Daydream Believer

by C. L. Quinn

  Bas couldn’t because the reality was there that Bernie’s fate would also be Parks. But he gave her that peace, that lie. “All right. I’ll send a special meal for you both. And I’ll prepare the ceremony for Bernie.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you, always. Be well.”

  Bas threw his cell phone onto the sofa and pushed open the balcony doors to fly out and suck in air. No, not when his life was finally so wonderful. Surely fate was not that capricious and vicious.

  Either way, this, too, was out of his hands. He called Baron.

  “It’s just a small window. You can see her, but that’s as close as I can allow you to go. You are aware that she is in full contagion? The alien virus is literally trying to consume her vampire virus. But she’s holding her own so far.”

  Baron sighed and let Olivia and Zach stay at the triple paned window.

  “She is a brave woman. A hero, to risk this to save her people.”

  Olivia glanced back at the kind-faced human who’d done this to Dez. “I never thought she’d do this. If I’d had any clue, I would have beaten her here.”

  “That is precisely why she threatened me if I didn’t inject her immediately that night. She did this to protect you.”

  Shaking her head, Olivia returned her gaze to the woman she was falling in love with. Zach had been right when he said that she had the biggest heart but would have been pissed to have been accused of it.

  “J’accuse,” Olivia whispered. She threaded her fingers through Zach’s. He hadn’t spoken since they arrived and stepped in front of this window.

  Dez hadn’t moved at all. Zach looked for any sign she might be awake or improving, but she lay still as if she were in a coma. Baron had assured him that was not the case, but either way, he couldn’t speak to her or tell her that he loved her and that she had to come back to him.

  He couldn’t chew her out for deciding to do this without letting him know that she was. Eventually, he felt Olivia tug on his hand.

  “We need to go. She’s in the hands of fate now. Surely they will watch over her and bring her back to us.

  “Fate is fickle, and known to often be cruel.”

  “It can be. But it holds all the cards. Let me buy you dinner in Paris tonight, help us both get our mind off this. You’re kind of my grand-daddy, you know?”

  That made Zach smile. The fact that she looked younger than he did and was actually hundreds of years older, was laugh-out-loud crazy. Dinner in Paris couldn’t hurt, he thought, and nodded.

  Tamesine had stood at exactly that window outside isolation room 4 window the night before, her head against the glass, her heart in that room with her daughter. The big softie. It was proof that Dez was ready to embrace her family. If she survived.

  Now, curled up comfortably on her bed, she had copies of the scrolls uncovered at the gravesites. Sarah had made a copy for each of the four first blood vampires in the household.

  Alone, she began to read:

  We are a community born special, with talents to ease our lives and protect this land. There is no person as beautiful in both body and spirit as one born of the magic of the universe. We are sacred and grateful that the universe has given so many gifts to our people and our children. It is our duty to give back as we have been blessed.

  We take nourishment in quantity because our bodies needs are great. It is not enough to sustain those born of the blood of the earth and sky, we must take blood of the others to live. It is a noble sacrifice for the donor in which we show our appreciation by giving health and a long life.

  It has been a peaceful time for the born vampires, we play and love. The treasure of children is rare, but it happens and when it does, the world sparkles indeed.

  The first bloods here before had been supremely happy and grateful that they lived so well, the scrolls detailed their lifestyles, art, and their idea of the future. Tamesine read on as the last three pages told of the virus that came to their village in Switzerland with no warning.

  When the contagion came, it killed half of our community within two weeks, children too, and it broke our hearts.

  Once we realized our vulnerability, that the universe could not protect its children, we traveled across the lands to the mother’s deepest healing waters where magic converges on the mother earth. We prayed that if we journeyed beyond self, there would be help in the stars.

  Under black skies we merged, the community that remained, only 43 of us, to touch eternity and ask for guidance. One word whispered in all minds…Shoazan.

  Certain that the magic that surrounds our Shoazan had the ability to heal us, the most beautiful of us all, Crezia, chose to give her life for her people. Sacrifice born of the ultimate love. To this woman shall be granted eternal life. She will be reborn into the future.

  The final pages told of the time, after two Shoazan’s died, that a Shoazan survived, and brought forth a cure. By then, the people had been decimated in numbers and they left a sad goodbye to the world.

  Our mission in this world is over. We are small in numbers and no children left to reseed the earth with the vampire born for greatness. To everything there is a time, and our time is over. The blood lives on, and in the future, there will be another time for those born of first blood.

  “Tam, are you all right?”

  Marc’s voice interrupted Tamesine’s emersion in the text of her ancient ancestors. Brushing spilt tears from her cheeks, she smiled at her mate.

  “I am better than. We come from such amazing people. I wish that we could have seen the world if they had survived. I think it would be spectacular.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. Come have first meal with us. Your children miss you.”

  “Darling, you are right. I will be down momentarily.”

  Marc left and Tamesine slid off the bed to rinse her face and comb her hair. Crossing the thick carpet, she stopped suddenly. Something was prodding at her. What was it?

  Whatever it was, it was just out of reach, so she continued to the bathroom, and when the water was warm enough, Tamesine scooped it into her palms to bath her skin. As she lifted up to reach for a towel, she caught her image in the mirror.

  We merged, the community that remained…to touch eternity and ask for guidance.

  Of course! “What is wrong with me!” she called out as she pulled her long hair back with a clip lying on the countertop and raced down the stairs.

  Tamesine burst into the dining room.

  “We must help her! Women, we must go onto the spirit plane. Nothing on earth is as powerful as a first blood vampire. Unless it is five!”

  Thirteen

  Blood filled the cup beneath Park’s mouth and nose. Her illness had worsened, manifesting differently than Bernie’s sickness. She stayed awake, but there were obvious signs that her body was shutting down. She hadn’t been able to keep food or blood down since yesterday.

  Two days ago was the last time she’d felt her baby move. He wasn’t dead, but he was dying, just as she was.

  This, she still couldn’t believe, even after losing Bernie, that a virus long-buried had found its way back to the vampires and begun its destruction all over again. That she couldn’t protect herself and her child. That she very well might lose this battle and follow Bernie beyond this life.

  Poor Baron. He had been working tirelessly with his team of researchers and assistants to only verify that this virus had no fault. It was beautifully designed to eradicate the changes made by the vampire virus. He was running out of time and he knew it.

  “Here,” Vaz said and wiped her face with a soft, warm rag. He took the cup away and sat across from Park on her bed. “Do you think you can keep down some water?”

  “I don’t know. What’s inside seems insistent on coming out.”

  “Let’s try.”

  Watching him cross the room to a small refrigerator for a bottle of cold water, Park sighed. He’d taken such good care of her since Bernie died two days ago when he didn�
��t have to. She had expected him to go home, but he stayed and cared for her during the awful moments when she was unable to do anything for herself.

  Baron had proclaimed him immune. He still showed no sign of illness and all of his labs came back negative for the virus. Hopeful that eventually Vaz’s blood might be used to create a vaccine for this virus, Baron had taken a lot of vials to store for future tests. As far as a cure, there was still nothing in sight other than Dez’s attempt to use ancient first blood magic to do so.

  “How’s Dez?” Park asked as she sipped the water. It felt so good on her parched tongue.

  “Not doing very well, I’m afraid. All of her tests still show high levels of the virus in her body and major cell damage. She’s been unconscious from that first night. He doesn’t expect her to make it. Clinically, she’s already lost the fight. Magically, I guess all we can do is hope.”

  “Thank you, for taking care of me.”

  “I wish I could do more. The thought of losing you, too, is enough to destroy me.”

  “No, Vaz. If I don’t make it through this, it’s just because it was meant to be.”

  “Bullshit. I’m sick of expecting the universe, karma, destiny, or fate, whatever the fuck says it’s guiding this entropic mess, to be fair and kind.”

  “It’s what the vampire community is built on. We have incontrovertible proof that it does guide us. Fair? Kind? Maybe not, but there does seem to be order to events.”

  “I don’t care anymore. I’m done with all this.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Vaz pushed his fingers through thick blonde hair.

  “I don’t know. I just…”

  He grabbed another bottle of water and downed half of it. His eyes red, he looked down at Park. “I don’t know where I go from here, but I’m not going home.”

  “Stay with us.” As soon as Park said that, she realized that pronoun was probably wrong. “Bas will welcome you as he has always done.”

  “Thanks, but, no. I have to get out of here. Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out. So, do you think you could maybe eat a cookie?”

  Park shook her head. “I wish, but I don’t think so. Right now, I think I’ll lie back down.”

  “Okay. Get some sleep.”

  Vaz lowered the lights around Park’s bed and walked over to a sofa at the back of the room that Bas had sent in several days ago. Lying down, he stretched out, folded his arms over his chest, and closed his eyes. Not that he would sleep.

  Eillia, Tamesine, and Olivia were ready, seated in a circle on the cliff outside of Park’s lab.

  Koen, seated behind Eillia, looked at Bas. “Call her.”

  The women were close to equidistant from Dez as Park was. Hopefully, the proximity would be enough.

  She’d been dreaming again, Bas beside her with Cairine on his shoulders. She looked down and saw her little son in her arms, wrapped in a lightweight blanket because it was late spring. He was the most handsome boy she had ever seen.

  Someone was insisting she wake. No…no!

  “Park, wake up!”

  It was Baron, with Vaz on the other side of the bed.

  “We have a mission for you, Ms. Park,” Baron said, smiling.

  Pushing up in the bed, Park frowned. “Mission,” she repeated the word, confused.

  “Eillia and Tamesine are just outside of the facility, Park. With Dez’s new granddaughter. They’ve devised a plan to try to help Dez with this virus she’s battling right now. Tamesine wants you to join their group.”

  Panicked, Park pushed her hands into the air. “No, they can’t be near me!”

  “That isn’t the plan. Tamesine and Eillia think that you have power enough to merge with them on the spirit plane without a physical connection. Do you want to try?”

  “Yes,” Park said quietly. Then, “Yes!”

  “Okay, they’re ready.”

  Vaz picked up a cell phone lying on the counter.

  “We’re on. When do you want her to start?”

  Placing the phone back down, Vaz smiled to Park.

  “Let’s do it. You’re going to be searching for the first blood power close to you. Eillia is certain that your paths will cross.”

  Park sat upright even though the pain in her head, neck and back were crippling. Clearing her mind, she searched for the white room that Eillia had taught her to find when she walked past the mundane world.

  Moments passed, colors tried to bleed through, but she took control and forced them out to find the perfect nothingness she needed. Once she had done so, she sent her thoughts out into the world, riding on the wind, to reach and touch Eillia and Tamesine so close to her.

  From nowhere, she felt a light breeze and the landscape changed to an expansive desert, sun in the distance, and warm sand beneath her shoeless feet. She looked down to see that she was still pregnant, even in the spirit world.

  Within seconds, she heard a laugh and spun around. There, walking towards her, all in light sundresses, were Eillia, Tamesine, and a beautiful girl with long dark hair pulled into a ponytail.

  Eillia reached Park first. “My love, how are you?”

  “I’m wonderful, here, now, with you. Let us not dwell on anything else. You all look so lovely.”

  Tamesine held Park next, and pulled back. “Park, this is my great-granddaughter, Olivia.”

  “Wow, you and Dez do good work. Hello, Olivia.”

  “I am pleased.”

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “Dez is battling the virus in its most virulent form. If she succeeds in winning the battle, if she survives and gets well, her blood will provide antibodies that will cure the virus. Park, I know that you are very ill. We must do this before you are past the need of a cure.”

  “I couldn’t agree more. Tamesine, guide us and we will follow.”

  “We must find Dez, here, on this plane, and give our magics to her, make her invincible, make her strong enough to do this. It’s an idea I got from the old ones.”

  “Shall we?” Olivia said, impatient to help Dez.

  Inside the spirit realm, the four women dropped onto the sand and linked hands. It was only a matter of moments before they found exactly what they sought, the spirit and body of Dez.

  Yes, she was dying.

  Tamesine drew from her deepest magic, lifted it and threaded it through Olivia, blood seeking blood, and it spun into her, through her, and then into Eillia. The power that burst from Eillia, carried on a cosmic wind, that of three powerful first blood women, shot into Park and she surged up onto her feet, her arms lifted, as she accepted the magic and wove it into a stream. The stream of exponential talents given by the universe, power that could change the course of history, they prayed that it could here. Sitting again, the spirit-realm Park reconnected with the other three vampires and, together, they moved the focused column of power through the air around them, searching for the vessel they would send the power into.

  What may have been minutes or hours passed, when Eillia called out, quietly, “I have her,” and sent the location on the spiritual plane to her companions. First blood magics flew away, sped through the spirit world and entered the struggling, dying woman through her spirit amulet. It absorbed the massive infusion and spread itself evenly through Dez’s body, her head, her arms, her heart, down through every organ and vessel until her body nearly glowed.

  Tamesine watched, smiling, because she felt the virus destroying her daughter’s body fight back…and it was losing.

  “Keep it going,” she said, and stayed focus. The others provided the powers that pushed her own to levels likely never before seen in the world below, but it was Tamesine’s connection to Dez, the blood drawing them to her, that made this power merge work. She didn’t know if something like this had even been tried before, or ever would again. But today, this day, they may have found a way to save her daughter, her dearest friend, and her race.

  Dez had checked out, her mind separated from her body thanks to the po
wer of her first blood amulet, because pain dominated every organ, every limb, every cell. She knew before her body burned, that she had lost.

  The separation left her able to think, so she let herself dream of Zach, and all that they would miss. It didn’t matter, she would do this again to protect her family. Sad, though, that years with the man she finally allowed herself to love, would never happen. It had taken her centuries to allow herself to truly release all the baggage of pain and disappointments to fall into blue eyes that loved her voraciously no matter what.

  She could feel it, the virus, finishing its job to strip the vampire from her. Once done, the human body that she’d never really been would just fade away. Rest, then, in the arms of an angel, right?

  A trickle began near her mind, something coming, something blowing in. Death, coming for her already? But that wasn’t death, the hot rush of intense magic that wrapped her in bright light. It felt like warm water pouring all over her soul, her spirit, and finally her body. Pain shot into her mind again, no longer separated, and she writhed upward, twisting, an attempt to escape the inescapable.

  A voice traveled along the same path that carried the magics. “We are one with you, my daughter. You must guide the magic and let it heal you. You have the power now.”

  Tamesine? Mother? It was true, she could feel it now, ancient and unstoppable, first blood magic with the power to change this outcome. She did as she was asked, and led the magic through her body. It sought out the raging foreigner and eradicated the germ, then repaired the damage left behind.

  Dez felt it, she was getting stronger.

  “It’s working, Mother, it’s working!” she sent back along the same path.

  Now, the worst of the pain past, she let her body drop onto the bed sheets soaked with sweat and welcomed her legacy. Destiny had helped, after all, and it had chosen to let Dez live.