"But you can trust me, even if you don't yet." She rested her hand lightly on my leg and hers was an oddly comforting touch. I say oddly because I could feel the cold radiating through the blanket. "Long ago, I had a child once, too. He died of old age, and I watched him die from a distance, never getting close enough for him to recognize me. He, of course, thought his mother had died in a fire, as I had planned. You see, he was getting too old, and his mother was staying so young. It was the hardest decision I ever had to make." She smiled weakly at me. "But I watched him from afar, helping him when he needed it. I suspect he thought he had a guardian angel. But little did he know it was just me." She smiled again. "Lord help anyone who crossed him."
She laughed lightly and so did I. Mostly, though, I was entranced by her. Enchanted, even. She's like me, I kept thinking. She's like me. And I'm not alone.
"We do not have much time, Samantha. I will take care of things on this end. Some killings are not as heavily investigated as others. Some people need to be convinced of this. I suspect, by the time everyone leaves here tonight, they will be convinced that this had been a drug deal gone bad. Very, very bad.
"Oh, and the body of Captain Jack? Not to worry. He will decompose like anyone else. As far as the authorities are concerned, he is just another dead man. And not the creature he had been."
She looked at me again, and her alien eyes briefly locked onto mine. "I have already convinced them to let you go. In fact, many of the police here have no idea why you are here." She smiled slyly. "Yes, I have been a vampire for a long, long time. I know things. You and I need to talk."
I nodded. Yes, we very much needed to talk.
And now she reached out and took my hand and the cold that permeated from her was shocking. I did my best not to gasp. "But first, you must take care of your little one. Do what you need to do, Samantha Moon, and I will help you find the answers you seek. Answers about the medallion..." Her voice trailed off. "But know this: There are no guarantees. Few know anything about this medallion. And those who do may not talk. Those who do, may, in fact, be dead."
I nodded and felt the tears come to me. So many tears these past few days. Detective Hanner squeezed my hand a little tighter. Two ice cold hands.
"I don't envy you, Samantha. I don't know you, of course. But I don't envy you. You have a decision to make. Perhaps the most difficult decision I can imagine."
Detective Hanner released my hand and came over to my side and hugged me deeply, careful of my jaw. As she held me, I wept into her shoulder.
Chapter Sixty
I was flying over the Pacific Ocean.
It was the next night. I had spent the day by my son's side, holding his hands, even as the doctors had raced in and out of the hospital. Some screamed at me to get out of the way. One even shoved me out of the way. They fought for his life. They fought hard to save him.
I watched from his bedside as the doctors used all their skill and medicines and machines. One doctor told me to expect the worst. To start making preparations. I told him to go to hell.
My son, for now, was still hanging on. Still alive.
For now.
The ocean was black and infinite. Crazy, glowing lights zigzagged beneath the surface, some bigger than others, and I knew this was life. Ocean life. Some of the bigger shapes didn't zig or zag so much as lumber slowly through the ocean, sometimes surfacing and blowing out great sprays of water that refracted the moonlight.
I flapped my massive wings languidly, riding the tides of night. Cold wind blew over my perfectly aerodynamic body.
It had been a hell of day. The black halo around my son was so dense. Nearly syrupy. He had only hours to live, I knew it. Danny was by his side. And so was my sister and my daughter. Sherbet had stopped by, and so had Fang and Kingsley. Mercifully at separate times. Aaron King, Knighthorse and Spinoza all stopped by, too, each bringing flowers. Aaron King checked my jaw, saw me talking, and just shook his head in wonder. Knighthorse and Spinoza were both irked that they had not been invited to the big showdown at the casino, until I reminded them I was a highly trained federal agent who could take care of herself.
The air was cold. Perhaps even freezing, but I felt perfectly comfortable. The moon was only half full overhead.
Had it really been only two weeks ago that the hulking monster that was Kingsley had appeared in my hotel suite?
I had checked on Maddie, too. The little girl was going to make it. She had needed a full blood transfusion. The black halo around her little body had all but disappeared.
The wind seemed to pick up from behind me, and I soared effortlessly. Below me, the pod of whales seemed to be keeping pace, their glowing bodies surfacing and spraying. I quickly swept past them.
I thought of the water. The dark water. The world seemed to slow down under water. Sound became muted, and light diffused.
I looked down again...stopped flapping, then tucked my wings in and dove.
* * *
I closed my eyes as I broke the surface.
My aerodynamic body cut easily through the water, and I shot down into the dark depths. But the water, much like the air, wasn't truly dark. Sparks of light zipped through it. Bright filaments that lit my way.
I flapped my wings and discovered to my great surprise and pleasure that I easily moved through the water, my wings expelling it behind me powerfully, moving me quickly along. Like a manta ray. I was a giant, bat-shaped manta ray.
I flapped my wings slowly but powerfully. Water surged past me, but did not hurt my eyes. This creature that I had become was amazingly adaptive and resilient.
I was amazingly adaptive and resilient.
But not my son. No, my son was dying, and he would be dead within hours. I knew it. The doctors knew it. Everyone knew it. You did not need to be a doctor or psychic to see the encroachment of death.
I could stop his death. I could give him eternal life, in fact. I could have my baby boy by my side forever. Detective Hanner had told me how to do it. The process of transformation. Of turning mortal into immortal.
It was a crazy idea. A reckless idea.
But I could save him - and then later return his mortality to him with the medallion.
Maybe. No one seemed to know for sure.
I continued flapping, my heart heavy. A creature sidled up next to me. A dolphin. No, two dolphins. They kept pace with me, thrusting with their powerful tails. I knew very little about dolphins but if I had to guess, they looked perplexed as hell. I didn't blame them. No doubt they had never seen the likes of me. A moment later, they pealed away, their auras leaving behind brightly phosphorescent vapor trails.