by Olsen, Lisa
Sylvius stood in the corridor outside my door, his face creasing in a delighted smile when he saw me. “I thought I heard your lovely voice. You’ve been scarce these past weeks, my dear. Won’t you come and sing for us again?”
I felt bad for enjoying his hospitality without singing for my supper, so to speak, but with it being my last night, there wasn’t time. Sure, I could pop down to the hall and belt out Scottish ballads for an hour, but the quieter I slipped out of town, the better. “As much as I’d love to, I don’t think that’s possible. I’m leaving tonight.”
“Oh?” His brows rose in mild surprise.
“Yes, unfortunately, I’ll be away for some time.”
“That is unfortunate,” he agreed, patting my hand kindly. “But we’ll look forward to a nice long visit when you next return.”
“Yes, I would love to,” I smiled back, darting a quick look up and down the hall before I spoke again. “Um, Sylvius... I know it isn’t my place to say anything, but be careful with Simon Corley.”
“How do you mean, child?”
“I mean, he only has his own best interests at heart. Be careful. It’ll take a while, but eventually he’ll decide you’ve outlived your usefulness and...”
“I know Corley’s ambitious, but then, what Warden isn’t?” he scoffed, patting my hand again. “Never you fret about that, I know how to handle him.”
I bit the inside of my lips to keep from blurting something out about the future. It wouldn’t keep Sylvius any safer to know about his mental decline, and it might make him take more drastic actions that could have serious repercussions. And maybe I didn’t have anything to worry about? It was Aubrey who’d assassinated him. Maybe my compulsion had changed things enough that he wouldn’t lust for Sylvius’ power?
“Yes, I’m sure you do,” I finally relented, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “I’m glad we had this short visit, Sylvius. I hope to find you well in the future.”
“As do I, my dear, as do I.”
* * *
I expected the next knock at my door to be Bishop returning from dressing for the evening, and I picked up my bonnet as I went for the door. But I received my second surprise of the night to find Aubrey standing there. His gaze darted to the hat in my hands, his lips turning down into a frown.
“So it’s true? You are leaving us tonight?”
“News sure travels fast,” I murmured. “Yes, I’m going out of town tonight.”
“Ah,” he nodded. “And is Bishop to accompany you then?”
“No, he’ll stay here. His first duty is to the Order.”
“Then he’s a bloody fool,” he muttered, and I felt like I had to set him to rights at least part of the way.
“Actually, that’s only part of it. The truth is, he asked to come with me, and I said no.” Not a lie... “I have some business that I have to attend to alone. So Bridget and I will be leaving tonight by ourselves.”
Aubrey seemed to accept that answer well enough. “You must allow us to throw a bon voyage party in your honor. Can’t you leave tomorrow?”
“No, there’s no delaying it, it has to be tonight.”
“I see.” He nodded, disappointed, but accepting it without further argument. “You shall be missed, sweeting. And I am sorry for any pain it causes our brother while you are gone.”
I was surprised by the sentiment. The old Aubrey would’ve used it as an excuse to torment Bishop. “Are you?”
“Of course, why should I not be? He was only just starting to become fun again, like he used to be. I can only imagine the depths of his despair when he is parted from you. He’ll be miserable to live with.”
“I’m sorry,” I choked, his words feeding my emotional rollercoaster. Blinking back tears, I tried to pull it together, but it was hard enough as it was without him pointing out how miserable Bishop was likely to become.
“There, there now, don’t take on so. I’m only teasing,” he said quickly, producing a handkerchief for my tears as if he couldn’t bear to see them.
“Sorry, I guess I’m a bit miserable about it myself.”
“You’ll have to hurry back to us soon then,” he smiled, waving away the handkerchief when I offered it back to him.
“I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can.” Not a lie. “In the meantime, take care of yourself, Aubrey. I hope you find happiness.”
Aubrey picked up my hand and kissed the back of it as Bishop rounded the corner. In the old days, this would’ve been a perfect opportunity for some heated barbs between the two men, but Aubrey simply handed me over, tucking my hand into the crook of Bishop’s arm. “I won’t intrude upon your goodbyes. Bishop, I have an excellent bottle of brandy if you’ve a mind to join me later.”
“You told him you were leaving?” Bishop asked once Aubrey was gone.
“No, I guess Sylvius mentioned it to him. He stopped by earlier and I thought I’d say my goodbyes, rather than disappearing without a trace.”
“Yes, that is the proper way to do things.”
“You don’t approve?” His tone left little doubt of that.
“No, it’s simply that we’ll be lucky to get out of here without having to dodge half the house looking to pay their compliments. I’d rather have you all to myself tonight.”
“But lucky you, you get me in the mix too,” Bridget yawned, sitting up from the couch with a serious case of bed head. “Any chance we can get some eats before we take off? I’m starvin’ Marvin.”
“Who is Marvin?” Bishop asked, his head cocked to one side.
“It’s... an expression. Sure, you can get a bite before we go, but we have to get a move on. We need to make sure we get there before the moon is at its zenith. The almanac I found says that’ll be at two thirty-three this morning, and it’ll take us a while to get there.” I’d already figured I wouldn’t stop to feed myself. Since I had to bleed out on the stones, what difference did it make if I did it on a full belly? It seemed like it’d go faster if I did it as is.
“And we’ll need to wear our own clothes. We’ll be riding horseback, it’s faster.”
“Easy for you to say, you wore jeans. I might as well Donald Duck it than wear my mini-skirt.”
Bishop looked as though he was confused again, but must’ve caught the gist of what she meant. “I can procure you a pair of breeches if you like,” he offered, but she waved him away.
“Nah, I can manage. Besides, it’s one of my favorite skirts. I for sure ain’t leaving it here where someone’s gonna steal it.”
“Okay, so Bridge, you pop down to the kitchen and grab something to eat, and Bishop, why don’t you go and make sure the horses are all ready to go? We’ll be down as soon as we change. Unless you’d rather say our goodbyes here?” I didn’t want to make it any harder than it already was, and I didn’t know what it would look like when we got zapped back to the future.
“No, I’m accompanying you,” he declared, his jaw set with determination. “I’ll be with you to the end.”
“Alright then, let’s move like we’ve got a plan, people,” I said, clapping my hands together to keep them from seeing the way they trembled.
You got this, the little voice inside me cheered, but for once, I wasn’t sure she was right.
* * *
We made it with an hour to spare, which was way too much time to stand around worrying about how it was going to go down. We spent some of the time exchanging blood – that is, I took some of Bridget’s blood, and then gave her some of mine, the way we had the first time, per Bertie’s instructions.
And then it was just me looking into Bishop’s sad, puppy dog eyes, holding fast to his hands as the seconds ticked by.
“Be safe,” I said, stealing his line and everything that went with it. “Take care of yourself. I mean it,” I added when he looked like he wasn’t taking the caution seriously. “The Order’s a dangerous business, and you take entirely too many chances.”
“I must be good at taking them if I survived until we me
t the first time,” he replied with the hint of a smile.
“Yes, but things are different now.”
“How is that?”
“What if you already knowing me makes you twitterpated and you do something dumb?”
His brows bunched together in confusion. “Twit what?”
“Distracted.”
“Ah.” He nodded. “You are distracting, but you’ll also be far removed. I’ll have to turn back to my work to see me through it.”
“As long as you take care of yourself.”
“And you,” he said, thumbs brushing along my hands.
“It’ll be an instant for me, I won’t have time to take care of myself.”
“It’ll be an eternity for me without you.”
“I’m sorry...” I started to say again, but he stopped me with a gentle kiss.
“At least now I have something to look forward to.”
It was almost time. Pulling my hands from his, I produced a small lock of my hair tied with a blue ribbon. “Here, I know it’s not much, but it’s all I have to give you.”
Taking the scrap of hair, he brushed his fingers over it before bringing it to his lips for a kiss. “I’ll treasure it always,” he pledged before tucking it into his breast pocket.
“And here...” I took off the engagement ring and held it out to him. “You’d better take this so you’ll have it to give to me when I get back. To the stars and back, that’s how much I love you.”
Bishop barely glanced at the ring as he took my hands again, his face brimming with emotion. “And I love you, my Anja, my dearest, my bâobèi. And I shall love you until the stars fall from the sky.”
Tears fell as I kissed him, too overcome to say anything else. We clung to each other as the seconds ticked away, and all I could think was, this had better work! The price was too high for it not to.
“Anja...” Bridget said, holding tight to Bishop’s pocket watch. “It’s time.”
“Alright,” I nodded, letting go of him to swipe at my cheeks. “Let’s do this.”
There were no fancy words, no spell components, our instructions were clear – all I had to do was bleed onto the standing stones. I’d brought a knife, because it seemed more efficient than biting into my arm over and over again. The circle of bones was still in place, and I wondered who’d put them there originally?
“I got this,” I breathed, bracing for the pain as I sliced into my wrist. It wasn’t too bad, I more felt sorry for Bishop’s sharp intake of breath as he watched me cut into my own flesh. I made sure to cut deep enough that it’d bleed pretty good as I stood with my arm stretched out over the first standing stone. The porous rock seemed to soak up the blood faster than I could produce it, and I wished I had some way of knowing when I was supposed to go on to the next one. In the end, I simply moved on when the wound healed up enough that I had to cut into it again.
“That’s enough, Anja,” Bishop said after I’d reached the last rock, but I cut deep again.
“He said I had to use all of my blood.”
“What? You never mentioned that before. That’s enough, Anja. You won’t survive the trip.”
“Sure, I will. Losing blood won’t kill a vamp, you know that.” I barely spared him a glance, moving back to the first stone again to repeat the process. “I don’t feel anything.” Apart from woozy from blood loss. “Maybe I need to give more?”
“Shit, I probably have to bleed on them too,” Bridget groaned, grabbing the knife from me. She shouldn’t have been able to do that, but I was awfully weak. With barely a wince, she slashed at her own wrist, bleeding over the porous rock.
“Hey, you won’t heal from that,” I scowled, holding my breath to keep from lunging for the scent of freshly spilled blood when I was so thirsty.
“You can use your magic vampire blood to heal me when we get there.”
“Man, I hope Andri’s there with some blood, I’m going to need it STAT,” I said, shaking my head to clear it.
“I’ll be there to make sure he does,” Bishop declared, and I frowned over the logic of that. Trying to figure out the paradoxes of time travel was enough to make my head spin on a normal day, let alone after bleeding out.
“That’s enough, give me the knife.” I might’ve staggered a bit, but I twisted the knife from her hand after she bled over the last stone. “He said I had to give all of my blood, that’s what’ll have to have to make it have...” I said, losing my train of thought, but my motivation was clear. I needed to offer more blood to get those magic tingles working.
Only I didn’t feel anything but wonky in the brainpan as the blood poured out of me. “S’not working. S’not. He he, snot,” I snorted over my own dumb joke, and Bridget snatched the knife back again.
“I’ll have to give more too.”
I wasn’t so far gone I didn’t see the way she wobbled as she walked. “Bridget no, you can’t give that much blood. Bridget, you...” The world dipped and swayed as I tried to move in her direction, and I fell to my knees.
“Anja!” Bishop was instantly at my side, cradling me before I hit the dirt.
“No, you have to help her, she won’t survive this. Bishop, can you give her some, of your... you know, your...” I couldn’t find the words, but Bridget figured it out anyway.
“No!” she yelled, turning to brandish the knife at Bishop. “I don’t want any vampire blood. I won’t take the chance of coming back a bloodsucker. No offense,” she added with an impish smile.
“Bridge, you could... die.” It was getting harder to talk. Not because anything hurt, I didn’t have the energy to draw in enough air to make the words.
“I think that’s the point. There has to be a sacrifice, right? You sacrificed the first time, now it’s my turn.”
“No, don’t...”
Bridget slashed at her wrist again, grunting as it cut through sinew and tendons, the blood flowing fast now.
I lurched in her direction, but that’s as far as I got, feeling tingly and numb in a way that had nothing to do with blood loss. The air grew thick and crackling with current as I recognized the signs of the spell building. “Bishop?” I said, worried now, as my voice sounded really far away.
“Anja! Do not leave me,” Bishop pleaded, cradling me in his arms. “I forbid it!”
I gave him what I hoped was a rueful smile, but my lips were probably slack and drooling in my state. “You’re not... the boss... of me,” I wheezed as the inky swirls of current obscured my view of him or anything else. “Remember, I love you. Always have and always...”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I couldn’t move.
It felt like my entire body was weighed down, as if I’d been mountain climbing all day. I couldn’t even turn my head, which was bizarro, especially since the hard surface at my back didn’t feel at all like the hard packed ground of the English countryside.
My other senses were in overdrive though. Something strong and astringent in the air made the back of my throat tingle unpleasantly. Was Andri burning some kind of weird herbs for the spell? No, that didn’t seem quite right. It had a different chemical smell that teased the edges of my memory, along with an underlying scent that smelled good. Like the spicy aroma of blood after a chase.
My skin felt itchy all over, irritated by the rough material pressed up against it. Where were my comfy jeans and Rocket Academy t-shirt? A sheet was pulled all the way up over my head, and my feet were bare – wait, why had someone covered me with a sheet? Cripes, had I been declared dead at the scene when they’d found my bloodless corpse? Ugh, where was Andri? He’d sworn up and down that he’d be there! Of course, he’d also sworn he could send me back two months in time, and look how that’d turned out.
A muffled but steady thump reached my ears, and in my foggy state I lay there trying to figure out what it was.
That’s when I realized – I wasn’t lying in a field. I was lying on a slab of cool metal, not dirt, and I heard the slight hum of fluorescent lighting. At
least that meant I’d made it back to the modern world, cool beans on toast!
There was someone else in the room with me, I heard him breathing. A swishing sound hit my ears, like a swinging door being pushed open, footsteps echoing in its wake. “Hey, I’m here to pick up an Anja Evans?”
That’s me! Only the guy mispronounced my name, with a hard “j” instead of the softer “y” sound of Ahnyah it’s supposed to sound like, so obviously I didn’t know the guy.
“Evans… Evans… I don’t have an Evans. How long has she been here?” a different man answered, sounding bored as he flipped through papers.
“I don’t know, some time tonight. Are you sure you don’t have her? Maybe she’s not updated in the computer yet. Blonde hair, blue eyes, about average height, wearing some kind of costume?”
I was having the weirdest sense of déjà vu. Okay, so I pretty quickly figured out I was in a morgue for the third time in my afterlife, but where that morgue was, could be anybody’s guess. I would’ve thought somewhere in London, but they didn’t sound British at all. They sounded like plain old Americans. Familiar ones, at that.
“Oh, Jane Doe number six. Sure, we’ve got her over here.” The steps got louder as they walked in my direction.
“You’ve had six unidentified females today? Are they that common here?”
“No, they’re really not. That’s why she’s only number six, ever.”
I couldn’t make any sound, and my eyes still wouldn’t budge no matter how hard I tried to force them open. My fingers started to respond sluggishly, but the men must not have noticed under the sheet. On the plus side, my tongue started to loosen, and I could open and close my teeth.
“Are you sure you have the right one? I’ll catch hell if I bring back the wrong body. How did she die?”
What had happened to me? Why did it feel like the déjà vu was rapidly taking a turn into the Twilight Zone? Because those two sounded an awful lot like...
“Ah… looks like traumatic blood loss. Tissue damage to the neck, died in transit to the hospital, that’s all I’ve got here. But you’re welcome to take a look before you take her.”