The Nosferatu Adventures
page 333, chapter 333
Out of Time
Our heroine leaned on the edge of the bathroom sink, refusing to face her own reflection in the hotel mirror. She had sent Vlad back to the Van Helsing house, telling him to let the others know she'd be back in a day or so. She just needed time to herself after everything. Not like she figured they would listen. She figured she'd get five hours maybe six tops before they decided to hunt her down.
Head down, head down, don't look up, don't... too late, she raised her eyes just enough to catch the gaze of her other self in the mirror. "Don't!" she warned herself. "It's done. Don't get squeamish now!"
"But it's not is it?" her reflection said back. "You still haven't lived up to your promise. Your end of the deal. Dax..."
"Dax can continue to wait." she argued with herself, closing her eyes now on the mirror. Turning her back she sighed as she began to get undressed. A cold shower should do the trick, shock her back to normal. She sniffed loudly. "Right normal. Normal. Let's just get back to being..." she let out a deep sigh under her breath, afraid her reflection was listening. "...back to what?"
"Hiding from your mate Edric?" the reflection retorted causing a shiver down our heroine's spine. "Oh do that! Let's scream for Vlad to come back huh? He can hear you, bet he's not even settled in back home yet? Bet he's just a few blocks away still."
It was that easy to connect with him. She didn't have to say she needed him, didn't have to say anything other than think very loudly about her ex husband and the image in front of her. The image of her shivering in fear as her own reflection mocked her. Vlad arrived knocking on the hotel door a few moments later.
He said nothing as he stood there in the doorway, not needing an invitation, but waiting for one just the same. Our heroine stood wrapped in a large towel, her skin still wet with steam and scented soap as she let him in the room.
"So, it's happening again is it? " Vlad whispered. His voice barely caught on the air, as if afraid to speak any louder. As if the wrong movement would upset the very balance of the fabric of time. Nosferatu just nodded as she moved around the room, closing the blinds and curtains. Once they were in total darkness, only then did she dare to think. At first, they had thought it a ghost, or a spell, and after awhile, that she was simply loosing her mind completely. But the symptom was the same every time, and a complete realization of her own guilt. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, had caused our heroine to hallucinate her very conscience.
"Harvey's back." our heroine mumbled as she got under the covers of the soft hotel bed. Vlad raised his hand pointing a finger then at the television set.
"I finally understand why you called it that." he replied referring to the character on the tv show Farscape. "What do you think your Harvey wants this time?" he stood for a long pause at the foot of the bed, this time not waiting for any kind of invitation, just begun getting undressed and climbing in beside her. Our heroine hadn't even realized she'd gotten into the side of the bed she used to when she was still married to Vlad.
"I'm suppose to give someone the book." Nosferatu tried not to look at him. "The guy who helped me with my portal home. Dax. He's a familiar. He knew about me having the spellbook that belonged to The Seer's grandmother. I'm suppose to open a portal and express mail it to him." Vlad made a grunting sound as he fixed the pillow under his neck.
"That will never happen." turning to look at her from over his shoulder. "We no longer have it. I sent the one off with Quentin, and the grandmother's one I had your mate Edric take it somewhere safe."
"You what!" she sat bolt upright in the bed, the sheets puddling around her naked body. "You gave my book away?" she got out of bed in a fit of rage, finding the clothes she'd left piled on the floor earlier, fighting to fit into them. "The most powerful spellbook in the two known universes and you just tossed it out?"
"Settle down. I didn't toss it out. I sent it somewhere safe where the coven couldn't find it. Both of them actually. And it's not your's is it? It's The Seer's grandmother's." Vlad grabbed her wrists, guiding her back to the bed, gesturing for her to get back in.
"Technically it's mine. I saved the spellbook when The Seer was possessed by Pan." she sat down on the edge of the bed again, her gaze catching on the framed map on the wall. "It's so weird you know." standing back up, our heroine walked over to the map, gesturing first to the very edge of British Columbia, up through the Yukon to Nunavut then down across to the the lower edge of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia to the tip of Newfoundland. "Too see this here like this. I'm so used to the maps back in the other reality. All this Rolf's kingdom. And this here..." she pointed now to the province of Ontario. "The Darkest Forest. Right in the middle of it all." Nosferatu smacked the wall lightly with the back of her knuckles under the edge of the map's frame. "And the empty sea that surrounds it clear to New Zealand."
"I remember you staring at the maps back in the 1400s with that wistful look on your face. Now I know why. I take it there are places that just don't exist there?" Our heroine shook her head before turning to look at Vlad. "You never told me just how different."
"Someday. Someday, I might take you back there with me." she mumbled crossing back to the bed, getting undressed again. Climbing back in beside him, our heroine wrapped her arms around her ex husband's torso, leaning her face on his chest.
Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. Are we lost yet?)
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