The Link (18 page)

For the next few minutes, her encouraging words were whispered in my ear.
“He’s there and you want to consume him, but you don’t need to, Sarah. You’ll survive if you leave him alone.”
Each time my eyes started to turn toward the man, her voice brought me back, helping me to focus on something other than his stench, helping me to concentrate on the other smells in the room: the damp floor, the bricks, the wood, anything I could use to help me focus. She kept going and I began to realize she was slowly backing
me up, forcing me
to move
closer to him (NO! my mind screamed).
Each step brought me closer to his stench, closer to the vein that I could hear throbbing in his neck. Each step threatened to change my focus to shift to the kill, but her words always helped me to stop. She backed me up until I was so close that I could feel his breath on my back. I knew that all I had to do was turn around and he was mine. I felt my pupils dilate. My body went tense as it anticipated the strike. I fought to stay where I was, squeezing my fists tight, trying to pull in the other scents in the room. But I knew I was losing my fight, I was going to turn and I was going to strike, I could feel it in every bone and muscle in my body. I saw it happen in my head. But in the split-second before I turned, she turned her gaze to the guard, nodded slightly and he led the man out of the room and closed the door. Relief washed through me.
I gasped and bent over with my hands on my knees. My head was swimming. I began to relax slightly as she walked me back to the center of the room. I slowly regained my composure. I was just beginning to relax when I heard the door open again
and
I
turned to see them lead in
another prisoner
. This time it was a woman, and (oh my God, No!), this one was worse. The things this one had done to others was killing me.
It hurt me to hold back, it hurt me to not strike. I felt little relief when I heard Penelope whispering in my ear again.

We continued this many times, each time with the prisoner being led away just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore. Just when I knew I was going to strike.
I really didn’t think I was getting any better at this. Each time felt just as difficult to me. So I was horrified when, just before the tenth prisoner was brought in, she whispered something in Matt’s ear, he nodded and with a sad look on his face, he turned to me, placed his hand on my cheek and said, “I’m sorry honey, but I have to go out for a minute. I’ll be back soon, I promise.”

“
No, you can’t leave me,” I whispered

“
We have to, Sarah, it’s time,” he said.

“
WE?!” I yelled
.
“NO, please
n
o
! Please don’t leave me alone in here with one of them. I won’t be able to stop myself. I am not strong enough for this. You have no idea how hard this has been. I don
’
t
want to kill anybody. Please, don
’
t leave me alone in here
,
”
I pleaded to both of them. Matt forced me to focus on his eyes.

“
You are strong enough, Sarah,” he whispered
.
“You are stronger than anyone I’ve ever met. There is no doubt in my mind that you can do this
,
”
he whispered
then he leaned down and kissed me long and hard, filling my head and my heart with his love. I believed him then
…
until he stopped.

As he turned and walked away all my fears flooded back. My eyes darted around the room.
I was completely panicking. I sat in the chair and wrapped my arms around it, thinking I would try to anchor myself until this was over, but Penelope softly shook her head and said, “The prisoner won’t leave the room until you are standing next to him.”

“
You’ve got to be joking,” I said
.
“You want me standing right next to him? When you’re not here to stop me?
”

“
Sarah,” she said, “I wasn’t stopping you before, that was all you.”

“
No it wasn’t
,
” I said
.
There
is
no way that I had been the one stopping me from killing the others,
when all I wanted to do when they were in the room was kill them. A fresh wave of panic started to build as I watched her turn and glide out of the room. I jumped as I heard the side door open, then I took a deep gulp of the good, safe air that was left in the room
…
and waited.

The scent of this one, another male, was worse than all nine others combined. And he made things worse (how was that possible?) by speaking to me “Hey beautiful, how
‘
bout coming over here and unlocking me?” I gripped the chair, closed my eyes and tried to bring Matthew’s face into my focus. I tried to remember his scent, but the face in my mind kept changing into the face of this horrible man in the room. I opened my eyes, trying to keep Matt’s loving and encouraging words in my head, and I turned to look at him
…
and he SMILED at me.

Anger flooded into me. I could feel that despite the fact that he was handcuffed, he was instantly thinking of me as his next victim. I clenched my fists and tried to find something else to focus on. I tried to pull some scent out of the room besides his…
but I couldn’t find any. I tried to think of Matthew
and how much I wanted to be with him right now, but that only made it worse because this man was the reason I wasn’t with him right now and that made me angrier. I was losing this fight, had lost this fight, I knew it. The room swam out of focus for an instant and I clenched my fists and concentrated on bringing it back, only to groan as I realized that I was now only six feet from him. I didn’t remember moving, when had I done that? I sank down into a nearby chair, feeling exhausted, knowing that I couldn’t do this anymore.

My focus returned the moment I heard him speak again, “Are you alright, darlin’? Do you need my help?” he
aske
d
…
and then he took a step towards me (are you insane??? My mind screamed).

“
STOP!” I hissed. I felt him grow tense. I heard his heartbeat accelerate. I saw the confused and then horrified look on his face…
and I felt the tingle in my teeth, the tingle that meant my fangs were coming
…
I was certain then that my fight was over.
I knew what would happen next
.

Chapter Ten

I lay on the bed, curled up in a ball. As I felt Matthew sit down, I whispered, “Please, don’t touch me”

“
But Sarah, honey, why not? I don’t understand.
Are you hurting again?” he said.

“
No, I’m not hurting.
Don’t touch me because I’m horrible, because I’m evil and because I failed,” I sobbed.

“
Failed?
Failed what?” he said.

I turned to look at him, “I failed my training
.
I killed that horrible man.”

“
Unbelievable,” he said…
and then he chuckled.

That made me furiou
s
. I spun around on the bed, facing him on all fours.

“
What could you possibly find funny right now?” I spit out.

His eyes were so kind as he spoke, “Sweetheart, you didn’t kill anybody and you definitely didn’t fail.”

That thoroughly confused me. I sat back and
wrapped my arms around my knees.

“
You’re lying,” I whispered.

“
No honey, I’m not. You really didn’t kill him. I have no idea how you didn’t. No one has ever passed that final test the first time around, no one,” he shook his head in amazement and continued, “I didn’t,” he whispered.

I could only stare at him. In my mind I was trying to remember the final moments in that room, the moment after I felt the tingling in my teeth. I shook my head and tried to clear it. I forced myself to see what I was trying to block, what I thought I didn’t want to see. Now I had to know. I saw myself focused on him, crouching, springing. I saw the shock on his face as I flew through the air towards him. Then my eyes grew wide as I saw what I had done next.
In t
he split-second before I reached him, I suddenly did a somersault, stopping myself in mid-air and gracefully landing on my feet. I was crouched down, staring at his boots that were just inches from my face. He started to regain some of his composure as I rose up to face him.

“
Wow, that was impressive darlin’. You must
be tons of fun in the sack,” he said, leering at me. My mind latched onto this and I felt stronger than I ever had. I knew without a doubt that death for this man would be the easy way out…
and I wanted him to suffer, suffer in a way that would hurt only him. I felt elation as my fangs dropped. I slowly stood and I smiled at him, my black eyes boring into him. The color fell from his face and I heard his bladder releasing to the floor. “I know who you are, I know where you live, I will always be watching you
…
and you will never harm another human being again. If you do, I will kill you. Do you understand what I am saying?” I hissed. He gulped. His eyes were huge. He finally managed to nod his head, then the door behind him opened and he was gone.

I lifted my head to stare at Matthew. “Holy crap, Matt. I can’t believe I didn’t kill him,” I said, amazed at myself. He placed his hand on my cheek and smiled, “No you didn’t, sweetheart. But I have to ask, I have to know…
how did you DO that?
How in the world did you stop yourself?”

I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Honey, I’m not exactly sure.” Then I tried to explain to him
what had happened.

When I finished Matthew could only shake his head and say, “You continue to prove to me that you are the most amazing person. Just when I think I couldn’t possibly love you more, you prove me wrong. To say I love you Sarah Jensen is completely inadequate, because there are no words left to describe how I feel about you.”

For a moment I could only stare at him. Finally I managed to whisper, “Wow.” Then he leaned in, kissed me…
and spent the next few hours showing me the love that his words had failed to say.

Lesson #2 - Fighting Skills

We were dressed and ready for the knock on the door the next morning. We fed quickly and waited anxiously for the guard to return.
We followed him out the door when he finally arrived. When we entered the room we saw one of the male Elders, the one with brown hair. We walked forward and stood facing him. I immediately noticed the room had been cleared of all chairs and tables. “I am Paolo. Today
you will learn fighting skills,” his raspy voice said.
I had to stifle a laugh
…
a fighter I never was…
did they really expect me to be one now? And did they really expect me to fight this ancient, frail looking creature? But he crouched down to spring and my body instantly and instinctively prepared to defend itself.
He sprung and I flung him off me before he could pounce, but he landed agilely right behind me and was quickly on my back, his hands on my head.
In a real fight he would have instantly ripped my head off. He jumped off and quickly gave me some tips as he walked away from me, but he turned and sprung again so fast that I didn’t have time to react. Another quick kill shot.

“
Crap!” I said, then I gasped when their surprised faces whipped around. I sheepishly grinned
.
“Oops, sorry.
Please, let’s go again,” I said.

“
But of course,” he said and he sprung again. This time I was ready for him. This time I caught him but I didn’t fling him off, I held on and threw him onto his back on the floor, pinning him. My horrified gasp at the large crack in the floor that spread out from beneath him changed to an
embarrassed smile when I saw him grinning up at me. “Very well done,” he said as he jumped up.

We continued like that all day.
I was really beginning to enjoy myself, until he said, “Okay, enough with me, now with him,” and he pointed to Matthew. My eyes grew wide and I stammered “I…
I…
can’t fight him.”