by Nelson, Dara
Chapter Six
An agonizing scream woke me. Matt and I were sleeping on the floor. The boat was docked, but we had to hide out here until the plane landed, which wouldn’t be for another few hours. I flew up and grabbed Carlos’ hand. “Shhh, Carlos,” I said as calmly as I could. “Try not to move.” His eyes were wide and frantically searching the room, finally landing on my face. The pain in them was almost unbearable. He opened his mouth and tried to say something, but the only sound that came out was a raspy groan. “Shhh, your vocal cords are pretty messed up from the saltwater. Don’t try to talk. Are you hungry? Do you think you could eat?” He stared at me for what felt like forever, whimpering. His eyes were pleading with me to make the pain go away.
His eyes moved up and found Matt, who was now standing over my shoulder. “Come on Carlos, please try?” he said. Finally, ever so slightly, he nodded his head. Matt heated up a pint (supplied to us from a global network of prison doctors so that the blood supplied to us was from evil, or bad people), brought it back and handed it to me. I held it close to Carlos, but nothing happened. He grimaced then looked to me for help.
“Matt, can you bring me the wash rag? I want to try to clean out his nose. He can’t smell right now.” Most vampires’ fangs only reacted to the scent of evil blood – you smelled evil, your fangs dropped, then you drink – that’s how it was with all vampires, except for me apparently. For reasons we had yet to determine, I was able to drop my fangs whenever I wanted to and could probably drink any kind of blood, from a good person or an evil one, but I had already been told that vampires drinking blood from a good person was not a good idea – it was addicting to us, which was probably why most vampire’s fangs only reacted to evil blood, it wouldn’t bode well to have a bunch of vampire addicts running around, now would it?.
Matt doused the washcloth in warm water and brought it over to me.
“I’m sorry Carlos, but this might hurt a bit,” I said. He stared at me then closed his eyes. I was as gentle as I could be, but he still whimpered and squeezed my other hand too hard, making me wince. I handed the rag back to Matt then picked up the blood, holding it near his nose again. I was trying to will his fangs down, but again, there was nothing.
“Maybe if he tastes it?” Matt said. I nodded, pushed the blood to the bottom of the bag, dropped my fangs, held my breath (so that I couldn’t smell it) and pierced a small hole in the bag. I squeezed out a little onto my finger then carefully stuck my finger in his mouth. Carlos’ eyes were glued to mine the entire time. At first it was only my finger that was moving, but slowly, I felt his tongue begin to move around my finger as the blood made its way beneath the damaged surface of his tongue to the still functioning taste buds beneath. He closed his eyes, groaned, then opened them up again… and they were changed – his eyes were the black eyes of a hunter. I quickly grabbed the bag and stuck it on his lowered teeth. “Good job, Carlos,” I said. “That was really good.” I looked up at Matt. “How much longer?”
“About another hour,” he said.
I nodded and looked back at Carlos. “Okay, hun, we hate to do this, but we’re going to have to move you soon,” I said. Carlos whimpered and I saw the fear in his eyes. “I know, I know. It’s gonna hurt like hell, but we have to get you to on the plane. We’ll be as gentle and as quick as we can, I promise. Okay?”
“Carlos, please,” Matt said from behind me. “God, why does everyone think I’m going to flip and go ballistic?”
“Maybe that’s because that’s what a normal person would do,” I said.
“Okay, well maybe someday I will, but not while he’s so messed up. I’ll at least wait until he’s healed before I beat the crap out of him for kissing my wife,” he grinned and winked at me, his eyes sparkling.
I leaned back into him. “I love you,” I whispered.
He leaned down and kissed me before saying, “I love you too.” Suddenly Matt closed his eyes. “The plane’s down. They’re on their way here in the ambulance,” he opened his eyes and went on, “they’ll be able to bring the stretcher down the dock to the edge of the boat, but we’ll need to move Carlos from here to the stretcher.” Then he locked his eyes on Carlos. “You can’t scream, Carlos. Whatever you do, don’t scream. They think we’re just bringing someone who got seasick. If someone calls the police, they’d insist on escorting us to the hospital, and that’s the last place we want to be, okay?”
Carlos nodded slightly, he got it. We heard the ambulance as it quietly rolled into the parking lot. They got out the stretcher and began moving down the dock toward the boat. “You think lifting the sheet would be best?” Matt said.
I nodded. “The less hands touching him, the better.” I climbed onto the bed, over Carlos and pulled the corners of the sheet up. Matt did the same on the other side. Carlos looked at both of us, trying to be brave but terrified of the pain that we all knew was coming. “Ready?” I said.
He nodded slightly then he was in both our heads. ‘Keep talking to me, help me to be quiet, please?’
‘You got it,’ Matt thought.
‘Of course,’ I thought.
I looked at Matt. “On three, okay?”
He nodded. “One, two, three,” and we lifted. Carlos moaned, but managed to keep it quiet. The more steps we took, the louder he got, though. ‘Shhh, Carlos, you’re doing great, we’re almost there,’ I thought and he quieted a bit, then he started to get louder again.
‘Seriously, dude, after what Malina did to you, I thought you were tougher than this,’ Matt thought as he winked, reminding Carlos of the time that Malina had basically broken Carlos in half, nearly killing him and putting him in the hospital for several weeks. Carlos quieted again. I could hear him gritting his teeth. We made it out the door and up the few steps to the deck before he started groaning again.
‘Just a few more steps, hun. You can do this Carlos,’ I thought. The panic was clear in his eyes, but he managed to quiet again.
‘Stop, dear God, please stop,’ he thought. And we did just that, as we gently laid him on the stretcher. We all lifted the stretcher so the wheels were just barely above the ground and tried to “float” him to the ambulance. He managed to stay quiet the rest of the way, but only because he had passed out again from the pain. We said our goodbyes to Omoruyi at the ambulance, thanking him profusely for his help then we all piled into the back, while Cameron drove. David immediately began checking Carlos. From the shaking of his head and the deeply concerned look on his face, things were bad, really bad. He finally looked up at me.
“Sarah,” he began, “I’ve never seen anything this bad. I don’t know if he can come back from this.”
I stared at David for a while then shook my head. “He can and he will, David,” I said. “He has to.” Suddenly an image was in my head – Carlos arguing with someone, a man, with black hair and scarring on one side of his face. Then, just as quickly, the scene was gone. “Matt?” I said, “who is Jonas?”
Matt’s eyes shot to mine and there was complete fear and concern in them. “Where- Where did you hear that name?” he whispered.
“Just now, in my head. Carlos was dreaming. They were arguing. Why? Who is he?” I said.
“Could you tell if it was recent, Sarah. Think hard. Could you tell?”
“I’m not sure, Matt. It seemed like it was. Carlos was wearing the same kind of clothes he wears now. But I can’t be sure. Why? Who the hell is he?”
“So Carlos wasn’t wearing a military uniform or clothes that look like they’re from the 1700’s?” he said, still ignoring my questions. I was starting to get irritated.
“No, he wasn’t. Damn it, Matt, who is he?” I snapped.
Matt squeezed his eyes shut for a second, then looked at me. “Remember when Carlos mentioned ‘what he had gone through before’ and ‘how it had changed him’?”
I nodded. “Vaguely. In Mexico, right? After we got back from our trip down the Amazon during our search to find out how to change me into a vampire (most
vampires didn’t know how to create other vampires and weren’t allowed to know for fear of creating too many and getting out of control) after we got our scars on our hands – our matching scars that allow you to feel me and me to feel you when they touch. You told me you’d tell me later what he was talking about but you never did.”
“I know. Well, Jonas is what he went through. Jonas put him through hell and back, many times. He’s supposed to be locked away somewhere, or dead. If he’s out, if he’s alive…” Matt closed his eyes and shook his head. Wow, I thought, this guy must be bad with a capital ‘B.’
Suddenly the ambulance stopped. We were on the tarmac, next to the plane; our conversation would have to continue later. Cameron opened the doors for us and we quickly moved the stretcher from the ambulance to the plane. We were in the air a few minutes later. I heard David mutter, “He really needs to feed,” under his breath, so I got up from my seat and heated up a few pints. I walked over to Carlos, ignoring the questioning looks from both David and Cameron.
“But how…?” I heard Cameron say.
I sat down next to Carlos and linked with him. ‘Carlos,’ I thought. ‘I need you to wake up. Come on, please wake up. Please?’
‘No,’ popped in my head and I smiled. Always the smart-ass.
‘No? I think that’s the first time you’ve ever said that to anyone, especially a woman,’
I saw the slight smile on his face as his eyes fluttered open. ‘You know me too well, Sarah. Now, why the hell did you wake me?’
I held the blood up. ‘Dinner,’ I thought.
‘Oh, okay. But I still can’t smell it,’ he thought.
I nodded, closed my eyes and dropped my fangs. I repeated the process of putting blood on my finger, putting it in his mouth and waiting for him to taste it and react. Once he did, I was able to get him to drain both bags. ‘More?’ I thought.
‘Please, not now,’ he thought. ‘Later, okay? Can I sleep now, please?’
‘Okay, but one question first. Does what happened to you have anything to do with Jonas?’ I thought.
From the terrified look in his eyes, I knew his answer before he thought it. ‘Yes… but how did you…?’
‘You were dreaming earlier.’
‘Oh. Talk to Matt about him, okay? Please let me sleep for a bit. I’ll try to fill you in later, but tell him he’s back… he’s back and he’s pissed as hell,’ he thought.
I nodded and went back to my seat next to Matt. “Did you hear any of that?” I said.
He nodded and put his hand in mine. “This is bad, Sarah. From what Carlos has told me, Jonas is the scariest, strongest, most ruthless creature he’s ever encountered. He’s evil, Sarah. Pure evil.”
I leaned into Matt. “Are we ever going to be able to lead just a normal married vampire couple’s life?”
He kissed my forehead. “I hope so, Sarah. I really hope so. But given the true nature of vampires… I mean violence and death is a part of all of us, it’s how we all came to be. It might just be a natural part of our existence too, I hope not, but it might be.”
“Sometimes I wish we could just disappear,” I said as I snuggled in to him, dozing. He leaned his head onto mine. “Me too,” he whispered as he drifted off to sleep.
I slept for a few hours, until Carlos’ quiet whimpering woke me. Everyone else was asleep as I went and sat next to him. ‘I’m sorry,’ he thought as his eyes found mine. ‘I didn’t mean to wake anyone.’
‘Don’t be,’ I thought. ‘Now, what can I do to help? Do you think you could feed?’
He slightly shook his head. ‘Not now,’ he thought, ‘the microwave will wake everyone. Just sit and talk to me for a few minutes, okay? Tell me what you’ve been doing while I was away,’ he thought.
I smiled. ‘Okay,’ I thought. ‘Well, we opened the medical clinic up to the villagers.’
‘To the humans? Wow. Who’s idea was that?’ he thought.
‘Mine,’ I grinned.
He stared at me for a few seconds. ‘Okay, Florence Nightingale, tell me all about it.’
I spent the next few minutes telling him about the clinic, the kids, the emergencies, how much it meant to me. Finally, I felt his hand relax in mine and I knew he was asleep again. I gently pulled my hand out and crept back to my seat, snuggling back into Matt. “He okay now?” he mumbled.
“He’s sleeping again,” I whispered, “which is what we should be doing.”
“Maybe I don’t want to,” he said as he tilted my chin up and found my lips with his, kissing me soft and sensually. And there we remained for the rest of the flight. No rush or inclination to take it farther, just like two teenagers making out on a first date. And we didn’t stop until the plane taxied to a stop on the tarmac. As the engines wound down, I put my forehead on his and just breathed him in.
“I love you so much,” I said. His hands came up to my face.
“Look at me, Sarah” he said, and I did. “Stop feeling guilty and stop feeling like you have to prove something to me. I know you love me and you have nothing to feel guilty for.” His finger went to my lips as I tried to protest. “No, no more of this. We had a hiccup and we’ve come through it. It was tough on all of us, but we made it through. And given the nature of our species and how long we’re going to be together, I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last one. It’s probably the first of many, actually. But we’ll get through them all, together, and with each one our love will get stronger. You of all people should know that life can throw you some pretty wicked curveballs, but each one is a lesson, and if you learn from it then you come out better on the other side.”
I just stared at him, completely speechless. How was I supposed to respond to that? How am I not supposed to feel guilty? “But how Matt?” I whispered. “How am I supposed to not feel guilty?”
“Because if you don’t, Sarah, then we can’t move past this. I have and I need you to, also. How the hell are we supposed to enjoy each other if you’re spending all your time worrying about how I’m going to react or trying to atone for something that, truthfully, wasn’t much of anything?”
“But I don’t know how to not feel guilty. I’ve never been on this side before. I’ve always been on your side of something, the side where I’m trying to make someone else feel less guilty about something that they did to me. I’ve always been the quote, unquote, victim, not the bad guy – like when my first husband Rob had cheated on me and I had forgiven him. I feel like shit, Matt, and I can’t seem to make that go away,” I said.
“I know, Sarah, but you need to find a way, because, honestly, I’m getting pretty sick and tired of hearing you say how sorry you are. I know you’re sorry, I know he’s sorry, but frankly, every time you tell me you’re sorry now just reminds me of the whole thing all over again, and I really would rather that doesn’t happen. I would prefer to not have to think about it ever again, is that too much to ask? Can you at least make that happen?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and bit my lip. I came so close to saying I’m sorry again it wasn’t funny. Instead I wrapped my arms around his waist and laid
my head on his chest. “I love you Matthew Pearl, I seriously don’t deserve you, but I completely love you. Okay, you win. I’ll do my best to stop feeling guilty and I won’t say I’m sorry anymore… but I will always be trying to make it up to you, so get used to that,” I said.
He lifted my chin and grinned at me. “Well, I was hoping for that, darlin’, looking forward to it actually.” He leaned down and planted one of those kisses on me.
Chapter Seven
Somehow we managed to get Carlos off the plane and onto the helicopter without him waking up, but the turbulent helicopter ride was another story. The first jolt had him screaming as loud as his damaged vocal cords could. I unbuckled myself and flew to his side. “Carlos,” I said, “look at me, look at me right now.” I waited until his terrified, panicked eyes finally found mine. “Good, now close your eyes and listen to my voice, okay?” He nodded slightly,
whimpering and crying out once more as the helicopter dipped again. “Carlos, you’re at the house on the island. You’re walking on the beach and you’re surrounded by a dozen hot, sexy, beautiful women,” I said then I smiled as I saw the corners of his mouth turn up slightly. “Right now, they’re all vying for your affection and you’re deciding which one you’re going to spend the night with.” His voice popped into my head for a second and I smiled. “Okay, you’re deciding which two you’re going to spend the night with,” I said then I looked at Matt and saw him shaking his head and laughing. “Should it be the blonde with the big boobs and the athletic brunette? Or how about the exotically sensual one with long black hair and the cute redhead? Or the beautiful olive skinned one who’s topless right now and the centerfold from last month’s magazine, or the one with long strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes and a round, perky butt that’s just begging to be squeezed.” I felt the chopper begin its descent, we were almost there. Carlos popped into my head again and I laughed. “No, I suppose you don’t have to choose. Go ahead and take them all.”
“Well, now that’s just not fair,” Matt said from behind me, grinning from ear to ear, “he has to share some with the rest of us.”
“No kidding,” David said. “I’d like the blonde with the big boobs.”
“Dibs on the athletic brunette,” Matt said.
“Fine. Carlos, Matt gets the athletic brunette, David gets the blonde, and you get the rest… except for the olive skinned beauty, she’s for me.” I grinned as two heads and Carlos’ eyes whipped around to me. “What? Why should you be the only ones who get to have fun?”
‘The strawberry blonde with the perky butt just waiting to be squeezed, that’s you isn’t it? I want her the most.’