by Rayns, Lisa
“And I love you.”
I took a deep breath and stared again at the illuminated picture.
“What are you doing right now?”
When the test proved Draven loyal to his word, I repeated the rhyme as I stared at the picture. “In the Eiffel Tower, you will find my power. Ignore my last wish, and Draven will perish.”
I stared at the picture for a long time, hoping the power would come to me. Nothing did. I turned on the light and inspected the picture closer. Two thin layers of glass gave it a 2-D look, and to my immense relief, it had a cord that plugged into the wall. The back held an internal clock that turned on the lighting at midnight and shut it off again at four a.m. Semi-disappointed that I hadn’t found a clue, I turned off the light and returned to the glowing tower. Balling my fist, I slammed a hole through the center, hitting the wall behind it. The pain felt intense, but I was careful not to scream or moan or cuss.
Candy stood in the doorway a minute later. She turned on the light to appraise the situation. “Are you all right, Milady?” she finally asked.
“I’m fine,” I said, squinting sideways at the punctured picture. I barely realized what she was doing when she cleaned my hand and wrapped it in a tight, clean bandage. “I need to be alone.”
“Yes, Milady.” She tied off the bandage and bowed before leaving the room.
When the door closed, a yellow envelop fell down from behind the backing of the Eiffel tower. The picture flickered once, and then the light died out. I stepped closer to read the word on the front: ELIZABETH.
Ignoring the letter, I paced the room, my mind racing. Could I really have sent myself a warning from my past life? And could I really have known that Draven would die if I didn’t find the letter and fulfill the last wish? The thought sent me rushing across the floor. I dropped down to scoop up the letter in my now aching hand. I carefully opened it and read.
Elizabeth,
Yes, I am you in your previous life. My name is Lissa, nice to meet you. I see my own death. I will die tonight on the way to my birthday party but I will not change my destiny when I have a chance to save yours. You must fulfill my wish. You cannot marry Draven until you go to France. You cannot go to France until you have looked into the eyes of the Lord of the Underworld. The answer lies there.
What you find will save your life and in turn, save Draven.
Love,
Lissa
P.S. Please tell him I’m sorry.
P.S.S. And please have the house redecorated…I feel awful!
I gasped and lay down on the floor, trying to process the new information. Lissa had seen the future and long before it came too. It must have taken her months to redecorate the house and learn to how to cast spells if she wasn’t a witch already. She’d loved Draven just as much as I do now, and she was willing to die to give him his final chance at happiness.
For the first time, I had a very real understanding of my former lives and knowing that my soul had sacrificed herself for Draven was a two-sided blade. She’d done it for him, but at the same time, she’d left him behind to suffer for it. I vowed to make things right in this lifetime. I had to.
The Egyptian room was dark when I entered it. No lights glowed, and nothing appeared to move except the eyes of the dead that watched me. When I turned on the light, he lay there in front of me, bright and woven on the floor. “Osiris, Lord of the Underworld, what power do you have for me? What secret do you hold in your eyes?” I tried to put a mysterious edge on the words for fun, but ended up with the same results as I had with “The road off 212.” The eerie feelings that surrounded me seemed to double.
Stubbornly, I held my ground and looked him over. He wore a white robe, and his head and collar were bejeweled with gold. In his hands, he held two staffs, one resembling a cane and one a whip. He faced left, revealing a long beard and only one eye. I stared at him, not knowing what was supposed to happen. Was another dream going to pop out at me and reveal another riddle? After an hour of nothing, I laid down beside the eye, thinking that dreaming in the room might offer me the image I sought. I had just drifted off when…
“Don’t tell me the room’s grown on you.”
“Draven!” I popped awake, feeling strangely renewed.
He stood above me looking real and delicious in fresh clothing. I jumped up and tried to put my arms around him but he snatched my wrist out of the air and inspected the bandage on my hand.
I shied away, pulling it behind my body. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s the reason you wanted me to ignore you last night. That’s something,” he said, raising his eyebrows suspiciously. “What are you doing in here?”
“I…I was just wondering about Lissa.”
Abruptly, he turned and stormed out of the room. I followed him out and into the French room where he found the picture shattered.
“The light…it bothered me,” I explained.
He turned to me sharply. “What light?”
“It was lit up.”
Finally, he chuckled and the lines on his face soothed. “She went through an electronics phase. It took her only a month to figure everything out. It was on a timer, right?”
“Yes.”
“All right. What do you want to know?”
“Tell me about her…please.”
He smiled and looked up at the ceiling. “She was beautiful, almost as beautiful as you,” he said, pausing to wink at me. “She was different though. She liked to be alone a lot, and when she had an idea in her head, she obsessed over it for months at a time. I’ve never seen a woman so driven before, or a man…not even a vampire for that matter.”
“Do you miss her?”
His perplexed expression made it seem like he didn’t understand the question. “Not anymore. You’re here.”
I swallowed and ingested the consequences of the question before I repeated it. “I mean, do you wish it was her instead of me here with you?”
“Elizabeth,” he said softly, pulling my chin upward with his cool fingers. “I have always regretted it when you died, I will not deny that. But you forget that there is no her. You are merely a continuation of one soul, and I love you as much as I did in 1944.”
He wrapped me in a chilled embrace and kissed my lips. When a cool wind whistled in through a window, I found myself in my attic in South Dakota alone. It was better that he’d left me quickly because I was just about to demand my way with him.
I hurried downstairs to greet the blower of the horn that echoed through the house.
“Tommy!” I hugged him swiftly when he got out of his pickup, thinking it was the closest I would get to a homecoming. The air smelled fresh, the sky looked clear, and I wasn’t terrified of leaving the house. In fact, I wanted nothing more than to spend the entire day outside.
“I got your post card from New York,” he said. “Thanks, but I really wish you would have told me you were leaving so I could’ve said goodbye.”
“I’m sorry, Tommy. Things were kind of crazy then.”
“It’s all right.” He shuffled his feet through the gravel. “What happened to your hand?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m fine.”
“Well, I was hoping you were gonna be home today. I came to take you shootin’. I did promise you.”
“Oh! Shooting,” I gulped, remembering the shots that hit Draven. “It sounds so…dangerous.”
“It’s all right, Elizabeth. I’ll go with you.”
I turned to see Candy walking toward us. “Candy!” I welcomed the girl with a big homecoming hug. “I didn’t know you were…” I stopped myself and glanced at Tommy.
“Awake? Yes, I snuck into the guest bathroom about ten minutes ago. By the way, thanks so much for picking me up at the airport last night. It was real nice of you to invite me out for a visit.”
I smiled, grateful for her explanation. “No problem.”
“So we’re going shooting?” Candy asked, sizing Tommy up from head to toe.
“Y
es, ma’am. Have you ever shot before?” He smiled excitedly at her like she was a brand new BB gun.
She smirked before she spoke offhandedly, “A time or two. What are we shooting?”
“Just bottles. I got a month’s worth of my dad’s favorite pastime in the back.” He nodded toward the bed of his truck.
“What’s the rest for?” I asked, peeking inside at the supplies.
“You’ll see…if you’re not busy, that is.”
“No, Tommy, we’re not busy. I could use some time outdoors right now.”
“Is that all right with you, Miss Candy?”
“Sure,” she drawled dryly, clearly not impressed by the honor of having a Miss used before her name. She jumped into the truck first and formed a protective buffer between the driver and me.
Tommy seemed to take that as a sign that she was warming up to him. “Where are you from, Candy?”
“The city.”
“Which one?”
“I’m from Portland originally. That’s where I met Elizabeth. Now I live in Seattle,” she said confidently, again proving how competent she was at covering all the bases.
The gravel roads went on endlessly as Tommy skillfully navigated his way through God’s country. When he turned onto a minimum maintenance road that looked worse than my driveway, I had to ask, “How far are we going?”
“It’s just up ahead. My dad owns a little lot by the lake.”
“Like a cabin?” Candy brightened.
Tommy chuckled. “Not exactly.”
When the lake came into view, there was no cabin or shack, just an empty plot by the lake, inhibited by snakes, gophers, and probably a hundred other unsuspecting creatures. He stopped away from lake and unloaded the barrels of bottles, two folding chairs, a 4x4, and a tarp before he parked. He pulled off a cooler, some chunks of wood, and a blanket that he spread out on the beach.
“Ladies,” he offered, extending an arm toward the blanket. “Please make yourselves at home while I set up.”
I thanked him and lay across the blanket. When he walked far enough away, I turned to Candy. “Thank you for saving my life. I should have told you that right away. I’m sorry.”
Candy lay down beside me and nodded proudly.
“Tell me what happened that day in the bakery. I’m not even sure, it all happened so fast. And that guy, Johnny, said he missed your taste. How did you get away from him before?”
She leaned in close to me and lowered her voice. “When Johnny caught me three years ago, he almost killed me. At the last second, he stopped, and I don’t know why but he let me live. That’s against the vampire code, you know. It was a dangerous thing for him to do, and he knew there could be consequences.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean, consequences?”
“Like I said the other day, vampires can freely feed off those who have been bitten without consequences because we already know they exist. But I was a fresh mark that he created. If I would have tried to expose vampires, he and I both would have been killed.”
“What do you mean? By who?”
“The Elders,” she said with a solemn expression.
“Elders?” I repeated. “You mean there’s a group of old vampires that keep the secret? How do they know if someone’s going to tell?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they have a crystal ball or something. Anyway, I knew the police couldn’t help me, and I’m smart enough not to get myself locked up in a mental institution.” She shrugged. “But after that, vampires started hunting me every night, and I stayed in a church for weeks to keep myself safe. That’s when Mil…Draven stepped in. Apparently, he’d already been studying me, thinking I would make a great servant. He saved me. I’m safe in his home.”
“But what did you do in that bakery? Where did the smoke come from, and why did you shoot them? You must have known it wouldn’t hurt them for long.”
Candy exerted another proud smile. “Draven taught me that. The smoke is a concoction he invented himself over the years. It paralyzes them for five minutes. I keep several in my purse at all times. The bullets are laced with nicotine which affects their sense of smell. The process Draven designed himself, allows ten full minutes for us to get safely away.”
“He designed it?”
Candy giggled, putting a hand over her mouth. “He even made me practice on him.”
“Wow.” I felt totally astounded by all the precautions Draven had taken and everything he’d gone through to keep me safe. When he first said he’d put a plan in place, I had no idea how much planning was actually involved. The thought made me love him even more and only proved how important it would be for me to stay alive.
Candy reached across the blanket to grab a chunk of worn red glass off the beach. “I’m just glad Johnny had turquoise eyes,” she said offhandedly.
The oddity of the comment pulled my attention. “What do you mean?”
“If a vampire has turquoise eyes, it means they possess good and evil qualities.” She held up the red piece of glass. “If they’d been red, I’d be dead for sure.”
I shivered at the reminder of the hundreds of red eyes in Paris, but sat up and managed a smile when Tommy walked toward us.
“Are ya’all done with the girl talk now? Is it safe to come back?”
“All done,” Candy piped up.
He shot me a “did she say anything about me” look. “Good. Are you ready to learn how to shoot?”
“Sure,” Candy said.
Tommy had set up the folding chairs on either side of the 4x4 to hold it off the ground. On top of the board, he’d lined beer bottles across the top. “Okay, we got twenty to start with. I’ll grab the guns.”
Four shots rang out before he made it to the truck. He turned as Candy blew on the tip of her own pistol. She’d broken every fifth bottle.
“Nice!” he exclaimed. “Can you do that too, Elizabeth?”
I frowned.
“She’ll be able to by the time we’re done. Won’t she, Tommy?”
“Sure will, Candy,” he said to the co-conspirator.
Both stood there, holding out guns for me to take. I cringed, wondering if Draven would save me from this if I called him. “I…I think I should just watch for a bit,” I suggested, pulling my legs to my chest.
“You’re right,” Candy agreed. “You should know the basics about guns first.”
Candy spent a long time explaining the gun, the safety, and how to aim. When that didn’t work to ease my tension, she simply offered a serious reminder: “It could save your life one day, and we both know how important that is.”
I finally agreed, but the cold steel felt like a demon in my hands. After missing the first ten times, I relaxed a little, realizing that I wasn’t going to hurt anything anyway. Candy and Tommy both worked with me and showed me how to steady myself. By the time the last bottle shattered, I felt moderately comfortable with the gun and could hit surprisingly well even with a bandaged hand.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“No,” I admitted. “It was kind of fun once I got going.”
“See,” Candy said.
Tommy picked up the tarp with all the broken glass on it and dumped it into the garbage cans before he reloaded the items into the truck. When he finished, he hauled the bundles of wood closer to the water and carefully propped them against each other. They lit up beautifully after a few tries.
“What are we doing now?” I asked.
“Bonfire,” he said. He dragged the cooler over to the blanket and tried to get a seat in between us but Candy quickly moved to my side and offered him the next seat over. I thought I saw him blush before he reached into the ice and handed us each a soda.
As the sun went down on the other side of lake, it cast a yellow glow across everyone’s face. No one spoke. Tommy stared at Candy, Candy stared at me, and I watched the sun set.
“You are going to make the most beautiful bride, Elizabeth.”
“Bride? Hot damn, El
izabeth, you’re getting married?”
Candy gasped, her eyes wide as if panic-stricken. “He didn’t know?”
“It’s all right,” I assured her. “I just didn’t have a chance to tell him yet.”
“Congratulations! When’s the big day?” Tommy jumped up to shake my hand but Candy’s horrified expression didn’t fade.
Her head hung low when she walked off to sit alone on the tailgate of the truck.
“I’m not sure yet. Candy came down to help me with the details. She’s amazing, and she’s a wonderful friend. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her,” I said loud enough for her to hear. I kept spewing compliments until her face finally lightened, and she smiled.
After dark, Tommy loaded up the rest of the supplies and put the fire out. We rode in silence across the bumpy path, and as soon as we returned to the house, I ran to the porch swing, grateful to be out of the rough riding vehicle.
Tommy stopped Candy before she made it out of the truck. I had seen it coming. I knew he would ask the young, beautiful girl out, and I prayed she wouldn’t hurt his feelings too badly. To my surprise, they both smiled when they reached me. Candy sat down beside me, and Tommy said he had to run but thanked us both for the wonderful day.
“What was that all about?”
“He wanted a picture of me to show to his friends, and then he asked my permission to say we’re dating.”
I raised an eyebrow. “He didn’t ask you out?”
“No, apparently he doesn’t want a woman who can outshoot him. He said it would be too dangerous.” She laughed. “Besides, I would have told him no, anyway. You deserve a virgin’s blood, Milady.”
I looked away. That was a conversation I wasn’t ready to have.
Candy slipped into the house and returned with a soda and a first aid kit. “Here,” she said, handing me the cold drink. “I need to change your bandage.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong tonight,” I offered as she cared for my hand, “and I appreciate everything you do for me.”
Candy smiled but didn’t look up. “Thank you, Milady.”
“Eliza…beth?” Draven’s voice sounded strained.
I froze immediately. Draven! What’s wrong?
“I found him but we’re weak.” He tried to laugh but it came out as a wet cough. “We’ll be there soon.”