Chapter 131

Almara’s Pov

After being far enough away from the vampire territory, we haul a cab. We take the long ride to gather our thoughts and massage our aching muscles, or in Robert’s case his throbbing shoulder.

Though he wasn’t bit which is the important part, that wound is going to need to be cleaned or he’ll risk a serious infection- even if he insists he’s fine. We ride the rest of the way in silence, the sun coming to a close behind us.

We finally reach home. I except to be filled with warmth and relief, but it seems as though the events of the day followed us leaving its mark on our bodies and hearts.

I push open the front door and the first thing I hear is Elenor’s feet racing to greet us. “Oh thank goddess.” She throws her arms around me. “Roman said he wasn’t sure if you all had made it.” She keeps her hands firm on my arms but extends back to take a good look at us.

“Roman? He’s here?” I ask, wanting to move past her to see with my own eyes.

“Yes, he told me everything about the rower and how he had to leave once the alarm sounded for the city to be on shut down. It sounded dreadful.” Elenor furrows her brows and releases her arms from me. “Where’s Bess?”

Robert and my inability to bring forth any sort of explanation says it all. Elenor brings her hand to her mouth and muffles a cry.

“She’s not dead.” I quickly say, though as soon as I say it I realize that I don’t know that for sure. As much as I want to comfort Elenor and not be rude, I can’t resist the need to see Arthur and Grace. I give Robert a look that says for him to do something.

“I need to see Arthur.” I tell Elenor as my dismissal and begin to head towards the living room.

“Oh, sweetheart he’s not-” is all I hear Elenor say, the rest gets cut off when I see Arthur motionless on the couch. A numbness causes my legs to feel as heavy as lead. For some reason all I can think about is the cold lifeless dust we saw on our long journey back.

“He’s not dead.” I hear almost my own exact words repeated back to me from Elenor who stands behind me, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder. He may not be dead, but just like Bess we don’t know for how much longer.

I take a wobbly step towards him and then find myself toppled on top of his broad chest sobbing into his shirt. I hug him tightly and though he’s definitely lost weight I can still feel his strong muscles, those same arms that swooped me off my feet. I can still feel my Arthur all the way to his heart.

“It’s okay.” I hear Arthur manage to whisper in shaky and breathless words.

“Shhhh. Don’t speak.” I urge him. “Save your energy.” I burrow my face further into him and breathe in his scent. He smells like pine and fresh clean laundry. Just like the day I met him. A scent that tells me he’s polished, yet wild and free.

“Cathy . . . is . . . okay.” Arthur pants. I pull myself up and brush aside some loose hair hanging on his face and tenderly kiss his lips.

“That’s why you called isn’t it? It had nothing to do with yourself.” Arthur gives a slow and barely noticeable nod, but it’s enough to send the tears running down my face again.

“I love you, Arthur. Don’t forget it.” I whisper.

A gentle cough interrupts our moment and I see Roman standing in the center of the room. I pull myself off his son and manage to bring myself to my feet. Once Roman sees I’m more presentable he continues on.

“I take it that you didn’t get the salvia?” He asks unable to keep the disappointment from his voice.

“Oh, we got it.” Robert is the one who answers stepping into the room and pulls the glass from his inner coat pocket.

“Then what are we waiting for? Why don’t we combine the rest of the ingredients?” Roman asks as though the procedure in discussion is nothing more than a business plan that needs executing.

“We don’t have quartz dust from the soul plant.” I say feebly. With all eyes on me, I explain how Robert and I looked through the fields but it was recently tended too by the vampire gardener. Robert also reveals the mark that the claws of that disgusting creature had left.

He pulls back his shirt and three punctured holes are pierced through his skin. Dry blood is crusted around the wounds, though the holes themselves are still brightly red and irritated.

“Robert, you’re going to have to get that looked at.” Roman says with more disgust than concern.

“Later. How do we get this quartz dust?” he asks pulling his shirt back up.

A moment of silence passes between us as we all try to think of the solution. There’s nowhere around here that the flower would grow, not to mention no one here would even know where to get such a flower. The only person who even knew where to get it in the first place was Bess and she’s been take captive.

Wait a minute. The only person who knew about this flower was Bess because she’s a florist. She owns a flower shop.

“Is it possible Bess would the soul plant in her shop?” I ask tentatively as a hopeful plan works itself out in my mind.

“Why would my mother keep a primarily vampire plant in her shop?” Roman asks almost offended by the question, though I’m not paying attention to his feelings right now. Instead, all I can reflect on how it was Bess who knew the plant in the first place and how it was Bess who knew the Latin poem that Jafe was reciting. It was Bess who defeated the vampires once before.

Perhaps Bess knows more about the vampire life than she lets on. “She has a flower shop, where else would we go to look for this flower except in the one place that’s already been wiped clean?” I ask though not really expecting an answer. “It’s our only hope.” I say looking at Arhtur’s slow rise and fall of his chest.

No one else comes up with a better idea and with that Roman, Robert, and I pile back into a car and head towards Bess’s flower shop while Elenor stays with Grace as she sleeps upstairs.

Within minutes, thanks to the speed of whatever unreleased model of this car is, we arrive at Bess’s shop. We throw our seatbelts off of us and climb out of the car.

Roman pulls a large key chain from his pocket and flips to a long golden key and inserts it in the old knob to the store. One of things that makes Bess’s shop so successful is the antique charm to it.

Roman unlocks the door and a bells chime above our heads. We piled inside and fiddle for a light switch, once we find one, light begins to flicker on. One strip of white light followed by another until the whole room is illuminated revealing a green sea of several species of plants.

“I’ll take the back room, Robert you take front, and Almara you scour everything in between.” With that we break and get to work.