To emphasize her point, another explosion shook the house, and this time part of the ceiling did collapse, bringing down a pile of flaming furniture from the sitting room. It narrowly missed Jackie, and she jumped back, a short scream escaping her lips. “Oh, my God. Nick! Any brilliant ideas?”
The fire lit up the room, allowing them to see at least, and Nick saw one last door past the office. It was large and metallic, with a handle much like one might find on an upright freezer. “Come on. In here,” he said, pointing at the cadaver fridge. “It might buy us some time.”
“That’s crazy. We’ll cook in there.”
“The floor is going to fall on us out here, Jackie. Move it.”
Nick ran over to the door and pulled the handle open. Even with the power off, the room inside was still cool relative to the rest of the basement. Once inside, Jackie was hesitant to shut the door all the way.
“Jackie. It’s forty degrees in here. Close the door.”
“But… Nick, it’ll be a goddamn oven.”
“It will be, but it gives us the most time.”
“Shit.” She pulled the latch shut, and they were closed inside. “Let’s hope they put out the fire before it can cook us.”
Nick gently laid the girl down on the floor, squatting beside her. He took off his hat and set it down over the wide, staring, and empty eyes. “Yeah, let’s hope.”
“Oh, no. Damnit, no!”
He could see that courage and determination, the desire to rescue the girl, which had been driving Jackie past the fear of everything else, slowly evaporate from her gaze. Nick rubbed a hand over his scalp. “I wish you’d have stayed outside, Jackie.”
She did not respond. Jackie was staring over the top of his head at the back of the freezer. Nick turned and realized the open-mouthed silence had nothing to do with the death of the girl. Oozing her way through the small ventilation grate in back of the ceiling was the faded, distorted form of Laurel.
Chapter 53
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.”