A Destined Death (18 page)

“Hi Ben.”

“Listen, could we maybe go somewhere private?”

“Okay, this was fun,” I said gruffly. I gathered my notebook into my arm and stood up. “It was nice meeting you, Ben.”

He kept talking when I took a step away. “That wasn’t what I meant, Elizabeth. Come on, do you seriously think I’d hit on you five minutes after meeting you?”

I stopped and turned to him warily. “How did you know my name?”

“Because I’ve been following you since the night of your arrival.”

What the hell!
I backed away. At that moment, I was positive the universe had it out for me. “Why?”

“That’s what I wanted to discuss with you in private.”

“What’s wrong?”
Draven asked, sounding alarmed in my head.

Shit!
Oh, you’re talking to me now?

“Of course I am. You always know how to contact me.”

Yeah, but…I’m not supposed to want to.

“Elizabeth,” I heard faintly, like an echo in the fog.

“But you do. Don’t you know why that is yet, Elizabeth? Please tell me you’ve figured it out so this can end.”

That’s what you said in the dream,
I thought, finally remembering.

“It was only a partial dream, Elizabeth. We had that conversation.”

“Elizabeth!” A jerk on my arm yanked me out of my thoughts enough to realize that Ben was pulling me down the street toward my hotel.

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” I demanded, irritated that he’d broken off my conversation with Draven.

“Come on. We need to talk.”

I pulled my arm away from him. “No! I’ve done nothing wrong. You can’t just manhandle me like…” I stopped talking when he pulled open his jacket to expose a gun. My legs started to tremble, and my heart started pounding with fear.

He smiled at me, appearing more dangerous than he had before. “Come on now. Be a good girl and just follow my direction. I mean you no harm. I only want to talk to you in private.”

“What’s wrong?”
Draven demanded in a harsher tone.

I made a mistake.
I wanted to say more to him but Ben pulled me forward again, distracting my thoughts.

“Take me to your room. Smile, Elizabeth. That’s right,” he continued until we were alone in my room. Then he turned on me. “Who are you?” he asked pointedly.

“I’m Elizabeth Tarkson but you knew my name,” I said cautiously.

He closed the curtains and let out a laugh that sounded like indigestion. “That’s not what I mean.
Who
are you?”

“I’m nobody. I’m an American here to write a novel.”

He peeked out the curtains he’d just closed. “Well, you’re somebody. Do you know what’s following you?”

Shivers jumped up and down my arms from the tone of his voice. “What do you mean?”

“Vampires. They’re attracted to you for some reason, and I can’t figure out what it is. And for your information, I’ve taken out a handful in the last few days, just by waiting outside your window.” He grinned when he turned to me. “You’re welcome.”

“Vampires aren’t real.” I muffled a giggle, feeling hopeful that he was only delusional and not dangerous. Of course, I’d written stories about vampires before but not once had I believed they were anything but works of fiction.

“Yeah,” he said with a serious nod. “Sure they’re not.

“Even if they were real, why would they be following me? Is this an elaborate scheme, your creative way of telling me that I’m sweet? That’s very…sweet, I guess.”

“No such luck, love. They want to kill you or at the very least drain you to the point of death.”

“Oh, for Jakes sake! Another man who tells me I’m going to die?”
I may as well jump out the damn window right now!

“Don’t you dare!”
Draven said into my head.

“STOP THAT!” I screamed to both of them. I put my hands over my ears, completely believing that my nightmare would never end. I tried to block out everything just so I could have a moment of sanity. No one around me or in my head was rational, and I felt myself slipping away into their world, one where my death closed in on me.

Ben put his arm around me and patted my shoulder. “Have you been threatened?” he asked quietly.

“Are you crazy?” I returned, pulling away from his arm to walk the length of the room. “Didn’t you just force me to my room with the threat of a gun?”

He scowled. “There are far worse things than me for you to fear right now, miss.”

“Oh yeah, vampires! Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “And I suppose you’re Van Helsing?”

“No, I told you, I’m Ben Van Horning.”

“Okay. So you just pretend to be Van Helsing. That’s so much better!”

“They’re cold skinned,” he said gravely. “They can affect your moods. Do you know anyone like that?”

When the hair on the back of my neck rose, I turned to him, suddenly interested in what he had to say. “Why would I know anyone like that?”

“I don’t know. It was a guess. I thought maybe they could smell it on you if you’d been around one. There has to be a reason they’re attracted to you.”

I looked at him calmly, my soul bleeding. “So you’re telling me that vampires are real, and you’re a vampire hunter?”

“Yes ma’am,” he said with a nod, “but finding you could change all that. Just think of this…you attract them. You could gather up all the vampires in Paris, and I could take them out in one swoop. I could have a life again, and you could save this whole God-forsaken country.”

“The country looks just fine to me,” I said nervously.

“You haven’t seen what I’ve seen. Tourists arrive and disappear. The police keep the statistics out of the news by telling the media those people never arrived. No one sees the vampires, but the people vanish. There are airplane crashes, Elizabeth. They drain everyone on board and then let it crash so there’s no evidence. They’re clever and extremely dangerous.” He threw himself down into the soft chair in the room and looked away. “I was talking to my cousin on the phone when it happened. He was on one of those airplanes. He was coming to meet me. That’s how I became this. I had to do something. Help me stop them, Elizabeth. There are more things I want to do before I leave this earth.”

“I’m very sorry about your cousin.” I tried my best for sympathy but I couldn’t focus.

“Here’s my plan. While the sun is still up, I’ll go and get the location ready, somewhere outside the city. Then at sunset, you take a cab there and wait inside. If we only give them one entrance, we can get them into the symbol.”

“The symbol?”

“It’s an ancient spell cast on a circle. It’s all right though, trust me, it works. Anyway, you’ll be safely on the other side while they’re trapped inside. They won’t be able to reach you. When I say go, you’ll run out the back door, and when you’re far enough away, I’ll blow them all to smithereens.” His satisfied grin appeared treacherous.

I wasn’t exactly sure when he left, but I found myself alone in my room. My thoughts swam through unchartered waters as I forced myself to believe in and face the impossible. Numbly, I drifted out of my room and wandered aimlessly through the city streets. I stopped once to sigh heavily but my body must not have felt that was enough because I collapsed on the pavement in a fit of tears.

A cold hand on my bare shoulder made me suck in my breath. A woman in rags stared down at me with wrinkled, sagging eyes. She took a jade cross necklace from around her neck and put it on me.

“Thank you,” I said, drying my tears.

She didn’t respond. She just got up and continued down the street as if the stop were part of her daily routine.

Vampires… I’d been avoiding the thoughts that bounced into my head since Ben’s visit. Cold-skinned, could control emotions, did I know anyone like that? Vampires were immortal, pale, and didn’t go out in the sun. Draven was a vampire.

After the realization, my instincts demanded I protect him at all cost. I had accepted a young death but if it were the last thing I did, I wouldn’t let Ben find him. Like Arthur had explained atop the Statue of Liberty, Draven was the one and that was it. There was nothing I could do about it, no matter what he was. I would do anything to keep him safe.

Once back at the hotel, I booked a flight to South Dakota and packed my bag. I had six hours before it boarded.

“I don’t think I can do this,” I told Ben when he arrived. “I want to go home. Your whole plan scares me. Something could go wrong.”

“Or everything could go right, and together we could save thousands of lives in one night. I thought you didn’t believe in vampires anyway so what’s the problem?”

I crossed my arms and shied away from his eyes. “I don’t want to kill…anything. I’m more of a live and let live kind of person.”

“I’ll be doing the killing, sugar. No worries,” he said, adding a wink.

“No worries? I’m bait! You’re using me as bait and I’m not supposed to worry?”

“Besides that, darling, if you don’t come with me right now, they may follow you. They could be on your flight, and you won’t even know it.”

“Ben,” I started, using my most heartfelt voice. “You don’t understand. I’m not a martyr. I have to live to make it home. Someone’s waiting for me, and I feel like I’ll lose my soul if I don’t make it back to him and tell him what I have to say. I could take a flight that leaves during the day. I’ll be safe then, won’t I?”

“Listen, sweetie. Those bastards have been outside your room every night. What happens if I can’t take them all tonight? It would be your last anyway.”

I swallowed hard, fidgeting with the cross.
Why didn’t I listen to you? I never should have come here!

“I’d wager it has something to do with you being stubborn and wanting to torture me.”

Me torture you?!

“What’s that?” Ben pulled my hand away from my neck. “Where did you get it?”

“It’s just a cross. Some lady on the street gave it to me.”

Ben shook his head. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you, love. I promise,” he said, sounding confident.

“All right, let’s go,” I resolved bravely, before I turned and ran into the bathroom to vomit. My stomach churned even after its contents were gone.

Ben handed me a wet towel and nodded toward the door while I was still heaving. He wasn’t going to call the night a wash just because I had a weak stomach.

After cleaning up, I stopped at the door.
I wish Draven would stay safely in South Dakota all night.

“Why?”
Draven asked suspiciously.

I didn’t answer.

Ben drove us out of town in a cab. He made me sit in the back so it looked as though I was simply taking a ride through the countryside. I didn’t see anything or notice anything, but he kept saying, “They’re coming,” repeatedly until I wanted to scream from the anticipation.

“Okay, run, whistle, run, right?”

“Yes, you’re going to be fine. When I stop the cab, run into the barn all the way back to the wall. Find the door. And then when you hear my whistle, slip out and run as far away as you can before the explosion goes off.”

At the mention of the explosion, my nerves got the better of me. “I’m going to throw…” I finished in his back seat. “Never mind.”

Shaking his head, he reached forward and handed me a tissue out of the glove box.

“Thanks.”

“Two minutes, Elizabeth. You can do this. Just remember, it’s either you or them. They want to kill you.”

“Okay!” I wailed. “Stop reminding me! What the hell is wrong with men nowadays? Don’t you guys know how to sweet talk a woman?” Screaming at him made me feel a little better, but I still felt a terror so strong that I wasn’t sure my knees would hold me when I got out the cab. My heart knocked against my chest like a war drum, and I started to hyperventilate.

“Three. Two. One.” He slammed on the breaks, and the car slid sideways toward a barn. I opened the door and my knees held. A glance behind me made me remember what I was supposed to do. Run!

I ran in through the large, garage-sized open door all the way to the back wall but it was so dark I couldn’t see anything once inside. I didn’t see a circle and I didn’t see a door! I felt around in the darkness for a handle as snarling noises filled the barn. The creatures sounded more like wild animals than transformed humans.

Closing my eyes tightly, I kept searching for the handle. The old, brittle wood left splinters in my hands but I couldn’t find the knob.
Shit!
I gasped, fearing I’d be trapped inside with them when Ben blew the fucking thing up. Desperately, I opened my eyes, finding the wall illuminated with a strange red glow. Finally, I located the handle.

Waiting for the whistle, I grabbed the knob and slowly turned around. Major mistake! The red glow came from the vampire’s eyes and there were hundreds of them stacked all the way up to the high ceiling. They were all clawing toward me, held in place by an invisible wall.

Panicking, I threw the door open and took off running at full speed away from the barn. I looked behind me just as I heard the whistle blow but when I turned forward again, I ran right into a rock hard vampire.