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| Next part of Ties With The Living Dead. | ||||
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the conversation then surely he must know that! Controlling her tongue with difficulty she replied, "Yes, I am. Do you know him?" He gave a vague smile at the desk clerk and took her arm. As he slowly led her outside the hotel he said, "I'm a friend of his, yes. My name is Brandon. Francisco is at a friend's house right now." Andrea felt her spirits drop. Damn! She had wanted to talk to him before she had lost her nerve. And before all the sharp remarks she had been thinking of faded from her mind. She stopped walking as Brandon dropped her arm and shoved his hands into his pockets. He looked off into the distance for some time. When he looked back he asked, "I don't suppose you could tell me who you are and why you're looking for him?" Andrea looked at him sharply. He wasn't any less polite than he had been but now he seemed a lot more watchful. She shrugged. She didn't have anything to hide. "My name is Andrea Mason. I'm here to talk to him about the archeological site." His breath whooshed out. "I think you should get back on your plane and leave." She stiffened. He hadn't said it cruelly but it still hurt. "No, not until I talk to him." His violet eyes captured her brown ones. "Andrea-may I call you Andrea?" She shrugged and nodded. It was her name after all. He nodded absently. "Andrea, I don't mean to be rude but I think you'd be better off going back to Mexico. Francisco isn't going to change his mind about this. You'd be wasting your time and his. Not to mention making him remember painful things." Andrea had been following him until this last point. "Painful things?" Brandon remained silent. When she knew that he wasn't going to explain this she said, "Look, Brandon, *I* don't mean to be rude, but I'm not leaving until I talk to him. Now whether you help me find him now, really doesn't matter. If that stupid clerk won't help then I'll just wait for Francisco to show up. He can't stay away forever." He watched her with an odd look on his face. Unexpectedly, he chuckled. She watched him curiously. As far as she knew she hadn't said anything funny. He saw the look on her face and said, "He was right about you." "Who was right about what?" Grinning, he answered, "Francisco saying that you were going to be trouble. He has no idea." Then he started walking away. She stared after him. He turned back. "Well," he asked, "are you coming?" * * * Part 8 Las Vegas, Thierry's residence, 15 minutes later Francisco sat in the library, brooding. He looked up with a scowl on his face when Hannah entered the room. "Am I interrupting anything?" she asked dryly. He looked down at the table in front of him. Laying there was an open book, but it was pretty obvious to the both of them that he hadn't been reading it. Sheepishly he smiled and gestured her to a chair. "So what are you doing in here?" she asked bluntly. He shrugged. "What does it look like?" Her gray eyes narrowed as they swept the room. "Honestly? It looks like you're sitting in here doing nothing but moping when you could be doing something a little more worthwhile." He grinned. "You're always so candid, Lady Hannah." Her cold, tight smile thawed slightly. "It's good to see that smile of yours again. Some of us thought you'd permanently banished it." His smile faded. "I haven't been in a jovial mood lately. I have to admit this whole matter still worries me." She reached across the table and took his hand. "Don't. Thierry has taken care of the matter. You'll only put yourself in a worse mood if you keep this up." Francisco had opened his mouth to reply when the doorbell rang. * * * Part 9 Las Vegas, Thierry's front door, same moment Andrea watched with a strange feeling of dread as Brandon's arm dropped from ringing the doorbell. She shouldn't have come. What had she been thinking when she had ventured into this city with this half baked idea of hers? But she knew what she had been thinking about. Aida. The door opened. A young man with dark hair and sunglasses stood in the doorway looking at Andrea appraisingly. He turned towards Brandon Apparently, he was waiting for an explanation. Brandon said, "Nilsson, this is Andrea Mason. She's hear to talk to Francisco about the archeological dig." Andrea watched with a detached amusement as Nilsson regarded her with newfound interest. So, apparently Brandon wasn't the only one who knew about this situation. It made her wonder how many other people knew about this. Silently, he stepped back. Brandon placed a hand on Andrea's back and gently pushed her inside. As she stepped over the threshold she looked around. The only real impression she could grasp was that the place was big and expensive. She was being lead down a hall. Nilsson was leading and Brandon was behind her. Nilsson hesitantly knocked on the door. He opened it and stepped to the side. Andrea watched with growing unease as Nilsson and Brandon exchanged a glance. It seemed that Brandon was the one who was going to have to risk his hide and introduce her. Brandon preceded her into the room. As soon as she had stepped inside the door was closed behind her. She started slightly when she saw Francisco sitting in a chair with a book in front of him. Across from his was a girl with fair hair and kind eyes. Unconsciously, Andrea stepped closer to Brandon. She now felt very vulnerable. She hadn't expected to have an audience when she saw Francisco again. It certainly put a damper on the epithets she had been going to call him. Francisco looked quite shocked to see her again. She couldn't help feeling a small triumph in that fact. The girl opposite him had recovered her surprise and stood up. She approached both of the newcomers. Brandon tilted his head slightly on the side that Andrea was on. "Lady Hannah, this is Andrea Mason. She has come to talk to Francisco about the situation in Mexico." Andrea's eyes widened slightly. Lady Hannah? That was odd....the girl didn't look foreign to her. Hannah looked at her. "You may call me Hannah," she said quietly. Andrea ducked her head as she blushed. One of these days she was going to have to learn to control her facial expressions. They were always giving her away and getting her in trouble. She looked up as Francisco stood up. She swallowed apprehensively. He didn't look angry but that didn't fool her. Behind his cold mask he was seething. Minute by minute she was wishing that she'd listened to Brandon's advice and just left the matter alone. Mentally she shrugged. Too late now. Hannah looked from Francisco to Andrea and back again. Finally she turned to Brandon. "Perhaps we should leave these two alone for awhile so they can talk," she said softly. Brandon nodded. He followed Hannah to the door but turned around when Hannah had walked out the door. To Francisco he said, "I tried to get her to leave but she was too stubborn." To Andrea he said, "I'll be right outside if you need me," then he looked back at Francisco, "not that I'm expecting you will." Then he closed the door behind him. Andrea looked at Francisco. He stared right back. Finally, he seemed to shake himself out of his daze. He gestured her to a chair as he sat down in his original seat. "So what the hell are you doing here?" The words could have been more polite but the tone was conversational. She watched him with disbelief then pulled the envelope that held the letter out of her pocket. Unfolding it she waved it around in the air. "I'm here because of this. What the hell is this?" He watched her with disinterest. "I would have thought that the letter was very clear. You either give me the mummy that you have on display or otherwise I'll have the entire excavation put to a stop. There is that better? More coherent and clear?" Andrea thought about hitting him. She didn't consider it too seriously though. She thought she knew how to get rid of that damn smug tone of his. "Mmhm. And how, pray tell, do you know that we've already had a mummy excavated?" He gave a predatory smile. "I checked before I left." She gritted her teeth and counted to ten. She had no wish to incur his wrath. Finally, feeling calmer she said, "You said you had a personal claim. Why do you want just this one mummy? Why not all of them?" He shrugged. "The others were a compromise that I thought Carl," Andrea winced, he said the name like it was a swear, "would agree with." She knew quite well that this wasn't getting her anywhere. By now she knew she could have saved her time and her breath. This had been a waste. "There's no way I can convince you to leave the mummy with us is there?" She watched with a sad heart as he shook his head. But she felt something harden inside of her. She wasn't going to give up without a fight. She shrugged and stood up. "Fine. I guess I'll be seeing you in court." She started to walk away when she felt a disturbance in the air around her. She turned around and was surprised to see Francisco a couple inches behind her. Fire seemed to shoot from his eyes. "Why can't you just leave this alone? Why the hell is this so important to you?" "Honestly, I don't know why. It just is. You said in your letter that you would drag in some favors not only from the government of Mexico but also from other archeologists. Perhaps even the judge who gets this case. Fine, you go ahead and do that. Just because Carl knows that the names you mentioned are legite and highly respected people doesn't scare me one bit. If you want her, then you're going to have to do it the hard way." She was so angry that her vision was blurred with tears. As she turned away from him she tripped. Francisco instinctively grabbed her arm to keep her from falling on her face. He jerked and let go. Andrea continued stumbling to the door and slammed it behind her. She hadn't looked back at Francisco when she had exited the room. If she had she would have seen him passed out on the floor. * * * Part 10 District of Columbia, 3 days later Andrea sat in her office looking down at her finished article gloomily. She looked up as Terry, her boss, walked into the room. Her short strawberry-blonde hair bounced jauntily as she sauntered in and her blue eyes were positively shining. "Well, well, well," she said happily, "how's my star journalist doing?" She didn't wait for Andrea to answer. "I just knew that you were going to beat Alisha at the awards ceremony yesterday night. Although, you cut it pretty close. You almost didn't make the deadline to have that article published and therefore have it in consideration for the committee." Andrea nodded absently as Terry babbled on. "My God, did you see Alisha's face?! What a riot...she actually thought she was better than you. Can you believe how conceited some people are?" Andrea mumbled something inconsequential. Terry didn't seem to notice. "I still can't believe Roger Silversteen didn't even mention what happened between you and Alisha at the press conference a couple weeks ago." Terry finally stopped talking. She watched Andrea for a moment. Testing her out she said, "Roger is truly a tactful person. Some of the things you called Alisha would have made my ears bleed." Terry sighed when Andrea didn't answer. "Okay, Andrea, what's going on? You haven't heard a word I've said." Andrea gave an answering sigh. She leaned back in her chair. "I'm just moping I guess. Carl called me a couple of hours ago to say that Aida had been picked up by a couple of people Francisco sent. He thought I should know." Terry watched her thoughtfully. "So let me guess, you two aren't going out anymore?" Andrea shook her head. "After the fight we had when I got back from Las Vegas...I don't think so. I said he was a coward, among other things, for letting some guy bully him around like that. Oh well, we're still on talking terms. Besides, I don't think we were really ever suited to eachother. After three months and he still called me Andy." Terry said nothing for a moment. Finally she stood up. "I'm giving you the day off kiddo. Go home and rest for awhile; you look bushed." Andrea watched her leave. After gathering her things, she walked home. She took out her keys and opened her apartment door. She tripped into the room and closed the door after her. She walked into her room; then flopped onto the bed. She jumped up when a shadow fell across the bed. She yelled when she saw a young woman with long red hair and ice blue eyes. Alisha. "What are you doing in here?" Andrea demanded. The blue eyes flashed. "I am so sick and tired of losing to you!" Alisha said in a strangled voice. "You think you're so much better than me....you always do whatever you can to embarrass me in front of our peers. Not anymore, Andrea, I'm taking care of you once and for all." Andrea gasped when she saw Alisha lift the knife. "Get away from her, Juanita." Francisco stepped into the room. He looked slightly sick to Andrea's eyes. Alisha stepped away from the bed and her eyes widened as she looked at Francisco. Andrea had the distinct feeling of deja vu. This had happened before. Well, maybe it hadn't been this exact situation but she felt like the three of them had been in this position before. One where Alisha was a murderer and Andrea was the intended victim. Francisco's eyes swept over Andrea's body. Satisfied that she wasn't hurt he turned his attention back to Alisha. Andrea saw confusion on his face. "How," he asked, "is it possible that you're still alive. I killed you. And everybody knows that vampires can't come back." Alisha laughed. "Well, it might have helped that I was half witch, half vampire. Witches know all kinds of spells to help keep themselves immortal. That's especially true of Maya's direct descendants." Something struck Andrea and she jumped off the bed and onto the floor opposite from the side that Alisha was on. "Juanita," she murmured. "My God!" she exclaimed as goosebumps covered her arms. "It was you! You were the girl with the long red hair and the blue eyes in my dream. I should have known...you still look the same. You killed them....all of them." Juanita laughed again. Looking from Andrea to Francisco she said, "You mean I killed the both of you. Don't you remember who you were, *Andrea*? Even then you thought you were better than me. You even took Francisco away from me....you knew I wanted him!" Shock waves ran through Andrea's body. Of course, that would explain her attraction to Aida's mummy. It used to be her! She shook her head. "I didn't know, Al-Juanita. I loved him...that's why we were engaged. Not because I wanted to hurt you." Juanita shrugged. "It no longer matters....I'm still going to kill you." "Not with me here," Francisco said coldly. "You deserve to die twice over for what you did back in the past...but I'll let this go if you leave now." Juanita laughed again. A sound that was starting to grate on Andrea's nerves. "Ah, but you always were too sentimental, Francisco, you even preserved your Aida so that she could always "live" on. What garbage." Just as soon as she said the last word did she throw herself at Francisco. Andrea saw that she had a wooden stake in her hands. She now knew what the meaning of her dream was when she had been bitten by Juanita and had a wild, sweet drink poured down her throat. She had been seeing through Francisco's point of view. And that would mean that Francisco was now a vampire. And that he needed her help. Desperately, Andrea looked around for a piece of wood. All she saw was her wooden letter opener. She grabbed it and jumped into the fray. Juanita somehow had gotten on top of Francisco. He was holding her wrists so that she couldn't plunge the stake into his heart. Without stopping to think Andrea plunged the letter opener into Juanita. However, Andrea hadn't been aiming and it went deep into the other woman's shoulder. Francisco stood up and took out a cell phone from his pocket. "Let me talk to Thierry," he said as soon as he was done dialing. * * * Epilogue District of Columbia, Andrea's apartment, later that night Andrea sighed with contentment as she leaned into Francisco's embrace. "I can't believe it," she murmured into his shoulder. He smiled into her hair and brushed her temple with his lips. "Believe it." She pushed away from him slightly so she could look into his face. "But it seems so incredible...old souls, witches, vampires, werewolves," she smiled as she remembered the girl named Lupe, "Circle Daybreak, the Night World Council...." "It can be overwhelming," he agreed. He shifted his weight so he could rest more comfortably on the couch. He tightened his hold on her. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "I never thought I would ever see you again." "Now I can understand why you wanted Aida so badly. What have you done with her?" He smiled. "I had her buried." Andrea looked at him. "After all that trouble?" "I thought it was time she had a rest....I won't be needing her anymore. Not with you here." She chuckled. "Just don't let Carl find out. He'd have a fit. She was so well preserved..." Her eyes narrowed. "It was you! You were the one who took care of her body. But you didn't bother with the others." "It was hard enough getting her body preserved. Besides I've seen all the others; reincarnated, of course." He let the silence go on for a couple of minutes. He knew she had it when she started to laugh. "Brandon....he was the boy with the blonde hair and green eyes." He nodded. "When he grabbed your arm, he recognized you." He felt her start. "No, he didn't know who you were. Just that he had known you before. If he had known, he would have told me right away. But that's why he brought you to Thierry's house....he felt he could trust you." Andrea looked at Francisco curiously. "What exactly happened after I left that day?" "Remember when you were storming out of the house?" She nodded. "Well, when I grabbed your arm when you tripped...I felt a connection to you...and I saw a pink fog...classic symptoms of the soulmate principle. Then I basically passed out onto the floor. Scared the hell out of Hannah. From what I hear, Lupe and Nilsson had a hell of a time keeping her from trying to kill you. She thought it was something you had done....in a way she was kind of right. Well, anyway for a couple of days I had people gather some information on you..." "What for?" "Well, I needed to know something about you. I didn't think it would be a great plan to just walk up to you and say, "Hi, I'm your soulmate. Wanna kiss?" Andrea laughed and punched him in the shoulder. "No," she admitted, "that wouldn't have been a very good technique." "Well, from a couple these people I found out about the rivalry between you and Juan-Alisha. That jump started me out here. From things I've heard about and experienced I know that a lot of times the past repeats itself." They were silent a moment. "What will happen to her?" Andrea asked finally. She felt Francisco shrug. "There are a couple of Circles within Daybreak who handle stuff like this. They take in mentally unbalanced people and try to treat them. She's dangerous, no doubt about that. She was an agent for the Night World Council back then as she is for them right now. If she gets better then she might work for us but I doubt it. More than likely Thierry will use her for leverage if a situation comes up. From what I was told today she's a very important person." Andrea shivered. "I'm just glad you got here in time." He hugged her closer. "Don't worry. My timing is always impeccable." Andrea couldn't help laughing. "You're a very conceited fellow." He shifted her in his arms and kissed her. After a breathless moment Andrea said, "I take it back....you're timing is impeccable." He laughed. They stayed in eachother's arms till sleep overtook them. Their dreams were sweet; an omen of their bright future together. The End. © Sara Dupras |
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