Page 98 of After Darkness Falls

Three months ago

Eirikr remembered the smell overhead. Not the stench as it was now, full of toxic fumes and rotting flesh. Even in his prison, so dark and deep he couldn't see the light of day, he smelled the new air. The last two thousand years had not suited their dear Earth.

But he remembered still. Watching the flocks of sheep from a mountaintop, and breathing so deeply, taking it for granted.

They hadn't been his sheep. Nothing, by rights, had ever been his.

Eirikr was a bastard, born of a Roman scum based in Raetia, meaning he owned none of his mother's property and certainly none of the man who'd fathered him. He'd believed his fate had been watching over his little brother's folks. It could have been worse. They weren't poor, and there was food on the table every night.

Then, one day, the Roman came; the one who looked like him.

"Are you the one they call bastard, boy?"

He understood enough of their foreign tongue to nod.

"We're to return to Rome. You look well enough. Come with me if you wish."

Until then, no one had asked about his wishes. Eirikr followed, and was named Primerius, the first natural son of Markus Aurelius, a famed general.

The man did not value weakness, so Eirikr trained every morning, every evening, often through the night, until he was known as one of the best soldiers in his regiment. He learned to desire many things, though none as much as the beautiful Tatiana, priestess of Pompeii. They said she was a daughter of Zeus, and no one who looked upon her doubted it. But she gave her favor to him, a bastard, against all odds.

When she was called to banish the monster who'd taken residence in Pompeii and dismembered so many souls, drinking the blood of her victims, Eirikr volunteered to protect her.

Tatiana was so beautiful, and nature seemed to bend to her will. Eirikr never doubted she'd win. She could win against any enemy, any monster, any demon sent from the belly of the Earth.

But the moment they entered the creature’s lair, he knew how mistaken he was.

The enemy was fast as a shadow, brutal as the waves crashing against the cliffs, and so striking she outshone even Tatiana, when she stopped long enough for them to see more than a blur.

She killed two dozen guards in mere instants and then moved against Tatiana herself. Eirikr didn't know what made him move, his broken body so weak, writhing on the floor, but he caught her shapely shin and bit, deep, desperate to hurt her, to distract her long enough to give his love time to run.

The monster's skin was like stone, hard marble, but Eirikr’s teeth were sharp, and though it hurt, he bit hard enough to draw blood. Golden blood, luminous in the darkness.

Tatiana had an instant to run. Eirikr was kicked in the face so hard his neck broke.

That evening, he rose.

The creature was still here, in the darkness, weeping over the corpses, demanding to know why she couldn't stop herself from killing, why she was still alive, why she was so very alone.

When he stirred, she rose, gasped, and rushed to him.

"Impossible," she mouthed, her voice so melodious Eirikr almost forgot he hated everything she was.

Almost.

Her fingers were gentle as she explored all his wounds, now closed.

"You were dead. You should be dead."

He felt dead. Everything inside him hurt. He could barely move. His brain pulsed with one need, one desire.

The gold blood in her veins.

"How!" she demanded to know.

He wasn't sure he heard, but he said the only word that would cross his lips.

"Sangui—"

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