Her Loving Husband's Curse (37 page)

He waited. Sarah lifted her head and said:

“The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persever,

That when we live no more we may live ever.”

James sighed. “Do you understand why I’m doing this, Sarah? I need to know that you understand why I’m leaving.”

“They’ll hunt you down if you don’t go.”

“And the sooner I go, the sooner this nonsense will be over and I can come home.”

“I know.”

Sarah watched the white-skinned men and women boarding trains, saw their weeping families, and she looked as blank as James felt, as though everything passed by in a haze. As a new train was called and a fresh crowd brushed past on their way to the platform, Sarah grabbed James’s hand, and he clutched hers, tightly, pulling her toward him to protect her from trampling feet or grabbing hands.

“By leaving I’m protecting you, Sarah. Now the government has what they want, me, and you won’t be dragged who-knows-where for who-knows-how-long, always running, always paranoid. You can rest and recover and grow strong again without having to look over your shoulder every five minutes to see who’s there. By giving myself up, I’m setting you free. I will always sacrifice myself for you and Grace. I will give myself a thousand times over for the two of you.”

“I know,” Sarah said. “I love you.”

“I love you more.”

And he still, even as they sat in the chairs of the terminal waiting for his train to be called, even as they clutched each other as if they were the only things keeping the other from falling through the crust of the earth to the nothing on the other side, insisted that everything was going to be all right.

“This too shall end,” he whispered. He shook his head, remembering again there was something he wanted to tell her, something else, something…but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t recall what it was. Knowing there was something he couldn’t remember gnawed at him, chipping away at his brain in painful bites, and he was afraid he would be too far away before he recalled what he wanted to say and then he wouldn’t be able to tell her.

His train was called. He heard his number over the intercom and saw it flash on the screen overhead. He took Sarah’s hand and guided her through the press of bodies, paranormal and normal, the terminal buzzing with confusion and sadness and anger and every other emotion besides. As they walked past the glass doors outside to the platform where the trains waited in two long lines on either side, he gripped Sarah’s hand tightly, afraid to lose her in the dizzying maze of careworn faces. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the slick gray train that would take him away to some great unknown, a prison perhaps worse than the one he saw in his mind, the one as squalid as the one Sarah knew from over three hundred years before. He stopped near the first door, unable to look into Sarah’s face, unable to see her despair. When he double-checked the number on the screen, he saw a flash of recognition, a face he knew, but it was so fast it hardly registered in his brain. Who is that, he wondered? Then the face was gone but he heard the voice, the detached, hearty, assuring voice he heard when he questioned whether or not they should bring a child into their home. And then they found Grace. James, despite the tumult of the chaos around him, despite his weeping wife in his arms, was grateful to hear the warmth then.

“You will be all right,” he heard. “And Sarah and Grace will be too.”

There was the flash of the face again, too fast even for his preternatural senses to grasp, and then the face and the voice were gone. But James felt strong again. When the call for his train echoed on the platform, James tried to step away from Sarah but she wouldn’t let him go.

“No,” she said. “Not yet.”

James watched the army guards direct others onto the trains, vampires being led away, a sacrifice for the slaughter. Then a stocky guard in an overlarge uniform spotted him and James knew he had to go.

“Let’s go,” the guard said. “All vampires for the next train should be boarded now.”

“No, James. No!” Sarah grabbed his arm, refusing to let him go.

“It’s all right,” James said, stroking her long dark curls, brushing her tears away with his fingertips. “I’m immortal and I’m strong. I’ll be home soon.”

The soldier drew closer, impatient now. “Let’s go!” he yelled. He grabbed the back of a nearby vampire’s shirt and tried to drag the white-skinned man toward the train. The guard’s face grew red and wet when he realized he couldn’t make the vampire move, and he turned his attention onto other undeads a few feet away. “Now!” the guard yelled at them. Then he turned to James and pointed. “Let’s go!”

James was tempted to ignore him, or at least to show the world the inferior strength of humans compared to his kind, but Sarah was nearly liquid in his arms and he had to make this as easy on her as he could.

“I’m coming,” James said. “I’m saying good-bye to my wife.”

“She’ll be all right, James. I’m here to help.”

Jennifer appeared like an auburn-haired angel out of the crowd and slid her arm around Sarah. Howard and Timothy and Steve and Jocelyn were there too, Howard huddled close to his son, who was also being hounded about the train.

“Where’s Chandresh?” James asked.

Jennifer shook her head, her eyes red and swollen. “He’s already on board. He’s not very good at good-byes.” Jennifer pushed her long hair from her eyes, no longer pretending to hide her tears. “Don’t worry, James. We’ll be fine. Right, Sarah?”

Sarah stood between them, James holding onto one of her arms, Jennifer holding onto the other, and he marveled at how limp she stood, ready to be broken like a wish bone, left to see who was left with the larger piece of whatever shards were left of her. Jennifer tried to smile, tried to make light of the darkness surrounding them, but her usual playfulness deserted her long before she arrived at the train station.

“Can’t you snap your fingers and make this go away?” James asked.

“I wish I could, James.”

James put his arm around Sarah’s waist, then grabbed Jennifer’s arm so tightly she flinched under his strength. “You promised me three wishes,” he said. “That Halloween at the Witches Lair, you promised me three wishes. You said I used my first wish for the spell to bring me back after I saw Hempel in the sunshine. This is my second wish, Jennifer. Take care of Sarah and Grace. Whatever you need to do, however you need to do it, you make sure they’re all right. You help them stay strong, even if you have to use your magic.”

Jennifer smiled through her sadness. “Are you giving me permission to cast a spell?”

“I am.”

“And what about a spell for you? Do you give me permission for that too?”

James watched the swarm of soldiers barking orders, and he saw the vampires parting from their loved ones. He thought of Chandresh when the blue-suited officers ransacked his house and his muscular, manly friend could only look on, unable to do anything to protect his wife and children. He looked at Jocelyn and Steve as they whispered their own tearful good-byes. James nodded. “I’ll take whatever I can get right now,” he said.

“I’ll call Martha and the rest of my coven,” Jennifer said. “We’ll have a special ceremony. I have an acorn and white, yellow, and orange candles for Sarah’s spell for inner strength, and I have colored threads, scissors, and a screw-top jar for your spell for protection.” She hugged Sarah close. “And my mother, the great and powerful Olivia, will cast the spells for you. This way they’re guaranteed to work.”

“Don’t forget us,” Howard said.

“We won’t forget any of you,” Jennifer said.

Howard clutched his son to his chest with one arm and reached for James with the other. “You’ll watch Timothy, James?” Howard said. “You’ll make sure he’s safe.”

“You know I will,” James said.

Howard nodded, but James saw his friend’s furrowed eyes under his heavy, close-knit brows and he knew Howard wasn’t convinced. Howard was thinking what James already knew, that there were forces even James, with all his preternatural strength and extraordinary senses, couldn’t control.

“You should get on the train,” Howard said to his son. “It’s all right. Everything will be fine.”

Timothy threw his arms around his father’s neck. “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you, Timothy. I always thought I would never have a family because I was so different, but then I found you and suddenly my life made sense. I’m proud to be your father.”

They hugged tightly, but Howard stepped away. “I’m going to do everything I can to get you out, Tim. And I’m coming to see you. On the night of the full moon next month I’ll be there. Wherever you are I’ll find you. Do you understand what I mean?”

“Howl and I’ll know you’re there,” Timothy said. “Just be careful. We don’t want them to come after you next.”

“Don’t worry, Son. I’ll be fine. And you will too.”

Timothy looked at James with a sarcastic grin. “Guess what?” he said. “I got a call from that publisher this morning. He wants to have a look at my vampire book after all.”

“What did you say?” James asked.

“I told him I was a little busy right now. Maybe some other time.”

“I bet you could start a bidding war over your memoirs when you get out,” Jennifer said. “Then everyone will want to publish your book. A guaranteed
New York Times
bestseller.”

Timothy smiled. “Maybe,” he said. “Vampires are even hotter than they already were. Some movie called ‘The Vampire Killers’ is number one at the box office right now. It’s like vampires and cowboys and Indians. It’s the stupidest premise for a movie I’ve ever seen, but people are eating it up. I heard they’re already planning a sequel.”

James looked at Sarah but said nothing. Jocelyn took Timothy’s hand.

“We should go, Timothy,” she said. “Everyone else is on board and they’re waiting for us.” Jocelyn kissed Steve one last time, managed a weak smile for her husband, then helped the vampire boy onto the train, holding his hand, gently leading him forward as though she was afraid of how the shock of it all might affect him, forgetting, even turned as she was, that he was a young man trapped in a fourteen-year-old’s body. They hopped onto the train, found Chandresh waiting for them by the door, and they stuck together in a cluster, afraid to let any of the others out of their sight. James saw Geoffrey through the window of the next car, his long face pressed against the glass, his nose flat, his mouth blowing steam circles like a boy at the window of a candy shop. They caught eyes, and Geoffrey nodded. James didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The guards barked again, and James stepped toward the train but Sarah clung to him, her fingers fastened into his shirt, oblivious to anything but him. The train’s engine stuttered, and the guard next to James waved at other guards, who saw him, the last vampire on the platform. They shouted at more guards, and five armed guards ran toward him.

“I have to go, honey,” James whispered in Sarah’s ear. “I’ll be home soon.”

“I love you, James. I’ve always loved you. Even when I didn’t know your name I loved you.”

“Sarah, I have loved you every night for three hundred and twenty years.”

He kissed her, passionately, because this kiss had to last awhile. He kissed her the way he kissed her after more than three hundred years of missing her. His lips burned, as his unbeating heart did, for the love of her.

As the guards reached him he flashed onto the train and out of their grasp. He saw his wife weeping, limp with grief, and he saw Jennifer, Steve, and Howard rush to her side to embrace her, to keep her strong, because together they would see this through. James, praying for one of the few times since he was turned, asked God to send strength Sarah’s way. Please, God, he begged. She needs to stay strong. I need to stay strong. We need to see this through so we can be together again. I can’t wait another three hundred years before I see her again.

The train chugged away, faster and faster away from the woman he loved, her beautiful face pulled in a spasm of torture as though she were trapped between the walls again, feeling the cracks in her bones and the ache in her muscles and he wanted to scream. Most of all, he felt an overwhelming urge to vomit back every ounce of the blood that consumed his life and allowed him to live that unnatural way. It was just as he had told his father all those years before—it was always about the blood.

As the train picked up speed, James decided he needed to see his wife one last time. He jumped over the railing onto the ground below, flashing back to the platform with his supernatural speed, the human heads popping from side to side as they watched him race the wind to take his wife into his arms one last time. Sarah saw him as he drew closer to her, and she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. James swept her up, clutching her tightly to him, and he kissed her passionately, basking in her warm softness, savoring strawberries and cream, letting his lips linger on hers. When he heard the rushing footsteps and angry yells from the stampede of guards charging toward him, he stepped away.

“I love you, Sarah,” he said. “I love you more than anything in this world.” Finally, he remembered what he wanted to tell her. He reached into his pocket, took out the antique-looking key, placed it into her palm, and closed her fingers around it. “When you get home, look in my old desk near the window. This key will unlock the bottom right drawer, and there are papers in there—notes and letters—I want you to read. You were right, Sarah. They’re letters for my girlfriend.” He smiled. “I want you to see how much time I spend thinking about you when you’re gone. You are always on my mind. You are my Sarah.
My
Sarah. And remember Miriam’s prophecy. I will return. I will.”