by C. L. Quinn
“You don’t have to work?”
Sarah hated lying. “No, I called off until next week. I have…um, something that I have to take care of tomorrow. I will actually be gone for a few days.”
Naji’s eyes lit up. “Oh, tell me! Can I come too?”
“You wouldn’t want to. It’s dull old family stuff.”
“I would love to meet your family. What, are you afraid to introduce me? Too sexy for them?”
“Yes, you are far too sexy for my relatives. They’re from the bible belt and you would scare the living shit out of them.”
“All the more reason to go. Come on, I’ll behave.”
“Naj, it’s dealing with some awful, private family stuff. You really would hate it. Why don’t I introduce you at some better time?”
After an intense stare, Naji shrugged and returned her attention to the chocolate. “Okay. So, today, then, why don’t we have lunch at Pier 41, then go shopping. I need some new shoes.”
“Don’t you already have every shoe ever made?”
“Ha, ha. And yes. But that still doesn’t stop me. I’ll pick you up later. I have somewhere to go.”
“Where, at this time of morning?”
“I have secrets, too. I’ll see you in one hour.”
“Okay.”
Naji left quickly, taking her mug with her.
Sarah watched the door after she left, frozen in place. Just one thing left to do before she tried to enjoy the day with her best friend. She turned on her cell phone and texted Nikolai’s:
Meet me at my place tonight after sunset. We will travel to a place in the Appalachian Mountains. I’ve devised a ceremony. If all goes well, this will be settled by tomorrow.
Sarah turned her cell phone back off and left it on the counter again as she went to change. Her footsteps felt as heavy as her heart.
“I don’t want to do this,” she said, as she stepped into the shower and just stood still to let hot water pulsate over her head, and hoped that it could wash away the pain.
Hours later, a long shopping trip behind them, Sarah stopped in front of her apartment door.
“Thanks, Naji. I had no idea that many types of shoes existed!”
“Oh, you poor thing, such a terrible education. It seems that I have my work cut out for me. When you get back from your family trip, we’ll begin.”
“Okay, but I really don’t think I need any more shoes than I have right now.”
Naji’s expression became serious and she took Sarah’s shoulders in her hands. “Oh, love, I had no idea that you were this ill. Nobody can have too many pairs of shoes!”
Laughing, Sarah opened the door. “You’ll have some trouble convincing me of that, but you can try. I’ll see you sometime next week.”
“Fine. Hope your weekend goes all right.”
“Thank you. I just want to get it over with. Good evening, Naj.”
After she closed her door, she fell against it.
She just wanted to get it over with? More like, she wished she never had to. But the men were right, this was no life for either one of them. Something had to happen, and for the moment, she was the one charged with the task.
She walked over to close up the blinds. Night was nearly upon them, and so was the coming journey. A small overnight bag sat inside her closet, ready whenever her vampire arrived. They would leave right away to make sure that they arrived before daylight. Tomorrow night, it would be over, one way or another.
It was safe to turn her phone back on, Tamesine couldn’t possibly reach her now. Within the next half hour, Mies would arrive and they would go to the airport for a private flight to Mount Mitchell, the highest mountain in the Appalachians. She’d found a man who had a private runway, so they could fly very near to the spot she’d chosen for the ritual.
A text came up as soon as the phone finished booting, and she looked at it, unmoving.
We will be there.
Tears surged unexpectedly at that simple message.
We. We will be there. If things went as hoped tomorrow night, there would no longer be a we in Nikolai’s body.
Curling up on the sofa, Sarah let herself have a moment to cry for Nikolai, Mies, and herself for her part in all of this and the fact that she could not save them both.
Warm arms came around her and Sarah turned into him. She knew who it was instantly, his scent filled her nose. His embrace tightened and she felt his head buried into hers.
“Bezolian szvilo xan, Sarah,” he whispered.
They sat holding each other, and at one point, Sarah lifted her head and looked up into Mies’s eyes.
“I feel him. Nikolai. I feel him here with us,” she said.
Mies nodded. “He is as sad for this as we are. Even if he gets to stay, he says that he will miss my presence. I heightened his human lifeforce so that we could all be together for the last time.”
Laying her head back against Mies’s chest, Sarah embraced him and Nikolai until she had to push away and stand.
“We need to get to the airport so that we can be safe by daylight tomorrow.”
“We are ready.”
Sarah went to her closet, pulled her overnight bag out, set it on the table and paused to look back at Mies. His presence in her small apartment still surprised her.
“Mies, thank you for giving me that moment. What you said was very comforting, but I don’t know what it means.”
“You wouldn’t. The language is long dead. It is what my people spoke thousands of years ago. It was the only thing I could think of when I came into this room and saw your tears. It means your sorrow breaks my heart.”
“Oh. It’s beautiful.”
“I meant it. I cannot abide watching you in pain.”
“I’ll be okay. I learned a long time ago that we must do what we must do, no matter how desperately we don’t want to.”
“Nothing truer ever spoken.”
Nodding, Sarah picked up her bag. “The taxi should be here now. We should go.”
ON A JET BOUND FOR THE U.S.
“What do ya mean there’s no booze?”
Xavier leaned way out of his seat, his body tight, his voice agitated.
Eillia smiled as she might to her toddler.
“No Scotch. No beer. No wine. No alcohol. Any other awed inquiries?”
The huge vampire dropped back into his seat, a hand covering his brow and eyes. “Nay. This is gonna be a bitch of a flight, isn’t it?”
“Xavier, why don’t you just talk with us? This is the first time we’ve actually been alone like this, so why don’t we use the time to get to know each other better? Your brother is one of my dearest friends and we’ve barely exchanged words over the centuries.”
With nearly his entire face covered now by his hand, the three women on board had to lean in to hear him.
“This is why I remain drunk. So that I don’t have to listen to female caterwaulin’.”
Eillia started to stand, but Park put a hand on her knee.
She turned to look at Park and smiled.
“It’s okay, Park. I’ll remain civil,” she promised, then faced the slouching male. “Xavier. What is it about women that bothers you?”
He dropped the hand and stared at Eillia. “Bothers me? Nothin’ at all, I love women! Ya can get a bit chatty, is all.”
Park shrugged. “You know he’s right. We do seem to go on. I think it’s a built-in gender imperative across all species.”
“Aye, this is what I mean. I have a bitch…” Xavier stopped when he saw Eillia upset again. “Female dog,” he clarified. “The thing howls more than any ten of my male dogs put together.” He grinned. “But I love the little thing to death, ‘tis true enough.”
Still shaking her head, Park leaned back again. “Let’s just talk about the mission. Tam, we hopped on board with little notice because we know that if you need us, we’re there, no questions asked. We’re going to Boston to find Sarah, so it seems the time to ask. Why?”
“S
arah called me from Boston, where she has returned to live her human life.”
“She isn’t blood-bonded to you anymore?” Park asked Xavier.
“Sadly, no. I miss the little lady daily. But when she earnestly asked, I could never refuse her. It’s been over three months now.”
“All right, she’s human now. I hope that it is all that she wanted it to be. Why are we here?”
“Because of a phone call from Sarah, and the question that she asked. Then, a strange comment that leads me to believe that she may be in trouble, first blood magics kind of trouble, and that means she needs us.”
“And Xavier?”
Xavier shot Eillia a hard look. “Aye, she needs me!”
Tamesine glanced at him. “He wanted to come. Anyway.” She paused. “Ladies, Sarah asked me how to access the power of the universe through a first blood amulet.”
Park and Eillia didn’t react to the startling statement. They were well aware that the question held serious implications. Xavier, however, went with a knee-jerk reaction.
“What the fuck would she want to know somethin’ like that for? She’s human now, she shouldn’t be botherin’ with any type of vampire matter, let alone a first blood’s power source.”
“You see my concern. Xavier, I know the answer to this before I ask it, but I must. Have you and Sarah ever had any discussion about the amulets?”
He shook his head, his hands curling over the armrests of his seat. “Never. Even as my blood-bond, she had no real exposure to them until we went to that forbiddin’ island of ice in Siberia.”
“I wouldn’t have expected you to. Here’s the comment that has me most worried. I mentioned to her that a first blood’s spirit amulet stayed with them and doesn’t die, even when the vampire does. She responded to me by saying, ‘I know.’”
Now, all three of Tamesine’s traveling companions were quiet. Park finally spoke. “How would she know?”
“And there’s the reason I brought you from your homes to go to Boston with me to find her.”
“She doesn’t have the ability to safely do anything with an amulet,” Eillia commented.
“And yet I believe that she is. Whatever it is, whoever she’s involved with, we need to get to her as soon as possible.”
“We need to stop her.” Eillia glanced around the cabin suddenly. “I know you said there’s no wine, but food, right?”
“You know Koen. He wouldn’t let this bird out of the hangar without the equivalent of several feasts on board.”
“Good. I’m famished. In the galley?”
“Absolutely. So, I guess we’ll just enjoy the flight. Xavier, there are several wonderful beverages and a lot of refined sugar in the galley.”
Xavier grimaced. “Och, lassie, ye’re killin’ me. Still, I’ll take what I can get.”
He rose and followed Eillia into the galley. This was going to be a long flight. How long had it been since he’d gone over 24 hours without a drink?
AT MOUNT MITCHELL IN THE APPALAICHIANS
“The pilot has taken the plane to a small airport. He’ll be back for us tomorrow night.”
Sarah watched Mies as he responded with a single nod. Yeah, she wasn’t feeling very chatty either. It was going to be a terrible twenty-four hours.
Mies placed the small pack that Nikolai had prepared for this journey on the ground. The intention was that Mies may need some clothes or ablutions for the next day, but Mies didn’t care. He was vampire, he could get anything he wanted anywhere he went. All he wanted now was for this to be over.
Clearing her throat to get his attention, Sarah pointed to her right. “There’s a cavern here that should have no daylight exposure. We’ll spend the day here and then tonight, we’ll do the ritual.”
Again, Mies nodded without answering, but when he finally lifted his eyes to hers, Sarah’s heart plunged. Pain flashed, and regret, his eyes reflecting his emotions…raw, ragged, exposed. Before she could speak, he turned away and headed into the dark cave with one of the several flashlights she’d brought.
He wouldn’t tell her how he felt, but he couldn’t stop her from seeing it. There was nothing else to do but follow him with the two bedrolls she’d brought, her own flashlight filling the pitch black cave with a hard column of light. He had already gone too deep.
When she’d found the caves online, she’d called a man who claimed to know this region inside out, and he’d confirmed that the caves went deep, but a series of tunnels provided access so that people could hike down without too much trouble. Still, she’d chosen full-on hiking gear for this trip. Mies, as vampire, would have no trouble with any of the terrain, but a human might. So far, the narrow tunnel that led through the cave was easily passable.
Rounding a sharp turn, she stopped when she saw Mies scoping a chamber. He looked at her, his eyes hard now, all business.
“This will suffice. I see no crevices or cracks that should allow daylight to penetrate. This was a good call, little doctor, thank you.”
“It’s my gift. Just call me the Fixer, I fix things.”
She pitched one of the bedrolls to him, which he caught effortlessly, and began to unroll the second one to make a pallet that would be at least marginally comfortable. Dry, at least.
Finished settling in, Sarah placed four LED lights around the edge of the chamber that would burn for up to thirty hours, then dropped onto her bedroll and pulled a bag from her luggage.
“Mies, I brought some meal bars so that you wouldn’t get too hungry tonight. They may not provide what a first meal might, but they’re quite good and very filling. Here, I brought four different flavors, and plenty of them, so take what you want.”
Mies didn’t move. He’d dropped his roll onto the ground, but hadn’t spread it out. It would be several hours until daylight so it wasn’t necessary that he do so right away. He glanced towards Sarah, lit now by the little devices, leaning against the wall of rock, an unwrapped tube in her hand that reminded him of a candy bar. Even in such harsh light, she looked stunning. He wanted her, right now, so desperately he had to force himself to stay away from her. It wouldn’t be right, to take her again, to ruin this human life she was so intent on living.
It was the bond they’d already formed that would make it hard for her after he was gone. So if he took her again, it would further complicate her sexual need. She would probably be alone the rest of her life…and he couldn’t do that to her. He already loved her too much. This woman who would have been mate to a first blood meant everything to him. Which is why he couldn’t stay in this small space with her. Not right now, at least, until he got hold of himself and his raging sexual need for her.
“Thank you. I want to check out the area, so I’ll take a few with me if you don’t mind.”
Sarah surged up from the bedroll. “How about I come with you?”
“No!”
Even Mies realized how bad that sounded. He winced when he saw the surprise on her face. “I didn’t mean to bark at you. I just need a few moments, you understand?”
Sarah nodded. Relieved, she really did understand his need to walk away from this right now. “I get it. Okay. Here, one of each flavor. Go out, and just clear your mind.”
“Thank you. For understanding.”
He used air displacement and was gone before Sarah could respond.
She glanced around the cave, the little lights casting dancing shadows on the walls. One of the lights had a flickering feature that simulated candlelight; pretty, in a post-apocalyptic sort of way. Sarah smiled at that comparison. It seemed appropriate, given what they would try tomorrow night.
With an uncontrolled plop, she returned to the bedroll and tore off too large of a piece of a meal bar. She understood why he wanted to be alone, and yet, didn’t. After tomorrow, he might be gone. Why wouldn’t he want to be with her if it were the final chance? Had he already checked out of the life that he’d been forced into here on the corporeal plane? Was he doing it for her?
“Fuck this!” Pitching the meal bar onto the dirt floor, Sarah raced from the cave. As she left the mouth of the cave into a light breeze, the moon immediately captured her gaze as it rose above the mountaintop. Its perceived proximity and brightness stopped her in her tracks. How magnificent this place was!
Distant lights didn’t begin to interfere with the blackness of the sky and the densely scattered field of stars whose light was compromised by the nearly full moon. It had been the phase of the moon and the location that had convinced Sarah that they might really be able to do this. She’d taken into account everything she’d learned recently about first blood history, what Tamesine had told her, what Mies had, and her own instinct that had its own sort of power. No doubt remained…this was the time and place.
The rising moon bathed the clearing on the top of this mountain ridge with enough light that the flashlight was unnecessary, so she switched if off and put it on a large rock before she searched the skyline for Mies. His silhouette cut out a huge pattern against the star-studded, navy-painted sky. She approached slowly, well aware that he knew she was there. When she was near enough, he didn’t turn, but he spoke.
“It’s breathtaking. You couldn’t have chosen a more perfect place. I can feel Mother Earth’s heartbeat.”
Sarah came around in front of Mies. Was it possible that he was even more spectacular in moonlight? He was seated on the edge of an embankment on top of another big rock. He lowered his eyes from where he’d been watching the moon rise and caught her gaze.
“Your eyes are glowing,” she said unnecessarily.
“You know why. It was probably not wise for you to follow me.”
“It may be our last moments together. Why don’t you want to spend that time with me?”
“Because I want you more than anything I’ve ever wanted in all of my centuries. Because I don’t want to talk with you. Well, I do, but only after I bury myself inside you so deep, I couldn’t ever find my way out. Sarah, you are the mate that I waited for thousands of years ago. I waited for you on the other side of forever, little doctor, and here you are, on this side of it. We were never meant to meet, it seems. Now that we have, I don’t want to give you up.”
