Sekhmet's Curse (Pearl Vampire Chronicles) (22 page)

“Uh, guys, this guy needs a hospital or he’s going to bleed out,” Carlos said.
  Matt and I looked at each other.  I nodded.  He turned to Carlos and said, “Can you bring him? We’ll fly with you, but I’m pretty sure Sarah can’t fly yet. She’s still in too much pain.
  Am I right honey?
”

I nodded again, and grimaced at the pain it sent shooting through me.  Carlos scooped the bleeding
man into his arms and we took to the skies.  We landed a few minutes later at the edge of the parking lot.  Carlos ducked inside the emergency room doors, placed him in a wheelchair then ducked out. 
It a
ll happened so fast that he w
as
never seen.  We waited and listened outside as he was discovered.  “Who put this patient here?  Oh my God, this man is bleeding.  Somebody
help
me get him onto a table,” a nurse said in Spanish.  We waited until we heard someone say, “Hey. I recognize this man.  He’s on all those wanted posters.  He’s that rapist
. Go call the police.  They’ll want to question him when he wakes up.  Looks like somebody gave him his own justice though.”

Matt cradled me in his arms as we silently flew home.  The weight of the night came crashing down hard on all of us.  None of us wanted to talk about the fact that this would be our last night here
,
o
ur last night,
if
not for forever, then who kn
ew
for how long.  Matt walked into the room. Then he and Carlos looked at each other, wondering what to do next.  Without opening my eyes I said, “If either of you even thinks about leaving me tonight, I will beat the shit out of
you.”

They both grinned then Carlos said, “Your bed’s a little bigger.” 

Matt gently set me into the middle of the bed, on my side.  Then he snuggled in behind me, while Carlos tucked himself in front of me.  I opened my eyes and tried not to grimace as I smiled at him.
   He tried, unsuccessfully, to hide the pain in his eyes as he leaned in to kiss my forehead, “I love you kiddo,” he whispered.  “I love you too, Carlos.  And, yes you can,” I said.

“I can?  I
can,
what?” he said as he looked at me.

“You can do this.  When I’m in there, you can do this.  You will make it.  You’ll survive.  You’ll wait for me.  You’ll be strong for me.  You’ll be fine,” I said.

“God, I hope you’re right,” he groaned.
  We all closed our eyes and quickly slept, completely exhausted from the last few days.

My eyes popped open at around four a.m., but I couldn’t move.  Matt’s arm was wrapped tightly around me, while Carlos’ leg rested across my hips.  I was pinned, and I wished I could stay there forever. 
I started to panic as I thought about leaving them.  Maybe we could run.  Maybe we could hide from her.  But then I thought about Jason.  He was still just a
child,
although
it
was hard to remember that
since
he was already a foot taller than me and quickly approaching his fathers’ seven feet
height
.  I couldn’t do that to him.  I couldn’t risk his life like that. 

But how
am I
going to do this, I thought.  How am I going to be able to be strong for Jason when I’m barely keeping it together myself?  I will be all alone. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to cry, and that’s when I heard his voice.  ‘
Sarah?  You don’t have to be alone, Sarah.  Let me in.  Let me come with you,’
Jonas said.

‘
Let you in?  What do you mean, let you in?
And how the hell did you get here?
’
I thought. 

‘
A few seagulls and a panther.
  The seagulls were cramped, but the panther was awesome, but that doesn’t’ matter. 
Let me come inside you right now.  You’ll feel it.  It will feel strange for a moment.  And you’ll feel me inside you.  You’ll feel, ummm, crowded,
is
the best way I can put it.  But don’t push
me out.  Let me stay.  I’ll stay with you, Sarah.  I’ll be with you inside
her tomb
.  Maybe I can help.’

Jonas, inside me?
  He’s right,
it
would feel weird.  But maybe he could help.
And at least I’ll have someone to talk to in my head when I’m scared but I don’t want Jason to know. 

‘
Okay, Jonas.  You can come in,’
I thought.  Suddenly I felt pressure in my mid-section.  It felt like someone was standing on my stomach.  I tried not to groan.  ‘
Sarah, relax.  Try to relax,’
he thought.

‘
That’s easy for you to say.  You don’t feel like a bulldozer is trying to push through your stomach,’
I thought then I started breathing deeply, forcing myself to relax.  Suddenly the pressure was gone.  I opened my eyes and looked around.  He was right.  It did feel crowded.  I could feel him inside me, looking around.  Hell, I swear I could even feel him breathing.  I fought the natural instinct to try to push this foreign thing out.  I tried to think about other things.  I started thinking about where I was going, and the fear came back. 
I looked at Carlos, at the complete pain on his face as he slept.  It was almost
too much to bear.  But when I turned to look at Matt, my strong one, my rock, my
voice of reason, and saw him quietly crying in his sleep.  Well, that was too much.  That was way too much.  I turned my head into the pillow as the sobs began to rack my body. 
I quietly cried, until my sobs shook the bed enough that I felt them both stirring.  As soon as that happened, I forced myself to stop.  I couldn’t let them see this, not now.  Yes, I know that I told them that I would stop being the strong one in front of them, that I would show my fear.  And I will, I told myself, but not now.  Not when they are falling apart.  One of us has to be strong.  I can fall apart later, when I know that they’re better.  So I took a few deep breaths, closed my eyes and brought memories of happy times into my head.  Times filled with laughter and love.  I felt the glow of love warm my heart and bring a smile to my face.  I felt myself glow.  Then and only then did I dare open my eyes to look at them.  My plan was to smile at them, to
beam
at them, and make them feel better.  Yep, that was my plan.  But when I opened my eyes and saw them both smiling and beaming at me, Carlos with his
goofy grin, and Matt, well, Matt with
that smile, that smile that still made my heart do back flips, well, there went that fucking plan. My lower lip started quivering and the sobs followed soon after, “Oh my God.  How am I going to do this without you?  I’m so fucking scared right now.”

‘
Sarah,
you won’t be alone.  I will be in there with you,
’
Jonas’ v
oice said in my head.
That gave me the calm I needed to stop. 
I lifted my head up and looked around.  Matt and Carlos had the most confused looks on their faces as they stared at me.  “What?” I said
.

“Your eyes, Sarah.
  You’re
crying
,” Matt whispered.

“What?” I said as my hand slowly came up to my face.  Carlos
caught
it though then he very gently stroked his knuckle in the corner of my eye, pulled
the tear
away and held it up for me to see. 
“Blood?
  I’m crying tears of blood?  What the hell?  How is this possible? Is this because of how much I fed last night?”

They looked at each other then slowly shook their heads.  “I don’t think so, hun.  I’ve overfed many times and never had anything like this happen,”
Carlos said.

“Oh, really?
  You’ve overfed and then cried?” I said sarcastically.

“Well, actually, yes
.  Because I got punched in the nose by a jealous boyfriend shortly after I fed.  Made my eyes feel like they wanted to water,
somethin
’ fierce, but nothing happened.”

“Then why?” I cried, unleashing more tears.

“I think, I think maybe it’s because you stopped yourself
from killing him during feeding
, Sarah.  I don’t know when the last time was that a vampire was able to do that.  Maybe you’re crying now because you stopped yourself last night,” Matt said.

“So, so you’re saying that this is a one-time thing?  That I’m not a freak, yet again? 
That I’ll go back to not being able to cry tomorrow?”
I groaned.

Matt smiled and placed his hand on my cheek, “Sarah Pearl Delgado, you are not a freak.  Please stop thinking that you are.  But, yes, I think you’ll go back to not
having tears
tomorrow.”

‘But they might not, Sarah.  He’s just trying to comfort you because he loves you.  I won’t tell you what you need to hear, I’ll tell you like it is.  You’re
different.  And you’re still evolving.  This might be a new, umm, feature of yours,’
Jonas said in my head.

‘
I was afraid of that.  Thanks for being honest with me,’
I thought.

I wrestled for a brief moment with whether I should tell Matt and Carlos that Jonas was sharing my body, but quickly decided that it wouldn’t help them or me at all if they knew.  They wouldn’t like it, and even after I explained that he might be able to help me in there, they would feel bad that it couldn’t be them.  So, all around, it wouldn’t do any good for them to know.  So, I kept it to myself
, for now.
  I wasn’t comfortable doing that, not by a long shot, but I knew it was best for now.  I started to slide toward the end of the bed, but Matt stopped me, “Honey? 
Everything okay?”

I smiled and patted the back of his hand, “I just want to keep busy until it’s time to leave. I’m going to go talk to Jason.  I haven’t seen him in a few days.  I want to make sure he’s okay,” I said

“What can we do to help you get ready?” Carlos whispered.  God, he was trying so hard to be brave.
  “You can stay with me.  Don’t leave my side until
she locks me in with her.  You know that overdose of blood that that we thought was so important?  Well, now an overdose of you two is just as important. 
For all of us.
  Okay?”  Carlos nodded and leaned in to kiss my temple.
We all got dressed, then slowly wandered down the hall to Aquila and Jason’s room.  I knocked on the door, “Come in,” came the gentle voice from within.
Aquila smiled at me, “Hello, female
.”

I smiled back, “Good morning, Aquila.
It’s almost time to head to the airport, are you ready?
”

“Well, I wouldn’t say ‘ready’ is an accurate word.  I don’t think I could ever be ‘ready’ for something like this, could you?  But I have come to terms with it.”

I smiled sadly at him, “Well, then you’re doing better than I am.
  How is Jason doing?
”

“He’s scared but okay.  He’s accepted this as a part of his destiny.”

There was a light tap on his door behind me.  I turned and smiled at Matt. 
“The car’s ready, hun.”

We all slowly headed down the halls toward the courtyard.  The halls were lined with vampires wanting to say goodbye.  Their intentions were great
but seeing the devastated looks on each face was like a knife in the heart each time.
  I smiled, shook hands, hugged, and wiped away the small bloody tears that, not surprisingly, fell down my cheeks – of course Jonas was right.  It took close to an hour but we finally made it to the end of the long line of vampires and out the doors.  We started heading toward the car, but I suddenly stopped.  There was something that I had to do first.  “Come with me for a minute,” I said as I pulled them toward the waterfall.  “Sarah,” Carlos said, his hand shaking in mine. 

“No, Carlos. This is important,” I whispered.  I sat on the bench, pulled them in as close to me as I could
, and for a few moments just listened to mesmerizing sound of the water.  Finally, I took a deep breath, “Whatever happens, if I make it out or if I don’t, please know that the two of you have given me more happiness in the last few years than I could have ever known in a lifetime without you.  I love you more than life itself.  But I need to ask one more thing from you both.  You have to promise me that, no matter what, you will go on.  That you will continue to live, to love, to be happy.”

“But how am I supposed to do that, Sarah?” Carlos choked out.

“Because, Carlos.  You, of all people, showed me the importance of going on.  That you can never give up hope, no matter how bleak the situation looks.  When you had me on the island and I was trying to die because I thought that Matt was dead
, you wouldn’t let me.  If it weren’t for you being a stubborn mule, I wouldn’t be here now.  You see?  You can never give up hope
, ever.
”

Carlos struggled with the pain, but finally nodded his head and sobbed into my shoulder.  Matt wrapped his arm around my shoulder and whispered, “
I’ll go on, I’ll live, I’ll be happy but I won’t love again
.
I just can’t honey.  My heart would never be able to heal that much
.  I hope that’s enough for you
,” into my ear.