She looked far from the woman he had married. Ram had cleaned her up after she’d vomited blood earlier, but there was just something about her that had changed. More than being a vampire and more than hating the hurt that he had caused her. It was something more. He couldn’t understand how she could change so much from the kind and loving woman that he had fallen in love with. She was still kind, but not so much to him anymore, and he could sense a deep change within her that could not be revealed to him.
Chapter 23
It had been two silent car rides and three long flights to end up with no blood talisman. The hunt for the Immortal had ended as quickly as it began. They had searched in Egypt, Japan, and even the Sudan where Sol allegedly was, but Hyperion could not be found. They were running out of time. The doctors reported that Amalia was doing fine, but they would have to eventually bring her out of the coma to seal her fate of death or life. It was not up to them as to whether she lived or died. Ram had them murdered by some of the cronies he left behind. He got her new physicians and they agreed to comply with leaving her under as long as possible.
Alex had been not only silent but distant as well. He had made no effort to touch Selene romantically in any way. It bothered her to no end but she felt helpless to change it. His indecisive emotions had stopped and he seemed to feel nothing. She could never find the words to make him feel anything about the situation. He just seemed numb to her. She began to wonder if he even had a wolf within him anymore. Ram had been giving him soy meat, which wasn’t meat at all, and it had temporarily staved off the wolf, which was good for his anger but bad for his heart.
Ram sucked down anybody he came across as he got hungry. The other vampires he brought along followed suit. So many humans had died that Selene had lost count. Not one was injured by Alex. He stayed on the soy meat diet to comply with Ram’s wishes. Alex seemed to be defeated and Selene didn’t know how to stop him from feeling that way. Becoming a pawn in Ram’s game was unbecoming of him and she wouldn’t watch him be that anymore.
“When we land, we need to talk,” she said quietly to Alex as he peered out the plane’s small window.
“About what?” he asked, as he stretched his arms out before him.
“About this obedience to Ram. It doesn’t have to be this way. Do you not see what he has turned you into?”
“I have no choice. The talisman will cure Amalia, and you have to get it before your brother does or we will all suffer. That much power going to someone who would kill his own sister can’t be good for anyone.”
They had been aboard yet another hopeless flight. Selene didn’t know where Ram was getting his information from but it all turned out to be empty hope.
The wheels of the small jet plane hit the pavement of a small airport outside of Cancun. They could see the party lights from the city as they passed over it in the distance. Ram and his company of vamps had gotten excited.
“I love Cancun. Lots of good meals,” one of them had commented.
It made Selene sick to listen to them brag constantly about their kills.
One of Ram’s vampire associates sat near Selene on the plane and had been staring at her the whole flight.
“She’s off limits, Chris,” Ram said to him, as the man inched uncomfortably closer to her.
“I can’t wait to get me one of those hot twenty-somethings from Cancun. It’s been a long flight.” Chris sighed.
The stewardess announced the exiting procedures of the plane and they all slowly unbuckled their seatbelts. Ram and his vampire friends left quickly Alex remained behind. He sat in the farthest corner seat of the plane, drawing on a sketchpad. Selene quietly snuck up to him and sat in the adjoining seat. She peered over at his drawing. It was a picture of a leafless tree beside a rustic looking barn. He had drawn in clouds and rain in the distance.
“Is that a picture from home?” Selene asked.
“Yea. This was just near where I grew up. It’s where I first met Amalia. She was climbing this tree for sport. She was always doing active things like that when she was little. I was asleep in the loft in that barn and when she fell, I awoke to her crying out for help and I carried her up to my grandparents’ house. She never left my side after that. We were inseparable,” he explained.
He closed the sketchpad and stared outside to where they were. He seemed lost in his thoughts again.
“We will find him and you will have her back,” Selene said, lowering her head as she promised once again to kill her father. She reached out for his hand but he quickly pulled it away. He put away his drawing pad and placed it in his carry-on book bag full of comic books and muscle men magazines. He zipped the bag back up and stood up, placing it on his shoulder. Selene stood up with him and caught his arm before he walked away from her.
He turned and looked down at her hand on his arm. He almost seemed angry at her for placing her hand there.
“What’s wrong between us?” Selene asked.
He pulled his arm away from her hand and she obliged by letting go.
“Nothing. I’m just trying to stay focused on what we need to do,” he answered.
“What we need to do? All ya’ll have to do is find him. I have to kill my own father. I’m the one that should be moping and drawing pictures from my past in the corner,” Selene reminded him angrily.
“Look, I’m sorry Selene. I don’t know how to deal with all of this. It’s a little overwhelming. I mean, this time last year I was celebrating my wedding anniversary with my wife through Skype and looking out for children with bombs strapped to their chests waiting to blow up our whole unit.”
“Well excuse the fuck outta me. I’ve been dealing with wolves and vamps and immortality for... oh, I don’t know… all eternity. I’m as immortal as my father. We’ve lived a lot of years and fought a lot of wars together and apart, and now with each other. You think this is easy for me because I’ve always dealt with it? We should be dealing with this together. We should be together through this. I’m trying to help you and you keep pushing me away.”
He dropped the book bag to the floor of the plane and stepped in closer to her. He placed one hand on her waist and the other on her face. They were inches from each other. Their noses were barely touching. She rubbed her hands up to his shoulders, attempting to pull him in even closer for a kiss.
“I want to but, I can’t,” he whispered to her face.
“Yes you can,” she whispered back and kissed his lips softly.
He kissed her back for a few moments but soon pulled back and strode away with his book bag in tow. She was left alone and confused on the plane. He had come back to her as quickly as he left again. She didn’t know how to reach him anymore. She knew he needed to feed and she thought that might bring him back to her. Ram was keeping him weak on purpose. She was tired of Ram’s personal agenda. She’d had enough.
She got to the door of the terminal and looked around in the airport. It was small and dusty. The bar was filled with drunken Mexicans and shady people buying plane tickets. The bar was the plane terminal and the plane terminal was the bar. Alex sat at a corner table, drawing in his notepad and Ram and his vampire associates were getting drunk at a pair of conjoined tables. The smoke in the bar was so thick that everyone looked fuzzier than normal.
She strutted across the bar to Ram’s table of cronies and stood there, staring at them precariously.
“Can we help you?” one of them said.
“I need to speak to you,” she said directly at Ram. “Alone.”
He excused himself from the table as the others booed at her insistence. He grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to the side forcefully. Alex rose up from his notepad and stared until Ram let go of her arm.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“Do I really need to answer that?” he said.
“Why all these normal, everyday star-on-the-map places? My father would never come to Mexico, for Christ’s sake.”
“Where do you suggest we go then?
”
Selene thought for a moment as Ram looked down to her in contempt. Only one other would remotely know where her father might be. Only one other stood to gain from finding him. Ram was still obviously working with Sol.
She gasped and said, “My brother. You’re still working with Sol. You’re an ass and you’re wrong. Nobody knows him better than I do.”
“Where do you suggest we go then?”
Selene hesitated. She didn’t want to make it easy on him but, the more they waited, the further Alex drifted away, and the more likely it became that Amalia was a goner. She glanced over at Alex as he drew in his sketchpad. She thought about where immortality would land him. He hated playing wolf. He hated changing as it was painful to do so. At the same time, she couldn’t be selfish. She wouldn’t risk an imbalance of apocalyptic proportions for her own gain. Sol would. He would risk everything and everyone for personal gain. For power that he didn’t know how to use. For power that none of them had been taught to use.
“Think about it. My father sent Sol to the Sudan not only for punishment but because Sol likes sunny places. My father hates them. He has always liked the older civilizations. Places where death resides and has resided for centuries.”
“What’s older than Mexico?”
“No you have to think older than that. Think ancient.”
“Greece? That’s a little obvious, don’t you think?”
“He has never been the one to fight death. Just because he is immortal, don’t make him an advocate for life. He’s prepared for the choice I will make. He said so himself. I know my father. If he must die at all, he would want to die at home.”
“Why tell me this now? Why didn’t you tell me when we were in Japan or Egypt, for that matter?”
She glanced over at Alex, still sketching away.
“Because I’m tired and I’m willing to make a deal with you.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “What kind of deal?”
“One night of debauchery in Mexico, but I get to take Alex and we go our separate ways until dawn tomorrow. Deal?”
Ram leaned over to her neck and sniffed her hair. He pushed it back behind her ear with two of his fingers.
“What do I get out of this deal?” he asked.
He leaned in closer to her, his lips inches from her neck. She stepped back from him and he straightened his body back upright.
“How about I don’t boil your face with my touch and heal you, and then do it over and over again. I need you but not nearly as much as you need me.”
“How do I know you will be here in the morning?”
She stared over at Alex and said, “Because I’m doing this all for him. I would give my own life so that he would be happy and I can no longer see any light in his eyes. I don’t want him, or you, to be immortal, but since it will happen anyway, it needs to happen before he loses too much of himself in grief.”
“That’s just the soy meat,” Ram chuckled.
She gave him the evil eye and he quickly cleared his throat and stopped laughing.
“That’s another thing. He will feed tonight, even if I have to kill a hundred animals for him to get his willpower back.”
“I’m afraid that the only thing that will get his strength back that quickly will be a human meal and neither one of you have what it takes to do what needs to be done.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she hissed defiantly.
He stood back and raised his hands at her sudden change of heart. Maybe being on the road had made her colder, but she figured that if this war with her brother was to be won, it would have to be won with brutality. She had been unwilling to play Ram’s games and stoop to Sol’s level, but this fight to the finish would be won by them unfairly. She didn’t have the confidence in herself to constantly look over her shoulder anymore. She felt defeated within herself. Defeated by Sol and Ram. Defeated by love. Just defeated. She would be a victim no more.
She walked away from him and joined Alex at his table. He barely stopped drawing to look up at her as she sat down.
Ram gathered his followers together and they all exited the bar, with many beer bottles dangling from each of their hands. Alex placed his sketchpad back into his book bag and zipped it up. He stood up to follow them but Selene placed her hand softly on his chest, stopping him. He looked down at her hand then back up at her. She could feel his heartbeat beneath her fingertips.
“You’re with me tonight. Just me.”
“What about your father?” he asked.
“We have a new place that we think he will be, but tonight I plan to get you back to your old wolfie self.” She patted his chest and got up to walk with him out of the bar.
He stopped her just before she opened the door and said, “Thank you.”
She grabbed his hand in hers, shook it, and said, “I love you. No thanks will ever be needed.”
She led him out of the bar and into the dark, dusty night.
Chapter 24
Holding Selene’s hand, Alex walked through the dusty airport parking lot. His head stayed down, eyes watching his feet as they shuffled the dirt beneath them. Selene led them up to a black car parked off by itself. John was leaned up against it, smoking a Cuban cigar.
“Why are you here? Ram agreed that he would leave us alone tonight,” Selene said.
“They took all the rentable motorcycles so that left me with the black car. I don’t mind driving you. I won’t tell him where you went and what you did,” John answered.
“You can’t be trusted,” Alex said.
“If you remember, I saved your life when Ember tried to kill Selene and kidnap you.”
Alex motioned with his head for Selene to follow him into the car. He figured John could be useful to them. Alex had known him for years although he’d been unaware that he was mixed in with so many bad people. He wandered why he had gone from multi-talented, good-mannered soldier to criminal.
They all three got settled into the car. Selene didn’t want John in the car; she wanted to be alone with Alex. However, Alex wanted information that he knew only John could supply him with.
John placed his arm on the passenger side seat and turned back to look at them both.
“Where we going to?” he asked.
“Let’s just drive until I say stop. Head north,” Selene answered.
They took off from the parking lot. John seemed to be compliant with her orders. She guessed that he was used to taking orders from Ram so taking orders from her ought to be easy. And she’d be nice about. Nothing like Ram, knocking him across the floor and slamming him against walls.
“Why do you do it?” Selene asked John.
“Why do I do what?”
“Take commands from Ram. He’s so abusive to you.”
Alex chimed in and said, “Yea, You used to be this brutal commander that demanded respect and now I see the way he bosses you around. I can’t help but think you’ve been his sidekick all along,”
“You think you know how mean he is but you haven’t a clue. He has my wife and children somewhere. By following his orders, I keep them alive and healthy.”
Shocked at this revelation, Selene said, “That’s no way to live.”
“It’s the only choice I have.” John replied softly.
Selene started fidgeting with her hands, like she used to do when she was a girl, before all of this happened. Alex noticed and smiled. He took her hands to stop her and she looked into his happy eyes and smiled. She wondered if he missed that trait about her. Her shy innocence had slipped away through all of the recent emotional pain that she’d had to endure. Perhaps he didn’t like her new attitude.
“Is there any place in particular you’ve always wanted to go in Mexico?” she asked Alex quietly. She thought a shy approach would help bring him out of his depressed state.
“It doesn’t matter,” he replied and removed his hand from hers. He turned his eyes to the dark window on his side of the car and stared out as they passed by miles of f
lat, dirty land.
Selene scooted closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder. He shuffled away slightly but she forced him to accept it.
“I need you, you know,” she said.
He responded by relaxing his shoulder and placing his arm around her. She scooted in closer until he was completely holding her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the ride. He kissed her on top of her head and laid his own head back to relax.
They drove for a couple of hours in silence. Selene took the opportunity to nap while Alex stared out of the window thinking about the women in his life.
Upon feeling the car stop, Selene peeked open her eyes at the fluorescent lights of a gas station. She straightened herself up in the car and Alex rubbed the arm she had been laying on.
“It went numb,” he commented as he shook his arm, trying to wake it.
“Sorry,” Selene said and smiled. “You’re so comfortable to me.”
John finished pumping the gas and got back into the car. He bumped his head as he got back in and Alex and Selene looked at each other and snickered. He frowned at them, a little mad at their laughter.
“We are close to the beach. Do you want to go there?” John asked.
Selene looked at Alex with her eyebrows raised.
“Sure. Let’s go,” Alex nodded.
Selene clapped her hands like a little excited girl and Alex chuckled at her innocence.
John smirked in the rearview mirror and said, “I remember those days with my wife. She used to be so young and just giddy.”
His smirk quickly faded into an angry grimace.
“What happened? To your wife, I mean,” Selene asked.
“The confines of loose imprisonment haven’t suited her well. She’s slipped in and out of depression and this last episode…” He trailed off.
Selene sat back into her spot beside Alex and looked up at the ceiling of the car with no words left to say. Silence reigned until they reached palm trees and the distant sound of waves crashing along a shoreline.
The Blood Talisman Page 14