“That is not true!”
“I am incomplete.”
“It is not true!” He roared. “He may be your other half, but you don’t need him anymore. He’s no longer a part of you. You are a complete person. You have your own body, your own heart, your own mind. You are complete, Nala. You are beyond complete. You are… perfect.”
“Then why do I feel the way I do?” She whispered. “Why do I feel empty and alone when I am surrounded by countless numbers of people? Why do I feel palpable pain when we are apart?” She placed her shaking hands over her chest. “I can’t remember how many times he has rejected me. I’ve lost count of how many times he cast me away. No matter what I do. No matter what I try. No matter how hard I scrub myself, he is still disgusted by me. My touch sickens him. As long as I am myself… as long as I am Nala… he won’t come near me. He won’t even look at me. In his eyes, I am nothing more than an abomination. Help me, Noctiam. You are the only one who can.”
“If I do this to you, I’ll be destroying myself.”
“But you love me more than yourself, Noctiam.”
He didn’t deny that. He couldn’t.
“Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
She firmly nodded.
“You do understand the consequences of having your core removed, correct? You may not even survive it. Even if you do survive it, your body will eventually decay without your core. Is it worth giving up your immortality?”
“If I can make him love me, I would trade eternity just to hear him say those three little words to me.” She would pay any price.
He stepped forward and embraced her into his arms. “I don’t want to do this to you, Nala. Please don’t make me do it.”
It was cruel of her to put him in this situation. She knew it as well. “I cannot stand this torment any longer.”
“Why can’t it be me?” He tightened his embrace. “Why can’t you try loving me? I would cherish you. I would never hurt you like he has.”
He kissed her affectionately. She knew that he would love her and cherish her. He would do everything in his power to protect her from harm. Many men promised her the same thing and they meant it with conviction.
But she felt nothing for them, just as she felt nothing for Noctiam.
“Will you be satisfied with just my body? My heart and my soul belonging to him.”
Noctiam bitterly laughed. “Why did I fall in love with you, Nala? I was fine the way I was. I was fine for thousands of years, before you came.”
“If I knew how to make it all up to you, I would.”
“I don’t need your pity!” He spat.
“My appearance could easily be altered. If I remove my core, he will not be able to sense me. If I remove my core, he will not be able to recognize me. He would be able to love me.”
“All I want to know is: Will you would regret this decision? You won’t be yourself anymore, Nala. You will only be a walking corpse. You will only be able to maintain your body with magic and potions up to three years… four years at most. Your core will rebuild another you. Can you tell me for sure that you will not regret this?”
“I have never regretted anything that I have ever done. I assure you that I will not regret my decision. If he cannot fall in love with me, then dying would be an escape.”
“Very well,” Noctiam agreed. He reached into his sleeve and produced a dagger. He pulled her even closer and whispered very softly into her ear. “With this, you have undone me.”
He unsheathed the dagger and drove it into her chest without giving himself a moment to think about it. She bit into her lower lip to endure the sharp pain. He gripped tighter on the hilt and widened the cut. Chanting a spell in the ancient language, he reached into her chest.
At contact with her core, she viciously growled at him. Her survival instinct would not allow him to remove it, no matter how hard she attempted to repress the urge. Without her core, she could not live. Without it, she could not survive. Her nails grew razor sharp and slashed at his face. He gripped onto her core and attempted to take out it. For the first time in three thousand years, she felt genuine fear engulfing her body. The urge to protect herself was so strong that she began to thrash about to fight him off.
The vision of her other half came to her mind, reminding her who she was doing this for. She utilized every ounce of self-control to fight against her survival instinct and willed her body to let go. Slowly, tensions released her body.
She cried out at the overbearing pain. The harder he pulled at her core, the harder it was for her to contain her screams. The red veins built up around her pale green eyes as they emitted an eerie glow. The glow faded away as he pulled out a clear, golden core from her chest.
Noctiam placed the core gently on the desk and then held her body up with both hands. He chanted another spell to close the wound on her chest.
“Nala…!” His voice promptly filled with regrets. “Nala, are you still with me?”
She mouthed the words ‘thank you’, or at least attempted to, before allowing her consciousness to slip away.
Epilogue
Noctis downed his sixth bottle of whiskey at the back of the nightclub with strong dismay. The alcohol was burning at his throat, but resentment was burning at his chest. By the time he broke his own seal, he’d already lost track of them. That was three months ago.
He muttered a curse and shattered the empty bottle in his hand. She fled from me!
The nightclub went stiller than it already was. The immortals were watching him with a sense of dread. Those who were able to teleport escaped as soon as they sensed him. Those who weren’t able to were forced to keep him company. They were a poor substitution.
“Dance,” he commanded.
They speedily obeyed with unnatural movements.
Very poor substitution.
The Lycans he’d sent to track her down had returned. He’d held their mates as hostages to make sure they’d submit to him.
“Well?” Noctis asked impatiently.
“We couldn’t catch her,” the leading Lycan reported. “She’s protected by the demons.”
“Tell me where she is,” he demanded.
“We found her at the university eighty miles west of here.” The Lycan opened his hand and presented him a lock of glossy, black hair.
Noctis began grinding his teeth in recognition and stood. He held a steady glare on the Lycan as he retrieved the lock of hair. “You did well,” Noctis complimented as he placed a hand on the Lycan’s shoulder.
“However…” he drawled as he dug his hand into the Lycan’s shoulder. A blanket of white flames consumed the Lycan and turned him into ashes before he had the time to scream. The immortals gasped in horror. “How dare you damage what is mine! If I wanted to harm her, I will see it done by my own hands.”
End of Book One
Book two of The Dark God’s Bride Trilogy
Coming July 2012…
Here’s a preview of Princess of the Damned…
Prologue
Nala looked down at the crashing waves below and decided that the cliff was high enough. If she fell from this height, she would break more than just a few bones in her body. Good. If she couldn’t lure him to come out, she didn’t want to feel the pain of dying.
She inched closer to the edge and took in a deep breath. The pure height of where she was standing made her dizzy and she had always hated the feeling of free falling. Her position gained the attentions of the fishermen standing by the shore. They looked like insects from where she stood, but she could hear their rowdy commotion.
Without giving herself any time for second thought, she leapt off the cliff. Her impeccable vision allowed her to catch a glimpse of their horrified faces as they watched her dropping to sparing boulders and unforgiving waves below. No human could have survived a fall at this hei
ght.
Instead of splattering onto the geological landscape or being swallowed by the current, he came to her rescue. He materialized and caught her in midair. They gently floated down as if they both weighed nothing and landed on a patch of grass. He had teleported both of them back to the top of the cliff.
He let her down to her feet and she wrapped her arms around him immediately so that he would not run away again. When he tried to free himself, she stubbornly held on to him.
“You care about me, I know you still do!” she cried. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have come!”
“You shouldn’t lure me out this way,” he said. His voice was so cold that it sent a chill through her. “I won’t always be around to catch you.”
“I hate it when you lie. You’re always around. You’re always watching over me. Please don’t run away from me anymore. I am tired. I am really tired.”
He shifted away from her embrace. “Take care of yourself, Nala.”
“I love you!” She shouted out before he disappeared from her life once again. “I love you, Trent! No matter how many more thousands of years come to pass, I will only love you!”
“You don’t love me!” he retorted. She had never seen such an angry expression on his face.
“I do love you.” She reached for his hands and held it tightly at her chest. “My mind, my thoughts are filled with nothing but you. I love you so much, it pained me.”
“How many times must I tell you that the love you speak of is nothing more than the forces of the universe pulling us together?” He snatched his hands back. “We were originally one person, don’t you understand? Why won’t you understand, Nala?”
“You’ve told me! You’ve told me hundreds of times over and over! Why don’t you listen to what I am telling you? I am in love with you. No matter how many men I have forced myself to love; I still couldn’t love anyone but you!”
“What do you want me to do, Nala?” he finally asked the question.
There were a million things she could have answered him, but she failed to say a word. She wanted him to be with her? To love her like she did him? When he stopped running and she stopped chasing, what would happen? Force him to accept her feelings? She let out another sob and stepped away from him.
“What do you want, Nala?” he repeated the question. “You’ve tricked me, you’ve lied to me, and you are making my life a living nightmare! When will it be enough?”
“Am I wrong to fight for my own happiness? Unlike the humans who only have to endure a lifetime of sorrow from their unrequited love, I have already endured many lifetimes!”
“Why are you fighting for something that doesn’t exist?”
“Then tell me…” she said in breaking words. “Tell me that my feelings are mine alone. Tell me right here that you don’t love me and I swear to you I will never appear before you again.”
“Nala!”
“Say it!” she demanded. “Tell me here once and for all. I am very tired, Trent. I don’t have the strength to struggle with you anymore.”
He stared at her for a long moment before turning to walk away. “I’ve never loved you.”
It was better to be tormented once than forever.
She had forgotten how many times he had walked away like this. He was always the one to say the last word and he was always the one to walk away. She wanted to change that for once.
She had never felt so drained and exhausted.
“Out of two of us, only one should exist, Trent. I will get rid of the woman who sees you and only you. I will destroy everything about her here, this moment, so that she could never love you again!”
“If you think that I would fall for one of your tricks again, you are childish!”
She shook her head. “There will be no more tricks. I don’t have the time for that. I have traded my eternity for a few years with you. The next time you see me, I will not be the Nala who loves only you anymore.”
Chapter One
Northern Kingdom, 939
Death was stalking him.
Sayan could no longer feel the hunger that had tortured his physical body. He was beyond that now. He felt numb, lightheaded, and an overwhelming urge to sleep. He tried to move his fingers, but he couldn’t even feel them anymore. It was a sad way to die, but it couldn’t be helped.
He couldn’t blame his parents for leaving him here to die. War had left the common people with little to survive on. Some people were even reduced to eating tree roots and bark to survive. Having him around would only be a burden. Life would be better for them now. His siblings would have more to eat. They wouldn’t have to go to bed with half empty stomachs anymore.
Danger lurked around him.
The beast hiding in the shadows of the forest showed itself. A grey wolf was coming for him, hunched, and ready to tear his small body to shreds. He looked straight into its eyes and kept a still glare. At this point, the sensation of fear had already left him. It returned his glare and he found himself in a battle of wills against the animal. The beast could get his body after he died, but not before. He wanted to spend the last moments of his life thinking of the good things his parents did for him, so that in death he would not hate them.
He didn’t know how long he glared at the wolf. Just when he thought he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore, it whimpered and then scampered away.
There was a girl in front of him then. She had a gentle face of light tan complexion. Her silky platinum hair fell off her shoulder and rained down the side of his cheek. Her eyes were pale green, clear and fresh like morning dew on young spring leaves. He wanted to get a still look at them, but her long and dark lashes hid them away with each blink.
He was losing touch on reality. His eyelids were as heavy as lead. He did not want to sleep, but sleep was coming for him.
When he opened his eyes again, his surroundings had changed. He was lying in a small bed, draped with pink and gold fabric. Moonlight shone through the blue glass window, giving the tiny room a luminescent glow. Lying next to him was the beautiful girl he had seen before he passed out. Her pale green eyes smiled with her.
He slowly sat up. “Am I dead?” he asked.
“You’re not dead yet, although you came close.” She sat up and placed the blanket on his shoulders.
“Who are you?” he inquired. He suddenly felt dizzy.
“You can call me Nala.” She reached for the bowl next to the bed and handed it to him. “Have some more honey. If you want some solid food, I can get you some.”
He looked down at the watered-down honey inside the bowl. This must be what she had been feeding him when he was unconscious. No wonder there was a trace of sweetness on his lips. “Did you save me?”
“I only fed you a little bit of honey.” She patted on the soft pillow. “Rest a little more while I find some food for you.”
He did as she asked. She shuffled his hair and then exited the room. She returned several minutes later with a loaf of bread and a roasted drumstick. Hunger had made him forget about manners. He devoured the food as fast as he could. How long had it been since he had a meal like this? She handed him a cup of watered down honey when he finished the meal.
“Why don’t you stay here until you figure out where to go?”
He looked up at her. “You mean…I can stay here?”
She nodded.
“No, I won’t be a burden! I don’t want to be anyone’s burden!” He brushed the blanket off and bolted off the bed. His legs failed him and he tumbled onto the floor.
She picked up him and placed him on the bed again. “How about this? You do a little bit of chores while you stay here?”
A little smile appeared on his face. “I promise I will work very hard to earn my meal!”
She shuffled his hair again. “You have to rest first.”
On the morning of the seco
nd day, Sayan felt like himself again. His strength returned. He wandered out of the tiny room and discovered it to be a traveling wagon. There were many identical wagons lining up behind one another. There were many beautiful women walking by wearing revealing dancer’s costumes. It must be a dancer’s caravan.
“Excuse me,” he called over one of the women. “Do you know where…Nala is?”
“What a cute little boy,” the woman pinched his cheek. “You look so much better than the pitiful shape we found you in.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“I haven’t seen her all morning,” the woman replied. “Don’t worry, she’ll be back soon. Speak of the devil, there she is.” The woman pointed at the horse heading toward them. Nala got off the horse and received a small brown bag from the horseman. The horseman smiled at her and then rode off.
“Who is that?” Sayan asked.
“He’s probably a rich man’s retainer. It looks like she just got paid, so you’re going to get food tonight.”
Sayan returned into the wagon and closed the door shut. Several minutes later, Nala came in with a tray of food. There was that smile on her face again.
“Are you hungry yet?”
He knocked over the tray that she offered. “I would puke up all of the food I’ve ate until now if I could!”
“You don’t feel well today?” She picked up the loaf of bread and tapped away dirt that may have clung on to it.
“So this is what you do? I would never have eaten the food if I had known that it was earned by your dirty ways!”
“Food is food, little one, no matter how it was obtained.” She placed the loaf of bread in his hands. He threw it out the opening of the window.
“I would rather starve!”
He was expecting her to be furious with him, but she said nothing and exited the wagon. He watched her walked away through the opening of the window. He didn’t catch the look in her eyes, so he couldn’t tell if she was crying or not.