The Link (20 page)

We spent the entire day learning how to act human - what to order in a restaurant, how to make it look like we had eaten the food, how to move through crowds without being distracted by everything, how to dance like humans. He even took us on a “field trip” to a nearby village, where there was a street market with many people moving through the streets. We moved through the crowds, purchasing some items and pretending to taste some of the fruits and vegetables when they were offered. We even stopped at a small restaurant at dusk for “dinner.”
I was running out of pockets to hide my uneaten food. I thought, “Yuck, it’s going to take several showers to get this smell off me,” then my mind started to fantasize about taking those showers with Matt. I happened to steal a glance at him, and he was staring at me, his eyes unfocused, a smirk on his face. Horrified, I stopped thinking at once, hoping that I hadn’t accidentally passed those thoughts to our other tablemate. I went back to pretending to eat. But I couldn’t help noticing, out of the corner of my eye, Matt grinning and shaking his head. I was definitely feeling like we couldn
’
t get out of there fast enough.
I really have absolutely zero self-control when it comes to him.

We returned to our room after dark, contemplating the fact that Stefan, the vampire who had taught our lesson today, would be traveling with us for a least the first few months, making sure we were blending well. That would really put a crimp on our alone time, which, at the moment, was never enough.
We thoroughly enjoyed the showers we had to take to wash the awful smell of food of us, then moved our enjoyment to the mattress on the floor - I guess they decided not to bother replacing the bed. They probably knew we’d only break it again.

Lesson #5 - Consequences

This time they left us alone for a week, leaving trays of blood every other day on the floor outside our door. By the end of the week, the bed was not the only casualty in the room - the sofa lost two legs at one end and had stuffing coming out of one end (from me biting it to suppress my scream), the dining table resembled nothing close to what it once was: It was
shattered and spread all over the floor. And the shower had several dozen broken tiles (from Matthew shoving me against the wall during a particularly epic moment for both of us, after which we both collapsed to the floor of the shower, unable to move, even as the water changed from hot, to warm, then to ice cold).

We knew our training was going to continue today because they had knocked on the door this morning and brought the tray in instead of leaving it outside the door. I felt kind of sorry for the cloaked vampire as he first noticed the broken table, then glanced around the room for some sort of surface to put the tray on, and seeing none, he just shook his head, handed it to me and raised his arms in defeat as he walked out, not bothering to close the door.
I turned to Matthew and smiled, “Maybe he thinks we’re gonna go at it again if he closes the door.”

He smirked and said, “We probably would.”

I smiled and offered him something to drink, grabbing mine as I placed the tray on the floor.
My last empty fluttered to the floor and I looked at Matt. He had that sparkle in his eye again. “Come here, sexy,” he said as he held his arms open. We were so
involved in our kiss that we never heard the cloaked vampire come back in the room. We both jumped when he actually spoke this time, “Oh puuuhhhllleeessse, would you two just give it a rest?”

He shook his head as we both answered while smiling and staring into each other’s eyes, “Sorry, can’t.”
He turned and we followed him down the hall.

We entered the room and I cringed and squeezed Matthew’s hand harder when I saw it was the black haired, sinister vampire who sat in the center position at the table. The one that I thought was the leader. The one who had caused me so much pain.
I started shaking.
My eyes pleaded with Matthew, “Please don’t let him hurt me again,” I whispered. Matt dropped my hand and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me closer and forcing me to look into his eyes. He whispered as we walked, “He’s not here to hurt you now, Sarah. It’ll be okay, nothing’s going to happen to you.”
I was trying really hard to believe him, but I was still terrified.

“
My name is Victor,” he began. “Today you will learn the consequences if you fail or disobey. Of
what will happen to you if you break any of the rules and what will happen to someone you incorrectly choose as a mate.”

I tensed up again - my panicking mind thinking, “this must mean more pain” but Victor turned to me, with kind eyes (kind eyes?? Where did those come from?)
.
“No child,” he said, “No more pain for you. At least not today.” Sarcasm welled up in me. I sooo wanted to say “gee, does that mean the pain comes tomorrow?” but I held my tongue, drawing strength from Matthew’s hand, which I was squeezing so hard that I saw him wince next to me. I relaxed my grip a little and waited. Victor continued, turning the sarcasm he must have seen in my head back onto me, “Well, I suppose I could let you experience the pain of what you will face, if you’d prefer, or I could just show you images without the pain.”

“
Ummm, just images please
,
”
I squeaked.

He reached out and touched his bony fingers to our temples - and the images flashed in my head - Matthew
and
I being ripped apart and our limbs being crushed into dust. Both of us tied to a stake, burning
in the fire. Tied together and left in the middle of the desert, the sun making our skin bubble and blister until we both burst into flames. Horrible, awful punishments, I thought, but all something I could deal with because we would die together.
I was thinking:
I can handle this - and then the final vision nearly ripped me apart. Both of us chained to a stone wall, in separate cells, the hands with our scars cut off, and we were utterly alone. My eyes flew open. I looked at Matt and his face looked crushed, defeated. He was unable to speak. I turned to Victor, “No!” I couldn’t stop myself from saying
.
“Please not that, anything but that.”
That wasn’t punishment
.
T
hat was worse than death. It tore me up inside just to think about it - dying of a broken heart, yet unable to die.

“
Ahhhh,” Victor said as he nodded his head, “So now you know the punishment that is chosen for you. A shiver went through me. I moved closer to Matt and felt him move closer to me. We both knew that this could never happen, ever. Neither of us could survive just thinking about it.

Victor broke us out of our horror, “Now, you will
see what will happen to incorrectly chosen mates.” And the images that flashed then - young vampires, like myself, scared, surrounded, torn apart, scattered, burned, starved - made me more determined to get this right.

We strolled hand in hand back to our room at the end of the day, exhausted from all of the images that had been forced into our heads. I was leaning my head against Matthew’s arm, when he suddenly stopped and I felt tension fill his body.

“
What?
What is it?” I said. Looking around, I saw what had stopped him…
and I hissed.

Our door was open.

We ran the rest of the way, and came to a dead stop in the doorway. The same young male vampire from this morning was bent over quickly sweeping up the remaining table pieces - and everything in the room had been replaced. New sofa, new table, new bed. I squeezed Matt’s hand and smiled. Still bent over the young vampire said, “Look, I chose to do this for you for a reason - I have two favors to ask of you.”

I stepped forward and said, “Of course, ask us
anything. But first, what’s your name?”

“
Andrew,” he said and he dropped his hood. He was young, or had to have been when he was turned. 21 or 22, very handsome with wavy light brown hair, and beautiful ice blue eyes. “Go ahead, Andrew, what are your requests?” Matt said from behind me.

“
My first request is…”he hesitated.

“
It’s alright, Andrew,” I said and I placed my hand on his arm.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Then he opened them, took a deep breath and continued.
“Well, it’s kind of embarrassing. But my first request is that you please, please, please don’t break anything else. We’re getting dangerously low on our supplies because of your…
ummm
…
rough play,” his eyes fell to the floor and I had to stifle a giggle.
I reached my hand back to Matthew, who eagerly joined me. “We’ll try our hardest not to break anything,” I said, “that’s really the best we can offer, Andrew. Now, what is your second request?”

He looked up at us with pleading, longing eyes. “Well,” he began, “I’ve heard what the two of you will be doing now…
and I want to ask if I can please
be your first customer.”

“
Well, I don’t see why not Andrew,” Matthew said, “what type of human attracts you? What are you looking for?”

“
Ummm,” he said, “what I want, what I REALLY want…
is what you have. I want someone that it hurts to be away from.”

I blew the air out of my lips, “Whew,” I said, “Well, then we’ll have to spend a lot of time together, getting to know you. It will help us determine exactly who it is that you need.”

“
Yes,” Matt said, moving forward and placing his arm on Andrew’s shoulder, “that’s exactly what we need to do
…
starting tomorrow,” and he gently led him to the door as Andrew slowly understood what Matt was telling him.

“
Oh! Well, of course we can start tomorrow. Have a pleasant evening,” and he hurriedly closed the door.

Matt turned and leered at me and said
,
“I think his first request is going to be a lot more difficult to honor.” I barely had a moment to take a quick breath before his lips crushed onto mine, his tongue found
mine, his breath found mine, his everything found all of me.

Our training continued for the next few months. Our days filled with more of the same lessons, our nights filled with loving each other. And we spent many evenings with Andrew. Getting to know him and his personality. Finding out about his past loves. I really liked him and I knew I had to get this right for him…
even if it did seem like a tall order. What I had with Matt felt so unique, so overpowering, so special, it was hard for me to realize that there had to be others out there who could feel the same way.
I know it seemed selfish, but I really couldn’t help it. I’d been loved before. Before he died, Rob really loved me. But did I feel that he was completely devoted to me? Did I know without a doubt that he would do anything for me? Did I know that he would die to protect me? No. He loved me, but not like this. I’ve never felt anything like this before. It was, to say the least, frightening,
overwhelm
ing, thrilling and completely satisfying all at the same time.
But for Andrew’s sake, I had to believe that there were others out there who could be as lucky as I
was. There had to be.

They gave me a laptop so I could keep notes and start a database…
Andrew had been the first, but he was definitely not the only vampire looking for a mate. Word was spreading quickly. We started to think it might be a little too much for just the two of us. Well, I smiled as I thought
:
at least none of us have a time limit.

I knew our training here was reaching its conclusion. I was excited and anxious to get started on our new adventure, but also incredibly nervous too.

I was sitting with Andrew at the little table, asking questions, taking notes, and watching Matt out of the corner of my eye. He was lounging on the sofa, just watching us. He seemed to be studying me. I was trying to figure out what he was doing, while also concentrating on Andrew, when Matt suddenly stood up and walked over to me. He kissed my cheek and said, “I’ll be right back.”

We hadn’t been apart, ever, in weeks. I tried to hide the worry and sadness in my voice, “Okay, sweetheart. I love you
,
”
I managed to say.

“
I love you, too,” he said and he was gone. I continued with Andrew as best as I could, but he saw right through me. “You’re in pain right now, aren’t you?” he said.

I nodded. “I’m sorry,” I replied, “I really am trying to focus on you, but, yes, it hurts, it physically hurts when we’re apart. I know we can’t always be together, I know I’ll have to learn to be apart from him sometimes…
but I will never be okay with it. It will always hurt.”