“I know … unfortunately,” he scowled. “What do you want to eat?”
“A cheeseburger,” she told him mischievously. She knew that he would have much preferred to go in search of a rabbit, and cook it over a fire for her.
“A cheeseburger?” Darrien drew his brows together. “And which hamburger stand did you want my dear? The one at mile marker 128 … or the joint near mile marker 150?”
Sarah stuck her tongue out at him and giggled. “I can wait until the next town.”
A wicked gleam entered his eyes and he started moving toward her. “I don’t know if I can wait that long to eat.”
Sarah laughed and backed away from him, but Darrien quickly tackled her to the ground. “You would be a nice little scrap to tide me over,” he whispered.
Sarah placed her hands on both sides of his face, and peered into his dark eyes. “I love you.”
The laughter fled from his eyes. “I know you do,” he told her, and then his lips devoured hers as he kissed her hungrily.
Sarah pulled away so that she could catch her breath. “Darrien … I don’t want to live without you.” The tightness in her throat made it nearly impossible to say the words.
Darrien rolled off of her and sat up. “Sarah, please don’t ask me to do it again. I love you too much to see you die, or to witness the ravages of time take you from me.”
“But what about what I feel? Doesn’t that matter?” Sarah shot back angrily.
“Yes, of course it does.”
“Then stay with me Darrien. There has to be a way for you to turn me. Maybe that would make you feel better about it, but do not make me endure life without you,” Sarah pleaded.
“We should be going,” Darrien told her as he stood up.
Sarah frowned. With a sigh, she began gathering the few belongings that she’d been able to bring with her.
Every time she brought up the subject, Darrien would clam up on her and become distant. Sarah was finally beginning to see how her mother could have been so possessed with her need, that she would risk anything to be with the man she loved.
Suddenly a thought occurred to her. “I know that you mentioned my father, but you didn’t say anything about my mother. Is she with him?”
“I don’t know anything about her,” Darrien told her, but he would not meet her eyes.
“Darrien I can feel it … you are lying. What do you know about my mother?”
“That is something that you need to bring up with your father. It isn’t my place.”
Without saying anymore, Sarah continued to watch him. He was hiding something from her, and from the look on his face she suspected that whatever he was keeping from her, was not pleasant.
* * * *
The rope around his neck made it impossible to move without cutting off the blood flow to his brain. According to myth, the vampire does not live, so there is no blood flow. If only that were true he would really be invulnerable. Unfortunately for Dash, the slayers knew which myths were true and which were simply stories told over hundreds of years - years in which the human population had grown to hate and fear the creatures of the night.
In the flickering candlelight, the chapel above the catacombs of St. Domitilla seemed far more sinister than holy.
“You must listen to me,” Dash’s voice was weak as the slayer pulled the noose tighter.
The end of the rope was draped over the rafters above the altar. When they tired of torturing him, they could simply pull on the rope and hang him until he lost consciousness. They would then decapitate him and burn his remains. This way they could be sure that he would not reanimate.
When Dash had emerged from the catacombs below, and entered the chapel in search of help for Nicole, the two men came out of nowhere. They were slayers, the worst kind of killers. They killed mercilessly if you were a vampire.
With the two slayers was a priest, and though he was an older man, he was no less formidable. It was the priest that had recognized him for a vampire, when Nicole approached the man to ask him about Alec. Though Dash had hung back, what he was had been obvious to the priest. But Dash hadn’t guessed that the man was also a slayer.
“My friend is in trouble down there.” His words were cut off as one of the slayers pulled the rope tight.
The priest’s hard eyes rested on Dash’s face. “Why would we care what happens to a vampire? You are the spawn of Satan, and we must send you back to the hell from which you came.”
“I know of no Satan,” Dash strained against the unyielding noose, forcing the words from his mouth. “And hell … hell is the curse of eternal darkness.”
“Repent now! Beg God to have mercy on your soul!” the priest roared.
A laugh escaped his dry and injured throat. “Sorry … I did that a long time ago.”
An instant after the last word left his mouth, a spray of holy water hit him in the face, but his flesh did not blister and burn.
“Please! Destroy me if you must, but help my friend. She is no vampire and her life is in danger.”
Father Rovati motioned with his hand for the slayers to loosen the noose’s hold on Dash’s neck.
“Is this some trick?” he asked Dash.
“She’s in the catacombs. We were ambushed by these … these things. I hesitate to call them vampires,” he added.
“What kind of rubbish is this?” The priest’s anger surfaced.
“She is searching for the one that talked with you about the Book of Anu.”
The priest seemed to withdraw, silently contemplating Dash’s words.
“How many?” Father Rovati finally asked.
“Two that I know of. They drug her away and I could not keep up. When I searched for her, she was gone. I think they have her hidden,” Dash explained, his face twisting into a painful grimace. The effort to speak was almost too much - the pain too great.
“Why would you care what happens to her?” Rovati narrowed his eyes, suspicious of Dash’s words.
“She’s my friend,” Dash told him.
The priest’s eyes rested on the two slayers that had accompanied him into the chapel. “Let him go. He can lead us to these other vampires, and the girl.”
Chapter Seventeen
Alec shook uncontrollably - the grief and the self-loathing too much to endure. Tears spilled from his eyes as he stared down at the unmoving form in his arms. She was so pale - so lifeless. He knew it would only be a matter of moments before she succumbed to the ultimate sleep. Death would claim her, and it was he that had brought it to her.
This is what Julia wanted. She wanted him to feel this self-hate and disdain for what he was. She was amused by the fact that it would ultimately be his hunger that would steal the last breath of his humanity.
A small amount of blood still oozed from the wound on her breast, it lay scarlet against her pale skin. The sight did not invoke his hunger, only the pain of knowing that he had killed the only person that mattered to him. He had doused the single flicker of light that had still illuminated his world of darkness.
His hunger had been too great. He had tried to withdraw from her, but his need to feed had consumed him. When he’d finally come to his senses, Nicole had grown limp and pale - her life essence nearly gone. She’d sacrificed herself to ease his suffering, but the pain of taking her life was far greater than the agony of starvation could ever be.
Alec closed his eyes so that he would not need to see her face as she died. But even then he could still see her beautiful - pale face in his mind’s eye. Nothing would take away this moment. He did not even have the blissful nothingness of death to look forward to.
Nicole’s breath rattled deep within her chest, and with one last gasp it, was gone.
Alec cradled Nicole’s body while she suffered through the throes of death. The only way he could have saved her was to turn her, but he knew that is not what she would want. How could he condemn her to the same hell that he wished to end for himself?
* * * *
&
nbsp; Nicole looked down on the scene below. She saw her own body and Alec’s unbearable grief. She could feel his pain and wanted to comfort him, but he was oblivious to her presence.
She knew her body had died, but somehow that didn’t matter. All that mattered to her was the pain that her death was causing to the man that was her heart - the one being that had mattered to her more than life itself.
Nicole drifted down from the ceiling and reached out to touch him, but her hand went through his arm. She was nothing more than energy now. He would never hear her words again, nor feel her touch.
“Nicki.” The small voice seemed to come from everywhere at the same time. It surrounded her with warmth.
There was a golden light - a light so bright that it should have blinded her, but she no longer had her mortal eyes. She looked upon the light with the eyes of the dead. Silhouetted in that light, was the form of a small boy. Nicole knew it was her little brother, Jay. She could feel the love within him radiate toward her - showering her soul with a love so complete that it could not be experienced in life.
“Jay,” Nicole called to him - not with her mortal voice, but with her mind.
Then he was there - standing right in front of her. As he held out his small hand to her, it occurred to Nicole that he appeared as beautiful and healthy as he had in life, maybe even more so.
“Nicki … you should not be here.” His small voice was just as she remembered it, but so crystal clear, and loving that she knew it was truly the voice of an angel.
“I’ve missed you so much.” Nicole’s words were pure thought, but she could still hear them in her head as if she were speaking them.
Jay shook his head. “Come with me.”
The instant Nicole took his hand she was gone from the tomb where her life had ended, but the part of her soul that could not let go of Alec, yearned to stay behind.
“Come Nicki … come and see.” Jay’s voice was a melody of heaven. For so long his voice had been inaudible to her in life, and she could not help but submerge herself in it now.
Then she was somewhere else. It was dark, but flickering candlelight cut through that darkness. On the stone floor, a young girl lay curled up in a ball, sleeping. Right now the girl was alone, but Nicole sensed that someone had been there. The darkness of the immortal still hung in the air like a black fog that no light could penetrate.
“Your sister,” Jay told her.
“Why do you show me this now?”
As soon as the thought formed, he was answering her.
“Her name is Sarah. She can hear you … she can help you.”
“Sarah,”
As quickly as the name entered Nicole’s thoughts, the girl blinked rapidly and opened her eyes.
* * * *
Dash walked ahead of the slayers, a rope wrapped around his upper body to keep him from trying to escape. Every few moments one of them would prod him with a wooden staff that they each carried with them.
Never before had he come this close to a slayer. Father Rovati was in the lead, carrying a torch to help light the way. If the vampires were still in the catacombs, the priest would see them first, but he seemed to have no fear of the immortals.
“Hey father, do you think it such a good idea to go ahead of us?” Dash asked.
“They can take my life but not my soul. That is all that I need worry about.”
Dash wished that he had the confidence of the priest, but he knew better. The vampires could take your body and soul - at least to the point that heaven no longer mattered - if it existed at all.
“How much further?” Rovati asked him.
Up ahead of them, Dash saw that the tunnel curved to the right. “It was just after that turn that they grabbed her. They drug her for a bit before I lost them.” Just as he spoke the last word, Dash felt the air stir in front of him, and he heard Father Rovati cry out.
There was a blur of movement and he saw the priest pull a machete from his robes. With liquid-smooth movement, the blade cut through the vampire’s neck, and his head rolled to the ground.
Just beyond the light of the torch, there was more movement and the two slayers moved past Dash to run into the darkness. The sounds of struggle echoed through the tunnels, and Dash felt the dread of someone that would soon be facing his executioner. If the slayers failed, he would be killed as a traitor.
To lead a slayer to another vampire was an unforgivable sin among the immortals. He’d only done it to save Nicole, but that wouldn’t matter in the end. None of it really mattered. Even if the slayers did kill the vampires, the humans would destroy him. The only real difference being that if he were killed by the slayers, death would be quick - not so with the immortals.
The howling scream of a vampire could be heard over the commotion ahead of them. There was another scream. This scream was different - it was a scream of pure anguish, and with that scream the howling of a single word - a name.
Nicole.
* * * *
Sarah stared at the vapor-like image that peered at her from a dark corner of the tomb. The woman’s black hair was in contrast to her extremely pale face. The white-translucent color of her skin was unusual, even for a ghost. The dark eyes that stared back at Sarah were like orbs of night. But unlike the emptiness or anger that Sarah usually encountered with earth bound spirits, the woman’s eyes were curious. There was something else in the girl’s eyes that Sarah found unsettling - fear.
Sarah pushed herself into a sitting position, thinking that as soon as she moved the specter would disappear, but it didn’t.
“Sarah.” The woman’s voice seemed to come from far away, as if she were on a phone call with a bad connection.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Sarah asked.
Though she had been dealing with spirits her entire life, it always startled her when one showed up next to her while she was sleeping.
“I am Nicole … your sister.”
Lex’s words suddenly came back to her. She had sisters - two of them. They had to fight some conspiracy her uncle was perpetrating.
How could they do that if one of them was dead?
“This is important,” the woman told her. “You must do something for me … and do it quickly.”
“What?” Sarah asked, worried about what she would be asked to do. Most often the dead wanted her to make contact with the living, but Sarah knew she was in no position to do so right now. Not with Omar’s vamps hunting her.
“Call my phone.” Nicole’s voice was hollow, but still the urgency of the request was clear. “Give a message to the person that answers the phone.”
Sarah’s thoughts went to the phone in her purse. Darrien had asked her to turn it off. He worried that they would be tracked through the GPS system built into her mobile. If they had found a way to track her through her mobile, it could be very risky to turn it on.
“Please!” The ghostly voice begged. “You are the only person that can help me.”
Sarah shrugged and reached for her purse. Somehow she doubted that Omar had turned to technology to find her. From everything she had heard, this vampire seemed to be someone stuck in the past - refusing to accept anything that is new or different.
Pulling the phone from her purse, she held down the on button. A moment later the screen came to life, but there was no reception.
“I’m not getting any service,” she told her sister’s ghost.
“Go outside.”
Sarah got to her feet and walked quickly to the entrance of the tomb. Pushing the door open, she stepped out into the night. All around her were monuments to the dead, stark white tombs against a black sky.
From the corner of her eye she saw the movement of shadow. She jumped and was ready to flee when Darrien stepped out from behind a nearby crypt.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Making a phone call,” she told him as she looked around for the ghost that had urged her to go outside.
“I’m still here,” Nicole
whispered in her ear. Sarah could hear her, but now she couldn’t see her.
“Now what?” Sarah asked.
“What do you mean?” Darrien stepped closer, but Sarah held up her hand to stop him.
“I’m not talking to you,” she told him.
“What do you mean you’re not talking to me? Who are you talking to then?
Sarah wasn’t listening to him. She quickly dialed the number Nicole was giving her.
The phone rang on the other end, but no one was picking it up.
* * * *
At the sound of Nicole’s name, Dash sprinted forward, barely noticing when he was forced to step over Julia’s decapitated body. Now he stood behind the priest while the man broke through the locked door. Beyond the door, they could still hear the cries of agony that had led them to the hidden tomb. As they stepped inside, Dash felt his stomach twist into knots at the spectacle that greeted them.
Alec still cradled Nicole’s body in his arms, his features marred by the pain and torment that ripped at his soul.
“You fed on her!” Dash yelled as he flew toward Alec in full attack mode. But he was still bound with rope, and the priest’s slayers managed to take him to the ground.
Alec’s voice shook with a depth of emotion rarely shown by an immortal. “I beg of you … destroy me, but please take her back to New Orleans. She must be laid to rest with her little brother. She should be near those that loved her in life.”
“You bloodsucker!” Again Dash tried to break away so that he could get at Alec.
Father Rovati turned to glare at Dash. “Be still!”
Kneeling beside Nicole, the priest placed a finger at her neck to check for a pulse. “We are too late … she is gone,” he announced.
Dash wailed, overcome by the agony of loss.
“You did this?” Father Rovati’s hard eyes fell on Alec.
“They kept me from feeding, and locked her in with me. I tried to resist, but … she would not let me suffer.”
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