“Do not fear it, Danny. Go to it. Only then will you be able to leave this place...and see your kids again.”
He turned and stared at me some more, silently, rising and falling in that realm between worlds, layered over this world.
“I have work to do, Danny.”
He nodded and released my hand. But before he did so, he thanked me as best as he could. Through feelings, and a hint of thought.
“We’ll get you out of here, Danny boy,” I said. “And maybe we’ll see you around sometime?”
He might have smiled at that.
Chapter Thirty-six
There she was.
We all stared down at what had once been a very old and very powerful vampire. No, not one of the oldest, but certainly she’d had her fill of human blood over the centuries.
“This medallion...” began Kingsley.
“The diamond medallion,” I said.
“Yes, this diamond medallion...it’s different than the other medallions, no?”
I nodded and, staring down at a woman I had also once called a friend, I told Kingsley what I knew: the diamond medallion vanquished the demon from within, all while allowing the owner to retain all the vampiric power, with none of the ill side effects. That she was dead, there was no doubt. Her skin had dried around her skull, knuckles and wrists. The skin itself was just months from rotting off completely.
“Would you remain immortal?” asked Kingsley, unaffected by the gruesome sight before us. Truth was, I was unaffected, too. Death wasn’t something to fear...but something to embrace.
You’re scaring me, Sam, came Allison’s words.
I ignored her, and said to Kingsley, “my understanding is, yes. Or something very close to it. With the diamond medallion, you get to pick and choose the gifts you want.”
“Sweet deal. Wish I had that,” said Kingsley. “How do we know that Hanner didn’t use the medallion, and, you know, use up its juice?”
“For one, she’s dead. Two, I saw the demon leave her when she was killed.”
“So, she hadn’t figured out how to use it?”
I stared down at her grinning skull. Her eyes had rotted out. “My guess, is no.”
“So, what do we do now, Sam?” asked Allison.
I knelt down and said, “For starters, we check her out.”
I tore open her blouse, revealing a bloody, mostly empty bra. The silver tip of the knife protruded exactly where her heart would have been. Fang had been deadly accurate.
Allison made a noise and looked away. I didn’t blame her. The scene before us was horrific and macabre, the stuff of nightmares. I loved it. Loved it more than I should have. I stared down at the ghoul before me, intrigued, excited.
Stop, Sam. Just stop, came Allison’s voice.
She’s weak, said a voice deep, deep within me, too deep for even Allison to hear.
I ignored them both and said, “No medallion.”
“So, what next?” asked Kingsley.
I shrugged. “Let’s check her pockets.”
Her clothes were decidedly looser on her than they had been a few months ago. As I searched her, I wondered where her own soul had gone, and if she had finally reconnected with her dead son. Or, worse, had her soul dissipated into nothingness?
No, I thought, as I moved over to her other side, careful of the knife blade projected through her chest. I can’t accept that. Souls are eternal. Even more so than vampires.
I knew some believed that a vampire was, in fact, all soul. You kill the vampire, you kill the soul, too.
Don’t worry about that now, Sam, came Allison’s reassuring thoughts. You’re not dying any time soon.
Thank you, I said, and reached down into Hanner’s front pocket. And there it was.
I pulled it out by its leather strap and held it up. It was smaller than the other medallions...and contained only a single diamond rose in the center, which glistened brilliantly in Allison’s ball of magical light.
I half expected to hear Fang’s voice at this moment. I half expected this to be an elaborate trap. I half expected for other vampires—or even vampire hunters—to descend upon us.
But none of that happened. Real life wasn’t the movies, of course. This wasn’t an episode of The Vampire Diaries. Real life didn’t throw every conceivable, nonsensical twist and turn at you.
At least, not this time.
I held up the medallion before me, letting it spin and catch the light.
For the first time in a long time, I felt hope.
Chapter Thirty-seven
I was back in the Occult Reading Room.
Archibald Maximus greeted me, and then asked me to wait while he disappeared into the back rooms. What was back there, I didn’t know, and what he did back there, I didn’t know that either.
The Occult Reading Room wasn’t very big. It was located on the third floor of the main Cal State Fullerton Library. The room itself was found against the far wall, which took some time getting to, since the floor itself was nothing short of epic, with rows upon rows of books as far as the eye could see. Once you reached the far wall, there it was, through a nondescript doorway that existed for some, but not for others. If you needed the room, it was there. If you were ready for the room, it was there. If not, then you were shit out of luck.
“Let those with eyes see,” said Archibald, as he approached me now down the short hallway behind the help desk, a hallway I had never been down. “Let those with ears hear.” He stopped behind the desk and smiled. “Do you understand, Sam?”
“I do,” I said. “And I think someone is a little full of himself.”
The Librarian threw his head back and laughed. “It does sound a bit pretentious, doesn’t it? But it’s a truth, Sam. A universal truth, in fact.” He motioned to the array of books shelved neatly throughout the room. “Most of this information would be lost on those not ready.”
“It would be lost on me,” I said. “Yet, I’m here.”
“You are further along than you might know, Sam.”
“Further along in what?”
“To understand the mystery of it all.”
“And you understand?” I asked.
“No, Sam. But that is the goal, is it not?”
“If you say so. I just want to be a good person, a good mom. I don’t want to kill or be intrigued by death. It’s not me. It’s her.”
“Understandable, Sam. I think you will get there. But, yes, you are not my typical seeker.”
“And who is your typical seeker?”