by P. R. Mason
“Basically we have a little less than three days until the portal between your world and the Dorcha world becomes impermeable,” Zen said. “At 5:05 am on September 30th.”
“After that we would have to wait until the solstice in December, right?” Senji piped in.
“No.” Rom shook his head. “Another Dorcha portal may open at the solstice. Yet without aid of my world's oracle, I lack ability to divine its location.” Rom reached out a hand to me and I backed away. He smiled sadly and turned to Zen. “The tunnel vortex depends not only upon the solstice or equinox but also upon Saturn. Saturn will not return to a satisfactory position for the next 29.46 earth years.”
“Great,” I said. “We have less than thirty-six hours until Juliette and Franky are trapped in Dorcha for the next twenty-nine plus years.”
Chapter Ten
Rom drove us back to my house.
The car ride was as silent as a night in a tomb. Of course we all had a lot of information to process, including the "plan" we'd devised with Zen to get Juliette and Franky back.
Once we arrived, we all exited the car. Petra wrapped me in a tight hug before she, Chase and Senji piled into her Buick and drove away. Rom and I were left on the sidewalk to stare at one another.
Was Rom still keeping something from me? Had he been completely honest...finally?
“When did that tsunami hit your city?” I asked, breaking the silence.
“I know not,” Rom said. “The psychomanteum's images were the first I had seen of such a wave.”
“Oh no.” Despite all the questions between us I couldn’t help but encircle him around the waist with my arms. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled into his chest. “I was so wrapped in my own grief, I didn’t think about your family and how worried you must be.”
“Mayhap the vision reflected merely my fears and not a true happening,” Rom said. His arms came around me in an embrace. “Neither I nor my family harmed your brother. I vow it.”
“I believe you,” I whispered a few moments later. After squeezing hard for emphasis, I released him. I truly did believe him. Rom wouldn't kill an innocent child.
Stepping back, I cast him one last glance before walking into the house.
My mother met me at the door. “Did you find out anything about Juliette?”
“Yes.” I climbed half way up the stairs. “I spoke to someone who had seen her.”
“Thank God.” Mom sighed. “She’s all right.”
As all right as a person could be trapped as a prisoner in another dimension when they're being used as a sippy cup by a vampire.
“I asked the person who saw Juliette to call the detective and give him the details.” The first actual lie I’d told Mom today.
“Where did they see her?”
“At a hangout, but not one I recognized, “ I hedged. “We couldn’t actually find her and bring her home tonight. Maybe tomorrow.”
When I reached my room, I didn’t turn on the light, just closed the door and leaned my head against it. The situation seemed impossible. Zen's plan was as crazy as Zen. Besides, did I have the courage to go through with it? Sure it seemed okay in theory, but in practice those monsters were pretty scary. Plus, we didn’t even know their actual location.
The bedside lamp snapped on illuminating the room. I jumped and stifled a scream with my hand as I wheeled around.
Billy Broadrick sat on my bed.
“Finally. It’s about time,” he muttered.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked. “How did you get in?”
“I came in through the window like you do.” He sneered. “I want to talk to you about Juliette.”
“You couldn’t do that today at school?”
He ignored my question and rose. Thank goodness. I had to sleep in that bed after all. Yuck. I’d probably have nightmares from now on. For more reasons than one.
“How are you going to get her back?” he demanded.
“How do you know I’m going to try?”
“I want to help you.” His voice rose with agitation.
“Shhhh.” I cracked open my bedroom door and glanced out. No sign of Mom. I shut the door. “You can’t help.”
“What if I know where those things are hiding?”
He couldn't be saying what I thought he was saying. How would Billy know anything about where the monsters were?
"What things?" I asked bluffing.
"The things...creatures...whatever they were that came through when Juliette and Franky disappeared. One of the BQs followed them out of the hospital."
“Maybe you can help, after all," I said.
After punching in the number for Zen on my phone, I waited five rings for him to pick up.
“What do you want?” Zen answered finally.
“That’s some greeting.”
Earlier on, I’d arranged to meet Rom and the others in about an hour and a half to search for the monsters. Now we knew where they were thanks to Billy. I told Zen where we’d be and what Billy had said.
“Why don't we meet now?” Zen suggested.
“Because I have to wait for my mom to go to sleep that’s why.” I hung up.
At my insistence, Billy climbed out the window with instructions to wait. If Billy had told the truth, getting the monsters just became a lot easier. At least the finding part. The catching part? Not so sure.
Zen seemed certain he could catch them and he'd finally be able to prove the people wrong who drummed him out of the military for his belief in the paranormal. Well, I thought, everyone should have a hobby.
I sat down at the computer to kill time. A click of the mouse brought up a search engine and I typed in the words “Prince Leopold”. The man in the mirror had a British accent so I added the word “England” to the search terms and pressed enter. As the computer worked I felt stupid. Did I really think I could Google a monster from another dimension?
When the search results filled the screen, I leaned forward in excitement. The top result was a Wikipedia entry for HRH, the Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany and son of Queen Victoria. Scanning down the page, my heart leaped. A man gazed serenely from a sepia photograph near the bottom. This was the image of the same man I’d seen in the psychomanteum, minus the fangs of course. But this Prince Leopold had suffered from hemophilia and died after a fall led to internal bleeding in 1884.
Clicking on another result, I continued reading and was so intent I didn’t hear someone slip in through the window and prowl toward me. A hand touching the spot where my shoulder met my nape sent me rocketing up and out of the desk chair. As the chair skid and fell, I whirled and found Rom behind me.
“Is everything okay, honey?” Mom called almost immediately from downstairs.
I crossed to the bedroom door and opened it.
“Just knocked the chair over. I’m fine.” I turned back to Rom. “You scared the crap out of me,” I whispered furiously.
“Apologies,” he said in a quiet voice. “The observation of that boy departing your window caused concern.”
“Billy just came to tell me he knows where the monsters are.” Taking Rom by the arm I pulled him over to the computer screen. “Look at this.” I pointed to the photograph of Queen Victoria’s son. “Seem familiar?”
“The vampire, but not the vampire,” he said.
As Rom scanned the screen, I scanned him. He’d lied to me overtly and by omission but still I couldn’t help being drawn to him physically. Those pesky teenage hormones I suppose. But more than that, somehow I knew Rom was innately good.
It occurred to me that when I’d touched his arm I had grasped a point near the bandage and he'd flinched. I must have been staring at him with an expression of anger or something because when Rom glanced at me, he exhaled a long breath.
“Shall I depart and await you outside?”
“Is that bite on your arm hurting?” I asked.
“No.” I could tell by the way he glanced away that he'd lied.
“Let me
see it." I grasped his arm. When he tried to pull it away I tugged it back. “Come on.” I peeled back the Band-Aid revealing an angry red wound. The edges were hot to my gently probing touch.
“This could be infected.” I tried to keep the fear off my face.
After leading him by the hand into the adjoining bathroom, I held his arm over the sink and dumped almost a half bottle of the hydrogen peroxide into the wound. Rom gasped and then stood it stoically.
“Tomorrow you need to get this looked at by a doctor.” After applying an antiseptic cream, I re-bandaged the wound. “You probably need antibiotics."
Rom nodded and moved out of the bathroom and toward the window.
“No.” I stopped him. “Wait with me until Mom goes to sleep. We'll be able to leave together.”
We stared at one another for long moments before, by unspoken agreement, we moved to the bed and sat down side-by-side. Rom continued to gaze into my eyes searchingly. A shadow passed over his face. For some reason I knew he was thinking about his family.
Wishing with all my heart I could comfort him, I took Rom’s hand between both of mine, lifted it to my lips and kissed his knuckles. My action only seemed to make his expression more tortured than before.
“Do not think me less than full honor, but…” he hesitated.
“What?”
“May we lie on your bed together?”
His words sparked both excitement and fear. Between all the painful tingles and poundings in my heart and head, I couldn’t tell which belonged to which feeling.
“The comfort of arms around me would mean much now." Rom pulled his gaze from mine to stare at his lap as if ashamed of what he’d revealed.
My answer was to scoot further up onto the bed and lie down. Rom made his little quirky half-smile and joined me. With a bit of awkwardness we put our arms around each other. Mine wrapped around his waist. One of his rested under my shoulder and the other draped over me to lie loosely on my hip. His breath on my face spawned more tingling throughout my body. We lay watching each other in silence for a few minutes.
“Why didn’t you just tell me about the vortex so I wouldn’t open it,” I asked and felt him stiffen. “I mean I’m not saying you’re to blame, I just wonder."
“You would have believed a strange young man with an even stranger tale?”
He had a point.
“Tell me about your world,” I urged.
“My world has beauty,” Rom said. He lifted his hand from my waist and placed it on my wrist, before tracing small circles with his index finger. “The air blows and the sea moves more cleanly than in this world. But my world is brutal too.”
Brutal? What did that mean?
“In my world, the exploration that opened the continent of Augustinia for incorporation into the empire was undertaken by Cristoforo Colombo in 1492 at the order of the Roman Emperor, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus IV.”
His caressing hand moved up my arm to my shoulder and I fought to keep a gasp from escaping.
The fact that something so similar yet different had happened in Rom's dimension made me wonder. How much of what we experienced was fate and what was left to chance?
“So the Roman Empire never fell and your country is located on the same land mass as America in this dimension?” I asked.
He nodded.
“What about the American Revolution? Obviously, it wasn’t called that but did something like that happen?” Although I was interested in the answer, his fingers were interesting me also. They had me floating above my own body with excitement.
“A revolution was fought,” he replied. “The provinces of Augustina rebelled against Rome in 1776 but the treason was quashed. The rebels and all of their household were beheaded in the arena.”
That brought me back to earth. “The arena? Like gladiators?”
"Accord," he said. "Today the arena is much attended in person and through television. Most gladiators are no longer slaves but highly paid athletes much like your football players.” Reaching a hand up he brushed the hair off my forehead, tracing my brow with his fingers. “Yet slaves are common in Augustinian society. We have many in our household.”
“What about England? Were they involved at all in the Revolution?”
“I know not much more of the rebellion, being an imperfect academic.” he continued. “ I leave perfection to my brother.”
“Brother? Do you have any sisters? What's your family like?”
“One brother Marcus and one sister Nicia.” He smiled gently when he said his sister’s name and his navy eyes warmed. “My sister is the soft heart of our family. We all dote upon her. My father in particular.”
“Tell me more about Nicia.” I wanted to see more of that warm expression.
“She has attained the age of twelve years. We celebrated her natal day the evening before I journeyed here. Nicia is fair and as lovely of face as she is of disposition.”
“Like your sister, my brother Adam was the one with the sweet personality in our family.”
“Truly?” A wry smile twisted his lips. “You shock me.”
Laughing, I smacked his arm lightly. “Anyway, Mom and Dad had Adam to save their marriage, I think. But it didn’t work.”
We were quiet for a time. “What’s your father like?” I asked to break the silence.
Rom’s eyes darkened to a jewel-like hardness at the question.
“Our society is dictated by adherence to authority and duty,” Rom said. "The Emperor is as a father to all, ruling over even the Senate of which my father is part. As the Emperor rules over all, so my father is the authority over his household. He controls not only his slaves, but also his wife and children. He demands complete obedience."
"So you've never disobeyed your father? Complete obedience to anybody would be impossible for me," I tried to joke.
"Performance of duty has always been of preeminence to me even when I questioned the correctness."
"I'm certain if there was a choice between what's right and your duty, you'd do what's right." My gaze locked with his.
He glanced away. "Why do I deserve such faith?" he whispered.
"I don't know. I just believe in you." A laugh burst from me. "Sorry. That sounded stupid."
"Not stupid. Naive," he said. "In my world any disobedience to the head of the family may be disciplined as he sees fit even unto death. So you see I am not free to do right.”
“You mean your father could legally kill you if he chose?”
“Accord. And he would do so with ease if I dishonored him by disobedience to duty.” Rom’s jaw tightened and his eyes drifted to the ceiling as if considering this possible fate.
“What about your mother? You said she's a doctor, a medico. Surely, she wouldn't allow your father to hurt you.”
Rom shrugged. “Mother has devotion for her children but reverence for her husband is preeminent.” Rom’s eyes clouded as if the thought of his mother’s failure to protect him would hurt more than his father killing him.
“Well,” I said shaking him a little. “Don’t feel bad. Fathers kill their children in this world too. Mine tried to kill me and Adam the day I first saw you.”
“But this killing is not sanctioned by your laws,” Rom observed.
“No.”
“Why did he do this thing? Had you dishonored him?”
“I don’t know why he did it,” I said. “I wonder if I ever will.”
Rom pulled me closer into his arms and I rested my cheek against his chest. The scent of sandalwood and male acted as a narcotic. And the steady beating of his heart calmed me. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sleep like this? I thought. But staying awake was a priority.
“You said your scientists had discovered other dimensions. Does that mean you’ve traveled to other worlds before now?” I asked.
“No. It is strictly forbidden by edict,” Rom said. “When the sciencia discovered these matters fifty years ago, the government began testing of children at the time of
their first vaccinations. My mother as medico shielded our results. If others discovered my brother and I are Clavis we would face execution.”
“It must have been very dangerous for all of you when I arrived with Adam.”
“Accord. Although we successfully returned you to your world, the oracle soon prophesied the world of the Dorcha would be opened by you with consequences most dire. My father decided I must try to prevent this.”
Pulling from his hold, I leaned over him, propped on my elbow. For a moment I considered asking him more about Adam, but I couldn't bring myself to.
“So you came here and found me?”
“I journeyed to this world and found you,” he said. “And I found you most distracting.”
“And delightful,” I joked.
“Truth.” Rom's gaze was intent. He pulled me down to rest on his chest. “I find you have become more to me than my duty should allow.”
“What does that even mean?” Oops, I said that out loud.
“The meaning is this.” Tilting my face to his with a light touch on my jaw, Rom leaned up and captured my top lip between his in a kiss. His lips moved gently, sipping on mine. After some seconds, he pulled back.
“And this.” His mouth returned.
This time his tongue licked at the seam of my lips enticing me to open to him. When I did, his tongue slid into my mouth and tangled with mine, warm and delicious. This must be the French kissing Petra talked so much about. When she recommended it, her description hadn't been that enticing. I’d have to apologize to Petra at the earliest opportunity.
My hand crept up his arm tracing the lean but strong muscles before moving on to Rom’s shoulder, feeling its strength through his t-shirt. My caress moved to his head where I sifted through his silky hair. I pressed his head toward me, not wanting him to move away again. He didn’t. Instead, he deepened the kiss and I felt his hand wander tantalizingly from my hip up my side, over my rib cage toward my breast. My heart pounded in anticipation.
A knock sounded on the door and I jerked back, panting.
“Kizzy, are you asleep?” Mom would open the door any second.