Daydream Believer

by C. L. Quinn

  “Bernie,” Park whispered, now sure that it was Bernie who needed her. Coming around the side of the bed, she saw that it was empty. Her head shot up and she looked through the room, to the corners lost in darkness. Bernie wasn’t in this room.

  I need you, Park.

  The thought and the deep need came again, and with her mind locked on it, she followed her instinct and let her talents guide her out the door across the lawn and to the cliff on the edge of the property, to where Bernie sat, sprawled awkwardly against the rock.

  Approaching quickly, Park dropped beside her.

  “Bernie, are you okay?”

  Night had just arrived, the light behind the lab bright pink near the horizon, a sliver of moon rising near the distant water’s edge, stars twinkling around it.

  “Sit with me, my friend,” Bernie said, her voice scratchy and weak.

  Sliding in behind her, Park felt Bernie shiver and pulled her close, her arms spanning Bernie’s thin frame.

  “Sweetie, why are you out here?”

  “I had to see the sky and the sea, to feel the air on my skin. It’s such an awesome world, isn’t it?”

  Bernie’s head fell back and Park buried her cheek against it. Bernie’s skin was so cold!

  Wrapped around each other, they watched the crescent climb. “It really is. You know that’s why we have so many first blood children lately, don’t you? We’re going to have a battle someday to make sure she stays so beautiful. I’m going to need you at my side then.”

  Bernie didn’t respond other than to slip a hand into Park’s. Then, quietly, but oddly strong, she spoke. “I don’t think I’ll be there.”

  “Bernie…”

  “Park, I know it. I feel it inside my body, something’s wrong.” After another long silence and a low sob, she finished her thought. “I don’t think I’m vampire anymore.”

  There was nothing to say. Park could feel that too. She couldn’t sense Bernie’s lifeforce, and since she’d become vampire, she always had. Wherever this virus came from, it was the most devastating thing in the world for a vampire. It killed the virus that made them vampire. And it was killing Bernie.

  Tears came then, although she didn’t cry, but she held her friend, wished she could transfer her own lifeforce to her, wished she could fix this, prayed that something would happen before the last moment, and that things would be okay in the end.

  “I’ve had an amazing five years, my friend. I wouldn’t change anything about my life. You and Vaz are my family.”

  Park knew how Bernie felt because she felt exactly the same. She wouldn’t give up one moment she’d had with Bas for a hundred years without him.

  “I don’t want to lose you.”

  “Sweetie, you won’t lose me. I’m just moving on sooner, but I’ll still be out there. Look, see that? Those three bright stars?”

  Park followed Bernie’s finger to the sky.

  “That’s Orion’s belt. I’ll be sitting there waiting for you.”

  Park’s grip tightened around Bernie’s waist as if she could hold her there forever. The tears fell freely now. “It’s not fair.”

  “Oh, sweetie, what is it that Cherise says? Fair is just a weathercast. But I’ve been blessed. I got a sister I never had, I wouldn’t have missed you for anything. And I got to spend five years making love with the most extraordinary man. As a vampire.” She laughed. “That was worth the price of the ticket.”

  Bernie’s hand tightened on Park’s. “I have no regrets.”

  Park could barely speak now. “You can’t leave, you’re Cairine’s godmother. She needs her godmother.”

  “It’s up to the universe now, Park. I think destiny has another plan for me. But I promise, I’ll be watching.”

  They fell silent again until Bernie sighed. “I’ll always be there….just a breath away.”

  Both crying softly now, they sat still, bodies almost one, as Park tried to hold onto her friend, and as Bernie said goodbye.

  Park wrapped first blood magics around them, warmth suddenly welled from the ground, and Mother Earth held them both as they struggled to accept that there was order to the universe. And that Bernie’s story was done.

  Just outside the door of the lab, Vaz stood, his muscles tight, frozen as hard as stone. He saw the two figures holding each other on the edge of the land. His vampire hearing was excellent in the still night so he could hear the conversation. More than anything, he wanted to go to them, to hold Bernie, to tell her that she wasn’t going anywhere, to lock her to him and demand that destiny change its mind.

  But he didn’t move at all. He didn’t have first blood talents, but he knew, he felt, Bernie’s lifeforce was fading.

  She was vampire! How the fuck could this happen? Vampires did not get sick! How could he look at this woman he’d fallen in love with and know that she would be gone soon? How could he face the long life ahead empty of her? So he just stood and watched the women say goodbye. He couldn’t do so, not yet. Not ever.

  First meal was on, tray after tray of delicious choices laid out over tables on three sides of the room. The chatter was quiet this night, everyone a little subdued. As Sarah entered the room, she thought that her news would suit the mood. She scanned the room for Olivia, but she wasn’t there. Dez and Zach had just filled their plates and stopped at Tamesine’s table to take places there, which surprised her.

  Xavier was the first to greet her. “Ah,” he called out. “Ye’re just in time. I was just tellin’ Eillia that ya took the samples to Park’s lab last night.”

  “I did. They’re processing them now, but I need your help. I need the help of the old ones in this room. We have a mystery and Olivia assures me that it is critical we solve it immediately. So, when you’re finished with your meal, will you join me in the living space?”

  Eillia hadn’t moved, her eyes locked on Sarah.

  “I can sense it, the item that you possess. It’s calling to me. Do you have it on you?”

  Sarah slipped a hand into the slim satchel at her side, pulled the tube out and held it up. “I do. Inside this small tube are 6 pages of text, completely unknown as far as the collected knowledge of man, and possibly vital to vampire survival. So, please, finish your meals, and come when you can.”

  “Give us half an hour.” Eillia finished filling her plate with four of the huge cinnamon buns.

  Sarah grabbed a single cinnamon bun and walked out. She was human and had to watch the amount of calories she consumed. On occasion, it pissed her off.

  Eleven

  Vaz stood quietly beside Burne’s bed, holding her hand, as Park and Baron, on the other side, took more blood samples, a DNA swab, and her temperature. He hadn’t said anything to her about the moments an hour ago when he watched the women on the rocks. He didn’t have anything to say. At this point, he knew his job was to simply do anything he could to make certain that Burne was comfortable and knew how much she was loved.

  Park nodded to Baron. “Thank you. You’ll let me know immediately?”

  “Of course. Her temperature is significantly lower than that of a vampire now. I’ll send some more blankets.”

  “I noticed. She’ll appreciate it.”

  Park walked to the other side of the bed and laid a hand on Vaz’s arm. “She’ll sleep for a while now. We were outside too long and it seemed to exhaust her.”

  “I know. I saw you two, close, inseparable. Thank you for being there for her.”

  “We’re sisters. Blood isn’t the only thing that makes family. Look at how close you have been, not mated, not married, but inseparable too.”

  After a slight nod, Vaz looked down into Park’s eyes.

  “But that isn’t true anymore, is it?”

  “Vaz, we don’t know what’s going to happen. Yes, it looks dire, but things change on a dime. One of those lab techs could come running in here with a cure. Have hope.”

  “Sure,” he said, bent to kiss Burne and walked back to his bed. “I’m ordering first me
al. Hungry?”

  “I could eat.”

  Both could, and ravenously, because even stressed vampires needed calories.

  In isolation, they spread the food out on their beds and munched down.

  “Vaz, tell me about your life. Bas let me know you two are close, but he’s never told me how you met.”

  “So we’re sharing stories now.”

  Park’s eyes went to Bernie, then back to Vaz. “It’s our stories that make our lives. Our stories are who we are, who we love, who we’ve become after living so many years. I’d like to know yours.”

  “All right. Sit back for the ride then.”

  Eillia led Koen, Xavier, and Tamesine into the living space that occupied half the second floor of the villa. Roomy, the space was dressed in warm, sensual colors easy on the eye. Four big champagne sofas surrounded a huge square coffee table with a splintered glass top. They always kept lighting low in this room, but tonight, brighter lights had been turned on.

  Marc, Dez, Zach, and Olivia followed them and everyone took a seat. Daniel and Alisa stayed with the children.

  Sarah had waited on the balcony. When her audience was collected, she joined them.

  “Thank you. I think all of you are aware of the ancient burial site found at Lake Baikal. We’ve done some preliminary tests and have determined that the bodies are at least eight thousand years old. Having said that, we also know that they are first bloods, every one of them, sixteen in all that we’ve uncovered. They were mated pairs, buried in each other’s arms. I brought one of the spirit amulets with me, and it, too, is at the lab. That in itself poses a huge mystery as pertains to your race, but I have another issue much more imperative.”

  Sarah held up the tube as she had in the dining room.

  “This was found in the ice next to one of the bodies. I couldn’t open it with normal tools, but Olivia easily did with her telekinetic power. Inside, we found a scroll that contains six rolled up pages. I researched all day and couldn’t find any reference to this writing. I hoped that you would.”

  Carefully, Sarah slid the scrolls out, unrolled the top paper, about 10 inches wide and 15 inches long, and handed it to Eillia.

  No one in the room spoke, all eyes on her, as Eillia perused the document from top to bottom. When she shook her head, Sarah felt the dread from last night return.

  “I don’t. I’m sorry, but I can’t read this. Xavier, Koen?”

  Eillia passed the page to the brothers, who looked up at Sarah in the same way Eillia had.

  “I have never seen this writing. It obviously predates anything in our culture. Tamesine?”

  Tamesine reached across from another sofa and sat back down next to Marc. She, too, shook her head.

  “No. You’re right, it’s too archaic. But I think I know how to do this. We must ask those in the spirit world for help.”

  “You think that’s possible?”

  “We have nothing to lose. I just wish that we had Park here, but I think between Eillia and I we may have the power.”

  “Let me help,” Olivia said, on the other side of the table next to Dez.

  “Okay. Let’s do this. Clear a space.”

  Koen and Xavier placed a big rug on a spot near the balcony door. “Will this do?”

  “Perfect. Koen, will you spot me?” Eillia asked as she sat on the rug, legs crossed.

  “Aye, lass.” The big man took a place directly behind her.

  Marc followed Tamesine as she did the same.

  Olivia looked up at Zach, who nodded in spite of the look on Dez’s face, then sat behind Olivia.

  Watching the powerful women gather, Dez felt a moment of shame. She had been a bitch by not accepting her spirit amulet with grace and allowing the merge so that she could have helped them.

  All three women in place, the men behind them to cushion them after they came from the spirit realm, linked hands and leaned in to touch foreheads.

  This was Olivia’s first spirit walk with other first bloods, and when she became aware of the strange otherworldly landscape, she turned around to find Tamesine and Eillia behind her.

  “What do we do?” she asked.

  Eillia reached for her hands in this alternate realm.

  “We ask the ancients if they can help us to understand their message. It was in a sealed container for a reason…we were meant to know its secrets someday. Today is that day.”

  Tamesine guided the two women from the landscape in which they arrived. As they walked down a narrow path, the sky above began to rotate, stars moving through their heavenly rotation rapidly to leave star trails like seen in time-lapse photographs. Olivia began to feel dizzy, her eyelids fluttered and she thought that she might throw up.

  Taking Olivia’s hand, Tamesine pulled her along.

  “Stay the course, Olivia, you can do this. They’re coming, the spirits of the ancients. I feel it.”

  “It’s electric,” Eillia commented. “The air stings.”

  “We’re passing through the spirits of those who have gone before. Ladies, open your minds and feel them. They are magnificent!”

  All three minds merged and touched those who spun around them, until faster and faster, the spirits became overwhelming and the realm spit their spirit bodies out.

  As was common, emerging from a spirit walk often resulted in a physical force when the mind returned to the body. The three men behind Tamesine, Eillia, and Olivia were ready as they heard gasps from the women before they surged backward into their arms, caught them, and lowered them gently to the thick rug.

  “What a fuckin’ ride,” Xavier said after a sharp whistle.

  “You’d be surprised,” Marc commented. “It’s a wild place. Have you never been there?”

  “Nay, and I don’t aim to go, either. That’s too much truth for this old horse.”

  Slowly, consciousness returned to the women and they sat up, aided by their spotters.

  “Thank you, my love,” Tamesine told Marc as he helped her stand. The women went back to the sofas and sat down.

  “Well?” Sarah asked, impatient.

  Tamesine smiled. “We’ve got it.”

  A smile burst on Sarah’s face. “Outstanding! Please, let’s sit down and have you translate it right away.”

  Shaking her head, Tamesine said, “Sarah, dear, I don’t need to. Bring the scrolls to me.”

  Bundling them in her hands, Sarah carried them over to the table in the middle of the four sofas and laid them gently down on the glass.

  After a brief hesitation, Tamesine lifted the scrolls, all 6 panels, in her hands and, starting from the top, slowly ran her right hand down to the bottom. A brilliant glow erupted from the surface of the document and from Tamesine’s hand. She repeated the process with each remaining page.

  Leaning in to see what she’d done, Sarah was speechless. The words had transformed, and she could read the text. Her eyes shot to Tamesine.

  “My God. Your power is unbelievable.”

  “It isn’t my power. The ancients who have long since left this world still have power beyond anything that we know. They couldn’t speak to us, but they gave us the ability to do this. You were right, Eillia, we were meant to know this. So Sarah, our resident scholar, go see what we’ve found.”

  “I will. Do you want to meet here in two hours?”

  “That’s a good plan. Okay, then, I need a massive dessert. Marc, shall we go see what we can find?”

  “Anytime, love,” he said.

  Once they left the room, the others followed, leaving Sarah with the now translated text of first blood vampires thousands of years old. What a miracle that the universe still cared for those who toiled on this small planet below a celestial ceiling that held eternity.

  Curling up and burying herself in the thick cushions, her laptop to her side, Sarah began.

  “It’s remarkable. The virus that changes a human into a vampire has total dominion over the host’s genes. Once it begins its conversion, it cannot be stopped
. This virus, this lethal pathogen, targets the vampire virus specifically. It destroys other genes, which is why the humans fully infected died, but in a vampire, it destroys that virus specific to your species. Once it does, the parent cells are so damaged, they begin to degrade and die. Park, I have no idea how to stop this. I think that this virus may be in the realm of magic and our medicine is outgunned. Burne’s vampire DNA is so corrupted, she’s predominately human again, but I still can’t save her. The only saving grace at this moment is that I think pain meds will work now.”

  Baron was doing exactly what he’d promised, he delivered the most recent results to Park. She sat on a countertop, her stomach twisting, her heart and soul hurting for Burne and those who still may die from this.

  “Have we contained it? Do we know the vehicle for transmission?”

  “No. I really don’t think that it’s airborne, but we can’t verify that. This is something beyond medical science.”

  “Thanks, then. Yes, though, do make sure that any pain medication that will help Burne to be comfortable is administered immediately. I’ll tell Vaz.”

  Ten minutes later, Vaz sat silently on his bed. The stoic expression on his face let her know that what she revealed to him was nothing he didn’t already know. He’d been there when his friend in Switzerland had died and he fully expected to be here when Bernie did.

  “We can help her now, though, with the pain.”

  “That’s good,” he finally said. “Thank your people for me for all their hard work.”

  “I already have. Vaz, do you need anything?” Park knew it was a lame question but she felt compelled to ask anyway.

  His eyes lifted to hers as she stood in front of him.

  The shake of his head said exactly how she felt, too. What they needed, they could not have.

  “I’m going to go sit with her.”

  “Good, Park. I think I’ll wander outside.”

  “You shouldn’t.”

  “I’m still negative for contagion.”

  “Bernie was before she got sick.”