The Link (8 page)

He did just that, kissing me until I thought my only option was going to be to climb over the armrest and take him right there in the car, but then he pulled away, smiling as I gasped, trying to catch my breath. He smirked as he said, “It’s really getting harder and harder to stop.”

I smiled and said, “Good. Because I really don
’
t like it when you stop,” and I sank back in the seat. I never wanted him to stop, ever.

He shook his head and laughed as he started the car and headed back to the road. W
e drove in silence for a while
then I couldn’t wait anymore. “Were you able to find anything?” I asked.

“
Yes,” was all he replied but he was strangely quiet and tense.

I waited another minute before asking, “Well, are you going to tell me?” He stepped on the brakes and brought the car to a sudden stop on the side of the deserted dirt road.

He turned to me, his eyes pleading, “Sarah, honey, each place we go, each person we find might have a piece of the puzzle.
But it’s a piece, just a piece. We can’t be tempted to try to figure out what the puzzle is without having what we hope are ALL of the pieces. I know that you could easily tempt me, persuade me, if you wanted to,” I smiled at this as he continued, “
b
ut if we tried and I got it wrong, it would mean the end, the end of BOTH of us and I can’t have that, I won’t have that. So, please, PLEASE let’s
just wait until we’re as certain as we can be that we have them all.
Then we can try to figure them out, together, okay?”

I looked at him, knowing he was right, knowing how tempted I would be to try to figure it out if I knew some of the answers, and I nodded and lightly kissed him, letting him know I was okay with his request.

He kissed me back, hard this time and I quickly reached that point of no return.
I braced myself for the end that I knew was coming (we were in the car after all, on a deserted road, in Mexico) when, in one fell swoop he moved his seat back with one hand and pulled me over to him with the other. My heart soared then, knowing he wasn’t going to stop this time (after all, we were in a car, on a DESERTED road, in Mexico) and I threw everything into this moment.

We were back on the road a while later, holding hands, fingers entwined, and smiles that we couldn’t seem to erase. It was late, I was getting tired again and hungry (and I wondered again when he would “eat”). He pulled in to a small hotel that had a
restaurant in front of it with a neon sign advertising “Cerveza.” Mmmm, a cold beer would be very nice, I thought. Once again, as if reading my mind, he pulled me towards the restaurant first. We went in and sat down this time. Oddly, when the waitress came over, she took one look at Matthew, slightly nodded her head and turned to me, asking me what I would like and never bothering to ask him. Almost as if she knew he wasn’t going to order, like she’d seen vampires in here before. I ordered that cold beer and a chicken enchilada. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I had devoured the entire basket of chips before she had even brought my food. I grinned at him, embarrassed, and said, “I’m usually not this much of a pig.”

He laughed and whispered, “Well, you HAVE been getting quite a lot of…
h
mmm…
exercise lately.” I blushed three shades of pink.

He reached over and touched my cheek. “Beautiful,” was all he said. The waitress brought my food and despite the big basket of chips, I easily finished my enchilada and washed it down with a second ice cold beer. He paid the check then, giving
the waitress an extra hefty tip, and walked to the hotel office with his arm around my shoulder. He paid cash for the room, a little extra so we could get the room on the end “a little more private” he winked at me, and I blushed again. We parked the car in front of the room and he carried the bags into the room. He put a few bottled waters in the fridge and then, strangely, he checked the microwave. I sort of wondered why, because we didn’t have anything to cook, but I didn’t say anything.

I told him I was going to grab a quick shower and went in to the bathroom. I was in there for a minute before a realized that I’d forgotten my shampoo. I started to open the door, but something stopped me. I glanced through the crack in the door and saw him pulling something out of the microwave. He turned so he was facing me, and I shrunk back, afraid that he had seen me. But I looked again and realized that his eyes were closed, and he was sniffing deeply what could only be a pint of blood, the kind you get from the blood bank. I relaxed for a moment, thinking he would, you know, pour it into a glass and drink it, but he just inhaled with this eyes closed, like he was
waiting for something. Suddenly his eyes flew open, violent eyes, the black eyes of an uncontrolled monster and then, for the first time, I saw his fangs.
If I had blinked I would have missed it. In the instant his eyes flew open
,
his fangs dropped down, stuck in to the bag and
he
drained it. Just like that. In the same amount of time it would take me to snap my fingers. And then, in the next instant, he blinked and his eyes were normal, the fangs were gone and he quickly dropped the completely empty bag into the trash. I wasn’t sure what to do then, wasn’t sure if I should say anything, was just deciding that I wouldn’t when I noticed that he was staring at me with a look of horror on his face. I went to him quickly, but he turned away, as if he was ashamed. I pulled his face back to me, looked deep into his eyes and whispered
,
“It’s okay, really it is.”

He frowned and stammered
,
“I…
I…
I…
wasn’t ready for you to see that…”

I gently pushed him until he sat on the edge of the bed, I needed to look directly into his eyes when I responded and I couldn’t do that if he was standing. I cupped his face between my hands and said, “Look,
we don’t know how long it’s going to take us to track down these clues. It could take months, years even. I don’t want you out of my sight for any longer than you absolutely have to be, so that means we will know everything about each other, everything that’s the same between us and everything that’s different. You have to believe me when I tell you that there’s absolutely nothing about you that frightens me. I love you, Matthew Pearl, with all of my heart and soul, with all that I am, and nothing you do will ever change that.”

And I kissed him, showing him that I didn’t care what had just been in his mouth, that I didn’t care that he had sucked down that blood faster than I could blink, that I wasn’t wondering
‘
if he could drain a pint that fast how quickly could he drain a human?’
Actually,
I was kind of wondering that one but I didn’t let him know that).

He pulled away then and softly said
,
“I love you too Sarah,” and then he buried his face in my chest, his body shaking, as if he was sobbing.

I wrapped my arms around him and kissed the top of his head. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” I said,
“Everything will be alright. We’re going to get through this.”

He looked up at me with the saddest eyes I have ever seen, “How can you be so sure?”

My face softened
.
“Because we’re here, we’re together and everything good that happens from here on is only icing on the cake. If this all ends tomorrow, I’ll be happy, because we had today.” He grabbed me and started kissing me then and it was only a moment before I realized I wasn’t going to get my shower tonight.

I woke the next morning with the sun streaming through the window. I yawned loudly
and
stretched, saw him next to me and smiled. He was smiling too. He gently caressed my stomach and I stared at him. “What time is it?” I asked.

“
Ten o’clock
,
” he answered.

I shot up, almost smashing my head on his chin (that would have meant bleeding and stitches for sure, wonder how he would have reacted) and said
,
“Shouldn’t we be on the road by now? Won’t they be looking here soon?”

“
Relax,” he smiled
.
“I just spoke to Miguel,
he’s another friend of mine. They haven’t figured out what’s going on yet. All they know is that I’ve gone missing. My friends are all telling them different things - I’ve gone underground in Croatia, I’m living in an ice cave in Alaska, I’m on a deserted island in the South Pacific - they’re confused and not sure what to do next. Vampires go out on their own all the time. We lead a lonely existence as it is, so why not live alone?
We can survive off of animal blood. But because animals don’t have evil in them, it means no fangs. No fangs means we have to slice them open and just drink their blood. It sustains us and keeps us alive but with no fangs it means we live but over time we lose our strength.
For some reason that’s never explained to us, the blood must pass through our fangs to maintain our strength.
If it doesn
’
t, we become almost human, if we fall our bones can break. It’s actually pretty frightening for us, but if we’re alone it doesn’t really matter that much.”

“
How long do you think that will keep them off track?” I asked.

“
Not long, they’ll separate, scatter, and check
everywhere fairly quickly.
When they discover that I still can’t be found, they’ll regroup and decide where to go from there.”

“
How long?” I asked again.

“
A week, maybe two
,
”
he said.

I felt the panic begin to rise, and forced it back down. A week, maybe two, was better than no more time together at all. “Okay,” I said and started to climb off the bed.

“
Where do you think you’re going?” he said as he pushed me back down.

“
Well, I was going to go take that shower that I didn’t get last night,” I said.

“
Not yet,” he said, “I know you have some questions for me first.”

Questions, what questions, why did he think I had…
oh…
those questions, how does he DO that????

“
Okay,” I started, “The blood, from last night, is that what you always feed on?”

“
Usually, but not always,” he said.

“
Can you survive on just that type of blood? What I mean is…
was really nervous about having to
kill people, even bad people. Will I have to kill people?” I said.

“
Absolutely not. You don’t ever have to do anything you don’t want to do,” he said.

“
Will it be hard for me to resist killing?” I whispered.

He paused for a second. “Sometimes it will be difficult, but it’s definitely not impossible
,
”
he said.

“
How long has it been since you killed someone,” I said, though I wasn’t sure I really wanted to hear the answer. My heart was pounding in my chest.

He had to think hard. That made me feel a little better. “I’m not exactly sure, Sarah. But it’s probably been at least few years now. I’ve been too distracted by you,” he said as he smiled.

I smiled and went on, “You seemed to have to smell it first, was that to get the scent of evil from it?”

“
Yes,” he replied, “The evil triggers the reaction that drops the fangs.”

“
Oh,” I replied, “so, if I cut myself, would you be tempted, would you want to drink my blood?” I asked.

He smiled then
,
“Oh, believe me, I would LOVE
the taste of your blood, my sweet, I’m sure it would be unlike any I’ve tasted before, but I would only be able to lap it like a dog, I wouldn’t have the ability to drain you, unless of course you allowed me to lick the wound for hours and hours without stopping.”

I smiled back at him. “Tempting…
but how do you know the blood you’re getting in the pints has evil in it?”
I asked.

“
Well, sometimes it doesn’t, but most of it does. We have prison doctors throughout the world who collect prisoner’s blood for us so we can stay strong without always having to kill, and while many prisoners try to claim it, most are not innocent,” he replied.