Elizabeth and the Vampire's Cabin (20 page)

"Will
do."

Mr.
Lion cut the communication and Agent Blord let out a long sigh of relief. What
a day! So many casualties. It beleaguered his mind and body just thinking about
it.
 
And now they were going to have to
rehabilitate a deranged vampire and welcome a half vampire onto their crew.
They would be the only ones of their kind onboard. Blord had no sympathy for
Gar (only the health care professionals who would have to work with him). But
he did feel bad for Agent Arthur. He knew his story: kid turned in half vampire
against his will, became a secret agent while his friend was repeatedly raped
by their vampire captor, and fell (or was more likely attacked and thrown) off
a cliff. He would need just as much, if not more, help adjusting as Agent Gar
would. He let out another sigh, only this one was heavier than the first. I'm
so tired, he thought to himself. He put on sleep clothes, turned out the
lights, and sank into his tiny bed. The weight of his past and future problems
sunk his entirety into a deep, dark sleep.
   

A Letter Addressed to Elizabeth

A
week after Elizabeth escaped the force field with Aaron, she awoke in her bed
in Texas. It was morning and she felt awful. Her body was used to staying up
all night and sleeping most of the day. She thought of Aaron. He was still fast
asleep in his cave, and her day was just beginning.

She
had gone off shore within a day of things going back to normal. She traveled to
California with the remaining vampires on Kyla's boat. Her status as a captive
woman was officially over. But, they weren't accompanying her just to see her
off. They needed to get supplies themselves now after Marnie, Lyle, and Arthur
had disappeared. Aaron had given her her cell phone back, and after a bit of
charging it wasn't difficult to get reception in Canada. On the island, it
would have been impossible. She called Austin and told him that her trip had
gone well. She would be traveling to Texas to help prepare for his wedding.
Austin was relieved to hear her voice. He had almost sent out a search party
for her after Mark Taylor didn't return any of his phone calls asking if she
was on schedule to be coming home soon. For once, she didn't feel any
resentment towards him, and he sounded genuinely happy to hear that she was
safe and sound. He informed her that his fiancé couldn't wait to meet her and
they had a guest bedroom at her ranch all ready for her. Elizabeth had kissed
Aaron goodbye, promised to come back to the island right after the wedding, and
got on a plane to Texas.

So
far, things were fine. But she still felt off. Austin and his fiancé asked her
question after question about what she did on her trip, but she was always
vague. Instead she talked mostly about the weather patterns, different plants,
and some of the animals she had seen. Sensing she didn't want to talk about
what she was doing on the island, they eventually stopped asking. Perhaps they
also sensed her mood. She was feeling very depressed these days.

She
missed Arthur. She missed him more than when he had first been abducted,
because he was so frail this second time around. He looked to be on the brink
of death. She realized that was why she missed him so much this time. She
missed him like she would miss a dead person. It was grief because she believed
he was probably no longer alive. Granted, there was no way to know this based
on the little she was told by Joe. According to Joe he had heard a disturbance
coming from the room Arthur was in. When he ran in, Marnie and Lyle were
holding a very still Arthur outside the window. And then all three were beamed
up. Joe had no clue how any of that came to be, or if Arthur was still alive at
the time that they were beamed up. Elizabeth found herself wishing she could
find a way to make sure Arthur was okay wherever he was. Sometimes she thought
she didn't even need to know that. Finding out if he was dead or alive was
enough. Whether or not he was okay could come next.

She
did have a couple of happy surprises to keep her mind off of her grief. She
thought she would despise Austin's fiancé (because she was marrying Austin).
But Elizabeth quickly warmed to Mary Anne as a sister. Austin was intolerable,
but Mary Anne knew how to manipulate him into being almost charming. The change
in him shocked Elizabeth. He was friendly, open, and Mary Anne's family seemed
to love him. They welcomed him with hugs and doting compliments. At first,
Elizabeth wanted to scream at them, "He is intolerable!" But somehow,
she got the feeling that they already knew this about him. For whatever reason,
Mary Anne had chosen Austin for herself and the family was willing to help her
get and keep him. Elizabeth started to admire Mary Anne and her family for
their smarts. Elizabeth grew up with Austin and she could never get him to
behave like a likable human being. Obviously, they knew something about how to
work with him that she didn't. And, after working so hard to keep her own
intolerable man, she felt she was better able to relate to Mary Anne. You never
know who you're going to fall in love with. The other surprise that sustained
her was all the animals on the ranch. Mary Anne's family owned two golden
retrievers. They warmed to Elizabeth immediately and followed her around
whenever they saw her. The family claimed they had never seen the dogs warm to
a stranger in the way they had instantly warmed to Elizabeth. They licked at
her hands and walked in circles around her like they wanted to cuddle up next
to her. She wondered if it was because she was now part Golden Retriever. And
then there were all the horses. Elizabeth loved watching the horses and petting
them. They had quite a number and of many varieties on the ranch. The ranch was
actually designed to function as a sort of hotel for horses. People paid to
store their horses on the property, ride them along the trails, and even get
horseback riding lessons. After coming from an island with a lot of wild
animals, Elizabeth was not too keen on watching horses tucked away in barn
stalls (she did take pity and patted a few), but it was the open pasture that
she loved the most. It looked to be a few acres of land where the horses could
graze, sunbathe, drink some water, or rest under a large shelter designed to
provide them with shade. She could hardly resist morphing into a dog and
bonding with them in the pasture. She reminded herself that it would probably
spook them to have a strange dog around. When she got back to the island, she
promised herself that she would buy some horses to live there with them. And
maybe even a couple of golden retrievers to play with her English foxhounds.

Despite
her attempts to find happiness in Mary Anne, her family, and the animals, she
still felt sadness descending on her. Sometimes, she even woke up sad. And that
was how she had woken up this morning. Little did she know, another source of
happiness would soon make its way to her. Just as she was thinking she would
never know Arthur's fate, there was a knock at her door.
 
It was her brother. He told her a package had
arrived for her. There was no return address. It just had the name
"Arthur" where the return address should have been. Elizabeth's face
immediately brightened. She ran to the door, grabbed the package, and thanked
her brother.
 
She set the package on her
bed and tore it open. There was a letter, some forms, and a small metal
container. She opened the letter and read:

Dear
Elizabeth,

My
whole life I felt like something was missing. I think that was why I have
always felt such an affinity with you. Growing up, we were both different, Like
you, I felt like no one loved me. I know you were always very upfront about the
fact that you did not feel loved by your brother. But my secret was that I
never felt loved by my parents. As a guy, it's not something I ever felt comfortable
disclosing to anyone. Years ago, after you turned me down at that middle school
dance, I made a decision. I decided that I would learn to live without anyone
giving me love. I would love my parents even when they didn't love me. I would
love you, even if you couldn't return that love. And that worked out fine for a
while. I didn't do any serious dating in high school, and I didn't have to
think about you at all because you were being home schooled and traveling
around the world. But then I saw you again at your going away party. And my
love for you grew to a point that it was unbearable.

I'm
not just in love with you because you're a beautiful woman. I'm in love with
you because you're on fire. I have always imagined you as someone that I could
believe in and hope to live with for the rest of my life. While I get that's
not typical teenage boy thinking, it's a feeling that has kept resurfacing in
me whenever I see you. When Aaron abducted us, I knew that I had to stay with
you. Being there for you would be the best, most responsible thing that I could
do with my life. So I promised myself that I would be obedient to Aaron in
order to watch out for you.

Not
long after I arrived, Marnie and Lyle came to do maintenance work. They shocked
me by speaking perfect English. Then they broke out a miniature walkie talkie
type of thing with a screen on it. That was my first meeting with Mr. Lion. He
told me that Marnie and Kyle were undercover agents for a team of aliens
conducting a scientific study on prehistoric man in the modern world. Cameras
had been set up on the island to watch our activities. He asked me to record my
experiences on paper and report them to him whenever Marnie and Lyle came to do
maintenance. I admit that sometimes I show poor judgment, but I knew enough to be
skeptical of this. But then Marnie whipped out a wand and put herself into an individualized
force field. I tried to touch her, but it was like coming into contact with an
invisible wall. I wondered, in the back of my head, if I had been sucked into
some kind of government conspiracy. It seemed too unbelievable. Vampires and
aliens on the same island? Still, I complied with them. Marnie handed me a
little stylus, and I gave them an electronic signature on the walkie talkie
screen. All of this was in exchange for one thing: They would free me from
Aaron within six months and would cure me of the half vampire disease. They
would also provide me with a monetary reward if I served them well. They
stipulated six months because that was how long Aaron had rented the island
for. I tried to include you in this deal, but they told me no. My idea was that
once I was free I would come back for you and free you from Aaron if he was
still holding you captive.

I
didn't count on you becoming half vampire. I didn't even know you could
contract the disease through sexual intercourse. I watched you quickly become
even feistier and more alive than I had ever seen you. When you asked me to
help you escape, I couldn't turn you down. But then Aaron caught up with us and
the aliens were watching. They had promised to do their best to keep me safe
from Aaron, and sensing I might be in danger for trying to escape with you,
they abducted me.
 
This was probably much
to your surprise, and I'm sorry if this alarmed you. But I was fine. They
examined me, made sure I was okay, and then asked if I would like to have the
half vampire disease cured. I told them no. They then gave me a suitcase with a
hundred thousand dollars in it (recompense for my service to them, and far more
than I expected) and dropped me off in a cow field in Bakersfield. I have no
clue why they chose central California when we come from southern California,
but I caught a train back to Temecula. Then I used their money to find you. I
hired a private detective with no morals to track down Mark Taylor. He had to
hire a few "strong men" to help him out, but he finally found him in
Mexico, kidnapped him, and brought him to a cheap motel. The strong men, using
tactics that I was too squeamish to find out about, discovered the location of
your island. We then hired a captain (another person with dubious morals), got
on a boat, and set sail for your island. When we finally arrived, I told Mark I
was going to take him with me to see what had become of you. I wanted you to be
able to face him and tell him that you were raped repeatedly because of his
selfishness. I was not afraid to bring Mark, because I felt indestructible next
to him. I was arrogant. I didn't believe a regular guy could get the drop on a
half vampire. I thought my instructions to the crew, all said in front of Mark,
to abandon Mark and sail away if you or I didn't return with him would keep him
from attacking me. But I was wrong. I led Mark up the stone steps on the side of
the cliff. When we were near the top, he fell against me, and I tumbled down
the stairs.
 
I felt bruised but okay.
However, I then fell off the cliff. I have no clue why he did it. Maybe he
thought I would kill him no matter what. I plummeted into the water and struck
something hard. I think it was large rock. Or maybe it was several.
 
I lost consciousness. At some point I washed
up on the shore. I have a small memory of extreme pain, Joe grabbing me out of
the water, and me barely being able to breathe. I was not awake when Marnie and
Lyle pulled me out of the cabin window to be abducted. I believe they saved my
life and I am grateful to them. I am breathing fine and healing well with the
help of the medical care I receive on this space ship.