by Tonya Nagle
Laura sullenly floated down, her mind racing to see how she could use it to her advantage.
"I know what you did. I saw your eyes before you kissed him. I know you were faking it." She howled with laughter. "You were really thinking of David the whole time."
Visions of sheer hate crashed into Laura's mind. The air between the two women blazed with their bitter rivalry. Daphne's fist crushed the stone beside Laura's head.
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"I didn't do anything to you!" the vampiress shouted.
The Kere slammed against her. "I wanted him." Daphne growled.
"David?"
"No. Were you born an idiot?"
Laura stared at the female in Kere form. Then she smiled, her fangs showing. "I think we can work something out."
Like what? Daphne switched to mind talk.
Would you fight for him?
Yes. Yes. Oh, I see what you mean. We could fight over him. He'd definitely like that. And you'd lose?
Of course, I'd lose and you won't kill me preferring to keep me as a slave.
Yes. That would appeal to him too.
And you'll leave David to me?
Yes, little fluff of a vampire, I'll give you your husband. You'll have your love even if he's in chains. Oooh, you might want to work with that idea. Daphne leered gleefully at Laura then moved back. They continued down the stairs, and said nothing when she locked Laura back into her cell.
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Chapter 26
David leapt out of the dark into her arms. Laura was so scared inside with what she was about to try; she could barely speak at first. But that didn't matter as his kisses cut off any words. After several minutes of passionate hugs and deep kisses, David stopped abruptly.
What has happened?
When she explained the plan, he shook his head.
It's too dangerous.
He's going to force me to be with him. If I don't try this, I could lose you and my father.
Don't do this. We'll come up with something else. Too much can go wrong.
We have no choice and no time. Laura didn't know when she had started crying.
The tears flowed down her cheeks, and David kept wiping them with his fingers and kissing her. David, I need you to do something for me.
Anything.
Make love to me. If this plan doesn't work, we may never see each other again.
Please, I want to remember you.
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David looked like he would cry. Then he took her hand and led Laura to the hollow near the wall gently lowering her to the cell floor. Laura reached up to him and pulled him down against her. The black coat covered them. With each feverish kiss and caress, she knew this could be their last time to make love. They removed only the clothes necessary for the joining of their bodies. They wanted to keep this sacred act between them, private.
When he moved to go behind her, she cringed.
Laura, but you like it when . . .
Please, from the front. I want to see your face, your eyes, kiss your mouth.
***
David moved and was just about to enter her when she cringed again. His eyes narrowed. He reached into her mind with his thoughts and found pain but not the cause of it. She had locked something away from him, and she had never done that before.
Laura, darling, what's happened? We don't have to make love. You can just tell me.
I'm afraid of what will happen to us. I need to not think about it. I want to be here with you. Please, David, I need you. Her fingers caressed him, urging him on.
David was still uncertain. His wife had never acted this way before. She'd been injured emotionally and he didn't know how; but she clung to him and he would give her whatever she needed. He kissed the place on her neck where he'd made her a vampire and entered her. She pushed against him. In his mind, he heard her gasp and her quick breath of excitement. She kissed him; her tongue rubbed up against his fangs. She knew how that made him crazy. He laughed softly and put his hands so far under her gown that he fondled her breasts. He knew this made her crazy. She moaned in his head. They played, each reaching peaks of pleasure and starting again. But David didn't 281
surrender to his passions entirely. He kept a careful eye on his beloved. Something was different, and Laura was not telling him.
Somewhere a clock ticked away their last hour together, and he felt it. Arranging their clothes again, they hugged refusing to let go of each other. They hid in the shadows of the hollow.
"There is another way, you know," said a familiar voice in the darkness. Laura and David got up and moved toward the bars. Their vampire eyes tried to find the person who went with the voice.
"Who is that? Where are you?" called Laura.
"Zak. I'm here in the cell across the way."
"Are you all right, Zak?"
Surprisingly, he looked unharmed, sitting as if waiting for something. "Oh, I'm fine. Thanks for asking."
"How did you get there?"
"Oh, just happened to be in the area. There are three things you must remember."
"What are those things?" David asked.
"First, it is the little things that keep us together. Second, sometimes the door we fear most is the door to choose as we have the most to gain."
"What is the third thing?" asked Laura.
"Miracles are creations of love."
"Zak, why are you here?"
"Someone needs my help. Soon I'll be somewhere else. It's my job."
"Thank you," Laura replied.
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"No problems. Only solutions," he said. "Have no worries. Trust what you know and remember those three things."
David thought for a moment. He thought about asking more of Zak and then decided against it. He took Laura back to the hollowed out place, where they hugged and kissed. The Keres came down the stairs, and Laura trembled. David rubbed her arms in their embrace. Then he reached into his pocket and gave her the button he had given to Mama Joe. "No matter what happens, remember you love me."
"Of course, I love you." Confused, she looked in her hand. "What's this?"
"A button from my shirt."
She chuckled looking into his eyes. "When we get back, I'll have to sew it back on for you." It was an everyday, commonplace sort of thing to say. The kind of thing she'd say in their New York apartment. She put the button in her pocket. Waiting, they remained locked in each other's arms.
***
The Kere guards took them upstairs. This time the path was different. They went through long, grim halls roughly hewn from stone into a dirt courtyard. Light temporarily blinded them, until they became accustomed to the same gray sky. An elevated golden throne faced a post with chains. Firewood was piled high around the post.
The guards brought out another prisoner. It was Laura's father.
"Papa!" She ran and embraced him. The tears streamed down her face at the very sight of his bruised and cut face.
"Laura, you shouldn't have come here for me." He wept in her arms. Then wiping his face, he straightened up. "This is an evil man. Be careful what you say."
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"Yes, love, I'm an evil man," roared Adam. Laura glared up at him on his golden throne and found him changed into some sort of golden three-faced beast. The body was a man but the head was formed of three distorted faces—one wore an elongated sneer, the other's eyes blazed huge like fire and fangs dripped with blood, and the last was sad with empty eyes. This was the Shining One that the Keres worshipped as their king, and this is what Adam had become.
"Laura, it is time. Come to me," he bellowed.
Before Laura said a word, Daphne roared into the courtyard like a deranged beast.
"I will not suffer you, my lord, to have an unworthy consort." She screamed and seized Laura, throwing her into the sky.
With the fury of a harpy, Laura returned and grasped the Kere. Locked in a death grip, they rolled through the sky and onto the ground, screaming and growling, tearing hair. Laura chomped down
on her claw. Daphne screamed and released her. Then she slapped the vampiress down like a fly, clawing her torso. Laura collapsed bleeding. She wasn't seriously hurt, but it looked that way.
Adam sprang from his throne, grabbed Daphne, and with one hand ripped her head off. He drank the blood spurting from her neck like a fountain. After draining the corpse dry, he tossed Daphne's body away like an empty, crushed soda can.
David kept a steady hand on Donovan's shoulder. Her father had lurched to go to Laura but the vampire held him still.
Oblivious to all else, Adam rushed to Laura's side. He picked her up tenderly and with a roar that split the sky said, "No one has the right to harm you, my love, except me."
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Laura shook badly in Adam's arms. Everything had gone wrong. "Please, Adam."
She spoke in a very small voice. "Please, I wish to say goodbye to my husband and father before joining you. Please, my lord."
"You've already said goodbye."
"But this is the first time I've seen my father. I need to say goodbye to him.
Please. Please, my lord, I promise I will be good to you." She wept, and the rain started to fall. Even though her wounds were healing, her tears reflected a deeper injury.
"Yes, my beloved."
She walked on her own over to David and Donovan, who hugged her protectively between them.
"Use your Telkhine powers and call up a twister," Donovan whispered in her ear.
She spoke to his mind. Apparently all I can do is cry and make rain. The rest of my powers aren't working. I've tried. Even my vampire strength is no match against him.
David said in his thoughts to them, I know another way. To Donovan, he said, No matter what, hold on to her.
Laura kissed her father on the cheek and then turned to David. She kissed him hard on the mouth wanting to remember his taste forever. Do nothing. I want you to live.
"I want you to live too." David took the unicorn's horn she wore around her neck and plunged it into her heart. Laura looked into his fathomless dark eyes disbelieving, gasping, holding the horn, unable to pull it out.
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Her lips formed the word "why" but no sound came out. The horn's fire consumed her, and she collapsed into her father's arms. A brilliant light burst through the sky.
The guards tackled David, but Donovan with Laura cradled in his arms disappeared in the light.
"No," screamed Adam. "You will wish for death before I'm through with you.
Guards, take him."
David smiled, even with his face pushed into the dirt. "You will never have her."
There were too many to fight his way out.
Adam flew off into the sky cursing and bellowing.
David closed his eyes against the pain. He was beyond hurting. He wished that somewhere a door had opened for his Laura and her father.
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Chapter 27
Rain poured. Donovan found himself on Royale Street in New Orleans holding his dead daughter. Drenched to the skin with his hair plastered against his face, he felt cold. Blood stained Laura's dress and the Telkhine robe. Her lips were blue. He staggered a moment, confused and in shock. Then something clicked in his brain. He needed to get her somewhere safe, even if she was beyond pain. Carrying Laura, he hurried to Daulphine Street and banged on Mama Joe's door.
"Who are you?" asked the crackling intercom at the door.
"Donovan Dupre and Laura."
Immediately, a young black girl opened the door and ushered him inside. The girl helped him place Laura on the daybed in the pink parlor.
"She's dead," Donovan cried, overwhelmed with grief. Mama Joe handed him a soda, and he drank it without looking to see what it was.
"Denise, go bring the chicken."
The girl hurried back a few minutes later with a bowl of chicken legs. He ate one after another. "I don't know when I ate last. We couldn't eat there, because it might 287
trap us. I don't know why he killed Laura. He just stabbed her." Donovan coughed.
"Right after saying he loved her."
Mama Joe handed him another soda and after he drank it, he seemed calmer but his tears didn't end there. The story of his adventures and Laura's death at the hands of the one she loved fell out of his mouth like rain.
Mama Joe listened intently. Examining the body, she carefully pulled out the unicorn's horn and wiped it clean. Then she covered Laura with a blanket.
"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. He stabbed her." Donovan was badly shaken, retelling the experience over and over again.
"Drink your tea."
Donovan settled back in the comfortable, blue stuffed chair and drank the tea she handed him. He took a cookie too. The warmth of the tea washed over him. Mama Joe applied a balm to the cuts on his face. It stung for a moment but then had the sweetest smell. Finally he fell asleep, physically and emotionally exhausted.
***
Laura dreamed that she was on the road with the unicorn. He screamed at her that she could not refuse the gift. She walked away from him and did not pay attention to the galloping when she should have. He stabbed her in the back and she fell. Then the scene changed to a gray world. She was looking into David's eyes. "I want you to live too," he said. Then he stabbed her with the unicorn's horn. Why did he do that?
Didn't he love her? She wept. Death wasn't painful. It was David's betrayal that broke her heart. Why would he destroy her? Where would she end up when she awoke from the dream? But most of all she wanted to know why he did it. She needed to know why.
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Tears fell down her face, and all the sunlight in the world wouldn't dry them.
***
Mama Joe smiled. She shook Donovan. "See. Wake up and see how this child is born."
She rolled her chair over to the daybed and taking Laura's hand felt for a pulse.
She found one. Laura's body was crying. Tears fell down her rosy cheeks. Her breasts heaved with air. When Laura opened her pale blue eyes, Mama Joe said, "Welcome, to the living, Child. How does it feel to be human again?"
Laura sat up bewildered. "Papa?"
Her father stood there, his mouth open with amazement. Then he hugged her hard and cried with joy.
Mama Joe smiled. "You've been blessed, Child, with a mortal life."
Laura looked at her, not understanding. The mambo gave her a hand mirror.
When Laura raised it to her face, she stared and touched her face.
Mama Joe went over to the window and raised the shade, so sunlight filtered into the room. Laura lurched away instinctively.
"It can't hurt you anymore."
Curious, Laura stretched her fingers toward the light. No burning sensation drove her into the dark. The light was warmly pleasant and inviting. Laura reached into it. Then she walked into it. Donovan and Mama Joe watched.
"I really am a human." She took up the hand mirror again and opened her mouth. Her teeth were small and round. Then her eyes filled with tears. "Where's David?"
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Mama Joe looked to Donovan, who rose to speak. "Don't you remember, Laura?
The Keres jumped him. He couldn't follow."
Laura stood stunned then rushed through the house and out the garden door.
The sunlight struck her, bathing her in a warm golden glow. She should have reveled in her freedom but didn't. The light harshly bared the emptiness inside her.
A sharp sting in her heart choked her. Unable to breathe she fell to her knees.
"God, I can't be without David. I can't. I can't leave him in that terrible place. Oh, God."
Shadows crossed in front of her. Mama Joe and Donovan had come into the garden.
Laura stood. "I'm going back for him."
"You're human now, Laura," said Mama Joe. "How do expect to help him?"
"I don't know. I only know that I will not leave him there."
"I'll go back with you," said her father.
"You don't have to do that."
"The Fates brought you to New Orleans just as another hurricane bears down to kill us. Please, Telkhine, before you go, since you are here, can you first unwind the storm?"
Laura sighed. "I'll try. But I won't be staying afterward."
"Fair enough," replied Mama Joe. "Come inside now and eat. You'll need to build up your strength before facing the tempest." Jambalaya cooking in a black pot over an open fire in the garden was a beloved perfume in Laura's memory. When all the places were set and the food prepared, Mama Joe and the three young girls who worked 290
for her sat at the table. Laura was seated beside her father. Two strangers, a man and a woman, joined them. The man had red, curly hair and a great, red beard to match. The woman was thin, pale, and dark haired. When she turned to Laura, she wore a pretty crescent moon smile.
After breaking bread, Mama Joe conversed merrily. "You know, Laura, we didn't know if you were coming back, so we advertised that New Orleans needed Telkhines.
