FIFTEEN
SAMUAL DOESN’T LOOK TOO GOOD. HIS FACE is drawn, his shoulders slumped. Whatever happened during that recess, it doesn’t appear to have been to his advantage or liking.
As much as I’m tempted to gloat, I know I’d better reserve that reaction until I hear what
Even if I have to take out Samual and one of those bone bags to do it.
The Elder rises, he appears to float in space, but there’s nothing ethereal in his expression. Even without facial features, his dark anger comes through. He points a finger at Samual.
“Our servant has betrayed us. He has been dealt with.” The finger sweeps in my direction. “You will be returned to Earth, vampire. Along with the man. Do not suppose you have won a victory here. If the circumstances of your actions had been different, you would have suffered the consequences. As it is, if your presence is detected here again, you will be executed without benefit of trial.”
And he is gone. Along with his skeletal sidekicks. Vanished into air without so much as a clatter of bone to mark their departure.
Stephen and I look at each other. And wait. Will we be transported back the way we’ve been moved from one place to the other? Should I ask Scotty to beam us up?
Suddenly we both become aware of another presence. Samual is still here, too. The look he skewers us with is no longer the cowed, unsettled expression he wore for the tribunal, but is instead malevolent and calculating. “Well, shall we get on with it?” he asks smugly.
“You’ve got to be kidding. You aren’t the one who’s supposed to take us back. You can’t be.”
He raises his eyebrows in mock surprise. “Why not? It seems my punishment is banishment. To Earth. And if along the way, we should have an accident, if one or both of you should slip from my grasp, what can anyone do about it?”
He looks downright giddy. “I should have thought of it sooner. When I brought you meat puppets up here. I could have snatched you both in that night in the parking lot. Disposed of you along the way.”
Ah. That sound—the laugh. “You were there.”
“That I was. Too bad I was having such a good time watching the human dump the big bad vampire on her ass. I lost track of my purpose. Well, that won’t happen again.”
“Looks like nothing worked out the way you planned it, did it? Did you suppose it would be easy? That I’d cower, beg for my life? You underestimated me.”
He shrugs. “No matter. I can make you two disappear and no one will be the wiser. My sentence is indefinite. By the time I’m allowed back, this entire incident will have been forgotten. And while I’m on Earth, who knows what mischief I can get into? I needed a break. I should really thank you for the opportunity.”
I stare at him. He has to be stopped. Should I call out for the Elders? Tell them of Samual’s plan? Would they care? Judging from the cavalier way they had been willing to throw Earth to the wolves with Belinda Burke, I doubt it.
Stephen is beside me. “What should we do?”
I don’t know. If I attack Samual, what would happen? Would the Elders take that as an attack on them all? And even if I beat Samual and it went unnoticed, how would we get out of here? I can’t risk Stephen’s life.
My brain is buzzing, my palm itching again. I glance down at it. The skin is flushed. I turn to Stephen. “When you communicated with Susan, did she say anything more than I would be coming for you?”
He shakes his head. “Just to stay close to you. That you would bring me back.”
It couldn’t be that easy. Could it? “Take my hand.”
He raises his eyebrows. “You want to hold hands now?”
I grab his left hand in my right. “Don’t let go.”
At the touch of his palm, the charm embedded in my hand begins to grow hot. He feels it and his first instinct is to pull away. I don’t let him. The charm is working its way back through my flesh and materializes between our hands. “Hold on,” I whisper.
Stephen’s grip tightens. He’s beginning to understand. “Susan?”
But understanding blooms in Samual’s mind, too. “What are you doing?” He takes a lunge toward us.
The charm is hot and wet between us. Its purpose is clear now. Susan implanted a way to bring us back. Together.
There is a dizzying cyclone of air and we’re swept up. I glance down to see Samual, his hands clutching at air.
The last thing we hear is Samual’s howl of rage.
SIXTEEN
STEPHEN’S HAND GRIPS MINE LIKE A VISE. Then his free arm finds its away around my waist, pulling me closer. Wind whips at us, forcing us to keep our heads bowed, our backs bent. We’re clinging to each other with the desperation I imagine passengers on a plummeting aircraft must feel—helpless on a headlong plunge to Earth.
I only hope Susan is ready on the other end with a safety net.
It’s over in a matter of moments—moments that last an eternity. Stephen and I are tossed around but land on our feet, winded and confused.
I look around, Stephen’s hand still clutching mine.
At first I don’t recognize the barren landscape. Sand and scrub cactus. There’s a bright full moon that flings shadows like clawed hands out to touch us. We’re in the desert?
But there’s a sound in the distance—like the rumble of the ocean. I cock my head to listen—my powers are back. To the ears of the predator, the vampire, the rumble of the ocean becomes the hum of freeway traffic.
“Balboa Park,” I announce to a startled and skeptical Stephen. “We’re in the cactus garden.”
“Are you sure? I didn’t even know this existed.”
“Behind the rose garden.”
Stephen glances at his watch, which makes me glance at mine. The hands are spinning like the spokes of a wheel. When they stop, it’s 11:55 P.M. The date has not changed.
I’ve been gone less than twelve hours.
“Can you communicate with Susan now?” I ask Stephen.
“Tell her we landed.”
He nods and closes his eyes. After a moment, a slow, sweet smile touches his lips. When he opens his eyes again, the smile becomes a grin. “She’ll be waiting for us. By the fountain.”
Our fingers are still entwined. I don’t feel the charm anymore and when I start to draw my hand away to look, Stephen’s grip tightens. “Don’t,” he says.
A simple request. Why not go along with it? The cynical side of my nature knows full well I should let go. The adventure is over. We’re back on Earth, and for all I know Stephen has a wife and kids somewhere. Then there’s Samual.
“Stephen. We have to get out of here. Samual may be right behind us.”
“He’s not here now, though, is he?”
There’s something in his eyes. He startles me by bending close to brush his lips against mine. I can’t help myself. I lean into him. The feather touch becomes a kiss.
A good kiss. The kind of kiss that could lead to—
“Well, isn’t this something.”
Samual’s voice rumbles in the still night air like thunder heralding the threat of a storm.
Stephen and I jump apart. I whirl around. Samual is dressed the way he was when he first appeared—jeans and a T-shirt. Two things are different. He no longer hides his true nature. The dark anger spots his complexion,
