Samuel shook his head. "You're saying that because you are scared, Sarah. You're scared because you're losing me. But that's not a reason to stay together. There's a reason vampires and humans don't date. We can't be together. You could never have a family."
"What if it doesn't matter to me?"
"It does," Samuel said. "I've known that since I met you. I could tell right away that the one thing you want above all else is a family. That's why you help those women."
Sarah shook her head. "I help those women because of my mother," she said. "My father killed her. He beat her into a coma, and she stayed like that for two years. Then she died. Later, he died in prison. It was my birthday wish to myself and it came true. That's why I help those women; not because I want children, but because I want to make sure no families are ever torn apart again like that."
"You can't stop that," Samuel said. "No matter how many people you help, there's always going to be someone you couldn't help."
Sarah didn't respond to this -- she knew it was true. The last time she'd helped a woman leave her abusive husband, she still died.
"Sarah, you know we can't be together."
"I don't know that," she said stubbornly.
"You do," Samuel said.
Sarah rolled out of bed, and covered herself in the sheet. She glared at Samuel. "Who's the scared one now?"
"I can have a life in Phoenix," Samuel said. "I'm sorry, but it's true. I can find someone who can't age either and we can start a life together. And you can find someone here who can give you what you need. Someone who can give you a family."
"I told you, I don't care about that."
"And I care about watching you grow old while I never age with you," Samuel said. "It's the same reason that Alec and Harper aren't together and you know it."
"But I want to be with you," Sarah said quietly. "I've lost too many people already."
Samuel stood up and took her hand. He drew her forward and pressed his lips lightly against hers.
"Sarah Carter, you will always have a place in my heart, but we don't belong together. The sooner we accept that, the easier it'll be. I'm going back to Phoenix today."
"Today?"
He nodded.
"That's not enough time to say goodbye," Sarah said.
"I want to be there when I start to transform," Samuel said. "I want to be with Wren and Heather."
Sarah wanted to argue more, to tell him that she wanted him to stay for at least a while longer, but she couldn't. She knew he had to go. She recognized the truth of what he was saying. They didn't belong together anymore, if they ever had in the first place.
"Alright," she said.
"I'm going to drive home after I'm dressed," Samuel said.
"I'm going to miss you," Sarah said.
"Yeah," Samuel said. His voice broke a little. "I'm going to miss you too, Sarah."
Sarah watched him get dressed, still keeping her sheet around herself. She couldn't bear to get dressed at the same time. It was too much like saying goodbye. Once he was ready, he kissed her one last time. "I'm going to say goodbye to the others, and then it's time for me to go."
"I wish you wouldn't go."
"I know."
Samuel and her locked gazes and then he gathered up his stuff, and left. Sarah sat on the bed, wondering if she'd cry. The tears didn't seem to want to come though. In the end, she got dressed as well, and went downstairs. Chloe was the only one down there.
"Where is everyone?"
"They went for breakfast," Chloe said.
"And you didn't go?"
"Well, I thought you might want me here," Chloe said. "Are you okay, Sarah?"
"I'll be fine."
"You don't always have to be strong," Chloe said.
Sarah hesitated and then burst into tears. "I treated him terribly," she said. "I treated him like he was unimportant, and now he's gone, and I'm never going to see him again."
Chloe got up and put her arms around Sarah. "There'll be others."
"I don't want others. I want Samuel."
"You think that now, but it's not true," Chloe said. "There'll be someone out there for you, Sarah. We'll find him, and you'll be happy."
Sarah wiped at her eyes, and then hugged her best friend harder. "I love you, you know."
"Yeah," Chloe said with a half-smile. "I love you too."
TWENTY-ONE
"You don't have to go," Sarah had said to Elizabeth. "It's a long way from home."
They were older now; Elizabeth was eighteen, and Sarah was twenty-one. They stood on the stoop of the house they'd shared together since Sarah had turned eighteen. It was the house their mother and father had once owned. It had been passed down to them when their parents had both died.
Elizabeth smiled at Sarah. "Always looking out for me, Sarah. I'm an adult now. You don't owe me anything anymore. Besides, your in school! You should be focusing on that, not your little sister."
"Bethy..."
"Elizabeth," her sister corrected. "Now that I'm starting over, it's just Elizabeth. Beth, if you have to, but not Bethy."
Sarah winced. It had been hard on both of them when their mother finally died. That was the day she became Beth.
"Fine, Elizabeth," she said. "I'll always worry about you, you know? Whether you're here or across the country, I'll always worry about you."
"This is my chance," Elizabeth said. "The scholarship for volleyball will pay my way through college, Sarah. Then I can become a lawyer like I always wanted to."
"You could do that here."
"You don't understand," Elizabeth said. "I want to get away. I'm tired of the memories in this house. I'm tired of seeing him beat her to death. And you look like him. I'm sorry, Sarah, but you do, and when I look at you, I see Paul."
Sarah looked down at the ground. "But I love you."
"I love you too," Elizabeth said. "But that's not enough. I have to go, and you have to let me go."
"Will I see you again?" Sarah asked.
"Of course," Elizabeth said. "There'll be holidays. We'll celebrate Christmas together, and birthdays, and everything else. This isn't goodbye."
But for Sarah, that's exactly what it felt like. She knew the visits would become less and less frequent as Elizabeth grew up and started her own family, and sooner or later, the calls would stop coming too. She wiped away the tears from her eyes.
"Okay," she said. "Okay, you can go. But take my credit card. If you need anything, you use it, alright?"
Elizabeth shook her head. "I'll find a job, Sarah. I'm a big girl now. I don't need you taking care of me anymore."
This hurt more than anything. All Sarah wanted was to keep her sister close and never let anything happen to her. If something did, she didn't think she could survive it. They'd been through several foster families together; Elizabeth kept running away, and when she did, Sarah would run with her, to keep her safe.
They'd never had a real home, not until Sarah turned eighteen and took over responsibility for her sister. Even then, Elizabeth had run away twice. The most she could be grateful for was that her baby sister had never turned to drugs or alcohol. She'd funneled her energy into school and sports.
So they hugged and then Elizabeth got into their old car, the only one they could afford, and drove off. Sarah watched her leave.
Afterward, she focused on her career. Pre-med was hard, but she did it. She wanted to be a doctor. More importantly, she wanted to be a doctor that could help abused women. She wanted to be able to convince them to leave their husbands before they died, like her mother had.
It was hard. She spent every spare moment studying, and before she knew it, she was out of shape but ready for her exams. She kept her house, though the memories were still always fresh, just like they'd been for Elizabeth. Unlike her sister, she used it to fuel her goals. Every time she imagined hitting her father with the cast iron, she grew a little stronger.
Then one day she was out on her porch, drinking lemonade when
something strange happened. She'd been sipping at it, studying one of her textbooks, and set the glass down. She got up to stretch and the next thing she knew, she was seeing the world from a different perspective. She was lower to the ground, her senses were heightened, and she felt like running.
So she did. She ran around her house a few times, her mind spinning in all directions. What was going on? What was happening to her? Had her mind finally broke? She thought it likely. With everything else that had happened in her life, wasn't it possible that she had been hanging on by a string as was?
When she got back to her porch, she sat down. She realized then that she was some sort of animal. She had a tail! She chased it around for a minute, amusing herself. If her sanity was gone, she might as well enjoy herself. Then, suddenly she was human again, and she was naked. Her clothes were in shreds around her. She looked around to make sure nobody was watching and then hurried inside.
Sarah was lucky her house was near the woods on the side of the mountain. There weren't really any nosy neighbors who would have seen her transformation. She stood in front of a tall mirror, staring at her body. She was overweight, and she hadn't been taking good care of herself. She had acne as well, but luckily, she was covered in freckles and the acne wasn't all that noticeable. All in all, though, she was disappointed in her looks.
If she could transform once, didn't it stand to reason that she could do it again? She focused really hard, and then was looking at a wolf in the mirror. She was beautiful. She focused on being human and came back to herself.
Had she always had this ability? She didn't know. What she did know, though, was she wasn't crazy. She was genuinely able to transform into a wolf. She changed back again, and decided to go for a run. She wasn't able to run as a human because of her weight, but she could run as a wolf.
So she ran. And she ran. And she ran. The woods were the perfect place for it. Until she stepped into a trap. Her left foot got caught in an animal trap, and she howled out in pain. She tried to transform back into a human, and for a moment she did, but then she was a wolf again. Apparently her powers of transformation weren't good when she was in pain.
She tried again and again to get loose, but nothing worked.
"Oh, look," a voice said. She turned her head and saw a beautiful girl with long brown hair, a tall man with blond hair, and a dark haired man who looked a little frightening.
Chloe approached the wolf. "Someone should really stop setting traps out here."
"It could be rabid," Conner warned.
Sarah tried again to transform into a human. It worked briefly, though she was acutely aware that she was naked again. Then she went back to wolf form and howled.
"She's a shape-shifter," Alec said. "I haven't seen a shape-shifter for a while."
"Why doesn't she become human and unset the trap then?" Chloe asked.
"Maybe she's stuck in her other form," Conner suggested.
Sarah nodded as best she could as a wolf, howling to emphasize her agreement.
"Well, let her out," Chloe said.
Alec approached, bent down, and unsnapped the trap. Sarah licked at the wound on her foot, tears sparkling in her big, yellow eyes.
"Can we keep her?" Chloe asked pleadingly.
"She's a human," Alec said. "We don't keep humans, Chloe."
Sarah transformed back into her human self. Her ankle was broken. "I can't walk," she told them.
"Don't worry, we'll get you taken care of," Conner said. "Transform back and I'll carry you."
Sarah gave them directions and then went back to her wolf form, glad to no longer be naked in front of them. She limped along side them back to her house. Once there, she went back into her human form in the bedroom and got dressed in a bath robe.
"Are you alright?" Chloe asked when she'd made it back downstairs.
"My ankle is broken," Sarah said.
"We'll take you to the doctor," Conner said.
"No need," Sarah said. "I'm pre-med. I have all the supplies I need in the closet. Can you get them for me?"
Chloe went over to the closet, retrieved the first aid kit, and watched in fascination as Sarah wrapped her own ankle. "How long have you been a shape-shifter?"
"I didn't know I was one until today," Sarah admitted.
"We could use a shape-shifter," Conner said to Alec.
Alec sighed. "We keep picking up strays," he said to Chloe.
"Hey, if we have a shape-shifter, we'll have a complete team and start getting good jobs. Imagine that, actually having money to get things done. I'm voting that we start a nightclub. Perfect cover. We can listen to gossip about whatever the demons are up to."
Sarah stared at them all. "Demons?"
"Yes," Conner said. "There are demons in Las Vegas."
"Oh, God."
"We could use you," he said. "To help fight them, I mean. No offense, but you'd have to get in shape. Right now you won't do much use."
Sarah flushed.
"Hey," Chloe said. "Don't shame her, Conner. What's your name?"
"Sarah."
"Well, Sarah, he's right. We could use you. Having a shape-shifter on our side would do wonders for beating the supernatural."
"And what are you guys?"
"Vampire."
"Fairy."
"Incubus."
Sarah felt like her world was crashing down around her. Chloe went to her fridge and got Sarah a glass of milk. She took it gratefully.
"This isn't a joke?" Sarah asked.
"No," Alec said.
"But I have a life," she'd tried to explain. "I told you, I'm in school. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to help people. That's what I'm meant to do."
"No," Chloe had said softly. "This is what you're meant to do. If you accept, that is."
TWENTY-TWO
"I think we should break up," Conner said to Harper. They were sitting in the back room of Afterlife, waiting for everyone else to arrive.
"What?"
"You're still in love with Alec."
"Conner," Harper said. "I care about you. You know that."
"I do," Conner said. "And I care about you too, Harper, which is why I think we shouldn't be a couple. Maybe in the future, when you're over him. Or maybe you'll find someone you care about more than him. I don't know. I know I want you to be happy, though, and I don't think I can ever compare."
"Conner..."
"Don't feel sorry for me," Conner said, and Harper realized he wasn't upset. He was trying to do the noble thing. "I'm not doing this just for you. I'm doing it for me too because I can make someone happy too, Harper. I thought you were the only one for me, because my powers don't work on you, but I'll find someone."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Before Harper could think of an answer, the others came in. Brian Moser was right there with them. They all took seats, and he sat next to Harper. "What's this about?" he asked.
"We wanted to see how it went this morning," Alec said. "We couldn't find out who cursed you but we had someone cast a spell that would make it so you no longer win every game you play. It's completely random again. Your life will go back to normal."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Brian looked pleased. "Thank you. I don't know how to thank you enough."
Before anyone could say more, there was a shimmering light, and a transparent woman floated in the middle of the room, over the long table. Sarah and Chloe recognized her from the picture Brian had showed them. It was Mary; a young Mary, a Mary who'd just gotten married. She was still in her wedding dress.
"Mary?"
"Brian," she said softly. She approached him. "What have you done?"
"How are you here?"
"Because I love you, and love transcends all," she said. "Brian, it was me. I was the one who was making you win every week."
Harper glanced at the others. Like her, they looked mystified, and were quiet, letting the couple enjoy their reunion.
"Why wo
uld you do that?" Brian asked. "Why would you make me win, Mary? That's cheating."
"Because I want you to go on that cruise," Mary said. "I want you to go and enjoy yourself and meet someone new."
Brian shook his head. "I don't want to meet someone new. I had you, Mary, and that's enough love to last a lifetime."
"You're going to live a long time, and I don't want you living alone, and miserable," she said. "I don't want you missing me every night, and waking up in the mornings and spending your days alone. I made sure you'd win because I want you to have the money to go on that trip."
"No," Brian said.
Mary touched his hand with her ethereal one, and Harper and Sarah both looked away. "You're going to be happy again," she said. "You're going to meet someone who takes your breath away, and though it'll never be what we had, she'll make you happy, Brian, and that's what I want."
"I can't," Brian said. "I love you too much." There were tear tracks running down his face as he grasped through her translucent hand. "Can't you stay with me instead?"
"You know I can't do that," Mary said. "I can't let you live the rest of your life alone either. I know the future, Brian. I know you can be happy if you let yourself. So pack up my things, and go on that cruise. Do that for me."
Harper didn't know if he'd agree, but then she saw Brian nod. "I'll go, if that's what you really want, Mary. But I want you to know that you will always be the love of my life."
"And you'll always be mine," she said. "You gave me the best fifty-three years of my life, Brian Moser, but it's time to move on and let me go. Let me rest in peace."
Brian nodded.
Mary leaned forward and put her lips against his. Then she vanished.
Brian turned to the others. "Thank you," he said softly. "Thank you for this. All of you. I don't know how you did it, but thank you."
"We didn't do it," Sarah said. "Love conquers all, Brian. I think it's time we all learn that."
After he was gone, and the team dispersed again, Conner looked over at Harper. "Did you see that?"
Six-Spot (Afterlife Book 7) Page 11