Her Loving Husband's Curse (33 page)

“Ashwin grabbed my arm. ‘There is one thing you can do,’ he said.

James’s eyes darted from side to side as though he were seeing it all over again. “Then it dawned on me. A father desperate to save his son would be open to any solution to keep him, even a supernatural one.

“‘Absolutely not,’ I said. ‘I wish this life on no one.’

“Ashwin shook me, pressing my arms to move like he was the puppeteer and I was his marionette. ‘Save him!’ he cried.

“‘You called me the Kalona Ayeliski,’ I said. ‘You watched me around the people like I was some crazed monster ready to rip their hearts out of their chests and make a meal of them. Do you realize what you’re asking? Is this the life you want for your son?’

“Ashwin dropped to his knees, his hands in the air, his eyes closed, his head bobbing. He chanted in his native language, softly at first, then louder and louder, a rhythmic, mesmerizing chant. I don’t know what words he sang, but they touched me. I understood this man. I knew his pain. I had felt it myself, and that is when I realized that everyone’s pain is the same. He was a Cherokee medicine man. I was…well, I was me. And yet in that moment we were the same.”

“‘If I do this it’s without your son’s permission,’ I said. ‘He isn’t choosing this life—we’re choosing it for him. Are you willing to suffer the consequences if he doesn’t like our decision?”

“‘He is a medicine man’s son. He understands the spirit world. He will not be afraid. He understands there are good spirits and bad spirits. He will only be the Kalona Ayeliski if he chooses to be. You could have become the Kalona Ayeliski, yet you are not.’

“Chandresh gasped for breath. He was nearly gone.

“‘Now, James,’ Ashwin cried. “Now!’

“I bit Chandresh’s neck and sucked his blood until he was dry. Then I bit my own wrist and pressed it to his lips. At first, he didn’t respond and I was afraid it was too late. But finally, he did begin to drink, and then he fell into the coma where the body regenerates into...into...’”

“A nocturnal?”

James smiled. “Yes, a nocturnal.”

Sarah sat up. She clutched her stomach, it was still painful to move, but she pushed James’s hand away and did it on her own. She looked into her husband’s eyes and patted the bed beside her. He sat, stiff, holding himself at a distance from her, just as he had the first time he came into her rented brick house and he was afraid to get too close lest she discover his secret. Now she knew his secret and she didn’t care. She held her hands to his cheeks and turned his face so she could look into his eyes.

“You turned Chandresh,” she said. “Is that it? Is that what you’ve been so afraid to tell me?”

“Yes.”

“But Chandresh’s father begged you to turn him, and you understood his pain because of what happened with your own father. What’s so terrible about what you did? Why were you afraid to tell me?”

James stroked Sarah’s curls away from her face. “I was afraid that if you knew I turned Chandresh, perhaps you’d be afraid of what else I’m capable of.” He looked out the window toward the bay as though he were searching for something far away. “I’m no better than Geoffrey.”

“No better than Geoffrey?” Sarah laughed. “Here you are with all your advanced degrees, Doctor Wentworth, and you still miss what’s right in front of you. You helped Chandresh.”

“Does he think I helped him now?”

“What’s happening now is not your fault, James.”

“Perhaps. But whether or not I helped Chandresh, he certainly helped me. For as long as I had been living without you, I felt cold inside. Chandresh showed me I could still feel emotion, I could still care for someone. He needed my help, and that gave me some purpose. Even with you gone, I realized I could still be of some use in this world.”

“You have the most caring heart I know. I will always love you.”

“I know, honey. I’ll never leave you…”

He stopped. Sarah knew why, and she couldn’t give her usual reply—it wasn’t true any more. He clutched her to him, and she clutched him just as hard, and they wept together, trying to wash it all away, out into the bay, to the other side of the world, somewhere far where they would never have to deal with the madness again.

Chapter 22

For the next two nights James wouldn’t leave Sarah’s side. Doctor Masters came by twice a day as he said he would. He examined Sarah, adjusted her medication, said how quickly she was recovering. James passed the time sitting next to her, holding her hand, monitoring her medication, changing the dressing over her wounds. He lay on the bed next to his wife, his arms around her, feeling her breathe, memorizing the curve of her hips and the stretch of her neck. He held her head to his chest. He felt her warm softness and basked in the scent of strawberries and cream. The only reason he didn’t cry out in pain was because somewhere he knew that, though the separation would be hard, they would survive. He would survive. His wife and daughter would survive and they would be reunited. He didn’t want to leave his wife, he would never willingly leave her, or Grace, but if he had to go away for a while to settle his end of the madness then he would go and he would be all right, and then he would come home to his family. He had decided.

Perhaps they won’t take me, he thought. Perhaps I’ve escaped their notice. But he knew. There was such an uproar at the hospital when he went to visit Sarah. Someone called the police on him. They’ll find me soon enough, he thought. You can’t hide anymore.

Agitated, angry, and unsure how to deal with it all, James paced the length of the living room, there and back, there and back, with such force that the wood floor showed the weight of his step. Olivia, Theresa, and Francine sat around the dining room table, whispering amongst themselves, casting anxious glances towards him, but he ignored them. Talking aloud to anyone but Sarah would feel like a chore right now.

He saw Sarah stir, and he wanted to wake her and talk to her, make sure her pain was under control, but she was still so swollen and bruised, so he let her sleep. He glanced through their open bedroom door and saw the large duffle bag Sarah had packed for them weeks ago, long before they ever had to flee. We should do it again, he thought. We could run anywhere in the world. We have money, and I have access to cash so we wouldn’t need credit cards. Madness couldn’t have broken out every place across the planet, could it? There must be somewhere we could hide and wait it out. Some day soon there will be something else in the news that will capture the public’s attention. It might take a year or two. Perhaps five or ten. But nothing stays the same, and this too shall pass. They could outrun it, the three of them, moving on and moving on. He had always done that, though never with the urgency he would need to do so now with his wife and daughter along for the ride. They could do it. He knew they could. They needed to leave right now, this moment, to steal whatever part of a head start they could. Where to start? His thoughts turned immediately to his first home, London, just a few hours away by plane.

James rushed into the bedroom, threw the duffle bag onto the bed, and checked to see that it was mostly packed as Sarah said she left it. Then he went through the closet, pulling the few items of clothing Sarah had hung up on the hangers and tossed them into the open bag. They needed to go. There was no time to waste. He would let Sarah sleep a little while longer, get their plane tickets over the Internet, find the next flight out of Bangor International Airport, and they’d be on their way. He zipped the bag closed and carried it into the living room where Olivia and Theresa stood huddled by the front door as though they wanted to block him.

“Are you leaving?” Theresa asked.

“We have to go,” James said.

Olivia took James’s hand. “Sarah can’t go, James. She’s still recovering.”

James shook his head. He couldn’t admit, even to himself, that Olivia was right. “She’ll be fine. I’ll take care of her.”

Then James heard it, the smug, self-satisfied footsteps shuffling toward the house. The knock startled Olivia and Theresa, but James knew. Theresa peeked through the peephole, worried about who it might be.

“You can let him in,” James said. Theresa opened the door, and Geoffrey walked inside. “This is Geoffrey, everyone.”

“You were at James’s wedding,” Olivia said. “I believe we met there.”

Geoffrey nodded. “That is correct. Very nice to see you again.” He looked past James to Sarah. “How is the little human person? She doesn’t look so very bad. And the littlest human person?”

“Sarah is getting better. Grace is fine.” James noticed Geoffrey’s haggard look, how tired and gaunt he seemed. James thought Geoffrey looked on the outside the way he felt on the inside. “How did you know we were here, Geoffrey? Who else knows we’re here?”

“Good God, James, everyone in Maine knows you’re here. You didn’t need to cause such a ruckus at the hospital.”

“I was…”

“I know, James, I know.” Geoffrey’s nodded, his voice soft, even comforting. “But Maine isn’t a big place, and everyone around here knows everyone else and some kayakers saw the ambulance bringing Sarah here. It didn’t take long to put the pieces together.” Geoffrey sighed. He walked to Sarah, still sleeping, and looked at the IV bags connected to her veins. “She’s very strong,” he said.

“I know,” answered James. “How do you know all this?”

Geoffrey shrugged. “I have ways of finding out, that’s all. Aren’t you going to ask why I’m here? You always ask me why I’m here.”

James sighed. “Why are you here, Geoffrey?”

“I’ve come as your own personal town crier.” Geoffrey stood tall, pushing his shoulders back and stretching his head toward the ceiling, lengthening his already long frame. He pretended to unroll a scroll and held his hands out as though he stretched the imaginary paper so he could read whatever was written on it. He cleared his throat. “Hear ye, hear ye. They’re sending soldiers out in force. The Vampire Dawn has officially ended and the round ups have begun. All vampires must be ready to report at their appointed time.”

“No!” James said. “I’m not reporting to anyone. I’m leaving with my wife and daughter and we’re going somewhere far away where we’ll be safe. We’re leaving now.”

Geoffrey grabbed James’s arm. “And go where? With her?” He pointed his elbow at Sarah, who was oblivious to them. “Do you see what your little human person looks like? She’s so pale right now she could be one of us. You can’t run anywhere with her. She’s too damaged.”

“He’s right,” Theresa said. “Her wounds are still healing, James. She can hardly sit up yet. She can’t sit in a car, let alone for hours in a train or an airplane, and what about the time you have to wait in the airport? I’m so sorry, but she just can’t leave on a journey like that right now.”

James sat on the sofa, his hands on his knees, his head down. He was gasping for air, odd since he hadn’t needed oxygen since 1692. He felt his preternatural body knotting up muscle by muscle from the inside out, and he couldn’t stand the crimping pain. He felt the way he did the night he sat awake while his human body died because now it was happening all over again. He was wasting away inside and he shuddered from the knowledge that he might never see his wife again. He felt Olivia’s hand on his but he wouldn’t look at her. He knew he’d see the truth he couldn’t bare to acknowledge in her motherly steel-gray eyes. She tugged on him, and finally he turned to her.

“Sarah can’t go,” she said, “but you can. If you need to run, James, then run. Sarah will understand.”

“No,” James said. He pulled away from Olivia and walked the room again, back to smoothing the tire-like grooves he was working into the wood floor with his frenetic pacing. “I can’t live without her. I’ve tried, and I can’t. We have to go together—all of us. I know it will be hard, but as long as we’re together everything will be all right. I’ll take care of her.”

Geoffrey knelt besides James, took his vampling’s hands in his, and brushed a few stray gold strands from his brow, a fatherly gesture that suddenly seemed natural between them. His voice was soft, concerned, such a contrast to his usual irreverence. “You can’t take Sarah,” he said. “Your little human person is so delicate, and she’s hurt right now.” He looked at Theresa. “All you human people are so delicate, I hardly know how most of you make it through the day without injuring yourselves somehow. How you live into your eighties with your soft skin and fragile bones is quite remarkable really.” He tugged on James’s hand and looked at him without a flicker of sarcasm anywhere in his features. “I can see it in your eyes you know what I say is true. Your little human person needs to stay here now, and you need to go where they tell you to go. It’s the best thing for you, and it’s the best thing for her too.”

James dropped his head, shuddering in spasms, and Geoffrey, still kneeling, looked up into his vampling’s sad face. “You have to decide whether or not you’re going to run, James, but if you run it will have to be alone, and it will be hard. It’s not so easy to hide anymore. Are you going to drive? They’ll find the license plate of your car. There are security cameras everywhere. Are you going to fly? You need a passport to leave the country.”

“I know how to get new passports with different names,” James said.

“There’s no time!” Geoffrey shook James’s shoulder, trying to rattle some sense into him. “Didn’t you hear me? They’re coming to take you away. And me too. Every one of us. And if we don’t go willingly they’re going to hunt us down.” Geoffrey sighed with frustration. “I knew you’d do something rash like try to run. That’s why I’m here now—to stop you. We both need to go, James. We’ll be all right, and your nice little human people here will be all right as well. But there’s no running. If the government wants you gone they’ll make you go away. You know that all too well, don’t you? They’ll find you, and it frightens me to think what they’ll do to you once you’re found. Now as your…” Geoffrey closed his eyes, and he was silent a long moment. “As your friend, I’m begging you. Don’t run. Don’t risk all the happiness you have to come back to. Do you know how fortunate you have to have these nice human people who love you? Do you know how proud I am of you?” Again, Geoffrey stopped himself, and again he took James’s hands in his. “You have too much to risk, James, by being foolish now. I’ll be there to help you. I won’t leave you alone again. And these lovely human ladies will be here to help Sarah and Grace.”