by Marta Szemik
* * *
I opened my bleary eyes and stared at the blurred colors of what I recognized as the Tiffany lamp in my bedroom. My head no longer throbbed. I listened to my pulse as the heart in my chest thumped—my heart, as strong and vibrant as if I’d fed on ten mountain lions. I focused on my arm and the purple bruise on the bend of the elbow. A similar bruise was on my other arm. I sniffed the air.
“William?”
“Stay still.” He touched my shoulder.
I lowered my head back to the pillow. It felt so heavy it would sink between the feathers. I turned to the left to see William at my side, though he and almost everything else was still hazy. There was a fresh scar on his upper lip and another one on his brow. “What happened?”
“Nothing to worry about. It’s all been taken care of.”
I tried to remember what had happened at the prison, but nothing made sense. Had I been dreaming? Because lying here in my bed with William at my side seemed too good to be true. I expected to be dead. But the bruises on my arms wouldn’t lie. William had saved me somehow.
“They were all tied up. And drugged. Crystal and Ayer and your parents. Mira and Xander. They were all . . .” My pulse sped as if I’d run from here to Pinedale.
“Sarah, calm down. It was an illusion. He didn’t want you to have any hope.” He placed a wet cloth on my forehead. The coolness liberated the pulsing inside.
William’s soft words sounded like a fairy tale. Was I dead? He took my hand into his, the touch rejuvenating me.
“Illusion? You weren’t in the viewing room?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I was in the execution room, with you.”
“What?” I tried to remember, but my faint memory only provided me with the vampire who stood at my feet, waiting to use the saw to kill me, and the other demon. “I’d have smelled you.”
“No. You were drugged. And I ate so much garlic with peppermint leaves, it emanated from my pores. It’s a good thing the warden’s sense of smell was nonexistent.” William swooshed his tongue in his mouth, making a face as if he’d just eaten dirt.
“Was?” I perked up.
“He’s gone. He’ll never hurt anyone again.”
Never say never. My quick thought evaporated as the pounding in my head began all over. “How?” I asked.
“We knew his plan. Crystal and Ayer had known about his scheming for some time now. They’ve been the only ones aware of his presence, even more so than his own brother, Aseret.”
“They couldn’t tell us?” I massaged my temples.
William pulled open a drawer beside the bed. “Here. Codeine. It should help.” He handed me two pills.
“Thank you.” I dipped my head back, swallowing them without water.
“If the warden sensed any kind of trouble, he’d flee. Finding him would have been more difficult than defeating Aseret. He was the smarter brother and would never give us the opportunity Aseret had given us. It’d be impossible to kill him. We had to trick the warden. The children had to send me away whenever he came close. In the clearing, when Aseret took his body, they couldn’t risk him seeing me up close, even through Aseret’s eyes. Otherwise we would never be able to infiltrate his prison. I’ve been working there for months now.”
“Months? And I didn’t know about it?”
“I’m sorry.” He lowered his head. “It was necessary at the time. I’d been instructed to keep it a secret so that our plan would work.”
My head still hurt. “And it worked? What day is it?”
William shook his head. “Relax, sweetheart. It’s been five days. The warden kept his business under lock and key, like his prisoners. And his planning and communications were more modern, unlike Aseret’s. Most of his dealings happened online.”
I had an insight. “Your iPad?”
“Yes, I was tracking him. With the twins’ help, we were able to devise a plan to destroy him. Something he’d never suspect.” He tapped his finger on the tablet in his lap.
“Did it have to come so close to me being dead?” I complained.
“He needed your soul. He wouldn’t show his true form unless there was a chance you’d be dead. It was the only way to make him transform into his demon form, something he had to do to take your essence away.”
A memory of Lucifer flashed in my mind, but the pain in my head took it away too quickly.
“Did he transform?” I asked.
“Yes.”
A vision of the warden’s soul zoomed through my mind, and I closed my eyes. Something about the mention of his soul stroke a chord inside me, but I couldn’t remember. My head throbbed.
“His soul. Has it been destroyed?”
“No.” William shook his head. “Mrs. G and Xela tried to find it, but somehow his spirit flew away from the prison too fast. And you were weak. Eric and the twins vortexed us back home.”
“So everyone is okay?” I asked.
“As well as they can be, yes.”
He was hedging. His heartbeat remained steady, but his delivery came too quickly, too smoothly; he had to have practiced what he’d say when I asked about my family.
I sat up. “You’re hiding something.”
“We’ll go see the others, but only if you’re feeling up to it.”
“I feel fine. Stronger than I should be.” I licked my lips, tasting the residue of the blood they must have fed me. Its iron tang covered the inside of my mouth. It sated me more than any other animal’s blood had in the past. Something between a baboon and perhaps an orangutan . . . But I was sure it was a different mammal.
Xander knocked on the door before peeking into our room. “William, it’s time.”
“Let me help you.” William put a supporting hand under my arm.
“Time for what?” I asked.
“If I tell you, you’ll panic. You need to see; it’s better this way.” He helped me off the bed, and I slipped my feet into the warmed slippers.
“What is?”
My heart raced. The thumping in my chest increased as I stepped out of our bedroom into the living room of our cabin. On my left, Mira sat in Eric’s lap on the arm chair, checking his bandaged neck. The red spots on the white fabric reminded me of an albino fly agaric mushroom. Mira’s face told me not to ask. I was more curious about the woman sitting on the couch beside Xander anyway.
“This is the real Xela.” Xander took her elbow, beaming with pride, as if he were presenting his bride.
Xela smiled with her original face, a genuine smile in a genuine face. She appeared younger in person. Life radiated from her, mostly toward Xander. The same black curls tumbled down her back and chest, a full chest in a tank top small enough to fit my daughter.
I looked to Crystal, absorbed in flipping through Mrs. G’s medicine notebook. Her eyes scanned each page, as if she were memorizing one after another. She wore a tank top that was, thankfully, right for her size. Ayer touched her shoulder, and I thought I saw words flow from Crystal’s arm through to Ayer’s hand. The mesh of black print travelled along their skin so quickly only they could read it.
You’re all right, Mama, I heard them whisper in my head.
Everything will be all right now, Crystal added, trying to soothe my feelings without touching me. It worked.
Atram sat on a corner of a bed that must have been dragged in from another room. On it, Willow lay on her side, her eyes closed, her skin pale. I rushed to her side, almost tripping in my haste. William caught me and helped me sit at her feet.
“She’ll be up soon,” my father-in-law whispered.
“Her heart isn’t beating,” I blurted, my voice high with panic as I touched her cold knee. That’s when I saw a puncture on her wrist which dangled off the side of the bed.
Atram picked up her hand and set it on the mattress.
“She’s not human?” I asked.
“No,” Atram said calmly. “A vampire. Still learning to adjust.”
“How?” I asked, then I saw a dark dro
p, the size of a pinhead, on her hand. I leaned forward and took a whiff, detecting the same iron tang I’d had in my mouth. “You let me drink from Willow? I killed her?”
“No, she’s alive.” Atram smiled. “Well, not the kind of alive you were used to, but she’ll be with us for a long time.”
I stood and swayed on my feet. William supported me as I stared at the faint smear of blood on her chin from a recent feed. How could they allow me to take a life? My insides twisted, and I fought against the urge to throw up my recent meal. My first human kill was my mother-in-law.
“She saved your life. You’d lost too much blood in the prison,” Atram explained.
“You let me feed on Willow?” I repeated.
“You would have died, Sarah. And human blood is still more potent than any serum we could invent,” William whispered in my ear.
I couldn’t stop looking at Willow’s pale skin. I blinked as my sight hazed and the room spun. William pushed an ottoman under my knees and I sat. “What happened? I saw everyone behind the mirror.”
“It was merely a magical illusion,” my husband reminded me.
“You weren’t there.”
“I was there, Sarah. Just not where you thought.” William held me tighter.
My hands started to tremble as the memories came back. More memories than I’d bargained for. “Ayer and Crystal knew.”
“Yes. The children brought you back home. Their knowledge as casters limits their physical abilities. They cannot meddle too much. The balance needs to be kept.”
Thank you, I said to my children.
Always, Mama, they replied. Always.
“Eric heard your faint plea for help and insisted on coming,” said William.
“You saved me? You brought Xela and Mrs. G to connect me back to my body.” I looked at my evil-bender. “And you’re hurt.”
“I sensed your soul far away. I didn’t save you, but I do have to stop bending, for a while, at least. The spikes need some rest.” He pointed to his neck, then turned to Mira, tightening his arms around her. “I’ll need to rely on you a bit more, sugar.”
“I don’t mind at all.” Smiling, she stretched her neck up and kissed his lips.
“So who was it?” I closed my eyes to remember. What had happened came back to me in flashes. Just before the saw touched me, someone had picked me up. His hood fell back, and my nose pressed against his hair, and I inhaled a woody musk scent. The sleeve of the black cloak slid up his arm, revealing part of a tattoo on his wrist. A scream rang in my eardrums—someone screamed as if they were being skinned like a wild rabbit. Then splattering blood. The sting in my arms as the titanium needles were ripped out. Then the screaming stopped, ending as a gurgle. And William’s voice, ringing through the room, “No!” followed by “I’m sorry.” A mist smelling of wildflowers swirled around me, overpowered by honey and lemon . . .
I faced my husband. “William. It was you. You held me.”
“I did what I had to do.”
“I didn’t recognize you.”
“Some props are helpful.” He dangled a set of porcelain teeth on his finger. “And you weren’t supposed to recognize me.”
“The warden thought you were dead.” I squeezed William’s hand.
“He needed to think you were helpless. You couldn’t have felt any hope, or he’d have been suspicious.”
“Right.” I wasn’t going to argue. If it weren’t for William, I’d be dead. “You had it all planned out, didn’t you? That was the secret you were keeping. For months.”
“Yes.”
I looked around the room. “You all helped. You all saved me, saved the races.” My eyes welled up. Not only was my family here with me, but we worked together, had one another’s backs when in need. They never left me, even in a time when I had felt lost and alone. Did I deserve to be so fortunate?
“We’re a family, aren’t we?” Atram gave me a genuine smile, and I knew he’d never accuse me of killing his wife.
“Of course.”
William embraced me. His arms felt more comforting than hot coco on a cold winter day. I closed my eyes, savoring the feeling of an innocent touch, one I’d thought I’d never feel again.
“Can we promise each other we’ll never break our promises again?” I said.
“How about we leave out the promises and let our instincts guide our lives?”
“Couldn’t agree with you more.” I leaned into him.
Willow moved her head. I waited for her body to thrash in pain, but she opened her eyes, then closed them again without any other movement.
“I’ve never seen a human change,” I said.
“Fortunately, it’s not as dramatic as Hollywood tries to make it.” Xander laughed from behind me.
“Willow will be a vampire, just like you.” I looked at Atram.
“She will. You may not see it yet, but it’s better this way. I know it’s selfish, but I won’t need to worry as much.”
“And my father . . . where’s my father?” I scanned the room, then looked behind Mrs. G who sat in a wicker chair, her hands held together in her lap.
Mrs. G held my gaze. Her witch persona today reminded me more of a caring mother, and I her child, much as I had been in Pinedale.
“The book!” I remembered stashing the spell book in the tangled roots of the ceiling in Miranda’s lair—just before I freed my mother. Or perhaps it was another time? The memory blurred. “I know where to find the magic book you were looking for.”
She showed a kind smile. “In do time we’ll get it. Now, your father, darling...”
I stood up. “He should be here. I can feel it,” I insisted, taking small steps forward.
“Sarah, the warden was strong.” William paused, trying to find the right words. I let him think before he spoke. Care and concern mixed with apprehension tinted the shade of his eyes, and I knew what he wanted to say was important. He, too, didn’t want me to be hurt. “And even vampires aren’t immortal.” His shoulders drooped.
“Where is my father?” I asked again as a lump formed in my throat. Tears streaked down my face.
William’s expression mellowed. “Sarah . . .” My husband’s apologetic face told me what he couldn’t.
I closed my eyes and remembered the saw again, as well as the demon who stood beside the warden. It hadn’t been a demon. It had been my father in those platform shoes.
A new memory flashed, and my body twitched. The saw flew from my father to the warden. The warlock ducked, grabbing the handle away from my father and swung at me and William. My father threw himself in its path . . .
“He says she can handle it,” Ayer’s soothing voice interrupted.
“You can see him?” My eyes flew open, wiping my nose with my sleeve. I whipped my body around until my gaze rested on my son.
Ayer nodded.
“He can only show once, then he has to move on,” Crystal explained, standing beside her brother.
“I don’t want him to move on.” My voice shook. “I just got him back. I want him here. With me.” I sniffled and inhaled like a two-year-old, all stuffed up.
Ayer shook his head. “You’ve done what was needed, Mama. You accepted him as your father.”
Crystal’s hand was on my shoulder; I wasn’t sure when she’d moved to my side.
I regretted the years that had passed when I didn’t know him, when I’d hated him for creating me. I looked around the room, from my best friends to my in-laws to William and my children. Love all around me. If it weren’t for my father, I wouldn’t have my family; I wouldn’t know the devotion of a friend and a watcher; I couldn’t experience motherhood and understand unconditional love. My father had protected me when I didn’t know him; even when I rejected him and despised him, he always loved me. I owed him my life, and he shouldn’t have sacrificed his for me. Somewhere inside, I understood, for I would have had done the same, if it was my child whose life was threatened.
“Why only once?” I looked at Eri
c.
“The balance is restored. Souls will no longer be lost.”
“He was reunited with his body?”
“He didn’t need to be. His final breath came when he turned to ash. He will not be able to see you again after today.” My evil-bender sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Eric, please . . .”
Ayer’s hand found my other shoulder.
“He shouldn’t have jumped in . . .” I was nearly panting as William swooshed the ottoman under my buckling knees.
And then he was there. My father’s ghost, as vibrant as he was in life, floated toward me. The fierceness of his ghost, stronger than when he was a vampire, had been softened by the joy in his eyes.
“It makes me happy to see you alive,” my father whispered.
I jumped to my feet and wished for my ghost back, because I wanted nothing more than to wrap myself in his embrace. He placed his arms around me as if he was corporeal, and the warmth of his soul’s essence soothed my pain. Though I hugged an ephemeral form, I imagined the pressure of his arms as he squeezed me. He smelled of jasmine and wildflowers, just like my mother and the bouquet I always imagined her holding when she collected blossoms on the day she met my father.
“And I would do it again to make sure you live the life you were meant to live—with William and the children. You’re a parent. I’m sure you understand what I had to do.”
Sobbing I nodded, and tightened my embrace.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be all right.” He smiled as he let me go.
I believed him, because my mother’s spirit stood beside him. For the first time since her death, they were truly reunited.
My father took my mother’s hand. Energy vibrated between their souls. His eyes glowed with happiness as he looked adoringly at my mother, who looked at him like she hadn’t seen him in decades. The way they stared at each other reminded me of how much William adored me. My husband’s love flowed with every glance.
Even though I’d lost him, my father had gained what he’d missed for the last few decades—his true love. He’d be happy in the hereafter, and so would my mother.
