by C. L. Quinn
When daylight struck, the household exploded with activity. Naji prepared for work, Sarah had plans to shop for food and needed supplies, Nikolai had folders full of paperwork to do for the museum while he watched Zia, and Olivia watched them all. Leaning against a counter in the kitchen blocked from direct daylight, she sipped a cup of sweet coffee before she went to bed for the day, and sighed. Human life was just too busy. Ugh!
“Don’t forget the meatballs. They’re essential to the dish I’m planning for tomorrow night,” Naji reminded Sarah.
“On the list. Have a good day, Naj.”
“On the list. I’ve two big spenders coming in for lunch and to buy art to furnish their 20,000 square foot home they’ve built on an island somewhere. Yes, I’ll have a good day.”
Naji was off, Sarah kissed Zia and left. Nikolai fed the baby, gave her Olivia’s blood meal, and put her down to sleep. Olivia did the same in the bedroom with no outside exposure.
Nikolai sighed to have everyone out and doing what they needed to do, the baby sleeping, and a chance to do some of his own work. Sometimes, things got just a little too chaotic.
After he pulled out the folders of display items he needed to research and vet, he stopped. Damn it, keeping his mind on his work was impossible. All he could think about was that Mies was out there in an unfamiliar world, trying to leave him and Sarah forever. Damn it, vicious destiny!
Zia slept deeply, her mind clear, her goal defined…find him. She weaved herself into the spiritual plane, and even at her age, she sent blood in search of blood. Somewhere inside of her she knew that she needed him, so if he was out there, she would find him.
There was something he must do, something waiting for him. Mies was in a hard sleep, this body had been infused with copious amounts of alcohol it still could not manage, but his mind was active and felt something reaching for him, searching and demanding that he...what?
What did the thing want? He couldn’t identify it, but it came from the spiritual realm across skies laced with treetops. Treetops? No, the treetops were a clue…the thing that sought him was earthbound. But he couldn’t make sense of it and he couldn’t determine who or what reached out to find this displaced vampire. He felt its urgency but it was lost in space. Finally, it tore him from his sleep.
The basement room’s dim lighting offered hard shadows in corners along with a musty smell that he’d hated from that first night. Snoring pulled his head around to Xavier, sleeping on a stack of old tarps, stretched out wide, a smile on his face, in as deep a sleep as he himself had been a few moments earlier.
Mies sat on a wood box and watched Xavier. Perhaps that was his best choice. Paris, around the world from Boston, was a safe distance from Sarah and Niko. Tonight he would get the address and leave the city.
It was time to get out and see what this world was really like. With vessels that flew in the sky, no corner of this globe was out of reach. In spite of the emotional trauma, he found he could be excited about seeing the new world.
His head throbbed, which was highly unusual for a vampire, but he knew the problem. Whatever had been prodding at him in sleep was still searching. It would have to try much harder if it wanted to do so. From here on out, Mies was nothing more than a man living his life.
They’d placed him here again, adrift, no idea why or if there was something he was meant to do, so he had only one response to something like it.
“Fuck it,” he said out loud.
The baby finished her bottle of Sarah’s breast milk, and Nikolai burped her. She’d had Olivia’s blood yesterday so she was set to go for almost another week.
“What up, Zia lady?” he said as he lifted her and jiggled her in the air over his head. “Is that my girl?”
She smiled and popped another burp, her hands flailing.
“How are you this beautiful?” he commented as he brought her down and hugged her to him. That moist tiny body against his neck warmed him to his soul. He was deeply in love with this little girl.
No matter what else happened for the rest of his life, he regretted nothing that had led him here, with Sarah, with Naji, and this child that lit up the world. Or his crazy bond with Mies.
Now that it appeared that Mies was back, once they fixed things, the order of the world would be all right again and they would bring him home.
He looked around the room, the big open balcony that brought the daylight in. When Mies moved in with them, they would need a different place.
A strangled gurgle from Zia captured his attention immediately.
“Zia?” he said as he pulled her away to check on her.
She began gagging and struggling for air. He checked to make sure nothing was caught in her throat, and when there wasn’t, he headed towards the phone.
Nineteen
“Olivia’s blood isn’t working anymore. Her system is breaking it down, but it isn’t feeding her need for her vampire genome. Sarah, I don’t have a cure for this. I don’t know what to do to fix it.”
Park smoothed Zia’s hair off her forehead as she handed the baby back to Nikolai.
Sarah stood, shocked, her eyes searching, her hands clenched. “Um, are you telling me that Zia is dying?”
“I’m telling you that she’s really sick and I don’t know how to help her. You know how healing vampire blood is, and if it doesn’t do it, I don’t have another option. Olivia is fourth generation and we know that her blood is the most powerful we’ve ever seen, so I really don’t have any idea at this time what else to try. It doesn’t mean that I’ll give up, of course I won’t, but I have no answers right now.”
Park didn’t, but Sarah did. She turned and walked out onto the balcony to watch the waves. She had to find Mies.
Light footsteps let Sarah know that Park was behind her. “I’m going to do a power circle with Tamesine, Eillia, and Olivia,” she announced. “Sarah, the universe created the situation that brought this child to you, so I must believe that it wants her here and if that’s the case, we will be able to help her. She’s meant to be, my friend, and the universe has a way of looking after those that destiny smiles upon.”
“Have them find her father.”
“I am not sure how that would help.”
“He’s here. In Boston. Park, they sent him back here in a different body, but he’s here and I think he can help us.”
“You’ve seen him?”
“We all have.”
“Then why isn’t he with you and Zia?”
Sarah shook her head as she leaned against the railing, her arms folded. “I think he thinks he’s being noble. Letting me go to live my human life that I once told him I wanted. Holy shit that seems so long ago now. He doesn’t know about Crezia.”
“Then that is exactly what we must do. I’ve believed all along that his blood can fix this. Her blood will recognize his. The unique blending should repair the missing DNA. If I’m right, she’s going to be perfectly okay, Sarah.”
“Then that’s our priority, we have to find him.”
“I’ll get the women here as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, Park. In the meantime, I’m going out on the street and look for Mies. Naji will stay with Zia while the rest of us search for him.”
“Count me in.”
“Gladly.”
Park suddenly stopped in her tracks. “Wait! Sometimes I can be so dense! I may be able to trace him. My skills are poor compared with EiIlia’s but it’s worth a try. Blood recognizes blood. We can use Zia’s blood to search for blood.”
“Now?”
“Yes, Sarah, now! I just need the baby with me in a quiet room.”
“Bless you, Park!”
“I’m leavin’ in two days and if ya want, ye’re welcome to travel with me.”
Mies held out a hand to Xavier. “I would like to, sir, until I can get on my feet again.”
“It’s nothin’. Do ya know where Logan International is?”
“I’ll find it. I’ve been through it
to get here, but that was some time ago.”
“Okay, then. Just after dark in two days.”
“I won’t be late. Good luck with the women until then.”
“Och, who needs luck with this kind of equipment, eh?”
Xavier cupped his crotch and grinned before he disappeared.
“What a wild man. I guess I’ll be going to Paris.”
Time for food, but thankfully this city had a lot of excellent restaurants. Afterward, he needed to find some clothes for the journey overseas.
“Nik, how’s Zia?”
“She’s not doing well, Sarah. Look how rough she’s breathing. Is she in pain?”
Park did a quick examination. Dropping her stethoscope to fall back against her chest, she shook her head. “I don’t think so, but she isn’t comfortable, either. We have an idea that may help her. Nikolai, go get Naji. If this works out, she can watch the baby while we go and get her father.”
He did as asked while Sarah picked her daughter up and held her to her chest. “No!”
Sarah didn’t mean that word to bounce so loudly off the walls, so she repeated it seconds later. “No. We take her with us. You think she’s well enough to travel?”
“I think it’s all right,” Park answered.
Desperation had crept into Sarah’s eyes, Park recognized the emotion. When she had nearly lost her son, she had almost literally moved heaven and earth to save him. Even now, she had moments when the memory of how close she had come to dying, taking her unborn child with her, brought a split-second of fear that she had to tamp down. Usually, she had to go and hold him when that happened.
“Let’s begin.”
Lying in Sarah’s arms, Zia sneezed, then sneezed again, her eyes watering as Sarah tried to wipe the moisture away.
Pain and worry marred Sarah’s face.
“We’ll find him,” Park promised.
Lifting the baby from Sarah, Park laid her on the thick Aubusson rug and knelt beside her. Placing her right hand on Crezia’s forehead, she buried her left one beneath the baby’s clothes against her chest.
“Heart and mind,” Park whispered to Sarah, who watched, rapt and silent.
Immediately, things changed. Park was surprised to feel Crezia’s lifeforce move beside her own. The child was actively seeking her father, too, but she did not have the talent to achieve the link. She knew, though, that Park did.
Park reached inside the child to touch her blood, shared by either parent, but Sarah’s would be overtaken by the legacy of her father. Everything first blood was dominant.
While Park was concerned that the baby would be frightened, she need not have been. This child knew what they were doing, wanted and needed the help, was grateful for it. Fully merged now with the blood, Park let it take her, track her across the city, through high-rises and past soul after soul until it charged downward, weaved through air trapped by more tall buildings, below ground to a sheltering basement. There.
Park heard the baby’s emotional sigh, relief…here was blood, here was family, father, hope.
Wrapped up with the baby Crezia’s lifeforce, traveling through the spiritual plane, Park could see that if they did not find him, this child would not survive. Her genetic makeup was too fractured, only her father’s vampire blood could save her. She sent the message in feelings that the child could understand that they would find him and he would know her, he would love her, and he would fix her. Fear faded and the child clung to the promise.
Park would not fail this child.
She gently eased them back from the spiritual plane and Park noticed that the baby stayed right alongside her.
As a child, Crezia should not be this advanced at spirit walking. It would be very interesting to see where her talent lie as she became a young woman.
Once back from the inward journey, Park, awake and able to speak, smiled. “We’ve got him.”
“He’s not here. It looks like he might have been, but he’s gone now. I don’t see any sign that he might return.”
“Park, we have to do another trace.”
“Sarah,” Nikolai, voice of reason, interjected. “He has to be near. I’m going to go up and check out the area. There are a lot of nice restaurants around here.”
“No, we have to…”
Sarah had carried Zia into this dank basement where Mies had been traced less than an hour ago, and he wasn’t here. God. He wasn’t here!
The situation was desperate, and she was losing hope that they would find him in time.
Dizziness made her sway and she reach out to hold onto Nikolai as she closed her eyes. What the hell was this? An image came tearing through her mind.
“Sarah, are you okay?”
“I don’t know. I’m receiving an image…it’s…”
Suddenly the image was clear.
It was him…the man from the trauma bay who Mies now occupied.
“I see him,” she shouted.
“Who? Mies?” Park asked.
“Yes. I don’t know how.” Sarah’s head spun again, and something reached toward her. “The baby…she’s tuned into him. I guess since he’s so close, but she’s got him. He’s in Sailor’s Square, there’s a festival of some kind. Music, partiers, food…it’s loud, and he’s surrounded by people. He looks uncomfortable. We have to get there. Sailor’s Square is just half a block up that way.”
“Move,” Nikolai said.
Naji took Zia from Sarah’s arms. “Just in case you get dizzy going up the stairs.”
“Thanks, Naj.”
While Naji made sure the baby was safe, Nikolai followed Sarah up the stairs, anticipating the same possibility that Naji had, ready to catch her if she were dizzy again.
Out the door, Nikolai led Sarah down the street, Park and Naji just behind them.
“Jason! Jason!”
“Oh, my God, you’re alive!”
“Jason! Over here!”
People were all over him, yelling that name. They were so certain that he was this Jason Stone that Mies assumed it must have been the man who’d walked in this body before him.
Easily thirty people collected around him as he tried to get something to eat at this little street fair. Several tugged at him and he used compulsion to send them away, but he couldn’t control this many at once. It was unfortunate for Mies, but it appeared that this Jason must have been a celebrity. A great many people seemed to know him and like him.
Mies came to the quick conclusion that he must have been a good man. He took a moment to feel sorrow for the lost life, but then he had to figure out how to get out of here without causing a bigger riot than he already was. Denying that he was not this Jason Stone hadn’t worked, they continued to call out to him.
He felt overwhelmed, ready to push past them all and kick up his speed beyond human level enough that they could not follow him when, scanning the crowds, he saw Sarah at the edge of the group, her eyes boring into his. Her face was drawn, worried, ecstatic, all at once, and it stopped him in his tracks. Beside her stood Nikolai, a hand on her arm, a primal claim on that which was his. Mies must honor that claim.
He wanted to run, just turn and disappear, but he knew that he had to face them. Slowly, he began to make his way through the crowd, but every step he pushed towards them, he thought how much it hurt to see them together, and how much he loved them both.
“Jason, you remember me?” a pretty blonde girl screamed at him as she grabbed his arm. He shook her off and continued.
Two large men tried to block his way, cameras raised, snapping photo after photo, but he’d had enough and waved a hand to freeze them in place. Let them figure the fuck out what had happened to them later.
The crowd started to push in on him again as he cleared a small group of people and stopped just a few feet from Sarah and Nikolai.
“Jason Stone?” Sarah said to Mies, trying to sound serious.
Mies couldn’t look away from her. “You know I’m not.”
“Seems like a
n awful lot of admirers if you’re not.”
She really didn’t know what else to say now that she was face to face with him, grateful that something had gone right and he was here now when he was so desperately needed.
Finally, he shifted his gaze to Nikolai. “Hello, my old friend. I am glad to see you as well.”
“I’m shocked to see you.” Nikolai moved forward and embraced Mies. “And happy to. We must talk about how that happened sometime.”
Mies felt pressure behind his eyes and held onto Nikolai tighter than he should. “Perhaps.”
Nikolai stepped back and Mies’s eyes went back to Sarah. “You look lovely, of course.”
“Thank you. That would mean more if you hadn’t run away from me.”
In the background, people were still calling for “Jason” and trying to push closer.
Park stepped forward and Mies noticed her for the first time. “We need to seek privacy,” she stated.
Sarah nodded. “We do. Mies, will you come with us? I am in need of your help and it is a life and death situation.”
He nodded as he assessed Park, aware that she was first blood. His eyes landed on Naji next, now revealed behind Nikolai with a bundle held to her chest. He bowed and smiled to both women.
“Come with me,” he said, and led them from the crowds into an ice cream shop fifty feet away.
Only six people were inside, including two employees, so he sent them away. Closing the door, he waved a hand to spell it. The magic would keep anyone from attempting to enter, and, reluctantly, turned to Sarah and Nikolai.
He needed to acknowledge their relationship to show his support and avoid the awkwardness they all felt. “I am pleased that you and Nikolai are together.”
Sarah had been reaching for the bundle in Naji’s arms when her head swiveled to face him. “What?”