War of Hearts (True Immortality) - S Young Page 0,90
display unit filled with different artifacts, what looked like an old Viking helmet, coins, goblets, a sword, a small shield, and an assortment of daggers.
An unpleasant tingle moved through Thea and she followed the feeling to a silver-gray dagger pinned to the wall of the display. She almost hissed.
Pure iron.
Wrenching her eyes away, Thea studied the vampire. Despite the Metallica shirt he was wearing, a female opera singer played from a sound system that seemed to encompass the entire apartment.
She steadfastly ignored the discomforting awareness of the iron blade in the corner.
“Who is your lovely friend, Conall?” Vik asked, flicking Thea a mercury look as he wandered into the kitchen. “Drink?”
“This is Thea. And I’ll take a water if you have it.”
“Me too,” Thea said.
The vampire nodded and pulled two small bottles of water out of the fridge. Thea knew from her time with Ashforth that vampires ate and drank like humans, but they also needed blood to survive.
Thea thanked Vik as he gave her the water. She used it as an excuse to drop Conall’s hand.
“So, what is this about?” Vik crossed his arms over his chest. “You know this is my nighttime hours, friend.”
“And I apologize for the rudeness of our arrival. But this is important.” He turned to Thea, his eyes questioning, and she knew he wanted her permission to tell the story. She reluctantly nodded.
It was difficult to stand through Conall’s retelling. Thankfully, he left out the nitty-gritty of her captivity with Ashforth but told Vik enough for him to grasp the story. Conall explained to him about being chased by the Blackwood Coven and the new mystery enemy who went by the name Eirik.
When Conall was finished, Vik was unnaturally still, staring almost unseeingly at the floor.
“Vik?”
His blue eyes flashed to Thea. “Tell me about your abilities again.”
Something about the intensity of his stare unnerved her, but Conall’s encouraging nod prompted her to reply. “I’m fast, strong.”
“Faster and stronger than any supernatural I’ve met,” Conall added.
“I can … I can make people see things. Things I want them to see.”
Vik’s expression flickered but it was difficult to know what that meant.
“And … when I was younger—not now—I could move things without touching them.”
He frowned. “Not now?”
“I stopped using the ability a long time ago. I haven’t been able to do it since. Well, sometimes I make things happen when I’m upset. Moving things, messing with electricity, anything that emits energy, really. I can turn on a car without an ignition key. That’s been handy in the past.” She tried to be droll to ease her own nervousness.
Vik abruptly turned away, striding toward the bookshelves. He studied them, running his eyes up and down the books. “And you can heal. Instantly?”
“Yes.”
He moved along the shelves as Thea and Conall shared a questioning look. Vik glanced over his shoulder at Thea. “Can you move from one space to another by merely thinking about it?”
She frowned but something flickered in the back of her mind.
The plane crash.
How she’d been in darkness, in pain, smelling the most horrific smells, and then the next, outside the plane.
“I … not that I know of.” She avoided Conall’s eyes, wondering if he was thinking about the plane crash too.
“And iron. Pure iron. Do you know if it can hurt you?” His gaze flicked to the iron blade on his display unit before turning back to Thea.
She felt Conall tense at the same time she did. They hadn’t mentioned the iron yet. “Yes,” she whispered, butterflies erupting to life as Vik nodded.
There was a light of disbelief and excitement in his eyes as he stared at her.
“Well?” Conall snapped.
Vik reached up and grasped a small volume from his shelves. He turned around and moved back toward them before dropping the book on the desk with a light thwomp. “You’re right. Thea is immortal.”
Something withered inside her at his declaration. She looked down at the book. “As in …”
“Never age, never die. A true immortal.”
“That’s what Ashforth called her.” Conall scowled. “And he knows about the iron.”
“Then he knows what she is.”
“Which is?”
Vik gestured to the book, and they both edged closer.
Embossed in gold across the leather was the word FAERIE.
Thea’s eyes flew to Vik’s in consternation. His regard upon her was intense. “You’re one of the fae. I thought that would be obvious.”
“Fae?” Thea spluttered incredulously. “As in fucking fairies?” She shot a look at Conall, angry at him for bringing her to this lunatic.