Sekhmet's Curse (Pearl Vampire Chronicles) (9 page)

I interrupted her, “You’ve seen that in the short time that he’s been alive?” I gasped.   How could she possibly have seen that in him already?  Suddenly Matt and Carlos stepped protectively in front of me.  I stared at their backs, confused, as I tried to figure out why they were doing this.  Sekhmet went on, ignoring my question as if she hadn’t even heard it, “But, it’s the bond between you
that
will be the catalyst.  The bond is the strength.  The bond is the guide. 
The bond…….between a mother and child.”

I heard Carlos choke out
a  “
Please, don’t
.”  And Matt tensed.  My eyes shot between Jason and Sekhmet as it finally dawned on me what she was saying.  She looked at the two of us.  Carlos whispered a little louder this time, “I beg of you.  Please don’t.
  Take me instead.
”

She ignored his plea, stepped forward and said, in a booming voice, “Sarah and Jason.  I summon you.”

Carlos dropped to his knees as he cried out, “NO!”

Matt turned around and wrapped me in his arms.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bahiti squeeze her eyes shut and drop her head.  Suddenly Carlos jumped up.  “You can’t have her!” he yelled as he
began to charge at her.  Bahiti yelled, “Carlos! 
Don’t
!”  But nothing was going to stop him.  He ran right through the apparition, and collapsed on the floor screaming and crying out in agony.  Sekhmet reappeared a few feet to his left.  She looked down at him, “I would suggest that you don’t do that again.  It would probably kill you.” 

Bahiti moved from around the desk and
bent down
to Carlos.  She helped him up and brought him back over to us, whispering to him as she did, “Don’t Carlos.  You have no idea of her strength or her powers.  She’ll kill you.  And that won’t help Sarah.”

“Help Sarah??
  How the fuck
am
I supposed to do that when she’s going to be locked in a room with her?” he motioned to Sekhmet.  I saw the panic in his eyes.  I reached over and put my hand on his cheek, forcing his eyes to meet mine.   “You’ll help, Carlos.  You always do,” I whispered.  I watched as the panic gave way to sadness in his eyes.  “Oh shit, Sarah,” he groaned as he buried his head in my neck.

Matt whispered, “Now? Are you taking her now?”

“No.  The first test they need to pass does not require
them coming with me.  The first test requires them to find Jason’s father.  You must work together to find him.  And I would suggest quickly, because he has no food, or access to food
, other than small animals
, where he is.”

“What?” Jason yelled.  I held him back as he automatically tried to step towards her.

“Hints?
 
Clues?
  Do we get any kind of help here?” I said.

“I will only tell you that you have been there
since your birth
, Sarah
.  They have not,” she said, indicating Matt and Carlos
,  “
and the child’s father has not.
”

:Birth
as a human or birth as a vampire?” I said.

She smiled at me, “The only birth that matters to me. 
Your birth as a vampire.
 
Once you find him, dead or alive
, you then have
sixty
days to appear in my temple.  If you are not there within the
sixty
days, I will begin systematically killing vampires, starting with those
that
you cherish the most. And my advice to you is to study and learn Egyptian hieroglyphics quickly
,
as
you will need that
.   Do you understand?”

I nodded, “Yes.  We will be there.”

With
nod of her head and
a quick flash, she was gone
but the pounding of my heart in my chest would take a while
to disappear
.  We stood there silently for several minutes.  Finally, Carlos mumbled into my neck, “You can’t go, Sarah.  You just can’t.”  From the other side of my neck, Matt whispered, “I never should have turned you, Sarah.  I’m so sorry.  I never should have turned you.”

I sighed, stepped back and looked at both of them, “Aw, guys, don’t, please.  Matt, we’ve been over this many times.  I love what I am and have no regrets.  And, Carlos, I have to go or she’ll kill you
, and I won’t let that happen
.” 

I turned to Bahiti
– our resident hieroglyphics expert
, “Well, I guess I’m going to be spending a lot of time with you, aren’t I?”  She nodded with sad eyes.  Finally I turned to Jason, “Okay.  Now, Jason.  Please believe me when I say that my only focus right now is
on finding
your father.  It’s the only thing
that
I’m thinking about.  It’s the only thing I’m working on.  No studying.  No worrying about this Sekhmet business. 
Just him.
 
Only him.
  I will find him. 
Okay?”

He stared for a few seconds, studying me.  Finally I saw a bit of the worry and panic leave his face and he nodded.  I turned back to Matt and Carlos. 

“
It’
s
time to think. 
Where the hell have I been that you two have not? 
A place that doesn’t have access to any
human blood
?
  I mean, before I was changed, I was with one or the other of you at all times, except when I was sleeping.  And I’m pretty sure Carlos was in the area, if not the room, even then,” I smiled at him and he kissed my temple. 

“You got that right,
darlin
,” he said, making me smile.

“Okay, so we can cross off everywhere we went before I was changed.  Then we were here.  After we got married we were always together.  We’ve been to the island together, so it’s not there.  The only place I’ve been without you
two
was
when I was with Aquila, but she said it was some place
that
he’s never been.  God, where could it be?”

I was growing more and more frantic and Matt could easily see that.  He gently pushed me down into one of the chairs and sat in another, facing me.  “Maybe
it will come to you if you think about people you’ve been with.  Like, start with Malina.  Did she take you anywhere besides the cave?  When she had me, were you always with Carlos or did you go anywhere by yourself?”

I scrunched up
my face and tried really hard to think of something, anything.  But I shook my head, “No.  She only took me to the cave and Carlos never left my side.  I was only away from you guys when I was with Aquila.  Shit, this is friggin hopeless…..JONAS!” I yelled, making them all jump.  “It was the island
that
he
flew
me to
when he took me from our island
, Matt.
  Remember?  The one where I talked to him and convinced him to bring me back and stay with us for a while to see if he and I could be friends?
  That’s where he is.  But, shit, I don’t know where it
i
s.  He flew
so
damn fast
, it was like holding on to a bullet in the sky
.”

“Yeah, but now we have a place to start, Sarah.  Let’s get our asses to our island and start looking,” Carlos said.  I nodded, started to get up, but stopped.   I looked at Jason, standing there completely naked with huge wings attached to his back.  “Ummm, do
you think Stefan’s plane is available?  We can’t very well travel commercial, you know?”

Matt pulled out his cell phone, but Jason tried to stop him.  “I can fly on my own.  I flew here from the cave where I was raised, you know.”

I tried to suppress my smile.  He sounded just like a stubborn child trying so hard to grow up.  Just like Scotty.  My mouth dropped open as I sat there totally stunned.  That was the first time I had ever thought of
my first-born son,
Scotty
,
and not felt overwhelming sadness.  I had actually smiled.  “What?” Matt whispered.  I shook my head, “Later,” I whispered back.  I looked at Jason, “When you flew here, it was over land, correct?  The cave that he raised you in, you flew east over to Alaska and then South over land to get here, right?  You were able to stop when you needed to and rest?”

“Yes, but I’m a strong flyer.  And I don’t want to fly in one of your airplanes.” he whined.

I walked over and placed my hand on his shoulder.  “Jason.  Our island is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles from land.  You’d have to fly for hours without resting.  What if it was too far? 
What do you think your father would do to me if I rescued him but had to tell him that you didn’t make it?”

Jason couldn’t suppress a small laugh, “You’d never see the light of day again,
that’s
for sure.  Okay.  I’ll ride in your airplane, if you insist.”

“Thank you.”

Matt dialed his cell and stepped into the outer office when Stefan picked up.  I turned back to Jason, “Ummm,
Jason
.  Even though we’ll be flying on a private plane, there’s still a possibility that some humans will see us: in the hanger when we move from the car to the plane
,
o
r when we land in Texas
to change to our boat for the ride out to the island
.  Would you be willing to wear pants and maybe a cape to cover your wings?”

He rolled his eyes at me, “Fine. 
Anything else?
  Get it out now, please.”

I smiled, “No, there’s nothing else.”

Matt stepped back in, “The plane is in Paris right now.  It’ll be here the day after tomorrow.”

“Two days?  We have to wait two days?” Jason said, as panic shook his voice.

“Jason, you know how strong your father is.  I know how strong your father is, believe me, I know.  He broke five of my ribs once.  So I know.  He’ll be fine for a few more days.”

Jason stared at me with his mouth open, then tried not to smile as he said, “He, he broke five of your ribs? 
At once?”

“Yes he did.  And I’ll tell you all about it, if you’d like to hear, in the kitchen, over a meal, okay?”

“You bet I want to hear.  Wow.  That’s my dad.”

Suddenly Matt’s cell phone chirped.  He put it to his ear, “Yes, Derek?  Who?  She’s at the gate?  No, absolutely not.  Tell Miguel that she does not come in.  I’ll be right there.”  He hung up his phone and motioned me and Carlos over to him, “It’s that reporter
,
t
he one who tracked us down at the dock in Corpus Christi
and i
s
trying to get some scoop on vampires.
  She’s here.  She’s at the gate,” he whispered.  Carlos growled low in his chest. 

“Are you f-ing kidding me?  How did she find this place?  Who the hell is
feeding her information
?  I’ve gotta go talk to her,” I said as I started to move toward the door.  Matt stopped me, “Ummm,
Sarah,” he said then he motioned toward Jason with his chin.  I looked at him, “Shit.  Okay, look, tell her to meet me at the café in the center of town in an hour.”

“You?
  Why you?  I am head of security, Sarah,” Matt said.

“Really?
  You want to try to pull rank right now?  Fine, I’m the friggin’ President.  So I’m talking to her,
kapish
?” I said.

Matt pressed his lips together, “I wasn’t trying to pull rank Sarah.  I’m just asking why you think that you would do a better job than I would.”

“I’m not saying that I would do a better job, Matt. I’m just saying, my intuition is saying that I will be able to get the information we need from her because she’ll feel less threatened by me than she would a man.”

“Sarah, is that really a good idea?” Carlos said. 

“Guys, trust me on this.  Let me talk to her.  It’ll be fine.  I promise.”

“Fine, but I’m going with,” Matt said.

“Me too,” Carlos said.

I shook my head, “You’ll spook her.  If you go, you stay hidden.  Understand?”

They both nodded then headed out the door.  I turned to Jason, “Let’s eat, okay?”

He nodded, but added, “You don’t have to babysit me, you know.  I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can.  But I thought you wanted to hear about the time your Dad broke my ribs,
right
?”

He blushed slightly, “Well, yeah.  But do you have to make it sound so morbid?  I’d like to hear other stuff too.”

“
Of
course you do,” I said as I tucked my arm in
to
his and led him into the hall.  “So, what do you want to know?” I said.

I could tell that he really wanted to know about the broken ribs, but he resisted asking.  “Tell me about the first time you met my Dad.”