The Recruiters

by Dara Nelson

  Matt tried to pull me back down. “Honey, she’s gone. Calm down, and please lie back down.”

  I turned and stared at him, wide-eyed. “You can’t be serious. There’s too much work to do. She may be gone now, but you know she’ll be back. She’ll be back and she’ll have others with her. We need to be prepared. We have to stop her this time. Permanently.”

  He grinned at me. “Honey, we know that. We’re working on a plan.”

  “We?” I said.

  “Me and the other cabinet members,” he said.

  “Cabinet members?”

  “I was waiting until you were completely recovered to tell you,” he said as his grin grew wider.

  “Tell me?” I said. “Tell me what?” I crossed my arms across my chest.

  “Well, after everything was over, nobody wanted to leave, they’re all still here. We decided to hold elections right away, so we could get to work immediately. They elected Billy as Vice President, Bahiti as Finance minister, Aduviri as our human liaison, I’m head of security and Carlos is head of public relations,” he chuckled at this one then noticed me still staring at him. “What?” he said.

  “You said Billy is Vice President, who was elected President?” I said.

  His eyes twinkled and he grinned at me, the same goofy grin I’ve seen a hundred times on Carlos’ face. My arms uncrossed and fell to the bed. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mumbled.

  “Nope,” he grinned. “Not kidding.”

  “Me?” I said. “Why? Why me?”

  He stared at me, shock filling his face. “Sarah,” he began, “how could it not be you? You figured this entire thing out. You started it. You gave us the answers we could never find. And you were able to finish it for us. No one else could have done that. You gave us this freedom. Who else could we have chosen to lead us into our future?”

  I slowly leaned back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “Wow,” I mumbled then I looked at him. “But I don’t know the first thing about politics or about running a government.”

  He shook his head. “That’s okay. Neither do we. We’ll all figure this out together.”

  “Wow,” I said again.

  I spent the next week in the hospital bed. Feeding, recovering and being filled in on what happened after I landed on the wall. They had found Musetta, the voodoo priestess, and Olatunde, Omoruyi’s grandfather, in the fortress, starving but alive. They had recovered in the same room I was in then flew home to their relieved families. We lost thirty-two. I finally had time to grieve for them, including Andrew, my close friend, without whose help this never would’ve been possible. They buried Andrew and Janine together under the weeping willow, right where they would want to be.

  “Stefan and Penelope?” I asked Matt.

  “Gone, but they’ve contacted us, offering their help.”

  I smiled. “I thought they might. When’s the wedding?”

  Matt’s surprise was clear on his face. “But how did you know?”

  “Trust me,” I smiled. “A woman knows.”

  He smiled and shook his head. “They’re in Vegas right now. They’ll be back in a week.”

  “Good,” I said. “Hopefully they can give us some insight into Malina’s abilities and how to beat them. Oh, and we need a computer guy. We need to start a database of all vampires, and a website they can go to for announcements, news and communications.”

  “Done,” Matt smiled.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Rashidi,” he grinned.

  I stared at him, afraid to ask my next question, “Did Stacy make it?” I whispered.

  “Oh boy, did she,” Matt grinned. “She and Rashidi are living in the suite that you and I stayed in when we were here. She’s retired her own services, but is now a madam running a vampire call girl service. Quite successfully, I might add.”

  I squinted at him. “And you would know this, how?” I raised my eyebrow, crossed my arms and tried not to grin.

  He held his hands up, “No honey, not me. Just by word of mouth, I promise.”

  I heard Carlos laughing in the bed next to me. “Shut up, you goof,” I said.

  “Not a chance,” he grinned. “You’ve been in here a while Sarah. He has needs you know.”

  “CARLOS,” we both said at the same time.

  “What?” he said. “I’m just sayin’ is all. You’ve gone a long time without it too, Sarah. I can tell you’re ready from the dreams you’ve been having, especially last night.”

  A horrified, embarrassed look crossed my face. “Wh… what?” I stammered.

  “Oh, come on. The way you were moaning, it had to be a good one,” he grinned.

  “Oh God,” I moaned as I buried my head in my hands.

  “Yep, that was pretty much it,” he chuckled.

  I looked up at the questioning look on Matt’s face and whispered, “I was dreaming about the cave.”

  A blush filled Matt’s cheeks. “Oh,” he whispered.

  I glared at Carlos. “Why the hell didn’t you wake me?”

  He stared back at me. “You’re kidding, right?”

  I looked up at Matt. “Please, you have to get me out of here.” He wrapped his arms around me.

  “I’ll talk to the doctor,” he chuckled.

  I playfully smacked his arm. “It’s not funny,” I pouted. “You try being stuck in a room with ol’ big ears here. I miss you desperately, Matt. But no matter how much… pressure… is building up in me, I can’t do anything about it with him in here.”

  Complete silence filled the room. I looked at both of them, staring at me with their mouths hanging open. “What?” I said. “Even you said it’s been a long time.”

  Carlos recovered first. “Hey,” he grinned, “don’t let my being here stop you. By all means, Sarah. Go ahead and let your fingers do the walking.”

  “You wish, Carlos,” I mumbled.

  “Well, duh! Ouch!” he said, rubbing the back of his head.

  I grinned and stuck my tongue out at him. “Ha!” I said.

  Matt, still standing there with his mouth open, suddenly started walking out. “I’m going to go talk to the doctor,” he mumbled. He returned a few minutes later, grinning.

  “Really?” I said.

  He nodded. “Two hours,” he said. “I get you for two hours.” I held my arms up to him and he scooped me up.

  “DOC!” Carlos called. “Hey Doc, what about me? Can I get out of here for a while?”

  The doctor came in, shaking his head, “No, you’ve still got some healing to do. You’re not going anywhere yet.” I started to stick my tongue out at him again, but stopped. I reached my mind to him instead, ‘Sorry,’ I thought.

  ‘For what?’ he thought.

  ‘That you can’t go have some fun too,’ I thought.

  ‘Sarah, I’m fine, go, but, for the love of God, please stay out of my head while you’re doing it,’ he grinned.

  ‘Not a problem,’ I thought.

  ‘At least now maybe you’ll be quiet enough so I can get some sleep,’ he thought.

  ‘Stop it,’ I thought. ‘And Carlos?’

  ‘What?’ he thought.

  ‘I love you,’ I thought.

  ‘Love you too, kiddo,’ he thought.

  ‘You’re my best… .oh God…’ I pulled back. We had reached the room and Matt’s hungry mouth had found mine.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I quietly walked up to Carlos’ hospital bed holding a pint of blood in front of my face. I peaked around the side, grinning, and saw him glaring at me.

  “Please don’t be mad at me Carlos. I’m really sorry,” I said as I held the blood out to him.

  He snatched it from my hand, drank quickly then said, “Do not ever do that again, Sarah. Never again. Do I make myself clear?”

  I nodded. “I promise. It will never happen again. Now,” I said as I turned and grabbed the laptop off my bed, wincing as my torso twisted.

  “Sarah,” he said, concern in his eyes “you
should get back in bed.”

  “You’re right. Hold this and move over,” I said as I handed him the laptop. I climbed into the bed next to him and moved the laptop so that it lay across both our legs. I brought up the website. “We want to launch the site on Monday and I need your approval before we do.”

  “You need my approval? Why?” he said.

  “Carlos,” I said, “you are head of public relations. This website is the core of public relations, so of course we need your approval to launch it.”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot,” he grinned as he looked at the computer.

  We looked it over for a few minutes, but then I had to ask. It was the question that I had been avoiding since we both woke up. “Should we talk about it, Carlos?”

  “The website? I thought we were talking about it.”

  “Not the website. Should we talk about what you said?”

  “What do you mean?” he said, but the tension in his body told me he knew exactly what I was talking about.

  “When you said ‘I can’t have you, you belong to him.’ What did you mean by that?”

  He nervously glanced down at his hands, at the computer, doing anything to avoid my gaze as he lied to me, “I’m a horn-dog, Sarah. I’d sleep with you in a second if you weren’t with Matt. That’s all. I didn’t mean anything else by it. Just that.”

  I stared at him for a few seconds, wondering if I should press farther to get the truth, but not sure that I really wanted to hear it. “Okay, pervert,” I finally said. Then we returned our concentration to the website. We were huddled over the laptop, looking at the links, reading the first communication piece, when Matt walked in.

  “Sarah, I love you honey, but I’m putting my foot down if you want him to move into our bed,” he said. I looked up and beamed at him.

  “Don’t worry honey,” I winked, “he couldn’t handle it if he did.”

  “I couldn’t handle it. Yeah, right. You’re funny Sarah,” Carlos mumbled.

  I reached my arms up to Matt and he scooped me up into his gentle embrace. I leaned my head back and moaned as he began kissing my neck. “Uh, guys?” Carlos mumbled.

  I turned my head towards him, but Matt continued kissing my neck, “What?” I gasped.

  “Come on, please?” he groaned.

  “Okay, okay” I said as I brought my head up. “What is it?”

  “Well, this should be moved up,” he said as he pointed to the screen. “And this should be larger. And look over these changes to the communication piece, the original one seemed a little flat to me.”

  Matt and I just stared with our mouths open. Finally I managed to say, “Wow Carlos, those are some really good ideas.”

  “Yeah. Why do you seem so surprised?” he said.

  “I’m just surprised that you’re taking this so seriously, that’s all,” I said.

  “What? Did you expect me to ask for naked pictures on it?” he grinned.

  I smiled and nodded. “Pretty much,” I said.

  “Great ideas, Carlos,” Matt said. “We’ll take this to Rashidi right now, then we’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

  I stared at Matt as he tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle his grin. “I get to go home?” I whispered. “For the whole night?”

  “Yep,” he beamed. I leaned my head into his chest and held my hand out for the laptop.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Carlos groaned. “Go… I’ll be here alone… again.”

  Matt cradled me in his arms as he walked through the halls. I stopped him just before he knocked on Rashidi’s door. “Ummm, honey?” I said.

  “Yeah?” he replied.

  “I can walk you know.”

  “Yeah, I know. I just don’t want you to strain yourself,” he said.

  “I won’t, but do you think you could put me down for a few seconds? I don’t want everyone thinking I need to be carried everywhere.”

  He hesitated, clinging tighter to me, then finally nodded and released my legs, keeping his arm securely around my waist. He knocked on Rashidi’s door.

  “SARAH!” Rashidi said as he greeted me with a huge grin. “So nice to see you up and around,” he said.

  I winked at Matthew as I said, “It’s nice to be up and around.”

  “Please, come in,” Rashidi said and he stepped back, holding the door open for us. “To what to I owe this visit?”

  “I’m here about the website,” I said.

  “There isn’t a problem is there?” he asked, worry clouding his face.

  “No, no, of course not. It’s just that I showed it to Carlos and he had a few suggestions. And he made a few changes to the communication piece,” I said.

  “Oh, okay. Well, then, come in. Sit, sit,” he said, leading us to the couch.

  I set the laptop on the coffee table and showed him the changes.

  “Excellent ideas,” he said. “I can have them done for you by tomorrow morning, will that be alright?”

  “Tomorrow would be perfect, thanks Rashidi,” I said.

  Matthew stood then and held his hand out to me. “Sorry to leave so quickly, Rashidi, but Sarah needs her rest now.”

  “Yes, of course she does. Thank you so much for coming by. Be well, Miss Sarah,” he said.

  “Thank you Rashidi, you be well too,” I said as Matt and I headed out the door. We walked slowly down the halls to our room. As we turned the last corner I said, “Okay, enough walking,” and jumped into Matt’s arms, facing him and tightly wrapping my legs around his waist. I began feverishly kissing him.

  “Honey,” he mumbled, his lips still pressed to mine, “you need to be careful, please take it easy.”

  “Uh uh, no way,” I moaned back. “We took it easy last time. Not this time. Not a chance,” I said as I worked my mouth down to his neck, released my fangs and playfully scraped them down his skin.

  “Oh my God,” he groaned as he reached our door. “Sarah, please, I don’t want to hurt…”

  “Shhhhhhhh,” I said as I nibbled harder on his neck and ear. “I’m fine.”

  I felt the growl building in his chest as he finally surrendered.

  The pain woke me in the middle of the night. I tried not to make a sound as I rolled onto my side and curled into a ball, but a small moan escaped my lips. Matthew shot up. “What is it?” he gasped. “It was too much last night, I hurt you. I KNEW this would happen,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me and laid his cheek on mine.

  “Matthew, I’m fine,” I said. “This happens when I’m alone in my hospital bed too. This wasn’t from you. The doctor says this is from the muscles rebuilding. It helps a little if I drink when it hurts, would you mind?”

  He was instantly gone. I heard small fridge in the corner open and the microwave buzz to life. He returned a few seconds later with two pints. I eagerly drank the first one. I held the second out to Matt, but he shook his head and pushed it back towards me. I dropped both empty bags into the trash then closed my eyes as the blood circulated through me. I felt the pain alleviate a little, but I still couldn’t straighten out my legs.

  “You shouldn’t have done it,” he whispered.

  “Done what?” I said.

  “Made the jump. You shouldn’t have pushed me out of the way.”

  I stared at him for what felt like a full minute. “You’re kidding me, right?” I finally said.

  He shook his head. “No, I’m not. It should be me recovering right now, not you,” he said.

  I winced a little as I sat up and looked at him. “Matthew, the way she dropped you, you wouldn’t be recovering right now, and I’d be a widow… again. That cannot ever happen, EVER. I did what I had to do. I did exactly what you would have done if it was me that she had dropped.”

  He nodded, pain filling his face. “I know,” he whispered. “It’s just so hard.”

  “Why?” I said. “Because you’re the man and you should be saving me? You already saved me Matthew Pearl. The night you showed up on that pier was first time you saved me, the first of
many times.” I took his face in my hands and began kissing him, gently at first, then harder, finding his tongue with mine. “Now,” I said between kisses, “the doctor says the fastest way for my stomach muscles to heal is to exercise them, and what you do to me exercises them far better than any sit-ups I have ever done. So how about giving me a workout?” I smiled as I saw the gleam in his eye. Yep, I was definitely going to get my workout.

  Early the next morning, with the sun streaming through the windows, I was lying with my head on his bare chest. My eyes were closed and I was gently tracing my finger down his chest, across his stomach and working my way down to where I wanted it to be. Suddenly I jumped as Carlos said, “If you go any farther, I’m going to hurl.”

  I smiled. “No you won’t. Vampires don’t hurl.”

  “Well I’m going to wish I could,” he said as he sat on the end of the bed.

  “So did you come here just to interrupt us or was there something else?” Matt mumbled.

  “Both,” he grinned as he set a laptop on the end of the bed. “I just came from Rashidi’s. I want to show you the site now. I think it’s ready to go.”

  “Really? That’s awesome Carlos. Let me see,” I said as I sat up too quickly, completely forgetting that we were both naked and failing to grab the sheet. Carlos’ eyes went wide then he turned away, a blush filling his cheeks. “Sorry,” I mumbled as I grabbed my robe and threw it on. “You’re not helping,” I said as I swatted Matt’s stomach as he lay there laughing. I turned back to Carlos, “Okay, show me the site, please?”

  At first I thought something was wrong, that he was in pain. He had his eyes squeezed shut. I started to reach for him, but he recovered quickly, opening his eyes and looking at me. My look questioned him, but he slightly shook his head at me then turned the laptop around. “Wow, that’s so much better Carlos,” I said as I maneuvered around the site. “Oh, and the communication piece is perfect. What do you say? You think we’re ready to launch?”

  Carlos grinned and nodded. “Yep, all set,” he said.

  “How are you doing Carlos?” I said. “Are you ready to go to work?”