The Link (14 page)

I woke in Matt’s arms a short time later and shot up in bed, my eyes darting around the room in a panic. I relaxed slightly when I realized we weren’t in HER house anymore. “Where are we?” I whispered.

“
We’re still on the plantation,” he said, then added quickly when he saw my panic rise again, “in
one of the outer buildings on the far side of the property. We’re about a mile away from the main house.”

I relaxed a bit then, but not much. It was still too close for me. I was pretty freaked out for the next few hours, panicking again when I saw the small bottle that had been around my neck, on the nightstand. Then again when there was a horrible screeching sound at the window (just a tree branch blowing in the wind), and again when an owl hooted. I finally fell into a fitful sleep filled with nightmares and pain (I bruised my arms and knee by tossing violent over onto Matt several times). When I woke again, the sun was out and the room was warm. I could see our packed bags were by the door. But I noticed that Matt was sitting at the table with a confused look on his face. “Where to now?” I asked, (thinking, please let it be somewhere far away from here).

“
I…
I’m not sure,” he replied.

“
You’re not sure?” I said, “What does that mean?”

He turned to me and I saw the fear in his eyes as
he answered, “I don’t know of any more places to go, Sarah. Or anyone else to see who might have the answers
,
”
he said.

I thought about that for a minute then said, “So, does this mean we’re giving up and going home or does this mean that we have all of the pieces?” My heart raced at that thought. The anguish was obvious when he replied, “I don’t know, Sarah
…
I’m not sure if we have all of the pieces. I JUST DON’T KNOW,” he cried and put his head down.

I walked over to him, kissed his ear and said, “Relax, honey. It’ll be okay. Where can we go that’s safe
…
and far away from this place
…
where we can look at what we have and try to figure this out, sweetheart?”

He looked up at me then and I saw some of the anguish leaving his face, “Let me make a few calls,” he said as he pulled out his cell phone.

Chapter Seven

We stood at the foot of the bed and stared at the cards on the bed. The clues, all of them, we hoped. There were five of them written on pieces of paper and spread out on the bed. “Wait,” I said turning to Matthew. “What about the clue from Paris? You never did tell me about that one.”

Matthew shook his head, “There wasn’t one
.
Paris was a trap.”

I whipped my head around and opened my mouth to say something, but stopped when he held up his hand. “I didn’t tell you before because I didn’t want to worry you. As I was led deeper into the tunnels, I grew tense because every vampire I passed had a closed mind. None of them were letting me in. I knew something was off immediately. I was finally able to work my way into the mind of one of the younger vampires and discovered that this nest was an alliance to the Elders. They were constantly searching for disloyal or unlawful vampires so they
could turn them in and earn preference from the Elders. I ran then, spending all night and the next day in the tunnels and back on the streets making sure I had lost them, because I couldn’t lead them back to you.”

I stared at him for a minute, my eyebrow raised, not sure if I should be angry with him for not telling me. I finally decided getting angry just wasn
’
t worth it right now. We had much more important things that we needed to concentrate on. I turned my attention back to the clues. They needed all our attention. We stared longer, hoping we had them in the right order (it was the only way that made sense to both of us), I read them again: First clue: Draw
five 5-
pointed stars - one on the wall above our heads, one on the ceiling above us, one at our feet and one each on both sides of the bed. Second clue: Place five incense burners, with the incense from Nigeria, one in each of the stars on the floor, one on a shelf above where our heads would be, the one last hanging from the center of the star on the ceiling. Third clue: Sprinkle the red powder from the Mexican priest onto our scars - this was supposed to cause them to open.
When they did we were to sprinkle more powder inside the wounds, join hands and never let go, not until the transference was done.
Fourth clue: Drink the liquid (prepared by the voodoo priestess, five ounces for each of us made from five ingredients). Fifth clue: Transference - this was the tough one. The formula from the Voodoo priestess allowed him to bite me, so draining me wasn’t a problem (unless he took all of my blood, which would make my heart stop, not good). We had a huge syringe that would then be inserted into Matthew’s artery.
He’d take my blood, then use the syringe to drain himself, and quickly, as in faster than the blink of an eye, inject the blood back into the vein in my neck, according to the Nigerian, so it could flow through my heart quickly. Since our hands had to be joined we were thinking that Carlos would be faster than any blood pumping machine we could get our hands on, and of course he was eager to help. We continued to stare but then he shook his head. “No,” he said, “We must be missing something, this is too easy. Someone would have figured this out a long time ago. This isn’t right.”

“
Shhhh,” I said, “I know, just let me think
a
second.” I stared, glad that I had been a lifelong follower of brainteasers. I knew puzzles like this, and he was right. There was something else, I could feel it. He started to say something and I put up my hand and shook my head. It was there, building in my brain. Suddenly I found it. I gasped.

“
What? What is it?” he said.

“
It’s five,” I said.

“
Well, umm, yeah it’s five, I can see that,” he said.

“
No,” I said, “Five is the key. Look,” I said as I gestured to the clues
.
“Everything points to five. Five clues. Five
5
-
pointed stars, five incense burners, five ounces of the formula made from five ingredients. The Egyptian symbols we saw - the hand with the eye in the middle, it wasn’t the eye that was important, it was the five fingers. The bird with five feathers on his tail that the Peruvian women painted on my arm
…
it all points to five, it
has
to mean that the transference needs to be done five times.” I turned to face him then. “Um, I think I see now why the Elders designed a machine to do this. It means you’ll have to drain me five times,
with Carlos quickly draining you and transferring the blood that has cycled through you back to me. And remember that picture on the back of Sekhmet’s throne, the one of the vampire figure with blood flowing into cups out of different places: its arms, neck, legs? I’m thinking it must mean that you have to be drained each time from a different artery. These have to be all of the clues, because there are five of them.”

His eyes went wide
.
“Five times
?
In a row? But, how?” he whispered as he turned and sank onto the bed. “How am I supposed to do that five times, when each time I drain you I’ll be worried that I’ve taken too much, taken it all? And what if there’s a certain order for draining me? Maybe that
’
s key too. Maybe if we did it in the wrong order it wouldn
’
t work,” he dropped his head in his hands. “This is hopeless! I can’t do it, Sarah.”

“
No, it’s not,” I said
.
“It’s not at all hopeless.
I know you can do this, I know I can do this, and I know what the order is,” I smiled.

“
You do?? But how?” he said.

I went to my bag and found the picture I was
looking for
“Look at the cups,” I said. “The cup at its neck is almost completely full, the one at its right arm is ¾ full then the right leg is half full, the left leg is ¼ full and the left arm cup is almost empty so it must be last. It goes in a circle.”

“
But how can we do this?” he groaned.

I took his face in my hands.
“Look,” I began, “I
know
that you can do this. The Voodoo priestess told me, well she didn’t actually tell me since she never actually spoke, but she sort of
communicated
to me that the formula she gave me increases my heart rate to keep the blood flowing much faster, and that it’s essential that I stay conscious. She said there will be great pain but I had to stay away from the black. And she told me that our scars help keep the virus alive. Doing it this way is still slower than the machine that the Elders have. That’s why you didn’t have a scar before, it’s not necessary when you do it their way. And the formula you drink slows down the speed that you drain me so you can stop in time. You can try to practice stopping when you’re drinking blood until you’re hopefully able to leave a little in each pint you drink,” I said and smiled, and he
tried to smile too. “We can do this, YOU can do this, Matt. I
know
you can,” and I kissed him, urgently, passionately, pressing myself into him as my hands slid up his back under his shirt. Truthfully, I was scared shitless and still fighting doubts and fear, but I pushed that aside. He needed this right now. I could worry about me later.
I felt some of the stress of the moment leave him as his body began to respond to me…
and I happily spent the next few hours trying to convince him I was right.

We continued like this for the next two weeks, safely tucked away in Aaron’s vacation home on a deserted island near the Bahamas. Plenty of trees provided the shade we both needed (I’m not much of a sun person, never have been, which will come in handy later). We took long walks on the beach, hiked around the island.
During these walks I would talk to him and ask questions to try to alleviate my fears. “The Elders haven’t been around forever, have they?” I said during an evening stroll on the beach.

“
No. They’ve been around for about 800 years. But when they came into power, they destroyed or hid
most of our written history,” he said.

“
So there were methods for creating vampires a long time ago, right?” I said.

“
There must have been, but there aren’t too many vampires around who are older than the Elders, at least very few who are willing to talk. Why, Sarah? You’re still having doubts, aren’t you?” he said.

I opened my mouth to say no, but stopped. This was a huge decision, not just because of the risk but also because of what I would become if it worked. I owed it to myself and him to be completely honest. I nodded.
“Matt, if I wasn’t having doubts about changing who I am, then I wouldn’t be the person that you fell in love with, would I?” I said.

He stopped and wrapped his arms around me. “I really wish that I could tell you with absolute certainty that you would be exactly the same person you are now. But, if we’re being completely honest here, then you and I both know that I can’t,” he said.

“
I know Matt. But you and Carlos are both great people. I adore both of you.
And Bahiti and Omoruyi are so sweet. So maybe I won’t be different or bad.
And the thing that seems to be
foremost in my mind is the idea of not just spending the rest of my life with you, but of spending forever with you. That thought right there makes my fears go away,” I said.

“
So, what are you saying, Sarah?
Are you saying that you’ve decided?” he said as he looked into my eyes.

“
It’s not really that I’m deciding to do it, but more that I’ve realized how can I not?” I said. “I love you so much, Sarah,” he said and the ocean breeze embraced us both as his mouth came down on mine.

Our nightly routine grew to include me warming up five pints of blood for him before I ate. He was getting better, first leaving a tiny drop or two in a bag, then some in more than one bag, then a little more in each bag.

Finally, it was our last night there. We had decided to leave for the safe house the next day.
We were going to do this in a few days or not at all.
The Enforcers were getting too
close;
they were last seen in Haiti. This was his last attempt to leave a small amount in each bag. I placed each of them in front of
him. He looked into my eyes, took a deep breath, picked up the first bag, inhaled deeply…
and then he was done. He exhaled and looked at me. He was afraid to look down. I took his hand and we looked together. First bag, about an inch left in the bottom, good. Second bag
one and a half inches
left, better, third about
half an inch,
not great but it would still do,
fourth,
an inch again. My heart was pounding in my chest as I looked at the fifth…
and it was empty, gone, completely drained. His head dropped to the table with a thud. I moved around and wrapped my arms around him, comforting him. After a minute he suddenly shoved the chair back and stood up. “That’s it, I’m done, I’m taking you home,” he said as he began rapidly packing.