Page 1 of Eternally Bound

Prologue

1850

“Wake up, Erik! Death waits for no man.” I frown at Gaius’s voice in my ear.

My head is pounding, and banging sounds around me is making me want to murder everyone just for a moment of blissful silence.

“UP BOY!” I growl at him.

“I am no boy or man for that matter.” I slowly pry my eyes open to the carnage around us.

We’re in a dirt pit on the front lines of yet another war Gaius has fancied himself a general in. Why I follow him into these fights is a question that has been left unanswered for over a millennium now.

Another grenade explodes a few meters from us, and my oldest friend curses as he lifts me to my feet.

“What I wouldn’t give for my flaming sword.” He mutters as he basically drags me to the medical tents.

I ignore his cryptic nonsense and focus on my body. I can’t feel my left leg from the knee down. When I glance at the thing, it’s hanging by the ligaments. Well, that would be the reason why.

Gaius drops my sorry arse on a cot and yells for a medic.

That’s when it hits.

My vision sharpens, and my fangs descend. The bloodlust hits me so suddenly and strongly at the most inopportune time that I grab Gaius and drag him down to me.

“SHE’S HERE.” I hiss, and he frowns down at me.

“I rather despise Shakespeare, but the irony of this star-crossed lover life you lead is taxing child.” I push him away and take slow, deep breaths through my mouth to try and get myself under control.

No matter how many times we meet, I am never prepared for the reaction my body has to just being in the same room with her.

My beloved. My twin soul. My eternal love that is always ripped away, sadly, by my own doing. Irony indeed.

“They’re all wearing those infernal caps. I can’t tell if any have her hair.” Gaius glances around and then laughs.

“Erik, they’re all nuns.” He points at their clothing.

“Fuck me.” Someone clears their throat behind me.

“I thank you not to use that type of language around the sisters, sir.” I close my eyes and sigh.

Once, it would be nice not to be found by the love of all my life in a decent light. Fate is a fucking bitch.

“Your name, soldier?” The nurse leans over my leg and frowns at what she sees.

Gaius had reset my leg, allowing my vampiric nature to start healing the injury while we spoke. To her eyes, my grave wound is but a gash now. Blood still weeps from the open skin, which she cleans away with water from a pitcher by my cot.

“Mathius, ma’am.” Her eyes glance up at mine, and she gasps.

When she pulls away, I instinctively grab her hand so she doesn’t trip. Her eyes turn white, and our past flashes her her mind.

“You couldn’t resist, should you?” Gaius huffs as he starts ordering all able bodies out of the tent.

It’s like a magnetic pull that won’t let us go until she sees it all. Every last detail of all our past lives. I pull her into my lap and cradle her face. I unpin the cap and let her hair fall down past her shoulders.

“Always red,” I muse as I spin a curl around my blood-tinged digits.

“Let’s move, you lazy sod. I could outrun a hellhound with that tiny scratch.” Gaius glances out the flaps of the tent as I stand holding my bride in my arms.

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