Night Protector

Once they had reinterred the King alongside the female who had been his Queen for hundreds of years, they reburied the casket and left the place as clean as they possibly could.

No doubt, trees and shrubs would soon overtake the place in a very short time. The jungle grew so profusely that in a short time, it would be almost impossible to find this place again unless they left some sort of a marker.

Anh Hai had indeed left a marker.

Just before the casket lid went back over the bones of the two people within, he had thrown into the bottom of the casket, a single gold coin the size of his thumb. It had his signature on it, which would leave a faint sign of its existence for as long as he was alive.

He did not expect to ever return to this place again, but it was always best to leave a door slightly ajar, just in case…

As the jeeps bounced back along the dirt road that led to the coastal city of Hoi An, Anh Hai took out a pad and a pencil and began sketching several objects that looked to Jasmine like spherical shapes without any significance.

"Take a look at these, Jasmine. If you recognize any of these pieces, tell me."

His hand moved with ease and fluidity over the paper and within a very short time, photo-realistic shapes began to form.

"One of them is shaped like a gold ball the size of a cantaloupe," he shaded in the details of the gold ball.

"It is hollow, with lattices criss-crossing like so, with a small knob that is actually a very large ruby at the top. There are diamonds embedded at the points where the lattices intersect, like this."

He drew the diamonds in.

"Another piece is a long stick-like thing with a half-moon attached to one end. The stick is hollow so it's not that heavy and the half-moon is made similarly to the ball."

His hand continued to sketch in the details.

"It is hollow with the same sort of latticework with diamonds embedded at the intersections. This is the scepter the King always carried."

He paused and narrowed his eyes as he searched his memory.

"The third item is a wing-shaped V that looks like this." He quickly sketched its shape. "It has some lithograph-looking etchings that are actually words written in Sanskrit."

"The fourth thing is a flat disk the size of your palm. It looks flat but it's got smooth bumps and planar variations on its surface that you can't really see. You have to touch it to know it's there."

All of these items are made of gold. Unless they have been melted down, they should still exist.

"Lattice ball?" Jasmine tapped the image he had drawn as a vision came to her mind. "I remember a gold ball that was used during a ceremonial event involving the priests and the King."

"What else do you remember?" Anh Hai asked as an eager expression returned to his face.

"Nothing much more than that. Everything happened so fast that I was just looking around and absorbing my surroundings. I didn't take stock of all that I saw. There was too much going on."

"Listen Jasmine, if I can bring you back into that life, can you find out what happened to the gold ball, and also the other pieces?"

"Why can't you go back?"

He shook his head. "I tried but once my life ended, there was nothing left to see."

"You know that I did not survive much longer than you did. I died within the day that you died."

Jasmine sighed. "The only other person who would still be around the palace and would know what happened to these items would be Blake."

Anh Hai scowled. He had taken Blake's life. Why would the man help him with anything?

"I'd rather not ask him for anything. We have some bad blood going back centuries."

Blake started chuckling.

He'd been hovering inside the Jeep on the passenger seat next to the driver and had heard the entire conversation between Anh Hai and Jasmine.

"He's right. Why should I help him?" Blake snickered at Jasmine. "He's my ancient mortal enemy."

"You know I can hear you, right Blake?" Anh Hai murmured.

"You know I don't give a shit, right Vincent?" Blake responded.

"You know I can put you back into that bottle again, right Blake?"

"You know I can break out again, right Vincent?" Blake laughed.

"You know I can hang both of you by the thumbs and torture you with medieval devices, right guys?" Jasmine interjected without skipping a beat.

Both Anh Hai and Blake laughed.

For Jasmine to crack a joke with them meant she was recovering from her emotional stress and that was worth keeping an uneasy truce. For now.

The Jeeps rolled into Hoi An just as the sun hit the horizon and the golden clouds drifted in lazy patterns across the sky.

Anh Hai drove Jasmine back to the Parisienne Hotel and then checked himself and his men into the Hotel Royal across the street.

Blake followed her into her room and hovered in one corner of the bedroom as Jasmine showered and changed into clean clothing.

Then they spent the rest of that evening ensconced within the room, ordering room service and watching an old movie on TV. Or at least Blake watched it because within the first fifteen minutes, Jasmine was out like a light.

All night long, Blake kept a watch on her as she slept in fits and starts. He found it incredibly ironic that as a bona fide ghoul, he had to keep waking her up from her night terrors.

Wasn't Blake supposed to be the night terror? Since when did ghouls become night protectors?

Towards morning, she began sleeping longer and longer stretches without having nightmares, and towards morning, her sleep became deep and peaceful.

Blake was resting on the bed next to her when a rooster outside her window began crowing as the dawn cracked over the horizon.

The sound of the rooster woke Jasmine up with a start.

"Good morning beautiful," Blake greeted her with a gentle voice.

"Hmmm." She smiled. "Did you sleep okay?"

Blake didn't want to tell her that ghouls didn't actually sleep since they needed no rest, so he semi-lied.

"It was a quiet night. I had a good rest." It was true. The night was quiet and he did rest on her bed while she slept.

"That's good. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep at all because yesterday was such a horrible day, but you know what Blake?"

She gave a gentle smile.

"With you next to me, I felt so safe that I slept all night like a log and now I feel much better."

Blake stared at her, speechless. How was it that she could not remember the countless times he had to awaken her from her night terrors?

But then he sighed and shrugged. As long as it didn't affect her, he was not going to pursue it.

And if his presence was helping her sleep at night, he would be here with her until she no longer needed him.

Blake sighed again.

Jasmine was still young. Once she found a man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, he would have to let her go so she could live her life unencumbered by a ghoul who was trying to find his way out of this limbo.

But until that day, he would remain by her side.

She needed him.

And he needed her.