by Dara Nelson
“I knew you were there.” I whispered.
“Yes, I sensed that you did,” he smiled. “I’d heard stories of the linking… but I had never linked with a human in all my years” he said “I really thought I was incapable so I just existed, wandering the earth, doing what I was created for, keeping good people safe but never really caring too much about what I was doing, feeling lost, alone… and then I saw you. I felt the link form instantly. It allowed me to feel everything you were feeling, it pulled me to watch over you.”
“When?” I asked.
“You were four years old, in your front yard running through the sprinkler with a friend.”
“My best friend Jaime,” I smiled at the memory.
“Yes,” he said, “but what you didn’t know was that there was someone nearby, in the bushes, watching you and planning on how he would grab you. I was just walking down the street, pretty miserable and very much alone, when his evil hit me like a sledgehammer. I looked over to find where it was coming from, and I saw you. So young, so innocent, so happy, so alive, so beautiful. It stopped me cold in my tracks, I nearly collapsed, my knees felt weak. For a moment I forgot everything, but then I smelled him again. I urgently searched for the evil that was so close to you, easily finding him in the bushes. I knew what he was planning. He was waiting for your friend to leave so he could grab you and then he was planning on doing unspeakable things to you, things he had done to other young girls before.” He squeezed his eyes shut and shivered at this horrible memory, then continued. “I went over to where he was and startled him. I knew I couldn’t stop him right there because you were too near and might see me, so I followed him. I watched him slither away, down the street. I felt him planning to come back so he could try again, soon. I waited until he was far enough away from you to stop him… stop him from doing this to you or to anyone else ever again. Then I went back to where you were. I was fascinated by this powerful feeling - I knew I couldn’t allow anything to harm you ever. I snuck in to your room when you were gone to memorize your scent and then I faded back to the shadows and became your protector. I finally had a real purpose to my life, I was thrilled. For the first time since I had been turned, I felt happy. I had heard how amazing this link was and now I knew. This was how it was supposed to happen, I had linked. I had found my angel. Of course the link also kept me from getting too close to you, at least at first. That’s how it’s supposed to happen and I was content staying in the background, as the rest of my kind are. It’s easy for us to remain hidden from humans, we move so fast that your eyes rarely see us, in fact it’s difficult for us to move slowly, it actually tires us and it wears us down. So I moved around you, watching you, protecting you. But you always seemed to be looking whenever I was near, like you could sense that I was around. It was odd, but I could feel you searching for me.”
“I was,” I said.
“That was strange for me,” he said. “In all the stories I’ve heard about linking, that has never happened. No humans have ever acted like they could tell they were being watched. You were definitely different, but I tried to tell myself that I was imagining it. I watched you go through school, grow into a beautiful young woman, falling in love and get married, and everything felt normal, felt like it was supposed to. But it was when you had your son that I started to feel something different, something more than protectiveness. I started to feel the link changing.” My heart sputtered when he said this, it would always be painful to think about my baby.
“I had never heard any vampire talk about feeling anything other than protectiveness over their human, never heard that the link could somehow change, that somehow it would allow me to feel something more, that it would actually let me get close. And no one has ever heard of a vampire falling in love with their human, of wanting not only to watch over and protect, but also to talk to them, to touch them, to be with them And never in my over 200 years,” he dropped his eyes when he said this, while I tried not to react. “Did I ever think it could happen to me. The unquestionable love you have for all those around you is something I’ve never seen before. I never knew it existed. Somehow it pulls me towards you, it makes me love you, it makes me want you; it makes me want you to love me too.” He paused for a second, watching me, then smiled and went on.
“When you suffered your devastating loss four years ago, the link changed even more… now, not only was it allowing me to get close to you, but I could feel that it was actually pulling me to you. At first I tried to resist. This really wasn’t how it’s supposed to work, this wasn’t supposed to happen. I contacted all of my friends and none of them had ever heard of this happening. So I fought the pull to go to you. I’ve been fighting that pull ever since then, but I can’t fight it anymore I can no longer deny what has happened to me… and I can no longer stay away from you. I need to talk to you, be near you, touch you. I need you to know me. And I have to offer you the choice of being with me forever. If you accept, I swear I will to find out how to do it. We don’t know how to turn a human,” he said, then smiled at the confused look on my face. “Only The Elders know. Only they decide who is changed, and, up until now, only they could create a vampire. No one knows where they are. We are forbidden to try to contact them for anything. We are never allowed to ask them to change a specific human. If they need us, or when they know we need them, we are summoned and the Enforcers bring us to them. No one, other than me as far as we know, has ever seen even part of the change process. I regained consciousness briefly and looked around before passing out again. The Elders have a large spy network who watch us and they will find us if we break their rules. When they find out what I am trying to do, at the very least I would probably be imprisoned until your life ended naturally. I know I wouldn’t survive that. I couldn’t survive being away from you for that long. You breathe life into me… a funny thought since technically I’m dead… but it’s true. You gave me my heart back. Before you’d even met me, you gave me love. I had to come to you, to tell you how I feel, to ask if you would be willing to join me.”
“Join you?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said softly. “There are tales, rumors, that there are some, a few, out there, besides the Elders, who might have clues to the change process, how to turn a human into a vampire,” he said. “I want to search for them, try to find them, but I can’t seem to go if you don’t want to join me. I don’t ever want to leave your side again. If you choose to stay, I will gladly stay here, by your side. I will love you and protect you until your life reaches its natural end, if that’s what you want. But I had to find out if there was a chance, even a small chance, that you would come with me. I love you Sarah and I can’t bear to be away from you anymore,” he whispered. “I can’t lie to you, it won’t be easy,” he continued, the pain so strong in his eyes that I winced. “We will constantly be on the run. On the run searching for the answers we need and on the run from The Enforcers. I could try to search on my own but I feel very strongly that I need to do this with you by my side. I can’t explain it. It’s just that something tells me that we won’t find the right answers unless we do this together. We may not succeed but hopefully we will find what we’re looking for and hopefully, when they find us, I can eventually convince The Elders to allow us to stay together. And, of course, if you ever change your mind, if you decide that it’s too much for you, we will stop running, stop searching and I’ll bring you home. The Elders won’t punish a human, only me. But no matter where I am and what happens to me I promise to always love you to the depths of my soul.”
He stopped then, unable to continue. If he could cry, he would be right now. Instead he just waited. He waited for me to say something, not sure he wanted to know what I was thinking.
My heart was pounding, my head was spinning. This can’t be real. Did he really just ask me to travel the world with him in the hopes of me staying with him forever? (Of course it meant the whole vampire thing too, but I was trying not to think too much about that right now). A morbid
thought popped into my head. “We’re not going to be leaving a trail of dead bodies or anything, are we?” I said.
He laughed and said,“No sweetheart. There won’t be a trail of dead bodies. There won’t be any dead bodies.” I stared at him, thinking some more. This is too much, too fast I thought. I looked into his eyes and tried to think about it from his perspective. It wasn’t too fast for him. He had wantedthis for a long time. He probably knew me better than I knew myself. It was completely against my nature to react quickly to change - usually I fought it for as long as I could, but what kind of life had I led up till now because of that? Pretty boring and unexciting. I thought about it for another minute, looking around the room. What was I really giving up? I lived my life on auto-pilot now. I had been dead since that horrible day. My heart had shut down completely. Since then I no longer lived, I just existed; so again, what would I really be giving up? My sisters? We’re all very close, but they’re scattered throughout the country, busy with lives and families of their own. This was something more, something thrilling, something I’ve never done before. For the first time in years I felt excitement in my heart, I felt it actually beating. I knew that I loved this man and that I belonged with him. I suddenly knew without a doubt that I would be giving up so much more if I stayed. I had to try this. I couldn’t let him out of my sight. My voice cracked and I had tears in my eyes but I managed to say, “When do we leave?”
I could feel the relief pour out of him. He looked deep in my eyes and I saw incredible passion in his. He weaved his fingers into my hair, gently tilted my head back and began kissing me, hard, parting my lips, his tongue finding mine. I threw off the afghan and pressed myself into him. This was a kiss like the ones in my dreams with him. My body was instantly on fire. I wanted it to last forever, but he knew it couldn’t, not tonight. He gently pushed my face back, smiled at me as I gasped, trying to catch my breath and said, “Tonight, my love.”
He helped me pack quickly then. I wouldn’t need much in the way of clothes. He said he would buy me whatever I needed on the road, but I wanted to bring a few pictures and mementos. I didn’t know how long it would be before I saw my sisters again. He saw the pain in my face as I packed my pictures and he said, “Are you certain about this? We can stop right now. You can get up in the morning and pretend that this was all a dream, your life would be as it was.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” I said softly. “No, my whole life has been about making sure everyone around me was happy and sacrificing my own dreams to make that happen. I can’t remember the last time I was truly happy, when the last time was that I did something for me. Besides,” I smiled with a twinkle in my eye. “I’ve been waiting too long for you to show up, I’m not about to let you go now.”
He smiled and hugged me. When he let go, I flicked on my laptop. “I need to send out some emails to a few folks letting them know I’ll be out of town for a while.” As quickly as I could, with a few tears rolling down my cheeks, but always reassuring him. “I’m okay, I’ll be fine. This is what I want.”
I sent off emails to my sisters (I’ve been given a sudden opportunity to travel the world, I love you and I’ll be in touch as soon as I can) and my boss (I’m really sorry, sudden family emergency, not sure when I’ll be back), then I closed up my laptop and packed it too. “What will happen to my house?” I suddenly asked.
“Don’t worry,” he smiled. “I’ve already arranged for the mortgage and power bill to be paid automatically, and I have friends who will come by and check on it and keep it maintained and looking occupied.”
My eyes twinkled at him, “You seem pretty sure of yourself that I would come.”
“No, not sure, just hopeful.”
I turned off the lights, took one last look around the place, grabbed his hand, said,“Okay, I’m ready,” and closed the door.
He hid the key under the eave and guided me to the garage. “We’re taking my car?” I asked.
“Only over to my house,” he said. “We’ll leave it in my garage and take mine, which is already packed with everything I need.”
He drove around the corner to the end of the block and smiled as I realized where we were going. “You live in the Metzinger house?” I asked. It was only the most beautiful house in town, a one hundredyear old Victorian mansion that was obviously lovingly restored and cared for. I had envied this house ever since I moved into town.
“Yes,” he said. “I bought it when you bought your home ten years ago. I always had to be close to where you were, and this was available.”
“I’ve always wanted to see the inside of it,” I said, the longing clear in my voice.
“Soon, but there’s not time tonight, we really need to get on the road,” he said.
I sighed, maybe someday, I thought.
He pulled up to the garage and left the car running as he unlocked the side door. Once inside, he pressed the button to open the garage door. As soon as the door was halfway up I slumped down in my seat and put my arms across my chest. I was completely embarrassed. He noticed my changed mood as soon as he got back in the car.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Have you changed your mind?”
“No,” I said. “I just can’t believe that you’re going to park my cheap piece of junk next to that,” I said as I pointed to the beautiful brand new Lexus.
“Actually, I’d like that to be yours when we come back, a little present for you,” he smiled and reached over to close my mouth, which was hanging open in shock.
“That’s way too much, Matthew. I couldn’t possibly…” I said, but he put his finger on my lips, stopping me.
He shook his head. “There really is no such thing as too much when it comes to you, Sarah. Please don’t say no right now. Let’s talk about it when we come back, okay?”
I nodded but couldn’t answer, I was still in shock.
He decided to change the subject. “We’re taking the older car tonight,” he said.
“Older car,” I snorted, “What is it, last year’s model?”
“Something like that,” he smiled. He unlocked the Mercedes SUV and put my bags in the back with his.
I climbed into the passenger side and said, “Well, apparently there’s one myth about vampires that is true.”
“Which one?” he asked.
“You all have money,” I said.
“Oh,” he smiled. “Not all of us. But for me it comes from two hundred years of investing well.”
I looked over at him then a cocked my head to one side, studying him and looking puzzled. “What is it?” he asked.
“How old are you exactly?” I asked.
“Two hundred and thirty two,” he said.
“And how old were you when you were turned?” I asked.
“Thirty two,” he said, waiting for the reaction he thought might be coming.
“Great!” I said, the sarcasm clear in my voice. “Even if you figure out how to do this now, I’ll always be the older woman! What will people think when they look at us?”
He took my face in his hands and I swear I felt his eyes penetrate into my soul as he said,“Don’t Sarah. First of all, six years is not that big of a difference. Second, and most important, I could care less what other people think.” Then he kissed me again. A kiss that pressed his lips hard against mine as he passionately found my tongue with his. It was a kiss filled with hunger. A kiss filled with longing. A kiss that definitely yearned for more as his fingers again found their way into my hair.
He pulled away, though, much too soon, I thought, as I tried to get my breathing under control. My mind was reeling. I was thinking - if this is how I felt just from him kissing me then I was really, really going be in trouble if (when, I hoped), it went farther. He smiled at my reaction as he turned and started the car. He backed out of the garage, pushed the button to close the door and we were out on the road. It was 11pm on Wednesday, April 8 and for the first time in a very long time I had no idea where I was going… and I was incr
edibly happy.
Chapter Three
He drove through the night, letting me sleep, fitfully, in the seat next to him. But he constantly found the need to touch me and kept reaching over to touch my hand, stroke my face, and caress my arm, anything to keep in contact with me. And that could explain my fitful sleep, since every time he touched me I got goose bumps and shivered, but he couldn’t help himself. He drove south, through to Oregon. We were in southern Oregon when I woke at dawn withthe sun just peering over the horizon. I looked over at him and smiled, glad that this hadn’t all just been a dream. I brought his hand up to my cheek. “Good morning. Are you hungry?” he said.
“Are you?” I smiled.
He smiled back at me. “I’m fine,” he said
“I could use a quick stop, a bathroom and maybe some food for the road if that’s okay,” I said.
“Of course it’s okay,” he said as he took the next exit and pulled into the nearest fast food joint. “Is this alright?” he asked.
“It’s fine,” I said.
He started to get out to walk me inside, but I put my hand on his arm and smiled, “I think I can handle this part by myself. Can you just wait here a minute?”