Chapter 21
I’d always felt that there was nothing that a hot shower couldn’t cure. I turned out the bathroom light and closed the door, stripping off my clothes in almost complete darkness. The only light was the small strip that shone under the door, a calming reassurance that Mitch was nearby.
Turning the knob to the hottest setting, I stepped into the tub and pulled the curtain shut. With the flow of the water over my body, I felt myself relax, felt a warmth spread through my chilled limbs. My mood lightened and I began to sing, softly at first and then with more confidence, enjoying the sound of my voice echoing off the walls.
“Pack up all my care and woe, here I go, singing low. Bye, bye, blackbird . . .”
I sang the whole song through twice, then once again. It had always been one of my favorites. The last time through, a lower voice from outside the tub joined in. “Make my bed and light the light, I’ll arrive late tonight. Blackbird, bye bye . . .”
The addition of another voice made the entire experience much more sensual. The steam seemed to grow thicker, and the water felt alive, as if it had hands that were molding and touching my skin. The fragrance of the roses from the other room filtered in and I inhaled deeply. “Ahh, love,” I called over the sound of the water, “if you’re going to join me, you’d better get in here now. We’ll be out of hot water soon.”
“That’s an invitation I’d never want to turn down, Deirdre.” Mitch’s voice sounded different, higher pitched than usual, but I shrugged it off to the poor acoustics of the room. “But I’m afraid I have some serious business to conduct. I’ll be back for you later.”
“What?” I shook my wet hair and reached over to turn off the water. “What did you say? Mitch? Where are you going?”
My only answer was silence. I pulled open the curtain at the same time the door was opened and the light switched on. I blinked my eyes at the sudden onslaught, and peered around me. Mitch stood in the doorway, staring at the red petals scattered on the tile floor.
My eyes searched the room for a sign of someone else, but he had gone. Slipped in and out and delivered his message without either one of us knowing he was there.
“Bloody hell.” Mitch reached out and folded me into his arms, paying no attention to the fact that I was sopping wet and soapy.
My teeth were chattering and my whole body shivered. Larry had been in here with me, sharing the intimacy of the shower. Had he reached out and caressed me, under the guise of water and steam and mist?
My mind screamed for escape. “We’ll never win, Mitch. He’s too powerful. If he can come in here, like he just did, without either one of us noticing, he can do anything. How can we ever hope to stop someone like that? We could go away, somewhere he wouldn’t be able to find us. Build our powers together so that we could match him. But it’s hopeless right now.”
He shook his head. “I can’t give it up, Deirdre. Can’t just let him kill us all without a fight. There must be a way to stop him and we’ll find out what it is.” He reached over for a towel and wrapped it around my naked body protectively. “If it were just you and me, then maybe it would be different. But now I find myself responsible for the members of the Cadre as well. I cannot run away from this, as tempting as the idea is.”
I sighed, the shivering subsiding as his arms and the towel warmed me. “I know, Mitch. I know. But I’m frightened. I’ve never been so frightened in my whole life. Because now I have something to lose, something that makes my whole existence worthwhile. Maybe Fred was right.”
“Fred? What has he got to do with all this?”
“Nothing, really, except for what he told Mark.”
“Mark?” His mind seemed to blank on the name for a second. “Oh, yeah, Mark. The bartender at the Ballroom. What did he say?”
“That when vampires fall in love, they lose their edge and their instincts.” I moved away from him, wrapped the towel completely around me and went out into the bedroom. Looking at the clock I saw that there were two hours left before the council meeting. “I need to think,” I said. “I need to be alone.”
“But you shouldn’t be alone, Deirdre, who will protect you?”
“The same person who always has, Mitch. I will protect myself. If I can’t do it, then quite honestly I don’t deserve to live.” I pulled the sweatshirt I had taken off back over my head and gave a low laugh. “It seems like all I’ve done all night is change clothes.”
“I can’t let you leave, Deirdre.”
I zipped up my jeans and stepped into my boots. “You can’t make me stay, either, Mitch. I have to go. I’ll be back, probably in time for the council meeting. But if not, go ahead without me. This is what you’re good at.”
“But what if Larry finds you?”
I laughed and pointed to the roses. “He’s not had any trouble doing that so far, has he? Don’t worry about me, Mitch, you need to watch out for yourself. I’ll be safe for a while. After all, I’m lucky enough to know exactly when my time is coming. Nine days from now, if we don’t discover a way to stop him, I’ll be dead. And all your promises and vows will not help.”
I kissed him full on the lips. “Don’t worry about me, my love,” I repeated, “I’ll be fine and I’ll be back. I just need to approach the situation my way, not yours or the Cadre’s. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I do.” He hugged me to him and kissed me back. “I don’t like it much,” he acknowledged his standard answer with a small grin, “but I do understand. Keep in touch.”
“Always.”
“Well, Deirdre,” I said to myself as I hit the street, “where to now?”
I didn’t have an answer for that, but I stood still for a moment, my face raised to the sky, my nostrils flared to better inhale the night air. Then I began to run. Abandoning all thoughts, I allowed my legs and my body to think for me, to carry me to where I needed to go. Street after street I ran, and block after block. Not knowing my destination, or even knowing whether one existed. It made no difference. I felt freed, as if I had just awakened from a coma and found that I was alive once again. I had been trapped within my thoughts, within my fears for too long, but now the spell had been broken and I was finally free.
My feet slowed finally outside a grim brick building, the institution in which Sam worked. I laughed. Obviously there was something here that kept drawing me back.
I flew up the steps and into the front door. “Hello,” I greeted the sleepy nurse at the desk, “Sam’s in, isn’t he?”
She looked up at me with surprise. “Yes, he’s here. May I give him your name?”
“No need,” I walked past her, “I know the way.”
Without even knocking I flung open the door to his office. He jumped up from his desk, then relaxed when he saw me. “Deirdre, what an unexpected surprise.”
“For me, also, Sam.”
He gave me a questioning look. “What can I do for you?”
“I don’t really know right now. But something brought me here.”
Sam looked puzzled. “Is it Chris?”
“Chris?” I didn’t recognize the name for a second. “Oh, no, it isn’t Chris. That’s something to worry about tomorrow or the next day. For now, I just want you to listen while I tell you everything that’s been happening. That’s what you’re good at. And maybe you can give me a new slant on things. See something from a human perspective that the rest of us can’t glimpse.”
I told him everything. It took me nearly three hours to recount the last week’s events. By the time I had finished he had filled half of a yellow tablet with scribbled notes. He had interrupted when he needed to, attempting to clarify events and emotions. Finally we both seemed satisfied and he put his pen down.
“Busy couple of days, huh?” He smiled wearily. “I wish I’d had a full night’s sleep to filter this on, but I think I have everything.” He stood up from his desk and stretched, turning to the window and peeking through the venetian blinds.
“It’s almost dawn, you know. Do you have enough time to get to shelter?”
I shook my head. “I doubt it. Do you have a bed here I can use?”
He laughed. “We’ve got plenty of beds, Deirdre, with doors and windows that lock tight. But I doubt it will serve as much protection for you.”
“I don’t need protection, Sam, I just need a sunless room. I can take care of the rest. But I do have one other request.”
“What’s that?”
“Stay with me through sunrise. If I have another vision, I want you to be there with me. Maybe you can find out something that I can’t.”
“No problem.” He reached into his top desk drawer and pulled out a set of keys. “Thanks to the cutbacks in mental health these days, we have half a wing sitting empty. I can put you there, it’s as safe as anywhere else.”
“It will be fine, I’m sure. Shall we go?”
He started for the door, then turned back and opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out his portable tape recorder. I raised an eyebrow in question. “I thought that if you did have this vision, that I might hypnotize you afterwards. We can get much better detail this way. You know you can trust me; I’ve recorded you before.”
“Well,” I said with a shrug, “recording is one thing and hypnotism is another. But, I suppose it can’t hurt to try. I’m not entirely sure that you can hypnotize a vampire.”
“Of course you can.” His voice held no doubts.
“You sound pretty sure of yourself, Sam.”
“I am sure. From the story you told me, it’s obvious that it’s possible. It’s just a matter of finding the proper method.”
The room he showed me to was utilitarian. It had a small bed, unmade, but with bed clothes folded and set off to one side. The only other piece of furniture was a chair sitting in the corner opposite the bed. The room’s most noticeable feature was its lack of windows with none facing to the outside and none in the door facing toward the hallway. Once the door was closed I would be completely safe from sunlight.
“Sam,” I said with a sigh of relief, “this is absolutely perfect. Thank you.”
Sam looked around and laughed. “If this is perfect for you, Deirdre, I’d sure hate to see what you consider substandard.”
I laughed with him. “Perhaps perfect is not the proper word. Safe springs to mind and right now that is more important than decor.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Sunrise is close now.” I sat down on the bed and pulled off my boots. Then I stretched out on my back and closed my eyes.
I heard Sam moving around the room. First he closed the door and locked it, then he pulled a chair over to the side of the bed. The pages of his notepad rustled and he clicked the pen several times, then scribbled on the paper, testing the ink.
“Okay,” he said softly. “I’m here and ready. Is there anything else I need to do?”
I shook my head on the pillow. “Watch,” I said, “and listen. If I attempt to leave the room, you can try to stop me. But not to the point of danger to yourself.”
“You wouldn’t hurt me.”
“Not if I were aware of it, no. But these visions have been very powerful. I can’t vouch for your safety. If it’s a choice between me and you, save yourself.” I gave a chuckle at those words; Larry was not the only one with a flair for the melodramatic. “Then again, I may just fall asleep and all of this will be for nothing.”
“Even so, I’m sure it will not be a disappointment. How many doctors have had the opportunity to witness a vampire at rest?”
“If you had asked me that question three years ago I could have told you very few. But given what I’ve learned since then, that number is probably more than you think. The question really is how many doctors have known what they were witnessing?”
“That is always the question, Deirdre. Recognizing what the eye sees is more than half the battle.”
“Shrink talk?” I gave him a quick smile.
“Common sense.”
I shivered and he moved out of his chair quickly, deftly unfolding the blanket and covering me, before I had even realized I was cold.
“Your comfort is important if the hypnotism is to succeed,” he explained as he settled back down into his chair.
“Ah, thank you.”
This particular section of the hospital was totally silent. The lack of windows helped alleviate the sounds from outside and the corridors outside the door were deserted. The only noise I could hear was Sam’s breathing, quiet and controlled. And far from being a distraction, his presence was a comfort. I felt my body relax further.
“Sunrise is close,” I whispered, afraid to break the spell of the silence, “I can feel it now.”
Consciously, I made an effort to reach my mind out into the dawn. And felt the scream of pain slowly rise up within me to escape into the blinding and burning light of the sun.