Immortal Enemies

By Jessie Lane

More than a thousand years ago, their love burned brighter than the sun.

Now, the only thing that burns is his hatred for the woman he once sacrificed his life to save... and his skin in the daylight.

Arne Eriksson grew up in a time when Vikings ruled the seas. He’d longed for the day he would earn his entrance to Valhalla. A treasured afterlife he’d never see since being turned into a vampire.

The person responsible for making him a monster—the woman he’d once wanted to marry.

Liv Nornsdottir was the outcast of the Viking era. The daughter of the mystical Norns, she hid from the world around her.

All except for one... a boy who grew into the man she came to love.

When he sacrificed himself to protect her, she did the only thing she could think of to save him– she had him turned into a vampire. Something so taboo she knew it would cost her Arne’s affections for all eternity. In the moment, she didn’t think, she reacted.

She’s been running from him ever since.

Lovers turned to immortal enemies.

The problem is... he’s found her.

And Arne is none to happy to learn the woman who damned him to an eternity without glory is also his mate.
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Are you willing to taste immortality?

Come with us and let our vampires glamour you into a world full of dangerous magic, toe-curling heat, and a love to last forever.

The Vampire Mates series by the Midnight Coven contains eleven tales penned by your favorite best-selling paranormal romance authors.

Each novella can be read as a complete standalone, but of course, we hope you’ll bite into them all.

With our Vampire Mates at your side, immortality is sexy AF.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jessie Lane
• Release date: Aug 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463392232

Jessie Lane

Jessie Lane is a best-selling author of Paranormal and Contemporary Romance, as well as, Upper YA Paranormal Romance/Fantasy. She lives in Kentucky with her two crazy teenage daughters and her over protective alpha husband that she's pretty sure is a latent grizzly bear shifter. She has a passionate love for reading and writing naughty romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand your attention, or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to them.Please visit Jessie at: jessielanebooks.com for more information!

Book preview

Part One

Norway 900AD

One

The sun touched the horizon and cast the sky into hues of fire and blood. Night would descend soon, and if I didn’t hurry to finish my tasks, I would be unable to sneak away to see the girl.

Hefting up the bundle of firewood in my arms, I made my way back to our dwelling to give the wood to my mother. It was my job to help her while my father was off seeking riches and glory. Emerging from the edge of the woods, I started my trek in haste to the longhouse we shared with several other families. Drawing closer, the smell of cooked fish filled my nose, making my mouth water. It didn’t matter how hungry I was; there was no time to eat. Not if I was going to catch a glimpse of her.

Running down the jagged and rocky incline, I carefully traversed the terrain so I wouldn’t fall. There was no time to waste, and even something as minor as a trip of my feet could cost me my prize for the day.

Closing in on the place I called home, I took in its familiar features. The roof was curved and shaped like one of the ships my father always sailed away on, only flipped upside down. Small wooden tiles covered the would-be boat’s frame, protecting us in most part from the weather outside. Strong hewn logs made up the outside. Some straight, others slanted, each with its base buried deep in the ground with their tops supporting our roof. Inside, the walls were caked with clay, helping to keep us warm in the winter.

Unfortunately, the clay didn’t let in enough air. Which meant the smell of unwashed bodies often assaulted my senses, driving me back outside into the fresh air. It didn’t matter what the weather was outside, I was there as often as possible. Not only for the fresh air, but because I felt the most comfortable in nature.

Running toward the main entrance of the Jarl’s Hall, a flash of movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention. Running up from the side, just behind me, was a lanky form covered in a light brown tunic and leather leggings. I had but a moment to brace myself, tightening my hold on my cargo before the impact hit me hard in my right side.

Argh! A frustrated scream slipped out of me as I was tackled to the ground.

Once we landed, my body was crushed under the heavier weight.

Refusing to let my cargo go, I tightened my left arm around the wood, and then used my free right hand to push at the person who was now sitting on top of my chest.

Get off me, Ødger!

The Jarl’s son sneered down at me. Or you’ll do what, little bug? Make me?

Oh, how I truly did want to make him do something.

Forcing him off the top of the closest mountain to an agonizing death below was what I wished for the most. Not that I could make that come to happen right now— but that didn’t mean I didn’t hope for it.

Ødger was our Jarl’s oldest son, and therefore the next in line to become Jarl.

The only person more powerful than a Jarl was the King.

Needless to say, King Harald had more important things to do than come down to our village to deal with one entitled, annoying Jarl’s son.

The only person more powerful than a King was a God.

I had prayed to almost all of them many times for the strength or opportunity to put Ødger in his place once and for all.

Despite my many prayers to Odin, I doubted the Allfather of the Gods was going to come riding down from Valhalla on his magical eight-legged horse Sleipnir and drop Ødger off the side of the mountain for me.

Which meant I was stuck with the insufferable older boy until I was mature enough to either move away to a different settling, or strong enough to get rid of him myself. I wouldn’t dare bring shame to my mother and father, but neither would I put up with this horse’s ass any more than I was obligated. Thinking of where I wanted to be most right now, which was not under Ødger, I lost what little patience I had and decided it was time to extract myself from this mess.

Lifting my left leg, I bent at my waist and brought my leg over his head until it was wrapped around the front of his chest, then pulled both it and him, backward. The move took the Jarl’s son’s weight off me as he fell to the side after being unbalanced and pushed off. Not wasting any time for him to recover, I rolled away and got to my feet with my firewood still tucked safely in my arm.

Ødger lay sprawled on his back in the dirt, gawking at me in surprise. His face started to mottle red in anger, and I knew if I didn’t get away now this whole situation was only going to get worse. So, I used the only leverage I had at the moment to finish this fight and hopefully make it so Ødger would leave me alone.

Pitching my voice low, so that only the Jarl’s son would hear what I was about to say, I delivered my verbal blow. You will leave me alone, Ødger. If you do not, I will tell your father when he comes back from a-Viking that it has been you who has been setting the outlying farmers’ buildings on fire. Think of how he would have to discipline his own son for tormenting his people so?

Ødger’s face quickly blanched of all color, but it didn’t take long for his eyes to grow steely in determination. You think to threaten me, Arne Eriksson? Sitting up, he glared at me, doing his best to intimidate me as he slowly rose off the ground. Taking a measured step toward me, he hissed, My father would never believe you.

Without taking my eyes off his face, I saw Ødger’s fists ball up by his sides. His body was tensing, preparing for a fight. The Jarl’s son was four summer’s older than my own ten years, and a head taller. What he had yet to gain in strength compared to the other boys his age, he had made up for in speed, stealth, and deviousness.

That didn’t mean I was going to let him win this fight.

Or any fight, for that matter, if I could help it.

Gathering my courage, I closed the distance between us until I was looking up at Ødger’s face with my own conviction burning in my eyes. Perhaps the Jarl wouldn’t believe me alone, but he would believe what I have to say if there were others who told him what I spoke was true. Others, such as Ulf and Knut Thorvaldsson. The sons of your father’s second in command. They care for you even less than I do. The three of us saw what you did, as well, and if I ask it of them, they will tell Jarl Birger that we watched you from the woods as you set fire to the thrall’s quarters on old Gorm Leifsson’s farm. That fire cost farmer Gorm all but two of his slaves. How happy do you think your father would be to learn it was his own son who did that?

Ødger’s facial features turned downright stony as his eyes squinted back at me in hatred. A smarter boy would have been afraid of that look.

I was not always a smart boy, but I had outwitted the Jarl’s son, for now.

Taking a step back, I kept eye contact with the seething Ødger as I laid down my final verbal taunt. Leave me alone, and your father never has to find out about what you did. Bother me again, and I will make sure it is the first thing he hears once he steps off the boat when he comes home.

With my message sent, I turned on my heel and started to make my way back toward my original destination, the Jarl’s Hall. I could now see my mother was standing in the doorway, warily watching what had been going on between me and the Jarl’s son. Breaking into a jog, I took my bundle of firewood to her. Pasting a reassuring smile on my face, I greeted her as I handed her the logs. The firewood, Mother. If you don’t need anything else from me right now, I’m headed off into the woods to hunt.

Briskly taking the heavy load from me, she cocked her eyebrow and gave me a look. What have I told you about fighting with Ødger?

Doing my best to give her an innocent expression, I shrugged. We were not fighting.

That statement caused both of her eyebrows to shoot clear up to her hairline in surprise. Oh? Nodding her head in the direction I had just come, she tossed back, Right. Because he usually looks so red and angry after you two have finished playing some sort of game.

Sometimes it did not do to have a mother who was almost as smart as the Gods themselves. It often meant I had to explain myself more than I liked to, or my backside would get beat in retaliation.

Refusing to look back in the other boy’s direction, I decided to tell the woman who gave me life what my father often said to her when he was forced to answer a question he did not want to answer.