The Link

by Dara Nelson

  “What was THAT about?” I laughed.

  “I needed to touch you to make sure you’re really here,” he said.

  “Hmmm, I was just thinking the same thing,” I purred. He leaned in and started kissing me again and within seconds every nerve in my body was awake and responding again. I pulled him on top of me and it wasn’t long before the first of several huge climaxes began rolling through me.

  Much later, as I lay on my back, catching my breath, my arm across my eyes, sweat glistening off my belly, Matt whispered, “Sarah?”

  “Mmmm?” I said.

  “Is it… are you… are they always… ummm… are they always that big? Is this how you…?” he said.

  “What? You mean sex? My… ummm… climaxes?” I said and he nodded.

  “Why?” I grinned. “Is it too much for you?”

  He quickly shook his head, “Oh, hell, no,” he grinned, “You’re really amazing. I was just wondering if you’re always like this or is it because you’ve been alone for a long time.”

  I pulled my arm down and looked at him. “First of all, just because I’ve been alone doesn’t mean I haven’t had any… I do have needs and I have no problems taking care of things on my own, Matt,” I said as he blushed.

  “But to answer your question - yes and no. I’ve always been this way, but I’ve never had this many or reached them so quickly. And that’s not because it’s been a while, I’m pretty sure it’s because of you. You’re my first vampire, but I gotta say, you’re definitely several notches above humans, more than several, when it comes to sex and a lot of other things.”

  “I hope to be your only vampire, Sarah,” he said as he cradled me in his arms.

  I snuggled closer to him and, not realizing how tired I was or how much he had worn me out, I quickly fell back to sleep. The next thing I knew he was gently caressing my forehead and whispering, “Sarah, my love, it’s time to go. We need to go… NOW.”

  My eyes flew open when I heard the urgency in his voice.

  “What’swrong?” I said, as I frantically began searching for my clothes. He grabbed my hands, calming me down, forcing me to look at him.

  “Nothing, yet,” he calmly replied as he started dressing me in the clothes that were right in front of me all along. “The Enforcers have been sent out to investigate and it’s only a matter of time before they reach my house… and then yours, because they know I’m linked to you. At least they don’t know that the linked changed, so they won’t know that we’re together,” he replied.

  I gasped “They won’t hurt my family will they?” I asked as tears began forming in my eyes.

  “No, no,” he replied, stroking my cheek to comfort me. “They wouldn’t want to reveal themselves like that. They will track me, quietly, without bringing attention to themselves.”

  “Oh, is that all,” I rolled my eyes and tried to smile.

  I hurried to the bathroom to take care of necessities, brush my teeth, comb my hair, etc. When I came out he already had everything in the car and was waiting for me by the door. “Shall we?” he said as he held a hand out to me. I started to walk out the door when he suddenly pulled me to him, kissing me hard, his tongue finding mine, my head swimming… at this rate we really wouldn’t get far. He sensed this too and forced himself back. But this time he was gasping too. We wrapped our arms around each other and headed out to the car.

  Chapter Four

  We made it to Mexico by mid-afternoon. He pulled off on a side road and pulled out the oldest looking map I had ever seen. I stared at it, and then my eyes went wide as I saw the date written at the bottom. “Was that map really drawn in 1646?” I asked. “Mmhhhmm,” he replied, still studying the map.

  “That belongs in a museum,” I said.

  “It was,” he replied. I stared at him for a minute, wanting to ask how he got it, then decided against it.

  Instead I asked, “Will it go back when you’re done with it?”

  “Of course,” he said as he carefully folded it up and started driving again.

  We were driving for what seemed forever on a long dirt highway. I started to doze in the front seat when suddenly he made a sharp turn onto a road that was so hidden by trees and shrubs that I never would have seen it myself. “Where are we?”I asked.

  “Just outside of Guaymas, Mexico,” he said. We wound uphill for about a mile then ended at a parking area at a stone wall surrounding a small church. The wooden doors to the courtyard were open now. There was no fear here. He pulled in to the courtyard and parked by the steps to the church.

  He started to get out when I asked, “I gather from our hike that you can go out in the sunlight. Does it affect you at all?”

  “We can go out in the sun, just not for very long because we burn worse than a human, no pigment and all,” he smiled.

  “Huh,” I replied as I reached for the door handle.

  “Ummm, Sarah. I’m really sorry, but I need you to wait here, please,” he said. “This priest might be a little reluctant to speak around a human, especially a female.”

  “Oh,” I said. “But how will I know that you’re okay?” I felt panic creeping in.

  He smiled at me. “This priest will do me no harm,” then he leaned over and kissed me tenderly, lingering just long enough to get me all worked up again.

  When he pulled away, I sarcastically said, “Gee, thanks,” then pouted.

  He smiled at me, his eyes dancing and replied, “My pleasure.” He got out and walked into the church, glancing back at me and smiling one more time before he closed the door.

  I tried to find something to keep me occupied. I dug my cell phone out of my backpack and turned it on. I was a little surprised that it worked down here. It lit up with voicemails. I listened to each one, tearing up when my sister, Cindy, said, “I’m really excited for you Sarah, you deserve this. Have fun… and send pictures!” I pulled out my laptop next and checked my emails, answering the few that I could, then I closed it up and put it away.

  Inside Matthew was negotiating with the priest, which involved three things. First, Matt had to open his mind completely to him so the priest could be certain Matt hadn’t been sent here as a trap, this one took a few hours. Second, a large cash ‘contribution’ to the church fund. And third, a blood sample. Matt didn’t ask what this was for; he really didn’t want to know. He walked out of there with a wooden container that had a red powder in it, and the knowledge that this powder was to be sprinkled on the scars -- what scars he had no clue.

  While Matt had been with the priest, I got bored in the car so I closed my eyes and put my head back. When I opened them next I was startled and disoriented because it was dark outside. Dark? We got here at three p.m., how could it be dark so quickly? Where was Matthew? I started to panic I looked around, trying to figure out what to do, when, just like in the hotel room, he was suddenly there, smiling and pulling me to him. I relaxed into him instantly, my fear and panic gone, and allowed him kiss me, knowing it would take my breath away, knowing it would bring me to the brink of no return but also knowing it would have to stop. I just didn’t care anymore.

  He did just that, kissing me until I thought my only option was going to be to climb over the armrest and take him right there in the car, but then he pulled away, smiling as I gasped, trying to catch my breath. He smirked as he said, “It’s really getting harder and harder to stop.”

  I smiled and said, “Good. Because I really don’t like it when you stop,” and I sank back in the seat. I never wanted him to stop, ever.

  He shook his head and laughed as he started the car and headed back to the road. We drove in silence for a while then I couldn’t wait anymore. “Were you able to find anything?” I asked.

  “Yes,” was all he replied but he was strangely quiet and tense.

  I waited another minute before asking, “Well, are you going to tell me?” He stepped on the brakes and brought the car to a sudden stop on the side of the deserted dirt road.

  He turned
to me, his eyes pleading, “Sarah, honey, each place we go, each person we find might have a piece of the puzzle. But it’s a piece, just a piece. We can’t be tempted to try to figure out what the puzzle is without having what we hope are ALL of the pieces. I know that you could easily tempt me, persuade me, if you wanted to,” I smiled at this as he continued, “but if we tried and I got it wrong, it would mean the end, the end of BOTH of us and I can’t have that, I won’t have that. So, please, PLEASE let’s just wait until we’re as certain as we can be that we have them all. Then we can try to figure them out, together, okay?”

  I looked at him, knowing he was right, knowing how tempted I would be to try to figure it out if I knew some of the answers, and I nodded and lightly kissed him, letting him know I was okay with his request.

  He kissed me back, hard this time and I quickly reached that point of no return. I braced myself for the end that I knew was coming (we were in the car after all, on a deserted road, in Mexico) when, in one fell swoop he moved his seat back with one hand and pulled me over to him with the other. My heart soared then, knowing he wasn’t going to stop this time (after all, we were in a car, on a DESERTED road, in Mexico) and I threw everything into this moment.

  We were back on the road a while later, holding hands, fingers entwined, and smiles that we couldn’t seem to erase. It was late, I was getting tired again and hungry (and I wondered again when he would “eat”). He pulled in to a small hotel that had a restaurant in front of it with a neon sign advertising “Cerveza.” Mmmm, a cold beer would be very nice, I thought. Once again, as if reading my mind, he pulled me towards the restaurant first. We went in and sat down this time. Oddly, when the waitress came over, she took one look at Matthew, slightly nodded her head and turned to me, asking me what I would like and never bothering to ask him. Almost as if she knew he wasn’t going to order, like she’d seen vampires in here before. I ordered that cold beer and a chicken enchilada. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I had devoured the entire basket of chips before she had even brought my food. I grinned at him, embarrassed, and said, “I’m usually not this much of a pig.”

  He laughed and whispered, “Well, you HAVE been getting quite a lot of… hmmm… exercise lately.” I blushed three shades of pink.

  He reached over and touched my cheek. “Beautiful,” was all he said. The waitress brought my food and despite the big basket of chips, I easily finished my enchilada and washed it down with a second ice cold beer. He paid the check then, giving the waitress an extra hefty tip, and walked to the hotel office with his arm around my shoulder. He paid cash for the room, a little extra so we could get the room on the end “a little more private” he winked at me, and I blushed again. We parked the car in front of the room and he carried the bags into the room. He put a few bottled waters in the fridge and then, strangely, he checked the microwave. I sort of wondered why, because we didn’t have anything to cook, but I didn’t say anything.

  I told him I was going to grab a quick shower and went in to the bathroom. I was in there for a minute before a realized that I’d forgotten my shampoo. I started to open the door, but something stopped me. I glanced through the crack in the door and saw him pulling something out of the microwave. He turned so he was facing me, and I shrunk back, afraid that he had seen me. But I looked again and realized that his eyes were closed, and he was sniffing deeply what could only be a pint of blood, the kind you get from the blood bank. I relaxed for a moment, thinking he would, you know, pour it into a glass and drink it, but he just inhaled with this eyes closed, like he was waiting for something. Suddenly his eyes flew open, violent eyes, the black eyes of an uncontrolled monster and then, for the first time, I saw his fangs. If I had blinked I would have missed it. In the instant his eyes flew open, his fangs dropped down, stuck in to the bag and he drained it. Just like that. In the same amount of time it would take me to snap my fingers. And then, in the next instant, he blinked and his eyes were normal, the fangs were gone and he quickly dropped the completely empty bag into the trash. I wasn’t sure what to do then, wasn’t sure if I should say anything, was just deciding that I wouldn’t when I noticed that he was staring at me with a look of horror on his face. I went to him quickly, but he turned away, as if he was ashamed. I pulled his face back to me, looked deep into his eyes and whispered, “It’s okay, really it is.”

  He frowned and stammered, “I… I… I… wasn’t ready for you to see that…”

  I gently pushed him until he sat on the edge of the bed, I needed to look directly into his eyes when I responded and I couldn’t do that if he was standing. I cupped his face between my hands and said, “Look, we don’t know how long it’s going to take us to track down these clues. It could take months, years even. I don’t want you out of my sight for any longer than you absolutely have to be, so that means we will know everything about each other, everything that’s the same between us and everything that’s different. You have to believe me when I tell you that there’s absolutely nothing about you that frightens me. I love you, Matthew Pearl, with all of my heart and soul, with all that I am, and nothing you do will ever change that.”

  And I kissed him, showing him that I didn’t care what had just been in his mouth, that I didn’t care that he had sucked down that blood faster than I could blink, that I wasn’t wondering ‘if he could drain a pint that fast how quickly could he drain a human?’ Actually, I was kind of wondering that one but I didn’t let him know that).

  He pulled away then and softly said,“I love you too Sarah,” and then he buried his face in my chest, his body shaking, as if he was sobbing.

  I wrapped my arms around him and kissed the top of his head. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” I said, “Everything will be alright. We’re going to get through this.”

  He looked up at me with the saddest eyes I have ever seen, “How can you be so sure?”

  My face softened. “Because we’re here, we’re together and everything good that happens from here on is only icing on the cake. If this all ends tomorrow, I’ll be happy, because we had today.” He grabbed me and started kissing me then and it was only a moment before I realized I wasn’t going to get my shower tonight.

  I woke the next morning with the sun streaming through the window. I yawned loudly andstretched, saw him next to me and smiled. He was smiling too. He gently caressed my stomach and I stared at him. “What time is it?” I asked.

  “Ten o’clock,” he answered.

  I shot up, almost smashing my head on his chin (that would have meant bleeding and stitches for sure, wonder how he would have reacted) and said,“Shouldn’t we be on the road by now? Won’t they be looking here soon?”

  “Relax,” he smiled. “I just spoke to Miguel, he’s another friend of mine. They haven’t figured out what’s going on yet. All they know is that I’ve gone missing. My friends are all telling them different things - I’ve gone underground in Croatia, I’m living in an ice cave in Alaska, I’m on a deserted island in the South Pacific - they’re confused and not sure what to do next. Vampires go out on their own all the time. We lead a lonely existence as it is, so why not live alone? We can survive off of animal blood. But because animals don’t have evil in them, it means no fangs. No fangs means we have to slice them open and just drink their blood. It sustains us and keeps us alive but with no fangs it means we live but over time we lose our strength. For some reason that’s never explained to us, the blood must pass through our fangs to maintain our strength. If it doesn’t, we become almost human, if we fall our bones can break. It’s actually pretty frightening for us, but if we’re alone it doesn’t really matter that much.”

  “How long do you think that will keep them off track?” I asked.

  “Not long, they’ll separate, scatter, and check everywhere fairly quickly. When they discover that I still can’t be found, they’ll regroup and decide where to go from there.”

  “How long?” I asked again.

  “A week, maybe two,” he said.

 
; I felt the panic begin to rise, and forced it back down. A week, maybe two, was better than no more time together at all. “Okay,” I said and started to climb off the bed.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he said as he pushed me back down.

  “Well, I was going to go take that shower that I didn’t get last night,” I said.

  “Not yet,” he said, “I know you have some questions for me first.”

  Questions, what questions, why did he think I had… oh… those questions, how does he DO that????