The Artist's Muse

Chapter 13

Paris, France. July 26, 2006

"Okay, open your eyes."

Sebastian's voice was soft and breathy in her ear, and caused a jolt of electricity to tickle her spine. She did as instructed and gasped as she found herself standing in the Louvre. "What kind of crazy nonsense is this?" she asked as her wide eyes consumed their surroundings with disbelief. "Is that us?!"

Sure enough, standing in front of the display of Sebastian's paintings was a copy of herself. She watched her hand extend toward them, then gasped again as a copy of Sebastian walked right through her like a ghost.

"Yes. You probably don't remember this yet, but I can enter my paintings and relive the scenes. As you just saw, though, we can't actually interact with anything. It's like...what are those called...a projection." Sebastian grinned a toothy grin and took Isabel's hand. He led her closer to their past selves while she stared straight ahead in shock.

What in the fantasy novel hell was going on, here?!

She recovered enough from her trance to pull her hand back. Sebastian seemed hurt by it, but made no move. "What do you mean, 'I don't remember yet'? You conveniently didn't mention that you're some sort of wizard or something!"

"I'm not a wizard, I'm a vampire, like I told you." He opened his mouth wide and allowed his fangs to extend. Isabel let out a terrified squeak and backed against a nearby wall, more annoyed that it was solid than confused why she couldn't pass through it like the ghost of Sebastian had done to her.

He raised his hands and took a few steps backwards, retracting the fangs at the same time. "I thought you-shit, you did think I was joking, didn't you? Shit. I shouldn't have thought you remembered when you made the accusation in your letter, or that you took the news so easily this life! Good going, Sebastian. You've sure bungled this one properly."

Isabel pressed her back and palms against the wall, doing her best to breathe through the rapid fluttering of her heart. "This life? What are you talking about? You're actually insane!" Her eyes darted around the room, searching for an exit. She took a few side-steps along the wall and bolted for the doorway to her left, only to find that it was as solid as the wall.

"Isabel, it's okay! I would never hurt you, not over the centuries and lifetimes we've shared. If you'll take my hand, I'll return us to the real world. Then I'll explain everything, and if you want to go home, I'll pay for the ticket and transportation. I promise."

Isabel stared at his outstretched hand, mind spinning a million miles a minute. He looked so genuine. And when she thought about it, everything he'd said had been true so far. Every strange, unbelievable thing. She didn't know how else to escape this dream land, so she extended a trembling hand.

Then a shadow caught her eye just behind Sebastian. Like the shadow in her mirror, the moment she focused on it, it disappeared. But this time, her head felt like a bomb had detonated and everything went black.

When she woke, she was back in the bed she'd slept in last night. Sebastian paced back and forth at the foot of the bed. His eyes were full of terror and the moment he saw her move, he raced to her side. "Isabel, are you alright? What happened? We've Walked thousands of times before and never had anything like that occur!"

He reached out to take her hand, but she shied away and he immediately backed up. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bombard you with questions when you're just waking up. You just scared the hell out of me! Your breathing was fine so I knew you were alive, but I was about to risk calling a physician up here."

Her head was throbbing and focusing on Sebastian's words was difficult. "Please stop talking so loud," she groaned, curling up into a ball and hiding her face. "It hurts. And the light hurts."

"I'm sorry," he whispered and mostly closed the bedroom door, dropping the light level in the room drastically. "I'll go get some pain medication from town. And I'll put a glass of water on the side table."

Isabel didn't respond or open her eyes, but heard the door creak as Sebastian left. The pain in her head was excruciating. She wished to return to the blissful darkness of unconsciousness, but no such mercy came.

What did come was the tender touch of Sebastian placing a cool rag on her brow. It felt good against her skin and did help a little with the pain. "I'm putting the water over here. And I'll be back as fast as I can with the medication. Will you be okay on your own for a few minutes?"

All she could really manage was a grunt. He must have taken that as confirmation because he again left, this time closing the door behind him entirely. She was plunged into complete darkness, which came as a relief. At least the light sensitivity wasn't an issue now.

Still, every time she moved she felt like her head was pulsing with its own heartbeat. If she remained completely motionless she could almost think clearly, so she got as comfortable as possible and tried to relax. There was so much to process and so many questions she didn't know the answers to.

Was she actually safe with Sebastian? He was a monster, but he had plenty of chances to drink her blood and hadn't. Unless he just wasn't thirsty yet and was keeping her around for later? Somewhere deep in her heart, she knew that wasn't true. If everything else he said was true, why would he lie about not wanting to hurt her? Plus, he'd been unfailingly kind from the moment she met him.

Then there was the other big mystery: Why did he keep mentioning her remembering things? He acted like they really knew each other in a past life or something, which was absolutely ridiculous. It felt like nonsense coming out of her mouth when she'd mentioned it yesterday, but now she felt like she couldn't be sure about anything at all.

All this thinking was only intensifying the pain and not getting her anywhere. She curled up more tightly and wished she'd never left Utah.