Vampire Lord | Book 5 | Vampire Lord 5: Conquering A Bloodthirsty Earth

by Jacobs, Logan

  “Aren’t you just hilarious?” Catherine rolled her eyes.

  “Maybe you can get a mountain lion whenever we finally get out to Colorado,” I said with a grin, and then I let Rhino roll forward again.

  “Ooh, promise?” Catherine asked.

  “We’ll see,” I said. “Maybe let’s just try to get off of Staten Island first.”

  As the girls all settled into the back again except for Natalie who stayed up front with me, I accelerated the armored truck forward along 278 again. The leopard and all the rest of the loose zoo animals disappeared behind us, so I turned my attention to the road signs to try to figure out where we needed to head next.

  The interstate would split pretty soon, and a lot depended on which direction we decided to take. There was no great way to get out of New York, since even once we left the heart of the city, we were still surrounded by so many other boroughs and metropolitan areas that it was like we never got out of New York in the first place.

  New Jersey was in one direction, and Philadelphia was in another, so either way, we’d probably have to drive through some more urban areas before we really reached the open road. In normal circumstances, it would have been a good thing that we were driving at night, since there would be less cars on the road than there were in the daytime, but these were far from normal circumstances.

  I knew that to the vampires, it didn’t matter whether it was day or night. This wasn’t some bullshit movie where vampires sparked into little burning effigies the moment sunlight touched their skin. Instead, the vamps could hunt just as well in the sunlight as they could in the darkness, and their only real weakness was a lack of blood supply… or, of course, a bullet straight through the middle of their brains.

  “Alright, we’re coming up on a split,” I announced, “so we need to make a decision about what route we’re going to take.”

  “Oh, I didn’t think we’d have to do that until we got past Staten Island,” Erika said.

  “Unfortunately not,” I said. “We’ve gotta pick a route right now.”

  “What are our options?” Neko asked.

  “Okay, so we can stay on 278 until we get off the island and it connects to 95,” I said. “Then we’d go south through Jersey until it loops around Philly, and then we could either drive through Pennsylvania or Maryland on our way to West Virginia.”

  “What’s the alternative?” Lily asked.

  “We can go ahead and get off on 440 now,” I said. “It’ll keep us on Staten Island a little bit longer, and we can stay on it until it runs into 78.”

  “And where does 78 lead?” Erika asked.

  “Through rural Pennsylvania, north of Philly,” I said.

  “So basically,” Brianna said, “we can either spend longer in Jersey if we stay on 278 or longer in Pennsylvania if we get off on 440?”

  “Yeah, more or less,” I replied. “I know there’s no way for us to tell what the highway will look like on either route, so we’ll have to roll the dice one way or another.”

  “Well, other than our little run-in with the soldiers earlier,” Natalie began, “Staten Island has been pretty clear, so I say we stay on the island as long as possible and then cut through Jersey pretty quickly.”

  “Okay, so that’s one vote for 440,” I said. “Anybody else?”

  “Um, if it means that we get to spend less time in Jersey, then I’m also definitely in favor of 278,” Catherine said. “No offense, Lily.”

  “Psh, none taken,” the Hispanic girl replied. “There was a reason I fuckin’ moved to the city, you know? Even though my mother begged me not to, but I didn’t want to stay in fuckin’ Jersey forever, yeah?”

  “Not a big fan of your home state?” Natalie asked.

  “Oh, come on,” Lily said. “Is anybody really a fan of Jersey? Other than, like… Jersey bros?”

  I couldn’t disagree with her. When I had taken a boat up the river to rescue Neko and Brianna from Columbia University, I had seen a party on the New Jersey side of the river, and it had been enough to make me never want to set foot in Jersey again. There had been a beach bonfire and obnoxious music, but there had also been human party favors all tied up to stakes like some sort of fucked up all-you-can-eat buffet.

  The only things worse than Jersey bros were Jersey vamp bros.

  “My vote is for 440, too,” Erika said. “I know there’s no way to tell for sure, but my guess is that the highway will be less congested that way based on how populated the areas they pass through are.”

  “Yeah, same here,” Neko said. “It’ll be the fastest route through Jersey, so that sounds good to me.”

  “That just leaves you and me, Brianna,” I said. “What do you think?”

  “Let’s do 440,” the curvy blonde agreed. “It sounds like the best option, and, uh… yeah, I’m not the biggest fan of Jersey, either. It kinda… sorry, Lily… sucks.”

  “Then we’ll get off on 440,” I said. “I think it’ll be easier, and hopefully, it’ll be less congested, too. Besides, 95 is always a fucking nightmare, so I don’t imagine that 440 or 78 could be worse than that.”

  I almost turned my blinker on like we were just out for a normal drive, but then I remembered that we hadn’t seen another human on the road since our run-in with the vamp soldiers. So instead, I glanced into the side mirror to make sure there was nothing unexpected beside me, and then I steered Rhino into the next line to get ready for the interstate split.

  “So we just stay on 440 until 78, right?” Erika asked.

  “Yeah, if I remember the map correctly, 440 should turn into 287,” I said, “and then 287 is what actually runs into 78.”

  “I guess we’re in for a long car ride,” Brianna said. “Oh, not that I’m complaining! I’m just happy to be getting out of New York. I didn’t think I’d ever see outside of Manhattan again, let alone outside of the whole city.”

  “We’ll be out of the whole state before you know it,” I said with a quick glance at my girlfriend to make sure she was okay.

  We all knew what Brianna meant, even though nobody said anything. Brianna was talking about the fact that her ex-boyfriend, who also happened to be Nat’s brother, had kept Brianna and Neko prisoner in Manhattan until I’d come and killed him. Nat’s brother had always been a little bit of an asshole as a human, but he’d turned into a total psychopath when he became a vamp, so I’d really had no choice but to put him down.

  Natalie had more or less made peace with everything, but I knew it was still a sensitive subject, so I was glad for a slight change of scenery when I veered off of 287 and onto 440.

  “I know you’re all tired,” I said in the hopes that I would distract my girlfriend a little bit more, “and you’ll probably need to pee before too long, but I want to at least get off of Staten Island before we stop. Can you all make it that long?”

  “I think he’s mostly talking to you, Catherine,” Erika giggled and then pushed her glasses up on her nose.

  “He said ‘you all,’ not just me,” the auburn-haired girl huffed. “But, yeah, I think I can make it that long, if nobody talks about water or bathrooms or anything like that.”

  “We’ll do our best,” I said with a smile. “Everybody else okay for now?”

  The rest of the girls nodded and said yes, so I leaned back into my seat and let Rhino roar forward along the road. My armored truck purred like a big wildcat as I let her accelerate down the clear highway, and every time I shifted her slightly to the left or right around minor road debris, she hummed and instantly responded to my touch.

  Rhino was a good truck, and I was glad that I had found her when I did. Sure, the Oshkosh JLTV might have looked super badass, and it certainly wasn’t anything to turn my nose up at, but I hadn’t even been tempted to take it instead of the armored truck. For one thing, it wasn’t as roomy on the inside as Rhino, so there wouldn’t have been as much space for the girls or for all our supplies.

  Of course, there was also the little problem of the bullet
holes that my badass girlfriend had made in the windshield of the military truck, but even if the glass had still been intact, I wouldn’t have traded in Rhino.

  I patted the wheel of my armored truck now to reassure her that she was the only vehicle for me. She had gotten us through a lot already, and I fully intended that she would get us all the way out to Colorado eventually.

  But first, I would be happy just to get past Staten Island and Jersey.

  We drove on in silence for almost half an hour, and the more time that passed, the more some of the girls in the back started to breathe a little softer and a little deeper. I glanced over my shoulder to see that Brianna and Neko had fallen asleep on each other, so the petite Japanese girl’s head rested on the blonde’s shoulder. Lily had fallen asleep with her head in Brianna’s lap, and for just a second, I thought about how soft the blonde must be for all the other girls to want to fall asleep on her.

  I shook my head and turned my attention back toward the road, just as Catherine jerked herself awake with a half-snort, half-snore.

  “You alright back there?” Natalie smiled over her shoulder at her roommate.

  “Yeah, sorry,” Catherine said. “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

  “No, I’m still awake,” my girlfriend said. “Somebody should keep Sam company, you know?”

  “Well, you might have been awake, but I was almost asleep,” Erika groaned and then sat up from where she had been bundled up with a blanket and pillow.

  “You can go back to sleep, if you want,” I whispered so the other girls in the back wouldn’t wake up, too. “You all can, if you’re tired.”

  “I can stay up for a minute,” Erika said as she took off her glasses just long enough to rub at her pale-green eyes.

  “Yeah, me, too,” Catherine said. “I’d hate to miss any of the fun.”

  “There’s not a whole lot of fun happening at the moment,” I laughed. “But I am about to go across the river into Jersey, if anybody wants to be awake for that.”

  “I think the rest of the girls are out,” Natalie said with a glance into the back of the truck, “but I’m not sleepy yet.”

  “Same here,” Catherine said with a yawn. “Well, I might be a little sleepy, but I’d rather stay up with you guys.”

  “Mhm,” Erika said and then pushed her glasses up on her nose. “Me, too.”

  Erika and Catherine both nudged themselves forward to get a little closer to the front of the armored truck, while Natalie adjusted herself in the passenger seat and stretched her legs out in front of her.

  I wasn’t tired yet, either, but I knew that at some point, I would need to get in at least a quick nap. It had been a hell of a day so far, and the moment it seemed safe enough to close my eyes for a minute, I would. Still, I wanted to get to where 440 turned into 287 before I even thought about stopping to take a nap, and if I could stretch it past that point, then I would.

  The lights were out on the bridge up ahead, but my truck’s high beams were on, so we just plowed forward like it was the middle of the day. The water on either side of the bridge looked like a pit of blackness underneath us, but no vamps jumped up from the underside of the bridge, and no cars suddenly appeared behind us, so we made it across the river into Jersey without any problems.

  “So what happens once we get on 78?” Erika asked as she rubbed at her eyes again. “Rural Pennsylvania, and then what?”

  “We’ll stay on 78 through a decent part of Pennsylvania,” I said, “and then when we get to around Harrisburg, we’ll decide which interstate to take down into West Virginia.”

  “And we’re… ugh, I can’t believe I’m about to say something that my dad told me,” Catherine said, “but is it okay that we’re going to take the main highways? I know he said that the back roads might be safer, but… I don’t know. What do you guys think?”

  “I know what he meant,” I replied, “but I just don’t think that’s a practical solution. If we took back roads even just all the way to your uncle’s cabin in West Virginia, we would be on the road forever. And that doesn’t even take into account how long it would take to use only back roads to get all the way out to your parents’ ranch in Colorado.”

  “But you’re not worried about the safety of the highway?” Erika asked. “I know Staten Island was pretty clear, but Brooklyn was a total mess.”

  “Yeah, but it’ll be easier to see what’s coming up on the highway,” I said. “It’s a lot harder to see ahead on back roads, plus, the interstate is wider, so if we run into a problem, we’d probably be able to go around it and then keep going.”

  “Versus if we get stuck on a back road, we might have to really retrace our steps,” Natalie said, “and then we’d lose a lot of time.”

  “And fuel,” I added.

  “Well, that’s fair,” Catherine said. “I guess we’ll just hope for the best, then.”

  “So you mean, we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing?” Erika smiled.

  “Yeah,” the auburn-haired girl said with a nod. “I just hope my uncle is… shit, I just hope he’s not a fucking vamp. Or dead.”

  “We’ll find out when we get there,” I said, “and if he turns out to be either of those things, then we’ll just keep driving on toward Colorado.”

  “I wish he would have just answered his fucking phone,” Catherine sighed, “but I guess that doesn’t matter now, since our phones are all dead, anyway.”

  “Well, they’re not dead,” Erika pointed out. “The signal is out, but we can still use them as wifi devices, or at least sometimes we can.”

  “I’m sure your uncle is fine,” Natalie said as she tried to smile at the other girl.

  “I hope so,” Catherine said with a shrug. “It’s not like I’m close to him or anything since I haven’t seen him in… I don’t know. A long fucking time. But he is family, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know,” my girlfriend said and then took a deep breath.

  “Besides, it’d be really nice to have some place to stay for a couple days before we head out west,” Catherine said. “I don’t know if his cabin is more like a mountain spa retreat or like a little shack from a horror movie, but either way, it’d be some place to kick our feet up off the road.”

  “That’d be nice,” I agreed, “especially since I don’t know anybody else between here and Colorado that we could stay with.”

  “Maybe we’ll make new friends along the way,” Erika said.

  “Your optimism is cute,” Catherine laughed. “I think we might be a little too busy trying not to get eaten for us to make new friends, but you’re sweet for thinking that way.”

  “Hey, you never know!” Erika said. “We didn’t know Lily before all this started, and now she’s totally one of us. And only Nat knew Brianna, so she and Neko are basically both new, too.”

  “Okay, okay,” Catherine said and held her hands up. “I give up. Maybe you’re right after all.”

  “Thank you,” Erika said and then hugged her pillow a little closer to herself.

  It didn’t take long for 440 to turn into 287, and since none of the girls seemed to need a break, I just kept driving. The highway was a little more congested with abandoned cars now that we were in New Jersey, but there was nothing so far that Rhino couldn’t just drive around. There were more wrecks, too, but since none of them blocked the whole interstate, I just kept pushing ahead. Now that we had come this far, I wanted to get all the way up to 78 and maybe even out of New Jersey before we stopped for a break.

  About twenty minutes later, Catherine and Erika both started to breathe as softly as the rest of the girls, and a quick glance over my shoulder told me that they were fast asleep, too. I looked over at Natalie, but she just smiled back at me.

  “I’ll stay up with you,” my girlfriend said.

  “I can always count on you, Nat,” I said.

  “You really can, you know,” Natalie said. “Whatever you need, whenever you need it, I’m here.”

  “I know,” I said an
d reached over to squeeze her hand. “I just hope you know it goes both ways.”

  “I do,” my gorgeous girlfriend replied. “I don’t know where any of us would be without you, Sam. Well, that’s not completely true. I know exactly where we’d be, so… thank you.”

  “You don’t have to thank me for that,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “You’re my girlfriend, aren’t you? That means I’d do anything to keep you safe.”

  “I know, but I still like to hear you say it,” Natalie said with a smile. “I love when you get all badass and protective.”

  “Well, I can’t help it,” I laughed. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep all of you safe.”

  “It’s kind of like we’re all your girlfriends, don’t you think?” Natalie suddenly winked. “You feel protective toward the rest of the girls the same way you do toward me, right?”

  “Yeah, but--” I started.

  “And I know you find them sexy,” my girlfriend continued. “So do I, in case you wondered.”

  “I kinda figured that, since we have had a couple threesomes,” I said.

  “Plus, I know they’re all crazy about you,” Natalie said.

  “Okay, I know Catherine and Erika feel that way,” I said, “and Neko, but I really don’t know about Lily and Brianna.”

  “Oh, I do,” Natalie said with a grin. “Trust me. They want you just as much as the rest of us do.”

  “We’ll see,” I laughed, even as I felt my heart beat a little faster at the thought of the curvy blonde and the beautiful Hispanic girl. “I just still can’t believe how open you are to all of this.”

  “In case you missed the news, my boyfriend is a vampire now,” the gorgeous brunette said, “so any rules that we used to have kinda just went out the window.”

  “That’s fair,” I said.

  “Besides,” Natalie continued, “how could I ever be jealous of other girls when I can’t blame them for wanting you? Plus, I know that your feelings for them don’t at all change your feelings for me.”

  “You’re very open-minded, Nat,” I said and squeezed her hand again.

  “It’s a whole new world,” my girlfriend said with a shrug, “and there’s no one I would rather face it with than you.”