The Recruiters (2 page)

Once we got inside our apartment, I sat on the couch and turned on the television while Matt went to the kitchen to heat up our dinner. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on the silence in my head. I began to see it as a changeable object. Blackness like a veil or scarf, floating in my head. I imagined stretching it out over the top of my head, first clinging to my head, then stretching out farther like an umbrella. I opened my eyes and stared at the television. For an instant I thought I had muted it. I turned up the volume just in case. But though the news anchors’ lips were moving, there still wasn’t any sound. I jumped when Matt appeared next to me, his hands over his ears, saying something that I couldn’t hear, and the veil quickly retracted into my skull. I realized that he was telling me to turn down the television, because it was almost at full volume. I quickly hit the mute button. “Sorry” I mumbled.

He laughed. “I take it you had some success?”

“
Yeah, I think I did, but as soon as you startled me it failed. That’s something I’ll have to work on.”

He held his hand out to me and I gladly took it. “Come and eat, love” he said.

I followed him to the kitchen and was quickly satisfied by my meal.

“
Are you going to keep practicing?” he asked, as he headed towards the living room.

“
In a minute,” I replied as I opened my laptop. “I want to email my sisters first.” Logging on to my email account, I smiled when I saw that I had about a dozen from them, ranging from thrilled: “Your pictures from Paris were incredible!” from Diane; to slightly perturbed and cautious; “You met someone, got married and you didn’t even tell us?!? He must be pretty special to have turned your life around so quickly. When do we get to meet him?” from Amanda; to complete awe after I sent the ones with the wedding pictures, “Ummm, WOW! Sarah, he’s amazingly beautiful. And the way he looks at you. It’s staggering how much he loves you. I felt like I should look away, like I was intruding on something intimately personal. Again, all I can really say is wow… and I miss you,” from Cindy. I answered all of them as quickly as I could, since I was hoping that I would get to see them soon. I took a little more time on the last one from Cindy.

She was right, I thought as I glanced over the computer at Matt who still sitting on the couch. It was pretty staggering how much he loved me. But what was more staggering was how much I loved him. I smiled as I hit send then left the laptop open and on – I didn’t want him to hear me. I snuck up behind him, wrapped my arms around him and bent down to find his mouth, kissing him full and hard. He quickly reached up and pulled me over the couch onto his lap. And in the hours of ecstasy that followed I silently realized that we still hadn’t made it to the bedroom here, and I really didn’t care.

It took me a few weeks, but I finally started to get the hang of the silence veil. The thing that caused me to lose my concentration the most was Matt. If he reached down and took my hand, if he touched my arm, if he spoke to me, if he put his arm around me, if he breathed on me, basically if he was anywhere near me, the only focus I had was wanting him. I knew I’d have to learn to control my desire when I was with him in public, but it just wasn’t something I was ready to do or willing to do, yet. Or possibly ever…

Chapter Three

We had happily spent six months in New York with Stefan. We worked at his company, went to parties with him, ball games, and other social events. Although I was surprised that he didn’t kick us out after the first, and only, time he took us to a night club. It was a Friday night. I was worried about the music and lights being too much for me, but what ended up being too much for me, and almost got us in big trouble, was my reaction to seeing Matt dancing and my moving with him on the dance floor. It nearly sent me over the top. We had only made it through three songs, when I pulled him tight into my arms and growled into his ear, “You have to take me home, NOW.” He immediately understood, but as we turned to go one of the bouncers approached us, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you two to leave. Some of the customers are complaining about being, ummm, uncomfortable.”

“
Not a problem,” I said much too quickly, as we rushed out. We didn’t quite make it to the apartment though – thank goodness the elevator was empty.

I smiled as I thought back to that night. We’d been together a year and a half now, and my desire for him, my yearning for him, my need for him, continued to grow stronger. I tried to clear that from my head. I was supposed to be concentrating right now, trying to remember when the nightmare had first started. I definitely know I didn’t have any in that first six months, so I moved on to Baltimore.

Baltimore was our first stop on the road to finding a mate for Andrew. The two possibilities I had found, Sabrina and Lisa, were a disappointment but our time there was valuable owing to our discovery that apartment walls weren’t thick enough to contain our sounds and it would be houses from there on out.

My mind moved on to Dallas, our next stop. I got a job working at a local coffee house, alongside Tammy. She seemed perfect for Andrew, until I discovered her secret life – as a hooker. That was two months wasted. But I did have my first nightmare there. What triggered it was playing at the edge of my mind, but I couldn’t quite catch it.

I moved on to Albuquerque, thinking I could come back to Dallas later. Three months there proved very successful. I found Janine a few weeks after arriving. She was fluent in Spanish, was a school teacher and loved kids but couldn’t have any of her own, which was perfect because I didn’t feel it was fair to ask anyone to give up their ability to have children just for love. I had experienced motherhood. It had ended tragically for me but it was enough for me to give up the possibility of having more children by becoming a vampire.

Janine could continue teaching in the village outside the fortress after her training was complete. Most of her family had passed on – except for a brother that she barely ever spoke to – and she was in love with being in love. I brought Andrew over when we had been there a month, where we arranged for him to ‘run’ into her, as in a chance meeting, while walking in the park, shopping at the supermarket, in the library, or some other ordinary location. These chance meetings became more and more frequent. And he was spending more time with her each time he saw her. It wasn’t long before they were head over heels in love.

I had two nightmares while in Albuquerque. There was that thought again, playing at the edge of my mind. The nightmares in Albuquerque had followed… what? What had they followed? Was it something I had seen? Someone? Was it my routine? Was it my work at the coffee shop? Nothing stuck out in my mind there.

After my shift at the coffee shop I would always head home where my first stop was always the computer; checking emails, making notes from the day, checking the news… the news!… I gasped as the answer flew into the front of my mind.

Matt whipped his head around, “What?” he said. “What’s wrong?”

I held my hand up. “Wait,” I whispered. I ran to the table and flicked on the laptop. I knew it had only been generic headlines I had seen before, no names or specifics, but suddenly the theme of them came together. I searched the internet for specifics. Matt was behind me as my fingers flew over the keys. “When was the last time anyone heard from Bahiti?” I asked, as I tried to contain my frustration over the slow computer. My brain was already miles ahead of it.

“
Ummm, I’m not sure. The last time I spoke to her was when we were with her in Egypt. Why?”

“
And have you talked to Omoruyi?”

“
Umm, no. Not since Nigeria. Why Sarah? Honey, what is it?” The concern in his voice was clear.

I leaned to the side and showed him the first news article I had found. It was from right after our first anniversary.

September 21 - Long time Haitian resident missing
read the headline. Matt read aloud; “Musetta Glapion, a life-long resident of Haiti, frequently rumored to have ties to voodoo, has not been seen or heard from in several weeks. Her daughter Marie alerted the authorities after being unable to contact her mother. Police found that her home, and other homes on the property, had been ransacked. Foul play is suspected.”

“
Hhhmmm, that doesn’t mean,” Matt said but stopped when I brought up the next article.

Oct 3 - Nigerian man kidnapped from home.
I heard Matt gasp slightly as he read, “Village elder Olatunde Adeyemi was taken from his home late last night. His great-grandson Omoruyi said the family had no idea why he would be kidnapped and that no ransom demand had been made.”

And the next one:
October 23 - Mexican priest vanishes from parish.
“Father Alfonso Morales of the St Mary’s Parish near Guaymas, Mexico has disappeared. His suitcase and belongings are gone as well, so authorities are not treating this as a missing person case yet. But his parishioners are pushing for an investigation, insisting he would never leave without notifying someone.”

“
Oh no. Sarah?” Matt whispered. “What do you think it means?”

I winced. I remembered it all to clearly.

“
Do you really think that was letting us off too easily?” he said as he wrapped his arms around me.

I whirled around, panic filling my face, “CARLOS!” I gasped. “You HAVE to warn Carlos right now! He helped us too, Matt. God, I hope they don’t go after him too. Call him, please. Tell me he’s okay. I have to know that he’s okay.”

Matt flipped open his phone and dialed as I continued in the background, “Then try to reach Miguel, Bahiti, Omoruyi. PERU! We have to go to Peru to warn the villagers. And ANDREW! We have to talk to Andrew while he’s still on his honeymoon. They’re not going to let Janine survive. Oh my God, this can’t be happening,” I sobbed.

Matt came over and tried to soothe me by stroking his hand down my hair while he whispered into the phone. But I felt the shaking in his hand. He was just as scared as I was. And I knew in my heart that there was only one thing that would save us now. But how could we go up against them? How could we possibly stop them?

Chapter Four

We lay in each other’s arms for a long time, not sure what to do next, afraid of what was going to happen, afraid to let go. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to gather some strength… but my strength was Matthew and if I moved I wouldn’t have that, right? No, I tried to tell myself. He’s in your heart Sarah, he’s in your soul, you don’t have to be touching him to feel him. I pushed myself up. “Okay,” I said, “tell me how bad you think it is.” I rested my head on my knees and looked at him.

He propped himself up on his elbow and replied, “I can’t lie to you Sarah. It’s bad, really bad. No one’s ever considered going up against them, I wouldn’t know where to start.” Though he winced slightly I felt a little relieved when he said that; at least I knew we were on the same page.

“
Well, maybe we should start by finding out if it’s just us. Maybe there are others out there who have problems with them. Who aren’t happy with the way they ‘run’ things. Do you think we should try to find out?” I whispered but then I quickly shook my head. “Wait, no. Forget I said that.”

“
Why, Sarah?”

“
Because I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of us,” I said as I turned and pressed my forehead to my knees.

Matt came up and wrapped his arms around me. I turned my head again to look at him. “We can’t possibly face them alone. We have to go into hiding don’t we?”

Matt nodded his head and whispered, “We might have to.”

“
But we can’t hide forever, can we? They’ll find us eventually, they always do, right?”

He barely managed to nod his head.

I turned and put my chin back on my knees. “Sometimes I hate not having tears,” I whispered as I closed my eyes.

“
I hate seeing you needing them,” he whispered as he wrapped himself around me as much as he could. For the first time since I saw him on that pier, I felt afraid. I was suddenly terrified that our future might actually have an end. I felt the fury growing in me then, spinning and gaining in size and speed, until it finally burst out of me. I flew out of bed and turned to face him.

“
NO!” I yelled. “No, they do not get to do this; they don’t get to break us. This will not happen. I will not live in fear. I will love you and be with you and WE WILL BE HAPPY, DAMN IT… do you hear me Matthew Pearl? I don’t care what we have to do, but we will fight this, we will win and we will be happy.” I was gasping for air by this point, clenching and unclenching my fists. It took me a second to notice that he was smiling at me. I frowned at him, “What could you possibly have to smile about?” I asked.