Sekhmet's Curse (Pearl Vampire Chronicles)

by Dara Nelson

  “Shhhh, just listen. Carlos is talking to him right now.”

  I tried to relax and get the sound of my pounding heart out of my ears.

  “So you came here looking for help and then you shoot first and ask questions later?” Carlos said.

  ‘I’m, I’m, I’m so sorry. It’s just that my nerves are fried. We’ve been chased on the seas twice by pirates. We just want to get home. But I realized that we didn’t have enough fresh water or fuel to make it. I saw the house and thought maybe I’d find some here. I have money. I can pay.”

  I watched the man’s shaking hand bring out his wallet. Carlos placed a reassuring hand on it, “That’s not necessary. Now, if you’ll return to your boat and bring it to the dock, I’ll bring down some fresh water and the key for the fuel depot.”

  “Really? You’ll do that for us? Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. God, I’ve never been as scared as I have been the last week,” he said as he hurried down the path and onto the sand. He pushed his dingy into the surf, started the small outboard motor and headed out toward his anchored boat. “Go, Sarah. Get Jason inside before they get to the dock.” Matt said.

  I ran back to the boat, and found Jason waiting for me on the bridge, “I heard,” he said. I grabbed his hand and we both jumped onto the dock and ran toward the house. Matt held the door open for us. We zoomed up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms. I closed the door as he sat on the end of the bed. We both stared at each other, then, slowly, ever so slowly, grins broke out on both our faces. “Well, that was, ummm, interesting,” he said.

  “To say the least. Are you hungry?”

  He nodded.

  “Wait here. I’ll bring you something.”

  I headed downstairs, heated a few pints in the microwave then waited when I heard Matt and Carlos walking up the porch steps. They were laughing. “I thought you were faster than that, old man,” Matt said.

  “Shut up. He was right in front of me, and I wasn’t really expecting a gun. It’s only a flesh wound. It’s already almost healed.”

  The both stopped when they walked in the door and saw me glaring at them. “Sarah,” Carlos began. I held my hand up and he stopped. “You got shot? And you didn’t tell me? You are in serious trouble, you know that, right?”

  Carlos pulled his shirt up, showing me the shrinking wound on the side of his belly. “Honey. It was just a scratch. Really. It’s nothing.”

  “You don’t get to be the judge of that. Understand? It might be nothing to you, but it’s something to me. You should have told me.”

  “You’re right, and I’m sorry honey. Won’t happen again, I promise.”

  I smiled and patted his cheek, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. They’re gone now?”

  Matt nodded his head, “Left about five minutes ago.”

  “Jason? You can come down here now,” I said.

  Jason appeared on the stairs a split-second later, “Is it time? Can we go look for him now?”

  I nodded, “Yes. As soon as we’re done eating.”

  Carlos spread the map out on the kitchen table. “I divided the area into grids. Which grid do you want to start with first Sarah? Come on. Close your eyes. Try to remember the flight Jonas took you on. Did you see anything? Anything besides open water?”

  “We’ve been over this, Carlos. I had my eyes closed. I didn’t see anything until we landed.”

  “Well, did you hear anything?” he said.

  “Hear anything? What do you mean?”

  “Like waves crashing onto a shore before you got there?” he said.

  My eyes popped open, “Yes! About halfway there. It didn’t register at the time, but it had to have been waves.”

  “Halfway. Okay. There are islands in the middle of grids two, five and six. Which one do you think we should start with?”

  “Two. Let’s start there.”

  We all headed out to the boat.

  * * * * * *

  I flopped down on the couch, exhausted. We had searched every island in grids two, five, six, and every other grid, over the last four days. Time was almost gone. The hourglass was almost empty. I watched as Jason sadly headed up the stairs to bed. It was late, well after dark, and though he had desperately screamed at me to stay out and keep searching, I had finally made the agonizing decision to head back. We were all too tired, too hungry and too desperate to continue. I was even too tired to get off the couch. I leaned my head on the armrest and was sound asleep within seconds. My sleep didn’t last all night, though. Worry woke me at around four. I quietly wandered down to the beach and sat in the sand. I pressed my forehead to my knees and absent-mindedly traced my fingers in the damp sand. Bringing my head up and resting my chin on my knees, I did the only thing that I could think to do. “Jonas,” I whispered, “I don’t know if you can hear me, but I really need your help here. A friend of mine is stuck on your island. You know, the one you took me to? He’s starving and he’s dying. I need to find him. But I’ve searched so hard. I’m so tired. And I can’t find it. Can you please, somehow, point me in the right direction? Can you give me a sign? Please, Jonas?”

  Trying to speak to the ghost of my dead friend, Jonas? This was desperate, I knew, but I was out of ideas and grasping at straws now. I tensed and waited, losing hope when minutes went by and the only sound was the waves crashing to shore. Suddenly, I heard something; the sound of fingers tracing in wet sand, but mine were clasped on top of my knees. Afraid to startle him, I slowly turned my head and looked. I watched as an invisible finger traced numbers and letters in the sand in the brilliant moonlight. Latitude and longitude coordinates: hope. The writing stopped. “Thank you, Jonas. Thank you so much.”

  I jumped as his voice whispered in my head, ‘Miss me?’ it said.

  “I do. Very much,” I said as I looked around, and saw no one. His was a disembodied voice.

  ‘Knew it. I would have been number three’ he said. I laughed out loud, “I can barely handle two husbands, three would probably kill me.”

  ‘Yeah, but I was that good, really. Now go, Sarah. Go get him. You and I, we’ll talk later.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  I jumped up and ran into the house. “Up! Up! Everybody up! I know where he is.” I ran over to the map on the table, quickly located the island using the coordinates Jonas had written in the sand and circled it with a red pen. It was outside all of our search grids. We never would have found it on our own. “It’s here,” I said as a sleepy Matt and Carlos joined me, “It’s this one here.”

  “And you know this, how?” Matt said.

  “Jonas,” I whispered.

  “Jonas? But how?”

  “I don’t know, Matt. But let’s not worry about the how right now. Let’s load up some blood on the boat and get the hell over there.”

  “Got the food,” Carlos said from behind me. His arms were full with as much blood as he could carry.

  A sallow eyed, sleepy and stressed looking Jason came down the stairs. “What’s going on?” he said.

  “Should we go get your father?”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “I know where he is.”

  “Then why the hell are we standing here?” he said, clearly wide awake now.

  “Matt, Carlos, please go down to the boat. I just need to talk to Jason for a second. Okay?”

  “Sure thing, Sarah,” they said as they headed out the door. I waited until I knew they were no longer within hearing distance, which meant they down on the dock.

  “Sarah, you don’t need to talk to me. We need to go. Now,” Jason said.

  “Jason. I need you to do me a favor out on the boat. Your father, he will probably be so insane with hunger that he won’t recognize you, or me or anyone else. Your kind become very violent when they’re starving, he will probably attack first without thinking,” I said.

  “He’ll know me.”

  “But what if he doesn’t? What if he hurts you, or worse? That
’s why I need you to stay on the boat when we reach the island, and keep Matt and Carlos on it too. I need you to make sure they don’t get off that boat, Jason. I can’t let anything happen to them. Please? Will you do that for me?”

  “You’re going to confront him alone?” he said.

  “I think it’s the best way. I’m hoping he won’t feel the need to react so strongly to a female.”

  He studied me for a few moments, then nodded his head, “Okay, Sarah. I guess that makes some sense. But I will be listening and watching. If it even appears to me that your plan isn’t going to work, then I’m coming ashore.”

  “Okay, Jason. Thank you. Alright, let’s go get him.”

  Our boat was racing through the water a few minutes later. All of us were tense and worried, but also revived with this jolt of hope. It took about thirty minutes to get to the island. Thirty minutes by boat, ten minutes through the air with Jonas, I marveled.

  Carlos nodded, “That’s it, Sarah, just another few minutes.”

  I nodded and went below. I heated ten pints in the microwave, put them in a bag and headed back up top with them. Jason and I locked eyes as I made my way to the railing near the stern. Just as Matt began to slow the boat down, I nodded to him, climbed onto the railing and jumped into the air. I landed at the edge of the shore and ran through the sand towards the trees as I tried to ignore the commotion behind me. “No! You need to stay here. My father will feel less threatened by a female. I will stop you forcibly if I have to.”

  “Are you frickin’ kidding me? Did she put you up to this? Of course she did. God damn it. Sarah! You come back here right now!” Matt yelled. I heard minor struggling on the boat, then finally resignation. “Damn it! Fine, we’ll stay, but if we hear any hint of a struggle, one peep, well, you can’t stop both of us for long,” Carlos said, then I heard him grumble, “I should have known she’d do something like this.”

  I suppressed a smile then went back to concentrating on what I was doing. Aquila’s scent was everywhere. He had obviously searched the entire island for food. I was trying to pick up the freshest trail. It seemed to be leading to the base of the only mountain on the small island.

  And as I broke through the tree line, I saw that it lead directly to a cave. Of course, a cave would feel more familiar to him. But it would also be more dangerous for me. I stopped and crouched down. How am I going to do this? I thought. Should I make some noise and hope that he recognizes me? No, that might just piss him off. I definitely don’t want to piss him off. Should I hope that he’s asleep, sneak in the cave, hopefully get him to drink one pint as I wake him and hope that that’s enough for him to not be crazy? I really didn’t want to confront him without him having any blood in him at all, so I decided that was probably my best option. I reached into the bag on my shoulder, pierced one pint with my fangs and held it upright in my hand, hopefully ready to squeeze it into his mouth as he woke up. I tried to steady my shaking hand as I tiptoed forward. I avoided leaves and branches as best I could, but I couldn’t silence my heart pounding in my chest. If he was awake or sleeping lightly, it wouldn’t be long before he heard that. Just a few more steps would have me at the mouth of the cave, and the more nervous I got, the more I kept second-guessing my decisions. Suddenly I stopped. I heard what sounded like a low growling and the rustle of wings. I glanced back to the tree line. Should I run? The trees might give me a little protection. I took a deep breath and decided to throw caution to the wind. “Aquila? It’s Sarah. I have blood for you.” No response except the growling got a little louder. I jumped as I heard his wings expand. Turning, I ran as fast as I could toward the trees, too terrified to turn around. I could feel him gaining on me as I weaved in and out through the jungle. I jumped over a fallen tree, but was brought to a sudden stop as I landed on the other side. Aquila had grabbed my hair and yanked me onto my back. Luckily for me, he straddled me instead of putting his weight on me, but his hand closed around my throat and began to squeeze, making it difficult for me to speak. His mad eyes showed no recognition of who I was as he growled into my face. I managed to get my arm between us and I squeezed some blood onto his face. He looked startled and his grip on my throat loosened slightly as his tongue moved around his mouth, trying to lick the blood. “Aquila, wait,” I croaked. “I’m here with Jason, your son, Jason. He wants to see you.” For a brief moment he looked confused, then the mad fury returned and his hand tightened on my throat again. I weakly squeezed more blood from the bag, this time managing to get it directly into his mouth. His eyes popped open, he choked and coughed a few times then he grabbed my hand with the blood in it and squeezed them both. He emptied that bag into his mouth, and broke a few bones in my hand in the process. I tried to sit up, but he growled and pinned my wrists above my head, “More, must make more,” he spat out.

  “You mean more blood? I have more, Aquila, in my bag by the tree. There’s plenty more.”

  He shifted his grip so that he was pinning both my wrists with one hand, and as he reached down to the button on my shorts, I realized with a shock what he meant by ‘must make more’.

  “Shit, not again. Aquila, no! You have a son. Jason. He’s your son. Remember him? Please don’t do this to me again.”

  “Jason?” he said as he hesitated.

  My heart was pounding in my chest as I nodded my head, “Yes, Jason. Your son.”

  My heart dropped as I quickly saw the madness return. He shook his head, “Not enough. Must make more,” he said as he broke off the button, pulled down my zipper and tried to move my shorts down. I managed to cross my legs, but I knew that would only hold him back for a moment or two. A small sob escaped my throat as I turned my head to the side, resigned to what was about to happen to me, again. I had no way to fight it. He was just too strong.

  “Father, stop,” Jason calmly said as he emerged from the shadows holding my bag. “I have nourishment for you. Here, have some. Please.” He reached into the bag and held out a pint toward his father as he stepped up to him. Aquila hesitated. He started to reach for the pint, stopped, looked down at me, looked back at the pint, then back down at me. Another sob escaped from me as his hand moved between my legs again. “Father. Take this, now!” Jason said sternly. Once again Aquila hesitated, a little startled by his son’s tone. He looked into Jason’s eyes then ever-so-slowly he nodded his head and took the pint. Slight relief flowed into me, but I was still pinned underneath him, with my shorts undone. It would only take him a moment to finish what he started if he decided to. Movement behind a tree caught my eye, “Don’t,” I whispered then I smiled weakly at Matt and Carlos, who were just about to foolishly try to take on Aquila, which would surely mean death for at least one of them, and probably both. They both stopped and watched me, tense and ready to attack in the blink of an eye. Jason handed him another pint, then another, then another. The more he drank, the more I began to have a little hope. But I felt the panic well up again as Jason reached into the bag, pulled out the last pint and handed it to Aquila, who still had the madness in his eyes. He still needed more blood. He dropped the last empty on the ground, then leaned down towards me again, “Am dying. Must make more,” he growled. Jason placed his gentle hand on his father’s shoulder and calmly whispered, “No, father. You’re not dying. I have more blood for you. You don’t need to procreate. Not now. Not today. You are not dying.”

  In that second, I understood. Aquila was running on pure instinct right now. His instinct told him that he was starving to death. And his instinct told him that it was imperative that he make more Seraphims before he died. Instinct in an animalistic creature is incredibly powerful, more powerful than thought process for many. Aquila struggled with that conflict right now. His mind was telling him to listen to his son, but his instinct was screaming at him to procreate. Which would win, at this point, was anyone’s guess. I watched his face as he struggled. Slowly, as if Jason’s calmness was flowing from his hand into his father’s shoulder and spreading throughout his body, Aqui
la began to relax. His head dropped. His shoulders slumped. He released my hands, pushed off of me and fell to the ground next to Jason. I heard him say, through gritted teeth, “Female, you need to stay away from me until I feed more.” I nodded and pushed myself up with my uninjured hand. I struggled to pull the zipper up on my shorts as I walked over to Matt and Carlos. They both noticed my wincing. “What happened to your hand?” Matt said as he pulled my zipper up for me.

  “Just a few broken bones when it was holding a pint for Aquila. No big deal. Can one of you please help?”

  Carlos glared at Aquila and Matt growled.

  “Don’t, he was starving, he didn’t know what he was doing, it wasn’t his fault, this was Sekhmet’s fault, and mine because I didn’t find him sooner.”

  I glanced over my shoulder as Jason called me, “Sarah? Can you get back to the boat and get some pints heating in the microwave? Then you wait near the bow. I’ll bring him onto the stern and we’ll stay below and I’ll feed him until we get back to the island.”

  A few minutes later we were all safely on the boat and heading towards home, although I couldn’t exactly say that I felt completely safe. I could hear Aquila growling downstairs. And when we were still about ten minutes from home and I heard Jason say from downstairs, “Last one Sarah. I’m out now,” I definitely didn’t feel safe anymore. Hopefully we’d make it to our island before he got out of control again.

  Matt slowly pulled up to the dock and Carlos jumped off and secured the boat. Matt stuck his head in the doorway, “Jason? We’re going to go inside, put some pints in the microwave and get them heating up. Follow us inside in about two minutes, okay?”

  “Got it,” Jason said from below. Then I heard him whispering to his father, trying to calm him down. “You’re fine now. You’re going to feed again in a minute. Everything will be alright,” he calmly said. Matt, Carlos and I made our way to the house, but I stopped when I was halfway up the stairs. “What is it, hun?” Carlos said.

  “Maybe I should go over to the guest house for a while. Until he’s got more blood in him. My scent in this house might make him worse.”