by Tish Thawer
As soon as Christian spotted me, I had already begun to fade and knew I better talk fast. "Caves, Christian. You have to start looking in caves."
I was gone a second later, once again pulled back and being forced to witness this gruesome scene. It had changed slightly and was now focused on the winged creature. The thing was obviously female and had long black hair and sharp jagged teeth. The fear that radiated from the village it flew over was palpable. I could literally feel the terror of those poor people, and for the first time, I was happy I was already dead.
I was forced to watch as this beast annihilated an entire village, slaughtering men, woman, and children. Their screams pierced my mind and all I could do was cry. Village after village was decimated, and the monster grew more vile with each and every kill. It seemed as if the horror would never stop, and then suddenly it was over. For everyone. The next image I got was of an entire continent completely devastated. I knew then that I'd just witnessed an entire race being wiped from existence.
The scene started to clear and I found myself finally fading into the oblivion I'd longed for. I tried to concentrate and piece together how any of this could be connected to Rose and Christian, but my mind was too fragile from all I'd seen to make any sense of it. My body started to shake as I thought about that horrible creature hurting my baby. I couldn't understand why I'd been forced to see something like this, and could only hope that somehow it was leading me to some helpful information. I had to hold onto the hope that something good would come out of this, because if the death and destruction I saw here had anything to do with our future, I never wanted to return.
With an overwhelming sense of doom, I simply closed my eyes and let the darkness swallow me whole.
* * * * *
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
New View
(Meredith)
Today was the day Jeremy and I were starting the search for our new home. Since everything was in order with Raúl and his family, I was excited to shift my focus to something else besides death and blood.
"Babe. You ready to go? The realtor will be here in just a few minutes," Jeremy called out.
"Yes, honey. I'm ready. You sound excited. Does she have some good prospects for us to look at today?"
"Actually, yes. I never thought house hunting would be something I'd enjoy doing again after all these years, but I know a couple of the places have fantastic views and I'm interested to see if she's managed to get everything on our wish list."
A fantastic new view was just what I needed, because every time I looked out the window of the living room or our upstairs bedroom, I looked straight into the park and was reminded of why we needed to move. It was imperative that I get somewhere new and hide from Christian's vampire clan while my army continued to grow. We weren't ready to take them on just yet, but it wouldn't be too long before we were.
"Hey, Mer? Can you come here for a second?" Jeremy's voice has lost its cheerful tone, so I headed upstairs to see what he needed. As I rounded the corner of our bedroom I found him standing next to his dresser, holding an old tattered wallet.
"I've been having trouble with this drawer and just figured out the reason why. This old thing was stuck behind it. Do you know who this girl is?"
He was staring at a picture of Rose. Son of a bitch! I'd forgotten all about this wallet. He had told me months ago that he'd lost it so I'd simply bought him a new one and replaced all his cards and photos, which of course I removed after feeding him my blood and erasing Rose from his mind.
"I'm not sure." I tried to not let my eyes flare or distress seep into my voice.
"Hmm. She looks familiar, but I can't quite place her," he continued.
I wanted to thank the gods when the doorbell rang.
"Well, time to go," he said. Then with a shake of his head, he tossed the wallet onto the top of the dresser and turned to grab his jacket from the end of the bed. "Ready?"
All I could do was nod. I followed him downstairs and grabbed our coffee mugs from the kitchen while he answered the door. Quickly using the small paring knife, I nicked my finger and added a few more drops of my blood to his coffee. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed my purse from the credenza and headed to meet him and our realtor, Cheryl, at the front door.
"Hi, Cheryl. Thank you again for driving us today. We're both very excited," I said.
"You're welcome, Meredith. But I think you're going to have a hard time choosing between the selections I've got lined up for you, so if you're both ready, let's get started. The first one I have to show you is a beautiful single family home on the edge of downtown."
Jeremy locked the house as I headed to the car. I handed him his cup as he joined me, then climbed in the back seat of Cheryl's Mercedes. As I slid across the soft leather seats, I purposely let my skirt ride up and gave Jeremy a quick wink.
I regretted it immediately. He tripped on the curb and dropped his coffee. Shit! My little tease was supposed to put him at ease, not cause my problem to go from bad to worse. Now I could only hope my mind bond was strong enough to erase what had just happened in the house, but I wasn't entirely convinced that it was.
As we rode to the first house, I made a plan to excuse myself to the restroom as soon as possible so I could lace my cup instead, but as we pulled up to a stop light, Jeremy reached for my cup. "Do you mind? I'm parched and it is your fault I dropped my coffee," he teased.
I sighed as I watched him drain the remnants of my cup. So much for that plan.
I couldn't feed him directly from the vein without causing a horrible mess and mass amounts of hysteria. So, after watching him discard the empty cup in the trash bag located on the floor of Cheryl's car, I simply hoped the house hunting would be enough of a distraction to keep his mind off of Rose's picture.
"What do you think?" Cheryl swept her hand in the direction of the first house, and I wanted to kill her on the spot. It looked almost identical to Jeremy and Loraine's former home. The home they'd spent their entire marriage in, raising their daughter.
Jeremy stood silent and stared at the house for a few moments...a few excruciating moments. I was so worried that with the picture of Rose and now looking at a replica of their picture perfect home, that our mind bond would become severed right here on this very spot. I really didn't want to kill Cheryl if I didn't have to, but if Jeremy showed any signs of remembering, I may be left with no other choice.
I touched his shoulder and gently asked, "Should we go in?" His response made me the happiest woman alive.
"No, actually. This isn't at all what I'm looking for. I'm sorry, Cheryl, but can we just move on to the next choice?"
Cheryl nearly tripped over her high heels at Jeremy's request, but after regaining her composure, she simply said, "Of course."
He pulled me close to him once we were in the back seat of the car again. I wasn't sure what thoughts were running through his mind at the moment, but whatever the reason for him not wanting a home like the one he'd had with Loraine, put a smile on my face. Maybe I could trust him to want a future with me without controlling his mind after all. Ha! Who are you kidding? It really was laughable. Thinking back to the night Jeremy almost walked out of my life after catching me killing Damien in our garage, yeah...I knew that I still had no choice but to manipulate him. If he were to remember everything I'd done, he'd leave me for sure.
We continued to ride in silence as Cheryl drove us to the next house on her list.
The building was one of the two new glass high-rises, smack dab in the middle of downtown Masen. The three bedroom apartment was located on the twentieth floor and had amazing features. Granite counters, marble fireplaces, vaulted ceilings, and a master suite to die for. Jeremy walked through each room at least three times, then stood in the massive living room, taking it all in. I was staring out the wall of windows, overlooking what felt like the entire city, when he surprised me by asking, "Will this work for you?" I hadn't expected him to like it so much.
"My god, yes of course.
It's beautiful."
Turning to Cheryl, he said, "We'll take it. How soon can we move in?"
"Jeremy, wait! We haven't even sold the house yet," I exclaimed. I wasn't sure what had gotten into him.
"We don't need to wait to sell your house, I still have the money from the sale of mine, so we can move in right away." He turned to Cheryl. "Which is something I hope we can do soon."
Cheryl handed him the keys, and pulled the paperwork out of her briefcase. "Of course. Just sign here, and as soon as your deposit check clears tomorrow, the place is yours." She winked, then whispered, "Just one of the benefits of prequalification."
Jeremy took the papers, signed them, then wrote out a check for one-hundred and forty thousand dollars, which was our twenty percent down. "Thank you, Cheryl. Now...let's go celebrate. Lunch is on me."
I was about to ask why he was so gung-ho all of the sudden, but dropped it since moving this quickly only benefited me. We'd be out of the house and safe from the vampires tomorrow and our new home was practically an impenetrable fortress. Plus, I'd get to start decorating our baby's nursery right away, where as in the old house, we would've had to redo an entire room by eliminating the study. Here we had it all. It seemed now the only thing I had to worry about was getting some of my blood into his meal at lunch to keep this perfect charade going.
* * * * *
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Virginia
(Christian)
Before we'd left I'd mapped out our search locations, starting with the closest and working to the furthest away. It only took about two hours for us to reach Virginia and we were now standing outside Luray Caverns.
The caverns had closed hours ago, but thankfully we didn't need lights or permission to get inside. After laying out a plan to explore the entire system and meet back in the specified location, we all broke off to our designated areas. I quickly moved into my section, already knowing we wouldn't find Rose. I didn't mention it because I didn't want to discourage Jillian or Justin, and I certainly didn't want to risk missing something by rushing or being overly confident in my gifts.
As I continued my search I started thinking about Loraine's rushed message. I couldn't understand why we were even searching in caves to begin with. It's not like Rose needed to hide from anyone. If she was using her sedative when she fed, she could simply erase the experience from anyone she bit. But if not, and she was killing people instead, there'd be no reason to worry in that case either––dead people didn't talk. Hmph...I thought of Loraine again. Well...usually, dead people don't talk.
I tried to focus my thoughts on Loraine and pull her energy to me. I needed her to appear and hopefully provide a little more clarity, but unfortunately, I had no such luck. So instead, I kept stalking through the underground cavern, looking for the woman I loved. I shook my head at the ridiculousness of it. What could a cave possibly have to do with Rose? I knew this was going to be a dead end, but I had to trust Loraine. Wherever she went, or whoever it was that gave her the divine information she always returned with, it was clear that she had access to more information than me, even with my gifts.
I continued to contemplate the oddity of our situation as I walked deeper into the caves. Suddenly I found myself in a large open chamber. The "ceiling" was at least thirty feet high, and dome-shaped. As I moved into the area, I ran my hands along the walls while my eyes adjusted. Continuing around the edge, I suddenly noticed that the walls were smoother here, like they'd been worked by hand or worn over by years of water running over them. I didn't see any pools on the ground, and couldn't pick up any sounds of water, so I just kept moving along the wall. I wanted to circle the entire room to get an idea of the overall size, and to see if I could pinpoint a purpose to the space or any tunnels that branched off from it. As I reached the back portion, the surface under my hand changed slightly. It was still smooth but I could sense something else. Squinting hard I could make out ancient drawings that covered the cold stone wall.
The drawings depicted villages and fields of crops with people and animals scattered about. There were also moons and stars and what I assumed were the tribesmen's interpretation of the constellations drawn onto the hard surface. I never expected to find petroglyphs in the caves of Virginia, which only heightened the joy this discovery brought me. I continued to look at the wide expanse of stone for a few more minutes before I heard Justin shouting my name. I called out and waited for him to find me.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed as he walked into the massive room. "Did you find anything in here?"
"Not really. Just some ancient drawings. How about you? Did you find anything?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
"No. I searched my area twice and there wasn't anything or anyone in the whole place."
Jillian walked into the cavern and added her report as well. "I didn't find anything either."
"Well, then let's not waste any more time. We have seven more sets of caves here in Virginia to check, so let's just go." I took one last look at the engravings and then followed the couple out of the cave.
Once we reached the surface I took a deep breath and was overwhelmed with a sudden desire to call Evie. I wasn't sure why, but from the intensity of the feeling I knew it was important to call. I pulled my cell from my pocket and dialed, hoping the necessary words would form when I needed them. Because right now, I didn't even know what I should say.
"Hello? Christian, is that you?" Evie sounded worried.
"Yes, Evie. It's me. I'm calling to let you know that Justin, Jillian, and I hooked up and are now looking for Rose together." As I listened to Evie exhale a sigh of relief, I felt bad for putting her through all of this. Even though it had been her decisions that led me to leave and search for Rose on my own, I supposed if I was in her position, I would probably be reacting the exact same way. If a new Sire and his hybrid consort both turn dark and then basically disappeared, the rest of my clan's safety would of course become my number one priority. Most of my anger faded away with that realization, but it still hurt that she didn't trust my decisions and abilities as Sire. But then again, I was basically flying blind here, so how could I expect her to trust in me when I didn't even have a clue as to what I'd be led to do next?
Silence hung on the line as I searched for something to say; thankfully, in the next moment the words filled my mind and spilled from my lips. "Evie, I need you to contact Balam and ask him if he has ever seen any petroglyphs in the caves beneath Chichen Itza."
As the sentence left my mouth my head started to spin. I tried to piece things together; the carvings here in Virginia, Rose, Balam, Chichen Itza. I had no idea how any of it fit, but my gifts were guiding me in a way I'd never experienced. It was almost like I was being led by something other than my claircognizance. I suddenly wondered if Loraine had anything to do with the ideas now floating into my mind.
"All right, Christian. I'll call him as soon as we hang up. Do you want to tell me what this has to do with?" Evie's voice pulled me back to our conversation.
"No, Evie. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. I just need whatever information Balam will have to share."
I wasn't trying to be an ass, but I simply couldn't discuss what I didn't understand. Maybe once I heard what Balam had to say it would all make sense, but until then, I didn't have a clue.
"I trust you, Christian. I want you to know that. I'll call as soon as I have something." Evie hung up first, because I was still too struck by her words to hang up the phone. She trusts me. That was good to hear. Now if I could just start to trust myself again.
* * * * *
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Moving Day
(Meredith)
Today was moving day and it was bittersweet. I hated being forced to leave my house, but I was happy to be moving forward with Jeremy and our baby. I only had a few more things to pack and then Jeremy wanted to grab an early dinner while the movers finished the job and transported everything to our new home. They would coordinate with the bu
ilding's staff to get all of the big pieces into place, allowing me to spend the evening and the following few days unpacking and organizing. I planned to return to work and announce my pregnancy and move by next week, but wanted to get the house set up first. The second I shared my plans with Jeremy, however, everything changed.
"No, I don't think so. I don't want you going back to work at all."
His statement shocked me. "What are you talking about? Why would I quit my job?"
"Because you're carrying our baby and you need as much rest as possible. I make plenty of money to take care of us and once your house sells, our nest egg will be replenished. There's simply no reason for you to go back to work."
My first instinct was to feel softened by his concern, but as I looked at him and thought about his snap decisions as of late, I started wondering if there was something else going on besides him being an over-protective husband and father. The idea of not working definitely had merit. I could hole up here and not venture out into the world, except to further my cause with the demons. However, I felt the need to put up a little resistance, just to see if I could get any more information as to the true reason behind his feelings.