Infinite Love

Chapter 20

Amelia

As the first cracks of daylight seep around the heavy curtains I wake with an instant feeling of dread. I can’t move wrapped so tightly in Erik’s arms, his face nuzzled into my hair, a sweet and comforting embrace for anyone but us.

I feel the panic begin to bubble inside of me, how could I be so stupid? The adrenaline of killing those creeps was like a drug and I seem to have lost my mind last night. Giving in to my desires, tasting what I know I can never have.

Not only have I endangered Erik and I but that poor girl who’s still in Damian’s clutches, how could I have been so reckless. If he ever finds out about this he will make us all pay.

Gingerly I work myself free from his grasp, ever so slowly so as not to wake him. I can not face the conversation he would want to have today, the look in his eyes as I crushed him once more, his life is more important to me than my own and I will not risk it just so I can steal another moment of happiness.

I steal just a moment as I sit up and look at him still in a deep and peaceful sleep. His dark lashes fanning over his perfect skin, the hypnotic rise and fall of his chest, he looks so innocent as he slumbers, a contentedness to his aura.

Stealing myself for what I know I must do I reach my hand towards him, to touch him and change his memory of last night. Hesitating before I reach him I can’t make my own hand move any further. It’s frozen in place. What is wrong with me?

His dark lashes begin to flutter open and a lazy smile works its way over his face. I am entranced by him, never have I had the privilege of watching him waken and it hurts my heart just how perfect he is.

Everything inside me is calling for him, to be in his arms again and I know I need to get away from him before he captures me once more and I do or say something there is no coming back from.

Galvanised I speed out of the bed and lock the bathroom door firmly behind me. Putting distance between us helps me to think a little straighter. Stepping into the jets of the shower I let my mind wander and I remember the first time I ever laid eyes on him.

I was only thirteen, my entire family had been slaughtered by the hunters, I had been playing out in the meadow beyond the woods and when I had danced a happy dance home as dusk fell, I could have never imagined the horror waiting for me. I found each of my family and the rest of our coven decimated by the hunters, cold ruthless killings.

Lost, nothing left in the world I had sunk to the floor by my mother’s body. Days may have passed as I lay there in shock and mourning when a strong pair of hands lifted me from the floor. I had looked up into his kind eyes and beautiful face and felt peace.

He had hugged me tight to him and whispered soothing words as he carried me away from the horror. I was vaguely aware of others around us, clearing the body and preparing to give them a proper burial. My broken heart too lost to help.

For days he had stayed by my side with papa, they helped to heal me and stitch me back together. Papa offered me a family and a home and I will be forever grateful for his love. I had idolised Erik from that day forward, he was my heart, my love and I prayed to the goddess every day to make him mine.

Of course he was oblivious to my teenage obsession, he was a grown man, I watched as the older girls fawned over him and it hurt my heart every time he smiled at one or gave them attention that should have been for me.

I let my memory wander to the day he noticed me again for the first time, I was seventeen now and one of the villagers had gone into labour but was in trouble. Even back then he was a healer and they had called on him for help.

He had turned to me with a strange glint in his eyes. “Amelia, you have a way of persuading people to your will, influencing their emotions, will you come and aid me?”

My heart had sung and of course I agreed, we had worked tirelessly for hours, covered in blood and all sorts but I had followed his instructions and helped to keep the mother calm while he worked and we safely delivered a breech baby and saved her mother. The look of pride on his face afterwards meant more than anything in this world to me.

After that I became his kind of apprentice, I would accompany him and help him and our bond grew. His smiles lighting up my life and I would hang on his every word. I lived for every moment I got to spend with him.

Then the most magical thing happened I began to catch him watching me, there was a look in his eyes, something akin to what I believed was in my own but I never dared to hope. Until that day, we had been called to a particularly challenging birth. We had worked for hours and hours. Blood was everywhere and it looked like we would loose one or both many times but by some miracle we saved them.

Pure joy had been running through us and I remember the look on his face as he suggested we should go to the river and wash off before making the way home, so covered were we.

Although I should have been exhausted I practically skipped there with Erik in hot pursuit. He had been gentlemanly as he turned his back so I could get undressed but I watched him, hoping against all hope that he would peek. My heart nearly burst when he did. He had asked for me to turn my back once in the water and I did for a moment but I could not deny my own glance back at him and it was glorious. A blush like I had never known crept over my skin at the sight of him.

I had quickly turned away but I knew he had caught me and I felt him getting closer in the water. Something strange took over me, a boldness I had never had before and I turned to face him, he was much closer than I had anticipated and my breasts grazed his body as I did. We both gasped a little and my eyes found his, locked in his energy.

He reached up with a hand fingers grazing my cheek, I had leaned in to his touch, the most perfect thing I had ever felt. His voice sounded pained as he spoke not much above a whisper “Amelia we can’t, I have to fight this, you know what I am”

He could see the hurt that flooded my eyes in that moment of rejection. The pain it caused me and without even a word it changed something in him. I could not face loosing him, I knew I had to find my voice, to persuade him.

“Erik that means nothing to me, I love you, you are everything for me” he had searched my eyes, desperate to be certain of my words, my truth. “Amelia I have loved you since the moment I found you, it has taken everything in me to stay away from you. If you’re unsure in any way you need to say it now, I can’t be without you if there’s even the slightest chance you feel the same”

“I love you, I will love you for the rest of my life” those fateful words that changed the course of both of our lives.