only flat out repulsed, my entire body had ached with the need to get away from him. Tears had even formed. Yet I persevered, for about one whole minute, until I felt like my body was going to explode from fighting with itself.

“What? Why a kiss? You saw what kissing you did to me.”

He lifted a shoulder and muttered, “Maybe I can make it better than the first two?”

I wasn’t inclined to believe that was going to happen.

“Forget it.” I stood up to go. I made it only maybe ten or twelve steps when I was suddenly grabbed, swung around and slammed against a pair of warm and wet Roma lips.

I cringed away from him. “Please don’t, it feels terrible Xan.”

“Prove to me that breaking this law, the most important one my people have, will amount to something,” He whispered, running the tip of his tongue along the seam of my lips.

His dark eyes sparkled dangerously. “Show me it will be worth it fată.”

His fingers crept under my top and began to dance along my spine. I shivered underneath his touch. Nothing he was doing was causing me any sort of discomfort; in fact, it was the opposite I was feeling.

When he cupped my bottom, squeezed hard and pulled me flush against him, my eyes shut involuntarily as an onslaught of brand new feelings poured through me.

Gods, what was happening to me?

Anticipation. Anxiety. Excitement. Complete and utter terror. So many unfamiliar emotions hit me at once.

He growled against my ear. “Open your eyes fată. Look at me when I touch you.”

My eyes fluttered open to meet his own. His eyes gave away everything he was thinking. Deep, dark, need that felt dangerous, but right. It wasn’t hard to see how Xan became addictive to the opposite sex.

“I want you Trin,” He whispered. His body moved tempestuously against mine.

The butterflies in my stomach amped up the Scottish jig they were already doing. Without thinking I grabbed unto his biceps and dug my fingernails into the roughened, scarred browned skin wrapped around solid muscle. He groaned against my mouth.

Oh gods. My body turned butter soft, my brain melted into girly mush.

Not yet sure exactly what I felt for Xan didn’t matter, his words had yielded me. Pulling my lips apart with his teeth, he found his entrance. A heartbeat later, a blast of frigid cold air tore through me at the same time the resistance to Xan kicked in. Startled, I pulled away. I looked up at Xan confused, but he was peering over top of me. I followed his gaze toward the creek where Gerik stood.

My heart dropped.

“He’s going to kill me,” I whispered, inching around Xan to take cover behind him.

He turned toward me, his face grim. “No fată he won’t, take a good look at him.”

Shielding my eyes to block out the sun, I peered across the front lot. Gerik, legs spread apart, arms crossed, wore a very satisfied smile on his face. He knew. He’s always known I could never be with anyone but him.

“He knows I can’t kiss you,” I whispered. “That’s why he smiling.”

Xan made a dismissive noise in the back of his throat. Then, in a move that could only be considered either stupid or bold, Xan flipped Gerik off and stared defiantly back at him.

I stretched out on the grass that night, staring up at a star filled sky. My heart was aching for the simplicity of my life before magic.

I wiped away an errant tear.

If magic can’t save us, if it can’t fix the world and strips people of their free will, then what’s the point in any of it? I didn’t even want to acknowledge its existence let alone be a pawn in one of its games.

Xan had said there were two kinds of magic. The four elements represented light magic, consisting of Earth, Air, Water and Fire. Dark magic, the fifth element, is Spirit. Spirit is the opposite of light magic. If life was light, than death was dark. Spirit could only occur if light magic is corrupted, in turn disrupting the balance of Nature.”

“What constitutes as disruption?” I’d asked. “Who get’s to decide? It there some magical judge and jury?” Xan had shrugged.

“It’s Nature fată. She gives the gifts and she doles out the consequences too. Like I said before, she’s everywhere, got a hand in everything, there isn’t anything that happens that she didn’t make happen herself or doesn’t know about.”

If that were really true that would mean none of us had any real power here, magically capable or not. We were human, specks of dusts really. Ultimately expendable. It didn’t make sense that such a great force of power like Nature would have allowed such an incredible devastation to befall our race if we really mattered to her.

“Is that what this is about?” I’d asked as a horrifying thought crossed my mind. “Is Nature trying to rid the world of us for something someone’s done wrong?”

Xan’s face took on a surprisingly serious look. “I have no idea Trin. It’s one damn scary thought though.”

Then he had shrugged again, and his humor returned. “Or maybe it has nothing to do with magic at all. Maybe this is some weird experimental disease gone awry that the government accidentally released.”

“Thank you, captain x-files,” I’d said sarcastically, saluting him.

“Okay fată, maybe it was all just a terrible coincidence then.”

I doubted that. I was beginning to think there were no such things as coincidences anymore and was really leaning toward magic…er Nature having her creepy hand in getting Gerik and I together.

Xan had somehow honed in on my thoughts. “Gerik?” He asked. I nodded.

“You’re still you Trin. You always will be. No matter what’s happening with Gerik. Nothing can change that, not magic, not Nature, not anyone.”

I’d thought of Gerik and what happened every time he touched me. “No.” I’d shaken my head sadly. “I think you’re wrong. Gerik can change me. I’m not myself around him. He has the power to change me completely and I have no way to fight it.”

Just like Nature, he has all the control.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

My mind was wandering; I couldn’t focus on the story Maisera was telling. I had already finished my third cup of Plum Ţuică and was debating if it would be rude to get another cup before the story was over. Pitti was sitting right next to the jug so I doubted my over indulgence would be noticed in comparison to his.

“Hey.” Xan blocked my path to the Ţuică. My stomach did a little flip flop at the sight of him in a tight black t-shirt and a pair of baggy jeans.

“Hi yourself,” I said, trying to get around him but he didn’t budge and instead grabbed my cup from me.

“Sit down Trin, I’ll get it for you.”

I didn’t argue. I figured him looking like the drunk instead of me worked just fine in my book. I plopped down next to Becki my apology practiced and ready.

“Spending a lot of time with Xan,” She said before I could get a word out.

I looked at her. “Was that a question?”

“Just an observation.”

Good, I thought. Because then I’d have to ask you who, instead of your boyfriend, have you been hanging out with lately.

“He’s teaching me how to fight and shoot,” I told her.

“Are you sure that’s all?” She gave me a look that told me she wasn’t so sure.

I shot her a look of disbelief. “Why would it matter to you what my reasons are for hanging out with him?”

“He’s a manwhore, Trinity. Is that really what you want?”

Disappointment shot through me. I’d wanted to mend our friendship, not worsen it, but Becki it seemed had other ideas.

“Have you even seen Gerik lately?” She continued.

I glared at her and Gods damn her but she glared right back. “The two of you is a good thing. Right, Hockey?” She nudged her boyfriend with her elbow expecting confirmation.

Please shut up, I silently begged her.

Looking first at Becki then at me, Hockey went back to staring at the fire without answering. Becki shot him a dirty look.

“He agrees with me,” She answered for him. “Everyone does.”

Becki still hadn’t shut up when Pitti and his brother Pesha joined us.

“There is chemistry between you two, it’s obvious. Everyone can see it.”

Chemistry. I almost laughed. Talk about the understatement of the year.

“So what is this story about anyway?” I turned toward the Pitti and Pesha hoping to change the subject.

“What, ‘The Fisherman and the Princess’? It’s about some rich bitch that needs to get the stick out of her ass and remember that money and status have no place in the matters of the bedroom,” Xan answered, returning with my drink.

Pitti threw his head back and howled with laughter.

“Nice Xan.” Becki scowled at him. “I never knew you were a poet.”

“It’s a well kept secret, my little bohemian.”

“Trinity…” Becki started up again. “You and Gerik look great together. His light coloring with your dark is really beautiful.”

With a calculatingly smirk on her face, she raised her eyebrows at Xan. “Don’t you agree Xan?”

I was really starting to feel the effects of the alcohol but because of Becki’s intrusive behavior I was becoming more agitated than playful.

“Hmm…” Xan said slowly, looking truly perplexed. “I’m not sure. Let’s find out.”

He put his hand on my exposed thigh, his expression mockingly quizzical, and squeezed. Seeing and feeling his hand on me, my breathing hitched.

Pitti laughed so hard he shot liquor out of his nose.

“I don’t know about that, Becki.” Xan’s hand inched up my leg, disappearing under the hem of my dress. While he pretended to study the contrasting shades of our skin his thumb began moving in small circles on my inner thigh. I stopped breathing altogether. “I think dark and darker ain’t so bad.” Xan winked at me.

Becki didn’t miss any of it. “Xan, when was the last time you spent the night with the triplets? Ooh! Look there’s Fifi now! Let’s ask her!”

Xan’s drink crumpled in his grip. It was time to stop this before things turned ugly.

“Becki!” I yelled. “Gods damn! Look over there!” I pointed to a spot not far from us where Onyx was enjoying the comfort of Gerik’s large body wrapped around her.

“That’s who you want me to be with? The guy who is constantly alternating between me and her? Thanks,” I said, hoping I’d conveyed how insulted I felt. “Thanks a ton.”

Xan laughed until Becki looked like she was ready to start talking again. No longer smiling, he cut his eyes at her, frowning. The overall look was threatening.

“Becki tends to think monogamy is overrated, don’t you puţin sora?”

Hockey’s lack of attention to our conversation suddenly improved, as did Becki’s posture. She didn’t say another word about Gerik and I. In fact, she didn’t say another word the entire night.

I was going to have to ask Xan what he knew about Becki. As soon as I could concentrate on something other than the hand on my thigh.

After a litany of rules and warnings and a pair of bright orange earplugs, Xan finally let me do live practice rounds with both the pistol and the rifle. My aim was atrocious, yet to my astonishment, he wasn’t berating me about it or making any sarcastic comments about women using guns. In fact, he was smiling an awful lot.

Seeing Xan smile for the first time, a real smile instead of his typical wolfish grin, was sort of a shock. I had stopped talking mid-sentence and just gaped at him, causing his smile to turn into a scowl. He stomped away after that.

The Sava men joined our practice. Stefan, an experienced hunter, was showing me techniques with a rifle he claimed Xan did not know. Surprisingly, Xan seemed to find that funny rather than insulting. Stefan was everyone’s surrogate father.

While making a bullet ridden mess of the piece of cardboard Xan had propped up between two sawhorses, I noticed Hockey gesturing at me.

“Huh?” I pulled out an earplug.

He slammed a clip into the empty handle of his pistol with a loud crack. “Becki,” he repeated, “Have you seen her today?”

His hat was pulled down low and he was refusing to look at me, leaving me unable to gauge his facial expression but by the tone in his voice I knew he wasn’t happy.

“No,” I told him.

“And yesterday?” He asked. “Did you see her?”

“No,” I said, realizing where this conversation was headed.

“Is she sleeping at home?” He pulled the trigger. I put my earplugs back in and waited until he emptied his clip to answer him.

He turned to me, expecting an answer. I so badly wanted to lie to him and spare him the hurt I was about to cause but I couldn’t. No one deserved to be kept in the dark, constantly lied to by the people they trusted. It was wrong and did nothing but cause pain.

I blew out a breath. “No, she’s not. I’m sorry,” I said to him as gently as possible. I reached out to grab his hand as a means of support and was caught completely off guard when he pulled me into an awkward hug.

“It’s not your fault,” He whispered. “It’s mine.”

“Trinity!” Xan snapped. I jumped away from Hockey.

Forehead to forehead with me, his eyes narrowed, Xan growled low in his throat. “What are you supposed to be doing right now? Practicing? Or…” He glanced at Hockey, “Hugging strange men?”

I laughed. “Strange men?”

He growled again.

Backing away from him, I asked, “Are you channeling your inner bear?”

He stalked forward. “Maybe.”

Hockey glanced between us, his expression curious. I glanced back at Stevo and Stefan, who were also watching Xan continue to advance on me. I shoved at his chest, “Stop it. Everyone is looking and you’re acting like a jackass.”

Snorting, “You should know me well enough by now fată. I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks.”

The end of my flip flop snagged on a hole in the ground and I started to fall backwards. Xan caught me before I fell and pulled me close.

“Trin, what’s an Até lover?”

“Huh?”

Warm breath tickled my ear as he nuzzled his cheek against mine. “You called me that the night we were attacked. An Até lover. It’s something bad, I’m guessing.”

He nipped at my ear. I simultaneously shivered and shuddered.

“Até is the Goddess of mischief,” I whispered.

“Is that all?” He asked, laughing. “What about Eros? I don’t remind you of him?”

A man who knew his Gods. My heart triple timed it.

I shook my head vehemently. “No way. Maybe Ares.”

He was still laughing when his teeth caught my ear again.

“Fuuuck me….” Pitti said loudly. Where had Pitti come from?

“Language!” Stefan snapped.

“Who cares about language?” Stevo said. “Xan’s gonna die cuz’ Gerik’s gonna murder him. It’s gonna be a bloody, messy death.”

“True, frate,” Pitti replied. “There might be anything left to bury.”

“Does anyone know how this is even possible?” Hockey asked, always the voice of reason. “Doesn’t she…belong to…Gerik?”

I frowned at that last comment but all coherent thought fled as soon as Xan tugged me behind a large grouping of Pine trees and began trailing feather light kisses down my neck. Using just enough pressure to feel pleasure from and yet not repel.

“I’m sorry Trin; I didn’t hear you, say that one more time for me. How do you clear a malfunction?”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. Xan was a stickler for making me answer the same question about fifty times a day.

“Wait at least ten seconds before trying to clear it in case it’s only delayed. Then pull back the slide. Release the slide and fire. If that doesn’t work, take out the magazine, eject the round and give you the gun, oh wonderful master of mine.”

He was smiling, I knew I was right. I stuck my tongue out at him and did a happy dance.

Xan gaped at me. “Never do that dance again fată. Promise me.”

“I can’t make promises I won’t keep, Gypsy. But I will tell you-

I trailed off as soon as I realized where we were. I had been so caught up in our conversation that I hadn’t been paying attention to where we were going. Xan was holding the door to his trailer open for me.

As I continued to stand there staring, saying nothing, his eyes darkened.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He turned abruptly and disappeared. The screen door closed behind him with a slam.

I stood there alone, wishing I could just walk away before things got even more complicated. Or difficult. Because if I went in there things were definitely going to become more difficult. At least for me.

Regardless, I couldn’t leave with him thinking I’d left because I didn’t want him. Not when, in reality, I felt the opposite.

Taking a deep breath, I opened his door and found Xan sitting on his kitchen counter, smoking a cigarette, wearing only his boxers. He glanced up in surprise.

“Forget something?” He asked, blowing out a stream of smoke.

His skin was still damp with summer sweat and exertion from practice. The lingering scents of bonfire smoke and gin that always clung to his body hung heavy in the air. Bringing up his arm, he took another drag of his cigarette and exhaled. I watched as the muscles in his biceps flexed with the movement. My belly tightened in anticipation. I wanted him and I wanted him now.

“Fată?” He said, his lips twitching.

I didn’t know what to do. It hurt too much to kiss him and yet standing here looking at him, half dressed with his long hair falling over his golden brown chest, it was hurting not to. His smile slipped. Sliding off the counter, he stubbed his cigarette out in the sink.

“Veni la mine, frumos,” He said softly, crooking a finger at me. My stomach took a wild leap into my throat and my breathing became labored as I approached him.

His lips hesitated near mine and, oh Gods, I desperately wanted for things to be different. Sensing my hesitation, instead of kissing me he changed course and went for the sensitive skin on my neck. As his kisses grew urgent, the urge to force him away from me began to flare.

But before I knew it his hands were skimming the curve of my hips, his fingers biting into my skin through the thin material of my dress as he roughly pulled me closer.

The shadow of his beard was rasping delightfully against my skin as he nuzzled and kissed his way down my neck.

When the ribbon holding the back of my dress together loosened causing the sleeves to slide off my shoulders, I arched into Xan, rubbing my bare breasts against his chest.

I felt him hesitate.

I dug my fingernails into his back. “Please,” I whispered.

Pushing the dress down over my stomach and past my hips, I let the soft material puddle on the floor at my feet. Suddenly tense, he closed his eyes at the sight of my naked body.

“Xan?” I whispered, unsure of why he wouldn’t look at me.

I gasped as he grabbed my shoulders and muscled me through the small doorway of his bedroom. My knees buckled as they hit the mattress, causing me to fall backwards. Crawling over me, he gripped my hips, and pressed our bodies together. When his mouth closed over a nipple, I shuddered.

Not out of pleasure or pain, but horror. Everything inside of me screamed that this was wrong, that to let this man touch me intimately would cause nothing but devastation, to me, to him and to Gerik.

So terrified by my thoughts, I couldn’t speak. Grabbing handfuls of his hair, I yanked, desperate to pull him off of me.

I was still shaking when he covered me with a blanket and lay down next to me. Ashamed and embarrassed, I looked away. “I’m sorry,” I croaked.

Instead of answering me, he pulled me over him, gathering me in the crook of his arm. He pressed my head down over his heart. “Trin… It doesn’t matter.”

I stared up at him in shock. “But it does!”

He just smiled and pushed my head back down.

“No fată, it really doesn’t.”

“But-

“Shh…”

We lay there in silence for awhile. Both pillowed and sheltered by the bulk of his body I eventually began to relax. At least I could touch him, talk to him and be near him. None of those things felt wrong.

When I felt comfortable enough I ran my fingers down his stomach and encountered a large puckered scar to the right of his groin.

“How’d you get this?” I asked.

“Bike accident.” He replied, kissing my forehead. “A guardrail decided to jump in front of me, it was the damndest thing.”

I looked up at him, realizing how much I still didn't know about him. “Tell me more?” I asked.

“What? About the accident?”

I shook my head. “No, your motorcycles. Your life outside of camp. The friends you had. Your dad. All of it, I want to know all of it.”

Xan stared down at me through puzzled eyes, saying nothing.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him, hoping I didn’t cross the line by bringing up his father.

“Seriously?” He asked. “You really want to know about all that shit?”

Now I was really confused. I’d asked, hadn’t I? “Yes,” I told him. “I really do. I know you performed stunts with your bikes and that your Dad is a half Blackfoot Indian, right?”

He nodded still looking bewildered. I pulled on a few of his dreads. “So then, Gypsy, tell me more.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“Did you see Gerik today?” I asked Xan after dinner as we walked back to the living lot.

He shook his head. “He’s been MIA, but so has Onyx.” He shrugged and cocked one of his shockingly black eyebrows at me. “Why? Miss him?”

Ignoring that, I continued, “I’m just worried that he’s going to do something crazy.” And I really was. I didn’t want all that unstable magic loose on Xan. Or me.

As it turned out, it wasn’t Gerik we had to be worried about. Waiting for us in front of Xan’s trailer was Drina, her hands on her hips, her mouth set in a straight line.

“Come with me,” She said, not bothering to mask her unhappiness at the sight of our clasped hands.

“What’s this about?” Xan asked her.

She glanced first to her left then her right. “Not here fiul meu. There are eyes and ears everywhere.”

She gestured for us to follow as she began walking away. Xan, although rolling his eyes, obeyed.

“She is so over dramatic,” He whispered.

Drina’s RV greeted us with the strong scents of Blessed Thistle, Calamus and Fennel as well as many others I couldn’t yet put a name too. I had begun to recognize a lot of the herbs and roots used for protection around camp. Drina would wrap them in cloth and tie them to strips of leather for people to wear around their necks or put underneath their pillows and trailers.

Ducking the strands of dried vegetables hanging from the ceiling, Drina sat down at her work table, immediately picking up her pestle and mortar which she began to vigorously grind.

I sat down across from her, waiting patiently for her to speak but Xan remained standing, his expression conveying annoyance.

Drina’s eyes went glassy as she continued to work on her mixture and I got the feeling we had been forgotten.

Xan, slammed his fist on the table, finally gaining her attention. He glared down at her. Drina glanced up, her equally dark gaze matching her son’s.

“You cannot see her,” She snapped, pointing a long bronzed finger in my direction.

Not only the camps healer, Xan had told me his mother is clairvoyant, like a fortune teller only much more powerful. Drina was able to do cold readings on people, ascertaining their pasts, presents and futures without having to even touch them.

Xan shook his head, angry. “Stay out of my business,” He replied.

Drina ignored him. Instead she focused on me, her pupils, barely discernable from her from irises as it was, began to expand until only a small amount of white remained. She looked like a demon.

Xan, unfazed by this, grabbed my hand and pulled me out my chair.

“She’s taken!” Drina yelled. “Born with a destiny and meant for another!”

“Shut up!” Xan roared, kicking the table. The entire structure shook and the pestle and mortar fell to the floor, shattering.

“Don’t you know what she is?” Drina screamed at her son. “What she is to Gerik?”

The table was suddenly flying across the room. A crack in the wall appeared where the table had hit. The small table bounced back across the floor, stopping at Drina’s outstretched foot.

Drina cursed. “Stupid boy.”

“What do you mean?” I asked her, “What am I?”

“You’re a gift for the chosen!” She snarled, “Given only to the most powerful, the most revered of Nature’s children!”

She shook her fist at me. “You have the other half of the boy’s soul, you foolish fată!”

“I… I’m a gift?” I’d heard the rest, but I seemed to be unable to get past the part where I was a gift.

“Yes!” Drina snapped at me. “Gerik’s gift! Stay away from my son!”

“But…how? Why?” I asked, still having a hard time processing the fact that I was a gift.

“But why?” Drina mocked. “Gerik’s affinity for all the elements comes at a price. As he grew, so did his magic. All that power cannot be contained in his body alone.”

The urge to throw up was promptly my biggest concern.

“Am I even a real person?” I asked her, feeling very odd. I had a fleeting thought that maybe none of this was real and I was locked up in an asylum somewhere. Sadly, that would have been infinitely better than this reality.

“Yes,” She said, giving me a strange look. “What else would you be?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I murmured. “A fairy, maybe a werewolf? Anything would be preferable than being forced into magical slavery.”

“You ungrateful child!” Drina stood, peering down her nose at me. “You were made for Gerik! There is no other path for you!”

I jumped when the door behind me slammed. Ignoring the rest of Drina’s ranting, I followed Xan outside.

Leaning against Drina’s propane tank, arms crossed, he refused to look at me.

I blew out a slow breath. “It’s not like I knew.”

“No?”

“No!”

He snorted. “Right.”

“Wait, you’re upset with me? I just find out that I’m some guy’s gift and you’re upset? How is that fair? I haven’t done anything!”

“Yeah, not yet.”

Taken back, I was at a loss for words.

“Yeah! Not fucking yet!” He repeated, his voice raising. “It’s only a matter of time, Trin. You’re his…his…his soul mate!” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Jesus Christ, she said you were made for him! Made! For him!”

Pushing off the propane tank, he turned abruptly and punched the side of trailer.

“You said you were going to help me!” I yelled. To think I had been worried about Gerik acting irrationally.

I took a step toward him but he halted me. “Go be with your soul mate.”

I froze. All of the anger I had felt toward Gerik suddenly reared its ugly head at Xan.

“Xan! Screw you!” I cried out as he walked away. He paused but didn’t turn around.

“That’s Gerik’s job!” He bellowed back. “Always has been!"

Hours later, I was still fuming. A Gods damn gift, Drina had said. And I had half of Gerik’s soul to boot. It seemed the Viking had more than some Neanderthal claim on me. As it turned out I was his birthday present for being extra special good boy.

When in all the Gods and Goddesses had this happened?

My father had told me, in the form of a bedtime story, that mankind long ago had two heads and four arms. At some point in time they did something that offended a God and that God punished mankind by splitting them down the middle. This resulted in the creation of humankind. The punishment was that we as a race were now condemned to spend our lives searching for our other half, our soul mate.

Was it all true? Did I only have half a soul? Was that why being with Gerik made me feel so… complete?

Are people actually made for one another?

I’d asked my daddy, when I was still pretty young, why he hadn’t stayed with my older sister’s mother. He chucked me under the chin and said, “Our connection just wasn’t strong enough to last through the both the good and the bad.”

I asked him then if he was going to leave my mom too. His handsome face turned very serious as he knelt down in front of me and cupped my cheeks. “No my heart, your mother and I are not just connected, she is the Aphrodite to my Ares.”

But were they soul mates? Everything inside of me screamed yes. I’d seen the way he looked at her. The way they’d kissed each other when they thought no one was watching. But there had been no force of Nature, no magic behind their joining, had there?

Or had all the events that led to my birth been predestined just so Gerik and I would end up together?

And then all the events after that?

I lurched up in bed feeling sick again.

I’d just barely reached the swimming hole, towel and clean clothing in tow, more than ready for a good long soak, when I realized Gerik was standing behind me.

“I miss you,” He said, his deep voice trembling.

I closed my eyes and sighed. The last thing I wanted to do right now was tell him that I knew what he’d been hiding from me. It was a fight waiting to happen that I didn't have the energy for.

He ran shaking hands through his unbraided hair. “I... the thing with Onyx, I can explain it all. I can stop Trinity. I just need you in order to do that. It’s complicated. But it’s you I want…please try and understand?”

He reached for me and I wasn’t quick enough to avoid him. As he pulled me forward I waited for the onslaught of hormones but they never came, he hadn’t touched me skin to skin. Looking up into his blue, beseeching eyes and I felt a stab of regret for how harshly I’d been treating him.

It wasn’t his fault we were connected, it was something we were both born into. However, I still wasn’t ready to forgive him for the many times he’d refused to use restraint when it came to touching me. He’d been careless, blatantly so.

I sank into his embrace and let his presence wash over me, comforting and soothing me in a way no one else could, not even my own mother.

A loud, thundering crash had both of us glancing toward the chicken coop. Xan had just dropped an entire armful of logs next to one of the smaller fire pits. One by one they toppled over each other. Xan didn’t bother picking them up or straightening them. He just stood there for a moment, staring at the fallen wood then lit up a cigarette. He took a long slow drag and blew it out equally slow.

Then with a hateful glance my way he strode off, disappearing behind the trailers and tents.

Tobar, Jericho’s grandson and the Popa Clan heir, was standing a few feet away watching the whole mess over the rim of his coffee mug, thoroughly amused.

Gerik looked back at me, his expression stormy. “I’m not blind, yeah? You think I don’t know what’s been going on?”

I said nothing. I didn’t feel I owed him an explanation for anything.

“With Xan!” He exclaimed, the tone of his voice suggesting that he’d felt what I had done was right up there alongside cold blooded murder.

Agitation mounting at my silence he again raked his hands through his hair. “I’m hurting! Can’t you see that? I’m sick of needing you and not understanding why you don’t need me back. Why would I get cursed like this, bound to someone who isn’t bound to me? It’s not fair, yeah?”

I raised an eyebrow at his slip up. “Cursed, Gerik? Bound?” I twisted in his grasp, freeing myself. I didn’t bother to hide my sarcasm. “Why whatever do you mean? I thought we were simply special.”

His eyes flashed white. “You know.” He bit out.

“Yeah, I know! And I have no idea why you look so pissed off. You had no right to keep that from me. Telling me we were special and that was all! Gods it was so much more than that and you… you had the nerve to tell me magic had nothing to do with it! All lies!”

“How could I tell you?” He shouted, “You were grieving Trinity! You watched your sister die! The world had been destroyed! Magic had just been introduced into your very sheltered, very Gaje existence and what… you wanted me throw this in as well, yeah?”

Well… I had to admit that sounded reasonable.

“Exactly how was I supposed to do that? Good morning Trinity, and by the way you’re my other half, literally! You were made especially for me and my magic! You would have thought I was crazy!”

Some small part of me knew he was right and could rationalize why he would keep such an incredible secret from me. But I couldn’t forget everything else he’d done. That while he was keeping this secret from me he’d still been breaking promises, promises to refrain from touching me, to give me space and let me keep my wits about me.

Why couldn’t he just give me my space? What exactly was he so hell bent on?

It’s not going to work you know?” He said. His expression turned brutal. “You can’t be with Xan. You can’t be with anyone, except me. Ever.”

Gerik was watching me expectantly, hoping this information was going to get some sort of reaction out of me. Too bad for him, but I’d already known, and wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of showing my anger.

“I’ll be with whomever I want Gerik and rest assured it will never be you.”

Whatever control Gerik had been holding onto instantly broke. I watched the change in him happen. He went ridged, his skin seemed too tight for his body and his eyes too large for their sockets.

I was stepping backwards when the earth began to ripple beneath my feet. It was just a small tremor at first then the ground began to shake so furiously I could no longer stand and had to brace myself on my hands and knees.

“You will be mine,” He told me. His voice had changed, had deepened enough to carry over the groaning earth and the creaking trees that were being uprooted before my eyes.

A vicious wind swept through camp stopping to circle around Gerik and I. It blocked out the light from the bonfires and engulfed us in darkness.

“Gerik…” I tried to speak but my words were swept away, unheard, by the wind. I doubted he could even see me now through the thick fog of wind currents.

“Gerik!” I screamed over the noises of the unnatural storm.

Long minutes passed until the trees began to settle as the ground stilled. I scrambled to my feet. Still seething, Gerik glared down at me.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter. I have my full powers now, Trinity. I’ve had them since I was twenty five and can barely contain the energy inside of me anymore.”

He closed the distance between us and gripped my shoulders. “I need you. If we don’t complete the bond I don’t know what will happen to me.”

I could only gape at him. Complete the bond? And give me magic?

“Our soul will never stop trying to come together! Don’t you get it? It’s forcing you to me! This is beyond you and me! You don’t have a choice and neither do I! ”

If he wanted to hurt me then he’d done a sufficient job. Everything was about him. His powers, his energy, his need for me and the fact that I was made for him, to house his excess magic or whatever. Gerik could wrap this package up in a pretty bow and call me his “other half” but that didn’t lessen the fact that what he was trying to force on me was purely selfish and sounded clinical.

I was obsolete in this. Gerik was sick and I was his cure. Who I was or what I looked like had never mattered. He didn’t even know anything about me or me him. He’d never before asked about my life, or attempted to share his with me.

Ours was a relationship based on single-sided need, if anything he had a more functional relationship with Onyx than he ever did with me. I was just a means to an end, a backpack really, to store things in that he didn’t have room for on his person.

I wondered if he even cared for me at all.

“Gerik,” A deep voice boomed.

Belatedly I realized that Jericho was calling out to us. He looked wary, undoubtedly because Gerik had just started hurricane in the middle of his camp. Most of camp had gathered behind him. I’m guessing they were all prepared to try and control him if he hadn’t gotten control of himself.

“Son, in this clan, nothing will be forced on a person. Gaje or Gypsy.”

The two men stared at each until Gerik released my shoulders and took a step away from me. I took a sideways step toward the living lot, then another, and then I was running as fast as I could to my trailer.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

After my morning chores, I grabbed lunch and sat down with Hockey and Becki. Instead of eating, I ended up tearing chunks of bread into tiny pieces and tossing each one into my soup. When I ran out of bread to tear, I began to stir. And stir. The three of us continued to sit in an uncomfortable silence.

“I’m sorry Trinity, I should have told you,” Becki said, ending the silence, “I’m a shit friend.”

“Told me what?” I asked. Scooping up a piece of bread I let it fall back into my soup with a loud plop.

“About Gerik,” She replied.

I dropped my spoon, surprised. “You knew?” I accused.

She nodded. “Everyone did. It’s… it’s hard to understand if you don’t have magic but you Gerik have the same aura. It’s downright identical and because of that everyone knew immediately something was up. No two people have the same aura and with Gerik being so powerful and a Gaje having the same aura as him… well, you know the rest.”

If my spoon had still been in my hand I would have dropped it again.

“Why is he staring at you?” Hockey asked, interrupting my shock.

Becki shook her head. “You’re imagining things.” Hockey didn’t look like he thought he was imaginings things but he dropped it and looked away.

I turned in my seat and caught Tobar’s gaze. He smiled politely at me and went back to eating.

Tobar was tall and lean with shoulder length brown hair and soft brown eyes, not nearly as dark or as harsh as the other guys in camp. I supposed he was decent enough guy but there was something off about him.

Constantly amused and unnaturally quiet, his laconic smile always firmly in place, he gave me the creeps. Whereas Hockey was just naturally shy and probably didn’t have very much to say, Tobar had a method to his madness. Those wheels of his were constantly turning and he missed nothing. You could practically see the machinations forming in those eyes of his.

I turned around to find Becki blushing and suddenly everything made sense. Becki’s disappearing act, Xan’s random comments and now this.

“So how come Xan didn’t know about Gerik and I?” I asked her, changing the subject before things got messy. I’d had enough of my own messes and didn’t want to get caught in Becki’s.

She shrugged. “He doesn’t have magic and I guess no one told him…”

“Shandor has magic right?” I asked. She nodded.

I turned in my chair, angry and glared at the little hyena for not telling Xan what he knew. Some best friend he was. With a ridiculous grin on his face he saluted me with his spoon. Everything would always be a joke to him.

A sudden weight across my shoulders had me jumping, bumping the table and spilling more soup. Tobar slid into the seat next to me, smiling.

I was way too jumpy today. I should have stayed in my trailer. Better yet, my bed.

“What’s up, Trinity? How are you feeling? Better I hope after what happened with Gerik.”

“Uh, yeah. Thanks.” I went back to playing with my soup, wishing he’d remove his arm from my shoulders.

“I was wondering if you’d maybe like to come to the next fire dance with me, that is if you’re free to?”

Tobar’s sudden interest in talking to me was suspicious enough, let alone escorting me to fire dances. I turned to look at him only to find he wasn’t even looking at me but staring instead at Becki.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to go with you frate. If Trinity is freed up now what’s to say she doesn’t want to go with me?” Gunnar sat down on top of the table precariously close to my soup and leered down at me.

I was starting to feel like a lone sheep surrounded by hungry wolves.

“Um, I’m probably not going.” I shrugged a few times attempting to dislodge Tobar. As his arm fell he snaked his hand around my middle and with one hard yank he’d pulled both my chair and I flush against his own chair. His creepy smile deepened.

Becki’s face was turning an interesting shade of red. Odd considering how dark skinned she is.

“You could wear that tiny purple dress of yours Trinity, the one that barely covers your-

A loud crash had me nearly grabbing Tobar out of fear. Becki’s chair had flown almost halfway across the tent and directly into the picnic table housing the food. She was already storming outside with Hockey racing after her. Tobar immediately released me, his smile was gone.

“I’m sorry,” He said and stood. He left the tent through the opposite side Becki had.

Still trying to process what had just happened, I grabbed my bread drenched soup and headed for the entranceway with Gunnar hot on my heels.

“I was serious Trinity.”

Gunnar Horváth, the older brother to the tacky triplets who, like his sisters, never hesitated to throw in my face just how Roma I wasn’t. He’d called me a Gaje so many times I’d lost count.

“Why?” I asked him.

“Huh?”

“You heard me, why all of a sudden do you want to take me to dances?”

“You didn’t hear fată?” Just entering the tent, Xan paused next to us. “After that crazy display of Gerik’s hormones, Jericho has forbidden him contact with you.” He shrugged. “He’s probably worried he’ll destroy the camp trying to get in your pants. Looks like your fair game now.”

Xan slapped Gunnar on the back and the idiot actually grinned back at him. He was such a meat head.

But wait… forbidden?

Questions were popping up left and right. Was I free now? Would Gerik be okay? What would happen to him? Did I even care?

I was way out of my element with all this hocus pocus that everyone else around here seemed so blasé about.

“So you’re free to do what you want Trin. Maybe you’ll have better luck with Gunnar here…” Xan slapped Gunnar on the back. Then, leaning in so close that I could smell the cigarette smoke mingling with fresh cut wood clinging to his clothing, he whispered, “Maybe he won’t repulse you as much.”

“Bastard!” I cried out, backing away from him. “That wasn’t my fault!”

“Maybe…” Xan looked mockingly thoughtful. “You just didn’t want it bad enough.”

I didn’t think, just reacted. And my reaction landed Xan with a bowl of soggy bread and soup on his chest. Clumps of vegetables and meat slid down his pants before hitting the ground.

I recognized Shandor’s laughter as I tore out of the back of the tent. Anything that amused Shandor pissed Xan off twice as much. I needed to be invisible. Like yesterday.

“Watch it Xan Daniel!” Kizzy, Shandor’s mother, yelled. Horrified, I glanced over my shoulder at the Asenov trailer. Kizzy stood outside hanging her laundry and Xan had just trampled her basket of freshly washed clothes. He was bounding towards me, his face a mask of fury.

I amped up my speed, pumping my legs as fast as they could go, I had only two more rows of trailers before I got to my own row and was hoping upon all hopes Becki hadn’t locked herself in after what had happened with Tobar.

I raced past a shocked Maisera and Jericho. I knew Xan was right behind me, his heavy footfalls growing closer. I could only imagine what this must look like. Any day now I was sure they were going to kick me out of camp, citing that I was causing more trouble than I was worth.

A flash of white had me nearly tripping over my own two feet. Gerik was standing near a small fire at the edge of the back lot, his eyes aglow. A chill peppered my arms with goose bumps as the scents of cinnamon and pine trees deliciously filled the air.

“You pussy! You magic using pussy!” Xan yelled, sounding very far away.

I paused at my door to look back. Xan was picking himself up off the ground halfway across the living lot and Gerik was…gone.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

An unplanned fire meeting had begun about an hour ago. Tonight was special, several of the school aged children were participating in an impromptu spelling bee and would be singing songs they had been practicing for weeks.

Spelling was the last thing on my mind.

Between watching Xan chug a bottle of Gin, only pausing long enough to make-out with the most terrible of the triplets, Fifi and having to watch Gerik and Onyx do the same, I was having trouble simply remaining calm.

“Becki!” I exclaimed. “I need a mental detour over here.”

“You and me both,” She said sullenly.

Nadya moved from her place beside me and wriggled in between the two of us. “Hmmm…” She tapped her chin while she scoured the fire pit. “Aha! Whose boobs are bigger? Alana or Jaelle’s?”

Becki laughed. “My mami’s definitely. They are the size of my head.”

“Okay… too easy.” She looked around. “Who would rather kiss, Pitti or Pesha?”

I pushed Nadya playfully into Becki. “Ew!”

“Okay, okay…” She grinned mischievously. “Who would you rather hook up with, Harman Siwak or Djordji Čonka?”

“Eeeee!” Becki shrieked. “They are sooo old!”

Throat clearing had us looking up into the smiling face of Madeleana Čonka. “Some things get better with age girls,” She said with a wink.

As she walked away we fell over top of each other laughing.

Pitti plopped down next to me. “What’s so funny fetita?” Still laughing, no one answered him.

He shrugged and handed me his flask. “Half full babe. Just for you. And may I add Trinity, that you’re especially sexy tonight.”

Seriously? Maybe I would prefer to be off the market if this was how it was going to be from now on.

“Damn, I can’t even spell some of these words.” Stevo mumbled, taking a seat next to Becki. “How old is Adi anyway? Five? Six? Shit.”

“I can’t spell at all,” Pitti said.

I had just taken my first swig of the Gods’ awful concoction when Becki suddenly jumped to her feet.

“Oh shit.” She covered her mouth with her hand, muffling the string of curses that followed.

“What?” Everyone asked.

“Oh… damn... oh, why is he doing this?” She continued, not answering. Pitti stood up, followed her line of sight then, eyes wide, he plopped right back down.

What the hell was going on? I tugged on Pitti’s pants and shot him a questioning glance. I followed his finger, pointing to the opposite end of the fire pit where Hockey was striding determinedly toward our small group. His Chicago Blackhawks hat was pulled down so low you couldn’t see his eyes and he was holding something in his hands.

Maisera stopped the spelling bee when she caught sight of him. The whole camp became instantly, eerily quiet.

“Don’t do it frate!” I easily distinguished Gunnar’s voice. “It’s not worth it!”

“What does he have in his hand?” I whispered.

“Rope,” Becki seethed. “The idiot has rope.”

“Why?” I asked, confused. “What’s going on?”

“That’s it,” Becki yelled. “I’m out of here!” She turned to leave just as Stevo jumped in her way. Grinning like the Cheshire cat, he grabbed her arms and swung her around to face Hockey.

I set the flask down, about to stand when Pitti grabbed my arm. “You can’t interfere Trinity, just sit tight.”

Hockey had stopped a few feet from us and raised the brim of his hat, his gaze fixed on Becki.

“Don’t you dare touch me!” She screamed. Then in typical Becki fashion, she spit in his face.

Unconcerned, he wiped the spit from his cheek and reached for her hands. Her legs, still free, shot outwards and she managed to knock him in the shins a few times. With Stevo’s help, the brothers’s wrestled her into a kneeling position, making it easier for Hockey to bind her wrists. Her ankles were a whole another story. She screamed, kicked, twisted and spit, reminding me very much of a frightened cat.

“What is wrong with you?” I demanded of Pitti. “Why isn’t anyone doing anything?”

“Shhh. It will all be explained.”

I didn’t see how any of this could be explained. No one, not even Indiana, Becki’s twin brother was doing a damn thing. And Maisera had a smile on her face for Gods sake!

As Hockey hoisted Becki up and over his shoulder, his face contorted in pain. Becki had sunk her teeth into him.

Stevo grinned at his big brother. “You sure about this frate? I’m just guessing here, but I’m not sure she’s willing.”

Hockey couldn’t answer as his teeth were clenched tightly together. Blood was seeping through the shoulder of his white t-shirt where Becki’s jaws of steel had clamped onto him.

Then with an exasperated sigh and a nod at his brother, Hockey left with his unwilling prize and headed for the living lot. I could still hear Becki yelling even after his trailer door slammed.

It was Stefan who broke the silence that followed. He grabbed both Jaelle and Indiana in a giant bear hug. Aishe too joined the embrace with tears streaking down the sides of her face.

Jericho clapped his hands together, his grin wide. “Time for celebration, family of mine! To Becki Bălan and Stefan Sava Jr., may their union flourish in love, their families unite in happiness and this clan prosper with their many, many children!”

Hearty laughter and whoops of joy followed.

“Music, music gentlemen!” Jericho motioned to anyone holding an instrument. The instant the crisp sweet sounds struck the evening air he grabbed hold of Maisera and swung her around.

I pulled away from Pitti and stood up, glaring down at him. “Tell me what in all the Gods names just happened?”

He grinned, “All the Gods Trinity? That’s a tall order.”

“Pitti!” I yelled, stomping my foot.

“Okay, okay. Calm down. It’s an old Romani tradition. Back in the day, either to avoid paying the bride price or when the girl’s family wouldn’t let her marry who she wanted, if you kidnapped her and held her for a few days, that was enough. You were married.”

Pitti laughed at my startled reaction. “Close your mouth Trinity you look like a dead fish.”

“I… I… That is so barbaric!”

An indifferent shrug was his only response.

“But what about love?” I cried. “She doesn’t sound very happy about this!” I gestured toward Hockey’s trailer where Becki’s shouting could still be heard, much to the amusement of the entire clan. Gods, what was wrong with everyone.

“Yeah, what about love?” Xan slurred as he ambled up to us, Fifi in tow. A cigarette dangled precariously from his lips.

“Oh please,” Shandor scoffed as he joined our group. “Who cares about love?”

Simionce laughed, sounding every inch Shandor’s little brother. “Who knows, maybe the frate does love her," He said, then waggled his eyebrows conspiratorially. “But we all know why he’s really marrying her.”

I recognized Onyx’s cackle behind me. I refused to turn around and look at either her or Gerik.

“Boy needs to get laid is all,” Onyx giggled. “Jaelle is strict with her kids, no nooky till marriage, right Stevo?”

She strode forward leering at the blushing teenager.

Wait…what? Becki and Hockey had never…

“But…” I said, then trailed off, not entirely sure I wanted to join in the gossip fest centered around my friend.

Shandor winked at me. “Nope,” He said. “Never.”

I had no room to judge but Becki’s recent behavior and Hockey’s response to it didn’t exactly equal a sudden and forced marriage.

“All of you can go to hell!” Stevo yelled. “Sex isn’t everything! And Hockey and Becki do love each other. She just was surprised is all!”

“You’re right,” I told him, realizing that we were the two lone virgins in this group. “Sex isn’t everything.”

“Even if they don’t love each other yet, it can come second, yeah?” Gerik said quietly. Walking forward, he placed his arm around Stevo who looked grateful for the support.

“Need almost always come first,” He continued. “Way of the world.” Gerik glanced at me and I froze as those pools of blue sucked me in.

He looked amazing in a loose fitting, white linen shirt, paired with baggy jeans so worn you could practically see right through them in places. He was barefoot as usual and his hair hung loose around his face and shoulders, freshly washed. I couldn’t pry my eyes away from the sight of him no matter how badly I wanted to.

“How would you know?” Xan spat out. “When you just magically force people to think they are in love with you?”

Gerik accessed Xan coldly, “My life and the people in it are none of your business or your concern.”

With his eyes narrowed and his jaw set, Xan looked ready to attack.

“But you’re in love aren’t you Xan?” Gerik smirked at him. “Good luck with that one, yeah?”

Everyone grew quiet, all eyes on Xan, waiting for his response to the taunt. Instead of responding he just glared at Gerik. Then, as turned his hate filled gaze on me, his face changed. The pure rage he’d shown Gerik was now a mixture of anger, helplessness and anguish.

As we stared at each other, him hating me and me wishing for nothing except to be able to be with him, a slow ache began building in my chest, it grew deeper and more painful until I swear I felt my heart broke.

“Fuck you both,” He said, his eyes still on me. Then stamping out his cigarette, he stumbled back to the fire pit. As Fifi took off after him, it took every ounce of my will power not to cry.

“Trinity?” Gerik took a step toward me and I instantly put my hands up.

“Don’t I have a magical restraining order against you?” I mimed the air in front of me as if there was an invisible wall between us.

He didn’t bother to hide his anger. Eyes white, veins bulging in his neck, he stood tall, looking every inch a mad man. Onyx began tugging on his arm, pleading with him to leave.

I walked away, uncaring. What was there to care about anymore anyway?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I was completely alone. I had people to talk with; mindless chatter to pass the time while I did my chores and ate my meals, but with both Xan and Becki gone, it wasn’t the same.

Over the next few days my routine became monotonous. I walked the same way through the living lot to the food tent, and then from there I did my chores. Then I would practice some fight moves alone by the creek, then back to the food tent and finally home where I would stay alone and sleep until Frank would wake me in the morning with his earsplitting crowing.

It went on like this until I was walking home from an afternoon bath at the swimming hole and I heard screams coming from the living lot. I raced toward the noise to find the clan in chaos.

A wide circle of people had formed around Onyx and Becki, who were only inches apart, foaming at the mouth.

“Don’t you think everyone should hear your good news Becki? Onyx was speaking unnecessarily loud. “Doesn’t the clan deserve to celebrate with you?”

Becki lunged at her but Onyx sidestepped her and laughed. She clucked her tongue a few times. “Becki, Becki…” She taunted. “You shouldn’t be fighting in your delicate condition.”

“I’m going to kill you, you horrible bitch!” Becki lunged again and this time her fist made contact. Onyx went down screaming, clutching her face as blood poured from her nose. Indiana grabbed his sister just as she was about kick Onyx in the stomach.

Pushing herself upright with one hand, holding her bleeding nose with the other, Onyx glared at Becki. “Tell them Becki! Tell them all what a slut you are! Do you even know who the father-

“SHUT UP!” Becki screamed shrilly causing everyone within hearing distance to wince.

Maisera pushed her way through the crowd and yanked Onyx by her elbow.

“What is the meaning of this?” She asked.

“She’s pregnant!” Onyx screamed, “Becki is pregnant!”

She shrugged out of Maisera’s grasp and grabbed Becki shirt, pulling it up. An audible gasp rippled through the gathered crowd as Becki’s secret was revealed.

I covered my mouth with my hand. Sure enough, her stomach had outwardly rounded in such a way that you could tell it wasn’t from weight gain. Becki was pregnant. More than a few months it seemed.

Poor Hockey. He looked like a deer caught in headlights as he stared at his new wife’s stomach. My guess was they still had yet to consummate their marriage.

“I saw her bathing!” Onyx screeched. “And I’ve seen her puking several times-

Her words cut off abruptly when Maisera slapped her across the face. Blood from her broken nose arced through the air as her head spun sideways, spraying everyone nearby.

“Child, it is times like this when I am happy Merikano and Christine have gone back to Nature,” Maisera told her sadly, “and don’t have to see what you have become in their absence.”

Eyes wide with shock, Onyx’s bottom lip began to quiver. Becki, still held firmly in her twin’s grip was openly sobbing.

“Whore!” Aishe screamed breaking the silence. “Blight on my family!”

“You’ve soiled this family by marrying her!” Aishe turned on Hockey and started swatting him with her hand. “You are no longer my son! I disown you Stefan Sava, I disown you!”

Hockey didn’t even bat an eyelash, he didn’t try to thwart his mother’s smacks, he just stood there, stoic as ever and continued to stare at Becki, his expression unreadable.

“What is going on here?” All eyes turned toward Jaelle as she warily walked into the volatile scene. At the sight of her mother, Becki’s sobs grew louder.

Aishe pointed at Becki, “You’re daughter is-

“The copil is mine mamă!” Hockey interrupted. “Why do you think we got married?”

Hearing that, Becki collapsed in her brother’s arms. Aishe was stunned into a few precious moments of silence that unfortunately didn’t last very long.

“Whore!” She screamed at her son. “Sinner! Your child is a bastard because you couldn’t keep your ciocănitoare in your pants!”

The sound of Shandor’s incessant snickering had me turning around. Sitting with Xan and Tobar around the Vãdura family bonfire, he was as usual, highly amused by the scene in front of us.

Xan seemed oblivious to everything except his cigarette.

And Tobar… Tobar looked like he was going to throw up.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

As I neared the end of my chores, a booted foot came out of nowhere and kicked an entire barrel of clean dishes over. The barrel rolled about 15 feet, dishes went flying, some landing outside the wards.

“What is your problem?” I asked Onyx, unsurprised to find her attached to the booted foot.

“You.” She poked me in the chest.

“I have never done anything to you,” I said defensively. But I had, hadn’t I? Inadvertently anyway. I’d come out of nowhere and taken from her someone she loved.

“Do you know what I loathe about the Gaje?” She asked.

“I know I really don’t care,” I told her and began collecting the scattered dishes.

“You’re greedy, nasty little whores who think just because they live in big houses and drive nice cars that they can have anything they want just because they want it. And when you’re done wanting it you throw it away like it never meant a thing to you and you move on to something bigger or prettier.”

Still ignoring her, I reached down to pick up another dish.

“Why did it have to be you?” She asked.

“Why?” She continued in a scathing tone. “You have no magic, you have no Romani in you and you’re not even that pretty!”

“You think I wanted this!” I yelled. I dropped the dishes I was holding and turned toward her. “You think this was how I’d envisioned myself ending up with someone?”

I laughed at her. “Yeah, I stayed up every night as a little girl praying to the Gods that someday they would send me to a guy who would see me as nothing more than a necessity!”

Seething, I turned my back on her to pick up the dishes I’d dropped. Dumping them in the barrel I began hastily collecting the others that had scattered farther away.

“No matter,” Onyx said, suddenly directly behind me. “Soon there won’t be much left of you to see.”

A sense of dread filled me. I’d just barely turned my head when I felt the palms of her hands push against my back. With strength I didn’t think possible for someone of her size, or even a human for that matter, she pushed me and I flew about ten feet through the front lot, then skidded across the grass before hitting the tire of a large van.

Before I knew what was happening she was wrenching me up. Frantically I reached for the closest thing to me, the back double doors of a van. They were completely smooth and devoid of anything to grasp.

“Bye Trinity.” She laughed as she pushed me forward. I tottered for a minute, then a blast of wind hit me hard and I went flying through the wards.

It took me a minute to realize what had happened. I’d never even ventured sticking a pinky finger through the wards. I had always assumed they consisted of some kind of substance, something tangible. But no, it was if I had simply fallen over.

The camp had vanished.

I was still standing in the middle of a huge clearing except now it was empty. I walked forward and I was instantly overcome with the strangest sensation to… walk away.

“Onyx! You bitch!” I screamed.

“I didn’t ask for delivery,” Somebody hissed from behind me. My mouth dried. “But I’ll take it.”

“Shit! Shit! SHIT!” I screamed. I screamed and I ran.

My body surprised me. Several months of hard labor had given me more endurance that I’d expected.

I ignored the small branches and sharp rocks cutting into my feet and focused solely on pumping my arms and legs as hard as I could.

A frighteningly high pitched scream had me nearly jumping out of skin. To my left, two naked bodies rolled alongside of me locked in a bloodied ball of snarls and hisses.

I turned sharply to the right, smashing my face into a low hanging tree branch. Stumbling backwards I tripped over something, a rock maybe. I was fully engulfed in the forest now and its shadows. Getting to my feet I heard a crunch followed by a low growl. Squinting, I scanned the area.

Crouched by a tree no more than four or five feet from me, eyes glowing red against the dark of the forest, was how I was going to die.

As if reading my thoughts he grinned at me, a depraved and ugly look full of vile intent.

I began to shake furiously as he stepped out of the shadows. “I’m going to fuck you while I kill you,” He hissed, his nostrils flaring.

If his intentions were to incite fear in his victims before he did them in, it was working tenfold. But I didn’t doubt him for a second. He was in fact turned on. Naked as the day he was born and bared before me I could see just how arousing the thought of raping and killing me was to him.

“Please,” I begged him. “Don’t.”

He laughed, the sound resembling more of a growl then anything close to merriment. Inhaling again, this time deeply, his large chest expanded. “Ahhhh, you are far too sweet. I should bring you back and keep you as my own.”

Oh my Gods. He wanted to make me like him.

The horror I felt must have shown on my face because the bastards grin swelled. I was out of options and out of time. In a last desperate attempt to live, I turned to run.

With speed no mere human will ever possess he had me pinned down on my stomach before, it seemed, I’d even had a chance to move. Too startled, too scared to even scream, I wet myself.

Something wet and surprisingly warm began stroking my cheek. His tongue, I realized, as I fought the urge to gag while he licked his way from chin to temple.

I didn’t want to die, not before I’d really gotten a chance to live. And not like this.

Cool air hit my back as my t-shirt was torn open. I squeezed my eyes shut. Was it going to hurt to turn? Would I remember my life before? Would any part of me be the same?

My body instinctively jerked off the ground as ice cold daggers pierced through the flesh on my back. I screamed through the pain and kept on screaming until an explosion went off. I felt a tearing inside of my ear, and then both pain and pressure filled my entire head.

It hurt so bad I barely noticed that the weight on top of me was gone.

“I’ve got you fată, you’re safe now,” A muffled voice said. Something warm pressed up against my cheek. “I’m not leaving you. Not ever again.”

I tried to speak, to say anything at all but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even move.

Thankfully, everything soon went black.

CHAPTER TWENTY

I awoke sometime later in an unfamiliar bed, several candles flickered beside my head, and sharp pains throbbed throughout my right ear and temple. Drina’s face appeared above me, frowning.

“How do you feel?” She asked.

“Uh, not good.” My voice shook and creaked like an old rocking chair.

Her eyes narrowed. “He feels terrible you know.”

“What?" I asked, confused. Who?”

“Xan, of course.” Drina snorted. “Stupid boy. Your ear I was able to heal but if he hadn’t shot the creature you’d be dead right now. That is one thing I can’t fix.”

Shot? The wards! That monster! Oh my Gods!

“My back?” I yelled, sitting up, remembering the feeling of something tearing into my skin.

“Calm down!” Drina snapped. “You were scratched, not bitten. You and Xan have matching scars now. Drink this, you’ll feel better,” She said, handing me a steaming mug of foul smelling liquid. I choked down as much as I could before I felt it might come back up. Yet Drina was right. The pain in my head and ear slowly receded.

“Like magic,” I muttered.

Drina’s laughter was deep and slow. I could have sworn at that moment, it was tangible, a live entity and completely separate from her and if I wished to reach out and touch it I would have been able to.

“Trin?” Xan’s face came into view as he rounded the bed and came into the candle light. Drina stood and the magic I’d felt from her evaporated.

“I’ll be at Jaelle’s.” She said, looking at Xan, her expression grim. Mother and son stared hard at each other, their dark identical eyes waging a silent battle.

I burst into tears as soon as she left.

“Shhh…” Xan whispered, embracing me. He stroked my hair, my back, and my arms. Any part of me he could find. I was shaking, cold even though it was warm in Drina’s trailer. Needing his warmth I buried myself into his body. I’d been without him for too long.

“Please don’t hate me,” I sobbed against him. “I never wanted any of this.”

“No fată… I could never… didn’t ever…” He stopped speaking and gripped me tighter.

“I’m sorry,” He finally said.

Xan was at a loss for words? Apologizing even? Had the world come to an end? Oh… well yeah, sort of.

I knew it was time to make a decision. I could keep fighting against Gerik’s claim on me, keep fighting against what my body demanded but the rational part of my brain rejected. Or…I could give it all to Gerik. My virginity, my soul, and my free will.

My family was gone and the world as it had been… gone. I had a new family now and a choice to make between two men. One with so much magic he couldn’t contain it all and the other without any.

Both were beautiful, caring and ready to be there for me when I needed them. Gerik made me drop to me knees, desperate and… not at all myself.

Xan… He made my stomach flutter when he smiled at me. His soft touches made me ache for more than just touches. I wanted Xan. I wanted all of Xan. I wanted our late night conversations and playfulness during practice. And more. I wanted everything I could get out of him.

I encircled his neck pulling him toward me until his face was close to mine. I traced a finely edged cheekbone and brushed my lips against his.

“Xan, I need you.”

“I’m here Trin. I’m not leaving this time. I promi-

“No.” I smiled at him. “I mean I want you.”

He studied me for a moment. I watched as his usually harsh features softened. “I don’t want it to be horrible for you.”

I shook my head, ours noses touching. “Not being with you is infinitely worse.”

Drina’s poor bed side table was only the first of many casualties.

Pulling his shirt over his head and kicking off his jeans, he surveyed my clothing. “Do you like this shirt fată?” He tugged at the baggy black t-shirt I was wearing. I glanced down at it.

It was Gerik’s. Drina must have gone to my trailer for clothing and grabbed the first thing she found. Xan grinned when I didn’t answer. “In that case…”

That was all the warning I had before he ripped it from collar to hem and tore it off me.

Ours was more of a battle than any sort of intimacy. The moment Xan’s lips met mine every fiber of my being begged for retreat, forcing me to run from the man I wanted more than anything. Touches meant to create pleasure caused me to cry out in agony even as I screamed to be closer to him.

The walls shook and the windows rattled as we had no choice but to attack each other.

Xan’s passion eventually turned into brutal desperation.

In our hopeless attempts to get as close as two people can, all of the pain, humiliation and rejection Xan had endured up until now, was all coming to a head. He was quickly reaching the point of no return.

“Tell me to stop, Trinity. Tell me.” His words were clipped and hard. His breath was hot against my face. He had me pinned me up against a wall and had tried to kiss me. I’d turned away just in time and he’d responded by punching a hole in the paneling right next to my head. It was one of many.

He jerked my chin until we were forehead to forehead, our heavy breathing mingling in each other’s mouths. Gripping me tighter he wedged his hips in-between my legs. “Otherwise I’m going to finish this right now,” He said harshly.

My body jerked at the intimate contact only there was nowhere for me to go. His hold on me was bruising and he was seconds away from making good on his words.

“Tell me to stop fată,” He growled. His eyes had begun to shine with wild abandon.

Humanity had no place here. Here, we had no choice but to let loose the animal inside, an ancient instinctual part of us all, no matter how deeply buried. One ounce of mercy and all would be lost. I knew I would not be able to go through this again.

“Finish it,” I whispered through my teeth as my body tried to shrivel away from his.

With one excruciatingly painful thrust he found his entry inside of me. My body went limp as the pain instantly receded and was replaced by liquid warmth. Brushing sweat drenched hair out of my face, dark eyes found mine.

“It worked,” I panted.

Arching up until I could kiss him, I swept the tip of my tongue inside and felt nothing but the sweetness of his own mouth and the instinctual need to deepen our kiss, but he pulled away.

“You are not his anymore, Trin,” He said, his voice rough as his body retreated and then returned, pressing hard into mine. I gasped as foreign sensations of pleasure burst forth and exploded within me.

“Do you know what that means?” He asked, his tone and body language fiercely possessive. “You’re mine, Trinity. Mine.”

There was so much emotion in those dark eyes that I felt my heart immediately responding.

Then Xan began to move.

It was painfully obvious that what had happened so far had only been the prelude; the calm before the storm.

Our bodies crashed together like waves, the pounding of Xan’s heart against my own was like thunder in my head. I saw stars as my body fevered and shook with the feel of him moving inside of me.

Xan was everywhere, all over me, inside and out, surrounding me, yet I wanted, no, I needed more. With every kiss, every touch, every stroke, he brought me higher, taunting me to reach an unseen edge and to freefall over it alongside him.

When my world exploded, my insides shattered, my skin quivered and melted, it was all I could do to hold on to reality.

Alive is a relative term. As long as you were breathing you were alive, right? Just breathing would never be enough for me ever again. What I had experienced with Xan was life at its finest. The way his smiles turned me inside out and how his kisses made my stomach dance, the way his skin felt underneath my touch and how amazing he felt inside of me. It… it was everything.

“Holy Himeros,” I sighed.

Xan looked down at me, his features hard.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, worried.

Silence.

“Xan?” My voice cracked. Why wasn’t he saying anything?

“Are you mad at me?” I asked him. “Did I do something wrong?” Was being a virgin really that bad of a thing? Maybe to a guy like Xan it was.

“God no.” He kissed me softly on the lips. “It’s just… I didn’t realize that you really had never been with anyone before.”

“How could I? I’d never even kissed a guy until I met Gerik!" I said defensively. "I’d never even wanted to!”

His eyes widened. “I know! I mean, I didn’t know that but I knew that you couldn’t…dammit Trin. I just didn’t think that you and Gerik never actually-

“I don’t want to talk about Gerik right now!” I yelled and rolled away, giving him my back.

“Why me?” He asked, surprising me. “You said you had never even wanted to kiss a guy until you met Gerik, so why me? What happened? Why would you give me this?”

When I rolled back over I found his face full of wonder. He looked young and vulnerable in a way I’d never seen him before.

“I’m not really sure what happened,” I told him honestly. “I just wanted you.”

Instead of answering, he pulled me to him.

“Xan?”

“Mmmhmm?” His teeth grazed my neck.

“Oh,” I said giggling. “What if I told you I was tired?”

The look he gave me would have made small children cry.

He covered me with his body and the heavy hard feel of him instantly stirred me back to life. He wound my long hair around his hand until my face was flush against his fist and just when I thought this round was going to be as abrasive as the first, he captured my lips in a light embrace. The man I watched lift motorcycles with his bare hands, split logs in single strokes, began scattering soft kisses down my neck, across my breasts and over my stomach, then back up again.

I wrapped my legs around his waist and in one upward thrust I joined us.

“Virgin…” He muttered.

“Not anymore,” I said, grinning.

The sex this time was gentler, rhythmic, and even slower than the beating of our hearts.

We finished together; his face buried in my chest as he shook with his release. And it was like that, that we fell asleep, Xan still deep inside me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The plains of the lower Danube, 1073 A.C.E.

“There are so many stars in the sky,” Treime sighed, leaning back on the soft grass. “Stars and stars and more stars and no Gaje! Can we stay here forever Emilian?”

Emilian emerged from the lake waters, his long, lean body glistening with sparkling droplets that reflected brilliantly in the moonlight. He was perfect, Treime thought. Everything she could have ever hoped for.

He was also completely nude. Treime lowered her eyes as she caught sight of the most masculine part of him.

He grinned at her, “We can stay here for awhile, love.”

Taking in Treime’s still clothed body, his eyes narrowed playfully. “I thought you were going to take a bath?”

Her face heated. “I changed my mind,” she mumbled.

Emilian sprawled on the grass next to her, his arms behind his head. “Treime, you’re going to be my wife in less than a fortnight, will you not let me see you naked then either?”

She shrugged. “If I don’t, what will you do?”

His grin was merciless. “Then, I suppose I’ll have to find someone else who will.”

Treime leapt to her feet and with her hand over her heart she cried out in outrage, “Over my dead body!”

Emilian was up and on his feet lifting her into his arms. “Never that. You are too full of life to ever die.”

Before she could stop him, they had both toppled into the water together.

“Arugh!” She splashed water at Emilian. “Another dress ruined. Mami will kill you.”

Emilian raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re going to tell her what we were doing?”

Mortified by that very thought, Treime splashed more water at him to which Emilian responded by pulling her flush against him and kissing her hard.

Their bodies responded naturally to each other and their kisses quickly became heated, frenzied and full of passion. As Emilian’s hands began to explore the length of Treime’s body, she froze. She didn’t know whether to be excited or afraid.

“You’re safe,” He told her, his breath hot against her as his teeth tugged on her ear. Treime trembled with pleasure.

“I’d never hurt you love, never,” He whispered.

She squeezed her eyes shut as Emilian untied her belt and slipped her kirtle and tunic over her head, leaving her naked and completely exposed to him. She was unable to stop the whimper of fear that escaped.

“Look at me, Treime,” He whispered.

The sound of his voice, hoarse with emotion, speared right through her soul. Her eyes fluttered open to meet his and she was delighted in what she found there. Her fear instantly fled.

“Now let me in.” He ordered.

Treime wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his.

“I will never love another,” He said capturing her mouth in another heart stopping kiss.

“This is forever puţin o.” He lifted her legs and Treime instinctively wrapped them around his waist.

His magic burst outward as he thrust into her body, causing ripples in the water. Again he thrust and stars burst from the heavens, the fragments rained down upon the entangled couple like glitter. Soon the entire lake was illuminated in tiny shards of light. The closer they became the more the surrounding valley bloomed with life. The trees exploded in varying shades of greens. Flowers grew fuller and higher than ever before, fat on the love Treime and Emilian were creating. All around them Nature’s scents had peppered the air with a thick honey sweetness like no other.

Treime gasped as she realized what was happening. Emilian wasn’t just inside of her, he had become a part of her. His magic had become a part of her. Power crackled wildly around them and within them.

“My love is eternal,” he said harshly, his breathing ragged and uneven.

Sunlight exploded through Treime, a white hot fire that smelled of summer and felt like what she’d imagined heaven would. All past hurts fled and were replaced with love. Love and Emilian.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Xan and I had slept through dinner the night I’d woken up in Drina’s RV. That was several days ago and still he wouldn’t let me leave. He’d practically confined me to the bed with a myriad of excuses, ranging from him complaining that I still had yet to fully heal to simply not allowing me my clothing.

He’d actually tied my foot to the bed with my torn t-shirt when, at one point, I tried to make a run for some fresh air.

Why Drina hadn’t come and kicked us out I did not know.

“So,” I said through a mouthful of raw carrot. “What excuse are we going to give for missing today’s chores?

Sitting in bed next to me, stark naked, leaning back against the wall in a very inelegant slouch was my… Xan? My boyfriend? Bed buddy? Captor? I made a mental note to ask him later.

“You don’t exactly need an excuse, you almost ended up as someone’s dinner.”

“Actually, I almost ended up as someone’s girlfriend.” I shuddered remembering the details of my near demise.

I closed my eyes as a ceramic water jug flew across the room and shattered in a corner.

“Hey!” I snapped. “That was like the last thing in here that you hadn’t broke!”

“Are you stupid Trinity?” He bellowed. “How did you end up outside the wards anyway? If you tell me you tripped over those dishes I found I will strangle you!”

My mouth dropped open. He thought I was clumsy? Angry, I began fumbling for clothing. Finding only my shredded t-shirt, I screeched in frustration and grabbed his.

Tackling me, he tore the shirt from my hands and pinned me down on the floor. “Tell me what happened,” He demanded.

“I’ll tell you what happened. Onyx pushed me out of the stupid wards! I’m not some invalid who trips over dishes you stupid… Xan?”

Xan was hopping out the door with only one leg in his jeans, cursing as he tried to get the other foot in. I scrambled for my own jeans, it took me several long minutes to find them, several more to find and throw on Xan’s shirt, and run out the door after him.

By the time I’d gotten outside he’d completely disappeared.

Later that night, I wasn’t surprised when Gerik sought me out; I was only surprised it had taken this long. Knowing how word traveled around camp, my “accident” had no doubt made its rounds several dozen times by now and had warped into something completely outrageous.

Gerik appeared from behind the grouping of trees that grew near the creek.

“Did she do it?” He asked, looking emotionally battered.

I sighed. What the hell was Xan doing?

“Where’s Xan?” I asked him, ignoring his question.

“Is there anyway you could have misunderstood what happened?”

“How do you misunderstand someone pushing you through the wards, waving goodbye as she declared her undying devotion for the man she loves?” I demanded.

He continued on as if I hadn’t said a thing. “Do you realize what Xan is doing right now?” He raised his voice several octaves. “He called ‘Kris’ against Onyx, forcing Jericho to hold court, and is right NOW presenting a case against her in your stead because you are not clan.”

Oh my Gods. I would have wept at the sweetness of it all if at this very moment I wasn’t faced with an angry Viking.

“And you know all this how?” I asked. “Did they seriously allow you as part of the court?” I scoffed. “How biased can you really be when it comes to her?”

Still ignoring me, he asked, “How is it that Xan just happened to realize you were missing only minutes afterwards?”

“Why does it matter? He saved my life!”

Gerik snorted. “From what? A rabid squirrel?”

“No Gerik, from a rabid human… There are Skin Eaters outside camp. Remember?”

“Skin Eaters? Not only are you smoking but you’re talking like him too? You do realize what an idiot he sounds like, yeah?”

Without thinking, I slapped him across the face as hard as I could, cursing as sharp needles of pain prickled across my hand.

Eyes blazing white Gerik reached out and snatched my fingers crushing them until they were grinding painfully against each other.

“Let go of me!” I screamed trying to shake free of his hold.

He went statue still, his expression one of equal shock and horror.

“Gerik!” I yelled, “Let me go!” I continued to beat against his chest with my free hand, trying to get him to release me.

In a blindingly fast move, he gripped my face and captured my lips with his own. He was relentless and unforgiving, leaving me no choice but to open to him or be unable to breathe. Knowing a losing battle I stopped struggling but still refused to kiss him back.

My Daddy always said that sometimes I’m a little late to dinner but I usually arrive before the food gets cold. He said it was typical of left brainers.

Xan and I had not only made it possible for us to be intimate with each other but our joining appeared to have stripped the bond between Gerik and I. Normally I would have rejoiced at this revelation but I doubted very much Gerik was in the mood for rejoicing unless it was going to be in a pool of my blood.

“What have you done?” He roared, grabbing my neck.

“Nothing,” I squeaked. His hand tightened on my throat.

“Shit, Trinity.” His chest heaved angrily. “Fucking shit.”

I knew I smelled Drina’s herbs on you…” His nostrils flared. “I can still scent you, but it’s faint now and you…you smell like cigarettes and sweat and …” Gerik’s hand clenched, causing me to cough.

For the first time ever I too could smell Gerik. The thick, sweet scents were still there but no longer muddling my senses. A few days worth of sweat and lingering smoke from the bonfires clung to his clothing. The proximity of him even allowed me to taste the salt of his skin.

This was just me and Gerik. Nothing magical here. And apparently neither of us liked the other very much. Soul mates who didn’t like each other. How ironic.

“What I don’t understand…” He seethed. “Is how you managed it?”

The ground beneath us started to shake when I wouldn’t answer him.

“How?” He roared.

I shook my head. I was not going to tell him a damn thing; it was none of Gerik’s business what or who I did.

“Tell me!” He yelled again.

“Let go of me!” I screamed back.

“Does it really matter?” I asked him, backing away after he’d let go. “It’s done. It’s over.”

The incredulous look he gave me was full of murderous rage.

“Does it matter?” He repeated. “You fuck Xan and actually have the nerve to ask me if it matters!” He started laughing, a horrible, maniacal sound.

“Do you know what you’ve done to me?

I had an idea. But I could honestly say I didn’t care, especially after how he’d just treated me. If Gerik wanted a storage facility for his excess power he could find another, or explode, whatever, it wasn’t my problem.

“Do you know what you have done?” He roared. I nearly jumped out of my skin as a blast of lightening struck a nearby tree causing it to split down the middle. The charred braches and leaves lit up in flames.

I held my hands up out in front of me. “Gerik, please, stop. You’re going to hurt someone."

“I’m going to hurt someone? Oh that’s precious Trinity. It’s great to know that you actually care about others, when you have destroyed me!

Do you have any Greek mythology for this? Any words of wisdom to share about a stupid, selfish bitch that has damned someone to a life of madness?”

I did actually, but I didn’t think Gerik would appreciate me telling him about it.

The sky suddenly begun to darken, storm clouds were rapidly rolling in and heavy raindrops started to fall. Gerik’s hands were fisted, his eyes blazing white. There was no doubt that it was Gerik causing the storm. Every shudder that tore through his large body was followed by a booming blast of thunder.

“I could take you anyway, yeah? Maybe it will still work. Maybe you haven’t ruined every-

The sound of a gun’s slide being cocked behind me cut off Gerik’s rant.

“You’ll have to kill me first,” Xan told him, raising his semi-automatic at Gerik’s head.

“I should have killed you the first time you looked at her like she was something other than mine!” The ground beneath us shook harder and all three of us faltered. The nervous clucking coming from the chicken coop grew louder.

“She’s a person frate,” Xan said, his voice deceptively quiet. “Not a pair of shoes.”

Gerik let loose a roar filled with anger. “I am not your brother!” With a wave of his hand a blast of wind wrapped around Xan. His dreads flailed wildly as he fought for his footing.

His gun hand, however, didn’t waver. “You were once,” He told Gerik. “Remember?

And you were right,” He continued. “What you said that night…” Xan looked at me and his dark gaze softened. “I do love her.”

My heart stuttered. Reality had never felt more right than it did right now. Despite what Nature did or demanded, it was Xan who had my heart and soul. Or half of it anyway.

Xan looked back at Gerik, his grip tightening as he held the gun higher. “So you see, you will have to kill me because the only way I’m letting her go is if my heart no longer beats.”

Silence.

Then Gerik surprised me. He walked away. He walked right through the wards and disappeared inside the shadows of the forest, his storm following him.

Later, I found out that Xan had presented my case in front of the “Kris-Romani”, which was essentially the traditional court of the Romani people. Usually the court would be made up of several Clan Baró’s. The Baró’s would appoint a neutral member of one clan to preside over the court, who conclusively would pass judgment on the person in question. In light of the circumstances that wasn’t an option, so Jericho had appointed Stefan, the most neutral man in camp. I had to agree, Stefan was very kind.

It had been ultimately decided that Onyx should be banished as was the typical punishment for attempted murder on a clan member. However, true banishment would be a death sentence in today’s world so she was ostracized instead. As far as the clan was concerned, even through Onyx would continue to live in camp, the clan would treat her as if she’d gone.

I had to admit, even as much as I hated her, it seemed rather brutal. But something else was nagging at me. I sat up in my bed and tugged on one of Xan’s dreads.

“Attempted murder on a clan member?” I asked, confused.

I could honestly say I’d never seen Xan look sheepish before. Shifting in bed, he began clearing his throat. I raised my eyebrows.

“I…uh…well…”

“Xan! You what?”

“We’re married,” He said quickly.

I blinked. “No we’re not.”

“Trin.” Xan looked uncomfortable. He cleared his throat again. “That night… when I found you in the woods and then… Fată, you honored me when you gave yourself to me.”

Embarrassed, I threw a pillow at him. “Careful Xan, someone might start to think you’re a nice guy.”

He shook his head. “No. That’s just it. I am a bastard. Always have been. But I feel different with you, better. And I meant what I said to Gerik. I love you. God, I love you.” That intensity I’d glimpsed in his eyes earlier had returned.

“What you went through, all that crazy shit, just to give yourself to me.” He shook his head again, his face full of wonder. “It’s probably the most selfish thing I’ve ever done but fuck if I was going to let you go after that.”

Oh Gods. I sucked in a breath. “Drina’s!” I shouted, scooting away from him. “You wouldn’t let me leave! You even tied me up!”

“That’s the thing Trin. I couldn’t let you leave. Not without giving us a chance.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. There was real pain in his eyes.

“Fată, I never wanted to trick you but knowing that you might have walked out of my mamă’s after what happened between us and still ended up with Gerik…” He cursed.

“I would have rather died before I watched him take you from me. I needed something to make you mine that was just as strong as the bond he has with you. Marriage is sacred in the eyes of my people. It’s everything.”

I wanted to be mad, I really, really did. After the lies and manipulations I’d been through with Gerik, what Xan had done should have felt like a betrayal. I’d trusted him, gave him all of me and he’d tricked me. Tricked me into marriage!

And yet… it didn’t hurt. I knew how Xan felt about me. I heard him tell Gerik he loved me despite the obvious danger he’d been in. And I knew with a certainty I’d never felt before that I shared his feelings. Without magic.

“Why would Jericho believe you?” I asked, skeptical. “Who’s to say you weren’t lying about marrying me?”

Xan opened his mouth to speak.

“Drina!” I yelled before he could get a word out. Why Drina had never returned to her trailer now made sense. I kicked him playfully in the leg. “Your damn mamă’ was in on it!”

He grinned. I shook my head. “I’m going to kill you,” I told him, very seriously. .

Bracing myself on his knees, I lifted up his shirt.

“This is really going to hurt,” I promised as I kissed my way up his stomach, delighting in how his muscles tightened as I went.

“That’s cool fată.” He said thickly. “It’ll be a good way to go.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“Ack!” I nearly choked on a mouthful of stew when Xan pulled me into his lap and buried his face in my neck, quickly making his way toward my mouth.

“How am I supposed to eat with you all over…mmph!”

“I can’t eat either; you’re both making me physically ill,” Shandor complained.

“How the mighty have fallen.” Gunnar grinned at Xan, who flipped both of them off around my shoulders.

I tried to eat another spoonful of stew and ended up with a mouthful of Xan.

“Seriously Trinity, take your man and get a room,” Becki said, laughing as she sat down next to me.

I tried to give her a hug but Xan was loath to fully release me. I ended up having to half hold onto him and give Becki a one armed hug.

Aside from wearing one of Hockey’s destroyed Blackhawk jerseys, she looked good. Her skin had a healthy flush and her eyes were sparkling. She was smiling too, something Becki hadn’t done willingly in a long time. Was it too much to hope that I had my friend back?

“Are you moving back home?” I asked.

Becki laughed and looked at Xan and then at Hockey. “Forget something, hun?”

I bit my lip and tried hard not to laugh at my scowling husband. Husband? So not used to that. The last thing I thought I’d be at 22 was married. Graduating from college, yes. But married, no.

“No,” She said, now laughing at the expression on my face. “I’m moving in with Hockey and Stevo.”

She didn’t mention Gerik, their third roommate. No one had seen him since he’d walked through the wards. He’d never come back to camp and no one had seen him since he left.

“It only seems right,” Hockey said, sitting down next to her. “That we let Stevo stay since he played such a critical part in our marriage.” Becki leaned into him as he planted a big, wet kiss on her cheek.

“Besides,” Becki continued. “How can I subject him to having to move back home?” She lowered her voice significantly. “To Aishe…” She made a face and the entire table laughed.

“He could move in with us,” Shandor said, referring to Pitti and himself. “Xan has officially left the building and joined the ranks of boring.”

“Nope!” Pesha slammed his fist down. “I went through two hours of my mamă crying and hugging me just so I could leave. I’m not giving that up!”

Pitti groaned. “I just barely got away from you, now I have to live with you again?”

A piece of bread went flying over the table. Bouts of cursing followed in several different languages.

I leaned back against Xan’s broad chest and tugged his arms forward, wrapping them around me.

“Mmmm,” He said and squeezed.

Crisis’s aside, the camp once again fell into a normal routine. Everything that had happened over the past few months began to slowly fade with time. With Gerik gone and Onyx refusing to leave her tent, it was easy to forget the turmoil I’d gone through.

Living arrangements were settled peacefully with only mild grumbling, mainly between Pitti and Pesha.

Becki and Jaelle began planning a formal ceremony to celebrate her marriage to Hockey.

And I settled comfortably into my relationship with Xan.

I delighted in the newness of having someone to share everything with, in a way that surpassed the boundaries of family and friendship. In a lot of ways I was experiencing so many things for the very first time. I had never realized just how many restraints the bond with Gerik had actually put on my life.

Things I had never taken any interest in before had suddenly emerged and I felt myself changing, wanting to become a part of everything and hating how much I had missed out on. Boys and parties, shopping and dances, bonding over ridiculous girly things, all missed. And for what?

Because Nature had strapped me with a magical chastity belt that had left me unable to move forward until I met my other half. No matter that my other half had been living out his life just as any normal male would; he hadn’t been repressed in any way. Or purposely conditioned to be a most dutiful and loyal mate. And why would he? He was the one I had been made for. He was all powerful and deserving. He was the one I had been made for.

I was more than ready to catch up.

Xan viewed my innocence as some sort of blessing, some kind of redemption he wasn’t deserving of. I’d often find him staring at me as if he couldn’t believe I was real. What I never told him is that at night, after we’ve made love and he’s fallen asleep, I do the very same thing.

Magic, for some people, is a state of mind.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

When I went to Jaelle’s tent to dress for Becki and Hockey’s ceremony, I was delighted to find the dark blue dress that only days earlier, had long sleeves and a high neck and been several sizes too large, now fit me like a glove.

Short, fluttering, off the shoulder sleeves had replaced the long ones and where the high stiff neck had been there was now a low scooped neckline with Jaelle’s signature floral embroidery on the bodice. The waist pulled in tightly and then flared out beautifully, stopping a few inches above my knee. It wasn’t anything you would have been able to find in a modern store. Custom made to fit every single one of my curves, it looked like a piece of art and I felt like a Goddess inside of it.

After much fussing, Jaelle finally decided to wrap my hair in an elaborate twist, pinning it together at the base of my neck. She finished off the look with several strategically placed buttercups that grew near the creek. Then I was shooed away so Becki’s bridal transformation could begin.

I found Stevo, instead of Xan, waiting by my trailer.

“Where is Xan?” I asked, confused.

“He said he’ll meet you there.”

The clan had gone all out for the wedding. Elaborate beadwork decorated almost everyone’s home and colorful strips of cloth had been tied to the branches of the trees in camp.

The fires blazed high with rainbow colored flames, Maisera’s handiwork, as she made her rounds sprinkling crumpled herbs on each of them.

The excitement was palpable. The happiness the clan had expressed the night Hockey had kidnapped Becki was nothing compared to the genuine joy that shone on their faces tonight. Tonight the Baró himself would bless their union before Nature.

Stevo led me to where Jericho was waiting to preside over the ceremony. Depositing me to the right of the Baró, Stevo took his place next to Hockey on Jericho’s left. The rest of clan waited around the bonfire.

When the violins began to play, Becki emerged from the living lot on Stefan’s arm. Her dress was as simple as mine, a deep pink that hit just below her knees and had been cut specially with extra room for her growing mid section. A handmade wreath of flowers sat atop her braided hair and in her hands she held a beautiful collection of wildflowers. Becki was truly a bride tonight.

Their vows were a quick, shortened version of a catholic wedding ceremony mixed with the Romani beliefs. Hockey pulled a heavily bejeweled ring out of his pocket, a gold band, inlaid with rubies and placed it on Becki’s finger.

Their kiss was probably the most improper wedding kiss I’d ever seen. It was decadent and sensual. It was wonderful.

Wasn’t everyone supposed to cheer at the end of a wedding? Instead the camp had grown eerily quiet and everyone turned expectantly to me. Jericho, smiling down at me, surprised me by reaching out and grasping my hands.

“Trinity Shannon Petros…” His deep voice boomed. “Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourself in marriage?"

Oh Gods. An apple had nothing on how bright frickin’ red I turned.

Becki and Hockey, hand in hand, wearing matching wicked grins, moved out the way as Xan took their place in front of me. Jericho placed my shaking hands in his. He held on tight. A good thing too, I was ready to run.

“Trinity?” Jericho repeated.

“No,” I said through clenched teeth. Xan deliberately cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry Trinity, I didn’t hear you. Could you speak up please?” For an old man Jericho had excellent hearing. I shot him a dirty look which he returned with an innocent expression.

Refusing to look at the tricky jerk that had already tied me to a bed and was now publically humiliating me, I mumbled, “Yes.”

"Will you honor Xan Daniel Delaneu as your husband for the rest of your life?"

The rest of my life? Oh Gods.

“Yes,” I whispered, staring at my feet, feeling faint.

"Will you accept his children lovingly and bring them up according to Roma Law and lead them down the path Nature chooses for them?"

Children! My eyes widened. I think they may have even fallen out of my head. I no longer felt faint, I felt downright horrified. Licking my lips, which had suddenly become uncommonly dry, I drew in a shaky breath. Xan squeezed my hand. I took a peek at him and wished I hadn’t. He was grinning.

Dirty bastard.

“Yes,” I choked out. Barely.

Done with me, Jericho turned to Xan. “Xan?” He asked. The dirty bastard stepped forward to grasp my face in his hands.

“I, Xan Daniel Delaneu, take you, Trinity Shannon Petros, to be my lawful wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad. Especially the bad Trin. I promise to be true during sickness and in health. And I swear to you fată that I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”

He leaned forward and caught my bottom lip with his teeth. “And then some Trin,” He whispered.

Oh damn. Was I actually going to cry? Yep… Yep I was.

Xan slid a thin silver band on my ring finger, on it was a small black stone with flecks of white. A sense of serenity enveloped me like a soothing balm. All the anxiety and doubts I had about marriage and the anger I felt about being tricked again instantly fled, leaving behind only my true feelings for Xan.

“I chose you Trinity above all others, to be my wife. I offer this ring as a token of our love, and as a sign of my fidelity. With this ring and Nature’s blessing, I willingly join my life to yours.”

I stared at the beautiful ring, turning my finger over. The white specks seemed to move around, blending together and then separating, like a lava lamp. A trick of the firelight, I mused.

“It’s a snowflake obsidian and was my grandmother’s,” Xan told me softly. “Luludja Deleanu was a powerful healer, even more powerful than my mamă. I’ve asked her to protect you if there is ever a time I cannot.”

“Kiss her!” Shandor bellowed.

Becki and Hockey had nothing on us. Xan picked me up, tipped me over backwards and crushed his mouth to mine. Every stroke of his tongue was a promise, a pledge to never let me go and protect me with every fiber of his being.

Jericho raised his arms in celebration. "What Nature has joined, men will never divide!"

The celebration was just as overwhelming as the ceremony. The men and women who had danced for money in the Gaje carnivals donned their colorful costumes just for us. They performed elaborate dances that ranged from mind bending acrobatics to awe inspiring fire breathing.

The food was spectacular, the decorations beautiful and the entertainment top notch. As if I expected anything less from a camp full of Gypsies.

When the party began to slow, the dancing began and we passed partners to the cheerful cries of Lajos’s fiddle. I watched Hockey hook elbows with Becki. They were adorable, smiling happily as he thrust her forward, passing her through the line of foot stomping onlookers. The bodies parted, cheering and clapping as she spun by. Nicu waited at the end to grab her.

“Hey!” She shouted locking elbows with the eldest Ĉonka brother as I was being spun by Pitti.

I grinned at her. “Hi!”

“We’re married!” She mouthed.

Hockey was next; he grabbed his little sister as he spun by, lifting her up and twirling her in the air. Simza squealed in delight as she flew instead of danced down the line. Passing her off to their father Hockey paused and looked around. Becki was supposed to have waited for him at the end of the line but she’d disappeared. I disentangled myself from Pitti and stood on my tiptoes to look over the crowd of dancers.

Hockey spotted her before I did. I followed his narrowed gaze across the end lot to the edge of the living lot where Becki was shaking her arm out of Tobar’s grasp. He was gesturing wildly at her and they both looked angry.

I looked back to where I last seen Hockey. He was standing perfectly still, staring at his bride. The press of dancing bodies soon enclosed around him and he disappeared from my view.

Realizing I too had been standing still in the middle of a dance floor, I turned to head out of the melee and came face to face with my husband. Caught off guard, I staggered back.

“Sorry,” I breathed.

He grabbed my hand, lifted it high above my head and twirled me out into the crowd. Reeling me back in, he pulled me close and held me. With his chest pressed firmly against my back and his hands wrapped tightly around my middle we began to move with the music.

I caressed the strong dark arms gripping my waist and leaned into the lips pressed against my neck. Shivers escaped me as his long hair spilled over my shoulders and tickled the bare skin of my chest and breasts.

There was no more twirling for me, no more passing down the line. Something primal and instinctual was taking us over and the music took a back seat to our movements.

His teeth nipped at my neck and with a soft moan my head lolled back on his shoulder and my eyes closed. I glimpsed visions of starlit dances by fire light, laughter and singing, and nights that would never end. I saw Xan as I woke up next to him every morning, touching him whenever I wanted, making him smile, having his children…and loving him always.

As if he could sense my thoughts he moved faster, attacking with more vigor, sucking on my skin, sending cool shivers down my overheated body.

I cried out softly, needing more.

Spinning me around so we faced each other, he crushed me to him and we began to move slower. Cupping my chin, he tilted it upwards and those dark, wicked eyes of his I found an echo of my thoughts.

“You were wrong,” I whispered against his lips.

“It’s not often that that happens.” He smiled at me and I couldn’t stop myself from pressing a kiss to that devilish smirk.

“What was I wrong about fată?” He asked, running his hands roughly through my hair, destroying Jaelle’s masterpiece.

“About magic,” I told him.

“Oh I was, was I?”

“You do have it.” I grinned. “Without it you couldn’t have broken the spell.”

He paused for a second and just stared down at me. Then his mouth met mine in a collision of teeth, tongue and hunger.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Hungary, 1074 A.C.E.

Treime was exhausted. It was the second day of wedding festivities and what little sleep she’d gotten Emilian had interrupted with vigorous bouts of lovemaking.

She was eager for life to get back to normal around camp but celebration is important to the Romani, especially after the birth of a child or a new marriage. The continuation of the clan is everything but Treime didn’t think her legs could take another day of dancing or lovemaking.

“Treime! Come see! The men have brought the pigs and they are huge!” Little Donka looked so excited about the roasting of pigs that she gave in, hiked up her skirts and followed the girl outside the bridal tent.

Emilian. She smelled him immediately. Although the copious amounts alcohol he’d ingested almost overpowered the beautiful scent she had associated with him her entire life.

Large hands encircled her waist and swung her around. “My wife, my beautiful wife!” A group of men playing fiddles paused in their merrymaking to cheer. Donka giggled before running off.

Treime swatted at her new husband. “Put me down.”

His smile faded. “What’s wrong puţin o?”

She shook her head. “Nothing really. Just tired.”

His smile returned. “In that case, you’ll be happy. It’s time Treime.”

Treime didn’t smile back. She wasn’t looking forward to this part of her wedding at all. She allowed her husband to lead her toward the bonfire where the feasting was in full swing. Her mami and sisters were waiting for her with tears streaming down their faces.

With a tentative glance at the Baró’s wife Treime felt her stomach sink all the way to her knees. Violca waited for her, stern-faced, holding Treime’s brand new diklo, ready to wrap it around her head and hide her hair from the world.

Treime loved her hair. She took extra good care of her shimmering waist length black locks, and didn’t care of it made her vain in the eyes of the lord. She knew it was beautiful and wanted to show it off. Wanted it to be seen and now wanted everyone to know that Emilian’s wife had such a lovely trait.

Her tată kissed her first, on both cheeks and both hands, his face full of fatherly pride. “Ten and eight already daughter? I swear you were born just yesterday.”

Her two sisters hugged her tight and her mami embraced her.

“I’m not leaving you,” Treime whispered to her weeping mami. “I’ll be right across camp with that… awful woman.”

“No, you’re not leaving,” Her mami whispered back. “But you are a woman now and I thank god I have raised such a wonderful child.”

She took out Treime’s braids slowly, much to Violca’s dismay, then ran her fingers gently through the loose hair. Treime had seen the ritual done so many times before and had never fully understood why everyone was so emotional over such a trivial thing.

But now, at her own ceremony, she was crying, refusing to leave the arms of her mami.

Violca pried her away and tied the violet colored scarf around her head. She knotted it tightly in place and tucked any stray hairs away to symbolize Treime’s status as a married woman. Never again would she be allowed to be seen in public without it. Her eyes met Emilian’s. He smiled at her, his pride evident. And then it was done.

Whooping with joy, Emilian leapt in the air. Then he grabbed Treime, swept her off her feet and before she knew it, they were dancing again.

By the time they reached their tent Treime could barely walk. Emilian lay her down on their lush bed of furs and kissed her tenderly.

“I hate it,” Treime pouted as Emilian began untying her diklo.

“Ah, puţin o you’re even more beautiful now that you are my wife.”

As Emilian began to untie her bodice, Treime shot him a look of annoyance and grunted her displeasure. “Really Emilian? Again?”

His eyes grayed and heat swept through her. “Really Treime, again and again and again. I shall never tire of you.”

She felt her husband’s magic envelope the small space; he could barely contain it in her presence.

Her own eyes grayed with lust and their shared magic crackled at her fingertips. She knocked Emilian on his back with a blast of air.

He laughed heartily. “Couldn’t Nature have gifted me a more docile wife?”

Treime’s magic crackled angrily as her temper flared.

Still on his back he held his arms out to her. “Come here my love, I wouldn’t change you for the world.”

“You can have your way husband,” She told him, smiling. “Just be sure to get me with child quickly. I have no desire to live with that mamă of yours any longer than we have too."

“Ahh, Treime…” He laughed again, rolling over top of her. “Have I given you reason to believe that I don’t plan on keeping you heavy with my children for many, many years to come?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“Shandor Asenov,” Jericho announced.

Kizzy let out a bloodcurdling scream. “You cannot make them both go!”

Maisera nodded in agreement. “She’s right Jericho. You’ve already drawn his father, pick another name.”

Shandor gave his mother a thunderous look. “I’m going with tată. You’ll have Simionce home with you.”

Giving him a nod of respect Jericho continued pulling out names from a box that would decide who was going on the next raid. So far Gunnar Horváth, Marko Siwak, Punka Moldoveanu, Mihai and Shandor Asenov, and Benyamin Vãdura had been selected.

Jericho stuck his hand in the box again. He pulled out the small slip of paper and sighed. Maisera looked over his arm and closed her eyes.

“Stefen Sava Jr.,” He announced. “I’m sorry Becki.”

Becki didn’t scream or cry out in protest. With Hockey’s hand clasped inside her own, she remained quiet

“Last one,” Jericho murmured.

“Xan Deleanu.”

Xan’s arm shot out to hold me back but I shook him off, jumping up from my comfortable position on his thigh.

“No!” I yelled. “He goes all the time! Even when he doesn’t have to!”

“This is true,” Maisera agreed.

“Then the decision is his,” Jericho said.

“I’ll go,” He answered immediately, refusing to look at me.

Shocked that Xan would give his decision so quickly, without talking it over with me first, tears sprung in my eyes.

I was well aware that our camp couldn’t survive on our small vegetable gardens and the meager hunting found in the surrounding woods. Raids were a way of life here and we’d all accepted it. At least I’d thought I’d accepted it. Things change when you have something to lose.

“You’ve gone on every single one,” I accused Xan when the meeting had disbanded. “Every one. Even when you didn’t have to.”

“That’s something you can tell yourself when you’re worrying about me.” He lit up a cigarette, frowning at the inside of his pack. “That I’ve gone on every single one and I always came home.”

I was seething now. Arrogant, danger chasing, adrenaline junkie.

“Fată?” Xan asked still frowning. “Did Tobar stop by today?”

“What?” I had to think about it for a minute. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Dammit!” He yelled. Jumping up, he stomped away, leaving me staring after him.

“Maybe it’s some sort of test,” Becki said, walking up behind me. “They force us to marry them and then they run away.”

I laughed bitterly. “Yeah, and they have spies watching us to see what we do while they’re gone.”

“We should go on a raid,” She suggested. “See how they feel about that.”

“Oh Gods no!” I said, “I do not want to be tied up again!”

We both laughed. “Me either,” She agreed. “I’m still making him pay for that.”

I raised an eyebrow in question and she blushed furiously. “You don’t want to know.”

Both eyebrows went up. Yep, I did.

Grinning, I patted the ground next to me. “Story time.”

Three days later I could only stand there and watch helplessly as two pickup trucks and an empty supply van were removed from their parking spaces and loaded down with the necessary weapons and supplies needed for the raiding party.

“Fată.”

I laughed, while choking back a sob when I saw Xan. A bullet proof vest was fastened over his thick clothing, and he was armed to the teeth. His hair was pulled back tightly making his sharp features even more predominant.

I shook my head. “Please don’t. Don’t say anything stupid right now. I don’t think I could handle it.” My stomach hurt, my chest hurt, and I was doing everything I could not to lose it.

Instead of speaking, he tugged me forward and kissed my forehead.

“I’m coming back,” He said, slipping something cool and hard into the back of my jeans. “I’ll always come back.”

“Hey Romeo! Let’s go!” Half of Shandor’s body was hanging out of the passenger window of one of the trucks.

Xan gave me one last look. I’m sure he meant to convey reassurance but all I could see was the excitement he was failing to hide from me.

Running, in order catch up to the already moving vehicles, Xan grabbed on to the side of a truck bed and swung his body up and over. When I could no longer see him, I pulled out the gun he’d slipped in my waistband and stared at it.

Trinity, Fata Mea.

“He had me engrave it for you.” Stefan put his arm around me, nodding at the gun.

“Said something about if it hadn’t been for guns...” Stefan winked at me.

Fata Mea. My girl.

I rested my head on Stefan and smiled. I could never stay mad at Xan for very long. Even when he was running through towns crawling with blood sucking, flesh eating monsters, trying to steal enough supplies for an entire community of people.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Hungary, 1078 A.C.E

Treime hated her husband’s mamă. She was going to kill the woman if she clicked her tongue at her one more time. Living with the Baró and his wife was a punishment worse than death, she’d decided.

This baby could not come soon enough, she thought, rubbing her belly. Feeling a small kick in response, she grinned. Her baby apparently agreed. No one liked Violca and really, who could blame them?

Treime couldn’t do anything right, according to that woman. She couldn’t peel vegetables correctly, she couldn’t mend Emilian’s tunics’ or hose correctly and she couldn’t even grow her own child correctly!

“You’re too skinny for a woman with child!” Violca would scold. “You must eat more, rest more!”

And the absolute worst, “Relations between a man and woman is not good for the babe inside you,” Violca would tell her. “And don’t try to deny it! I can hear the two of you! Daily!”

How Treime would have loved to have told her that it was her son that had the insatiable appetite. That he couldn’t keep his hands off of her, big round belly or not, but she knew it would only further upset the infuriating woman.

Complaining to Emilian was out of the question. He was busy building their own wagon and gathering the supplies they would need to sustain themselves in their new home once the baby was born.

Treime couldn’t bring herself to bother him with her trivial nonsense, so she kept quiet, played the dutiful wife, satisfying Emilian’s hunger for her and working hard to keep from killing his mamă.

But this morning Treime needed some time alone. Grabbing some raw carrots, she headed outside hoping to remain unseen until she could slip into the woods and head toward the warm springs. She nearly ran into Violca but managed to scurry quickly behind the neighbors horses, only to almost let loose her breakfast at the fresh horse dung she’d stepped in.

Waiting for a few pounding heartbeats before peaking out behind the twitching tails, Treime glanced around. Nothing. But knowing Violca, Treime didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

Feeling like the only way to break loose was to make a run for it, Treime took a large breath, stepped out from behind the horses and ran directly into the giant belly of the clan blacksmith, Yanoro.

“Treime! Where are you off to girl?”

“I need to go for a walk!” She hissed. “Alone!”

Yanoro laughed. The sound echoed across camp, making the horses whinny nervously. Yanora might be loud and imposing but he was sweeter than honey.

He patted Treime’s belly. “You take care of that babe Treime. I’ll take care of that woman for a minute or two so you can have some peace.”

Giving the blacksmith a grateful smile, she took off running.

“Violca!” She heard him yell. “I need some onions! For a… onion emergency!”

“Who lit a fire in your pants Yanny?” Violca yelled back.

Treime giggled.

Finding a nice spot by the springs where the flowers grew colorful and in plenty, she immediately pulled of her diklo and happily stretched out under the sun. It wasn’t long before she drifted off to sleep, lulled by the small waterfall nearby.

She awoke later to soft kisses on her cheeks, nose and forehead. Giggling, she pushed Emilian off of her.

“You have ladybugs all over you, love.” He picked up one of tiny red and black bugs before it could fly away.

“Its good luck you know,” She told, smiling. “What are you doing out here?”

“Walther and I are going hunting without the rest of the men.” He gestured to his little brother who was standing near the water and lowered his voice. “They tease him because he doesn’t like to harm the animals.”

Treime’s heart swelled at the sweet admission and she smiled. “An admirable trait.”

Emilian grunted. “I’ll back tonight wife.”

Then, once more, he kissed both her cheeks, lingered on her lips and lastly placed several more on her swollen belly.

Walther made a face at them.

Emilian helped Treime get to her feet and she tugged on Walther’s dark hair, thinking how similar to Emilian he looked. He wore his hair long like his brother and his eyes were the same dark brown. He would break hearts too, Treime thought, already sad for the girls who wouldn’t get to keep the beautiful boy.

“Someday Walther you will be in love and you will understand,” She told him.

“Never”, He swore it with such ferocity that both Emilian and Treime burst out laughing and Walther’s scowl grew.

Treime watched them leave, feeling happy and lighthearted. She dallied near the springs, picking wildflowers and soaking her feet. On her way back to camp she heard a strange noise, something that sounded like drums, far off in the distance.

The closer she came to camp, the more recognizable the sound became, and it hadn’t been drums at all, but horses. Horse hooves, beating down upon the earth at a fast and furious pace. They sounded close.

Treime felt her stomach summersault. She knew who was coming.

The Gaje Man.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The sound of breaking glass and screaming woke me.

Hands trembling, I grabbed my gun from under my pillow and peeked out of my small window. At first I thought we’d been invaded by other humans who wanted to steal our supplies. The attackers were wearing clothing and not just a pair of torn, dirty pants. No. These Skin Eaters were fully dressed, much better than anyone at camp was considering most of them had shoes on when we ourselves barely bothered.

And worse… they seemed almost… normal.

They weren’t constantly shifting like the other’s I’d seen who seemed unable to stand still for too long. Their movements weren’t jerky or nervous or overly predatory. They were laughing and talking with one another instead of fighting.

I fell backwards across my bed as red eyes met mine through glass.

“There’s another one in here!”

I never even had time to scream. They might have looked less like animals, but they still moved like their wild counterparts. My doors were torn off the hinges and I was grabbed and drug outside my trailer before a scream had time to form.

“It’s fabulous!” Someone yelled. “All this meat and blood! In one place no less!”

I was tossed onto the ground, face first in the dirt. Hands grabbed at me and my scream finally surfaced.

“No! Shh! Trinity it’s me! It’s Becki!”

I scrambled up and wrapped my arms around her, just in time to see Lala’s shredded body thrown out of her trailer. Pitti rushed toward his mother’s lifeless form. Two bodies blurred into existence beside him and took him down. I could hear his bones cracking from where we were huddled.

Gunshots and terrified screams continued to sound all around us.

“Oh Gods. Oh Gods. Oh Gods,” I ranted, beginning to hyperventilate.

“Shhh. Trinity. You can’t freak out right now.” Becki cradled my head against her chest.

Freaking out would have been an understatement. They were stockpiling us. Eating some of us now and saving some of us for later.

“I want to fuck as I feast!” A male voice declared.

“You’re a pig,” A female answered.

“He’s a pig?” Another voice said. “And what do you call eating six children in one sitting?”

Six children? The faces of Simza, of little Pali and Mala and tiny Benyamin flashed before me and then I was screaming, not out of fear but pure fury.

“No!” Becki cried out as I got to my feet. “They’ll kill you!”

“They’re going to kill me anyway,” I told her.

I pulled the gun from my waist band and ran at the female, shooting as I did. Three shots hit her in the chest and two in the head before I was taken down in a blur of speed. It didn’t matter. I’d killed her. There was one injury those monsters never survived; wounds to the brain.

I wondered if there really was a utopia in the sky where my family would be waiting for me. I wondered if I’d see Xan there someday. Gods, I hoped so.

“Ahh fetita, you’re perfect for what I had in mind.” A cold hand ran down my side and over my buttocks, squeezing hard.

Grasping my arm he flipped me over, pinning me beneath him.

How human he looked surprised me. He was young, definitely younger than me, and very handsome. He had dark bronzed skin like Xan and long brown hair, pulled back into a ponytail. It was only when he smiled that the animal was revealed. His teeth were horrifying close up. Every tooth came to a sharp jagged point and his canines were still dripping with the blood of his last victim.

He brushed my hair away from my face and froze. Wide, red eyes turned brown.

With a roar he pushed me away from him. “This is not possible!” He yelled.

Not knowing what to do, I curled up into a ball and prayed.

“Your eyes!” He yelled, coming closer. “Let me see your eyes!”

When he leaned over me, I opened my eyes as wide as could, praying to the gods that his face wasn’t going to be the last thing I ever saw.

“Treime?” He asked in a shaking voice. “Is it you?”

“Not hungry Walther?” A shadow fell over us. A Skin Eater with wide shoulders and a shock of red hair was peering down at me. “I’ll take her off your hands.”

Walther hissed. And with speed I couldn’t comprehend, he had me standing and positioned behind him.

“Easy man, why so touchy?”

“No one touches her!” Walther demanded.

“Are you going to change her?” The redhead surveyed my body in a way that made me feel violated, then grinned at me, flashing his own set of bloodied fangs. “I wouldn’t blame you.”

I took that moment to momentarily lose my mind.

“You psycho!” I screamed, then spit at him. “You should all be put down like the animals you are!”

The red head’s lips peeled back in a snarl and lunged at me. Thankfully, Walther was faster and blocked him from reaching me. The two of them became nothing more than a blur of fists and kicks.

The battle ended nearly as soon as it had begun, only the redhead was now minus his head. Grabbing me by the arm, Walther dragged across the bloody battlefield. The screams had waned, replaced now with sobbing. Which, I decided, was infinitely worse.

Wrenching open the Horváth’s trailer door, Walther threw me inside. I skidded across the linoleum floor until my back hit a short metal pole that secured a small table to the floor.

“You stay put until I come for you,” He said and left.

I immediately went for the door, there was no way I was going to sit in here until he came back to kill me. But the door wouldn’t open. Somehow he’d locked me in from the outside without a key.

I was two seconds away from picking up a chair to bash into the door when the ground began to shake so violently I was forced to position myself under the Horváth’s bedroom doorframe to keep from falling over. All throughout the trailer dishes and knick knacks were toppling over and shattering. Clinging to whatever I could, I inched along the wall toward the bedroom’s largest window.

“Gerik,” I sighed in relief. I’d never before been so happy before to see anyone.

Gerik stood strong and tall, light magic pouring from his hands, blasting the hell out of anyone who came within several feet of him. And come at him they did. In two's and three’s. From all sides. Hissing and growling. Leaping and lunging. But Gerik was tuned in to all of his surroundings and not one of them got close enough to touch him as he easily blasted them backwards with enough force that audible cracks sounded as their bones broke.

Then Walther stepped forward, holding handfuls of black mist. “Magic,” I breathed, “The Skin Eater has magic.”

Real fear passed over Gerik’s features. Walther, in the same fashion one would throw a baseball, whipped both balls of wispy blackness straight at Gerik. As the mist whipped around his body, the ground stopped shaking and Gerik was brought trembling to his knees.

“No!” I screamed and tried again to punch and kick the window out.

Still shaking, Gerik let loose identical balls of flames in Walther’s direction. The flames caught and the Skin Eater was instantly consumed by them. They disappeared just as quickly. His eyes were no longer red, nor brown but black as death. There were no signs of burns, no injuries at all. If I had not seen it for myself I wouldn’t have believed that only moments ago he’d been set on fire. Unharmed, his march toward Gerik continued.

He threw another round of black mist at Gerik and my Viking fell face first into the dirt. His body jerked hard once, twice and then stilled. Blood began pooling near his open mouth.

“Somebody help him!” I screamed, pounding on the window. “Help him!”

I scoured the room, deciding on a chair and bashed it against the window. The window, a mix of glass and plastic, after several beatings, finally popped from its casing.

Blood gushing from his nose and mouth, Gerik to pull himself up. Shaking, he managed to hit Walther again with fire. And again Walther erupted in flames which were instantly dissolved.

His laugh was the essence of evil. “You call yourself a Roma?” Walther taunted. “You are nothing! Nothing!”

Walther blasted Gerik with another round of mist. Choking and gagging, Gerik grabbed his head and screamed as blood poured from ears.

My feet hit the ground and I took off running.

“Trinity! No!” Jericho yelled.

Gerik’s head whipped around. “Djordji!” He roared. “Grab her!”

My presence seemed to solidify something in Gerik and he found the strength within to stand. Flames formed from his hands even faster than he could send them flying toward Walther.

Walther was having an increasingly harder time holding off the assault but he was still holding his own. With an incredible surge of black mist, he’d formed a shield of sorts, stopping the flames from reaching him. Then, reversing their direction with a flick of his wrist, he shot Gerik’s own fire back to him.

But Gerik was quicker. Using his magic he formed a miniature hurricane and sent it toward the flames. The hurricane quickly consumed all the fire and spun off in a different direction. New flames had formed in his hands, larger and darker than before, yellow and orange with streaks of black.

Walther’s eyes went wide. Djordji’s hold on my arms went lax.

“Gerik!” Jericho screamed. “There is another way!”

“No,” He replied, his voice rough and garbled. “There isn’t.” The flames flew from his hands and closed in on Walther. His screams, I would bet, were heard for miles.

These weren’t like the other flames. This wasn’t like any kind of fire I’d ever seen. The black wisps writhing inside the flames seemed to take on a life of their own. As the fire licked against Walther’s skin, the blackness looked very much like shadows of arms and hands ripping away at his muscle and tissue until nothing but steaming, smoldering bones and silence remained. Not long after Walther had gone quiet, Gerik collapsed.

“The bodies!” Jericho shouted out, “Make sure the others are dead!”

The black mist surrounding the pile of steaming bones had swirled upward into the sky then doubled back toward where Gerik lay. It hovered over his body, touching and probing him with its tendrils of darkness.

Then, in one vicious swoop, the black mist entered his mouth and disappeared inside of him. Already violently shaking, Gerik’s body jackknifed off the ground. I took off running in his direction.

“Don’t touch him Trinity!” Stefan yelled. “He used magic he shouldn’t have. There is no telling what happened to him!”

“Gerik?” I whispered, crouching down next to him. I reached out to move blood soaked hair out of his eyes. What I saw made my heart stop.

Gerik’s eyes were as black as Walther’s had been, not a drop of color remaining. Blood covered him from his nose to his knees and his chest was heaving heavily forward, as if something within him was trying to force its way out.

“Oh Gods, Gerik what did you do?” I cried.

I jumped as Jericho put his hands on my shoulders. He began to drag me backwards. “Stay away from him, child.”

“We need to go,” Djordji said, sounding panicked. “All of us need to leave. Right now.”

I turned to stare at them, disgusted. Gerik had just saved countless lives and we needed to go? Leave him here hurting? Or worse, to die?

With no warning, Gerik jumped to his feet and let loose a horrifying roar. Black smoke poured from both his nose and mouth.

Was he taller? Wider? He looked downright massive.

“Stimati Dumnezeu ne salva,” Stefan murmured. “The boy has horns.”

My gaze shifted to Gerik’s face. The skin had split at his hairline directly above his eyes. An inch in diameter black horns had grown upward over his head then curved down until they reached his ears in sharp points.

Another roar, louder than the first, had me covering my ears. His t-shirt and jeans were already torn and hanging off of him yet the distinct sound of tearing could still be heard as Gerik’s body continued to heave.

“Oh my Gods,” I cried.

It wasn’t only that he was growing; his skin was actually splitting apart. Invisible claws were shredding him across his chest and arms and revealing… scales? Diamond shaped, shiny black scales appeared beneath the spitting skin until his entire left arm and a good portion of his chest were covered in them.

Stefan pulled me into his arms, trying to turn me away. “Don’t look Trinity; this isn’t something you’re going to want to see.”

“I’m not leaving him,” I whispered. “He won’t hurt me,” I said, not knowing if that was true or not.

Stefan hesitated. He might have let go of me if Gerik hadn’t chosen that moment to hit the ground with an ear splitting scream.

He kept on screaming while black spikes ripped through his back, each one not quite as thick or as long as the one before it.

“Is he dying?” I managed to ask through my sobs.

“No,” Stefan whispered, his voice shaking. “Balaur…Gerik is becoming a dragon.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Hungary, 1078 A.C.E

The encampment was in ruins. Wagons had been burned and tents had been shredded. Even the horses had been killed.

And blood. There was so much blood.

The children too. What kind of monster would order innocent babies put to death?

The men had been shredded to pieces. Their heads and limbs lay severed from their torsos. The women and girls who had been subjected to rape had been killed and left naked in the same humiliating position.

And the children… Treime couldn’t even bear to look at them again and see their tiny faces and hands covered in blood.

She watched in horror as the Gaje soldiers kicked the bodies of her people while they filled their sacks with stolen belongings.

Shaking, Treime tried to reach Emilian through the bond they shared when suddenly she was yanked by her hair, causing her to stumble backwards into her captor.

“My lord! I found another one!” A hand reached around her and roughly groped her breast, pulling and twisting until she cried out in pain.

Leaning forward, with rancid breath, he whispered, “Maybe his lordship will let me keep you. Shame you’re so fat though.”

“What do you have there?” A short, pudgy man laden with armor sat astride an impressive black stallion. He leered down at Treime and her captor.

“Murderer!” Treime hissed and both men laughed at her.

Just then she felt the tug of Emilian through their bond. He’d seen through her what had happened, what was happening. But Treime knew he would never make it in time to save her.

“Are we going to kill her, my lord? Can I have at her first?”

The man upon the horse smiled and she felt her stomach roil. “She is very beautiful, isn’t she? I have never seen such magnificent green eyes. Such a shame to waste such beauty. Do what you will and then bring her to me, I’m going to take her home.”

The man behind Treime shifted and swung her around to face him. Pushing her back on the ground with one hand around her neck, he lifted her tunic and began fumbling with his own.

Treime, barely able to breathe and about to be raped, lifted her freed hands and focused all her energy toward the man trying to push his way in between her legs.

Flames erupted from her palms in a burst of white light. She threw them forward at the man astride her. He let loose a high pitch scream as the fire engulfed him, then flung himself backwards in an attempt to run from her.

His hysterical screaming and flailing movements stopped suddenly and the flaming man fell to the ground. The man covered in armor stood behind the fallen man, his sword firmly embedded in his back.

He looked amused. “My dear, you’ve done nothing but further my desire for you. A sorceress is a greater asset then a bedmate.”

He gestured at a few of his men. “Grab her,” He told them. Staring at Treime with fear in their eyes, none of the men moved.

“GET HER!” He screamed. “Now!”

At least ten men suddenly rushed her and she didn’t even try to fight them. She couldn’t, her body was too weary from her advanced state of pregnancy to call upon anymore magic. They bound her wrists and ankles and gagged her. Throwing her in the back of a mule cart, they kept their swords pointed at her belly in case she tried to use her magic again.

Treime couldn’t stop the tears that came as she was taken away. They weren’t for her family or her clan, for they were already gone. They were for the fates of Walther and Emilian and their unborn child. She cried until she had no tears left to cry and then her soul began to weep.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Crouched by a tree, blood still dripping from the enormous black wings that had now fully unfolded from his back Gerik was watching me the way a wild animal watches their prey. It didn’t matter how small the movement, I could rub the bottom of my nose, twitch a toe and his eyes would catch it, his nostrils flaring as if the inconsequential action had stirred something in the breeze.

His transformation was complete. Lock, stock, fangs and a tail.

I was dumbfounded by the sheer size of him. He hadn’t been small before, but now, he must be at least 240 pounds and nearly seven feet tall.

I didn’t have words. Even if I’d had them I doubted I would have been able to speak them aloud.

Arms wrapped tightly around herself, Drina walked up to stand beside Jericho.

“He can no longer stay here,” She whispered loudly, her eyes never leaving Gerik. “There are rules and he has broken the most important one. We cannot allow any more devastation to befall the clan.”

Jericho, with tears in his eyes, looked sadly at Gerik and nodded in agreement.

Gerik’s black eyes burned right through the Baró until Jericho was forced to look away.

“You must go son,” Jericho said quietly, his eyes on the ground. Drina, looking not the least bit sorry, advanced on Gerik.

“There is nothing here for you any longer,” She told him. “You have no clan, no family, nothing.”

Gerik jumped to his feet, his entire body constricting. With a leathery snap, giant black wings unfurled behind him casting shadows over his towering form. Unfazed, Drina still continued toward him. She stopped several feet from him, leaned forward and began speaking to him in hushed tones.

“Mine!” Gerik suddenly roared. Pushing past Drina, Gerik half ran, half flew at me.

I took a brief moment to thank every single god and goddess out there that Xan wasn’t here. I’m willing to bet the Parthenon that there was no bigger high than that gained from fighting a dragon for the love of a girl.

“No!” Jericho cried out, his panic clear. “Do not touch her! Your magic Gerik! Think! Please think about this!”

Then I was airborne. The wind rushed up beneath me and the sky grew closer. I squeaked and buried myself in Gerik’s chest. His grip on me was firm and so, instead of having a full blown panic attack, I closed my eyes and concentrated on remembering to breathe.

Minutes later, we landed somewhere in the woods where the trees grew thicker, larger than the ones near camp. There were no beaten paths to follow. I was trapped.

He set me down gently but refused to let me go.

My fingertips brushed over the hot skin on his stomach and the warm smooth black scales over his arms and chest. Who knew a human being could possess such fire and not incinerate or die from fever.

And the magic. It was all over him. You couldn’t be this close to him and not feel it, not be drawn to it and swept away inside of it. It was as if all life around Gerik had come to a standstill. No birds chirped, no insects buzzed, even the air didn’t dare move, as if it too was afraid of getting sucked away in Gerik’s overwhelming presence.

Gerik had become the opposition of life. He needed nothing now. He was a self sustaining powerhouse all rolled into one man.

I laid my hand on his heart where only one of his rune tattoos had remained untouched by his anomalous transformation. I swallowed back a fresh wave of tears as I traced the three interlocking circles.

Without warning I was flat on my back and Gerik’s hands gripped my hips. Brilliant blue eyes instead of black looked down at me.

“It’s better this way,” He rumbled. “Without the blinding need, yeah? I didn’t think it would be but… I can think clearly and really feel you Trinity. Really smell you.”

His nostrils flared wide and black fangs lengthened past his bottom lip. I should have pushed him away but it was beyond my ability as a woman. As a human. As a lesser creature in the presence of a god.

This magic far surpassed the soul mate bond. It was darker, dangerous and terrifyingly more powerful than anything I’d experienced. Worse even was my awareness. My head was clear, my thoughts my own, my ability to discern right from wrong was still in tact and yet I was helpless against him, against his nearness and his intoxicating power.

“I want to show you,” He murmured. “I need you to know that I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I would never have hurt you.”

“Do it,” I rasped, overcome with feelings I had no description for. “Show me everything, all of it.”

Digging my fingers in the waistband of his jeans, I yanked on them, forcing his hips in-between my thighs. “I want to feel everything that you feel", I told him.

Gerik’s beautiful eyes squeezed closed, leaking fat tears. Without thinking, just feeling, I quickly kissed each one away.

Gray eyes opened, wielding raw power. He held me tightly when I would have flown backwards as images and emotions that were not my own assaulted me.

Flash.

I felt fear. I was racing towards…me? The carnival, I was seeing myself at the carnival the day Gerik saved my life. Someone is screaming at not to go back there, that we’re surrounded. “Gerik!” They scream, “We have children here! We will have to leave you!” I ignore them, I have to... Because I need her.

And when I see her I am horrified. She is running from a horde of monsters, all trying to kill her.

I’m using my magic but it’s so hard to differentiate who is human and who is not in the mass hysteria and, god dammit, I’m not going to make it. I’m going to lose her before I even touch her.

I am in time. I snap the neck of one, just as he swiped at her hair.

The moment I touch her I feel whole.

Flash.

I am watching her/me sleep, inhaling deeply the scent of flowers that always surrounds her. I can’t bear it anymore, she cries every night for her sister and she won’t even look at me. I want to comfort her, touch her. No, I need to touch her. The need throbs, and at times it actually hurts. I keep thinking if I can’t have her soon I will die.

I reach out to finger her hair, her cheek. God it’s so soft. Just like the rest of her. Her soft skin, her soft body. Even her lips look soft.

I can wait for her, I can. No, I can’t. I can. I should and I can.

I’m going crazy. I need to touch her. Just once. I cannot be this close to her without touching her. A throat clears. I glance at Becki. She’s pointing at the door. Reluctantly I leave.

Flash.

I’m watching her/me from across camp. She’s helping the women cook today and I’ve seen her smile twice already. When she smiles, her dimples show and I can’t help but smile too. And those eyes…

Someone has beaded her hair, probably Becki. Thank god for Becki. She has done wonders with her.

Her dress flutters in the breeze and my gaze ends up on her gently curved hips. I want to grab them and wrap her beautifully sculpted legs around me.

She’s not wearing a bra today; her breasts slope naturally against the thin material, and bounce with her movements. My muscles are twitching again, my insides coiling, heating. I’m going to go mad.

Shandor and Xan are staring at her again. I wonder if anyone will care if I burn their eyes out of their skulls. Maybe their mami’s?

Flash.

Onyx. I need release. I can’t look at her face, her too thin lips, and her hard straight body. It’s not what I want.

I ache for Trinity’s curves, the softness of her body, and the fullness of her lips. I want to see emeralds looking back at me and feel her long, black hair draped across me. I want to smell the rainbow that is her. I want to feel whole when I come, not drained and empty.

I’m not going to look at Onyx anymore. I’m going to flip her over and close my eyes. Close my eyes and pretend.

Flash.

Xan took what was mine. The most brutal and beautiful part of claiming my woman, my soul mate, he stole from me and took as his own.

Does she actually love him?

It. Hurts. So. Bad.

I should kill him. Only, how can I? How can I fault him for wanting her? She is everything. She is-

I am going to kill him.

I have to get out of here. Now.

Flash.

“Gerik!” I gasp as my emotions and thoughts became my own again.

“Was any of it real for you?” He asked, looking away, but not before I’d glimpsed the pain and desperation that shone brightly in those blue depths.

“Or was it all…” He closed his eyes and trailed off, his fists clenching.

My heart broke for him. It broke for all of us who’d been forced to yield to the otherworldly powers of Nature. A power so great she thought it her right to play with people’s destinies like pawns in a game of chess.

“Gerik?” I pleaded, cupping his face. “It was… there were times when…”

My tears finally fell as I realized that I could tell him something that wouldn’t have to be a lie.

“Gerik, you gave me everything. You gave me absolutely everything.”

And he had. If it hadn’t been for Gerik, I would have succumbed to the same fate as my little sister. Without Gerik, freeing myself from the ties that had bound me to him all these years would have been impossible because I never would have met Xan. So it was true, Gerik had given me everything. He’d given me life and more importantly… love.

Grabbing me tightly, he brought me face to face with him. “That’s all I needed to know,” He whispered hoarsely.

Heat exploded around us.

“Wait!” I cried. But it was too late. The sounds of the ocean had filled the air. The scents of Pine trees and Cinnamon grew stronger, surrounding me. Gerik’s eyes, blue and beautiful, captivated me like even the most glorious of sunsets could not.

I could only watch, unable to move of my own free will as he intertwined his fingers with mine. A glowing white light began to form in between our palms. Whispers of black mist trickled through our fingers, wrapping their darkness around our joined hands.

The air was thick with magic, magic that had no where else to go but inside of me. Tendrils of magic began to sliver through me.

Millions of faces and places overtook my vision, strangers all of them, yet somehow they seemed eerily familiar. Somehow I knew them, knew that we’d shared the soul inside of me.

These were the others my soul had collected on its endless journey of finding its counterpart, time and time again, lifetime after lifetime, love after love.

“I know you,” I said to Gerik, in awe of our ageless connection. “I’ve always known you.”

He said nothing as the power between us grew stronger and brighter. The foliage was blooming around us; the trees had grown thicker, the grass higher and greener. Fresh scents of life perfumed the air as everything began to blossom full and fat succumbing to Gerik’s power.

My head was spinning. Somehow Gerik was reconnecting us using his magic. I could feel it, the way people who have bad bones can feel when it’s going to rain. I could feel him inside of me somehow, only more. He was everywhere, all at once, taking over, taking control.

The magic was pushing wildly against my hands until I felt as if could no longer contain it, would soon be unable to hold onto to all that power and yet I couldn’t seem to let it go. Something inside me felt as if I had been waiting for this moment all of my life.

Then, in an explosion of white light and black shadows, Gerik released me. The magic in the air burst and shattered into a million tiny fractures of light and dark that sprinkled down upon me like rain and disappeared into my skin. White hot fire exploded inside of me and the scents of summer filled the air.

Everything was suddenly within my reach. I could hear the heartbeats of animals from miles away. I could sense the storm that hadn’t yet broken through the clouds two towns over. I could feel the earth beneath me pulsing with foliage yet to break free. Colors I’d never dreamed existed before appeared, and sounds I shouldn’t have been able to hear burst through my ears. I was connected to life, to all living things.

Then a dark cooling balm fell over me and winter permeated my senses. Crisp, cold air and fresh snow, loneliness, starvation and…death, surrounded me. Shadows came bearing down, pressing their burdens upon me and with them they’d brought the weight of the world.

All the life I had only seconds ago felt was suddenly wrought with darkness and death. The heartbeats became ticking time bombs, the storm clouds, a death sentence. Just as I had connected to the living, I was also now connected with the dead and dying. Both conflicting powers surged within me, warring with each other in an unbeatable battle before finally having no choice but to settle peacefully inside of me.

Exhausted, I went limp and collapsed in Gerik’s lap.

“That, Trinity,” Gerik whispered, just before everything went black. “Was me taking what has always been mine.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Transylvania, 1078 A.C.E.

Treime hung limply from her chains in Lord Silviu Torc’s bedchambers, bruised and bleeding, her limbs aching and throbbing.

She watched silently through one slightly swollen eye as her captor cleaned his hands and face in a bowl of water before pulling on his shirt and hose, followed by his tunic.

“I would release you from the chains,” He told her as he slipped into his shoes. “If you would only reveal the secrets of your magic to me.”

Treime shook her head. “I have told you I have no magic." It was true. Treime had tried and failed to call on Emilian’s magic to set her free a number of times and had felt something far more terrifying than anything Lord Torc could do to her.

Instead of the light magic that had once filled her, she felt only darkness. Something she didn’t dare touch.

Lord Torc’s laughter could be heard reverberating throughout the entire castle. “You take me for a fool Gypsy wench! I saw your magic with my own eyes! Do you mean to tell me you enjoy being strung up on my wall while I treat myself to your favors?” He laughed again, a cruel cold sound.

Treime couldn’t stop the lone tear from falling or the wince as the salty drop landed in a fresh cut on her face.

“You are a monster,” She whispered, her lips trembling. “You have beaten my baby out of me and used my body in ways I hadn’t even thought possible. You killed my family, my people, in cold blood and for what, for a few pieces of gold, some secrets?”

Lord Torc grew silent as he watched her cry, something Treime had learned was never a very good sign.

Picking up his sheathed sword and belt, he strode toward her. He lifted her chin and kissed her deeply. She no longer had the energy to fight him. Feeling no resistance from her, he tossed his sword and belt behind him and lifted her body against him.

Her tears fell harder as he kicked off his shoes and began tugging down his hose. “You are mine now wench,” He growled against her neck. “Body and soul.”

The door was suddenly flung open and two of his soldiers rushed inside. Lord Torc turned on them, his face a mask of fury.

“We are being attacked my lord… it’s… it’s…” The boy stumbled over his words, not quite knowing what to say.

“Well, speak up! Who is attacking us and why aren’t you killing them?”

“It’s just one man my lord,” An older soldier replied, his face deathly pale, his hands trembling.

“One man!” Lord Torc roared, grabbing his sword. “You imbeciles!” \\

The older of the two soldiers edged further into the room. “It is just one man my lord…but it is death he brings.”

Both soldiers suddenly grabbed their throats, clawing desperately at their skin. Blood began to pour from their eyes, their noses and mouths as they crumpled to floor.

Lord Torc, unsheathing his sword, turned to Treime and pointed the tip of the blade at her heart.

“Witch!” He screamed. “What have you done?!”

Treime smiled sadly at him. “It is what you have done my lord, not I.”

Lord Torc’s chubby face grew red with rage and with one thrust he plunged his sword into her heart and twisted.

Treime screamed as streaks of blinding pain shot outward from her heart into her chest.

Lord Torc gasped suddenly and began struggling for breath. Falling to his knees in front of Treime, the sword, still in his grasp, was wrenched from her body. Hot blood spurted from the hole in her chest as her heart tried unsuccessfully to keep beating. Her vision began to swim.

Then suddenly ice began to form over the wound and slowly coat the rest of her body, numbing her. She felt nothing now but cold. Slumping in her chains, she waited for the peace death would bring her, when she smelled it…

The forest. Sunshine. Emilian! Her soul rejoiced! He was alive! Walther and he would live; they would carry on the clan!

Feeling herself being lifted and finally free of her chains she struggled to speak and failed as her breath now came in short, desperate pants. Soft, sweet, lips pressed against her. Tears, not her own, rolled down her face.

Unable to speak or move, her eyelids now to heavy to open, Treime used the only power she had left to say goodbye to her beloved. Using their connection, she sent him a vision, the happiest moment in all of her two and twenty years. With what little energy was left inside of her she pushed the memory forward, felt it flow through their bond and release into him.

Then, Treime took her last breath and closed her eyes for eternity.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

I came back to consciousness alone. Gerik had left me. In his placed remained a whole lot of magic and no instruction manual. Like a sixth sense I couldn’t help but feel what was now readily available inside of me. Both powers, light and dark, were equally strong and dangerous in their own right and I had no idea what to do with them.

Anger flared inside me, somehow, despite everything I had done to prevent our bonding Gerik had managed it anyway. Had he always had the power to join us without the physical aspect or had it been his transformation to darkness that had allowed it to occur? I suppose it didn’t matter much now, the how’s or the why’s of it, it was done and somehow I had to figure out what to do with it.

A Skin Eater, female, wearing only her bra and underwear and looking as if she had been living in a mud puddle, jumped out from behind a nearby tree.

Shaking and afraid I began backing away, looking for anything I could use as a weapon when my hands began to glow. I stared in astonishment at the glowing white sparks and black wisps of smoke that were gathering in the palms of my hands then dissolving almost as quickly as they had formed.

The Skin Eater lunged at me, hissing as her feet left the ground. Startled and panicked, I began flailing my hands around wildly, hoping for the best.

In mid jump, the Skin Eater was suddenly flung backwards by an unseen force. It was something I had obviously done but had no idea how I did it or if I could do it again.

Scrambling to her feet, red eyes wide with confusion and fangs, she came at me again.

“Oh, fuck me!” I screamed, and shook my hands again in her direction.

She exploded in ball of fire. Orange, red and black flames ate her up within seconds leaving me staring at a pile of steaming bones.

More fire formed in my palm, freaked out I flung them straight into a nearby tree. Several startled birds flew out, leaving behind a spray of flaming leaves. Seconds later, when the entire tree burst into flames, I turned and ran.

It took me the better part of the day to find my way back to camp. When I breached the clearing, at first seeing nothing but an empty clearing didn’t surprise.

Until I noticed the wards. For the first time I was able to see them. The transparent bubble surrounding camp was now clearly discernable to my newly enhanced eyes. As I walked slowly through, I felt the wards ripple with power, familiar power. My body responded to the magic used to make the wards, recognizing it.

To my surprise they were clearly discernible to my newly enhanced eyes. The wards were one large transparent bubble, rippling with power. I sensed it pull apart and tremble slightly as I walked through them, closing instantly behind me.

The sight in front me was exactly the same as it had been outside of the wards. An empty clearing. I thought back on Jericho’s panicked words when Gerik had taken me from camp. They’d left because of Gerik, and because of me.

As I wandered the clearing, stunned at what Gerik had done to me, not only bonding us for all eternity but he’d started the chain of events that had led to my abandonment. I had nothing now, no spare clothing, no food and no place to live. The worst, I was completely alone.

How could he claim to care about me and still have done this? Because, I thought bitterly, Gerik does whatever he wants.

Approaching the back lot I found the remnants of our attackers. Piled high in what had been the place of clan meetings, parties and dances were the blackened bones of nearly a dozen Skin Eaters.

And further back, where Marcell had been buried, nineteen more graves had been hastily dug and covered. No matter how fast the men had worked, nineteen graves would have taken longer than a day to dig. Exactly how long had I been unconscious?

Unsure of what to do next, I thought about my options. I could wait here and see if the raiding party would return. Yet, if the clan was rejecting me, who was to say Xan wouldn’t as well. Or, even if he accepted the new me, what he never returned here? What if the Gypsies had some magical way of contacting each other? I wouldn’t know. No one except Xan had told me anything about how magic works and what it’s capable of and even he had just given me the basics.

The possibilities were endless. Xan could have already found out what happened and rejected me or he could have been told an entirely different version of recent events and still have rejected me. Or, he could know nothing at all and when he reunites with the clan, find me gone.

In the end, I left. I followed the well worn tracks of the raiding parties out of the mountains, coming quickly across a gravel road. After hours of walking, I encountered a small town, giving me my first real glimpse of what the world had become since I’d gone into hiding with the Gypsies.

Cars sat empty in the road, some with keys still in the ignition. Clothes and purses, souvenirs from a world that had ended, covered the street. The decayed remains of both animals and human lay half eaten on the sidewalk, in the ditches, some still in their vehicles. The shops lining the street had been looted, windows smashed, doors hanging on the hinges, some had even burned to the ground.

The world had become a graveyard.

The sound of heavy breathing had me turning. Far enough down the road that I wasn’t able to make out any distinct features, I saw a Skin Eater coming quickly toward me. Its bare feet pounding on the pavement thudded in time to my racing heart.

I took a deep, shaky breath, in through my nose and out through my mouth. I already knew I could kill it, I just wasn’t sure how exactly. Fire, I thought, and instantly a small orange and black streaked flame formed in my outstretched hand.

I threw the ball of flames the way I watched Walther and Gerik toss their magic at each other. The fire hit the Skin Eater in its midsection and instantly spread over its entire body.

The sound of another heartbeat, pumping blood faster than any human heart could, was close by. I surveyed the street and found a second Skin Eater, easily discernable as male, peeking out at me from behind the bed of a truck.

His eyes went wide with fear when he realized I’d found him. That one of these creatures was afraid of me, was enough to give me the courage to do what I did next.

Air, I thought, instantly feeling a breeze sweep over me and accumulate in my palms. As he turned to run from me, I didn’t think, just whipped the air in his direction, wanting to stop him.

In mid run, he suddenly lifted off the ground as the air I’d threw at him whipped around him like a tornado, freezing him in place.

Wary, I approached him slowly, sweaty from fear and quivering from adrenaline.

He growled at me, mostly I think, because that’s animals do when their cornered.

“You,” I demanded, sounding a lot more sure of myself than I actually felt. “Are going to give me the directions out of this fucking town.”

EPILOGUE

Long Island, NY, 1990

“She’s beautiful.” Shannon Petros looked at her husband with tears of happiness streaming down her face. “God she’s absolutely beautiful and perfect Angelos, look at those eyes!”

Angelos stared at his tiny daughter in the way only a father stares at his newborn child, with a sort of dumbstruck look. She stared right back at him with stunning, deep emerald green eyes. If it wasn’t for her olive skin and jet black hair he would have sworn his wife had cheated on him. Shannon’s eyes were blue and his were such a dark brown they looked almost black.

“I finally have a sister! It’s about time Daddy.” Teodora punched him in the arm, grinning from ear to ear. “Only why’d you wait so long? In a few years I’ll be old enough to be her mother!”

“Eh.” Angelos looked at his eldest daughter, and smiled. “She’ll just look up to you, instead of fighting with you.”

“So did you guys decide on a name?” Teodora looked back and forth between Shannon and him.

Shannon grinned at her stepdaughter. “Trinity Shannon Petros.”

Teodora laughed with delight. “Awesome, another ‘T’ name!”

Angelos shared in his daughter’s laughter. “I only need one more daughter now and I shall have my own “Moirai”.”

“Here we go again,” Shannon groaned.

He touched Teodora’s cheek. “There were three Greek Moirai. The first was named Clotho, the spinner. She spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle.”

He ran the tips of his fingers down his new daughter’s cheek. “And second was Lachesis, the drawer of lots. She measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod.”

Then with a laugh he patted Shannon’s belly. “And lastly there was Atropos, the inevitable. Who would choose the manner of each person’s death by cutting their life thread with her abhorred shears.”

Shannon groaned again. “How depressing for our non-existent child!”

“Oooh, Daddy", Teodora cried out, "There’s a little boy in the doorway!”

Standing, Angelos peered at the little blonde boy who couldn’t be any older than seven or eight, standing in the doorway to Shannon’s hospital room. “Are you okay son? Are you lost?” He asked.

The little boy shook his head, no.

“Poor thing looks so sad,” Shannon whispered. Then louder, asked, “Where’s your Mommy and Daddy honey?”

The little boy refused to look at her when he answered. “They died,” He said softly.

“Oh Gods,” Teodora whispered. “Daddy, I’m going to go get a nurse” Standing up, she straightened her top, then quickly left the room.

“Would you like to meet my daughter?” Shannon asked the boy.

He nodded.

The little boy approached the bed slowly and stood on his tiptoes to peek at Trinity. His deep blue eyes widened when he saw her.

“She smells so pretty,” He said, looking awe struck.

Angelos laughed. “Girls always do son, its how they reel us in.”

Shannon shot her him a dirty look. He grinned back at her.

“Can I touch her?” The boy asked.

Shannon glanced at Angelos who shrugged. “Why not?” He said, “I see no harm in it.”

Shannon tilted Trinity down a bit so the boy could reach her. Trinity’s big green eyes widened at the sight of him and she let out a tiny coo. Angelos laughed. “Son, I think that means she likes you.”

The boy smiled, his blue eyes shining. Just as he was about to lightly graze her cheek with the backs of his knuckles, Teodora walked back in. A short, plump nurse wearing pink scrubs was following closely behind her. Seeing her, the boy’s hand fell to his side.

“Oh honey, how you find yourself up here?” The nurse asked the boy. “You’re godparents are here, they’ve come to take you home with them. Come with me sweetie.”

The boy glanced back at Trinity.

“Come along Gerik,” The nurse repeated, her hand outstretched. “Jericho and Maisera are waiting. Everything is going to fine. I promise you.”

After one long look at Trinity, Gerik took the nurses hand and together they left the room leaving the Petros family staring sadly after them.

###

Book two of the Holy Trinity Series will be available in Fall 2012.

Glossary of Definitions:

Ah, lepo dekle na lep večer = Oh, beautiful girl on a beautiful evening.

Aphrodite = The Greek Goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation.

Ares = The Greek God of war.

Athena = The Greek Goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill.

Baró = The leader.

Blestemul de vampir = Curse of the vampire.

Balaur = Dragon.

Cai fundul = Horses ass.

Ciocănitoare = Woodpecker.

Diklo = A scarf Roma women wore over their hair to symbolize their status as married.

Eros = The Greek God of love. (Cupid)

Eşti în siguranţă = You’re safe.

Fată = Girl.

Fata mea = My girl

Fiul Meu = My son.

Fetita = Girl.

Frate = Brother.

Gaje = Anyone who is not of Romani descent.

Gypsy = A member of a nomadic, Caucasoid people of generally swarthy complexion, who migrated originally from India, settling in various parts of Asia, Europe, and, most recently, North America.

Himeros = The Greek God of sexual desire.

Rom = A Male Romani.

Roma = One or more Romani people.

Romani = An entire ethnic group.

Mamă = Mother.

Mami = Mommy.

Mea dulce fata = My sweet girl.

Min Jente = My girl.

Mullo = The first vampire.

Puţin o = Little one.

Puţin Sora = Little sister.

Stimati Dumnezeu ne salva = The boy has horns.

Tată = Papa.

Veni la mine, frumos = Come to me, beautiful.

Content

The Soul Mate
The Holy Trinity - 1
By
Madeline Sheehan

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

EPILOGUE

Glossary of Definitions: