by Dara Nelson
“The doc released me this morning, that’s why I’m here,” he said, nodding.
I hopped off the bed. “What do you say guys? Should we hold our first cabinet meeting today?”
Matt and Carlos looked at each other then back at me. Grinning, they both said, “Let’s do it, oh fearless leader.”
“Oh shut up,” I said, blushing. “I’m going to shower.”
“Me too,” Matt said as he pulled on his shorts and jumped up.
Carlos picked up the laptop and said, “And that’s my cue to leave… I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Let everyone know, please Carlos? Ten a.m. meeting in the main hall, okay?”
He waved his hand as he walked out, “Yeah, yeah, will do.”
Matt was in my arms then, pushing me towards the bathroom as he untied the belt from my robe, slipping his hands inside as he kissed me.
Chapter Nineteen
Half a dozen smiling faces turned my way when I walked into the room. It felt so strange. The last time I had been in this room, well, things had been drastically different. The last time it had been a fight for our survival. Now there was hope and we were planning for our future. I stopped walking. Matt looked at me, “Everything okay, Sarah? Are you sure you’re ready for this? Maybe you should take some more time to recover. Let me take you back to our room.”
I smiled at him. “No, honey. I’m fine. Really I am. I’m just a little overwhelmed at everything I’m feeling right now. I mean, it is a little daunting, don’t you think? You’ve had a few weeks to adjust to all of this. Me? This is my first time, you know?”
Carlos poked his head over my shoulder. “Stop being such a wuss, Sarah. You’ll do fine. You’re a natural born leader. Look at the way Matt follows you around like a little puppy.”
Matt smirked next to him. “Shut up. She has you wrapped around her little finger just as much as I am. In all of the years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you acquiesce to somebody like this. She has a special gift that affects not just me but all of us.”
Carlos and I locked eyes for a second and we both smiled. “Yes, yes she does,” he said then he pushed through the two of us and walked to the center of the room. He raised his arms, “Ladies and gentlemen! Without further ado, I present to you our President!” He clapped his hands as he winked at me.
I walked over to him and whispered, “Not cool Carlos. I’m going to beat the shit out of you,” as I blushed while everyone stood up and clapped.
“Can’t wait,” he whispered then he ran up to the center chair of the table and pulled it out for me.
I sat down, still blushing, and said, “Please, everyone. This really isn’t necessary. Please sit down.”
I waited for them to all sit then I took a deep breath and dove in head first. “Okay. First order of business, this table has got to go. If we’re going to be planning things here, I’d prefer a round table so we can all look at each other. Can we take a vote on it?”
Billy, to my left, smiled, “I think it’s a great idea, Sarah, oops, I mean President Pearl. I vote yes.”
“Please everyone. Call me Sarah. Not President or President Pearl. Just Sarah. Okay? Now, how does everyone else feel about the round table?”
Bahiti said, “I vote, yes.”
Matt followed with, “Absolutely.”
Head nods from both Stefan and Penelope.
One by one they all voted yes, until we got to Carlos. “No,” he said.
“No?” I responded, shocked.
“I don’t want to have to look at your ugly face all the time,” he said, grinning. “Just kidding. Yes. Of course I vote yes.”
‘Damn right you vote yes,’ I thought to him. I watched him as he tried to suppress his grin.
“Okay, next order of business. Matt, please tell us what the security office is doing about finding Malina.”
“Well, ma’am,” he began, smiling when I shot him a look, “I’ve got a dozen agents out in the field following leads and I’m in the process of upgrading the security system here.”
“Good. How soon will the upgrade be completed?”
“I’d estimate in about two to three weeks we should have it done.”
“And do your agents have any solid leads?”
“Well, truthfully, no. She appears to have vanished into thin air.”
“You do know that’s not the case though, right? She hasn’t really vanished. She’s out there. She’s out there and she’s planning her revenge,” I said.
“Yes, Sarah. I know that she hasn’t vanished and I know that she’s probably planning her revenge. But she was hurt pretty badly. She may be dying or recovering somewhere.”
“Not a chance,” Stefan said from the other end of the table. We all turned and looked at him. “This is the most vindictive woman I’ve ever met in my life. I have no doubt in my mind that she is planning her revenge. This is someone that you do not cross – and survive.”
“He’s right,” Penelope whispered. “I was there when she exacted punishment on Andy, a lover that she suspected of cheating on her. Suspected. She tortured him for days. I’ve never seen someone endure such agony. By the time she finally killed him, he welcomed death. He actually died with a smile on his face. When she found out a few weeks later that her suspicions had been wrong, that he hadn’t cheated on her, she never showed any remorse for what she had put him through.”
“Okay. So we’re all in agreement that she hasn’t disappeared and she’s planning her revenge, correct? I think we need to step up our efforts to find her. We have to be proactive on this. We have to find her first.”
“Okay, Sarah. I’ll recruit more agents and send them out. Stefan? Can you use your contacts throughout the world to see if they’ve heard anything?” Stefan nodded. “Good. Anything else, Sarah?”
“How often does everyone think we should meet?”
“Why don’t you tell us what you think, Sarah?” Stefan said.
I thought about it for a few seconds, “I think normally, once a week should be sufficient. But this is definitely not normal circumstances right now. With such a big threat hanging over us, I think we should be meeting daily. Does anyone have a different opinion?”
Heads shook around the table. Matt answered for all, “I think daily makes sense. We should plan on 10 a.m. unless somebody has to change that for some reason. Is there anything else, Sarah?”
“Umm, not that I can think of right now. Does anyone else have anything?”
“I do,” Carlos said. “If the website is going to act as if it’s ‘business as usual’ then I need a subject for the monthly feature. I was thinking I could interview you, Sarah.”
“Me? Why? Don’t you have something or someone a little more interesting?”
“More interesting than the one vampire who is different and who figured out how to win our freedom? I think not.”
I sighed, “Fine. When do you want to do this?”
“Well, it’ll have to be over several sessions. Let’s do the first one this afternoon. Say three o’clock? Your office?”
I looked at Matt, “Umm, okay. Do I have an office?”
Matt smiled, “You do. I’ll take you to it when we’re done here.”
“Okay. Then Carlos, yes, three o’clock in my office. Is there anything else?”
Everyone shook their heads. “Then I guess it’s meeting adjourned,” I said.
Everyone stood. I watched Carlos wince slightly as he did and I knew exactly what he was feeling. He and I were definitely not a hundred percent. We still had a ways to go. I started to go to him but Penelope walked over and hugged me. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said.
“Yes I do. Thank you for giving me a life, Sarah. Thank you for giving me love.”
“I didn’t do that, Penelope. You two had already found each other.”
“But we couldn’t be together, Sarah. We didn’t have the freedom to be together until you came al
ong.”
“Well, you’re welcome. But somebody would have figured it out eventually, Penelope. It wasn’t me.”
“You have got to stop being so modest, Sarah. It was you.”
I blushed and smiled at her. Matt walked over, hugged me and kissed my cheek, “Don’t worry, Penelope. I’ll work on her. I’ll get her to come around, eventually,” he said.
Matt’s arm was firmly around my waist. “Would you like to see your office now?”
I nodded. “Sure,” then I went to take a step toward the door but couldn’t stop the sharp inhale as a searing pain shot through my stomach. Matt moved around to face me, “I’m taking you back to the room. You need to lie down for a while.”
“Matt, no. I’m fine. Really I am. I’ll tell you if it gets to be too much. I promise. Let’s just stop by the kitchen first, okay?”
“You’re sure?”
I nodded and patted his hand, “I’m sure.”
We walked into the kitchen and saw Carlos standing by the microwave. “You too, huh?” he said.
“Yes, me too,” I said as I walked up next to him and put my arm around his waist. “Are you doing okay?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Ehhh, getting there. I’ll be back in the saddle, or I should say, I’ll be back in the stud field soon enough.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh my God. I see your ego wasn’t damaged. Pity,” I said, the smile dancing in my eyes.
“What can I say, Sarah. When you’ve got it, you’ve got it,” he said, grinning.
“Yeah, you’ve got it all right. You’ve got a complete load of bullshit, that’s what you’ve got.”
Matt let out a loud laugh from behind us.
“You’re lucky I love you, Sarah. Anyone else says that would get dropped with one punch to the face.”
My jaw dropped and I just stared at him for a moment.
“What?” he said.
“Carlos. You just said the “L” word and your penis didn’t fall off,” I said.
Matt started laughing so hard at the table that he fell off the bench onto the floor.
“Ha ha, Miss funny pants. My penis didn’t fall off because my penis didn’t have anything to do with telling you I love you. I’m perfectly capable of loving someone that I’m not having sex with. It’s when you add the sex that I start to worry about losing my Johnson.”
I turned to Matt, “Honey? You love me AND we’re having sex. Has your penis fallen off?”
“Absolutely not, sweetheart. It’s doing better than ever,” he said.
I looked back at Carlos, “See? It is possible to be in love, have sex and keep your penis, Carlos. We just need to find you the right gal.”
“Well, good luck with that. Now, I’d love to continue this conversation about my penis, but I’ve got some work to do before I meet with you. I’ll see you later, Sarah.”
“See ya,” I said.
Matt got up from the floor, walked over and wrapped me in a big bear hug, “You crack me up, Sarah. Is there anything that you’re afraid to talk about?”
“Not that I’ve found, yet,” I mumbled into his chest.
“Well, stay that way. I kind of like being married to a girl with a big set of cojones.”
“Gee, thanks, I think,” I said just before I gave him a kiss.
“You ready to go see your office now or do you need more to eat?”
“I’m ready.”
He grabbed my hand and walked me down the hall. We turned and walked into an outer office. A young vampire with beautiful curly brown hair quickly stood up.
Matt made introductions. “Sarah, this is your personal assistant, Missy. Missy, I’d like you to meet Sarah.”
She stuck her hand out. “Madam President. It’s very nice to meet you. I’m here for anything you need. Anything at all.”
I shook her hand as I said, “Hello, Missy. The first thing I need from you is for you to call me Sarah. Okay?”
“Okay, Sarah. Can I get you anything right now? Would you like a pint?”
I smiled at her, “No. I’m fine. I just ate. I’m just going to check out the office for a bit.”
She picked up a calendar on her desk. “Fine. That’s perfect. You don’t have anything on your calendar for this afternoon.”
“Ummm, yes I do actually. I have an appointment with Carlos at three o’clock.”
She frowned as she wrote it down in the calendar, “Three o’clock with Carlos. Got it. Please try to have all appointments go through me so I know about them, okay?”
“Okay. Will do. Thanks and nice to meet you Missy.”
“Nice to meet you too, Sarah.”
Matt opened the door for me and ushered me in. I was in awe as I looked around the beautifully decorated office. The desk was huge. It was made of cherry. And it looked hand carved. I walked over and traced my hand over it.
“You like it?” Matt said.
“It’s beautiful, Matt. Where did you find it?”
“My house.”
“This was at your place in Washington? I don’t remember seeing it there.”
“That’s because it was in the basement. I bought it several years ago at an auction but I couldn’t figure out which room to put it in. It just never looked right anywhere, it was just too big for any room that I put it in.”
“How old is it?”
“1796 I believe. The date is carved under the center drawer there.”
I ducked down and looked under the drawer. April 17, 1796 it said. “Wow,” I whispered.
“I’m glad you like it,” he said, smiling, “Sit down. See how it fits.”
I pulled out the chair, sat down and scooted the chair up to the desk. It molded around me like a glove. “It’s perfect. Thank you, sweetheart.”
Matt walked around and kissed my forehead. “You are very welcome, my dear. Now, I have to leave for a little while. I have a meeting with Ramon.”
“Ramon?” I said.
Matt smiled, “I keep forgetting you’ve been out for a while. Ramon is my second in command, so to speak.”
“So he’s helping find Malina? Good. Go meet with him.”
“I’ll be back a little later, say when you’re done with your interview?”
“I’ll be waiting,” I said. He leaned down and tenderly kissed me. Once again he took my breath away. We would probably still be kissing if Missy hadn’t politely cleared her throat in the doorway.
“Sorry to interrupt, but your three o’clock is here.”
I looked up and saw Carlos leaning against the doorway rolling his eyes. “Do you two ever stop?”
Matt’s eyes twinkled as he smiled at me, “Nope,” he said then he turned and walked out. “Play nice, kids,” he said as he walked past Carlos.
“That’s no fun,” Carlos said as he walked inside. He walked over to the couch against the far wall, sat down and began rummaging through the bag that he brought.
“Over there? You don’t want to sit here at the desk?” I said.
“Nope. Too impersonal. I don’t want you to think of this as an interview, Sarah. This is just you and me having a chat.”
“Have you done this before, Carlos? Do you even know what you’re doing?”
Carlos looked at me and grinned, “Nope. I’m a virgin. You’re my first.”
“Cute.”
He patted the couch next to him, “Come. Sit. I won’t bite, unless you ask me to.”
I rolled my eyes as I walked over, “God, Carlos. Do you ever stop?” I said as I sat down.
“Nope. Now give me your feet,” he said.
“Excuse me? Give you my feet?”
He leaned down, grabbed my feet and pulled them up to his lap. “Yes, give me your feet,” he said as he pulled my shoes off. He began massaging my feet. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the arm of the couch, as I did he discretely pushed the record button on a small recorder and placed it on the floor under the couch.
“Are you going to answer any question that I as
k, Sarah?”
“You keep doing that and I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” I purred.
“Okay. When was the first time that you realized that you wanted me?”
I smiled but kept my eyes closed. “As soon as it happens you’ll be the first to know,” I said.
“Ouch. Okay, tell me about your human life. What was your childhood like?”
“My childhood? It was amazing. Mom and Dad took us camping for three weeks every summer – which gave me my active imagination and great love of the outdoors. They took us to the local college football games and basketball games – which gave me my love of sports.”
“So you were rich?”
“No, not at all. Not monetarily at least. I mean, we were well taken care of, but we definitely had friends who had more than we did. But we never felt like we were lacking anything because our lives were so full.”
He continued rubbing my feet. “Boyfriends?”
“Boyfriends? I’ve had a few.”
“How old were you the first time you had sex?”
“How is that relevant to this interview?” I said.
“It’s not. I’m just curious.”
“Do you promise to keep it out of the article?”
“Of course. I promise.”
“Sixteen,” I said.
“Wow. You got me beat by three years, you slut.”
I grinned. “Shut up. The first time you got laid was hundreds of years ago. Things were different then.”
“Ah, yes. Victoria. She was a beauty.”
“I’m sure she was.”
“And your first husband? How long did you date before you got married?”
“Three years.”
“And you were married how long?”
“Eight years.”
“And your son?”
“No, Carlos. Move on to something else, please.”
He rubbed the feet even more. “Have you always been this confident and strong?”
I laughed, “Confident and strong? Hardly.”
“Give me a break, Sarah. You are too.”
“Carlos. Most of the time, I’m scared shitless. But falling apart isn’t going to help anything. I just do what I have to do. If that makes me confident and strong, well, I guess I’ve been this way since Rob and Scottie were killed. Surviving that, forcing myself to not withdraw into my shell, was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
