A Chance for Charity (The Immortal Ones) (30 page)

Lulach still hadn’t returned. I guessed that
murderer was slicker than he thought. Either that or he got a lead
on another one, right away. I was sure we’d see him soon. There are
so many questions we still need answered.

Link was still adjusting to the brightness
of sunlight. He’ll always need to wear sunglasses, the darker the
better, during daylight hours. We found him a pair of ridiculously
dark goggles, and we actually skied. It was grey and overcast on
that particular day, so it helped immeasurably. There has only been
one time, so far, that Link experienced the blood-lust. James was
able to misappropriate a bag of O positive from work. Link stuck a
straw in it and sucked it right down. It was a gruesome version of
a kid’s juice pouch.

I still feel guilty, but Link keeps telling
me that it’s not so bad. He says he will endure whatever it takes
to be with me. That is the best feeling in the world.

New Year’s Day was a day for reflection. It
was one week since the turmoil, one week since I had almost lost
Link, and one week since I had irrevocably changed him. It was also
one week of being engaged, one week of basking in blissful love,
and one week of knowing that the Lords were no longer out to get
me. It was one lovely, peaceful, wonderful week.

I sat at the kitchen table, eating my
Chinese food, with Link beside me.

“
Your brain is going a
hundred miles an hour. I can almost hear it buzzing beside me,”
Link broke the silence.

“
Just thinking about...
well everything,” I sighed.

“
That’s a lot to think
about,” Link smirked.

“
Okay, I’ll narrow it down.
Just thinking about all that’s happened to us in the last week,” I
sassed back at him.

“
Are you worried about
gossip?” Link asked.

“
Maybe a
little.”

“
I’m glad they
know.”

“
Who knows
what?”

“
I’m glad your friends saw
us today. I’m glad they saw the ring. I want everyone to know that
we belong together,” he smiled.

“
My age, my dropping out,
our engagement – it’s scandalous,” I reminded him.

“
Let them talk,” he waved
his hand through the air.

“
You’re right, I know. It’s
just that I’ve never felt like anyplace was home, and this could be
it. This could be a home for us... for awhile anyway...” I
paused

“
We can make this our home.
The young married couple will fit in nicely with this town. The
gossip will fade. I promise. So, you’ve never given me an answer,”
he raised his eyebrows.

He wanted to know when we’d be married. I’d
been stalling for the entire week, trying to decide on the most
appropriate time. “How about in February, after Emily’s birthday?”
I suggested.

“
I guess I can wait for
that. It’s just a few weeks away. Then you’ll... well Emily’ll be
legally considered an adult. Caterer, florist, photographer... We’d
better get started if we’re gonna pull a wedding off so soon,” Link
whistled.

“
No way, buddy. No
Telluride wedding, although it would be beautiful. I want it to be
private. I want to get away, to escape from Emily, to be wild and
free,” I smiled.

“
So where are we
going?”

“
Vegas baby!”

“
Who’s going to Vegas?”
Marcus asked as he and Eve entered the room.

“
Apparently, Charity and I
are getting married there next month,” Link answered.

“
Not without us you’re
not,” Eve furrowed her brow, slightly hurt at the prospect of not
being invited.

“
Exactly,” I answered.
“Won’t it be fun? Link and I, Catherine and James, you and
Marcus... oh, and you’ll have to get a hold of Cozmo and Lizabelle.
Marcus, do your brain phone thingy. All of us together in Vegas,” I
jumped up to grab Eve’s hands. “I’m getting married!” I
squealed.

“
Correction... we’re
getting married,” Link beamed that brilliant smile at me and got up
to encircle me in his arms.

“
Now that’s a plan,” Marcus
and Eve chimed.

There is a car in the
drive,
Marcus flashed the message into our
heads at the same moment that I became aware it.

I ran to open the door, and found
Christopher exiting Lulach’s limousine. I instantly knew that
Christopher was running an errand. Because Lulach, in fact, refused
to be out in the sunlight, and it was not yet sundown.

“
He sent me with news,”
Christopher spoke quietly. “Can we go inside?”

“
Of course,” I stepped back
to allow him entrance.

“
He heard about the
surviving Shape-Shifter. He is worried that the Shifter may be
aware of Mr. Knight’s, um changes. If the Shifter wants to harm you
still, there are people he could notify,” Christopher relayed the
message.

“
I hadn’t thought of that,”
I admitted.

“
Who could he tell?” Link
wondered aloud.

“
Beauvais,” Marcus and Eve
answered in unison. It was as if they were sharing a brain now that
Marcus could get into her head so often.

“
One of many, I’m afraid,”
Christopher answered.

“
Please thank him for me,”
I managed a weak smile.

“
He said to keep this,”
Christopher said as he handed me a white business card. “It has all
my information on it. Contact me anytime and Lulach will come. He
doesn’t think that a threat is necessarily imminent. He just wants
to make sure you are aware of the possibility.”

“
We appreciate the
warning,” Link responded.

“
I’m on my way then. Lulach
is engaged with Dark Counsel dealings. He regrets that he was
unable to come himself. Goodbye,” Christopher turned abruptly and
opened the door to leave. He was strictly business, that
guy.

“
I knew it was too soon to
breathe easy,” I sighed.

“
That doesn’t mean
anything. The Vampire just wants us to keep an eye out. And we
will. We will be vigilant in all our dealings. But that doesn’t
mean stop living, stop enjoying life,” Link coaxed the smile back
to my face.

“
So we have a trip to
plan,” Eve bounced her way back to the kitchen.

“
I’ll grab your laptop so
you can do a little internet research,” Marcus offered and bounded
up the stairs.

“
What if we have to leave
and start a new life somewhere else?” I worried.

“
Then we do,” Link
answered.

“
You’re right. It’ll be an
adventure,” I said.

“
What should my name be? I
assume I’ll need a new name. I’ve never done that before... a
secret identity, an alter ego,” Link winked.

“
You’ll have to remember
it, and answer to it, and let it become a part of you. I have
trouble doing that sometimes. Don’t you think you may want to pick
it yourself?” I asked.

“
Nope,” Link
shrugged.

“
Okay then, I choose David,
a solid biblical name, King David.” I said. “Whenever you have to
stop being Link, you can start being David. You are the King,” I
stated.

“
And you are my Queen!” he
replied.

I held his face and smothered him with a
thousand small kisses. I covered every inch of his beautiful face,
and finally came to rest my lips on his. Eve stepped backwards as
quietly as she could, and headed up the stairs, re-directing
Marcus, who was halfway back down.

I pulled away to look into his eyes. “Don’t
stop now,” Link displayed a devilish smile and leaned in for
another kiss. Instead of a thousand small kisses, he grabbed onto
me for one deep delicious kiss. My head began to swim and I gasped.
His heart began to beat faster. I could feel the blood rushing
through his body. I smiled.

It was hard not to smile lately. I was about
to begin my life. The life I was supposed to live. One filled with
friendship, and love.

The End...

for now.

Please visit
http://slbaum.com
for
updates on Charity’s story and to find out when the next
installment of
The Immortal Ones
is on its way.

*****

READ A CHAPTER FROM THE SEQUEL (available
now) ...

MY LINK IN TIME

The Immortal Ones

chapter two

BLOOD & LUST

I snatched my phone from my
desk and punched in James’s cell phone number. Voicemail - as
usual. “What else did I expect from the doctor?” I mumbled aloud as
his message played, and I waited for the beep. “Link needs
more
you know what,
and he needs it now!” I spoke into the phone. I ended the call
and texted the exact same message.

James would check his phone soon, I hoped.
He was usually pretty good about it. It just depended on how much
time he needed to spend with his current patient. I stood by my
desk for a moment, contemplating my next move, trying to think of
anything that would help Link cope with whatever he was dealing
with.

The phone buzzed in my hand. James had
texted back. He was leaving the medical center in five minutes and
was coming home “with supplies.” That was good. I breathed a sigh
of relief. That was very good.

I walked down the hall and knocked lightly
on Link’s door.

“
Don’t come in, Charity. I
feel better with some space between us,” Link called
out.

“
I’m just letting you know
that James will be here soon,” I spoke through the door. “Thirty
minutes at the very most. Hold on, babe. Close your eyes and
rest.”

“
Thanks, Charity. I’ll be
fine ‘til then. Love you.”

With my forehead resting on the door to his
room, I whispered back, “I love you too.” Then I pushed away from
the door and forced myself to walk down the hall, back to my
bedroom, and wait until James arrived.

The second I heard James open the door to
the house, I ran toward the stairs. “He’s in his room,” I called
out.

My fumbling nature, that seemed to come out
at the worst possible moments, took over. I snagged my foot on the
side of the banister, and I stumbled forward. My hands flew out in
front of me, bracing for the fall. The palm of my left hand hit the
corner of the metal post at the top of the stairs, and my skin
split open.

I sucked in loudly as the pain registered in
my brain. After I steadied myself, I stared at the bloody diagonal
gash, which started at my pinky finger and ended at the bottom of
my thumb.

“
Charity, what did you do?”
James asked as he bound up the stairs, taking them three at a
time.

“
It’s minor. Just deal with
Link,” I shook my head.

James held a portable cooler in his right
hand. “I had a feeling this morning,” he remarked, as he reached
the top step. “He looked off. I don’t know how else to explain
that. Just off. I think I was waiting for the call from the moment
I left the house.”

“
You guys really should
have told me you were doing this little experiment,” I scowled, and
opened the door to Link’s bedroom.

He was standing on the other side of the
bed. His hands were knotted into fists and pressed firmly at his
sides. My favorite smile was nowhere to be found. The features of
his face were tense, and that was putting it lightly. Tightly wound
was closer to the truth.

“
I already told him that,”
James replied as he looked at Link’s over stressed state. “You’ll
be in the loop next time.”

“
You’re bleeding, Charity,”
Link spoke through gritted teeth.

“
I’m fine, I
swear.”

“
Just put it on the bed,
James,” Link said, his voice strained. “I don’t know if I should
trust myself right now.”

“
Breathe in through your
mouth, Link. Take a deep one, and try not to use your sense of
smell,” I offered. “I trust you. I’ll always trust you. Plus, it’s
not as if you could do any lasting damage to me,” I said. I glanced
down at my palm as the last bit of flesh knitted itself back
together and the wound disappeared.

I hurried into Link’s bathroom, quickly
rinsed the blood from my hand, and turned back around.

James placed the cooler on the bed, and I
noticed that Link was already holding the pointed metal straw that
he now kept for these situations. Relief flashed in his eyes as he
quickly moved over to the bed, sat on the comforter, placing
himself right next to the cooler, and opened it. Link extracted a
unit of blood (O-positive, his favorite), and plunged in the
straw.

I could only describe this scene as... Juice
Pouch City. I could just picture some random three year old kid
with his favorite juice pouch. It seriously gave me the creeps to
think about it.

The metal straw allowed him to quickly
access the blood, and suck it down to the last drop, without the
bag being upside down in its normal hospital position. He could
probably use that tube thingy, but he liked his metal straw.

After he downed the first four hundred fifty
milliliters, Link reached in and grabbed another bag-o-blood. As he
slowly sipped at the second one, I sensed his pulse returning to
normal. I closed my eyes and concentrated on our connection,
checking to make sure that he was really okay. He was beginning to
feel like himself again, to me at least.