Connor takes a call from one of his spies ten minutes out. No activity at the bar save for Robin and her hired goons returning a few hours before, and Alejandro going out and returning alone. We circle the street twice. No one out but couples strolling on the beach behind the bar. Police may be an issue but a few mental whammies should take care of them. Guns are a last resort to avoid the police. We pass the lounge a third time and Connor’s nerves reach uncomfortable proportions. Of course with my own who can tell? I’m a hairsbreadth from throwing up.
“Sir?” Neil asks behind me. “I think we are clear.”
“Right,” Connor says quietly. “Very well. Stop the car.”
The driver pulls up to the bar, and the moment the van stops, we pile out. I’m shocked my legs don’t buckle when my feet hit the pavement. The rest, minus the three for the back assault, climb out of their van, Oliver included. The air is thick with the ocean, and I can hear the waves lapping. I close my eyes and take a moment to enjoy that sound. That breeze. Maybe after I’ll—
“Beatrice,” Connor says as usual ruining everything.
I force my eyes open. The team’s advancing toward the bar, with Jack shoving Oliver that way. Later. I rush over to Connor’s side, my hand on my gun. I wish I had Bette. The rest of the team clutch their swords to their chests until we hear the security system’s been disabled.
I will not wince.
I will not cry.
This is the way it has to be.
God, give me strength. And forgive me.
Connor opens the unlocked newly installed front door.
Antonia, Robin, Alejandro, and Jin all sit or stand around the bar when we enter. Connor’s grin stretches across his face as he strolls in as if he already owns the joint. Alejandro and Jin jump off their stools, and Antonia’s head cocks slightly to the side but we get no further reaction.
“Hello old chum. I love what you have done with the place,” Connor says, gesturing around. “It has been forever.”
“Connor,” Antonia says emotionless, “and friends. Yes, it has been awhile. Fifty years since you last came uninvited to demolish the place.”
“Well, this time I have been invited Lady Sabatini.”
“Oh, really? By whom?” Antonia asks.
“Why you of course. I have come to finally grant your request for a duel.”
Antonia smirks, calm as can be. No one on either side seems to notice or care. “Have you now? Then let us follow protocol please.”
“Very well. I, Lord Connor McInnis of the San Diego territory hereby accept your challenge of a duel to the death for all lands and titles in each other’s names, Lady Antonia Sabatini. Unless, of course, you refuse the challenge you instigated and hereby forfeit said lands and titles.”
“No, I accept,” she says cheerfully without hesitation, smirk growing.
She reaches under the bar and returns with a silver sword with a jewel encrusted hilt. At the same moment, on cue, vampires carrying all manner of weapons from M-16s to baseball bats with chains and nails begin filtering out from the back rooms. Robin pulls out an Uzi from behind her back. “However, I would be remiss not to remind you that the forfeiture clause now goes both ways, darling.”
More and more of her vampires filter out behind their leader, so many our group begins slowly inching back toward the front door. No escape there. I hear the beeping of a backing truck, no doubt blocking that exit. Connor’s entourage begin glancing at one another with fear and confusion as even more of her army fill the now claustrophobic bar. Antonia’s smile never wavers.
“You knew we were coming,” Connor says, voice cracking a little. I count nineteen to Connor’s twelve, and they all have Kevlar. No wonder I’m all but drowning in Connor’s fear.
“Of course we did, silly goose,” Antonia chuckles. “She told us you would be.”
All eyes turn to the smirking woman she just gestured at.
Me.
As Connor takes a moment to wrap his mind around this news, as they all do, I lift Oliver into the air and toss him toward Team Antonia while slowly backing that way too. “Surprise, Danny Boy.”
“‘Will trick him into accepting duel. Will come tonight with a small team. Have ambush ready. Know he has spies. Must be secret. Protect my family and Oliver,’ ” Robin reads from the slip of paper I passed her when we shook hands at the courthouse. The lawyer who lent me his pen and a scrap of paper is going to regret that act when there’s no one left to pay his bill. “‘Kill them all.’”
“Yeah, you dropped the ball on that Oliver bit there, partner,” I say as I glance at Antonia.
“No, I knew you would protect him. It was an acceptable risk to help sell your cover.”
“You…planned this?” Connor asks.
“Like I told you, I had nothing but time to think after you had me tossed in jail. I knew I couldn’t prolong the enviable any longer. I had to pick a side. And if you thought for a millisecond I’d choose the side of the psychopath who manipulated, lied, threatened, and even tried to metaphysically rape me, Danny Boy, you never knew me at all.”
Connor nervously glances around the room. “It-it matters not. You are still my familiar. I still—”
“Try moving something, Danny Boy,” I cut in. “Try the leg sweep. Heck, try picking up an empty glass.”
He meets my smug eyes and horror fills his violet orbs. He moves his finger in my direction. Nothing. He tries again as Antonia chuckles. “I—”
“Yeah, I had you pointing so I knew what you were trying to move, moron,” I school him. “It took me twenty-six years and intensive training to get the darn thing to work properly. Did you really think you could master telekinesis in a few hours? One thing you can always rely on: vampire hubris.”
This new variable sinks in, not only to him, but to all his followers. Yeah, that’s right. Checkmate jerks. Inside he’s petrified, I literally feel it, but outwardly he retains his composure. “If I die, you die,” he points out.
I nod and the corner of my mouth twitches. “Oh, I know,” I say, voice cracking. “I know.” I shrug. “But I did it anyway. I couldn’t have my family suffer anymore because of me. I’m the common denominator in this psycho psychodrama. My choices brought me here. I should be the only one to suffer the consequences. Not them. If I have to die to save them, so be it. And if you knew the first thing about true love, real love…you would have seen this coming a mile away. Fairest.”
His lip twitches then he chuckles. And chuckles. Then begins to guffaw. “Oh. Oh, Beatrice! I—”
Suddenly his laughter stops as he stabs the vampire closest to him with the sword through the side of the man’s Kevlar.
Chaos erupts.
One side begins firing, I don’t know whose, but the gunshots overshadow the stabbed vamp’s wail of agony. The first of many. I don’t have time to pull my own gun, to even process one percent of the madness, before someone grabs me and yanks me backwards up and over the bar. I land on the other side of it just as the mirror above shatters from the bullets that should have hit me. Connor yells, “Be careful! She dies, I die you idiots!” on my tumble over the bar but only realize he’s spoken when I land on my bad arm. A jolt of pain cascades up to my shoulder. My savior crouches beside me, shielding her head with her arm from the shards of glass. Groans, screams, wails, roars, above all gunfire on the other side of the bar physically hurt me as much as my arm does. Robin glances over at me. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I pant. “Thank you.”
“No,” she shouts, even touching my hand. “Thank you.” She smiles. “We’ll watch out for you family until the end, okay? We will. I’ll make sure of it.” She squeezes my hand again. “At least you got to choose your death, huh? Make it mean something. Get to go out fighting.”
Sitting here as the agony, the blood, and torment I helped cause reigns on all around me, I realize…no. Not like this. I don’t want my last moments to be this. Chaos. Madness. This isn’t my fight. My war. It never was. I
think I’ve earned…peace.
I squeeze Robin’s hand back. “Take care of Oliver for me.”
I don’t have much time. I crouch with my head down, out of the line of fire, and rush toward the bar’s edge and the back area. Men and women from both factions remain locked in battle even down the hallway. Blood spatters the walls as they slash and hack at one another. I glance around for Oliver but with the war raging, I can’t see his face. No, he…there. He’s toward the back rooms wielding a sword, locked in battle with Edgar, one of the three who took the back door. Oliver swats Edgar’s gun away with the sword just as Edgar fires into the wall. Before he can try again I pick Edgar up, flinging him toward the thick of the fighting to die with his friends. Oliver’s gaze whips that direction, and the moment he sees me, his purloined sword drops either in shock or relief. “Trixie,” he gasps, every letter dripping with emotion. “Trixie, what—”
Every person in my path joins Edgar in the main room without me even having to consciously think of tossing them. The moment I reach Oliver, I throw my arms around his shoulders in a hug. “Get me out of here. The beach. Now.”
Without hesitation he scoops me up. It’s my stomach and ears that clue me into the fact we’re moving faster than normal as he super-speeds through the back of the club. In a blink we’re at the back door where one of Antonia’s vamps stands sentinel. No escape. No survivors. “Let us through,” Oliver orders.
“Sir, I—”
“Let us through or I shall kill you myself,” Oliver roars. “Now.”
No time. The metal door with the bolts on both sides flies outward as if it were nothing but a piece of aluminum foil. My brain aches but the job’s done. The guards on both sides barely have time to react before we’re speeding away again. In two blinks we’re at the edge of the ocean, the waves gently rippling on the shore. Oliver sets me down, and we face one another. Even in the dim moonlight I can see how pained his face is. He’s in agony because of me. He cups my cheeks and I place my hands over his. We both begin talking at the same time.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for what I said back there. I didn’t mean it. Not a word. You weren’t supposed to be there,” I say talking over him. “I can’t believe she let you go there. I—”
“What have you done? What the hell were you thinking?” he asks desperately at the same time. “Trixie what have you done? Why did you do this? How could you do this? I—”
We stop speaking at the same time too. My breath trembles along with the rest of me, along with the rest of him. “Why?” he pleads, blood filling his eyes. “Why?”
“To protect my family.” I squeeze his hands on my face. “To protect you. They’d just keep using you all. It was my fault. I dragged you into this. It had to end before they hurt you.”
“So you…sacrificed yourself? Your life?” he asks, voice cracking with the rest of his face. “You commit suicide?”
“It was the only way,” I whisper as our tears fall. “I-I…I don’t want to die. I don’t. I thought I did for months, but…” I stare down and let out a real cry. “It had to end. It had to end before you got hurt.”
“And this will not hurt me? Trixie, this will destroy me. I—”
“Listen,” I hiss through the sobs. “Listen. I-I…don’t know how much time we have, okay? I don’t want to spend it fighting. So please just listen. I need...I need you to tell my grandmother she was the best thing that ever happened to me. That every-everything I learned about being a good person, I learned from her.” My chin begins trembling. “T-tell April I couldn’t have asked for a better sister. That I co-couldn’t love her more if she were my flesh and blood.”
“Trixie…” Oliver whispers, pressing his hand harder against my face.
“And Brian. Tell him I forgive him. And George. Nancy,” I say, barely getting her name out, “the rest, pl-please tell them they helped me be brave. I-I-I don’t think I was before. Tell them.”
“I…I will.”
I nod rapidly. “Thank you. Thank you,” I say breathlessly. The fear’s overwhelming as if I’ve already been thrown into my grave. “I…I…can you just hold me, until…”
He stares into my eyes before pulling me into a hug. We cling to one another as we have so many times before. I lower us to the sand and take a moment to savor the scent of the sea, the twinkle of the stars and moon on the calm water, and especially the sensation of this man against me. His scent. His strong arms cradling me. I run my fingers through his silky hair as his embrace tightens. Yeah. This. This is a good death. Surrounded by beauty. By love.
“I told you so,” I whisper to him.
“What?”
“When it mattered, despite the pain it would cause you losing me, you did the right thing just like I knew you would.” I move to gaze at his face. Even with his cheeks covered in blood he’s still the most beautiful creature ever to grace this earth. “I am…so proud of you, Oliver Smythe.” I cup his face this time and he kisses the side of my palm. “You are the best man I have ever met. You are good. Kind. Intelligent. Caring. Never doubt it for a moment. Nev—”
A sharp pain rips through my side. A phantom pain I know is Connor’s. I wince and Oliver’s mouth opens in terror as his whole body tenses. But I’m still here. Still alive. But my own horror doesn’t wane.
I don’t want to die.
I don’t want to leave him. I’m not done. I still have so much more to do. People to protect. Monsters to slay. Laughs to have. Friends to joke with. Love to make. The world to see. I don’t want to die. What have I done? What have I done?
“Trixie? Trixie?” Oliver gasps.
I gaze back at the agonized Oliver. “Oliver…I’m scared. I’m scared. I don’t want to die.” I don’t want to die.” Another metaphysical stab assails my shoulder blade. I cling to Oliver as the pain ricochets through me. “It’s happening. It’s happening…” I gasp.
“Look at me. Look at me!” Oliver roars. I meet his eyes. “You are the strongest person I know. You will fight, and you will come back to us.” He has to literally swallow his emotions to get the words out. “To me. You will come back to me. Do you hear me, my love? You…come back to me. Like you promised. You promised. So you will literally fight death itself if you have to, my love. Do…do not take the only light I have left in this ugly world. Please. Please,” he gasps before quickly kissing my trembling lips.
I rest my forehead on his and cup his jaw. “I lov—”
What?
That last word remains on my lips when I instantly find myself standing on the top of a small hill staring at two willow trees and a short wrought iron fence with a man waiting amongst the gravestones almost a hundred yards away. I know where I am by that sight alone. Kansas. Home. The sun rests above my head yet this world is dim, almost as if a mist hangs over everything though I don’t see a single cloud anywhere. The air’s off too, still but not stifling as if the world’s stopped spinning. Huh. Okay. I glance back and find the mansion, all three stories of it, sitting amidst the empty American plain and gentle hills. I remember the first time I drove up the road toward it, so nervous and excited to begin my new life. Those sensations grew when I saw my new home, like something out of Jane Austen. Now through the giant bay windows of that library I instantly fell in love with, I catch Andrew sitting in his favorite lounge chair reading a book with his fingers as Carl and Nancy play chess. The manor of misfit monsters where we’re safe to be ourselves. To be brave. I miss them so much. My friends.
But I mustn’t keep him waiting. I spin back around and begin the long walk to the cemetery.
“I like what you put on my headstone,” Will says with his back to me as I pass through the cemetery’s gate. I move beside him and stare down at the gray stone. “‘Beloved son of Albert and Susan and husband to Mary. A hero ‘til the very end.’ Not precisely true, but—”
“The heck it isn’t. Will Price died transporting a murderous werewolf into custody. Everything after that was not Will Price. Will Price w
as a hero…until the end.” I gaze over at him. God, he’s exactly as I remember him. Tall, thick, that Roman nose settled between those exquisite emerald green eyes staring back at me with such kindness. “Have you been here all this time?”
“No,” he says with a smile. “I just came to see you while I had the chance. While you needed me.”
“I’m…I’m dead, aren’t I?” I whisper breathlessly.
“For the moment.” He pauses. “Or longer if you wish to be.”
“What?”
Will returns his attention back to his grave. “You’re wrong, you know. Will Price truly died seven years before you ever met him. I died the moment my Mary did. The man you met was just a walking corpse. Hell, the zombies we fought had more life in them than I did, Bea. You of all people know what I’m talking about. What you’ve put yourself through these last three months? It was eight years for me. At least until I realized I was falling in love with you.” Will looks at me again with that smile still affixed. “Until you told me you loved me. You sparked me back to life, Bea. And even when that woman…that love was still inside me. It’s inside me now. It’s a part of me until the end of time itself. Just as my love for you is in your every atom too. We were special. But he’s right too. You were meant for an extraordinary life, Beatrice Alexander. And no matter how many houses or children we would have had, each day would have been a fraction dimmer than it should have been. True happiness would be just beyond reach. And you’d know it. You’d sense it. And you’d resent me. Baby, you…are destined for a greatness you cannot even fathom. For struggle, for strife for damn sure, but for such wonders and pure happiness as well. Oh, the places you’ll go, baby,” he whispers with pride before his smile slowly fades. “But it has to be your choice. You could come with me. You could be with your mom. Find peace. Just give in.” I just shake my head. “But we both know you made your choice before you even got here. There are so many battles left for you to fight. Lives to defend. A world to make your permanent mark on. To improve. And…you did make a promise after all. He needs you. And you need him.”
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