Hexed

steal a glance at him. His eyes are on Samual’s corpse, too.
    He’s waiting as well. In a moment of clarity I realize why Samual didn’t take us both when he had the chance in that parking lot. Human weapons are effective against him on our plain and Stephen had a gun.
    As to the both of us being in the parking lot at the same time? I guess there are cosmic coincidences, after all. Samual may have been as surprised to see us as Stephen and I are at the way things worked out.
    After a moment, I push myself to my feet.
    “Do you think he’s really dead?” Stephen asks when I join him.
    He isn’t moving away from me. A good sign. “I don’t know. He’s not like any creature—”
    The sky above us grows darker, a bank of clouds billowing up to obscure stars and moon.
    “I think we’re going to get our answer.” I turn to Stephen. “If they try to pull us back, run. Find Susan. She’ll protect you.”
    He answers by grabbing my hand. “We’ll both run or I’m staying. I won’t leave you.”
    Stubborn. A trait I recognize. No chance to answer.
    Samual’s body is rising.
    A familiar voice. The Elder. “It is done. The trial by combat complete.”
    Trial by combat?
    Anger sparks when I realize what he’s saying. I raise my voice to the heavens. “You son of a bitch. You planned for this to happen?”
    “A resolution had to be reached. Both you and Samual committed transgressions that could not go unpunished. Samual shirked his sworn duty and you violated sanctuary.”
    “What if I had lost? You would have allowed this creature to walk the Earth unchecked?”
    “He didn’t win. It is done.”
    The body disappears into a turbulent bank of black clouds. The clouds disperse like smoke in the wind, leaving only wisps to mark their passing.
    I watch the clouds dissipate, the bright moon once more claiming its spot in the sky.
    A feeling of restlessness, of a task not yet completed, dims the satisfaction of whatever victory Stephen and I won here tonight. We sent one monster to his death. How many others have come back to Earth to wreak havoc from that place of “sanctuary”?
    Stephen’s grip tightens, drawing me back. His eyes are on the sky, too. “Damn,” he says. “This is the best story I’ll never get to write.”
    He doesn’t fully understand. No reason why he should. He hasn’t seen the things I have. He doesn’t carry the burden that I do.
    I look into his face and a tremor passes through my body.
    Why do I feel this is a story whose final act is yet to come?

EIGHTEEN
     

     
    SUSAN IS WAITING FOR US AT THE FOUNTAIN. If she’s surprised to see her brother and me appear hand in hand, she doesn’t show it. She rushes up and only then does Stephen drop my hand to embrace his sister.
    “Are you all right?” she asks.
    Stephen nods. “Thanks to Anna.”
    Susan touches a stain on his shirt. “You’re sure you’re not hurt?”
    “It’s not my blood,” he answers. “Anna and I had quite an adventure.”
    I drag my eyes off Stephen long enough to smile my thanks at Susan. “That was a nice piece of magic, that charm.”
    “I wish I could have told you how it worked,” she says. “I intended to, but Samual showed up too soon.” She casts an uneasy glance around. “Is it over? Will he come back?”
    “No. He’s gone.” Stephen’s tone is grim and final.
    Samual is gone. But—
    Susan releases a breath. “Thank you, Anna. For bringing my brother back. I—we—owe you.”
    Do they? Stephen’s warmth as he stands close makes me think I may be the one who owes a debt.
    That is if what we seem to be feeling—Stephen and I—is more than a simple reaction to having survived a harrowing experience. Or the result of Samual’s influence. I still can’t shake the idea that watching Stephen and I dance around each other, feeling the attraction, fighting it, would have been his idea of a joke.
    Still, when Stephen reaches again for my hand, I let him take it.
    It may be the last time. When the adrenaline rush subsides, things may change. My skin feels human now, the result of feeding, but soon it will not. It will become cold. Only feeding and sex warm a vampire’s blood. And then only temporarily.
    Stephen doesn’t let go of my hand as we walk back into the park. He gives Susan a brief recap of what happened both with the tribunal and back on Earth. It’s a good summary, told in the style of a three-minute sound bite. A reporter to the core.
    When we reach headquarters,