The Savior

What are you going do, Sarah, she thought.

“You don’t have to,” the commando said gruffly.

Sarah gripped the arms of the hard chair and slowly stood up. As her legs let out creaks of protest, her muscles stiff from however long she had been sitting, she thought of what Nate had been through—was still going through.

She looked down at the commando. “I know what you’re going to do to me.” When he opened his mouth, she shook her head. “Just stop. Don’t lie to me. You think I’m not aware of how you work? The only thing I ask is just warn me when you’re going to take my mind over and let me say goodbye to him before you make me leave.”

The commando’s eyes dropped. “Sarah …”

“Swear it.”

He took a deep breath, his chest expanding. Then his beautiful peach stare lifted to her. “I swear. On my honor.”

Oh, God, she was right. She had guessed correctly.

Sarah cleared her throat and looked over at the bed. “Just let me say goodbye to him.”

Straightening her spine, she walked over and gingerly eased her hip on the mattress. As another tear escaped Nate’s eye, she reached out and snapped a Kleenex free from a box. Even though she dabbed ever so carefully, he winced as if she had struck him with barbed wire.

“Your skin is sensitive?” she whispered. When he nodded, she nodded back. “I would imagine it is—”

“You think I’m a monster.”

As his deep voice came out of his mouth, her heart stopped, and she had to catch herself before she recoiled. It was all just so hard to comprehend. But what she was clear on? None of this was his fault or something he had volunteered for.

She shook her head. “No, I don’t think you’re a monster.”

“Yes, you do. I can see it in your eyes.”

She refused to lie to him. “I just didn’t know …”

“About us.”

She wanted to ask what exactly “us” was, but she had a feeling she knew. And the reality frightened her.

“I won’t hurt you,” he said, as if he read her mind. “I promise.”

“Now, that I completely believe.”

“I might still die,” he mumbled. “It’s not over yet. I just … I’m scared.”

“What happens now?” God, she was suddenly terrified for him, and she took his hand in her own as if she could keep him alive by the contact alone. “Do you need the doctors?”

“I don’t know.”

The commando got up from his seat. “I’ll go get somebody.” Something in her expression must have gotten through to him because he just shrugged helplessly. “Sometimes things just stop working. All we can do is wait and see what happens.”

As he left, the door eased shut.

Left alone with Nate, Sarah leaned up and brushed his hair back. It was darker, thicker … wavier. A man’s hair, not a boy’s. And his eyelashes were the same, longer and thicker. And he had the shadow of a beard.

“It happens to all of us,” Nate said. “This is how … it happens.”

She nodded because she wanted to calm him down, but under her skull, her brain was racing. “You’re different from me.”

“I am.”

“But that does not make you a monster to me.” Strength entered her voice. “Do you understand—you are not a monster.”

He stared at her for the longest time. Then he took a deep breath of relief. “You didn’t know about us, did you.”

“No.”

“So how did you come and get me?”

She thought of Gerry, and felt a fresh bolt of anger at what he had done, what he had been involved in. “I, ah, I found some of your lab results. They weren’t meant for me to see, but … once I did, I couldn’t not investigate. I couldn’t not … try and find you. I wasn’t even sure where … to go with any of it.”

“I’m glad you came. And I’m glad they let you stay with us.”

Sarah nodded. “Try and rest.”

“You’re not going to leave, right?” Before she could reply, his eyes narrowed shrewdly. “Of course, I want you here. Even if you’re not one of us, you came to get me out when no one else did. I trust you.”

“Do you trust them?”

“You mean, do I trust the male with you. That’s what you really want to know.”

“Do you read minds?”

“Not really. I’m just putting myself in your position. And to answer your question, yes, I do, and you can, too. He’s bonded with you. He will not let anything bad happen to you and he will die trying to protect you.”

This time Sarah could not hide her reaction. She felt the shock hit her face—and was aware that something else was with it. Something closer to …

The door reopened and the commando came back in with the female doctor.

Sarah stepped back from the bed to give the physician a little room. And as she looked at the commando, she was not surprised that he was staring at her, the remote expression on his face suggesting he knew exactly where her head was at.

“—ask you both to step out for a minute?” the doctor said. “I’d like to do a full exam on him and I think we’re going to need some privacy for that?”

As Nate looked up at Sarah, she took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’ll just be outside in the hall. And then as soon as it’s over, I’m coming right back in. Okay?”

When he squeezed back and nodded, she gave in to an impulse she didn’t think was necessarily appropriate: She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead.

As if he were her child.

Even though he was most certainly not.

 

 

Murhder held the door open for Sarah, and then they were out in the corridor together. Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back against the concrete wall and looked to the right. There were a number of doors that were closed. And then a bank of them all at once that suggested there was a gym or something down there. Distantly, he caught a whiff of chlorine, as if there were a pool somewhere in the facility.

No one else was around. No … that wasn’t right. He could pick up scents of males, females, but they were far off. Behind all those shut doors.

Good thing. He had a feeling what was coming.

Sarah’s eyes burned as she stared at him, but he couldn’t look her in the face. He just couldn’t. He didn’t want to see something he wasn’t ever going to forget: Disgust. Horror. Revulsion.

He had enough bad luggage to haul around with him already.

“Explain to me what happened in there,” she said.

Annnnd here we go. “That is how we become adults.”

“So I was right,” she murmured. “That is the maturation process. So tell me, what exactly are you?”

“You know what we are.”

“Do I?” When he nodded, she shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t. I know that you’ve got six-chambered hearts. Strange white and red blood cell counts. Different responses to things like cancer and bacterial and viral disease. But I—”

“Vampire.” Now, he looked at her. “We are … vampire.”