Blood Land by J.R. Lawson (top ten ebook reader TXT) 📖

and choking on the air that immediately filled his lungs, Kale looked out of the hole to see Caldwell walking through the blustering snow as he carried Nora away.

In no time at all, Kale was out of the hole and powerfully flying towards Caldwell.  The two of them instantly tumbled into the snow once he forcefully hit him, Nora getting tossed inadvertently to the ground nearby.  She looked up to see the two of them fighting.  It was hard to see amongst the snow and even harder to distinguish two hellions from one another when they’re entangled in a brawl.  Also, Nora had recognized that she felt extremely weak.  She was freezing and shivering madly but almost felt too tired to move as she watched the fight.  She finally decided to lie down and hugged her knees to her chest, attempting to stay as warm as she could.  It was then also that Kale and Caldwell’s fight had come to a stop.  Nora had looked up just in time to see Kale snap Caldwell’s neck, then let go of his head and the giant hellion’s body fell limp into the snow.  Then the hellion victor, Kale, approached the pitiful and shivering Nora.

“Nora,” Kale said as he kneeled beside her. He then brought her up so that she was now sitting up and looking at him.

“K-Kale….” Nora shivered, “I’m s-so c-c-cold…”

“I know,” Kale spoke.  Nora thought she detected a slight shiver from him as well. “We just need to get you warm.”  He then proceeded to bring her closer to him, his arms wrapping around her and then, even further, wrapping his enormous wings around the two of them as well.

Nora was starting to feel a little warmer, she thought, but she wasn’t sure, however her shivering was starting to cease. “K-kale?” she stuttered.

“Yeah?” Kale answered.

“I-I’m so g-glad you’re alive…”

Kale just looked down at Nora whose face was looking back up at him. She had a soft and genuine smile on her face and what looked like tears in her eyes. “You too,” he then responded with a small smile as well.

Nora kept looking up at Kale’s face.  It was odd, but at that moment she knew she was looking into the face of a hellion beast and for some odd reason, for a second or two, she had almost forgotten that.  She just knew she was looking at Kale and Kale only.   Suddenly that hellion form that he was currently in didn’t bother her at all.  That unexpected realization made her happy.  So happy in fact, that she felt sleepy.

“I-I mean it, Kale,” Nora continued, trying to shake her tiredness, “When I thought y-you were d-dead…I…” she stopped as she got choked up for a second.

“Hey, stop that,” Kale then demanded, “Look at me.  I’m o.k.  I’m not dead.  I’m here.”

Nora nodded. “But, how did you get away?” she then asked.

“Caroline,” Kale just stated, “She let me get away.  She couldn’t go through with it.  She’s helping us now.”

Nora definitely wanted to question this more, but she was fighting so hard to stay awake, she almost felt like she couldn’t anymore. “K-kale…” she then said.

“Yeah?”

“I…I’m so tired….really sleepy….”

Kale now looked at her with a very piercing expression.  “No, you can’t fall asleep o.k.?”

“B-but…I’m so sleepy….”

“I’m serious Nora, don’t.”

“I…I just….c-can’t…..” Nora didn’t finish her sentence; she just couldn’t hold her head up anymore.  She drifted off without any warning despite her best efforts.

“Nora?” Kale suddenly acknowledged as he noticed her head droop.  “Nora?!” he now spoke more frantic.  He shook her a bit as he held her in his arms in an attempt to wake her.  “Nora!!” he now screamed.  “No, you have to wake up!  Nora, wake up damn it!”  However it was no use. Nora wasn’t waking up.  Kale could hear it; her heart beating, deep inside his hellion ears, however it was faint…and slow.  She was fading fast and he knew he was close to losing her.  He looked around him with panic in his eyes.  Where was Caroline?  Why hadn’t she met up with them yet?  Could she not find them in this snow?  He then noticed even more horrifyingly that the snow and wind was starting to pick up.  It was really blowing around them now and getting colder by the second.  At this rate, neither of them would last much longer.

All of a sudden, a loud scream was heard amidst the blowing wind that made Kale’s heart skip a beat. “Kale?!” the voice shouted.

“Over here!!!” Kale attempted to scream as loud has he possibly could.  It wasn’t as thunderous as he would have intended, though, because like it or not, he was feeling the effects of the cold from being in that icy lake as well.

Finally, a figure emerged through the white that surrounded them and to Kale’s relief it was Caroline.  She was in her human form, even though it was night, and she wore a huge coat with a scarf and mittens. “Kale!  Come on, I’ll take you to the house!” She shouted at him amongst the loud wind around them.

“Take her!” Kale yelled back as he then opened his large wings to reveal that he was cradling Nora close to him.

Caroline just looked down at Nora and then back up at Kale.  “No, both of you!” she responded.

“Caroline, she’s out. She’s unconscious!  You have to take her with you!  I can barely move and you can’t carry both of us!  Take her with you first!  Please!”

“Kale…” Caroline tried to argue.

“Take her!!” Kale repeated forcefully, “Please, Caroline she’s dying!”

“You both are!  What happens when I take her and you die out here?  I can’t leave you!  Besides, she’ll never make it if you die, remember?!”

Kale then shook his head. “No, she’ll be o.k.  She’s shares the Vinculum with someone else!”

Caroline looked shocked. “What?!” she surprisingly asked.

“Another vampire has healed her!  Her foot!  The cut on her foot I had healed by another vampire.  One she knows!”

Caroline didn’t know what to say.  She just stood there shockingly for a few seconds until Kale shouted at her again, snapping her out of it, “Caroline!  Just take her!  Please!!” he begged.

Caroline could see the fear in Kale’s eyes and that alone seemed to frighten her as well.  So, without any more arguing, she took Nora from Kale’s arms.  Kale, as if in reflex, relaxed and almost collapsed amidst the snow.

“I’m coming back for you!” Caroline then screamed at Kale, “You hang in there, you hear me?  ‘Cause I’m coming back for you!”

Kale just nodded. “Just go.” He said this in a very weak, almost soft tone.  Caroline almost didn’t hear it.  However, she nodded in response and then, cradling Nora in her arms, took off running in the opposite direction a ways until Kale couldn’t see either of them anymore.  He sighed with somewhat relief as he had a sudden faith that Nora was going to be alright.  He also realized how tired he was, especially after everything that had just happened.  It was then that he found his body almost laying itself down in the snow.  He looked up at the slight blizzard falling all around and on him as he then realized how heavy his eyelids felt as well as they slowly began to close.

CHAPTER 37

 IT WAS THE next morning when Kale finally awoke to find himself in a room in a new house.  He still didn’t feel one hundred percent, but he felt well enough to get out of bed and attempt to find Caroline and find out how Nora was doing.  As he exited his room, he headed down the small set of stairs to his left and soon found himself in the living area downstairs.  He looked around at the small cottage style house that Caroline had.  It was a nice cozy place, definitely enough for one person, however, maybe a little cramped for three.

“Hey, there, sleep o.k.?” Caroline now spoke up from behind Kale, causing him to abruptly turn to her direction. “Couldn’t take a minute to put a shirt on?” she then playfully bantered as she eyed his shirtless appearance.  Kale looked down at himself as well, noticing also that his black jeans he had been wearing were pretty ragged and torn as well.  He sighed. “I wanted to check on Nora,” he stated.

Caroline smiled and nodded. “Well, she’s still sleeping.”

“Is she o.k.?” Kale asked.

“She’s fine.  Still getting her strength back.  Takes her a little longer to recover from hypothermia than it takes you…” she finished her sentence with another smirk.

Kale nodded and a smile peeked its way across his face as well. “Yeah, well I still wanna see how she’s doing.”

“Wait, Kale,” Caroline then said, causing him to give her extra attention.

“Yeah?”

“Can I talk to you about something before Nora wakes up?”

“What is it?”

“It’s about…her foot.  You know, the one that you said was healed by someone else…” Caroline then took a seat on the couch.  Kale could sense that she wanted him to join her so he sighed and reluctantly shadowed her.

“What do you want to know?” He paused to ask.

“Why did you have someone heal her foot?  And who was it?  And why doesn’t she know about it?” Caroline’s voice seemed slightly agitated.

“What is this, some kind of fucking interrogation?” Kale then reciprocated.

“Why are you keeping this from her, Kale?” Caroline directly asked him.

Kale sighed again. “Look, I just did it as a precaution.  That’s all.”

“A precaution for what?”

“In case…” Kale paused before continuing as he looked at Caroline’s face. “In case I can’t beat Dagon.  In case he kills me.”

There was silence between them for what seemed like a long while but in actuality was probably just a matter of minutes.  Finally Caroline responded. “So, you had some other vampire heal her?  Form a Vinculum with her?  So what…do you plan on sacrificing yourself or something foolish?!”

“No, no I don’t!” Kale raised his voice. “I just wanted to be sure Nora was taken care of…could make it…if I didn’t.  That’s all.  I realized the night she got her foot hurt that I alone can’t protect her.  I’d like to, but I can’t.  That’s just the reality of it.  And if I can’t ultimately beat Dagon, and I don’t walk away from this, I want her to have another option.  With someone else.  So she doesn’t have to be attached to Dagon and trapped.  And it wasn’t some random vampire that healed her, by the way.  It was her best friend’s mother who did it.  They’re close to one another.”

Caroline heaved a small sigh after Kale’s small speech.  “Well, that still doesn’t beg the question as to why you haven’t told her this.”

“Because, you know how she is, she’ll get all worried about me and not worry about herself.  She’ll be so concerned with the fact that I might do something reckless and die that she won’t be able to protect herself.  And I can’t have her do that.”

“So you’re lying to her?”

“For now, yes.”

“So you do eventually plan to tell her? When?”

“When I feel the time is right.”

“Kale!” Caroline now shouted, “You can’t just do this!  It’s not fair to her!  She should know that she has another way out if things go bad!  When do you think the ‘right