Escape (15 page)

            When she arrived to Princeton, it was a surreal experience. All her years of hard work had paid off and she was finally at college. But it was a bittersweet victory. She registered and got the key for her dorm room.

            It didn’t take her long to set up everything and unpack. Her roommate, whoever that would be, had not arrived yet so she had a few days to herself before classes start.

            In the midst of her packing, she pulled out her portfolio of Somniatis sketches. She flipped through them all, running her fingertips over the masterful pencil strokes on the paper. She had drawn everything she could remember. The sirens, Esmeralda, Baal, Gastro Bay, Sir Jedalf and his crazy home. The only thing she had put off drawing was the one subject that had stolen her heart.

            With a heavy sigh, she put the portfolio down on her bed next to her and tried to will the strange feeling of homesickness away. She missed her parents, she missed her home and Saxondale, but most of all she missed Connor. In her dreams at night, he would visit her, but it was always the same. He would stand there and never say a word. He was always out of reach and smiling that wonderful fangy grin.

            She had often wondered why she had fallen in love with him. He was, after all, a demon and a murderer. But there was something about him that lured her in like a moth to a flame. He was handsome, but it wasn’t just that. There was a brokenness about him that intrigued her. Even when he was angry with her, even when he had attacked her early in their journey, she still wanted to be near him. His cold blue eyes may have cried bitterness and rage, but Amelia saw something deeper within him that he didn’t even know he had. He had a soul, regardless of what he believed.

            And that soul that she saw was a good one, a kind one that cared immensely and unconditionally. His soul was a reflection of how he was as a human, before Baal poisoned him with that deal that turned him into a demon. Connor sacrificed his own future, his wellbeing for his family even when he didn’t know what he had to do for it. He protected her and was willing to die to get her home safely. He was selfless when he healed her every pain and wound. He didn’t do it to get a high from her pain and blood; he did it for her. He killed all those elves to rescue her and risked overdosing on their anguish.

            Amelia loved him because he gave her something that made the journey well worth the trouble. He gave her love and that healed every scar upon her battered heart. He couldn’t give it at first because he had forgotten what love was, but it flowed freely with their last kisses at Gastro Bay. She touched her lips and smiled, remembering how it felt to kiss him. She missed that too.

            She then grabbed her sketchbook and map of the campus and set out to find one of the many libraries on the property. Each one was massive and impressive.

            Once she found the closest one to her dorm, she searched for a table in a secluded corner and sat down to begin her sketching. She started with the curves of his face, then his hair and neck. With much care and lots of erasing, she filled in his features.

            Amelia must have spent hours sitting there, erasing, smudging and perfecting every detail of Connor’s face. Her hand poured out love and passion with every pencil stroke. She left the eyes for last, knowing they would be the most difficult.

            She had to pause every minute to bring up the memory of his blue eyes, their softness and sincerity. She had brought some colored pencils with her and set to getting the hue of his irises just right. It was dark in Somniatis, but in the moonlight, she could remember how clear and pure the blue was and how they sparkled like the sapphire in the amulet.

            Just as she was putting the finishing touches on Connor’s eyes, she began to get the feeling that her sketch wasn’t good enough. She sat back and stared at the portrait of her demon lover. It was a good likeness, almost like a photograph. But there was something missing. She had left no room on the page to add herself into the sketch.

            She sighed and held her head in her hands, still gripping her pencil between her fingers like she was not finished. Her eyes absorbed the portrait, gazing at it longingly as if it really were Connor sitting there on the table and not this mere drawing. It broke her heart to know that he wasn’t real. She so desperately wanted him to be real and there with her right now.

            “You’re a long way from home, aren’t you?” a deep, gentle voice said from behind her.

            Amelia’s heart quickened. She knew that voice. She thought she would never hear it again. Steeling herself for disappointment, she lifted her head and slowly turned to see who was addressing her.

            She didn’t want to believe it. Was she that good of an artist that her sketches came to life, literally? Or was she dreaming again? This was certainly a vivid dream if she had fallen asleep in her dorm. Or perhaps she had finally lost her mind and saw Connor standing there when, in reality, he only existed in her mind.

            He was there, wearing a clean pair of jeans and black short-sleeved shirt. His height was the same as she remembered, as well as his jet-black hair with silver highlights and muscles physique. His face so closely resembled Connor’s but his eyes were different. There was no hate, no sadness, no bitterness or rage like that which emitted from Connor’s. These eyes, though they were the same gorgeous shade of blue, were filled with joy, pure unbridled joy.

            Amelia had no strength to stand and her body shook with nervousness. She had always thought that if she found Connor again, she would embrace him and kiss him, but she couldn’t bring herself to move one muscle.

            “Connor?” Her voice was hoarse and hardly audible, but he still heard her in the silence of the library.

            “Yeah,” he said, nodding. The same restrained excitement that she felt was mirrored in his own behavior. She could see his rough hands quiver at his sides, but he was so much stronger than her and was able to stand in such a moment as this.

            When he smiled, no fangs flashed at her from beneath his lips. Amelia stared longer, still in disbelief that it was really Connor, but there was no mistaking it. She brought her hand to her mouth to keep her from screaming out her elation upon seeing him.

            Connor fell to his knees by her chair and they embraced once more. This was no dream, no hallucination; this was real. She could feel his powerful arms surround her, his heartbeat against her chest and his warm breath tickle her neck. His intoxicating scent enveloped her and she exalted in it, so happy to smell him once more. She could hear him sniffle, suppressing the ecstatic sob that rose in his throat like it did in hers.

            She never wanted to let go, afraid that he would disappear again.

            “Where did you…? How…? What happened?” she asked a whisper laced with a madness to know the truth.

            Connor pulled away, keeping his hands cupped around her waist. “I landed in Pennsylvania.”

            “But why? Why not at the lake with me?”

            He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because that was the most familiar place to me.”

            Amelia let her palms rest against his broad, muscled shoulders. “What have you been doing for all these months? Why didn’t you come find me?”

            Connor’s fingers dug into her flesh. “I wanted to, but as soon as I made my way to a town, I met up with him.”

            “Who?”

            “Jedalf. The old loon was driving down a country road on some motorbike. He gave me directions and documents I’d need and sent me here. He wouldn’t tell me why. Everything just fell into place. I enrolled, I got a job and I’m renting out an apartment. I wanted to search for you, but he kept telling me not to. He said we would find each other somehow.”

            It had occurred to Amelia that she had never told Connor what school she was accepted to. She wanted to strangle that scheming wizard. This was his plan all along. He gave them the box to mislead Baal and slipped the amulet in the jacket pocket when they could have used it earlier and not risked their lives to get to Gastro Bay. He knew Amelia would show up in Somniatis, he knew she would need the amulet for her trip back, he knew that Connor would travel with her and come back to Earth, he knew Connor would land somewhere different than her and exactly where Amelia would be in the end. That wise but psychotic wizard knew everything and still he took the long way around to get them both to where they wanted to be.

            Amelia’s mouth gaped open as her mind scrambled to make sense of Sir Jedalf’s master plan. Connor chuckled and gently placed his finger under her chin to shut it for her. She smiled, thrilled to feel his touch again.

            None of it was a dream, it was all real. That thought troubled her, knowing that there were perhaps millions of other worlds out there that haven’t been discovered, just like Somniatis. But at the same time, it was such a relief to know that she wasn’t crazy. Connor was real, physical and something she couldn’t deny anymore.

            Connor slowly leaned closer, drawing her face towards his. Every intense sensation that she had missed came flooding back to her in a rush of delight she couldn’t contain. Their lips met once more in that blissful, passionate kiss that she remembered from so many months ago. It had been far too long.