“True,” Michael agreed as he continued to walk toward them. Behind him, his army of twenty or more vampires filled the pews of the church. She eyed them suspiciously, until Michael brought her attention back to him. “You see, Kacie—it is Kacie, isn’t it? I didn’t recognize you the other night. I apologize. As I was saying—you see, it’s important to have a code by which one lives. Without honor and integrity, we are nothing. Live by honor; die by honor.” He turned his gaze on Erik. “You used to live by the same code.”
“I still do,” Erik said grimly. “Only this time, my definition of honor differs from yours.”
Michael’s eyes grew brighter. “Turn her over to me, Erik,” he said, sounding very grave. “I promise you that her death will be quick and painless.”
Kacie’s breath caught in her throat and she automatically stepped closer to Erik. He stood tall, with his feet apart, and reached behind with one arm to give her a reassuring hug. “Yours won’t be if you harm her.”
The two vampires studied each other for the longest time and then Michael shrugged. “Okay. I guess we’ll wait.”
Kacie didn’t understand. Judging from the expressions on the other vampires’ faces, they didn’t either, especially as Michael sat down in the pew closest to him.
“What’s going on?” she asked Erik in a whisper.
“Michael is hoping to wait us out,” he said simply. “You’re wasting your time,” Erik said in a louder voice to Michael. “Unlike you, I’m not afraid to die.”
Kacie looked around and realized for the first time that the tops of the walls were lined with windows. When the sun came up, the chapel would be flooded with light—and she’d be alone with a room full of stone statues.
“Come on,” one of the vampires cried from the back. “Let’s kill them now. They can’t go anywhere.”
Michael held up his hand for silence. “Who said that?” he demanded, standing to look around.
“I did,” one man in the back said. “Why are we waiting? This is stupid.”
Michael stood, the expression on his face not one Kacie ever wanted to see directed at her. “Do you think so?” She watched him walk over to the other man while the others seemed to visibly shrink back. “When I say I don’t want to shed blood in a church,” he explained with exaggerated politeness, “I consider that a euphemism for death in general—whether or not actual blood is spilled. Do you think you understand?”
The other vampire looked confused. “Are we killing them or not?”
Michael shook his head. “You see, Erik?” he said over his shoulder. “So many of the old codes have been lost.” Michael’s fist shot out, catching the man across the jaw with a punch so hard, his neck snapped to the side. Even from where Kacie stood, she could see the man’s eyes roll up into his head before he slumped to the floor. She didn’t think he was dead, just unconscious. “Everyone outside,” Michael ordered. “And take him.” He pointed to the man lying on the ground. “I’m not finished with him.”
Kacie watched as the group rose and filed outside. She couldn’t believe they were actually leaving; was afraid to hope. When only Michael remained, he turned back to them. “Honor—it’s a two-edged sword, isn’t it? I’m afraid you’ve left me no choice.” He walked to the double doors and then stopped. “In the end, all you’ve done is delay the inevitable. Good-bye, my friend.”
After he left, Kacie felt the tension leave Erik’s body. He turned around and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
She looked from him to the door and then back again. “Is that it? He left? It’s over?” She knew it couldn’t be true, but hoped it was.
“No, he’s outside—waiting.”
She gripped the front of his shirt. “You’re not going outside, are you?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m staying here.”
“Then why is he waiting?”
He gave her a sad smile and suddenly, she understood. “He’s there to make sure we don’t leave, is that it? And when the sun comes up . . .” she looked around with growing despair. There seemed to be nowhere in the chapel to hide from the sunlight. “What are we going to do? We can’t stay here—”
He placed a finger against her lips. “Hush, love. Everything will be fine.”
She looked up into his dark brown eyes staring at her with such affection and knew that the talk about a code of honor and sacrificing his life to save hers wasn’t just talk. The rest of Michael’s words sank in. “He knew you’d stay here. He’s going to wait until just before sunrise to leave and then it’ll be too late. We’ll never get home in time and you’ll . . .” She couldn’t bear the thought of it. “I’m so sorry, Erik. I’m so, so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but I . . .” Tears gathered in her eyes. “I don’t want you to die.”
“Don’t cry,” he begged, cupping her face with both hands and using his thumbs to wipe away her tears. Then he lowered his head and kissed her.
It started out slow and gentle—unassuming—demanding nothing. Then, as if they both realized this might be their last kiss, the tone changed and it became more urgent. The world around her ceased to exist. There was only Erik, his body crushed against hers; his lips tasting hers, devouring hers . . .
“No,” she rasped out, pulling away suddenly. “Not here. Not like this.” She took an unsteady breath. “We have to think.”
He stared at her with an awed expression on his face and brushed the back of his hand lightly down her cheek. “Aw, Kacie. Our timing has always been bad, hasn’t it?”
Yes, it always has, she thought, blinking rapidly to clear the sudden moisture from her eyes. She knew crying wouldn’t help—and would only make it harder for Erik—so she started walking around the chapel while she reined in her emotions. She didn’t want him to die. She wouldn’t let him die.
Harnessing her resolve, she studied every piece of furniture and item of décor in the chapel, looking for anything she could use to keep the sunlight from Erik when the sun rose.
“Can you sneak out?” she asked him after a while. “I could stay here and just walk home after dawn.”
Erik walked over to the only door of the church and opened it. A second later he closed it. “No. Michael has his men encircling the place. This is the only exit and he’s got it blocked. I’m afraid I’m here until dawn chases them away.”
“Maybe you could race out as soon as they left. There’s bound to be some cover close by.”
“And if there’s not, I’ll be stuck outside. At least here, I die in a church.”
“No. I’m not going to let that happen. Think harder. There has to be a way out of this.”
For the next couple of hours, they discussed their options, but it always came back to the same thing. They had to stay at the chapel until dawn.
“Okay, if that’s our only option, we’ll make the best of it. How long do we have until dawn, can you tell?”
He looked grim. “Not long.”
“A couple of hours?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. More like thirty minutes.”
“What?” Panic almost crippled her thinking. She wasn’t ready. She glanced up at the windows and saw that the night sky had lightened considerably. She ran to the door of the chapel and looked outside, only to see that Michael and his army still stood sentry.
Closing the door, she studied the altar once more. The drape over the altar wasn’t even as long as Erik was tall. It might provide some coverage, but not enough. She lifted it to see if there was any open space beneath the altar and saw that it was a solid block of wood. She looked across the room and studied the rows of pews. Slowly, an idea came to her.
“Kacie, before it’s too late, I think we should talk,” Erik started.
“No,” she interrupted him. “I don’t want to hear it. You’re not going to die, so we can talk later. Right now, I need you to get on the other side of this pew.”
He looke
d like he wanted to argue with her, but she gave him a stern look and watched as he slowly started walking.
“Today, Winslow. Get the lead out.”
He gave her a look that said he was merely tolerating her tone, but he did as she asked. “What do you want me to do?”
“Lift up your end. These benches are heavy.”
He used one hand to lift his end almost over his head, making it look easy.
“Show-off,” she quipped. “We’re carrying it up to the altar.”
Erik put the pew back down. “I’m not defacing the church.”
“You’re not. Spraying paint on the walls would be defacing. We’re not hurting anything.” Yet. “Now help me, please.”
They carried the pew up to the altar and set it on its side, so that the back of the pew formed a right angle to the altar.
“Let’s get the next one,” she said, glancing up at the windows and seeing how much lighter it had grown outside. “We’ve got to hurry, Erik.”
He shook his head. “When I envisioned my death, I saw it as doing something nobler than rearranging furniture.”
“We’re building a fort.”
He glanced at her. “Excuse me?”
She gave an exasperated sigh as they carried the next pew to the front. “Didn’t you ever play fort as a kid? Where you rearrange the furniture into a miniature fort?” They stacked the second pew on top of the first and she stepped back to examine it. The two backs were fairly flush and there was little light coming in.
Erik looked at the two pews, then gave her a speculative glance before looking over at the other pews. She could see him counting them as she had, judging that there were enough to build the sides up and still lay a couple across the top to form a box.
“And the drape?” he asked.
“To cover yourself, just in case we aren’t able to block all the light.” She looked at him expectantly, holding her breath to see what he thought of the plan.
She followed his gaze when he looked at the window. The sky was a light gray. “Stand back,” he ordered her. Then he raced around the room faster than she could have moved, lifting the pews by himself and setting them down exactly as she’d imagined it in her head.
He finished just as the first ray of sun shot over the windowsill. “Erik!”
He dived for the center of the fort and crouched close to the altar. She rushed over there, grabbed the drape and snapped it out to cover him.
Then the sun was up and light was filling the chapel. “Erik?” She couldn’t stand the thought of him turning to stone.
“I’m okay.” He sounded surprised and she wanted to laugh until she cried, though she did neither.
“All right. Don’t move.” She rolled her eyes at her own choice of words. “I’ll be right back.”
“Kacie! Where are you going?”
“I’m going to find a way to get us home—both of us—alive and well. We have to leave during the day or Michael and the others will be back and we’ll be trapped here forever.”
“Kacie.” She heard the worry and fear in his tone and it sounded so foreign coming from the man she knew him to be that it tore at her heart.
“You once asked me if I trusted you. Now I’m asking you to trust me.”
There was a long pause and then she heard him sigh. “Be careful.”
“I will.”
She rushed down the aisle and opened the door just enough to slip outside. As expected, Michael and the rest had disappeared. She was alone in the early morning sun and she raised her face to it, grateful for both the light and the heat. She wished she could stand there for hours and just let the sun warm her, but she thought of Erik, sitting inside, alone; vulnerable.
Looking around, she saw the funeral home next door and hurried over to it. The place appeared to be empty. She tried one of the doors and found it locked. Hurrying around the side, she tried each door until she finally found one that was open. Inside, the cool air hit her and, after the brightness of the sun, she was temporarily blinded.
She listened for sounds of anyone who might be around, but all seemed quiet. She looked around, not even sure what she was looking for. Maybe a phone, to call a cab. Then again, maybe not. The last experience was still too fresh in her mind. Besides, if Michael had known enough to send a fake cab to the castle when she called for one, he’d certainly find a way to arrange for a fake cab to come to the chapel. No, she needed some other mode of transportation.
She walked through the rooms, one at a time, starting with the front office. There was nothing there but a desk, computer, paperwork, shelves of books, a key rack, fabric samples . . . she stopped. She wasn’t sure what all the keys went to, but plucked them off the rack to take with her, just in case, and then hurried to the next room.
This was the demo room, with four different caskets sitting open for inspection. She stepped up to one to take a closer look. Caskets were supposed to be airtight, weren’t they? Airtight, in this case, would also mean sealed tight so as not to let in any light.
She raced to the next room, the seeds of an idea germinating in her mind. When she passed the window, she stopped, looked out, and smiled. Yes. She definitely had a solid plan.
She went outside and tried each key until she found the one that opened the hearse. She climbed inside and looked around. It was dark, but there was too much light coming in through the windows, so Erik couldn’t just sit in the back as she’d hoped, but it didn’t matter. She had that covered.
Going back inside, she went through the rest of the building until she found what she needed. Then she got to work. When she had everything loaded, she climbed into the hearse and drove it to the chapel, parking as close to the door as she could.
Going around to the back of the vehicle, she opened the doors wide, reached in and tugged on the casket she’d taken from the demo room. As it slid out, the wheeled legs of the gurney it was on automatically dropped and locked into place.
Once it was out, she pushed it up the handicap ramp and, after propping the door open, right into the chapel.
“Erik? Are you still here?”
“What the hell do you think?” His surly voice had never sounded so good to her.
“I think you’ll be in a better mood once you’re home, so I hope you’re ready to go because have I got a ride for you.”
Chapter 9
We’re almost there.”
Erik heard Kacie’s voice call to him where he lay in the back of the hearse. He was in the casket with his face covered by the drape they’d “borrowed” from the church. He gave her credit for creativity. Though he wasn’t crazy about riding in a casket—it was a little too Lon Chaney for him—it had kept the light off him.
She’d rolled the casket right next to the fort and then made a tunnel to it using a couple of additional pews that she’d dragged over and the sheets she’d taken from the funeral home. She’d called it a modification of the “fort” game, which she called “tent.”
He knew she’d never played either game growing up at the castle and when he’d asked her about them, she mumbled something about watching Ben’s nieces and nephews play. The mention of the man’s name had not helped Erik’s disposition any, but when he’d opened his mouth to ask her about him, she’d closed the lid of the casket, effectively silencing him.
Now he felt the hearse slow down and come to a stop. Kacie’s voice shouted to him from the front. “We’re home. Can you lower the viewing lid yourself?”
“Yes.” He steeled himself against the feeling of claustrophobia and told himself that he wasn’t suffocating. Besides, it wouldn’t be much longer.
A minute or two later, he felt the casket moving. They’d already discussed how to get it into his apartment and when he felt it stop, he knew she was running around to the stable for the planks of wood she’d use to make a ramp down the steps leading to the door of his apartment.
He still worried about how she was going to get him inside because the casket with him in i
t was much too heavy for her to control should it start to fall, but she’d told him not to worry about it, so, again, he’d decided to trust her.
It seemed to be taking her a very long time and with the sun being up the way it was, he was tired. He must have fallen asleep because suddenly, he was jolted awake by the sound of a loud motor. There was a grating sound at one end of his casket, followed by a muttered curse that could only be Kacie’s. A moment later, he felt the casket tilt and slowly move downhill. He hit the bottom with a decided jolt and then he was moving again.
The next time he stopped, there was a knock on the outside of the casket. “You alive in there?”
He rolled his eyes at her choice of words and was about to answer when the lid was lifted and she plucked the sheet from his face. He blinked a couple of times to get used to the light and then opened his eyes to see Kacie’s smiling face looking down at him. “Hey there.”
“Hey, yourself,” he said with a smile. “I take it we’re inside?”
She stepped back and waved her hand around the room. “Safe and sound.”
With her help, he lifted the lower lid of the casket and climbed out, grateful to move about again. “What was that loud noise I heard?” he asked her, noticing the fresh, deep scratches in the wood beneath the handle of the casket.
“I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to control the gurney once it was on the ramp. Be too bad to get all the way back here only to have it take off and crash. Then I remembered your new winch and cable. I’ve never used something like that before and had a little trouble at first, but I figured it out.”
“You drove my Hummer?”
“Out of everything I just told you, that’s your big concern?” she teased. “Yes, I drove your Hummer. Had to. Nice ride, by the way. I like it.”
He shook his head in awe. “Remind me to never underestimate you.” He was still holding the altar drape in his hand and tossed it into the casket. “I guess I’ll return all of this to the church tonight.”
Kacie frowned. “I don’t know, Erik. I kind of think you should keep it. Next time you invite a woman into your place and she asks if you have a coffin, you can say yes.”
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