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ChapterSix
Perhaps it was the lack of blood flowing to her head, but he could’ve sworn he heard her say —
“Colin?” she asked again. Her vibrant blue eyes bore into him, shining with an emotion he hadn’t seen in decades.
He loosened his grip. Her hands still latched onto his forearm; though they were cold, his skin burned where she touched him.
“Rolf,” he replied. “Rolf Zimmerman. I know no man by the name of Colin.”
The light in her eyes faded, and he couldn’t help but feel pulled under by the disappointment she felt. Her entire body sagged, and he let her go. She slid to the floor, her head slumping onto her knees.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. Adeline waved her hands limply around the cabin. “All of this just… I’m so sorry. You reminded me so much of someone I used to know.”
Hope, he realized. That look in her eyes had been hope. Something seized his heart, and he couldn’t help but want to comfort the vampire. He knelt in front of her and reached his hand out to brush some of the hair covering her face. Instead, his hand hovered inches from her face before he dropped it. “Did you know this man well?”
“Yes, we were… close.” She hesitated on the last word, her eyes fluttering closed. He watched in awe as her neck, and then her cheeks, flushed peach. Her hands flew to her face to cover the color. This vampire was not used to being so vulnerable. His heart skipped a beat at the thought of him being the one she was comfortable enough with to be this open. He sat down, facing her, ensuring his face stayed as neutral as possible. Her whole body relaxed before him, and she continued her explanation without meeting his eyes, “Over a century ago, he and I had… We had defied all odds just to be together.”
Rolf tilted his head and met her eyes again, hoping she would continue. Something about her kept pulling him back into her orbit. Was it the way she mumbled while she slept? The restless movements that took over her body? He sat by the bed each night, safeguarding her from the demons in her dreams. Two nights in a row, through the depths of her sleep, she thrashed about, clamoring for a hand, and found his. Adeline clasped it so tightly she had bruised him. But he never let go.
Instead, he waited patiently until the terrors ceased, letting her grip him as if he were the anchor to keep her from sailing adrift in an endless sea. Only then would he slowly untangle his hand from hers.
“We spent a few years together in an apartment in Paris just after Bonaparte took over the continent. Colin was a British soldier injured in battle and unable to return home due to his health and political leanings. I was a nurse in the convent where he was interred, and it was…” Adeline took a steadying breath. “It was love at first sight for both of us. I thought I could leave the immortal life behind and spend the rest of his mortal days together. Never in my centuries have I ever felt such a love. I suppose I never will.”
Rolf could feel his heart beating in his ears. His eyes flicked to the bottom drawer in the wardrobe, where the tattered remnants of a long-tailed officer’s coat lay folded within its depths. It was the only distinct piece of clothing he had been wearing when he woke up covered in blood a hundred years ago. The medals that had belonged on the epaulets were long gone, as were the golden thread and the buttons. Despite the faded look of the coat, he could still recall those moments of terror so clearly. The scent of blood was tangy and metallic as it soaked into the ground around him.
Sheer terror as he realized his memory was gone and he had no recollection of who or where he was. His right hand still gripped the knife buried deep in the belly of the largest, deadliest wolf-beast he had ever seen.
Sweat lined his brow, and he cleared his throat, “A British soldier?”
Adeline nodded. “Yes, he was an officer with a musket wound to his shoulder and shrapnel embedded in his leg. After we —” she cleared her throat, “Well, I would lay there and run my fingers over the spiderweb of scars on his chest. Admiring his human body. How delicate it was.”
Rolf swallowed thickly. The air around him was suddenly too tight, too hot, for him to breathe. His heart thrashed inside his chest, trying to claw its way out. He leaned back, putting space between Adeline and himself.
Adeline continued talking, staring into the distance, “The stairs used to be so painful for him, and despite my size, I am uncannily strong.” She laughed. Quiet puffs of air escaped her rosebud lips, and her whole face softened as unshed tears welled in her eyes. “He would insist that he could climb them himself, and so I’d let him, knowing that he’d make it up the first three and then get so fed up that he’d turn back around and pretend he had forgotten something back in the infirmary. All so he wouldn’t be seen as weak in front of me.”
Rolf’s hand had found its way to his collar, his fingers dipping below the fabric to touch the spiderweb of scars on his shoulder. His tongue rested heavy in his mouth, which suddenly seemed full of sand.
Adeline shook her head as if coming out of a trance. She pressed a hand to her forehead and gave him a self-conscious smile. “Apologies,” she whispered, “I didn’t mean to overshare. You have this inexplicable way about you that makes me want to open up. As a general rule, I try to avoid it. Are you quite well?”
“Yes,” Rolf heard himself say. The world blurred around him, and his raspy voice was distant, even to his ears. “I think I just need some fresh air.”
He dropped his hand and brushed off the seemingly small coincidences. This vampire was messing with his mind. They had certain powers, did they not? Perhaps she was reading his thoughts right now. And if she was, could she tell him what had happened all those years ago?
ChapterSeven
Adeline tracked his fingers as they fiddled with his skin under the collar. He stood up abruptly, his face ashen as if he had seen a ghost. Tempted as she was to follow him, she cursed herself for sharing so much personal information with a man she had just met.
Rolf opened the door, a rush of cold air blowing the air from her face. He stepped onto the porch, and Adeline’s jaw dropped at the wall of white outside. Only a few inches left between the bottom of the roof and the top of the falling snow - easily over five feet had fallen in three days, and still more fell from the sky.
Unprecedented, indeed,she thought—a stranger who looks so similar to Colin.
Immortality was never without its surprises, but there wasn’t much left to shock her anymore.
Except what had transpired the last few days.
Her horse died on the pass - no apparent injuries or issues. The poor creature collapsed underneath her, leaving her to traverse the rest of the mountains by foot, days from civilization.
She lost her way just as a snowstorm came out of thin air.
