“I really like you,” she said.
Sam opened his mouth to speak, but it was too dry. It took him a couple of tries. “I really like you, too.”
He knew he should lean in for a kiss, but he was too nervous. He was relieved when she leaned in, and planted her lips on his.
It was amazing. The blood rushed to his brain, and he prayed this would never end.
Nine
As Caitlin flew with Caleb, arms wrapped around him, loving the feel of his body, she thought of how lucky she was. Just the day before, she’d been worried that Caleb would say goodbye. And now, for once, her luck had changed.
Thank God for that necklace, she thought.
It was late afternoon by the time they arrived in Salem. He set them down inconspicuously in an empty field on the outskirts of town, so no one would notice.
They walked a few blocks, and arrived right on the Main Street of Salem.
Caitlin was surprised. She had expected something more. She’d heard about Salem her whole life, from textbooks mostly, always in connection with the witches. But to see it as a real, living place, as an everyday town, she found quite strange. She had imagined it as a perfectly preserved, historic place in her head, almost like a stage set. To see normal, modern, everyday people living their lives, driving, hurrying to and fro, caught her off guard.
Salem looked almost like any small, New England, suburban town. There were a few chain stores, the typical pharmacies, everything modern, and almost no sign that this town had so much history. The town was also a lot bigger than she had imagined. She had absolutely no idea where to even begin to look for her Dad.
Caleb must’ve been thinking the same thing at the same time, because he looked over at her with an expression: what now?
“Well,” she began, “I guess we didn’t expect him to be standing on Main Street and waiting to give us a big hug.”
Caleb smiled.
“No, I didn’t think it would be that easy, either.”
“So? Now what?” she asked.
Caleb looked at her. “I don’t know,” he finally said.
Caitlin stood there, thinking. Several people passed them on the street, and some of them gave Caitlin and Caleb a strange look. She looked at them in the reflection of a store window, and realized that they were a startling couple. They were anything but inconspicuous. He was so tall, and dressed elegantly in all black. He look like a movie star, plopped down in the middle of the street. Standing next to him, she felt more average than ever.
“Maybe we should start with the obvious?” she asked. “My last name. Paine. If my Dad still lives here, maybe he’s listed.”
Caleb smiled. “You think he’d make his number public?”
“I doubt it. But sometimes the most obvious answers are the best ones. Anyway, can’t hurt to try. You’ve any other ideas?”
Caleb stood there, staring. Finally, he shook his head.
“Let’s do it,” she said.
For the millionth time, she wished she still had her cell. Instead, she looked around and spotted an Internet café across the street.
Caitlin had typed every variation on “Paine” she could think, and still, there were no results. She was annoyed. They had searched every possible residential and business listing in Salem. They had tried Paine and Payne and Pain and Paiyne. Nothing. Not one single person.
Caleb was right: it was a silly idea. If her father did live here, he wasn’t going to make his number public. And she had a feeling, given the mysterious clues so far, that he would never make it that easy on them anyway.
Sighing, she turned to Caleb.
“You were right. A waste of time.”
“The rose and the thorn meet in Salem,” Caleb said slowly, again and again.
She could see him thinking.
She had been repeating the phrase in her mind, too, and it felt good to hear it out loud. She had been turning it over and over, but still had no idea what it meant. A rose? A thorn?
“Maybe there’s a rose garden somewhere?” she said, thinking out loud. “And maybe there’s some sort of clue hidden underneath it?” she said. “Or maybe it’s the name of a place?” she added. “Maybe there’s a bar, or an old inn, called the Rose and the Thorn?”
Caitlin turned back to the computer, and tried several variations of the search. She tried just rose. Then just thorn. Then rose and thorn. Businesses establishments. Parks. Gardens.
No results.
Annoyed, she finally reached over and shut the system down.
They both sat in silence for several minutes, thinking.
“Maybe we’re thinking about this the wrong way,” Caleb suddenly said.
She turned to him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, we’ve been looking for a living person,” he said, “in today’s world. In this century. But vampires have lived for thousands of years. When one vampire says to another, come meet me, he doesn’t always mean in this century. Vampires think in centuries, not years.
“It could be that your father is not here now. But that he was. A very long time ago. It could be that we shouldn’t be searching for a living person. But one who lived here at some point. And maybe even died here.”
Caitlin stared at him, not really understanding.
“Died? What are you saying? My father is dead?”
“It’s hard for me to explain this to you, but you need to think about this differently. Vampires live through many incarnations. Many of us have gravestones, even though we are living today. I myself, under different names, am buried in many cemeteries in many countries. Obviously I am not really dead, or buried. But at the time, the locals needed to be assured that I was. We had to stop the evidence, reassure them that I wasn’t coming back to life. And a burial and a tombstone was the only thing that would put them at ease.
“The vampire race does not like to leave trails, and we do not like it when humans know that we have come back. It brings too much unwanted attention. So, sometimes, when there is no other choice, we let them bury us. And then we sneak out, quietly, in the middle of the night, and move on.”
He turned and looked at her.
“It could be that your father was buried here. Maybe we shouldn’t be searching above ground, but below it. We have checked the living Paines. But we have not checked the dead ones.”
Caitlin was taken aback as they walked in the small graveyard, her mind still reeling. She had never been in a place this old before. When they had entered, a large sign had read “The Burying Point, 1637.” She marveled at the fact that people had been coming here for almost 400 years.
More than that, she marveled that there were a few tourists wandering the cemetery right now. She had assumed they would have been the only ones here. But after all, this was Salem. And this cemetery was an attraction. People seemed to come here and treat it as a museum. In fact, she noticed that there was an actual museum adjacent to the burial plots. It didn’t feel right to her. She felt that this place should have been more sacred.
The cemetery was small and intimate, the size of someone’s backyard. A cobblestone path twisted and turned its way throughout the place, and as she strolled, she marveled at how old the tombstones were, at their strange fonts, worn away with age. It was English, but it was so old, and so quaint, it almost read like a different language.
She carefully read the names, particularly scrutinizing the last names.
But she couldn’t find a single “Paine,” or any variation on the name. They had reached the end of the trail. There was nothing.
As Caitlin reached the end, Caleb beside her, she stopped and read a plaque. It described some of the horrific tortures that the witches had suffered. One of them, she read, was “pressed” to death. She was horrified.