Their next stop was a barber shop. Sara described to the man the hairstyle she wanted him to have, and less than twenty minutes later, a new person stared back at him in the mirror. Gone was the shaggy hair he was used to and in its place were clean cropped shaved sides with spiked hair at the top. He ran his fingers through it, trying to get used to the wax the barber used to keep it in place, and watched Sara’s reaction.
“What do you think?”
“I like it.” She swallowed, and he could see lust reflected in her eyes. “Time to find you some new clothes.” Again, she was pulling him out of the store and into another one. This shop was huge. You could fit several houses inside and still have room to spare. There were shelves covered with every sort of clothing option a person could image for both men and women. The sheer amount of people and things was overwhelming.
“There is so much.” He knew he must look like a fool, staring around the store and trying to keep his mouth closed, but it was amazing. Sara didn’t seem to notice his discomfort, and he had to remind himself she was used to this. “What happens to everything if no one uses it?”
Sara was pulling several pairs of jeans off the shelves for him but stopped and looked around at his question. “You know, I’ve never really thought about it. What was it like before?”
“People only had a few sets of clothes.” Samuel shrugged and took the pants from her grasp wondering what to do with them. “You purchased fabric from a tradesman and made your own or purchased clothes from a tailor. It wasn’t anything like this.”
Sara added sweaters and undershirts to the pile he was holding and led him to a fitting room. The attendant unlocked the door for them, not batting an eye when Sara went in with him to try on the outfits.
“Try the jeans on first. I grabbed several sizes. We will have to see which of these fit.”
Samuel did as she told him until he wore a pair she was content with. Even though he was undressed, she was all business and didn't look twice at him. It disconcerted him. He enjoyed it when she gazed at him with lust in her eyes.
Several changes of clothes later, half of what she picked out laying in the discard pile and the other half neatly folded for them to purchase, she told him to change back into his original clothes. Before he dressed, he pushed her against the wall and leaned down, covering her mouth with his.
The sweetness of her lips called to him, and he swore she tasted like strawberries. Sara’s arms came up around his shoulders, and her hands curled around the back of his neck as he pressed into her. He wanted to make sure he affected her the same way she affected him.
The fire burned through his skin where she touched him, and he yearned to have her squirming underneath him again, crying out her pleasure before collapsing sated and soft against him. His member tugged at his underwear, wanting to be free, to plunge inside of her and find ecstasy in her embrace.
Samuel’s hand wandered below the hem of her shirt and up her stomach to cup her breast as he deepened their kiss until she whimpered in pleasure. Sara turned her head to the side, and he started down her neck, nibbling the soft sweet skin under her earlobe.
“Samuel,” she groaned while pushing weakly on his shoulders. “We’re in public, someone will hear us.”
“No one else is here. We’ll be fine.” He continued his tasting of her skin, working his way down her collarbone as his hand snaked under her bra and his thumb played with her hardening nipple.
“Excuse me, do you need any help?” A voice came from the other side of the door and his head whipped around with a low and menacing growl. He couldn’t believe someone would interrupt him while he was with the succulent creature wrapped in his arms.
“We’re fine,” Sara called out loud, pushing him away with a gentle shove as he tried to get himself under control. “We’ll be right out.” She gave him a stern glare and pointed to his clothes. Reluctantly, he donned the outfit he wore into the store while Sara gathered up the two piles of clothes, one to return to the sales girl and the other to check out with. He nodded for her to go ahead while he leaned against the wall and took a deep breath, giving himself time to calm down.
23. SARA
Sara sat back in a patio chair and pretended to look at the menu in her hands while watching the man sitting across from her. Samuel looked like a different person. With his haircut and the new clothes he put on after leaving one of the several stores they visited earlier, he looked like he had just walked out of any male fashion billboard hanging in the mall.
He was pouring over the menu laying open on the table in front of him and flipping through the massive number of pages. “How do you decide?”
“I open to a random page and pick whatever my finger lands on,” she laughed and looked back at her menu, choosing an indiscriminate dish. She wasn’t a picky eater and enjoyed most foods she tried. “Save room for cheesecake. It’s one of their signature desserts.”
Sara folded the menu and picked up a piece of bread from the basket in the middle of the table. After adding a decent amount of butter, she picked at it while watching the people passing them by. There was something that had been bothering her all day, but she couldn’t put her finger on precisely what it was.
At the table next to them, two women sat drinking cocktails with their heads close together. They were staring at her and Samuel, giggling between sips and whispers. Several women walked by in a group, pushing their small children in strollers, and also watching Samuel as they passed.
“Have you noticed that everyone stares at you?”
Samuel looked up from the menu and around the area, his expression unconcerned. “I just ignore it.”
“But why do they stare?” Sara pressed.
“Animal magnetism?” He shrugged, but a large smile spread across his face, revealing the most adorable dimples on each cheek.
Sara rolled her eyes and was about to reply when the waitress came up to take their order. She spoke to Samuel, twirling a strand of blonde hair around her finger while giving him the sultriest gaze Sara assumed she could muster. The waitress ignored her.
Sara made a ‘my point exactly’ motion towards the waitress, and Samuel smirked in reply. He directed the lady to take Sara’s order first. As she was about to open her mouth to order, all the hairs on the back of her neck rose, and she shivered as if a malevolent gaze had fallen on her.
Frowning, Sara looked around the restaurant and the outdoor area but saw nothing that would raise such alarm. After shaking the feeling off, she gave the waitress her order and Samuel did likewise, politely sending the lady away.
“What’s wrong?” He frowned and looked around the area as well, to see if he could spot what she was looking for.
“It’s probably nothing,” she shivered again and rubbed her arms, hunching down in her chair, and continued. “I feel like someone is watching me, but I don’t see anyone. I'm sure it’s simply my imagination.”
Samuel narrowed his eyes and took another look around the room, slower this time and with a look of concentration on his face but shrugged when he came back with the same result. “Let me know if the feeling doesn’t go away.”
The server brought their meals, and they ate, chattering about their interests. Samuel kept trying to tell her stories of his past but always kept stopping, looking around them self-consciously to see if anyone was listening in. After a while, he settled on telling her about everyday things that other people listening in couldn't trace to a time period.
They finished their meal, and the waitress placed the bill on the table, still pointedly ignoring Sara. Her cold shoulder amused her since she was the one paying but, since she had worked in food service throughout college, it wasn’t in her to leave a lousy tip.
Sara pulled out her phone to check if Ash had messaged her and to see what time it was.
“What is that? I’ve seen commercials for them, but usually, they just say you need to buy it at the end. They don’t really explain what it does. You use it a lot.” Samuel
was watching her with interest as he stood up.
“It’s a phone. You use it to contact people or research things on the internet,” she grinned up at him as he held out a hand to help her stand. Taking his hand, she continued, “Who am I kidding? You play games and look at cat videos on it.”
“Can I see it?”
Sara unlocked her screen and handed him the device. “We should get you one just in case you need to contact me, and we aren’t together.”
“I would never leave your side.” He swiped his finger across the screen, watching the changes with concentration while she looked around his arm to make sure he wasn’t accidentally calling anyone. Samuel was thoroughly engrossed with the phone while she guided him out of the restaurant.
“That’s sweet, but I’m sure you will want to explore your new freedom.” Sara walked to the mall directory and mumbled while searching through the list of stores. "It looks like my provider has a store in this mall. Let’s go see what we can find."
Several hours later they walked out of the cell phone store with a new device resting securely in the back pocket of Samuel’s jeans. Sara programmed her and Ash’s phone number into his contacts list. She would show him how to use the phone once they got home.
They were almost to her car when the creeping sensation ran down her spine again. She had nearly forgotten it while they were in the mall but now it came back in full force. Sara shivered, rubbing her hands over her arms, and looked around. Again, she saw nothing as she examined the parked cars in the waning daylight.
Samuel, sensing her unease, wrapped his arms around her and looked over the parking lot as well. He made no indication he saw anything, but he stiffened slightly. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He looked down at her and smiled, raising his hand to her cheek and rubbing it with the soft part of his thumb. “Nothing is wrong. I want you to know, were something wrong, I would protect you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Sara blushed and, even though the creeping feeling didn’t dissipate, she felt better. She felt safe with Samuel and trusted that he would keep his word.
24. SAMUEL
Sara opened the door, looking at him over her shoulder as he carried most of the packages into the house. The rest he would retrieve later. Placing the bags in the hallway next to the office entrance, Samuel noticed a suitcase packed and parked next to the front door. He assumed the luggage belonged to Ash and remembered Sara saying something about her only staying two nights.
Had it really been less than twenty-four hours since the others freed him? Samuel wandered into the kitchen to say hello. When Ash saw him, her eyes grew wide, and she grinned at Sara, elbowing her with a smirk.
“Shut up.” Sara grinned back at her before walking to the refrigerator and opening the door. She searched through the content but seemed dissatisfied with what she saw. Samuel sat on one of the barstools where Ash had been working earlier and examined her bounty. She had packaged all the coins in individual small plastic pockets with descriptive tags hanging from them.
“You’ve been busy.” Samuel thumbed through the different packages, picking up a few of the coins and smiling at them with fondness. These specific coins had no sentimental value to him, but they invoked nostalgic memories.
“So have you.” Ash gave him one last look before turning to Sara. “Do you want to cook?”
“Not particularly,” she grinned at her friend and grabbed her phone. “Pizza?”
“Fine, but if you’re going to eat that pineapple and ham crap, get your own.” Sara stuck her tongue out at Ash in reply and took the credit card her friend handed her to make the order. “My treat, since you’re letting me walk away with almost a million dollars’ worth of coins.”
“Speaking of,” she turned to Samuel and gave him a winning smile, “Would you mind terribly if I were to keep one?”
He didn’t mind. In fact, he couldn't care less if Ash took the lot of them. Once he finished his business here, earning funds in this new world would be as easy for him as it had been in the last. Samuel wondered if his stash was still undiscovered. If this small cache impressed Ash, she would have a heart attack if she saw his horde. Musing about how he could get away to check his den, he caught Sara watching him from the corner of his eye.
Her look held a certain amount of affection but also a healthy dash of skepticism and apprehension. So far, Samuel had managed to put off her questions by claiming they were in public or distracting her while they were in private but he knew the time for explanations was coming. He felt a deep dread in the idea of having to share what he was with her but held the smallest sliver of hope she wouldn’t run away screaming.
Sara hung up the phone and rejoined them, giving Ash her credit card back.
“I don’t mind if Sara doesn’t mind,” he replied to Ash, looking to Sara for confirmation. She shrugged in response. “I have one favor to ask though.”
Ash narrowed her eyes in suspicion, and he didn’t blame her. “What?”
“There is a mirror I found in the cellar I would like you to take with you when you leave. I understand you live on the other side of the country?”
Ash nodded. “Go on. Why wouldn’t you take the mirror to Greg and Nicole at the antique shop?”
“When you get home, I want you to take the mirror and toss it in the ocean. I don’t trust them, I believe they will try to use the mirror, and that is a bad idea.”
Sara’s eyebrows snapped together as she glanced at the two of them, her eyes darting from one to the other. “You aren’t giving her something dangerous, are you? I remember you said a bunch of the stuff down there could be potentially lethal.”
Ash’s look mimicked Sara’s as she crossed her arms over her chest and regarded him. “Is it magic?”
“Look who suddenly believes in magic!” Samuel laughed, but it did nothing to lighten the mood in the room. Instead, he gave the women a winning smile, flashing his dimples again though neither of them seemed impressed with the display.
“How else would a man who is at least three hundred years old be sitting in front of us in the flesh instead of bones?” Ash replied sarcastically, tilting her head to the side. “Out with it.”
“Fine. The mirror itself isn’t dangerous. It’s merely a regular hand mirror.” Samuel rubbed the back of his neck and looked to the side. “It’s what the mirror has trapped inside that’s dangerous. The longer it stays close to Sara the more trouble it can cause, and I’d really like to prevent that.”
Ash’s head snapped to the side, and she watched Sara, her arms unfolding. Samuel could see the absolute love and protective instinct reflected for her best friend in her eyes. “It can hurt Sara?”
“It can and will. The entity in the mirror will take a perverse pleasure in doing so as well.”
“Ash, no. I won’t let you risk yourself because something may want to hurt me. It’s not fair of him to use that as leverage.” Sara was speaking to her friend, but the look she leveled at him could freeze water in the desert.
“I’ll secure it well. Ash won’t even need to look at what is inside the package. She can just toss it over a cliff and forget about it.” Samuel felt horrible for manipulating Ash this way, but he couldn’t trust Greg and Nicole. He needed to get the package as far away from Sara as he possibly could before someone released Morena to cause havoc in the world.
“Fine, but I don’t have any room in my luggage. We’ll have to ship it through the post, and I can take care of it when I get home.”
Samuel nodded in agreement. “We’ll send it out right before you leave Boston so it will arrive around the same time you do.” He held out his hand to her, and she reluctantly took it, giving him a firm handshake like he’d seen in the movies. Deals were always sealed with a handshake.
Ash and Sara were sharing a look with one another, and he swore they were talking without words. He wondered if they were telepaths, or maybe they had been together for so long they knew what the other was
thinking. The doorbell, and a furiously barking Chico interrupted their conversation. The crazy dog had an ingrained hatred for delivery people.
Ash went to retrieve the pizza as Sara pulled paper plates out of the cupboard. She watched him when she didn’t think he was looking. However, she didn’t shy away when she walked past him, and he reached out, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her close.
“I know how much you love Ash, I can see it in every interaction you two have with one another. I would never do anything that would harm her.” Sara’s face softened, and she nodded. Samuel placed a kiss on the tip of her nose causing her to laugh and smack him playfully with the paper plates before moving to the living room.
After a companionable dinner, Ash took her leave, a ride service coming to pick her and her belongings up from the house. She and Sara spent several tear-filled minutes saying goodbye as the driver honked outside, threatening to leave. Over Sara’s shoulder, Ash sent him one last look that said ‘take care of her or else’ and grabbed her suitcase, wheeling it from the house.
Samuel pulled Sara into his arms and dried her tears with the soft sleeve of his sweater, whispering, “Don’t cry Sweet, we can see her in Boston before she goes home.”
“I miss her so much when we aren’t together. If it weren’t for that asshole, Jeremy, we’d live in the same city.” She let out a deep breath, almost defeated. It played with his mind, he couldn’t stand having her upset.
“Why does some guy dictate where you live?”
“Because,” she explained while pulling away and locking the front door. “I can disappear into the world, and no one can find me. But Ash? She has a reputation and a career that is built upon people knowing who and where she is. Dealers come from across the country to work with her. If we lived in the same city, it would be a matter of days before that bastard tracked me down. And, one day, he may just finish what he started when he set my apartment on fire.”
Demon in Salem Page 11
