Of course, he was relieved that Kaderin would have her sisters, but he couldn't help thinking about what it would have been like to go back for his own family and see them once more. Maybe if he had done things differently, he and Kaderin both could have had the opportunity...
'Are you ready?' she asked, finally dressed in jeans and a longer jacket, with her sword strapped over her shoulder.
He nodded and rose to collect his own sword. When he crossed to her, she held up the key with raised eyebrows. 'You sure you want to go? It's going to be intense.'
He put his shoulders back. 'I was on a battlefront for a decade, remember?' He tucked her braid behind her ear.
She didn't look convinced. 'Don't trace in front of my sisters, please. And try not to open your mouth much.' When he raised his brows, she said, 'Your fangs. I don't want them to see your fangs. They really will try to kill you.'
'You're beautiful when you're nervous.' He gave her a brief, deep kiss.
In a breathy voice, she said, 'You've got your sword ready?'
His lips curled into a grin.
'Just... just don't get killed, Bastian.' She swallowed. 'Okay?'
He took her free hand, pressed his lips to her palm. 'I'll endeavor not to.'
As he'd done before, she offered up the key. A portal opened. They met eyes, then stepped through, hand in hand.
Into hell.
As though in a quaking black dome, thunder like cannon fire shook the earth. He'd seen it in her dreams, but nothing could prepare him for the reality. Lightning slashed across the sky. All around them, Valkyrie shrieked and pried heads from vampires. Vampires ripped the throats out of any they could overpower.
He'd never seen a Horde vampire in person. They were worse than her dreams. Red-eyed, insane.
'I see them!' she yelled, starting for them in the valley below.
But he was aching to save a Valkyrie from a vampire twice her size who had beaten her down. Kaderin must have seen the look in his eyes. 'I know, Bastian! But it won't change a single thing—except that you can die. Or we won't make it back to the door with them both.'
He nodded. 'I'm right behind you.' He still traced and beheaded the vampire from behind. Kaderin frowned at him, but he knew she wasn't displeased. Then they hurried to the flatlands where her two sisters clashed with vampires, battling with long swords, blood splashing up their legs.
When Kaderin stopped and stared at them, swallowing, Sebastian recognized that they were similar versions of her, though one was taller and one shorter. And their coloring was different. One had reddish blond hair, while the other's was darker brown.
Kaderin's eyes were glinting, her breaths shallow. He curled his fingers under her chin, coaxing her to face him. 'Let's get them back.'
Kaderin nodded, caressing the side of her cheek against his fingers. Then she turned to them and called in their mother's tongue, 'Rika, Dasha, come!'
They both looked to her, then back at the fray. 'We cannot leave!'
'Come now!'
Rika's eyes widened at her command, and Dasha's narrowed, but they did hurry to her. Kaderin had to remember that she had been sweet to them, gentle with them—
Just before they reached each other, a vampire charged toward Kaderin. Sebastian met him, striking viciously, clearing the way for them.
When Kaderin stood before her sisters, at last, she couldn't find her voice. With a trembling hand, she reached out to cup Dasha's stubborn chin, then brush Rika's glossy dark hair from her eyes. 'I-I missed you two so much,' she finally managed to say as her tears began to fall.
'Missed us?' Dasha said. 'When did you dress differently—and so strangely? And who's that male?'
'There's no time for that, Dash.' Kaderin forced herself to be blunt. 'The two of you die in this battle. In ten minutes, a vampire takes your heads. And it is my fault.'
Dasha opened her mouth to interrupt her, but Kaderin raised her hand. 'We must make this fast. I live one thousand years in the future now, and I'm taking you forward to my time tonight. And I'm so sorry, but you're going to lose those years. Forever.'
Without blinking an eye, ever-practical Dasha said, 'Seems to me that they will be lost as well if we are dead.'
Rika put her hands on her knees, bending over and coughing blood. 'Kader-ie, I don't understand.' She'd already been hurt worse than Kaderin had ever known. 'How is this possible?'
'You know extraordinary things happen in the Lore—we've seen them before. We've experienced much stranger than this,' Kaderin said. 'You're just going to have to trust me now because if we don't get through a certain door, very quickly, I could cease to be.'
'If we leave the battle, how could we show our faces again?' Dasha asked. 'We'd be known as cowards. You could think us cowards.'
'No,' Kaderin said. 'You would be remembered as dying valiantly in battle.'
'No one would curse our names?' Dasha asked.
'Never, I vow it.'
Dasha turned her attention to Sebastian. 'And the man?'
'His name is Sebastian. I... I love him.'
The sisters both tilted their heads, watching him fighting as bodies were piling up around him. He was outright glorious, powerful, everything any of them had ever dreamed of in a male.
And they had no idea they were ogling a vampire.
Dasha whistled. 'There is much to love, sister.'
Rika coughed more blood. 'He is beautiful, Kader-ie.' She leaned on her sword, the ultimate sign of weakness—something one simply did not do if one could possibly prevent it. 'Then take us forward. Another adventure.'
Dasha remained unconvinced. 'There's no peace in the future, is there? We still fight vampires?'
'Yes, there are still bad vampires to fight.'
'Bad vampires? As if there exist good ones? How strangely you speak.'
Rika stumbled. 'I'm dizzy. Call for your man.'
Kaderin dropped her sword and scooped her up. 'Just a bit longer, sweet.'
When all around Sebastian lay an assortment of dead vampires, he spotted the past Kaderin fighting.
And stared transfixed.
She wore a golden breastplate and carried her sword and a whip. Though injured, she continued to fight savagely, shrieking her fury and orders over the deafening thunder.
Pointing her sword, she directed bowswomen with their flaming arrows and witches with their spells, as they hurtled their strikes in bright trails at the enemy.
She had blood running from her temple and the corner of her lips, and her blond hair was braided for battle. Her eyes were silver. She was absently marking the vampires she'd killed.
He was awed...
A massive vampire with a battle ax traced behind her. She hadn't sensed him in the melee. Sebastian tensed to trace—
'Bastian, no!' Kaderin screamed over the clamor from behind him. He turned, saw her handing the wounded sister into the other's arms. Kaderin ran for him. 'I'll kill you!' He finally let her lead him away, though it went against everything inside him to leave her here.
When they met the sisters at the doorway, Kaderin said, 'And believe it or not, I get out of that scrape. He ended up wearing that ax as a hat all night.'
Sebastian yanked her to him and kissed her, pride filling him. 'You were magnificent.'
'Were?'
'Are. Always will be.'
'Bastian, we're going back.' She gave him a watery grin.
