Chapter Two

The trees blurred as the SUV flew down the highway. Mike had been unofficially driving since he was twelve; that kind of experience was what made riding with him exciting and terrifying at the same time. I swear the other cars were driving backwards. We blew past so many vehicles their tail lights eventually blurred together. Mike could stop this car on a dime and take the sharpest turns with ease; I felt safe riding with him.

A half hour into our drive Tyler was snoring behind me. It was okay. Honestly, he had more to do than the rest of us since he played our double agent; his family had sought protection from the vampires and they joined the opposing side. People who were owned by the vampires didn’t have to give as much blood at donations but they were expected to give freely at any time and work twice as hard. Poor Tyler had been up since yesterday morning running errands for his “protectors” during daylight hours and paperwork at night.

Unfortunately myths are just that. Sun didn’t harm vampires one bit. They never slept, never died, during daylight but if they were caught in the sun they lit up like a beacon. But this was Forks—there was no sun. The vampires could prowl the streets as long as they pleased. No one looked at you funny when you wore long sleeves and jeans; it was usually chilly. But on the rare chance of sunlight, they preferred to hide indoors.

I hoped our time surrounded by indestructible beasts was over. I was getting tired of the short end of the stick—honestly couldn’t take another second.

Mike zeroed in on the bumper in front of us, unable to pass with the car next to us blocking the way. The car in front was barely doing fifty-five! Didn’t these people realize we were trying to save ourselves? Of course not! The Montana license plate mocked us. They weren’t aware of the beasts; they were from lucky Montana.

Mike rode on the bumper. “Move it already,” he growled.

“Careful, he probably saw how quick you came up and will try break check you.” It happened before.

“Think so? He can try it, but if he doesn’t do it soon then we’re going over him.”

“Relax, Mike,” I yawned. “They might be fast but I doubt they even realize we’re gone. They’ll want the Bloodmobile before anything else.”

He chuckled as he played chicken with the car next to us, finally nudging it into another lane; we were back up to eighty, weaving expertly between traffic. “I can’t believe Charlie stole that eyesore. He might be used to dangerous situations being an ex-cop and all, but that’s stupid.”

“You know how Charlie is. Since he quit the force he’s always looking for fights; the guy has to have action. Sometimes I think he’s going insane but as long as he looks out for himself, I guess its okay.”

“You’re okay with the stupid stuff he does?”

“It makes him happy.” I shrugged. If an adrenaline rush was what he needed to stay happy, and he wasn’t getting himself killed, I was happy for him. He was a big boy; he could take care of himself.

Seth’s quiet voice came from behind. “That’s how my dad was, always jumping into the fray. He did it for us, he wanted to protect us, so one more dead was a good thing. He didn’t care if he got hurt, just as long as they were dead.”

I turned in my seat to see his face lit up by retreating headlights. He stared into the night but he wasn’t seeing anything. “Your dad was a brave man, Seth. He died living his mantra, protecting his family. You should be proud of that.”

He nodded, coming back to the present to give me a sad smile. “I know—I am. I want to be just like him.”

“Hey, what are you going to do with your freedom when we get to California?” Mike asked, trying to lighten the mood.

He was successful. Seth immediately answered, “I’m ripping my clothes off and rolling in the warm sand.”

“That’ll impress the bikini babes!” I laughed.

“I’ll join you, man. I want to feel the sun and how warm everything is,” Mike said. He nudged me gently. “How about you? Care for some nude sand angels?”

“No thanks, pervert. I’m going straight for our weapons dealer, spending a few weeks training, and heading back to Forks.”

“That’s murder!”

“That’s what I plan on doing.”

“You can’t go back by yourself. We wait for Charlie’s orders before we begin the next step, don’t rush it.”

“Hey if you’re not waist deep in women by the time I’m ready, you can come with me.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Tyler’s gruff voice. I glanced over the seat to see him pressing his fists into his eyes, trying to wake up. “I know how you feel. That’s our town, they shouldn’t even exist; we should help them by putting them out of their misery.”

“You want to free your parents too, don’t you?” I asked grimly.

Everyone knew of the Crowley’s situation. When they’d been taken in, they were turned into what we called bloodwhores. Not only were they freely giving blood straight from the vein but they performed sexual services for the vamps, as well. Several families were involved with their protectors, including my elementary school gal pals Jessica and Lauren.

“Yeah. I’m gonna kill the bastards that imprisoned them.”

“Let me know when you’re doing it,” Mike said. “We can take out yours and Jess’s at the same time.” His fingers gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. If I was more girly I might have made sympathetic noises or touched him, but I had a man’s reasoning inside me. Men didn’t always want comfort, even if I really felt bad for him.

Jessica and Mike had been childhood sweethearts. When her family gave themselves up for protection she acted like he didn’t even exist; all that mattered in her world was her protector and the next time she would see him again.

Our ride was silent after that. We were all dreaming of the vampires we wanted to kill and for what reasons. For me, it was about my freedom. I didn’t have anyone to protect, my dad could take care of himself, so I was willing to kill anything in my way of a normal life. I was only eighteen, I had a chance to finish my last year of high school, go to college, get a job—do something that didn’t require killing! Anything normal.

Who was I kidding? I’d never get a normal life. Not now.

I rested my head against the chilly window with a sigh.

“Why don’t you get some sleep?” Mike asked me. “You’ll need your strength.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll sleep on the plane.” He grinned, forcing me to smile back at him. Mike always had a certain likeability to him, he could make anyone feel better, and he was kind of cute when he smiled. Despite having a load of kills under his belt, there was an innocence that showed inside him.

Unable to pass up the chance to sleep, I took his offer. Tyler had fallen back asleep so it was up to Mike and Seth to get us past the state line in one piece. I didn’t think the vamps were following but that was another bad thing about experienced vamps: You couldn’t tell what they were thinking. Sometimes you were a worthless human, sometimes you’re a toy, but rarely does someone catch a vampire’s eye. Only if they think you’re worth something and can be controlled easily. A few runaways meant nothing to them.

I closed my eyes against the lights, the darkness, the blur of the trees and slowly let consciousness go.

I got a rude awakening from my head smacking against the window. I bolted upright in my seat with surprise. Mike never acted so stupid.

“What’s the deal?” I asked, rubbing the sore spot.

Then I heard it. A shrill tear broke the silence in my head, ringing in the car like a thousand aluminum cans being torn apart. A gunshot echoed in the car next. I turned to find the left side of the SUV flapping in the wind, a vampire clinging to the stable body. Seth was unloading into him as he tried to climb inside.

Mike swerved into another vehicle in a vain attempt to wipe him off but he pulled himself through in time.

I pulled my gun, and despite being in a daze, shot through the vamp. He barely staggered before reaching for Tyler; he ducked out of the way, the back of his shirt torn, and came back with a flash of silver. The vampire screamed as the blade sunk into his arm. Seth had enough time to put a bullet in his head and jumped over the seat to push him onto the road.

Another vampire was making his way through. With Seth in the way I didn’t want to take my chances of shooting my friend, but he had a major disadvantage. The vamp knew this. He smiled at Seth and grabbed the front of his shirt. He couldn’t get to his knife quick enough. The vamp fell backwards, taking Seth with him.

I screamed and hit my seatbelt to go after him but Tyler held me in.

“Keep driving!” he yelled. Mike picked up speed, although I wasn’t sure how much more it could take.

How could they just leave him? He was still alive! We had to look out for each other—we were going to survive together!

“What are you doing? We have to go back for him!” I thrashed in my seat hoping to shake Tyler; the trips to the gym paid off for him, he was stronger than me, and kept me in my seat.

“We’re on a highway being chased by a van full of vampires at twice the speed limit—we’re not stopping!”

As if on cue that van appeared next to us and proceeded to slam into us, pushing the SUV over two lanes towards the guardrail. They were going to run us off the road! Mike swerved, trying to fight them back, so he didn’t notice the semi truck strolling along in front until I screamed.

He hit the brakes, the car skidded out of his control as the vamps slowed and knocked into the backside. We flipped, bashed right through the guardrail, and rolled down the small incline before crashing into a tree. The rest of the glass fell in on us and the top of the SUV nearly crushed my skull as I tumbled around, but we got lucky. We may have had a rough decent yet we were alive and able to crawl out through the gaping wound on the side.

Tyler’s face was covered in blood, Mike had a gash in his hand from a large piece of glass—I could only imagine what I looked like, probably a villain from a horror film, if I had to guess. I shook the glass out of my hair, wiped the blood from my face onto my sleeve, and pulled my gun. The boys followed suit since we had headlights bearing down on us. The van was coming down the hill at full speed. Mike grabbed my arm, running with Tyler on our heels, when I heard a sickening crunch behind; they rammed headfirst into the SUV.

“Split up, they’ll be on us in a second!” Mike called as he released me. He disappeared into the trees without a sound, Tyler going a different direction.

I kept running my path with stumbling feet. Without a light in this unknown forest, I would instantly be caught. How many vampires chased us? It was a mini-van so there couldn’t be too many, especially since they lost two on the highway.

Seth.

I tripped over a root, nearly setting my gun off—thank God for safety. Picking myself back up, I choked on a sob. Those beasts probably held him down to get run over. Seth didn’t deserve such a horrible end. He was a sweet kid despite being dragged into this battle at a young age. He kept his innocence, retained his happiness in the worst of times—I swear the only thing that set him off was talk about his dad. He couldn’t be dead! He didn’t deserve to die!

Footsteps sounded behind me and I dove behind a tree. My breathing was so erratic I was sure it didn’t matter if I hid or not, they’d find me from my racing heart. The footsteps disappeared as quickly as they came. I caught my breath and continued running in the dark.

It wasn’t long until I slammed into something solid—something that was flesh and not bark. Hands clasped over my shoulders, bringing me closer to the pillar of ice, but my thumb hit the safety and I shot its side; it flinched with pain, letting me go. I kicked into the darkness in the direction of the strained hiss and was met with the satisfying crack of a broken nose. Before I could get my foot down to run, the big hands circled my calf and pulled me off balance; I hit the forest floor on my bony butt, already cursing him for the bruise I knew I’d have.

“Got’cha,” he growled.

I fired twice more at him before my magazine clicked empty. Crap! I never reloaded! Panic suddenly fueled my body and I kicked out with both feet only to have them secured in a beefy arm. My hands dug up dirt to throw in his face but it didn’t stop him from reeling me in. I didn’t have a knife, no extra gun, and there wasn’t enough time to reload. He had me in his clutches with no escape.

I screamed, still struggling in vain. “Let me go! Get off me!”

“Hold still, you little bitch! You’re more trouble than you’re worth.”

“Worth?” Did they know Charlie was the new leader? Were they going to use me to send a message? Was that why they didn’t kill us immediately?

“If you don’t stop struggling I’m going to take you in dead, got it?”

I instantly relaxed my muscles and he waited for all of five seconds to see if I was playing him. His arm loosened around my legs as he pulled me in without a single twitch; unfortunately, the rocks and branches were starting to tear my shirt. I could feel them biting into my skin, making me want to squirm.

“That’s a good girl,” he cooed sickeningly, and I was glad I couldn’t see his face. “You don’t want to die, do you?”

“No,” I whimpered.

“Well, when we get back to the masters I’ll see what I can do about stalling it, okay?”

He finally had us chest to chest. He was fighting to get my hands behind my back, but I clung to his shirt. “Oh thank you, thank you,” I breathed.

“Calm down, sheesh. It’s not like they’ll kill you immediately, anyway, but I can probably find you work somewhere.”

“Yes, that would be wonderful. Thank you so much!”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s my—”

I jammed my thumbs into his eyes and pushed until I felt them give; he screamed and clawed at my wrists but I fought against the pain of his talon-like nails. He fell over clutching his face and I slammed my boot down onto him for good measure. I was feeling especially violent and angry having to momentarily give in to the damsel role, but I resisted the urge to spit on him. That would be uncalled for.

It took only a second to find my gun and take off, pulling a magazine out of my back pocket to reload; my pistol only held ten shots per magazine, meaning I had to carry more ammo wherever I went.

He yelled at me as I ran but he couldn’t move yet, it would take time for his eyes to heal, so I took advantage of all the time I had. I was full-out sprinting in the dark on uneven ground with two other humans out here, and who knew how many vamps; it was my bad luck I already met one. He nearly had me, too. I didn’t have the strength to fight off another.

My foot hit the ground on a bad spot, maybe I tumbled over a log, but before I could blink I was flying head-over-heels down a hill. Not only was I bleeding freely, my muscles and head aching, but now I’d have broken bones! I tried to catch myself on a root but only cut my hand, and I tried slowing my way with my feet until I flipped over. I could only curl up and hope I wasn’t going off a cliff.

The hill slowly turned into flat land and my back hit a tree with enough force my bones shook. I coughed up blood twice before realizing I couldn’t feel my body, couldn’t move a muscle, and the darkness I saw was not the forest’s darkness. It was the kind of darkness that made me fear for my life. The kind that was paralyzing and scary enough to make me cry.

I couldn’t fight it back. It surrounded me in a hot tidal wave, lifting me out of my body. I wanted to sleep after my ordeal and quickly succumbed to the buzz in my head.