Lahat ng Kabanata ng Leesa's Advent: Kabanata 121 - Kabanata 130

Getting back up onto her feet proved difficult—when she pushed down with her hands to get some leverage, they just sank deeper into the snow. Finally, after much twisting and turning and pushing, she managed to hoist herself back up. She brushed the snow off her parka and looked at her friends. All three had big grins on their faces. Leesa smiled back. She imagined she’d probably looked pretty funny trying to get up.“I wish I had video of that,” Cali said. “I can see it on YouTube now—California girl drowning in the snow.”They all laughed, Leesa included. For a moment there, she had felt almost like she was drowning—or was about to, anyway.“Since you’re so smart,” Leesa said when she finally stopped laughing, “maybe you can explain just how we’re supposed to roll snowballs in snow this deep to build a snowman.”Cali swung her head from side to side, eyeing all the snow.

Leesa’s eyes widened in surprise. “Ten or twelve thousand dollars? You carry ten or twelve thousand dollars in cash around with you?”“Plus gold and jewels,” Dominic reminded her. “Where else am I going to keep it?”“I hadn’t really thought about that. I guess I thought you might a have safety deposit box somewhere, or something like that.” She studied the wizard closely. His clothes didn’t show any bulges where he could have so much money and jewels stashed away. She wondered if he might have a money belt under his shirt, but his slender form sure didn’t look like it.Dominic stood up and extracted an old brown leather wallet from his back pocket. No, not really a wallet, Leesa thought. It was a little too big to be called a wallet, and it had an inch-wide strap and a brass clasp that kept it closed, like a purse. Yet it was too small to be considered a purse. Whatever it was, it was clearl

Several hundred miles to the north of Balin’s cabin, Jarubu led his three companions southward through the Green Mountains of Vermont. Melissa loped almost at his side, staying a respectful half pace back. Behind them, Conley and Alexi ran side by side. They moved rapidly through the night, but not at full speed, for they had many miles ahead of them.Only the very edge of the recent blizzard had reached this far north and west, leaving less than a foot of snow behind. The steep, snow-covered slopes barely hindered the vampires, nor did the forest. When the woods grew too thick or the snow drifted too deep, the vampires simply took to the upper reaches of the trees, leaping and swinging from branch to branch almost as quickly as they raced along the ground. Though racing through the trees would make following them more difficult, Jarubu did not fool himself into thinking it would thwart their pursuers. Only distance would do that.He had no destination in mind. H

“Now, we are doubly connected. If you sense him, I will sense him as well.” He motioned for them to stand. Jarubu and Melissa rose to their feet. “Go now. Enjoy your hunting. All I require of you is that you remain on the move, covering ground I cannot cover myself.”Josef stood up. “Since you two were already heading south, continue on that way. I am going north. I have not searched those lands in some time.”Without another word, he headed off into the trees.Jarubu and Melissa watched him disappear, then turned and looked at each other. Jarubu was certain the relief he saw on Melissa’s face was mirrored on his own.Balin stood silhouetted in the doorway of his nearly three hundred year old cabin, built with his own hands, waiting as Rave carried Leesa the last few yards up the slight incline that led up to the cabin. The old volkaane was wearing a fringed buckskin shirt and buckskin pants he had made himself. L

“Are you beginning to see why I wanted a car?” Dominic asked as Leesa drove west through the darkness, toward the Connecticut River and home. They had decided that whenever the two of them rode together Leesa would do the driving, because she was the one with the license in case they were stopped for any reason.“So I could go kiss Rave and you could drink mead?” Leesa joked, though she was pretty clear about what Dominic meant.Dominic laughed. “Those are both very nice bonuses, I have to admit.” The wizard had enjoyed a third mug of mead after he had sensed Josef’s magic, while the four of them talked more about what it might mean.“I understand it’s not smart for you to be around me all time,” Leesa said. “And that the car makes it easier for you put distance between us.”“Exactly. And after what happened tonight, I have another idea for it as well.”Leesa took a