Shattered Souls Chapter 9
Ophelia Kee
Shattered Souls Chapter 9
Killing Danika Klein
Rorik, Early Morning, April 20, 2016
Danika swayed, drunk on the magic of a consumed immortal life coin. She could keep it. Rorik wanted her to have the coin the same way he wanted her to have half of his soul. Besides, she would need it when he took her coins from her.
What Zanzar demanded was brutally painful. Danika would never be the same. It was a better alternative to sacrificing Danika for the Ironwood Forest.
But Rorik needed to be sure she wanted him the way Salvatore believed, or he might still choose to seek Kharon Thanatos. He had to hear her speak the words.
“Rorik, why? I love you. Why would you choose death?”
Danika stared at him. Wasn’t it obvious? Magic-drunk and confused, Danika deserved an explanation.
“You always mattered more, and you’ll always matter more. You are everything. Next to you, I’m worthless. I never understood how powerful being worthless could make a man. Wait. Did you say you love me?”
Giggling drunk laughter tinkled into the ancient stone chamber. Rorik smiled. She was beyond adorable.
“I know. The pitiful, sick girl shouldn’t fall for her nurse.”
She swayed on her feet and frowned at him.
“I thought we sorted it out when we made love. Did you lie when you said you wanted more?”
He pulled her close so he could smell the scent of cherry blossoms from her long, black hair. He kissed her head.
“Aaah, Danika, I spoke the purest truth I’ve ever known. I wanted more. I wanted forever.”
He stroked her hair as she snuggled into his chest and sighed. He missed holding her close. Sinclair was right. Leaving her behind had been a mistake.
“Oh good, because I would feel stupid.”
She hiccupped and giggled in his arms. Rorik liked her, off-kilter and drunk. He pulled back and smiled at her as he looked into her eyes. Her bright soul shined from behind her eyes.
“Are you sure? I’m guessing Salvatore convinced you. Did he tell you how it worked? It’s painful.”
“Yeah, the cute vampire explained it all. I have to die, but I won’t feel it. I swallowed your coin. It will be you who feels it.”
Rorik should thank Salvatore. Danika had been through enough. Rorik could bear any torment to save her from suffering. He merely needed to detach.
He might kill Salvatore later. If Rorik learned the damn ‘cute’ vampire charmed Danika, Salvatore could die a few times. Danika wasn’t a kiss dark girl for fun once. She was everything.
“He didn’t touch you, did he?”
A black jealous rage almost brought his weapons and armor from the dream. Danika belonged to him. No one touched her.
“No silly. I was sad and lonely. You know all your friends are fine. You shouldn’t have left me alone. Why I decided I needed a brooding loner, I don’t know. But my heart wants only you, Rorik. Don’t be jealous.”
Rorik kissed her softly. She was perfect. He could listen to her soft voice telling him he was the one for her forever. But he needed to know everything.
Zanzar gave him a loophole to exploit, but why?
“How did you get here?”
“Sinclair got upset. He wrote a letter to Zanzar. Zanzar ordered Salvatore to fetch me. Salvatore said he thought I should know the truth. He swore you loved me, and wanted to know if I loved you the same way.”
Surprise warred with betrayal when he learned Sinclair sided against Asylum, but Danika, wearing a sexy red dress in his arms, talking in her soft voice, wove a spell of sexual haze over him. Maybe he could learn the rest later.
Rorik let his hand caress her face, slide down to her shoulder and slip over her bare arm. She was soft and beautiful. Sensual desire snaked through him. She sighed at his touch, clutching his arms.
He loved her. He wanted her. Rorik wanted to make her his draugakona. He asked her the ritual question.
“Will you consent to be my draugakona?”
Salvatore must have coached her.
“Only if you promise to be my draugamaður.”
He picked her up and set her upon the sacrificial block as he kissed her. He moved her into position and climbed onto the block with her. Rorik positioned her the way the outline etched into the stone demanded.
Two lovers lying atop the block ignited the magic. Rorik and Danika had been intimate. The magic always knew, and it held Danika in place.
Rorik rose above her and looked down into her eyes. He could see her bright, tainted soul. Loving her until their souls merged into one had to wait.
He could change everything. But he had to end all threats against her first. The only way was to end her mortal life.
That she demanded it of him made it possible. Zanzar knew Rorik understood how the ritual worked.
The silver dagger in his hand moved to do its work almost of its own volition. Rorik detached his mind from himself.
He watched as his hand plunged the dagger into her heart.
Rorik stood outside his flesh. He made himself watch, even though he wanted to turn away.
His body suffered from the pain hers felt. His left hand clutched at his chest, but his heart didn’t bleed.
Rorik’s mind registered it, but just as he’d felt nothing when the Vættir Council stripped him of his flesh until later, he felt nothing as his right hand convulsed and pulled the dagger free.
If it all worked, he could recover his sanity later. He knew how to do it.
Danika smiled as the light in her eyes dimmed. He’d given her what she wanted. He hoped her courage held out until she breathed again.
Before her last exhalation, his hand opened and dropped the dagger to the floor as the pain of killing the only woman he loved paralyzed the man.
Rorik was a draugr. His mind could move without his body. His soul held his magic, and he used it to reach into her eyes. He ripped her soul from her body before it could take flight to the Underworld.
The blood from her chest wound dripped into the liquid ice. Heedless of it, Rorik dunked Danika’s soul into the frigid contents. When he pulled it out, her soul had frozen solid. It appeared like glass.
Most of her soul had frozen with a silvery sheen. But several sections glittered like a rainbow. Infinity.
Rorik picked up the copper hammer and placed her frozen soul on the pedestal. His magic locked it in place. With all the force a giant can bring to bear, he swung the hammer and smashed Danika Klein’s soul.
Like glass, it shattered. All except the rainbow portions. Spirit magic ensured it remained perfectly shaped. Rorik picked the rainbow pieces out of the rest.
He guessed how much soul Danika had lost. Maybe he overestimated, but Rorik didn’t want a slave. He wanted a partner.
He ripped a matching piece of his own soul to replace the infinity magic he stole with spirit magic. Agony nearly crumpled him.
His soul breathed, and the pain eased. But it took a long time.
Danika couldn’t be like the ruined husks he’d seen long ago. He needed to hurry, but getting it right mattered more.
Rorik became a true outlaw and enjoyed the feast of souls. He added Danika’s infinite magic to himself, replacing what he’d ripped away to balance her soul’s loss.
What once labeled her an abomination granted an ancient draugr all the magic reserves he needed.
Using infinity to bolster his own magic, Rorik fused Danika’s soul back together. The heat from the fusion caused her soul to melt. Rorik let it drip into her unseeing eyes.
Without her coins, Danika’s soul had nowhere to go except back into her body. Reclaiming his flesh and suffering the effects would be difficult, but killing Danika Klein and shattering her soul hadn’t been as hard as Rorik believed it would be.
Thank you for reading a part of Shattered Souls.
Thank you for your support! Welcome to the dream… Sincerely, -OK
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