Final Days (24 page)

Taking a seat near Eillia, Tamesine reached for a column of donuts.  A favorite sweet treat from America, they dripped with icing.  
Looking around, the only people at this meeting were Park, Bas, and little Cairine, then Eillia and her family, and herself. 

She waved to
Cairine whose small teeth were exposed in a wide grin, and looked up at Koen’s gorgeous daughter, who commanded the center of the room.

“My father is still not coming home.  The
y have found nothing yet on Alisa’s whereabouts, and I am becoming more and more concerned about his health.  He’s obsessed.  I have no idea if she is still alive, but there might be one last way to try to find her.  Eillia and I have discussed it at length and we both agree…this idea has merit.”

Park came toward
s Tamesine.

“Sweetie, this involves you.  We all need to agree to this, you most of all.  There is something we haven’t mentioned this past year because we thought it might do more harm than good, but I don’t see we have a choice anymore.”

Park paused and pulled a chair up next to Tamesine.  Eillia pulled hers closer.

“Tam,” Park said
, serious.  “Sweetie, you know how Eillia and I have gone on a spiritual journey with you and joined you in your mind?  You know we did that to help you, right?”

Tamesine looked back and forth between these two women who had
brought her back from darkness.

“I do.”

“Good.  Well, we have some news.  There is a possibility you are one of a set of twins.”

Tamesine didn’t react.  She just continued to
watch Park.  Park continued.

“So, we have never been able to access your memories, your past.  No one knows where you came from.  But we met a woman who is your splitting image in
South Africa last year.   Her name is Windari.  Tam, does that sound familiar?”

Tamesine thought about it. 
Rolled the name back and forth on her mind.

“No, it does not,” she said.

Park nodded.  “Well, all right.  Anyway, we think she may be your twin sister.”

“I have a sister.”  Tamesine said it as a statement, not a question.

“You might.  Actually, I really think you do.  The thing is, we don’t know where she is.  And I think that, if you
are
her sister, then there may be a blood connection we can trace.  Tam, we really need to find this woman.”

“Okay.  I will do whatever you want me to do.”

“That’s good.  Thank you.  But we’re going to have to go back into your mind.  And if we’re searching for her, and we find her, some memories that you have blocked may come back.  Tamesine, I’m concerned that it could be more than you can handle.”

Tamesine looked around the room at the faces of her new family.  She felt stronger and clearer than she could ever remember in all the years she had been alive.

“Park, if you need me to do this, I can do it.  If it will help Koen, I
must
do it.   You are all here for me if it goes wrong, is that true?”

Eillia scooted up and put her arms around Tamesine.  “You know we are. 
Always.”

“Then, that is what we will do.  When would you like to start?”

With a noticeable sigh, Park relaxed.  “I want to apprise Koen of what we’re doing.  He’ll need to get his teams ready in case we really do find her.  I’ve been considering this for the past few weeks and I’ve been reluctant to approach you about it, but I think it is our only option now to try to locate Windari.”

“
Then we shall do it.”  Tamesine lowered her head.  She could do this, of course.  But… 
She had a sister?

How could she have forgotten such an important thing?   She had been ill for a lot of centuries, so if she had
family, wouldn’t they have been looking for her?  Wouldn’t a twin sister have been searching for her other half?

Somewhere in the back of her mind, something told her she did not want to open this memory back up.  But she had to.  If this could help Koen, she would do it without hesitation.  She was stronger now, she could do this. 
Couldn’t she?

Koen had just gotten back inside the apartment and pulled the UV barrier in preparation for sleep when his cell chimed.   It was his daughter.

“Hi, baby,” he said, glad to hear her voice before he laid down to the daunting task of trying to sleep.

“Father.  I think I may have a plan to find Windari.”

Tamesine’s body went lax as Eillia and Park reached deep into her mind, past mental barriers too strong to breach, just like before, until suddenly they felt Tamesine’s mind shudder and it was like a bubble popped.  They blew into her memories, and journeyed back through her life to a point where they found exactly what they needed to find.  Windari
was
her sister, a perfect twin.  And her murderer.

Eillia almost lost it as she and Park watched
events that shaped this first blood who had been betrayed by the one person in the universe she should have been able to trust. 

Between them, Eillia and Park tried to repair the shock and pain that Tamesine felt as she died so that
who she was today would have a chance at surviving it when they re-emerged from the spiritual plane.   They still needed to make the connection so that they could use Tamesine’s blood to trace her sister.

Weaving magic into their trio of minds, Eillia and Park were shocked to feel
Tamesine’s power blow in and take over.  She surged their power out into the sky and traveled with light-speed around the world to stop in the United States and circle a space, over and over, dizzying, even in their spiritual plane existence, and then shot like lightning back to their bodies and crashed into them, not soft, like they usually did, but fast and hard. 

The three bodies that held hands in a circle flew backward.  Eillia was grabbed by Daniel, Park by Bas, and Tamesine hit the sofa behind them.

Alarmed, because they hadn’t seen this end so violently before, Daniel and Bas held their women carefully and spoke to them to rouse them as quickly as possible.

“Sweetheart.
  Eillia.  Baby, are you okay?” Daniel said, while gently tapping her cheeks.

He looked over to see Bas doing the same thing as Tamesine sat up and crawled over to them.

“They’re okay.  It might take a moment.” She said quietly, tears in her eyes.

“What happened?”  Bas asked, caressing Park’s hair.

“Something.  Awful.  But we know where my twin is.  She’s in the American state of California.  Los Angeles.  Tell Koen he will find her in a house by the ocean.  This one.” 

Tamesine scratched some numbers
and an address on a piece of notepaper and handed it, scrunched up, to Bas.  Then she got up shakily and started out of the room.

Daniel
lay Eillia on the carpet and hurried over to stop Tamesine.

“No.  Stay here.  The women will want to make sure you’re all right.”

“I’m always all right.  I’ve survived a thousand years, Daniel.  I’ll survive a thousand more.  I just…”  She closed her eyes as she spoke.  “I just need to go to my room now.”

She pushed his hand away gently and walked out of the room, head high, back straight,
more regally than he’d ever seen her before.

Daniel looked at Bas, who shook his head too.  Then he hurried back to hold Eillia as she was coming
around.  Bas held Park, but touched a button on his cell phone.  He held it to his ear.

“Koen.
  God.  It worked.  Windari is in L.A.  I’m texting the address.  Good luck.”

He dropped the phone as Park opened her eyes.

“Tamesine,” she whispered.

“She seems okay.  She went to her room.  How are you, baby?”

“I’ll be okay.  We did it.  We found the twin.”

“I know.  Koen is on his way.”

Park sat up as Eillia did and they looked at each other.

“Oh, God,” Eillia said.

“I know,” Park responded.

Daniel and Bas were staring at them.

“What happened?”  Daniel asked.

Eillia pushed to get up and Daniel picked her up to carry her over to the couch.  He set her down gently.

“Windari is her sister.  And she murdered Tamesine about eight hundred years ago.  Like she did to Starla.  We felt her lifeforce leave her body.  Daniel, she was dead for always.  And yet she is alive.”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know.  Park?”

Park was quiet.  Her eyes were downcast, but searching back and forth.  “I think I may have an idea.  Because of what happened to Starla.  She was dead for always, too.  I think…”  She paused again,
then looked at Bas.  He massaged her back while she leaned into him.

“I think it has something to do with pregnancy.  Starla was carrying a first blood baby.  That may have protected her.  Windari cut her throat and broke her neck, effectively severing the head.  It should be fatal.  But what if the combination of a first blood pregnancy has a magic that protects the mother from harm?”

“But how does that explain Tamesine?”  Daniel asked.

Eillia, Park, and Bas looked at him.

Daniel nodded slowly.  “Oh,” he said.

Koen could barely breathe.  They had her. He was on his way to Windari.  He hadn’t expected Park’s session with Tamesine to work, but it had, so he and his team were in his private plane right now.  As the small jet taxied down the runway, he felt the moment the wheels left the ground.   His heart pounded so hard he actually laid his hand against it to try to calm it.  But it wasn’t working. 

Until he held Alisa, and knew she was all right, and took her home to become vampire, nothing was all right.  But at least he finally had a chance to find her and finish this horrible nightmare.  Finally, he might be able to
hold her again, to make love to her.  He needed to see those beautiful blue eyes.

Eillia found Tamesine in her room, curled up on her bed, two layers of blankets she didn’t need cocooned around her.

“How are you, sweetie?” she asked the swaddled woman.

Tamesine’s head moved a little, but she didn’t respond.

“Tam, you have to speak with me.  Remember how we helped you through everything before?  You can’t go back inside your mind and keep yourself hidden anymore.”

A few moments later, Tamesine rolled over and peeked out of her blanket cave.

“I’m okay.  I just…I could never have imagined how horrible my life was.  I have a sister, Lia.  And she murdered me.  I got a sense of my emotions before she
hurt me.  I loved her.  A lot.  She was my family…and she killed me.  I was gone, you saw that.  How am I still alive?”

“Park has a theory.  But let’s not worry about that
at this time.  I just want to make sure you know you have all the support you need now.  I feel responsible for how you found out.  Although, I guess we know now why you’ve been so, uh, sick, for such a long time.”

“You mean fucking nuts.”

Eillia smiled.  “Well, yeah.   But you are a member of my family now, Tam.  We accept you completely and you know you are loved.  Don’t you?”

Tamesine pushed herself out of the blankets and sat up.  “I sometimes do.  But finding out I had a sister who hated me enough to murder me is unnerving.”

“I don’t know how it couldn’t be.”

Pausing, Tamesine
tried to control unruly curls that insisted on covering her face.  “How did I survive?”

Eillia hesitated
, Tamesine pushed.

“No more hidden memories.  You told me a long time ago that I needed to face my actions in my life.  This falls under the same category.  I won’t be truly well until I know who I was.”

Moving closer, Eillia pushed Tamesine’s hair back away from her eyes.  “I’m proud of you.  Look how far you’ve come.  Look at you sitting here, acting more like a mature adult than I am.  For the first time, I can see you are going to be completely fine.”  She took a deep breath.

“Okay.  You’re right.  Park believes that Starla survived
Windari’s murder attempt last year because she carried a first blood baby.”

Tamesine listened quietly.  “But that wouldn’t explain
my
survival.”

“Unless…”  Eillia watched
Tamesine’s eyes widen.

Sitting stone-still, Tamesine understood
Eillia’s implication.

“But…I would have known.”

“Not necessarily.”

“That’s quite shocking news
, isn’t it?  I have a lot to deal with then, don’t I?”