Chapter 226
When they got to the next truck stop, Micah pumped the gas. Despite the "no Smoking Signs", Katelina lit one of the dead woman's cigarettes. The nicotine coursed through her, but it didn't make things okay.
When the gas was pumped, Micah sent Loren in with the money, then leaned into the backseat and took his share of their "dinner". Katelina concentrated on her cigarette and watched the way the cherry bobbed in time to her trembling hands.
Micah cut his snack short and plopped back in the driver's seat. "What's your problem?"
"How about that you just fucking killed someone, and now you're drinking off of them in full view of everyone?"
"Nah, these windows are tinted so dark that I could stick my ass on them and no one would see it." She looked away and Micah turned serious. "Look, we needed money and we needed blood. I didn't see you volunteering to share either one."
"But you didn't have to kill her. Verchiel-"
"Oh fuck, not another speech about the virtues of your Executioner buddy! I'm startin' to agree with Jorick about that shit. If you think that those two haven't killed humans then you're living in a dream world."
In her mind's eye she saw Jorick at the institute, holding the dead cop. "That's different! It was self defense."
Micah cocked an eyebrow. "Right. Puny humans pose a real threat. Look, we needed blood. I don't know if you've hung out with hungry vampires before, but let me tell ya' how it works. First you get hungry, then that turns into this gnawin' pain in your gut. Ya keep waitin' and it starts to hurt elsewhere; your fingers, your toes, then your hands, your feet - you get the picture? The longer it goes, the worse it gets. Pretty soon it's like those castaway cartoons where your buddies start to look like a big slab of ham. And since we're traveling with a big slab of ham, it's to your advantage we feed on someone else, get it?"
Katelina got it. She cringed back into the seat, suddenly aware of how human she was and how inhuman he was. "Jorick would kill you."
"I'm not scared of your little 'boyfriend' but I think the kid would feel bad about it." Katelina blinked uncomprehendingly and he rolled his eyes. "I'm old enough I can go without for a day or two, but I ain't sure about Loren. He got hurt and lost some blood and I don't know how good his self control is."
As if summoned, the teen appeared. Micah got out so he could slide into the backseat. Once he was in, the teen handed Katelina a bag of chips, a soda and a bottle of pain killers. "For your wrist," he explained proudly.
She nodded, trying to reconcile Micah's picture of a starving Loren with the kid she knew.
The bald vampire started the car and pulled back to the interstate. "I already had mine," he called to the teen. "Give the rest to Alex."
"How? He's unconscious."
"Improvise."
Katelina watched with growing disgust as Loren juggled people. He held Alex's head in the crook of his arm and the dead woman in his lap. With a sigh, he pried Alex's lips open. "We should have picked Torina." Then he began the arduous task of sucking blood out of the woman and spitting it into Alex's mouth.
"You gonna eat that shit or hang onto it?" Micah asked her suddenly. "I'm willing to endure your fucking chewing, so get it over with, huh?"
"I'm not that hungry."
"Suit yourself. I don't give a fuck if you starve to death."
Katelina stared at her lap and tried to block out the moist sounds from the backseat. Micah glanced at her, rolled his eyes and turned the radio up. The 70s metal was only a little better.
It was several minutes before someone choked, raw and rough, followed by a groan. It was Alex. "Where am I?"
Katelina looked back as Alex forced himself into a sitting position, his legs and feet folded up in the tiny seat. His face was ashen. "What's going on?"
"Here." Loren shoved the dead woman towards him and he took it cautiously. Katelina's eyes skipped away as he fastened his mouth around the wounds on her neck and began to drink.
After several mouthfuls, Alex looked up and asked again, "So where are we?"
"Don't know," Micah answered. "We're heading back to the den, but we're gonna have to find somewhere to stay before we get there."
Alex dropped his meal, and shot out horrified questions. "Where's everyone else? Are we all that's left? Where's Yaul?"
"They're gonna meet us at the den. They said to take you, Torina and Lunch and get outta there."
"Oh." Alex took a steadying breath. "How bad was it?"
"I wouldn't say it was bad," Loren answered. "After Saeed got rid of what's-his-nut it got better. But you know Jorick, he worries too much about her," he pointed to Katelina. "He wanted her out of there."
Alex nodded and went back to his meal.
***
It was four in the morning when Micah found a suitable place. It was an abandoned building on the edge of one town or another. They hid the car between two buildings and hauled Torina and the bloodless corpse inside with them.
If Katelina thought the building was bad from a distance, it was even worse close up. The paint was long gone and a streetlight bled through the ruined windows to illuminate naked steel girders, like bones stripped of flesh. The floor was littered in several inches of dirt, trash and shattered glass. Scurrying feet scampered away in the darkness and Katelina shuddered at the sound.
Micah led the way deeper into the dark building. Soon he was an indistinct shadow to her human eyes. She stumbled over something and Loren caught her arm. "Careful," he warned cheerfully.
They found the stairwell. There was nothing but suffocating blackness and Katelina clutched wildly at the young vampire beside her. Then, she remembered the cell phone.
It still had a charge, but the screen had a giant padlock emblem and wanted the password. She didn't care. The light from the screen was enough and she was able to pick her way through the darkness.
The basement floor crunched as she walked across it and bits of broken glass glittered in the dull light from the cellphone. The vampires dumped Torina and the dead woman together on the floor then moved around the room, examining it. Katelina mashed the button on the phone to relight the screen and stepped cautiously towards the two women.
The girl from the truck stop was face down. Her brown hair spilled out on the dirty floor and her blue parka was smudged from her trip in the trunk. Next to her lay Torina. For being in a battle, her dress was surprisingly clean. It was her hair that was crusted with blood; a head wound. Her skin was ashen and withered and her usually full lips were pulled back from her fangs. Of the two she looked the worse.
But she's the one who'll wake up tomorrow.
Katelina shivered at the thought and stepped away. The phone blinked out and she mashed the button desperately, afraid of the blackness and what was in it.
Loren was suddenly at her side. "We should be all right down here. There's a kind of clean patch over there." He motioned towards one of the walls. "I kicked the stuff outta the way so you should be able to sleep okay."
She stared at him with defeated eyes. How in the hell did he think she was going to get any sleep after the day she'd had?
With nothing else to do, she followed his directions and sat down, her back against the wall. The vampires congregated at the far end of the room, talking softly among themselves. She couldn't catch the words, and she didn't care.
She smoked the last of the dead woman's cigarettes and watched the way the cherry brightened when she inhaled. When it was down to filter she ground it out and stretched out on the dirty floor. She imagined that she could feel the dust and the dirt crawling into her hair and her nose. She clicked the button on the phone again and again to hold back the pressing darkness.
"You're never gonna go to sleep playing with that damned thing!" Micah called. "Go the fuck to sleep or I'll take it."
"Just try it!" she warned. His answer was laughter, and she rolled up into a miserable ball and closed her eyes tight. She didn't want to see when the light disappeared.
Her thoughts turned longingly to Jorick. She needed to hear him say everything was okay and feel his arms wrap around her and drown out the world. That's what he'd do; he'd brush away her nightmares with a caress and chase the darkness away with a kiss. Only, he wasn't there. If she was lucky, she might get to see him tomorrow - assuming he wasn't dead. She knew she shouldn't doubt him, but it was her luck. After the last two nightmarish days, that would be the icing on the cake.
Mmm- cake, that would taste good.
She banished the bizarre idea and tried to think soothing thoughts. The building creaked around her. Tiny rodent feet pattered in the darkness and the vampires' voices fell in a whispered rhythm. Somehow, the macabre lullaby seemed the perfect ending to her long, black day.
