Chapter 6
2001 Words
6
Allie and Bina strolled out onto the lower deck and Bina led her to the railing. She was reluctant to follow after her last visit to the barrier, but she inched her way over to the metal posts. The arms of the ocean gently lapped at the sides of the ship at the bow cut through the water.
Bina looked ahead of them and pointed at some twinkling lights on the distant horizon. “Those are the lights of Porta Tetro. It’s a city of some ten million people, many of them vampires.”
Some of Allie’s color drained from her face. “There are that many vampires?”
Bina chuckled. “You needn’t worry. The population is so high because most of the vampires in the universe live on Pallido. Killing humans is also forbidden and were we to attack them we would be wiped out within a matter of days.”
Allie’s eyes widened. “How?”
“Solar guns,” Bina explained as she bowed her head and sighed. “During the last great war between the humans and vampires a century ago the humans invented a gun capable of firing bullets infused with solar energy. A small graze will kill a young vampire. A direct bullet strike will kill an older one.”
“Even you?” Allie wondered.
Bina wrapped her left hand around her right arm and pursed her lips as she looked out on those bright lights. “Not quite, but one is left with a heavy burden of pain and regret.” She winced and clenched her teeth. “Blast it all…”
Allie grasped the back of the woman’s chair and watched the vampiress’ whole body shiver. “Are you okay?”
“Quite… quite alright,” Bina assured her as she sat up straight, though not without some effort, and dropped her hands into her lap. She looked up and gave Allie a bitter smile. “Even vampires have their moments when time catches up to us. A drink usually alleviates such reminders, but it seems that staying up on this long night has taken its toll on my body.”
Allie gestured to the cabin door. “Should we go back inside?”
Bina shook her head. “I really am quite well, though I’ll have to retire earlier than I’d hoped.” She returned her attention to the twinkling lights. As they’d spoken the lights had grown larger and now Allie could see the dark outlines of tall skyscrapers. “If we remain in port long enough, perhaps we can take a walk among those streets. The vampire culture is very old and very long-lived. You can see medieval shops beside modern office buildings, and people call out with all the accents of a thousand years of language.”
Allie stepped up to the railing and draped her folded arms over the top. A small smile played across her lips as she shook her head. “Cara is never going to believe this.”
“Cara?” Bina asked her.
“My friend back-well, back on Earth in my time,” Allie explained. A small smile touched her lips as she thought back to her jovial friend. “She’d believe a lot of things, but this’ll probably be too much for her.” Bina looked out to the dark waters and pursed her lips. The oppressive silence between them made Allie’s pulse quicken. “What? What’s wrong?”
Bina leaned back in her chair and sighed. “I’m afraid returning you to your home will be… difficult.”
Allie’s eyes widened and panic struck her. “What do you mean? Can’t I just go through the portal like last time?”
Her hostess pursed her lips. “You traveled here through a portal?”
Allie nodded. “Yeah. Isn’t that how most people space and time travel?”
A dark cloud settled on Bina’s brow and her tone came out sharper than before. “Those stupid brutes… what were they thinking?”
Allie knelt beside the chair and grasped the arm, more to keep a firm hold on her increasingly fraught sanity than to steady herself. “What’s going on? Can’t I go back through the same portal?”
Bina’s expression softened as she set her cold hand atop one of Allie’s own. “I’m sorry, but no. Portals are a fickle means of transporting people and other things through time and space. Opening the same portal could throw you to any point in time, and even beyond the existence of the universe.”
Allie took a few shuddered breaths. “But they caught me somehow. Why can’t that work again?”
Bina pursed her lips. “Poachers such as them use science so far advanced that they think it’s magic. To believe that they can return you back to your old life is… not a good idea.”
Tears sprang into Allie’s eyes as the full rush of her predicament collapsed on top of her. “No.” She stood and took a few steps back, all the while shaking her head. Her bleary eyes could hardly see the pity-filled expression on her companion’s face. “No. There has to be a way back.” She lifted her eyes to the deck and the faraway lights. Determination mixed with her fear as she balled her hands into fists at her side. “I’ve got to find it.”
Allie strode forward, but Bina caught her wrist. The vampiress’ strength stopped Allie dead in her tracks, as did her red-eyed look. “What do you intend to do? March your way across the universe until you find a way home? You won’t even reach the other side of Tetro before the authorities catch you for being un-bonded.”
Allie frowned. “What do you mean? Is that part of what we were talking about earlier about the blood bond?”
Bina nodded. “Yes, to blood bond means to-” She paused, and her pale face took on a hideous yellow complexion. The vampiress swayed a little and clutched her head in one hand.
All Allie’s anger and frustration vanished, and the panic returned. Her only anchor in this strange world looked deathly ill. Allie grasped Bina’s hand and felt a slight tremor run through the cold flesh. “I don’t think you’re okay. Let me go get someone-”
Allie made to move away, but Bina grabbed her wrist. “Wait a moment.” The vampiress stilled, and her body was so stiff that Allie wondered if perhaps she hadn’t been frozen by some unknown magic. The long moment passed, and Bina dropped her hand from her face. She looked up and smiled, but Allie could see there was a shakiness at the edges. “There. Much better, but perhaps I should get some rest. See-” She nodded at the horizon at their backs. “The sun will soon rise.”
Allie looked where she indicated and saw a faint glow on the horizon. Bina rolled herself back into the cabin with Allie behind her but stopped in the middle of the large room and half-turned to her companion. “I know this can be difficult to understand the danger, but you have to remain in my cabin until tonight.”
Allie frowned. “When will that be?”
“Five hours, unless we leave port before then,” she answered. Allie’s face fell. Bina grasped one of her hands between both of her own and smiled up at her. “I know what your heart desires, but you mustn’t leave this room. For both our sakes, stay here.”
Allie pursed her lips but gave a stiff nod. Bina sighed and released her hand. She turned and wheeled herself into the bedroom, shutting the door behind her.
A determined expression appeared on Allie’s face as she took a seat on the couch and noted the time. As the minutes ticked by light emanated from the port holes, soft at first but growing stronger until the full light of the morning sun shone through them and filled the small cabin with a warm glow.
Allie remained there for thirty minutes until she got up and turned, not to the deck door but to the bedroom door. The young woman tiptoed across the floor and eased open the portal. Bina’s empty wheelchair sat beside the closed coffin.
Allie slipped inside the room and inched toward the ‘bed.’ She knelt beside the coffin and grasped the edge of the lid. The young woman took a deep breath and lifted the top. The hinges creaked and made her freeze. Her eyes flickered down to the gap, and she could just make out the white padding and one of Bina’s arms. After a long, tense moment she eased open the lid enough to see all of the interior.
The vampiress lay on her back with her arms at her sides. Her fangs peeked out from beneath her upper lips, but otherwise her face looked as though she was asleep. For a moment Allie thought that was possible, but a long enough time without any signs of breathing confirmed to her that the undead was indeed still undead.
Allie held the lid open with one hand and waved her other palm in front of Bina’s face. The vampiress didn’t stir. “Hello?” she whispered and winced at her own voice. Still nothing happened.
Allie eased the lid back into place and climbed to her feet. She hurried out of the room and over to the main door. The morning sun greeted her as she stepped out onto deck. The place was deserted, but she could hear voices above her. Allie crept over to the railing and risked a look upward. A pair of arms were draped over the banister above her, both tanned by the sun but one pair had far more wrinkles and scars than the other.
“Always gives me the creeps doing these tours,” a young man commented.
An older voice replied to his concerns with a sardonic scoff. “Get used to it, kid. Ain’t going to get any easier.”
It was the young man’s turn to scorn his companion with a laugh. “It’d be easier if that old woman hadn’t overdosed on pills.”
“Some people just don’t want to live any longer,” the old man mused, and Allie noticed a puff of smoke float away from them and was quickly left behind by the ship’s speed.
“Yeah, but something about it just doesn’t feel right. I mean, why here? And everybody I heard the captain talking to says she was really happy the day she bit it.”
A soft chuckle came from his companion. “Not a bad way of saying it, but it’s none of our business. We just keep this ship running so the blood suckers can remember what it used to be like being human. Now come on, we’ve got work to do.”
The man flicked a cigarette, and the stub flew past Allie’s nose. She stumbled back but froze until their footsteps had retreated. After a few more minutes of silence, she returned to the railing and looked in the direction of the bow. The lights Bina pointed out earlier were now a city of metal and trees some four hundred yards off. The great city of Porta Tetro could brag about its expansive port with dozens of piers of all sizes that flowed into the paved streets. There were the familiar streetlamps, sidewalks, and urban blocks with their mix of shops and homes. The metropolis looked so much like her own city that she felt a tinge of despair before she tamped it down.
Now wasn’t the time to wallow. There had to be a way back to her own time and planet, and she was going to find it.
- Writer
