MisStaked (33 page)

"It goes on to say she confronted her consort and took his power into herself to free her people from his evil. How she did that, it doesn't say, but I imagine she drained him. In time the people became afraid their goddess had become tainted by the consort's blood. The goddess herself saw the change coming over her.

"So she had the villagers construct the tomb, making the door herself, and infused it with a part of her own powers, so none of her children could open it. She hoped this would stop them from awakening the evil consuming her,” Breathred related.

"But how do we open the frigging door?” Stud asked in frustration.

"That's the funny part. It says only a warrior who is pure in soul and willing to pour his blood out in righteousness’ sake can breach the bonds of the dead, but to beware. For in darkness, life grows in death and hungers,” Breathred finished.

"Which explains the part you translated earlier,” Luna said.

"But what does the last bit mean?” Stud wondered aloud.

"You got me, but it begs the question. Now that we know the vampires can't get in, should we even try to do it ourselves?” Breathred pondered.

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Go back and read the damn thing again. There will be a pop quiz in your future.

Luna watched Breathred sleeping. The sweetie hadn't even made it to the tent. He had curled up waiting for supper, and was out before she knew it. Breathie was kind of cute all relaxed and snoring, almost like he wasn't hiding things from her.

The thought made her wince. Luna had been over this before. He wasn't hiding anything. She was just too afraid to ask, which as far as she was concern amounted to the same thing. The past three days made her realize she knew almost nothing about Breathred. Like today, who knew he could read dead languages? She sure as hell didn't. From the look on Stud's face the chimp was just as clueless. If Breathred didn't trust him, how could he trust her? That was what hurt. They were going together. Some amount of trust was implied with that statement.

All of a sudden the little voice in her head spoke up.
Luna Walking Batch, aren't you the hypocrite? He's not the only one who's holding back dirty little secrets. What about yours? Did you ever think how he'd feel if he knew yours? But you aren't about to jump up and tell him, now are you? So ask yourself who's the bad guy here—you or him?

"He is!” she answered back, hurt that her little voice would turn on her.

Really now. He might be hiding his past, but you're hiding so much more. So the truth now, missy.

"Okay, it might be me, but there's a good reason why I haven't told him mine."

You don't think he might have a good reason, too? Look at the big goof. He loves you. He said so, didn't he? You know how hard it was for him to admit. You have to give him time. Love is hard, but trust is harder by far.

"For an imaginary little voice, you're pretty smart."

That's because I'm you, dummy. So, listen to me. He'll tell you when he's ready or when you get the guts to ask. Now, I'm going to watch some Food Network. Try to keep it together. I can't keep bailing you out like this. By the way the chimp is back and he's giving you the padded room look.

Luna looked up just in time to see the look the voice had been talking about. It was a cross between worry and where's my net. “He must think I'm nuts."

Told you
, the voice said just to get in the last word.

"Hey, Stud. How's it going?” Luna asked, hoping if she sounded happy enough he might forget the whole
Is she talking to herself?
thing. It didn't work.

"Pretty good. How about you? Heard any good voices lately?” Stud asked.

"I was just thinking."

"What were you thinking about?"

"Stud, can I ask you a serious question?” Luna asked, looking him in the eye.

"Of course. As long as we aren't talking about a feminine hygiene moment or anything."

"How much do you know about—?” Luna asked, pointing toward the sleeping Breathred.

"Let's take a walk.” Stud gave her a look that said he wasn't about to say anything while they were still near Breathred.

Luna reluctantly got to her feet and followed the chimpanzee away from camp. Okay, this wasn't exactly instilling a trust-filled relationship, but dammit she wasn't about to ask him about himself without doing a little recon first.

Luna followed Stud into a secluded clearing, about a hundred yards from camp. He jumped up on a half-buried boulder. Luna shrugged and sat down beside him. She waited for him to start speaking but the chimpanzee simply cradled his head in the fold of his crossed arms for what seemed like forever.

The moon rose gently over the fractured tree line, and when he began to speak it shocked Luna into sliding from the boulder. “This is about today, huh?"

"Kinda, but it's more than that. Is it just me or is Breathred a little bit more than he seems?"

Luna waited for an answer, but none seemed to be coming. Stud stared at her but his mouth refused to work, a first for him. Then he suddenly opened his mouth to speak only to shut it before he could say anything. It was so totally unlike him Luna saw for the first time where the chimp's true loyalty stood.

"Stud, I would never hurt him or talk behind his back. This is different. I just don't know what to think anymore."

Stud jabbed his finger at her menacingly. “Okay, but this is between us. Got that?"

"Cross my heart."

"Back when I first learned to talk, I had a heart-to-heart with ol’ R.J. one night. The big guy was more than a little inebriated, which is a rare occasion in itself, but Breathred had just set fire to the toilet so he had a good reason for tickling the bottom of the bottle. Anyway, since he thought I was a figment of his imagination, R.J. opened up. He said Breathred had once been in college—graduated even. Anyway, the guy's a genius, if you can believe that. His I.Q. is so high the goofball makes Einstein look like a dummy. I think it explains how he could make the spell work that made me talk. When R.J. opened up, I just figured Breathred was eccentric. You know, like mad-scientist crazy,” Stud paused. “But it wasn't the whole story, not by far."

"So, what are you saying? That Breathred is just so smart he makes his own rules and living in his father's basement is part of those rules?"

"No, something happened when Breathred was away. Something bad,” Stud said, glumly. “R.J. said when Breathred came back home, he was different. Still goofy, but something had changed. He wasn't all there, if you know what I mean."

"So, what happened?"

"R.J. didn't know and Breathred wouldn't talk about it. I tried to find out about it, like you want to, but I couldn't find anything. I even asked Breathred, but he just clammed up. So, I wouldn't suggest bringing it up. Whatever happened to him was bad enough he tries not to think about it. I don't even think he can. It's like he's blocked it from his mind. This is as close as he's got, and it's scaring him. I see it in his eyes. He's afraid it's going to happen again and this time he won't come back from it.” Stud stopped talking and put his head between his legs.

Luna sat for a moment letting Stud's words sink in. This explained so much. She had seen the pained look in Breathred's eyes, but had dismissed it as nothing. She had even felt the fear in him through the talisman, but just explained it away. Now, Luna couldn't ignore the signs. If she couldn't ask him about it, what was to do?

Another thing bothering her was that Truehart was involved in this somehow. The other day out on the trail, the Englishman had said as much. At the mention of his brother, Breathred had gone all weird. Did the connection between the two have something to do with what happened to Breathred? Well one thing was for sure, she wasn't about to ask Truehart about it. The guy gave her the creeps. Which meant she was right back where she started.

A light snow began to fall. She turned her face up into the swirling glitter. The flakes felt good on her face. The bits of ice turned to tiny rivers on her warm flesh, but washed away none of the worry that filled her.

"Stud, I'm afraid for him. Something else is going on here and it has nothing to do with vampires or archeology. Truehart's mixed up in it somehow. I don't think it's a coincidence he and that woman are here. Two people who know Breathred from his past don't just pop up out of nowhere. What if someone's trying to get him to crack, or worse—what if they want him dead?” She could barely get the words out through the tears that swelled in her throat.

"We stop them,” Stud said, defiantly.

"Damn, straight we do."

She accepted his hand as he helped her down from the boulder. Luna was grateful for the silence as they walked back to camp. The conversation had frightened her, and could tell it had Stud, too. Luna found herself seeing conspiracies behind every bush and tree. One thing was certain, she wasn't alone in this. They both were resolved in their need to protect Breathred.

Luna let out a sigh of relief on seeing him safe and sound, sitting by the fire with Dr. Grayson, pouring over the translation from the door. She was just glad to see the Easily tramp had the good sense to sit in front of her tent instead of near Breathred. The woman didn't have enough hair left to lose if she made that mistake again.

Entering the camp, Breathred looked up and saw them. He waved them over with a goofy grin on his face. Stud put his hand on hers before they reached him to remind her to keep quiet about their conversation. She nodded, but didn't like being reprimanded. The fruit should know by now she could keep a secret. She hadn't told anybody about his failed bikini wax, had she?

They sat down. “Where've you guys been?” Breathred asked.

"We went for a walk. The camp was starting to close in on us."

"Well, while you guys were out fooling around, we solved the riddle of the translation."

"We still aren't sure, but it does look like a promising hypothesis,” Dr. Grayson added.

"Well, spill it. I ain't sitting in the snow to play thirty questions,” Stud grumbled, as the snow quickened.

"If we base our question on Babylonian customs, it follows that the answer must fall to their way of thinking. So, we believe, to open the door you must be a virgin who is pure in spirit, but the warrior bit is throwing us. We still don't know how that fits into it,” Breathred explained.

"What if it's like the Knights Templar? You know how they were supposed to be God's chosen warriors. It could be something similar,” Luna offered, failing to notice the grimace that covered Breathred's face at her mention of the Knights.

"She could be right. Many ancient cultures had warrior priests, who were dedicated to the gods and served as their holy arms of retribution,” Dr. Grayson said. Luna could see the woman was excited by the new input.

"But, where in the hell are we supposed to find a virgin warrior who fights for the powers of good?” Stud countered.

As soon as it was out of his mouth, every eye turned toward Breathred.

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Be assured of one very important fact, they're out for blood and you're on the menu.

"Wait a minute!” Breathred jumped to his feet. “Why am I automatically picked to be the guinea pig here?"

"Because you fit the bill, Buddy-ro,” Stud smirked.

The chimp had him there.

"But it doesn't mean I know what to do,” Breathred said in his defense. Let them try to tell him different.

"I think I know how,” Dr. Grayson piped up.

Darn it. How did he know she was going to say that?

"See this part of the translation.” She laid the paper out in front of them. “It talks of being pure in spirit and blood. I think it means the door is a test. I know it's crazy, but I think it means you have to put your blood on the door."

"Lady, you're nuts. You're telling us the door is a vampire too,” Stud snorted.

"No, she could be right. We've already established this isn't your normal dig. It wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to say the door is an ancient sensor that can detect goodness and evil. We're dealing with vampires. If we can accept the fact vampires exist, anything's possible,” Luna said, giving Stud a shut-up-or-else look.

"Breathred, are you willing to test this theory out?” Dr. Grayson asked. Her tone said please in a very big way.

"If you think it'll work, okay,” he answered after a few minutes of thought. Breathred wasn't all too convinced, but he wasn't about to let them down just because he was a little squeamish.

"Breathy, you don't have to do this, if you don't want to,” Luna told him. “I've got a bad feeling about this. Something in my gut says this isn't a good idea."

"It'll be all right. It's just a little blood. What could happen?” Breathred reassured her, not really believing it himself.

"Then it's settled. First thing tomorrow, we give it a try,” Dr. Grayson said, clasping her hands together. “Now let's get a good night's sleep and pray for success."

Breathred tossed and turned in his sleep. Even in his exhausted state of mind he knew the dreams were back. It had been a long time, yet recognized the smoky vision. A part of him even welcomed it—thirsted for it. It was more than a dream. He knew subconsciously for what it was, a memory of shades and shadows bathed in light.

The darkness swelled over him, as the door in his dream closed like a setting sun. Someone was in the darkness with him. The sound of whimpering came from the shadows to let him know the dream hadn't changed. He tried to ignore the sobs, but he couldn't. The sound filled the darkness. In the void it was the only sensory input left to him.

The blackness was total. The presence of his own hand in front of him was no longer a given. His hands fumbled over his body to reassure himself he was indeed still real, and not a figment of the dream. It wasn't enough.

He needed to breathe. Breathred choked as he dragged in his first mouthful. The air was stale and lifeless. He panicked, scrambling to cleanse his lungs of the graveyard taste that filled them. Tears ran down his face as he strained to keep himself from going over the edge. In the back of his mind he saw the dead air as something cloistering him, as sure as the darkness itself was doing.