by Dara Nelson
I visibly gulped, “You, you’ve been searching for a replacement for four-thousand years?” I whispered.
“It’s one of the requirements. The moment you are given this knowledge, you must begin your search for a suitable replacement should you ever decide that your time on this planet is done. I have been ready to go for hundreds, even thousands of years. And now I finally have some hope that I have found someone who will pass the tests and guard this sacred knowledge well: The strength that I’ve seen, the compassion, the intelligence is such that it can only mean success. But,”
I interrupted her, “You’ve seen that in the short time that he’s been alive?” I gasped. How could she possibly have seen that in him already? Suddenly Matt and Carlos stepped protectively in front of me. I stared at their backs, confused, as I tried to figure out why they were doing this. Sekhmet went on, ignoring my question as if she hadn’t even heard it, “But, it’s the bond between you that will be the catalyst. The bond is the strength. The bond is the guide. The bond…….between a mother and child.”
I heard Carlos choke out a “Please, don’t.” And Matt tensed. My eyes shot between Jason and Sekhmet as it finally dawned on me what she was saying. She looked at the two of us. Carlos whispered a little louder this time, “I beg of you. Please don’t. Take me instead.”
She ignored his plea, stepped forward and said, in a booming voice, “Sarah and Jason. I summon you.”
Carlos dropped to his knees as he cried out, “NO!”
Matt turned around and wrapped me in his arms. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bahiti squeeze her eyes shut and drop her head. Suddenly Carlos jumped up. “You can’t have her!” he yelled as he began to charge at her. Bahiti yelled, “Carlos! Don’t!” But nothing was going to stop him. He ran right through the apparition, and collapsed on the floor screaming and crying out in agony. Sekhmet reappeared a few feet to his left. She looked down at him, “I would suggest that you don’t do that again. It would probably kill you.”
Bahiti moved from around the desk and bent down to Carlos. She helped him up and brought him back over to us, whispering to him as she did, “Don’t Carlos. You have no idea of her strength or her powers. She’ll kill you. And that won’t help Sarah.”
“Help Sarah?? How the fuck am I supposed to do that when she’s going to be locked in a room with her?” he motioned to Sekhmet. I saw the panic in his eyes. I reached over and put my hand on his cheek, forcing his eyes to meet mine. “You’ll help, Carlos. You always do,” I whispered. I watched as the panic gave way to sadness in his eyes. “Oh shit, Sarah,” he groaned as he buried his head in my neck.
Matt whispered, “Now? Are you taking her now?”
“No. The first test they need to pass does not require them coming with me. The first test requires them to find Jason’s father. You must work together to find him. And I would suggest quickly, because he has no food, or access to food, other than small animals, where he is.”
“What?” Jason yelled. I held him back as he automatically tried to step towards her.
“Hints? Clues? Do we get any kind of help here?” I said.
“I will only tell you that you have been there since your birth, Sarah. They have not,” she said, indicating Matt and Carlos, “and the child’s father has not.”
:Birth as a human or birth as a vampire?” I said.
She smiled at me, “The only birth that matters to me. Your birth as a vampire. Once you find him, dead or alive, you then have sixty days to appear in my temple. If you are not there within the sixty days, I will begin systematically killing vampires, starting with those that you cherish the most. And my advice to you is to study and learn Egyptian hieroglyphics quickly, as you will need that. Do you understand?”
I nodded, “Yes. We will be there.”
With nod of her head and a quick flash, she was gone but the pounding of my heart in my chest would take a while to disappear. We stood there silently for several minutes. Finally, Carlos mumbled into my neck, “You can’t go, Sarah. You just can’t.” From the other side of my neck, Matt whispered, “I never should have turned you, Sarah. I’m so sorry. I never should have turned you.”
I sighed, stepped back and looked at both of them, “Aw, guys, don’t, please. Matt, we’ve been over this many times. I love what I am and have no regrets. And, Carlos, I have to go or she’ll kill you, and I won’t let that happen.”
I turned to Bahiti – our resident hieroglyphics expert, “Well, I guess I’m going to be spending a lot of time with you, aren’t I?” She nodded with sad eyes. Finally I turned to Jason, “Okay. Now, Jason. Please believe me when I say that my only focus right now is on finding your father. It’s the only thing that I’m thinking about. It’s the only thing I’m working on. No studying. No worrying about this Sekhmet business. Just him. Only him. I will find him. Okay?”
He stared for a few seconds, studying me. Finally I saw a bit of the worry and panic leave his face and he nodded. I turned back to Matt and Carlos.
“It’s time to think. Where the hell have I been that you two have not? A place that doesn’t have access to any human blood? I mean, before I was changed, I was with one or the other of you at all times, except when I was sleeping. And I’m pretty sure Carlos was in the area, if not the room, even then,” I smiled at him and he kissed my temple.
“You got that right, darlin,” he said, making me smile.
“Okay, so we can cross off everywhere we went before I was changed. Then we were here. After we got married we were always together. We’ve been to the island together, so it’s not there. The only place I’ve been without you two was when I was with Aquila, but she said it was some place that he’s never been. God, where could it be?”
I was growing more and more frantic and Matt could easily see that. He gently pushed me down into one of the chairs and sat in another, facing me. “Maybe it will come to you if you think about people you’ve been with. Like, start with Malina. Did she take you anywhere besides the cave? When she had me, were you always with Carlos or did you go anywhere by yourself?”
I scrunched up my face and tried really hard to think of something, anything. But I shook my head, “No. She only took me to the cave and Carlos never left my side. I was only away from you guys when I was with Aquila. Shit, this is friggin hopeless…..JONAS!” I yelled, making them all jump. “It was the island that he flew me to when he took me from our island, Matt. Remember? The one where I talked to him and convinced him to bring me back and stay with us for a while to see if he and I could be friends? That’s where he is. But, shit, I don’t know where it is. He flew so damn fast, it was like holding on to a bullet in the sky.”
“Yeah, but now we have a place to start, Sarah. Let’s get our asses to our island and start looking,” Carlos said. I nodded, started to get up, but stopped. I looked at Jason, standing there completely naked with huge wings attached to his back. “Ummm, do you think Stefan’s plane is available? We can’t very well travel commercial, you know?”
Matt pulled out his cell phone, but Jason tried to stop him. “I can fly on my own. I flew here from the cave where I was raised, you know.”
I tried to suppress my smile. He sounded just like a stubborn child trying so hard to grow up. Just like Scotty. My mouth dropped open as I sat there totally stunned. That was the first time I had ever thought of my first-born son, Scotty, and not felt overwhelming sadness. I had actually smiled. “What?” Matt whispered. I shook my head, “Later,” I whispered back. I looked at Jason, “When you flew here, it was over land, correct? The cave that he raised you in, you flew east over to Alaska and then South over land to get here, right? You were able to stop when you needed to and rest?”
“Yes, but I’m a strong flyer. And I don’t want to fly in one of your airplanes.” he whined.
I walked over and placed my hand on his shoulder. “Jason. Our island is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles from land. You’d have to fly for hours without resting. Wha
t if it was too far? What do you think your father would do to me if I rescued him but had to tell him that you didn’t make it?”
Jason couldn’t suppress a small laugh, “You’d never see the light of day again, that’s for sure. Okay. I’ll ride in your airplane, if you insist.”
“Thank you.”
Matt dialed his cell and stepped into the outer office when Stefan picked up. I turned back to Jason, “Ummm, Jason. Even though we’ll be flying on a private plane, there’s still a possibility that some humans will see us: in the hanger when we move from the car to the plane, or when we land in Texas to change to our boat for the ride out to the island. Would you be willing to wear pants and maybe a cape to cover your wings?”
He rolled his eyes at me, “Fine. Anything else? Get it out now, please.”
I smiled, “No, there’s nothing else.”
Matt stepped back in, “The plane is in Paris right now. It’ll be here the day after tomorrow.”
“Two days? We have to wait two days?” Jason said, as panic shook his voice.
“Jason, you know how strong your father is. I know how strong your father is, believe me, I know. He broke five of my ribs once. So I know. He’ll be fine for a few more days.”
Jason stared at me with his mouth open, then tried not to smile as he said, “He, he broke five of your ribs? At once?”
“Yes he did. And I’ll tell you all about it, if you’d like to hear, in the kitchen, over a meal, okay?”
“You bet I want to hear. Wow. That’s my dad.”
Suddenly Matt’s cell phone chirped. He put it to his ear, “Yes, Derek? Who? She’s at the gate? No, absolutely not. Tell Miguel that she does not come in. I’ll be right there.” He hung up his phone and motioned me and Carlos over to him, “It’s that reporter, the one who tracked us down at the dock in Corpus Christi and is trying to get some scoop on vampires. She’s here. She’s at the gate,” he whispered. Carlos growled low in his chest.
“Are you f-ing kidding me? How did she find this place? Who the hell is feeding her information? I’ve gotta go talk to her,” I said as I started to move toward the door. Matt stopped me, “Ummm, Sarah,” he said then he motioned toward Jason with his chin. I looked at him, “Shit. Okay, look, tell her to meet me at the café in the center of town in an hour.”
“You? Why you? I am head of security, Sarah,” Matt said.
“Really? You want to try to pull rank right now? Fine, I’m the friggin’ President. So I’m talking to her, kapish?” I said.
Matt pressed his lips together, “I wasn’t trying to pull rank Sarah. I’m just asking why you think that you would do a better job than I would.”
“I’m not saying that I would do a better job, Matt. I’m just saying, my intuition is saying that I will be able to get the information we need from her because she’ll feel less threatened by me than she would a man.”
“Sarah, is that really a good idea?” Carlos said.
“Guys, trust me on this. Let me talk to her. It’ll be fine. I promise.”
“Fine, but I’m going with,” Matt said.
“Me too,” Carlos said.
I shook my head, “You’ll spook her. If you go, you stay hidden. Understand?”
They both nodded then headed out the door. I turned to Jason, “Let’s eat, okay?”
He nodded, but added, “You don’t have to babysit me, you know. I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can. But I thought you wanted to hear about the time your Dad broke my ribs, right?”
He blushed slightly, “Well, yeah. But do you have to make it sound so morbid? I’d like to hear other stuff too.”
“Of course you do,” I said as I tucked my arm into his and led him into the hall. “So, what do you want to know?” I said.
I could tell that he really wanted to know about the broken ribs, but he resisted asking. “Tell me about the first time you met my Dad.”
We turned into the kitchen, “Okay. But actually, the first time we met was also the time he broke my ribs,” I said as I grabbed some pints from the fridge. “How many for you?”
“Ummmm, four please? Is that too many?”
“It’s not too many at all, Jason. You can have as much as you want when you’re here.”
“Then six please.”
“Six it is,” I grabbed them, and four for me, and dropped them in the microwave. As I was heating the blood I began telling him of my first encounter with his father, “Your father and others like him were working for someone who wanted female vampires for their breeding abilities. But vampires and seraphim’s weren’t, ummmm, friends yet. Seraphim’s had been extinct for hundreds of years, or so we thought.”
“Until that priest guy used DNA to bring us back, right?” Jason said.
I nodded, “Yes. So when they basically appeared out of nowhere and all they were doing was kidnapping female vampires, some of which were my close friends, well, we immediately came to the conclusion that they were trying to kill us off so we began trying to figure out how to defend ourselves. We never, ever thought that vampires and seraphim’s could get along and live in peace. It was only because of your father that we became friends, but that happened much later.”
“Funny, but he told me the same thing about you. He said you were the reason that my kind and vampires got along now. He said that it was because of how you treated him when you had him captured. He was intrigued by you, fascinated by you and he even developed a little crush on you. The priest had raised them to despise vampires, he said that you were the reason that we went extinct in the first place. But when he first met you, when he first talked to you, he knew he could never harm you. And because he wanted you to stay alive and be his friend, then he thought that maybe it was okay to let all vampires live and even be friends.”
“Really? He told you that? That’s, well, I didn’t know that he felt that way. Anyways, we were trying to figure out why the seraphim’s were kidnapping female vampires. And we thought the best way to figure that out would be to capture one.”
“And you were the bait,” Jason said.
I smiled, “He told you that? Yes, I was. I was out on the lawn when your father and his friends showed up.”
“Why didn’t you just ask him why he was here?”
“Because he only spoke Latin. He pretended that he didn’t know English. And nobody here at the time knew Latin. So, when you father first saw me, he waved his friends off and hovered right above me.”
“Yes. He said he knew immediately that you were excellent breeding stock and so he marked you as his mate right then.”
“He marked me?”
“Yes. With his scent. From his,” he blushed, “from, you know. Didn’t you feel it?”
“Well, yes. But I didn’t realize that was what he was doing. What does that do, when he marks me?”
“It repels all other seraphims. It tells them that you are his. They won’t come near you.”
“Oh. Well, when he was, ummm, marking me, he knew we were going to capture him and he seemed okay with that. I grabbed his arms and that was when he folded his wings and dropped his full weight on me.”
Jason shook his head, “It wasn’t his full weight. Not even close. He was trying to not hurt you. His full weight would have crushed your entire body in a second.”
“That wasn’t his full weight? He told you that? I guess I should be grateful but, man it hurt like hell. That was when he broke my ribs, and my pelvis.”
“I remember you, you know.” he whispered.
“You remember me? How?”
“I remember you talking to me when I was inside of you. I liked your voice.”
Carlos cleared his throat behind me. He and Matt had been standing in the doorway, and they had obviously heard that last part. “We like her voice too,” he said as he leaned down and kissed the top of my head. Matt sat down across from me with his meal, “She’ll be waiting for you,” he said.
Jason stood up, “I should prob
ably go.”
“Actually, I was hoping you’d stay, Jason.”
He eyed me. I could tell he was leery. “Why?”
“I’m worried that you might be seen by this reporter or her photographer. I was hoping I could convince you to stay here.”
“Where? In the cage you kept my father in?” he snapped.
I couldn’t keep the hurt from my voice, “No, of course not. We have a room at the end of the hall. You can come and go as you please. I just ask that you stay indoors until dark and don’t hunt any humans within a fifty mile radius.”
Now he was the one who looked hurt, “I don’t hunt humans. Father doesn’t want us to. And I’m sorry I said that. But I am curious to see the cell where he was kept. Perhaps you could show me when you get back?”
“Absolutely. Let me show you to your room now and I promise that I will be back soon.”
We all headed down the hall, to the room at the end, right next to the courtyard door that leads to the waterfall. “Have you ever seen television?”
He looked at me like I was an alien. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“Well, no. Haven’t you been in the cave this entire time?”
“No. We move between the cave and a small cottage in the mountains above Austria. It has its own power: wind generators, solar panels. And we have a satellite dish. Humans are amusing, to say the least.”
“Oh. I guess I should’ve known that your father would want to teach you not only about yourself but other species as well. I can tell that he loves you very much. I have to run out now. Will you be okay here by yourself? I could get someone to keep you company.”
He rolled his eyes, “Please. I’ve been on my own for over a week. Do you really think I can’t take care of myself?”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. But can I ask that you please stay in this room?”
“Why? I thought I just had to stay indoors. You said you weren’t trying to keep me prisoner.”
“I’m not. It’s just that I haven’t had a chance to inform everyone here that you are my guest. The last time most of them saw a seraphim was when they were kidnapping vampires.”