The Link (13 page)

“
Much,” he replied as he looked at me, smiled and winked, making me blush.

“
Your plane leaves in an hour,” she said

“
Where to now?” I asked.

“
Paris, France,” he replied. My eyes grew wide, another place I’ve always wanted to go but have never been.

Again I wanted to ask if we could stay there a bit, but instead I said
,
“I know, I know, soon.”
He rolled his eyes, but then smiled. The flight to France didn’t take too long. For someone who used to absolutely hate flying, I really was enjoying this First Class stuff. It was just after two in the afternoon when we arrived at our room in Paris. It was the most luxurious hotel room I had ever seen. The Eiffel tower was visible just outside our window. I knew
we had until after midnight before he would be leaving, alone this time he had already told me, and I was torn between spending that time in the room with him and going out to do some normal touristy things. He seemed to sense my indecision.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the door while saying, “We will have an eternity of days to spend together in bed, Sarah. This is your first time in Paris and you should see a few things.”

I smiled and happily, though reluctantly, followed him. I was an excited tourist then for the next few hours, going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, walking along the Seine River, going to the Louvre museum. I filled up the memory card on my camera along the way.
I was pretty exhausted when we returned to the room at
10:00
p.m., but definitely not too exhausted to thank him for the afternoon.

He stayed in bed with his arms wrapped around me, until he had to leave at midnight. I was sleeping, but he lightly kissed me on my forehead, traced the scar on my palm and whispered, “I love you.”

“
I love you too,” I mumbled back, reaching for him but he was already gone, with Pierre.
They
were gone to the Catacombs of Paris, tunnels beneath the streets of Paris filled with the bones of millions of Parisians, seeking more of the answers we were looking for. I rolled over onto his pillow, happily smelling his scent, and fell into a deep sleep.

I began to realize that something was
…
off
…
shortly before dawn. But the realization began in my dream. In my dream, I thought Matt was sleeping next to me. But he smelled different. And when I rolled over and rested my arm on his, his skin felt different. I frowned as I tried to figure out what was wrong. As I did this, I gradually began to wake up. Finally, as the sun peaked through the curtain, my eyes fluttered open and then closed again. My subconscious told me
,
“That was strange, Sarah.” Then my eyes fluttered again, staying open a bit longer, and then closing again. Suddenly my subconscious yelled at me, “That’s not him, Sarah,” and my eyes flew open. I gasped then relaxed a bit when I realized who it was.

“
Jesus, Carlos. You scared the hell out of me,” I said, as I made sure my naked body was completely covered.

“
Apparently I confused you too. You were frowning in your sleep,” he grinned.

“
What are you doing here? Where’s Matt?” I gasped again and said, “Something’s wrong. Something’s happened to him. Tell me Carlos. Please, tell me.”

“
Relax, Sarah. He’s fine. It’s just taking a little longer that he expected and he asked me to keep you company today,” he said.

“
You swear he’s okay, Carlos?” I said.

He grinned and held up two fingers, “Scout’s honor,” he said.

“
He’s going to be gone all day?” I said.

“
Probably until tomorrow morning. But relax, Sarah. You’ve got me as your Paris guide. We’re going to have fun,” he said.

“
But I already did the tourist stuff with Matt yesterday,” I said.

Carlos rolled his eyes, “Oh, please. You did the boring tourist stuff. I’m going to take you to see all the fun stuff. The stuff that Matt was to chicken to show you,” he said
.
“Now, hurry up and get ready.”

I just sat there with my arms crossed, staring at
him.

“
What?” he said

“
I need that robe, please. And I need you to turn around,” I said.

He just stared at me for a second. “You mean
…
you’re naked under there? And I didn’t even know? Shit, I could’ve peaked. Damn the luck,” he grinned as he handed me the robe and then turned around. I threw on the robe and started to climb off the bed to head into the bathroom.

“
Do me a favor and order me some breakfast please? I’m starving,” I called over my shoulder.

“
Sure thing, but what do you want? I’m a little out of practice.” he said

“
Just some fruit, maybe some juice and croissants, please.”

When I emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, Carlos was sitting next to the table full of food, grinning. “What’s so funny?” I said.

“
The bellboy commented that I was a different guy than the one you came in with last night. I’m pretty sure he thinks you’re a bit of a slut,” he said.

I just shrugged my shoulders, sat down and
started eating.

“
That doesn’t bother you, Sarah?” he said, a little surprised.

“
No. Why should it?” I said.

“
Huh. You surprise me,” he said.

I finished breakfast, grabbed my camera and we headed out. We saw the bellboy as we walked through the lobby. Carlos just shook his head and chuckled as I wrapped my arm around his waist and made it look like we were a couple. The day flew by with so much laughter that my cheeks hurt. Carlos put his own spin on the history he was telling me, making me laugh so hard I had tears coming out of my eyes. He took me to a burlesque show, made even more interesting because half the girls knew Carlos by name. “And the bellboy thinks I’m a slut,” I whispered into his ear, making him grin. For our last stop we went to the countryside to tour a winery. The sun was just beginning to set as we wandered through the vineyards. I noticed Carlos kept getting us farther and farther away from the rest of the tour group.

We were alone near one of the back rows that
backed up to a cliff, when Carlos leaned in and whispered, “Don’t scream, okay?”

“
Don’t scream? What do you mean don’t…” then I gasped and clasped my hand over my mouth as Carlos wrapped both arms around my waist
…
and flew. He flew us up to the top of the cliff, where we sat and watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen. We waited until it was dark, then he flew us all the way back to the hotel, landing in the dark alley right next to it. I was exhausted. I put on one of Matt’s t-shirts, climbed into the bed, and tried to keep my eyes open as I thanked Carlos for the incredibly fun day. But I’m pretty sure I was out after only a few minutes.

I woke the next morning, with the sun streaming in through the window, to a knocking at the door. I glanced around frantically. Carlos was gone and Matt should’ve been back by now.
I threw on my robe and headed to the door. I looked through the peephole and smiled at what I saw
:
My Matthew with a cart full of food. I opened the door and he breezed in with a, “Good morning, my sweet.”

“
Good morning to you,” I replied, eyeing the
food (I was starving from all the running around I had done
with Carlos
). The cart was filled with fruit, juice, crepes, croissants, pure heaven I thought as I dug in. “Did you have any success?” I said.

He smiled and patted my hand, “Eat first, my love. We can talk about that later,” he said. That’s kind of odd, I thought, but I decided not to push it right now. I was enjoying my breakfast too much.

“
I think I really am going to miss food,” I said to him, smiling with a mouthful.

“
I did too for a while,” he softly said, “but not so much anymore, although I am enjoying the feelings you have when you eat right now,” he smiled. I stopped when he said this, swallowing the bite I had in my mouth.
“You can feel how much I’m enjoying this food, huh?” He nodded and closed his eyes, smiling. I looked down at the table and I was surprised to see that I had already devoured most of the food on it. With a smirk I decided to
‘
change’ what he was feeling. His eyes popped open and I saw the confused look on his face as he tried to figure out what I was doing. I closed my eyes and started fantasizing about what I wanted to be doing to him,
with him, right here, right now. Keeping my eyes pressed shut and a smile on my face, I allowed my body to feel what I was thinking. I felt my heartbeat quicken and I felt the familiar pulsing between my legs. I heard the surprised, “Oh!” then “Oh my!” then a groan, a growl and he was on me, kissing me and pulling me down to the carpet
…
the bed was just too far away this time.

I traced my finger down his chest later. “That was sneaky,” he mumbled.

“
No, that was fun,” I replied and he smiled. Then I remembered what I had done the day before. My eyes flew open
.
“Oooohhh! Guess what I did yesterday?” I said.

He smiled at me, “You mean, besides upsetting the poor bellboy?”

I smiled, “Oh, he’ll get over it. No, I got to fly! Wait until you see the pictures I got of the sunset,” I said.

“
Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” he smiled.

“
Duh!” I said
.
“Seriously, you have got to do that with me…
a lot.”

“
Of course, my sweet.”

He sat up then and I knew it was time to go, again. We dressed and packed together (there seemed to be more new clothes in my bag - how does he do that?). We were quiet as we rode to the airport. The frantic pace of the last week was wearing on both of us. I absent-mindedly traced the scar on his hand and asked, “Where to now?”

“
Haiti,” he replied.

“
Haiti?” I asked, trying to think of what was there that could possibly have anything to do with vampires.

“
Voodoo?” I asked and he nodded. The flights were very long. I was totally exhausted and beginning to wonder if I was going to be able to keep going much longer. I leaned my head on his shoulder, closed my eyes and concentrated on how good it felt to be with him. How completely loved I felt. It seemed like a lifetime since I felt this good, this happy, despite my nagging fears of what would happen in the future. Slowly, I felt my strength beginning to return. I would keep going. I had to go on, for him, for me, for us. He took my hand kissed the back of it, then turned it over and kissed
my scar. A gasp escaped my lips - that will never get old, I thought. We climbed out of the taxi and were standing in front of a beautiful old plantation home. The driver seemed a little nervous here, and I wondered why. He hurriedly got our bags out of the trunk and set them on the ground. Then he jumped back into the car. We moved out of the way just in time to miss the gravel and dirt from his spinning tires, as he took off too fast. I turned back to look at the house and was surprised to see a woman standing on the steps right in front of us. She seemed to have appeared silently out of nowhere. She eyed me up and down, then turned to Matthew, bowed her head and turned and headed towards the house. We picked up our bags and silently followed. Inside I instantly felt like I had walked into an old movie. There didn’t appear to be electricity in the home and there were candles lit everywhere. They created an eerie glow that made shadows dance on the walls. This place was both fascinating me and giving me the creeps. She motioned for us to set our bags down in the hall and then we followed her to the back of the house, down the stairs to what I assumed was the
basement but in reality was a huge cavern that was easily larger than the house above us. There were candles lit on the walls and a fire next to one wall with a large black iron cauldron on it. And in the center of the room was a pool. A pool of what I thought was deep black water. Looking closer, I glanced quickly at Matt’s face, then back at the thick black water because it appeared to be moving. No, not moving, I thought, pulsing…
like a heartbeat. She walked to the other side of the pool, picked up a pot with a long handle on it, scooped water out of the pool and poured it into the cauldron. I couldn’t be sure but I would swear that she was struggling to get the water from the pool to the cauldron, like it was fighting with her. To my horror I was right.
On the last pot she grabbed, a large drop fell onto the rock at the side of the pool
…
and slithered back in to the water. I shivered and turned my face into Matt’s chest. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me tight. She motioned to us then, wanting us to join her near the fire. As we walked over, I kept my eyes on the water the entire time. I was afraid to tear them away until we were near her. She lit some incense
and began singing, chanting and waving the smoke around us and the cauldron. She pulled down a jar from the wall which looked to me like it contained small human bones, maybe from fingers or toes. She poured some into a bowl, ground them up and poured it into the cauldron. There was a growl (I swear it was) from the cauldron and a big puff of smoke and she stirred again, while still singing and chanting. Next, she picked up a small cage.
I tried not to gasp when I saw it contained a live chicken. I turned my head into Matthew’s chest, not wanting to see what happened next, and turned back in time to see her pour a bowl full of blood into the cauldron. Another growl, another puff of smoke, more stirring and chanting. Three more jars, of things that I really didn’t want to know what was in them, were pulled down off the wall, ground up and poured into the cauldron. Each followed by louder growls and larger puffs of smoke. Several minutes, maybe hours, later (I wasn’t sure because I was dizzy and had no sense of time down here), the cauldron released one more groan, a large puff of blood red smoke and then she stopped singing and chanting.
She grabbed two small bottles, that each had a leather string tied around them, and a ladle. She scooped some liquid from the cauldron and poured it into the small bottles, then inserted the corks and placed them around our necks. Then she placed her hand on my forehead. I was instantly aware of what was in the bottle, why it was needed, what it was for. How is that possible when she never spoke a word??? I stared at her for a second, but she just smiled and nodded her head.
She stood up then and we followed suit, me trying to maintain my…sanity. But when she picked up the chicken carcass and tossed it in to the pool, which began to
‘
fight’ over it, that was too much for me, I had seen enough. Matthew’s soft arms caught me as I fainted, and he gently carried me up the stairs.