by Marta Szemik
“William, you must know what our orders are, what we promised Ekim. Our nature will not allow us to break that promise. Mom!” Mira yelled toward the basement.
Mrs. Gobert came back upstairs. The smell of fresh herbs and spices followed her. She walked into a kitchen filled with tension and offered her opinion without having to be asked. “You have to let her go, darling.” The witch brushed Mira’s face with the back of her hand.
“Will she be safe?” Xander asked.
“She has to go with William. It’s her destiny. The prophecy cannot be fulfilled if they are not together.”
William smiled with respect, glad her magic agreed with his plans. The siblings would listen to her, not because she was their mother, but because she was a powerful witch.
“Will you update us?” The siblings spoke together.
“I can send you a message once every three days.”
Mira’s shoulders relaxed.
“Use our falcon,” Xander offered unexpectedly.
“Thank you, Xander.” William bowed his head in appreciation.
“When are you going to see her?” Mira asked.
“Tomorrow.”
“I still don’t think this is right,” Xander said under his breath, gripping the chair in front of him. His knuckles were now bloodless. He was still wary. Sadness grew in his eyes.
“The seekers are close. I have to tell her the truth.”
“Come to dinner with us on Friday night. We’ll all tell her the truth,” Mira offered.
“Saturday,” Mrs. Gobert interrupted, winking at her daughter, innocently fluttering her eyelashes. Her personality did not always match the witch stereotype.
The siblings’ nature must be rubbing off on her, William thought.
“Saturday,” Mira corrected, not questioning her mother.
“And you think she can take it? My existence and your uniqueness?” William asked.
“We’ll take our chances, dream-boy.” Xander smirked.
“Fine, I’ll wait until Saturday.” He paused before adding, “Unless there’s an emergency.”
That settled, the siblings became more hospitable. William cleaned up and changed into new clothes Xander offered him. The shifter`s grin gave away his thoughts as he handed the jeans, shirt, and a sweater to William: She’ll smell they’re mine. William didn’t correct him. Sarah would still know it was William, and once she saw him, Xander wouldn’t cross her thoughts. Xander’s smell could never overpower Sarah’s senses.
Chapter 6
I strolled through Riverside Park, appreciating the unseasonable warmth of this autumn morning. The sun was still low, its light spreading up, illuminating the park from below. A few clouds lingered in the sky. Stopping in the middle of the path, I closed my eyes and tilted my head back. The sun’s rays bathed my face.
The sharp tick of my watch counted down the twelve hours before I spilled my secrets to the siblings. I hope they’ll believe me. I don’t want to have to show them.
A cool breeze from the west caressed my hair. Without the warmth of the new sunlight, the air would be crisp. Ground fog hovered, not yet surrendering the position it had held all night. It rose toward the tips of the grass and dissipated as it crept up the bottoms of the bushes and the broader tree trunks. Centuries-old willow branches swayed above the ground, their ends tiptoeing gracefully through the fog.
A shadow at the park’s entrance drew my gaze, nebulous in the fog drifting across the park. Hoping the man wouldn’t disrupt my morning, I resumed my walk; needing to be alone. Today, I’d decided I would take charge, take control. I would tell the siblings the truth.
My gaze on the gravel crunching under my feet wandered toward the stranger every few seconds, who ran toward me. Heat radiated from his body, like a space heater. The wind shifted direction, and I inhaled, feeling my lungs expand—then held the breath as the scent paralyzed my limbs. William!
Instinctively, I veered toward him. My gaze caught and held his, telling him I wouldn’t let him go this time, but he was already running toward me at great speed. The muscles around his neck tensed, his eyebrows puckered with concern. He rushed, suavely but swiftly, determined to reach me, looking behind him as if he feared someone had followed him.
“Sarah, I don’t have much time to explain,” he began when we were close, his voice soft. He turned to look behind him, and I drew another breath, allowing his sweet and musky scent to raid my nostrils.
Nothing he said mattered. He was here. Instead of me finding him, he found me. “William?”
“Yes, it’s me.” His smile was tender. Then his gaze roved across the park, from one side to the other. “There’s no time to explain. You have to come with me. Helen wrote they may be getting closer.”
When his eyes focused on mine again, happiness overwhelmed me. His body’s warmth connected to mine, and his scent danced around me, pulling me closer and closer. I could almost see the sweet air form a finger and bend it repeatedly, beckoning me in. Leaning against him, I inhaled again, certain what he had to say wouldn’t resonate for a while. The last time I’d felt this intoxicated was after a bottle of wine.
“Did you hear me? We have to go. Now!” He tugged at my arm.
William’s words entered one ear and left through the other. “What’s happening to me?” The words slurred out of my mouth. Everything seemed so blurry around him. My body felt limp and I swayed on rubbery legs.
“If you stay here, you’ll die. You have to come with me.” William’s widened eyes hypnotized me even more.
My knees gave way. William caught me under my arms and held me up. “Die?” I pulled my limbs closer to his, dragging a hand up to stroke his biceps. All I’d wanted was to roam his body and ignore the urgency in his voice.
He pulled me toward the end of the park. I dragged my limp feet over the gravel.
“You changed your serum—it’s not working as well as it should.” William turned his head to look behind him again, sniffing the air. “The seekers are getting closer. You have to come with me now to the cabin. It will take us a few days to get there, but you’ll be safe there.”
“Okay.” Part of me realized my words swayed along with my body, like a career drunk, but I couldn’t understand why.
William kept walking.
“Who are ‘the seekers’?” I placed my nose against his shirt and inhaled deeply, to feel the limpness of a high.
“The cabin is protected. We’ll be safe there.” He spoke like an automaton, as if he’d planned what he was going to say. William nudged me toward the far end of the park—the end closer to my home.
“But I have a date today.” I tried to sound serious, but my response came in on a giggly laugh. “With Mira and Xander.”
William placed his finger under my chin, lifting it, pulling my stare from his pecs up to his eyes. He smiled. “I’m sorry I’m making you feel all drugged up. It’s the serum. You’re not used to the mixture you smell on me. But please, try to concentrate.”
“You can make me feel anything you want,” I replied, shamelessly indulging in William’s scented spell. He quickened his pace to a run, and I hurried to keep up.
“I’ll explain everything later, but now we have to run before it’s too late. You must trust me. Your father would have wanted you to come with me. He’d want you to be safe.” He widened his eyes, care and passion camouflaged by pain and loneliness.
Your father would have wanted you to come with me. He’d want you to be safe, I repeated in my head. The reference to my father brought me back to reality. The high was gone, but the desire to be close to William dug deeper than Earth’s core.
William stopped, took me by the shoulders, and I glimpsed a tattoo on his wrist. “I know you’re confused, Sarah, but if you don’t keep it together, we’re doomed.”
I trusted him and didn’t want to fail him. Our eyes met and I took his hand. Time slowed. Palms pressed together, our fingers wove a familiar pattern. My heart begun to beat a new rhyt
hm, yearning to be taken away from the loneliness and emptiness I’d been living in for the past few days—no, since birth. My heart was asking to be complete. After years of hope, William was finally here, with me.
William knew this. He knew how much I needed him, and the same yen shined in his eyes. William led, and I followed.
“Why are we not safe here? Where are we going? Who are the seekers? Why do you smell like Xander? And . . . you know my father?”
“In due time, Sarah, I’ll explain everything. I need you to stay quiet for now. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes.”
We ran in silence. Unlike mine, his footsteps made no sound.
“How do you move like a ghost?” I whispered, mesmerized by my escort.
“Years of practice. Shhh,” he hushed.
We turned the corner to my street, and William tugged me behind a masonry wall. A black Mercedes was parked in front of my house; tinted windows hid its occupants. As we watched, a gray cloud appeared out of nowhere, its shadow hovering above the car and the house, and nowhere else, as if nature wanted to warn us.
“Don’t speak, just follow me. Is the chest still at the house?” he whispered.
I shook my head.
“Can you take me to it?”
I nodded.
William removed a syringe filled with red liquid from his pocket. “Inject this. It will help us disappear before they figure out how close we are.”
Twirling the syringe in my fingers, I hesitated. This shade of serum was new. Biting my lip, I squeezed William’s hand so tightly that my knuckles, then my fingers, whitened. His breath warmed the side of my face as he bobbed his head in encouragement. I jabbed the needle without twitching. We understood one another’s facial expressions without having to speak.
I pulled him by the hand, and we turned to walk to the store, allowing the wind to push at our backs. Time slowed again. The liquid rushed in my veins, spreading throughout my body. Our heart valves pumped blood in the same rhythm; they thumped a synchronized beat. Just as in my dreams. We took the same steps, moved our arms in unison, breathed in and out at the same time . . . as if we were dancing, as if we were that one big raindrop on the path down the window.
Without warning, the wind pulled us back, pushing at our chests. I sensed trouble; a low growl rose from the back of my throat. My hand flew to cover my mouth. My eyes went straight to William. The serum warmed, then cooled in my veins.
“It’s working quickly, isn’t it?” he whispered, then peeked between the buildings where the from of my house was still visible.
Two men stepped out on the front porch of my house. They inhaled and, like well-trained hounds, began sniffing the air, nostrils flared. Their heads turned, their gazes fixing in our direction. We round the corner before they saw us. William quickened his pace and seconds later, we were running. Buildings, cars, people flew past us in a blur. No one reacted. They couldn’t see us.
Then another feeling, one not so new to me, surfaced—shame. This was exactly what I’d been trying to suppress. Was I sacrificing my mortality by doing this? Though I wasn’t sure, I knew I could trust William—even Helen had said so. I concentrated more, feeling the acceleration of my feet.
William turned toward the park, and we ran through it in seconds. He veered around a tree near the park’s edge and whacked at a branch to set it swaying; then we ran to another and climbed up—more like flew up—into the dense canopy of yellows and reds, the leaves barely swishing behind us.
“We can’t outrun them, and for our sake, I hope the serum has spread.” William pulled my body against his. His sweet breath warmed my ear and cheek.
“Was that what made me growl?” I whispered, barely audible.
“Shh . . .” William placed a finger on his full lips, inches away from mine.
The two men were approaching and stopped directly below us. Fear crawled up my spine. William’s arm tightened around my shoulder. I peeked through the curtain of leaves at their odd, elongated postures.
Long black cloaks concealed much of them. Hoods over their heads revealed nothing of their faces but orange eyes, with neither pupils nor irises, that radiated hatred and determination. Their only mission was to find their target. Pale, bony hands resembling sticks protruded from the edges of the cloaks.
I’ve seen them before. I sucked in a quiet breath. Eight years ago. These were not vampires, but they were not men, either.
The creatures sniffed like well-trained terriers, glancing toward the branch William had slapped at earlier. They spoke words I didn’t understand, interspersed with high-pitched shrieking; then they turned and followed the false trail. My body sagged against William’s. He didn’t object; his arms held me tightly.
“They’re gone,” he whispered. “The seekers are quick, but not that bright. They’ll retrace their steps. We have to go.”
I nodded.
We jumped down, landing on the soft ground below us, our legs acting as springs. I liked this new feeling of greater power and agility.
“Who exactly are the seekers?” I asked.
“They’re demons,” he hissed. “Where’s the chest?”
“My store. I know a shortcut.”
I took William’s hand guiding him through the newer part of the park, closer to my flower shop. We flew over shrubs and dashed past Mrs. Fox’s backyard, the wind of our passage blowing her freshly washed laundry on the clothesline. The last hurtle over the Gaples’ hedge lead us to the parking lot at the back of my store.
I never got to work so quickly. I allowed a cautious smile.
“If they can follow your scent from the house to here, they’ll come here next,” William warned. He sniffed the air. “We have another minute.”
I unlocked the back door of the flower shop with a spare key under the flower pot. William had no trouble finding the chest and seemed to know his way around this forest of green a little too well.
“You’ve been here before?” I said.
“Yes.” William’s eyes fixed on the chest.
“Other than that day I saw you?”
“Yes. I had to make sure you were all right after finding Helen’s letter,” he admitted, ducking his head. His innocent shame surprised me.
“You know about the letter?” I asked.
“I asked her to write it. Although I wish she hadn’t been so dramatic about your father,” he said. “Things are complicated, Sarah. You—I mean we—have to save everyone. We have to stop the extinction.”
“Who’s everyone?”
“The world.”
I pulled my hand away from his and stepped back.
He peeked through the front window. “Sarah. Don’t panic, please. After we get out of here, I’ll explain everything, I promise. If the seekers catch us ,they’ll kill us.” William looked cautiously toward the window again as he picked up the chest in his other arm. His softened gaze returned to me, and I took his hand.
I followed him like a week-old pup, trusting his every move. My senses tuned, the same instinct guided me when the mist at the lake had carried my legs toward the blue orchid.
A green jeep was parked across the street. He led me to it, and we climbed inside. I rested my head against the elevated back of the cushioned passenger seat, still eyeing William. “Are we coming back?”
“Not for a while, hon. Not for a while.” He exhaled.
I stared out the window as William pressed his foot on the gas pedal. We squealed away from the curb, and I saw in the mirror the tires leaving black streaks on the road. I leaned my head back. My eyes moistened as we passed the Thank you for visiting Pinedale sign.
Chapter 7
The road weaved. I didn’t know where we were going or how long we’d be gone for, and it didn’t matter—I wanted to get far away from the orange-eyed seekers, but at the same time, I couldn’t help feeling homesick. This was the first time I’d left, since my camping trip. Pinedale had always felt as if it had a bubble wrapped dome around i
t. Somehow, I’d always felt safe, especially with Mira and Xander at my side. Now I may as well have left the country, because I felt like a foreigner. Would my friends panic when I didn’t show up for dinner tonight? Would they notify the sheriff?
While keeping his gaze on the narrow road, William handed me another syringe.
“It will help you sleep,” he said. “You need to rest.”
Although I recognized the blue liquid inside, I hesitated. “Um, not really—”
“I know you think you’re not tired, but the human part of your body needs rest. You can’t feel the aching muscles, but if they don’t rest, they won’t perform well.”
I gasped. William knew what I am. We’d both run with unnatural speed; his senses were as strong as mine; we understood each other without having to speak. In my dreams, he was always human, but subconsciously, I knew William was like me, I just never admitted it for fear I’d reject the vampire inside him, the same way I rejected myself.
After I injected the new dose, my eyelids grew heavy. My head tilted back against the seat, and I slept, free of nightmares, free of dreams.
When I woke, I didn’t know where I was. With my eyes still shut, I rolled my head to rest on William’s shoulder. Our closeness sent waves of warmth through my body. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt such tingling in my stomach. Snuggling, I inhaled his sweet smell.
William was still driving. I opened my eyelids a crack to see dense forest whizzing by on my left and green rolling hills on the right. The square, yellowed fields near Pinedale were nowhere in sight. The sun was gently setting, casting its glowing spell on the horizon. I finally lifted my head.
“How did you sleep?” William asked.
First I smiled, wondering whether his scent would intoxicate me the same way it had in the park. I welcomed it into my lungs but maintained control over my body. “Unusually well.” My knees hit the dashboard when I stretched. “Oops.”
“It’s all right. I apologize—this is not the most comfortable place to sleep.” William smiled. “You were out for a while.”