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While we sat at the table for lunch, I had no appetite at all. I was experiencing the worst stomach and chest pains imaginable, so I pushed my plate aside. Whenever I glanced toward her, tears burned my eyes. Tears leaked down her cheeks. I tried to speak, but no words came. Even Father didn’t attempt to start conversation. He face was flushed. He wasn’t able to look at either of us.
After the quietest lunch ever, Father and I walked her to the river’s dock where she purchased a ticket. Father stood beside me on the dock. Penelope took my hands and stared into my eyes. Sadness and regret filled her eyes.
“Are you certain you cannot delay your departure until after we slay Ambrose?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I wish I could.”
I considered abandoning the pursuit of Ambrose until later, but I had already taken Lorcan’s deposit. I’m certain the vampire would consider that theft, if he learned we had left for North America.
“I want you to have these,” she said, untying the goggles from around her neck. “I know how much you like them.”
I shook my head. “Penelope ... I can’t take these. You need them when you’re fighting.”
She placed them into my hands and closed my fingers over them. “I can get another pair. Besides, I want you to have something to remember me until I return.”
“Do you really think I could ever forget you, Penelope? I never shall. You possess my heart, and still I ask that you wait until we can accompany you.”
She rose on tiptoe and kissed my lips softly. I leaned down and we kissed more passionately. When she pulled back, she said, “This isn’t goodbye, Forrest. It’s just that I need obey what I know in my heart I must do. Like you did when you brought Varak to the Archdiocese in spite of all the obstacles. Our paths will cross again.”
Penelope hurried toward the plank. I noticed Father wiping away tears as she boarded the ship. I ached inside even though I could still see her, but seeing her walking away, getting farther from my touch, I thought my heart would cease beating or explode from the intensifying ache. Inside, I wanted to run after her. I should have gone with her to help her like she had helped us.
She had promised once she had gone and sealed the portal in Seattle that she would board the next ship and sail to meet me in Bucharest. I feared it would never happen. I didn’t believe I’d ever see her again. My doubts reinforced my former oath to walk this world alone and not to give my heart to another.
Penelope had helped us get Varak to Freiburg and safely inside the Archdiocese where the archbishop and nuns could protect him. We had protected the child against great odds and from the attack of a dozen demon cultists, which had forced Penelope to kill a powerful demon that had marked her with a curse. But I had never fathomed she’d leave my side to become vulnerable to something she considered an actual threat. I had thought we’d fight the battles together.
We were both similar in our projected dark destinies. Before it was revealed that the cultists weren’t actual Hunters who had been sent to kill me because I had committed a major transgression against the Chosen, I had accepted that my punishment was being issued. I was to compensate for what could be no less than direct disobedience against those who had called me into their Order as a Vampire Hunter. The dangers of allowing a half-blood vampire human was too great a risk and worthy of my death. Because of that, I feared tremendous loss in my life, overshadowing doom, and heartache unlike what I was experiencing right now. Deep inside, I truly didn’t believe I’d escape unscathed for protecting Varak. Bad events were coming. I sensed it. And Penelope could become my first painful loss.
A day away from her would be painful, but the voyage along various rivers and across the seas was months in one direction. I didn’t have any way to reach her or to know the outcome when she eventually faced the demons. All I could do was wonder what had occurred until ... if ... we ever met again. Could she get the portal sealed before a horde of demons killed her? Evil spirits had never possessed her, but from what I understood, these demons must be stronger than any she had faced before if they torn open a portal from Hell.
Father and I stood, waving. Penelope waved back. After a half hour of watching the ship sail down the river, Father wiped tears from his eyes. “I’m sorry, son. There was nothing to convince her to stay?”
“No, Father. She holds to her obligations as stubbornly as I do. I suppose we were right for one another.” My voice broke, and I wiped tears from my eyes.
Father sniffed and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand. “There are no words at a time like this. I’m sorry.”
I shrugged and stared at the spectacles she had given me.
“Come on,” he said. “Let me buy you a drink. It won’t erase your pain, but it might numb it a bit.”
I clasped my father’s shoulder. “No, Father. That’s okay. I need to experience this pain and hope it eases over time. Numbing it only prolongs it.”
He smiled. His bloodshot eyes remained wet from his crying. “Son, you are indeed a man.”