Veronica stopped pushing on Eliza’s hands, then stepped back. That look of hurt was still there, but it softened a bit. “I don’t get you. I saw you out there. You can take risks with your life, so why not with your heart? God that sounds corny, but it’s true. I don’t know where this is all leading. I can’t guarantee it would turn out to be some grand and powerful love. All I know is I don’t want it to end. I at least want to try.” She sighed. “But I can’t make you do anything, and I shouldn’t need to. I’m going to go back to my room. If you want to join me, even if it’s just to talk, that’s fine. But you ARE going to have to take the next step,” she finished. Veronica paused for just a moment, hoping the other woman would say something. Eliza just crossed her arms and glanced away. Then Veronica turned and left the room.
Eliza kept berating herself for minutes after she found herself alone. ‘What are you thinking?’ she asked of herself. ‘What more do you want? There are no sure things, but there are some things you just have to take a chance on.’ That was what the passionate side of her mind was telling her. The rational side reminded her that her dreams of a perfect love could never happen with a human woman. Humans were too short lived. Besides, Eliza had already pointed out that this woman would be leaving for her job fairly soon, probably to be sent off to some distant land. Did Eliza really want to be in a position where she only got to see someone a few times a year? She lay down on her bed, trying to convince herself that what she had done was for the best.
————- ———————
Noon, the next day . . .
————- ———————
‘Amazing,’ Eliza thought, ‘there IS a less comfortable way of being transported than by standard military transport.’ The defenders of Last Mile Prison had just arrived off the Port of Springfield in a loud and out-of-date battleship that had been recommissioned just to pick them up. They were going to be taken to shore by helicopter, which Eliza was less than thrilled about. She was somewhat unenthusiastic about humans’ concept of ‘airworthy.’ They were going to have an escort of about twenty heavily armed military helicopters, so she wasn’t worried about getting attacked. She was more worried about the headache she was going to have when they landed. Their gear would be brought over separately, so the only thing going in on her chopper was her crew, the Dead Man’s World and Veronica. Eliza had talked to Veronica since the human had left her room the day before. At one point, Eliza had actually walked up to the door, raised her hand as if to knock, then walked away. Now, Veronica just sat there being beautiful and staring out the side of the chopper as it lifted off the deck. Eliza had almost been hoping for a smile or something to let her know that Veronica didn’t hate her, but she got nothing.
‘What were you expecting?’ Eliza thought. ‘For her to sit around pining for you? As if you’re that special. You shot her down, so she’s moving on.’ Again, Eliza tried convincing herself it was for the best. She failed utterly.
Finally they landed. There was a sizeable military escort waiting there. Eliza wanted to move the Dead Man’s world to an abandoned military based just north of town called Fort Crass. Eliza had been out there once off-roading with Dennis, and she felt it had a lot going for it in terms of defensibility. She and her crew would remain in charge of the World’s defense for a little while longer. On the docks, while waiting for their gear to arrive, they had a little meeting.
“Give me a list of what you’re going to want and I’ll go talk to my superiors,” Captain Corbin said. “We should be able to get any military equipment you need.”
“Dennis Murgo should already have one,” she said. “Mostly I’m worried about the fencing and the anti-aircraft capabilities. Those are the rush items.” The Captain turned and started conversing with Dennis, and Veronica suddenly appeared within view.
“I also have to contact my superiors. I’ll be joining you again at the Fort in about four days. I have to fly to Washington and meet with our researchers. Word has it that they might have found something.”
Eliza felt her heart leap in her throat, but the envoy wasn’t done.
Veronica was trying with all her might to keep her visage and voice under control. She had been trying for hours NOT to look at Eliza, afraid that her resolved might weaken. ‘I can’t break down,’ she thought. ‘I’ve got to hold my ground here.’ “You’ve done a wonderful job thus far, which I intend to report . . .”
The vampire had been listening to Veronica but hadn’t actually heard a word. She had just been watching those lips move. She was pretty sure she was getting thanked for something, but she didn’t know for what exactly. Eliza REALLY liked those lips. So she kissed them. In front of her comrades, about one hundred of Captain Corbin’s soldiers, their military escort and a chopper pilot, she kissed Veronica Adams like she had never kissed anyone before.
As far as Veronica was concerned, playing cool and aloof just went out the window. She was wondering if vampires normally had such long tongues, because that one seemed to be halfway down her throat. Then hands started wandering and clothes were getting ruffled. Finally, Veronica was running out of oxygen. So Eliza gently withdrew, letting their lips touch as long as possible before she took a step back. There were grins and catcalls everywhere.
“Okay,” Eliza said determinedly, “I made the next step. I’ll see you in four days,” she added before turning on her heel and walked to a waiting jeep, adjusting her hair as she went. ‘Holy shit!’ she thought. ‘If I ever see my father again, he’s going to KILL me!’
Veronica was having problems standing up all of a sudden. It seems that it was taking longer than usual for oxygen to return to her brain. Luckily, Captain Corbin was there to keep her from falling over. “Gotta go to . . . where was I going?” she asked of no one in particular. She suddenly wondered if, with Eliza, she might have bitten off more than she could chew.
————– ——————-
Four days later . . .
————– ——————-
Eliza was pacing so much that she almost wore a hole in the conference room. They had spent the last four days fortifying the hell out of the military base. It was to the point that it would require all out war to try and take the place by force. The Purity might still try and be sneaky, but ‘sneaky’ took time. But Eliza wasn’t pacing because she was worried about those religious nuts. She wanted to see Veronica again.
Dennis, Allyson, Thug and Wyrm were sitting around a nearby table playing poker. Every now and then, one of them looked over at their illustrious leader. They were actually keeping track of how many laps around the room she had made. They pretty much found her state of mind humorous. She was normally the one who was prepared for anything, but the pretty U. S. envoy had thrown Eliza for a loop.
The door opened and Veronica walked in with Captain Corbin, both of whom were carrying two suitcases that HAD to belong to the envoy (unless the military Captain had developed a taste for ‘paisley’). She had already let her hair down, and her white blouse was unbuttoned a little far down. While her eyes instantly sought out Veronica’s there was some irritation there. Veronica addressed the group.
“Well, do you want the good news or the bad news first?”
“Bad news,” Eliza said with a sinking feeling in her gut.
“Bad news is that the researchers found a spell/prophecy regarding the Dead Man’s World. But it seems to be some kind of ‘lasting darkness’ type spell of the unpleasant variety.”
Eliza sat down hard. “So . . . we can’t . . .” She felt heartbreak setting it.
“What’s the good news?” Wyrm asked.
“We think we’ve discovered a pattern. The sorcerer who wrote the Heaven’s Eye spell was mad, but he also lived in the area around where the dimensional gap opened. Another sorcerer who was ALSO insane and ALSO was kept under guard in the SAME area wrote this new ‘spell’. Some of the vampire scholars who were trapped on this side came up with a theory that when the walls of the minds of these sorcerers broke down, they were more greatly effected by the energy from THIS dimension, particularly since the wall there was so thin. So they looked through the records for others who were whacked out of their gourds and lived in that area and found five more spells. All of them seem to refer to stones or jewels identical in size to the Heaven’s Eye and the Dead Man’s World. One of them, which we think might require a huge ruby, talks of ‘building bridges between two shores that aren’t separated by water.’ So we’ve got geologists and archeologists out all over the world. We didn’t think it’s coincidence that the two jewels we DID find were in this dimension, so we’re going based on the hunch that the rest of them are here as well.”
“But how do we cast the spell?” Eliza said, feeling hopeful again in spite of herself. “We don’t have access to the magic over here?”
“Some of your vampire kin have had some luck finding smaller cracks. They aren’t enough to communicate with the other side, but they might be enough to give a powerful sorcerer, or sorceress, enough spark to get the spell rolling. I’ve got a list of what all the spells are and what they require.” She smiled shyly at Eliza. “So don’t give up yet. And just so you know, the government would like to continue to employ you to aid in the security of these jewels as they’re found. And I’ve been requested to continue in my duties as a liaison between the federal government, the military and your security team.”
“Deal,” said Eliza very, very quickly.
“Don’t you want to negotiate our contract?” Wyrm asked sarcastically.