Oh, my God. Why is she here? We’re about to fucking die, that’s why. Laurel’s ghostly image barely made itself present, a poorly lit hologram of her friend. She bent down immediately and passed her hand through the body of the young girl, a frown stretching the dark lines of her mouth. When she spoke, her voice sounded like it came from the end of a long tunnel.
“Nick,” she said, her words spaced out with apparent effort, “you must come. We need you.”
He stood up, hands thrust into his pockets. “We’re trapped here, Laurel.”
“Nick. You know how.”
“No!” he answered abruptly. In the dead silence of the freezer, it made Jackie’s stomach jump.
“Laur, can you help us?” She had no idea what a ghost could do for them, but maybe she knew something they did not. “Nick? What’s going on?”
Laurel’s foggy image faded to almost nothing for a moment but then sprang back with brief, brilliant intensity. “You must!” Her finger jabbed out at Nick, and she watched him take a hesitant step backward.
She could not see his face, but a second later, his shoulders visibly sagged. “I can’t do that, Ms. Carpenter. There must be another way.”
Her head shook. “No time. I’ll help, but hurry.”
Jackie tapped Nick on the shoulder, and he whirled around on her, startled. For the first time, she saw something she didn’t think possible in those depthless eyes. He looked afraid, which was the last thing Jackie needed to reassure her fraying nerves.
“Care to explain what the hell you’re talking about?”
Nick dropped back to his knees, reaching out to lift the hat and brush a strand of hair off the little girl’s face. “Blood. It’s all about blood.”
Something stung Jackie’s eye, and she reached up to realize it was sweat. Looking behind her on the wall by the door, the thermostat already read seventy-eight degrees. “Blood. What’s blood got do with our current situation?”
Nick stood up, moving with the effort of an old man. His face had gone into that unreadable zone again, except perhaps a droop in his eyes. Sadness? Haunted? Regardless, not a look Jackie was going for, under the circumstances.
“Laurel wants me to take us over.”
“Over where? Outside?”
“No, Jackie. Over to the other side. Deadworld.”
Jackie glanced over at Laurel. Was she out of her mind? The look she gave Jackie brought a lump to her throat.
“Please, hon. Be brave. It’s your only chance.”
“Don’t we sort of have to be… dead for that?”
“No,” Nick said. “Drake has been doing it, so presumably I can do it as well.”
“I’m no vampire though,” Jackie replied. Her mind was still trying to wrap around the notion of going to the “other” side. What did that mean exactly? It was an apples-and-oranges arrangement. Then again, Laurel’s ghost was standing here in front of her. The dead could walk among the living.
He gave her a reluctant shrug. “Technically, that shouldn’t matter.”
Jackie grunted. “Technically. You aren’t sounding too sure of yourself, Sheriff, but it’s now… ninety-four degrees in here. We need to try something, so I vote yes for hanging out with Laurel for a while.”
“Jackie, I can’t do it without blood.”
“Okay. Well…” The obvious now smacked Jackie square in the gut. He needed her blood. “You need some of my blood.”
“I might need a lot of your blood, and even then I have no guarantees anything will work.”
“But Laur thinks it will. She said she will help.”
Laurel nodded behind Nick. “Yes. It can work. It’s the only way.”
She took a deep breath. Laur would never steer her wrong about anything. “If she says go for it, then go for it, Nick. We have to try. And I’ll have you shoot me before I roast to death in here.”
“Jackie,” Nick said, stepping up close to her. He reached up, taking her face in his hands. Compared to the air in the sealed room, they were wonderfully cool. “Look me in the eye and tell me you’re okay with this. I have to drink your blood, and it may kill you.”
“I’m good,” she answered back, trying desperately to actually sound that way. “Are you?”
He licked his lips, prepared to say something, but then Jackie felt herself pulled up to her toes, and Nick’s mouth crushed down against hers. No soft hesitation this time. No pleasant little meeting of the mouths. It was just some heady mix of desperation, need, fear, and desire. After a few seconds he pulled back, but his hands still held her. He smiled. “Better now, thanks. Look at me, Jackie. If you look close enough you might actually see the door to the other side.”
She stared hard into his eyes, wondering. “Really? You can see that?”
“If you know how to look, but I want you to know this won’t hurt much at all, just a bit of weakness, maybe a little light-headedness, and then, hopefully, we’ll be good, and Laurel will help me through this.”
Jackie nodded. “Okay. Sounds good.” The wide doe eyes said different.
“Now, keep your eye on Laurel. Not much else here to look at, and it might soothe your fear a bit.”
Jackie’s voice sounded dreamy, almost far away. “I’m not afraid though.”
Laurel smiled at her. “It won’t take long, hon. You’ll hardly even realize.”
“What happens then?”
“This is kind of a plan-as-you-go scenario. Let’s just get you out of here first.”
There was a dull pain in the crook of her right arm, and then pressure-soft, warm pressure. Out of the corner of her eye, Jackie could see Nick’s head against her elbow. She knew it was happening now, but it all felt so far away. “He did that vampire thing on me again, didn’t he?”
Laurel nodded. “Better that way, sweetie. Just keep watching me, talking to me, and then we’ll go when Nick is ready.”
“I like him, you know.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“And I miss you horribly.”
“I know. I miss you, too.”
“And I still love you, Laur. Really, but just… well, not like you wanted me to. I’m sorry.”
“Hush. You can’t be sorry about that.”
Tears spilled down Jackie’s cheeks, feeling distant and far, like she was watching someone else cry. A part of her knew it was Nick’s doing, hypnotizing her, and, sadly, she had trusted him without hesitation. How embarrassing was that? They were tears of remorse, regret, and terror. Whatever might happen next, at the moment she was dying, her blood draining into Nick’s suckling mouth.
“God, I’m scared, Laur. I don’t want to die. Fuck, this really sucks.” Laurel’s image swam in her view, two, then three of her dancing across the back of the freezer. Her elbow began to ache, and she could feel the blood in her body ebbing toward Nick’s drinking mouth, drawn like a pool of liquid iron to a magnet. “Nick! Please make this work. Please, please, please don’t let me die like this.”
“It’s okay, baby,” Laurel’s voice cooed in her ear. “Hang in there a little longer. We’re almost ready.”
“Laur? I can’t see you!”
“Shhhh. All done, sweetie. Rest now. I’ll see you on the other side.”
Jackie sank to her knees, head lolling over against Nick’s shoulder, a chaotic jumble of thoughts pouring through her head, as they are wont to do when death encroaches. Most were full of anger and regret, but not of dying. Her life had not been what she wanted, consumed with pursuing demons she could not catch, filled with a need for revenge over losing something she had never really had. Ironic that Laurel had been there all those years, ready to give it, and Jackie had been oblivious, and even if she had leaned in that direction, the fear of herself would have kept her silent. Who would love her if they were really let in?
Goddamnit. I want another shot. God, Goddess, or whoever the fuck you are. If you give a shit about my sorry ass, please get me back alive. I can do better, I swear. I… I… Wow, Nick really smells good.
A warm blanket of darkness swaddled her in the blessed relief of nothingness.