Nevermore, the Complete Series (56 page)

Cool, refreshing water ran down my cheeks and a soft cloth patted tenderly against my forehead. My eyes fought to open and slowly, my surroundings came into view. Salem held my head in his lap as he gently held a washcloth to my head and for a split second I had forgotten where I was and what had happened. The panic was coming back, I could feel it. I wanted to run, scream, get away, but there was no escape – the feeling was in the core of my body, my mind – I was causing it. Slowly, I inhaled a breath of musty air and exhaled.

“Is he…” I started to speak but Salem shook his head and I stopped immediately.

“Relax,” he insisted. “Try not to think of anything but relaxing.”

“How can I think of anything relaxing at a time like this?!”
I yelled and attempted to raise up. As soon as I had tried a pang of dizziness overcome me again. I sighed and tried as hard as I could to relax and block out the thoughts that were swarming around in my head.

I thought back to the night Salem proposed to me. I could barely feel the light weight of the silver ring on my finger and I smiled. Then I thought of how Paul, just hours ago, had congratulated me…and the sickness returned.

I attempted to block it out, to remember anything not associated with him. I remembered the feeling of flying, of being the raven, of feeling invincible to the laws of nature. My body relaxed slightly and I felt steady enough to sit up without support.

“Summon a new ladder! Someone climb down there and make sure he is okay! Do something!” I bellowed. “Please!”

Salem nodded urgently and a ladder materialized at the base of the hole. Why the hell hadn’t I thought of this before?! We all would have safely made it up here, no harm done! I hated myself at that moment and wished I had been the one broken and unconscious on the bottom of the cave. That is what made me decide that I would be the one to climb down there, despite Salem’s constant refusals and begging me not to. Hannah even, to my surprise, offered to check on him. But he was my father, and it somehow felt like my fault that any of this happened.

I kissed Salem quickly before making my way down the ladder. Despite wanting to get down as soon as possible I climbed slowly. Regardless of it being a new ladder or not, I was still very high in the air…and this one didn’t have the luxury of completely resting against the hard cave wall. One misstep, one bad footing and I could end up beside Paul faster than I had intended.

Once on the bottom I picked up the lantern and held it in my shaking hand, aiming the bright light toward my father. With my unoccupied hand, I slid the broken piece of ladder from his body and knelt beside him. I gulped at the sight of the pool of blood underneath him and at last, I felt something I had been longing to feel for so long – tears of sorrow and pain welled in my eyes and I let them fall relentlessly. I had been unable to cry over anything for so long that everything flowed back at once. First mom…then Karen, my birth mother…and now my dad, too?

At the sound of my wailing, Salem climbed down the ladder and sat beside me. I wanted him to hold me, to let me cry until there was nothing left but I couldn’t take my eyes off of Paul’s body. My hand fell across my father’s chest and I held it there firmly against his ripped shirt, sticky with blood. I begged and waited for the sound that would tell me he was alive. His chest didn’t rise or fall to indicate that he was breathing. Furiously, I slammed my fist into his chest and screamed until I was hoarse.

“How many people am I going to have to lose!?” I bawled and raised my hand to strike once more, but Salem grabbed onto my wrist and stopped me.

“There might still be a chance, Alexis,” he said quietly. “The spring…”

“He is dead, Salem! Don’t you get it? The water doesn’t bring back the dead!”

“You don’t know that he is dead,” Salem replied. “He might be close, but there is a possibility that there is some life left in him…would it really hurt to try?”

I shook my head, the tears still falling. “By the time we got back to the spring…it would be too late. And besides, you put that damned rock in front of that way, too!”

“She is right,” Ezra’s voice called down as he stepped off the last ladder rung, in my misery I had not even noticed him climbing down. “As much as it saddens me to say this, there is no hope left for him.”

I shook my head fiercely as the tears fought to start over again. “This can’t be happening, damn it! He came all of this way to apologize to me, to make things right again, and this is what he gets in return?!”

“I am so sorry, Alex…” Salem muttered, knowing his words wouldn’t fix anything. “I would sacrifice anything for your happiness; you know that…but there is nothing any of us can do now...”

All of the grief I had been through was too much to bear anymore. What had I done to deserve all of this? I was doing the world a favor! I was saving innocent people, yet it seemed that for every vampire I had slain, for every innocent life I had saved…God took someone away from me! With the last of my strength, I shut Paul’s eyes and blinked away a tear before Salem pulled me into his arms and held me tightly.

Time appeared to no longer matter as I lay emotionless in Salem’s warm embrace. My eyes had grown sore, my throat was dry, and I felt as if my body had been drained of all hope. My cheeks felt sticky from all of the tears I had wept and I couldn’t take my eyes off of the body lying on the cold stone floor – the body of the man who risked proper fatherhood in order to ensure my safety, the man who taught me to kill the undead, who taught me who I was, what I was, and what my purpose was…the man I had grown to love like the father he truly was to me. All that I had left now was Desmond, the man who played my father for years and then abandoned me.

Without speaking, Salem slowly laid me against the ground and a white sheet appeared bundled up in his hands. He looked at me for a moment, and I noticed a
sparkling tear rolling down his cheek. With one swift movement, he rested the sheet across my father’s body and whispered an apology to him.

“I am sorry, Paul.
For everything. But I promise you I will take care of her. Be at peace.”

Salem walked away from the corpse, past me and leaned with both hands against the wall. Suddenly he hit the cave wall with a fisted hand. “He was right.”

“What? Right about what?” I asked hoarsely and attempted to clear my throat.

“None of this would have happened had I stayed away, had I not followed Raziel’s vision in search of the mysterious girl that stole my heart away in just a single glimpse.”

I shook my head. “We both know that’s not true.”

“Perhaps,” he sighed and helped me up. “We should go.”

“I don’t want to…”

“I know that, Alex…but, we cannot stay here forever. What is done is done, and the wisest thing for us to do is walk away. That is what Paul would have wanted.”

“Was it this hard to stay away from your parents after they died?”

“I hardly had a choice in the matter.”

“That’s true,” I sighed and reflected on the fact that Salem wasn’t able to ever say goodbye to his parents before they perished in the fire. With that thought in mind, I slowly uncovered Paul’s face and looked at him one last time. “I love you, dad…thank you for everything…goodbye…”

With one final glance, I covered him up and began walking away with Salem right behind me. “Wait,” I said and turned around, nearly colliding with him. “Can you do me a favor?”

“Anything.”

“Summon a picture of Destiny and me, and some flowers.”

Salem nodded with an understanding smile and the items appeared in his hands. He offered them to me and I uncovered Paul one last time. I glanced at the picture momentarily and realized it was identical to the one from 1995 that I had found on the floor in his trailer, and then I laid it across his chest along with the flowers.

I reluctantly turned away again and followed Salem up the ladder and back into the abandoned lighthouse.

Ezra gave me an unexpected hug and whispered a sincere apology into my ear. Hannah merely stared at me and didn’t say a word, but I didn’t expect any sympathy from her.

Salem summoned a flashlight and I noticed him wince for a moment. It was going to take him a long time to realize the limits of a mortal life. He shined the light curiously at the stacks of boxes and pallets, but they didn’t appear to contain anything useful. The spiral staircase was rickety and appeared unused and dangerous, plus we had no reason to venture up when our goal was to get out and go home. I felt sick to my stomach when I thought of the fact that we were deserting my father below, but there was no way to rescue him from his fate. Before we left the lighthouse, Salem and Ezra pushed the
ladder down and shoved some of the boxes over the hatch leading into the cave and concealed it in case anyone was to go searching through the place.

The door leading out of the lighthouse was stuck and difficult to push open. It squeaked noisily as Salem finally got it to budge, revealing a mossy hill and a crowd of people in the distance. The sky was dark, making me wonder just how long we had been down there in the cave.

We stumbled down the hill in silence so as not to attract any attention from the distant people, or any officers lurking around – we were trespassing, after all. I forgot how noisy a human could be when walking, how ungraceful they…we…were, and how much it hurt to tumble down a hill when you weren’t paying attention to your footing because you were so used to not having to. Salem shouted my name when he spotted me rolling down the side of the hill and slamming my side into a thick tree trunk. I gasped in agony and curled up in a ball beside the base of the tree.

“Are you okay?” Salem whispered as he turned me over onto my back slowly.

I nodded my head slowly as I bit down hard on my bottom lip to lessen the pain. My side radiated with pain and I was almost certain something was broken, if not fractured.

“Nothing’s broken,” Hannah mumbled.

“How would you know?” Salem asked, glaring in her direction.

She shrugged. “I saw it coming.”

“Why the hell did you not say anything?!” he shouted furiously. “This could easily have been avoided!”

“The future isn’t set in stone – it can be changed!” She mocked, bobbing her head back and forth.

“You are still going on about that?” he seethed, rose from the ground and pushed his half-sister but she barely budged.

Hannah cocked her head to the side and grinned.
“Really, Salem? You’re going to attempt a fight with me? We all know how that would end.”

“Just because you saw some possible future, does not mean that you should willingly allow Alexis, or anyone, to be harmed. You may be stronger than me physically, but you know what I am capable of…as well as what she is capable of.”

“Oh please. Right now, she is capable of nothing much more than whimpering on the ground,” Hannah replied with a grin.

As I struggled to get up, Salem rammed straight into Hannah in another attempt at knocking her over. She roared with laughter and pinned him to the ground, her hand coiled tightly around his throat. “Don’t be stupid, Salem! I could have you dead in less than a second if I wanted – not that I do. But don’t change my mind, big brother. Go tend to your little pet and let’s get back home. I am sick of the scenery here and that god-awful ocean stink, blech,” she said and pushed him aside.

“She isn’t my pet,” he growled and rubbed at his sore neck as he approached me. He reached for me with his outstretched arm and pulled me up. My side ached miserably but I tried to ignore it as I leaned on him for support. I grimaced at the purpling bruises on his skin, which hurt me more than the physical pain inflicted on my own body. “I will be fine,” he said with a gentle smile.

Ezra offered to take my other side to help us walk faster, but I insisted that I was more than capable of walking. “Where is my car, Hannah?” I asked as we made our way into the streets of St. Augustine. It was nice to be among the real world again, rather than living like moles beneath the dirt.

“Your car? A few blocks away, parked at a Subway,” she answered and led the way.

I was mesmerized by the appearance of my white Prius parked in the parking lot of the deli building. The smell of bread caught my attention and I was momentarily tempted to stop for a bite to eat, but decided I would just have Salem summon me a snack or two during the trip back home. I was dreading the idea of driving back to Colorado, but glad to know that this time I would be capable of sleeping through it as much as possible. As Hannah climbed into the driver seat, I eyed Ezra curiously and approached him. He stood silently, observing us from the sidewalk.

“Where do you plan to go from here, Ezra?” I asked him.

Ignoring my question, he replied, “How…how long have I been in that box?”

“Well it’s 2013 now so…”

“Two-thousand and thirteen!?”

“Yes…so…almost five-hundred years?”

“It is a strange thing…time. I knew I had been locked away for a long time, probably years...but would have never imagined such a length. I had no night or day in there, no changing of seasons…just dark, wet, and cold.

“This world is a stranger to me. These lights…the very ground I walk on…so much has changed. And this,” he nodded towards the car, “what sort of magic gives way to horseless carriage.”

Despite the situation, I giggled. “This is a car, it’s not magic. It uses fuel. I guess you can say you feed it gas and it moves.”

“So then it is alive?”

“No…no,” I felt sorry for him, he had missed so much. In all honesty, I believe he was taking it better than I would have. “It’s a machine. It’s like…well, it’s like a lantern. You burn the fuel and the heat makes it work. Parts move and twist and it is able to move.”

“I see. To answer your question, Alexis, I do not know what I will do or where I shall go. I fear I am a relic in this place. I wish I had died in that box.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Ah, but yes I do, child. Five-hundred years, you say? What of my family?
My father’s estate? Long gone and forgotten, I fear. And you already know what has become of my once sweet Eleanor…”

In that moment I was glad of my choice of a mortal life. Although nearly all of my family were now gone, I couldn’t imagine watching everyone else around me grow old and pass away as I remained.
Namely Jason…and Mitch.

“You could come with us,” Salem said politely when he came to our sides. “We can teach you of the changes to the world as we go.”

“That is a very generous offer,” Ezra replied thoughtfully. “I think I shall take you up on it, and see where things go from there.”

“Then it is settled!” I said, “You will come with us to Colorado.”

“Colorado…?”

Salem and I both laughed,
then led him to the car. It was amazing watching him adjust to the unfamiliarity of the vehicle – it reminded me somewhat of Salem’s first experience in a car, only far worse because Ezra had never even seen a car prior to now. At first he seemed almost frightened to get in. Then after the engine started I thought he may jump out.

I listened to the gentle pitter patter of rain against the car roof and watched the droplets trickle down the side of the window as I fingered around in my pocket for my cell phone. Hesitating at first, I grabbed the slim cellular device and pulled it out. Jason’s name was the first one I went to and I listened to the dial tone. My mouth spread into a wide smile when I heard his voice.

“Alex? Is everything okay?”

“Hey…” I said quietly, calmly, “I’m okay. Human again, if that is what you were wondering.”

“That’s great!” he replied enthusiastically. “Salem, too?”

“Yes. But…not everything turned out as planned...”

“What happened?”

I swallowed back the oncoming outburst of tears as I recalled the incident with my father. “Paul came to find us…and…he didn’t make it.”

There was silence at the other end, followed by a gasp and an uncomfortable clearing of his throat. “Did you…did Salem…you know…have to…”

“No! Nothing like that…he slipped and fell and…I’ll tell you more when we get home, okay?” I said as I felt the tears starting to well in the corners of my eyes. Saying it again made it real.

“Yeah, sure…where are you now?”

“We’re leaving Florida right now. It’ll be a few days before we’re
back home.”

“Be careful, Alex…and
I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks…” I sighed. “I’ll see you soon. And don’t panic when we get there but we have someone with us.”

“Don’t tell me it’s another vampire?! Are you crazy?”

“No…not a vampire…not exactly.
I…I have to go, I will see you soon.” 

I hung up and turned off my phone, set it back in my pocket and nestled my head against Salem’s shoulder. To my surprise, he was already drifting off to sleep – something I had never seen him do. I stared up at him as my eyes slowly
fell shut, admiring his flawlessness as he dozed beside me. He looked more at peace than he ever had before. The image of his face was the last thing on my mind before I slowly fell unconscious.

When I woke I was startled to see it was daylight out. I wondered if our bodies were trying to catch up. When she noticed I was awake, Hannah informed me that we were on our way through Louisiana. I jumped up in my seat and rubbed my eyes. Salem was still asleep beside me, his head slumped over against the side of the window – he no longer looked quite as comfortable.

“How long have I been out of it?” I asked groggily.

“Almost twelve hours,” Hannah responded and began turning off to a rest stop. “Figure you two weaklings might need a break to walk around, maybe use the bathroom or whatever.”

“Thanks…” I mumbled, ignoring her subtle jab at us. “Hannah…what really made you decide you didn’t want to me mortal again?”

She glanced back at me momentarily, then back through the windshield. “Like I said before, there’s nothing that would make me give up living forever. I will NEVER grow old, or weak.”

“It isn’t like I want to be old either,” I sighed.

“It’s different for you, and anyway you did it for him, because you love him.”

“Would you do the same for someone that you loved?”

She shrugged. “Probably not, and really, can you picture someone loving me?”

“I can,” Ezra said with a polite smile as we pulled to a stop outside of a crowded rest area.

I nudged Salem on the shoulder and he pushed away my hand, fighting off waking up. I laughed and repeated my action until he begrudgingly opened his eyes. He blinked at the bright light blaring through the windows and groaned. “Where are we?”

“Louisiana. Now, hurry up and go do whatever it is you need to and get back in,” Hannah replied.

Without a word, Salem exited the vehicle on wobbly legs. He leaned against the side of the Prius and I met him on his side of the car.

“We’ve been asleep for a long time,” I commented.

“Indeed,” he laughed and stretched his arms out over his head. “That was the best sleep I have had in ages.” He winked.

I laughed along with him and pulled him into a close hug. The sound of his heart reverberated against my ear as my head rested against his chest. I smiled warmly and released him. “I need to get to a bathroom,” I said with a slight chuckle and began sprinting to the restroom.

Salem slowly followed a few feet behind me and entered the men’s room. I wondered to myself as I entered the nearest stall, how bizarre it must have been for him to have spent over a hundred years without using the bathroom, and now to relearn that…technique. I laughed to myself and heard someone in the next stall over cough uncomfortably and I rushed out of the room after rinsing my hands. I met Salem outside and we walked, hand-in-hand, back to the Prius.

“My stomach is rumbling,” he said and placed his hands over his abdomen. “This is a feeling I am not too familiar with.”

“Yeah, mine too, it’s weird how normal hunger is so different from a vampire’s…isn’t it? Well…just summon us something to eat I guess,” I suggested. “We will get used to being human again, trust me. It isn’t nearly as difficult as learning to become a vampire.”

“I for some reason have my doubts,” he said and two bowls of fruit salad appeared on his palms. He offered one over to me and I gladly accepted.

“Salem, why is it you always summon fruit for yourself anyway? I mean it’s good, but aren’t boys supposed to all love steak and stuff?” I grinned.

He shrugged and bit into a small chunk of cantaloupe. “Mother taught me to eat healthily…and besides, I think I have had my share of animal flesh over the years.”

“She was a smart woman,” I replied with a smile and gathered a few blueberries and popped them in my mouth.

“I am sure you will make a smart moth…” he paused and I saw his cheeks redden for the first time.

“Mother?” I finished for him. “Do you believe Hannah’s ‘vision’ at all?”

“There is always the possibility, but we shall experience things as they come…that is what life is all about. It is one long journey that must be taken step by step, and we will overcome every obstacle that we come across, together.”

I smiled and we shared a sticky yet sweet kiss, the flavor of blackberries mingling with strawberries. Hannah knocked on the window to get our attention and we broke apart and reluctantly scrambled back into the vehicle as she watched us with a disgusted look on her face.

The remainder of the trip seemed to speed right by us as Ezra told us stories of his life as a mortal, a hunter, and how he inevitably came to be a vampire. He had once been the son of a wealthy business man, a brother to two younger sisters, and he had barely known his mother – she died upon giving birth to his youngest sister. When he was thirteen, he learned of the undead and became fascinated with the idea of monsters lurking in the night and sucking the blood of mortals – at the time he was convinced it was just a tale his uncle told to scare him and his siblings. It wasn’t until he turned fifteen that he discovered the horrible truth, and his fascination died. A sudden outbreak of deaths erupted around the town he grew up in, all with the same ailments – two puncture wounds to the throat or wrist and their corpses drained entirely of blood, but not a drop on the ground. Everyone became frightened at the idea that vampires had found their way into the town, and by their own mistakes believed that they were incapable of walking during the day. Families would roam freely during daylight, without a care, until an unfortunate servant girl was found dead in a haystack during mid-day. Men began crafting weapons to fend off the beasts – stabbing them simply didn’t do the trick, it barely fazed them at all, decapitation was successful but not the easiest attack approach. Ezra approached the hunters cautiously with an idea – bullets and arrows to the heart. The men were uncertain at first, but after the initial attempt and kill they crafted weapon after weapon, hundreds of bullets and arrows, and handed them out to every man in the town and taught them how to fight – including young Ezra. He learned all that he could by observing other hunters, and from killing vampires firsthand. Every night, he would write a new entry in his journal relating to everything he learned in order to preserve the knowledge for future hunters – just in case he died before being able to teach a son.

He explained how he had met Eleanor, a servant girl in his father’s estate. He had fallen in love almost instantaneously, despite her being of lesser social status. A relationship that would be frowned upon if brought public, especially by his father.

He delivered anonymous love letters to her, flowers, and jewelry, and eventually grew the courage to approach her on his own and declare his love for her, all in private. She admitted to sharing affection toward him, but desired to get to know him before courting. They became friends, and soon after Ezra proposed marriage to the love of his life without consulting his father or hers.

He then went over the incident in which caused Eleanor’s fierce jealousy and eventual corruption. Roughly a week after their engagement word had spread despite his attempted candor. Eleanor was already suspicious of Ezra’s need to be randomly gone night after night, sometimes for days on supposed ‘business’ trips that no one else ever seemed to know about and that Ezra would not tell her of in detail. In truth he was hunting, but he could not dare to tell her that yet. As widespread as the vampire belief was at that time, there were many more that believed it nonsense, Eleanor among them.

He could not say who began the rumor, it could have been anyone, but soon word was about that Ezra had a mistress in a neighboring town. An English girl, rich and beautiful. Ezra would not have doubted it was his own father who spread the rumor, or one of his sisters who were more than a little prone for gossip. None of them had ever liked the idea of him wedding someone as common as Eleanor.

Soon after this rumor was at its peak and it had time to fester inside Eleanor, Ezra was turned. He couldn’t face her like that – a monster. What if he attacked her? What if he turned her, or worse? He would go to the ‘new world’ for a cure. Eleanor would understand all when he returned. It was safer this way, for her and for him.

How she found out he had sailed to the West was a mystery to him, but she must have thought he and his non-existent rich mistress had ran off. What happened with her from there was a blank aside from when she showed up on his trail in America.