"He told me the same thing." Yaksha pauses to wonder. "It must be true." He adds casually, "You and your friend can go."
I look up. "What?"
"You broke your vow because you love this young man. It is the only reason you broke it. You must still have Krishna's grace. You only became a vampire to protect Rama and your child. You must have had his grace from the beginning. That is why he showed you such kindness. I did not see that till now.'I cannot harm you. He would not wish me to." Yaksha glances at the burning fuse. "You had better hurry."
The sparks of the short fuse are like the final sands of an hourglass.
I grab Ray's hand and leap up and pull him toward
the front door. I do not open the door with my hand. I kick it open; the wrong way. The hinges rupture, the wood splinters. The night air is open before us. I shove Ray out ahead of me.
"Run!" I shout.
"But"
"Run!"
He hears me, finally, and dashes for the trees. I turn, I don't know why. The chase is over and the race is won. There is no reason to tempt fate. What I do now, it is the most foolish act of my life. I stride back into the living room. Yaksha stares out at the dark sea. I stand behind him.
"You have ten seconds," he says.
"Hate and fear and love are all in the heart. I felt that when he played his flute." I touch his shoulder. "I don't just hate you. I didn't just fear you."
He turns and looks at me. He smiles; he always had a devilish grin.
"I know that, Sita," he says. "Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
I leap for the front door. I am outside, thirty feet off the front porch, when the bombs go off. The power of the shock wave is extraordinary even for me to absorb. It lifts me up, and for a few moments it is as if I can fly. But it does not set me down softly. At one point in my trajectory fate makes me a marksman's prized bird. An object hot and sharp pierces me from behind.
It goes through my heart. A stake.
I land in a ball of agony. The night burns behind me. My blood sears as it pours from the wound in my chest. Ray is beside me, asking me what he should do. I writhe in the dirt, my fingers clawing into the earth. But I do not want to go into the ground, no, not after walking on it for so long. I try to get the words outit is not easy. I see I have been impaled by the splintered leg of my piano bench.
"Pull it out," I gasp.
"The stick?" It is the first stupid thing I have heard Ray say.
I turn my front to him. "Yes."
Ray grabs the end of the leg. The wood is literally flaming, although it has passed through my body. He yanks hard. The stick breaks; he has got half of it. The other half is still in my body. Too bad for me. I close my eyes for an instant and see a million red stars. I blink and they explode as if the universe has ended. There remains only red light everywhere. The color of sunset, the color of blood. I find myself settling onto my back. My head rolls to one side. Cool mud touches my cheek. It warms as my blood pours from my mouth and puddles around my head. A red stain, almost black in the fiery night, spreads down my beautiful blond hair. Ray weeps. I look at him with such love I honestly feel I see Krishna's face.
It is not the worst way to die.
"Love you," I whisper.
He hugs me. "I love you, Sita."
So much love, I think as I close my eyes and the pain recedes. There must be so much grace, so much protection for me if Krishna meant what he said. Of course I believe he meant it. I do believe in miracles.
I wonder if I will die, after all.
TO BE CONTINUED...