The Watchtower

in front of me was utterly peaceful. The ocean had gone eerily still. The last streaks of red were fading into the calm water. A lone figure below on the beach waded through the crimson-flecked waves scooping up handfuls of water like a playful child.
    “What an idiot,” a voice behind me pronounced.
    I turned and found Will, his face absorbing the last purple vestige of dusk. He was looking down at the figure on the beach with utter disdain. I looked from figure to figure and realized they were the same man.
    “I thought that the red light on the water was a sign of my ultimate ascension to immortality. Little did I know what evil was about to come across on that bloody, watery path.”
    “The vampire? It came across the sea?”
    Will nodded, lifting his eyes from his past self on the beach, who now left the water and began walking toward the tower.
    “Marduk.” He pronounced the name in a hoarse whisper that startled me. I’d never seen Will look so afraid of anything before. “A bloodsucking demon from the maws of hell. He terrorized Europe during the Dark Ages, leaving a trail of devastation wherever he went. Eventually the Watchtowers captured him and trapped him beneath their strongest tower—the tower of the Île de Sein. He could only be summoned with the box and the Watchtower’s ring, which I foolishly gave to Dee.”
    Will turned and watched his past self enter the tower. “I hesitated at the last minute. I almost didn’t give them to him. If I followed him up into that tower now, I could stop him … me … and I would never become this .”
    “But then you and I would never have met,” I said.
    He wrenched his eyes away from the tower and looked at me with a bittersweet tenderness. “Would you regret that so very much, Garet? Have I brought you anything but grief and danger since we met?”
    “You saved my life from the manticore,” I said, shuddering at the memory of the stone statue that Dee had brought to life. “And later you saved me from Oberon’s spell of paralysis.”
    “But if Dee had never gotten possession of the box, he would never have needed you to open it in 2008. You would never have been dragged into this world.”
    “If we start messing around with the past, who knows what effect our actions might have. I might never have been born.”
    Will touched my face and sighed. “You’re right. We can’t risk making any changes. It’s just … I wish I could erase the evil I’ve done over the last four hundred years. I wish I could come to you cleansed of my sins. As innocent as that man who’s climbing the stairs to the top of the tower right now.”
    “The one you just called an idiot?” I asked, moving closer to him. He wrapped his arms around me and I nestled against his chest. He felt as cold as marble. He hadn’t fed since last night in Maeve’s tomb, and he’d need his strength to battle the vampire Dee was summoning.
    Just then we heard snores from the direction of the seated driver and glanced up at him, to see that he seemed to have fallen sound asleep. We smiled at each other, and then I curled my hand around the back of Will’s neck and brought his lips down to mine. He kissed me—but guardedly. His whole body was rigid. When I tried to guide his lips to my neck, he pulled back.
    “No, Garet, it’s too soon after I fed from you last. You’ll need your strength, too … and besides … we’re out of time. Dee has set the box in the window. Look.”
    Will turned me around by the shoulders and pointed me toward the tower. At first I saw nothing but its dark, monolithic shape rising above us. All light had gone out of the sky, but then the moon appeared over the top of the tower, spilling a wash of silver that glinted at the highest window. A ray of silver light burst forth from the window and streaked across the sky toward the Île de Sein. Far off at sea an answering beacon flared, a mirror image of the fiery arrow I’d seen in my vision, only this signal was deathly cold. The flash of light was followed by a long, low moan, like a foghorn … or some ancient leviathan bellowing from the deep.
    “The signal from the box has awoken him. He’s coming.”
    I stared at the sky, expecting a winged shape, but saw nothing except inky storm clouds massing in the west beyond the lit tower on the Île de Sein. To the east the sky was clear. The moon had now risen high enough to light a silver path across the sea. The ocean, calm a few moments ago,