The Link (21 page)

“
Don’t be sorry,” he said, “Seeing the two of you together, and what happens when you’re apart, helps me to see more clearly what I want.”
I smiled and did my best to go back to work. But my ears were listening for the only sound I wanted to hear.

I heard that sound, his footsteps, a few minutes later and he silently swept into the room, kissed the top of my head, and returned to his place on the sofa. The look on his face was different now though. It was peaceful, relaxed…
and playful. I could tell he had a secret that he was bursting to tell me. I silently plotted how I would get it out of him later.

And I tried. Oh boy, did I try. I wasn’t
successful, but it didn’t matter because I sure had fun, and so did he.

Chapter Twelve

We took a midnight stroll through the courtyard on our final night there. The moon was full. The stars were out. The jungle around us was alive with sounds. “Do you think we’re ready for this?” I asked.

“
I don’t know,” he softly replied, “I hope so, but there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?”

“
I guess you’re right,” I replied, “I only hope that they will allow us the time we need to do it right.”

We had reached my favorite spot then. A waterfall cascaded off the mountain-side, over the wall and into a pool in the back corner of the courtyard. Two small marble benches sat on either side of the pool. We sat down on one, holding hands. I looked up just in time to see a shooting star streak across the sky. “A shooting star! Did you see that one?” I said to Matt, but when I turned to look at him, he wasn’t next to me. He was on the ground in front of me, on one knee. My heart jumped into my throat.

“
Sarah Marie Stafford Jensen,” he began, as he pulled something out of his pocket, “I’m already the happiest vampire in history. You have already saved me in more ways than I ever thought possible. For the first time since I was turned I feel alive, I feel hope, I feel happiness, I feel love. But I strongly feel the need for us to be tied together in every way possible. Will you help perfect my life even more by doing me the honor of becoming my wife?” Then he slid a beautiful, silver, antique diamond ring onto my finger.

I swallowed hard, tried to find my voice and managed to squeak out, “Oh God, yes. A thousand times, yes.” Then I threw my arms around his neck. His mouth found mine and I vaguely hoped we were alone in the courtyard, because nothing could have stopped us then.
I jumped and wrapped my legs around his waist. He fell to his knees and shrugged his arms out of his overcoat,
and
pull
ed
it over both of us as he pushed me back on the grass. I tried not to groan as his hands moved up under my shirt, but one escaped anyways.

“
Shhh, Sarah,” he grinned.

I raised my eyebrow at him and said, “Yeah, right, Matt. This is me we’re talking about. There is no quiet when it comes to me, you should know that by now.”

“
Try? Please?” he whispered.

I rolled my eyes, “Fine. I’ll try.
Just don’t even think about taking your mouth off of mine, okay?”

“
Mmmm, never,” he mumbled as his lips pressed down hard onto mine.

We lay in the grass later with his coat draped across both of us.
I was trying to catch my breath.

“
Wait!” I gasped.

“
What?” he replied.

“
Can we even get married? Is that even allowed?” I asked.

He grinned at me
.
“It is now,” he said.

“
That’s what you did the other day when you left?” I whispered
.
“You went to the Elders to ask for permission? Matthew Michael Pearl!”

“
What?” he said.

“
That could have been dangerous! What if they said no? What if it made them angry? They’ve already bent their rules by allowing us to live, and to
stay together. Was it really wise to push our luck that way?”

He looked down, obviously a little sad at my reaction. “It was important to me to try, Sarah,” he whispered.

My heart melted instantly. Of course it was. That’s who he is. “I’m glad you did,” I said as I rolled towards him.
I began kissing him hard and once again hoped that we were alone.

We finally managed to stop long enough to make it back to our room at around three a.m., but just barely. And sleep didn’t happen until much later.

When I finally woke at around ten a.m., I spent a few minutes just staring at Matt. He was still sleeping next to me, and I felt little overwhelmed at the love I felt for him. I worried just slightly that it might be too much for my heart to handle. But I relaxed a little when he opened his eyes and smiled at me. No, there is no such thing as too much with him, I thought.

He had a playful twinkle in his eyes though. “What?” I said. He turned to look at the end of the bed. My gaze followed his.
Hanging at the end of
the bed was the most beautiful wedding dress I had ever seen. I stared at it for a minute. It was empire-style. It was breathtaking. I studied the beautiful neckline, the hundreds of pearls delicately placed throughout the dress and down the sleeves. Suddenly something clicked in my mind. “Wait,” I sputtered looking at Matt. He was smiling as he watched me begin to figure things out. “No way. Today? Not today. Today? It can’t be today. Today? You didn’t. Not today. How can we? Today? Matt, there
’
s no way, is there? Today? Really?”

I stared at him as he laughed. “Finished?” he said.

“
Probably not,” I replied.

He laughed again and said, “Yes, then. Yes, today.”

“
But, why so soon?” I asked.

“
I wanted to do this before we left, before we start our new adventure.
And honestly, I couldn’t wait another minute. Today isn’t soon enough for me, Sarah,” he said as his finger brushed down my cheek. I nodded my head as I leaned over to kiss him
…
that
dress would have to wait a bit.

I stared at myself in the mirror as Penelope fastened the dozens of tiny of pearl buttons up my back. My pale skin balanced nicely with the ivory white dress, which fit perfectly, of course. I thought about putting my long hair in a bun or pulling it back, but then decided against it. Matt really liked it down, with it flowing down my back and framing my face. Penelope placed the orchid & lace head piece and veil on my head and then she stood back. I took one long, last look. “Ready?” she said

I turned to her and nodded
.
“Ready
,
” I said.
As I picked up my orchid bouquet, I kept waiting for the nerves to kick in, but I was so calm and relaxed. I knew without a doubt that this was exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I followed her out to the courtyard, my eyes searching, then quickly finding, Matthew. He was in our corner, near the waterfall, waiting for me. I smiled at Carlos standing by his side. Carlos grinned his huge grin and winked at me. I turned my focus back to Matt. As I approached the spot on the grass where we had been last night, I looked down at it, then looked back at Matt and
winked. His cheeks turned slightly bluish as he blushed, then he smiled. He reached out his hand to me as I neared him and I happily took it in mine.
Penelope took her spot next to me and I smiled at Andrew standing in front of me, who, it turns out, was also a licensed minister. I turned back to meet Matt’s eyes and they took my breath away. What did I do to deserve this amazing gift?
Someone who loved me more each time he looked at me. He frowned slightly at the panic that started to creep into my face. I forced it back and smiled at him. In my head I was saying
,
‘
Look at it this way, Sarah. Loving him is the ONLY thing you have to do now. That’s easy
.’
It was September 2
^nd
, which, ironically, just happened to be my birthday, and this was by far the best birthday present I could ever imagine.
I turned to him and faced my future without a speck of doubt and with an overwhelmingly happy heart.

We were going to have to wait to take our honeymoon (and wedding night, damn it!) later though. We had to get to work right away, beginning our lives as Recruiters. A few hours later
we were flying with Stefan on his private jet to his apartment in New York City.
“
What better place to learn to blend in than the most crowded city in the world?
”
he had told us.

I snuggled closely into Matt on the plane and felt complete as he leaned down and whispered “I love you Mrs. Pearl
,
” and kissed my forehead.
‘
Y
es
,
’
I thought
,
‘
this is EXACTLY where I am supposed to be
.
’

The End

Sneak Peak
of:

The Recruiters

The Pearl Vampire Chronicles

Volume Two

Prologue

It was dark, well after midnight, and I was clinging tightly to Matt’s hand as we ran.
And running we were
, a
s fast as we could.
The wind whipped through my hair and my bare feet pounded on the pavement. The few people who were out this late never saw us. We were only a blur and a gust of wind as we sped past them. Through dark alleys, jumping over walls and fences, we ran.
We turned quickly and headed into the park. Ducking into the greenbelt that was at the back side
of the park
. We ran around the trees, changing our direction every thirty feet or so. Matt pulled me closer and wrapped his arm around my waist. He picked me up and then flew just a few feet off the ground so we wouldn’t disturb any more pine needles or dirt. We emerged out the other side and found ourselves in the dirty, abandoned slums that
seemed to be part of every large city these days. Up the city streets, through abandoned buildings, over rooftops, wherever we could go, we ran and flew without stopping.
I never looked back but I knew they were close; I could feel them. And they were gaining on us. I glanced at Matt and saw the panicked look on his face. Why couldn’t we be somewhere familiar? We’d never been here. Everything seemed sinister, luring us into dead ends.
Flying higher wasn’t an
option;
they were much faster than we were in the air. “In here,” Matt whispered and we ducked into an empty warehouse. We raced from one end of the building to a set of stairs at the other end. Taking them three at a time, we shoved through the locked door to the roof without breaking our stride. We ran the length of the building and jumped down to the street at the far end. We ran to the end of the row of abandoned warehouses and turned up the next street.
‘
This can’t be happening, somebody
please tell me this isn’t real,’ my mind screamed. We rounded another corner.

“
Quick,” Matt said, “in here.”
We turned and quickly ducked into an abandoned apartment building. Flying up four flights of stairs, we ran to the apartment at the end of the hall. Through the apartment and out the open window to the fire escape. We jumped into the dark alley below, and stopped.
Four of them were waiting for us at the end. We turned to run out and saw four more behind us, closing in. We looked up, hoping against hope that we could jump, or fly. But there were two hovering above us.
There was nowhere else to run, nowhere else to go. We were completely surrounded and we were out of options. As The Enforcers closed in, we clung as tightly to each other as we could. “Don’t let go,” I whispered. “Please, don’t let go.”

“
Never,” he said through clenched teeth.
I squeezed my eyes shut as they got closer and
closer, knowing what was coming, knowing that this was the end. I felt their breath on my back, felt their ancient fingers close around my arms, felt them yanking and pulling until they finally broke us apart. Felt the panic rising as they pinned our arms behind our backs.
I f
elt my heart break as I heard the cracks when they broke our fingers so we couldn’t touch our scars.