The Meridian Gamble (13 page)

Their voices have a singsong
quality, like they’re maybe elves, or tiny sirens, and it’s sickeningly sweet,
yet beautiful at the same time. And I can’t turn away from them. I feel certain
that I know them, that maybe I had been a part of that place at one time.

And a tiny part of me wants to go
back.

The girls seem to sense what I’m
thinking, wherever it is that they are.

“Return to the Realm, Saga. You
don’t have to stay there.”

“What?”

“Come back to the Golden Realm.”

“But I don’t know how to go back.”

“We can help you, silly.”

And I can feel a subtle shift, the
way I had when the energy of the pipe began to pull me into the Astral Plane. The
energy of this place, the realm where the two curious girls are playing, begins
to pull at me. And though it doesn’t feel evil, there’s something almost
sinister about it. Because the place where they come from feels alive, somehow.
I can almost feel its intent.

“Jump. Jump and we’ll bring you
back to us. You won’t feel a thing.”

“Just jump, Saga! Jump!”

And I shake my head, and turn away,
breaking their hold. One mental journey per day is enough, and there’s no way
I’m going to go to them. I look back to Adam, and he’s simply staring at me,
and doesn’t say a thing. And I get the impression that he hasn’t even heard me
talking, that the girls were communicating telepathically, that our
conversation took place in my mind.

When I look back to the canyon, the
portal above it is gone. The puffy white clouds roll by in the place where it
was, in a way that’s far more majestic than anything I’ve seen in the real
world. And it almost makes me feel that they, too, are alive.

Adam is looking at me, examining my
expression, trying to figure out what’s going on.

“So, you say we’re in the Astral
Plane?”

“Yes, the mental plane, it’s
sometimes called. We’re just one step beneath the soul.”

“It’s weird. It’s like I was
looking into another dimension for a moment.”

“You might have been viewing
another plane, one that’s connected to it. There are different levels of
reality. Your psychic abilities might be stronger in this place.”

“As if being here wasn’t strange
enough,” I say. “Now can we go inside?”

“Come on,” he says, with a laugh.

He leads me into the cottage, and I
look around, absolutely fascinated. There’s a kitchen with a dining area,
filled with a whitewashed table and chairs. The living room is big, full of
overstuffed furniture with white denim slipcovers, like the sofa in my living
room, only of a much higher quality. And there’s a fireplace, crackling with
burning logs. There’s nothing I love more than sitting in front of a fire that
burns from real wood, not a fake gas flame, and the little home is decorated
exactly the way I would want it to be. It’s just perfect. And I wonder if this
place is Adam’s dream home too, or if he simply doesn’t care about architecture
and design, and his subconscious has let mine run wild with the decorations.

Adam pulls me into an adjacent
bedroom, and we fall onto a king-sized bed that rests there, laughing. I don’t
even care about the details of our environment anymore, I only care about who
I’m with.

He lies next to me, and rests just
a bit on my side. And the feeling of the weight of his body on mine is
intoxicating. Adam kisses me sweetly, but regrettably, I push him away.

“This is weird. It’s really, really
weird. What are our bodies doing back in the real world??

“Pretty much what we’re doing here
now. Only in your bed.”

“I can’t believe that I’m here,
Adam. Being with you becomes more curious by the moment.”

“And I can’t believe that you came
back for me.”

“Have you really been waiting for
me all this time?”

Adam smiles, but it twists into an
expression that’s almost a wince.

“It’s been a long time. But now
that you’re here, it feels like it flashed by in a moment.”

Adam kisses my neck, and slowly
slips the dress off my shoulder. He slides his arm beneath the fabric, under my
waist. And it feels like it fits there, like he’s a part of me.

“But what’s going to happen now
that I am here? What’s going to happen when they find out who I am?”

“They’re not going to find out. Because
we’re not going to let them. And even if they do, it won’t matter. Because I
refuse to let any vampire or Luminos come between us again.”

I can’t take it anymore, I have to
have him. I pull Adam on top of me, and kiss him, hungrily, as if he’s the one
who’s about to be devoured. And it’s magical, the way our two bodies seem to
meld together.

And suddenly, everything seems
right. It doesn’t matter what monsters or weirdos are chasing after us, because
for the moment, we’re safe. And in this place where our minds are connected,
all the disappointments and dissatisfactions of the real world seem to slip
away. And for once, I feel I’m somewhere that makes sense, like I’m exactly
where I belong.

And the only thing I know is that I
never want to leave Adam again. I want to be with him forever.

I wake up the next morning, feeling
disoriented and confused. And when I look around, my surroundings seem foreign
to me. Shouldn’t I be in a cottage filled with whitewashed furniture? Rolling
around in a big brass bed with Adam, my … husband? Lover?

What is he again?

And then I remember. We’ve only
just met, even though it feels like I’ve known him forever, since our bond has
been forged over lifetimes. It’s all so confusing.

I blink my eyes a few times, and it
all comes back to me now. This is my apartment in New York, this place filled
with cheap, dull brown furniture from Ikea, and a measly full-sized bed. I feel
stupid for not realizing it at first. But I’ve felt this kind of confusion
before. It’s the same sensation you get when you sink so deeply into a dream
that it seems more substantial than the real world. It’s happened to me once or
twice, when I’ve dreamt about college and woke up the next day thinking I was
late for a final exam I had never studied for, when the only real challenge I
had to face was surviving the hours of nine to five at Creative Quorum.

And I panic for a moment. Was the
cottage on the hill all a dream? And was Adam a part of it? Is he a figment of
my imagination? My brain is suddenly muddled by the different levels of reality
I’ve been passing through, but I realize I can hear water running in the
bathroom, and I’m fairly certain it’s not Trevor who’s in there. I’m relieved
that it’s Adam washing up inside, and that I’m not having some elaborate
psychotic breakdown.

He comes out with one of my cheap
white towels from Target wrapped around his waist, and it’s probably the most
beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I get a chill of excitement, or perhaps a rush
of hormones, just looking at him. The white of the fabric contrasts nicely with
his dark hair and the light tan of his skin, and the bit of water dabbled on
his chest is just so bloody sexy. I know I’ve seen him naked before, in our big
bedroom in the cottage, but this feels like the first time. Our odd rendezvous
on the Astral Plane still seems hazy to me.

But slowly, the memories are coming
back in flashes. And I begin to feel flushed.

I remember rolling about in the big
white bed with Adam, kissing him … and more. He peeled off my clothes, the
spectral white dress, and I can see the look he gave in my mind’s eye; Adam
stared down at my naked body with a certain thrill telegraphed across his face,
that set my heart fluttering. It’s the same expression I must have when I look
at him. I recall pulling back the sheets to sneak a peek, and being delighted
to find out that he was perfect in every way.

And a strong memory assaults my
psyche, of Adam thrusting himself into me for the first time. I remember crying
out in a way that shook the dreamscape, as I experienced pure bliss.

Even though we’ve been intimate in
that strange place, now that we’re back in my apartment, I feel a bit shy. I
pull the sheet up around myself, covering my breasts. But that doesn’t stop
Adam from coming over, and lying beside me with a playful expression. Just a
bit of his weight rests against my body, and his face is just inches from my
own. And I feel that wonderful mix of emotions, of being nervous and aroused at
the same time.

“How are you feeling?” he says.

“I feel great. Fantastic,
actually.”

And I realize that I really mean
it, it’s not just some pleasant thing to say. Now that I’ve shaken off the fog
of my deep sleep, I’m starting to feel energized and alive. Only, it’s more
than just that. I feel super-charged, like I can run a 100-mile marathon. And I
don’t care about modesty anymore. I get out of bed and put on my robe, and
begin pacing around the room.

“It’s weird, I feel strong. Like,
really strong.”

I lift up the side of my cheap chest
of drawers to test my power, hoping they won’t fall apart. But they only rise
an inch or so off the floor, which is probably a bit higher than I could
normally lift them. And I suddenly wonder if Adam would want to go to the gym. Or
if maybe he’s ready to go another round in bed.

“You’re feeling the effects of our
making love,” Adam says. “No more Astral Plane sex. Next time I need to wear a
condom.”

“Oh God, what do you mean?” I say,
sitting down on the bed again, suddenly nervous.

“Our blood, any of our bodily
fluids can theoretically bring about the transformation. But in lesser
quantities, they can still have an effect on you. You may feel especially
strong or ecstatic, maybe even have trouble sleeping. But the effect shouldn’t
last too long.”

“Are you saying … you have super
sperm?”

He laughs.

“I suppose you can call it that,”
he says. “But even our saliva can have the effect. So we have to limit the
French kissing.”

“Wait a minute, am I going to turn
into a vampire?”

“No, it would take a lot of sex. Like,
a lot. And even I don’t have that kind of stamina.”

“Can I get pregnant?”

“I could sense if it was that time
in your cycle, and it’s not.”

“But it could happen?”

“It is possible, but don’t even
entertain the notion. It’s not meant to be.”

Adam looks a bit sad when he says
this, and turns away from me. And the sudden break, his coldness, wounds me.

“It’s all right,” I say, trying to
comfort him. “I’m not really the mothering type.”

But it’s a lie. Even though I
barely know him, I’ve already more than fallen for Adam. He’s so dreamy. I
can’t keep thoughts of getting married and spending forever with him from
spinning about in my mind. I can’t help but to wonder what our children would
look like if he was a normal man.

“It’s not that I don’t want to have
a child with you,” he says. “It’s just that it doesn’t work, on so many levels.
The fetus won’t make it to term. It will either kill the mother and kill
itself, or it will transform her. And the vampire baby will never grow. It’s a
ghoulish thing to see. We have to destroy them. And, as I’ve said, I’m not
allowed to initiate the change. It would be like handing out a death sentence
to the one I love. They would behead you. Maybe both of us.”

He sounds so serious, and I don’t
want to press the issue, or hear any more about freakish vampire babies. And
the message is clear, I’m never going to become one of them. But he keeps
referring to the idea that he can’t change me, that it isn’t allowed. And
though I’m not sure I would ever want to become a vampire, as Saga did, I find
it interesting that for some strange reason these mysterious “other vampires”
won’t allow it. And it’s clearly because of something he’s done.

And I’m fairly certain it relates
to Saga somehow. But whatever the story is, I assume I’ll find out eventually.

Adam still seems broody and upset. He’s
not even looking at me. So I do the only thing I can think of, which is to pull
his face closer and kiss him. I long for any excuse I can think of to touch him
again, to press my lips against his, and I’m delighted when it brings a smile
to his face.

And though he seems pleased, it
doesn’t have quite the effect I intended. He gets up and picks up his watch
from the dresser, checking the time. Adam slips it on, and begins to get
dressed.

“Please don’t hate me, but I’m
going to be the typical thoughtless male and rush out the next morning. But
it’s only because I have some business to take care of.”

“Really? I was hoping we could
spend some time together today.”

“I’m sorry. I’d love that, but I’m
afraid this can’t be avoided.”

“Oh. That’s okay, I completely
understand.”

I try to hide the disappointment in
my voice, which is easy to do, because I’m distracted by the view before me. Adam
drops the towel, and begins putting on his clothes. And I get a clear view of
his ass, which makes me smile, in a guilty way. I can’t believe that this
incredible specimen is mine, that we’re together, and that I’ll know passion
with him again.

When he has on his shoes and
jacket, he comes back to the bed, and sits beside me.

“I’d like to call you, if I may. Today,
before noon. To plan when we can see each other next.”

“That’s not a problem. You have my
number.”

“Before noon, I promise.”

Adam kisses me again, in a sweet
way that makes me forget any lingering sense of disappointment. And with that,
he leaves.

And when I hear the front door
shut, I sigh with frustration. I had imagined myself making love with him all
day long, that he would have been my good reason to call out sick from work. But
maybe it’s for the best. As much as I hate my job, I’m not quite ready to lose
it just yet, certainly not over groveling with vampires.