Nat and I had always talked about how we wanted to get out of the city, but other than an occasional weekend here and there, we’d never really had the time to fit in much travel with both of our schedules. Of course, I would rather have just adjusted our work schedules to fit in some more trips, so we didn’t have to rely on the end of the goddamn world to free up our spare time.
Then again… maybe that wasn’t true at all.
After all, I actually enjoyed being a vampire.
I liked how powerful and free it made me feel, and I liked that it meant I could take care of my women and keep them safe. And even though we still had a long way to go before we reached Colorado, I liked that nothing stood in our way between here and the open road out west.
Other than a fuck-ton of bloodsuckers, anyway.
The construction zone opened up a little more on the other side of the bridge, but we still made slow progress forward. It would have been fun to plow into all the cones and barrels so they went flying off to every side like a bunch of bowling pins, but like I had told Natalie, I didn’t want to do anything that might draw extra attention to us or risk damaging Rhino.
I didn’t know how many vamps were in this area of Maryland or how many of them might be watching us right now. It was possible that there were none, or maybe there were only a few who didn’t want to fuck with an armored truck, but there was no reason to be reckless unless I had to be.
At least all the other cars seemed to have avoided this route when they tried to escape from the city. They must have known how bad the construction was, so they had tried to get out some other way. Sure, they might not have had much better luck going in a different direction, but they at least left the interstate clear for me.
Only a few vehicles were on the highway ahead of me, but based on the damage that it looked like they had received, I thought that maybe someone else had already plowed through this construction zone. Most of the cars had their sides smashed in, and their front ends were crumpled against the median or had taken a nose-dive onto the unfinished portion of the highway.
But at least the main lane was clear for me now.
After I merged onto the westbound lanes of I-70, the highway construction mostly ended, so I felt myself relaxing a little behind the wheel. It was nice not to be jammed into one lane with orange construction barrels on every side of me, but at the same time, I knew that I couldn’t relax for long.
I needed to keep my eyes open for any place that looked safe enough to stop and refuel. The gas light had been on for a few minutes at this point, but it wasn’t urgent just yet, so I thought we might as well try to wait until we reached a gas station, so we could keep our current supply of diesel intact. Hell, maybe we could even add to it.
“Where are we?” Erika yawned as she rubbed the sleep out from her eyes and then pushed her glasses back up on her nose.
“Maryland,” Natalie replied. “West of Hagerstown but east of… Hancock?”
Erika sat up and saw the mileage sign for Hancock on the side of the road, but she just shrugged.
“I don’t know where either of those places are,” the techy girl said, “and I can’t really remember them from the map.”
“You don’t have to,” I said and then glanced at the fuel gauge again, “but you might want to go ahead and wake up the other girls. We’re gonna have to stop sometime in the next… twenty miles, I think.”
“To refuel,” Natalie added. “And do whatever else we need to.”
“On it,” Erika said and then yawned again before she started to shake the other girls awake.
“Keep your eyes open for a gas station,” I told Natalie, “and if it has electricity, that’d be even better.”
“But I thought we had plenty of diesel,” Erika said as she yawned again from the back.
“We do, for now,” I replied, “but like I told Nat, I want to keep our diesel supply as full as possible, since I don’t know what the fuel situation between here and Colorado will look like.”
“Do you really think we’ll be able to find a gas station with electricity?” Natalie asked.
“Why do we need electricity?” Lily asked as she woke up and scooted forward to listen to us.
“If the gas station doesn’t have electricity, the pumps won’t be able to operate,” I said. “And if we want to refill our diesel cans and maybe even fill up a few more, then we really need those pumps to operate.”
“Well, we did pass some places with electricity in Pennsylvania,” Erika said, “so we should be able to find something in Maryland, too, right?”
“That’s the plan,” I said.
“Hold on a second,” Catherine said as she stretched her long legs out so much that she almost accidentally kicked Erika’s glasses right off her face. “But if everybody’s basically without power, and we find some place that does have power, then that means…”
“It means that somebody is in control of things, yeah,” I replied. “If people have electricity, then that means vampires, or possibly humans, have some kind of control in that area. Either way, that could be more dangerous for us.”
“That sounds bad,” Brianna said. “Is it bad? It is, isn’t it?”
“Girl, take a breath and let the man answer,” Neko groaned.
“It could be bad,” I agreed, “but if we want to make sure we have plenty of diesel for our trip, I don’t think we have much of a choice. We’ve gotta try to find some gas station with the lights still on.”
“Well, we will probably have better luck with that in Maryland than in West Virginia,” Catherine said. “And just in case my uncle is… well, just in case it’s not safe to stop or stay there, we might as well have all the fuel we need.”
“Exactly,” I said. “If we don’t see anything in the next ten or fifteen miles, I’ll just pull over somewhere else so we can at least refuel, but if you see any kind of lights, let me know.”
“It’s a good thing it’s still the middle of the night,” Neko said. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to see if anybody has their power on or not.”
“Another benefit of midnight road trips,” Brianna said.
“Are you keeping a list?” the petite Japanese girl asked with a smirk.
“No!” Brianna huffed. “I was just trying to keep an optimistic attitude about everything.”
“How’s that going?” Neko asked.
“Just fine, thank you,” the curvy blonde sighed. “Not that you’ve been much help, Neko.”
“Oh, I think I’m a perfect picture of positivity,” the Japanese girl laughed.
“Are those trees glowing?” Brianna suddenly asked and then pointed up ahead.
“No,” I said as I followed her gaze, “but something behind them is.”
When we passed the next clump of trees that stood in the way of the bright light Brianna had spotted, a travel plaza appeared off to the right of the highway. The bright lights belonged to a number of streetlights, but it was hard to tell if the buildings themselves still had power or not. Still, if the streetlights did, then the buildings probably did, too, and there would definitely be some kind of gas station at the travel plaza.
“That might work,” I said, “and if nothing else, it’s not like we’ll have gone very far off the interstate.”
“I love travel plazas,” Brianna sighed. “You just get right off, and bam! There’s coffee and gas and sandwiches, whatever you want.”
“And hopefully no vamps to go along with that electricity,” Neko said.
I guided Rhino off the highway, but the closer we got to the streetlights, the more I felt like this might be a bad idea. There weren’t any spikes in the road like there had been back in Pennsylvania, but I still got the feeling that this could all be a trap.
After all, was there any better way to lure travelers in other than to offer them food, drink, fuel, and electricity?
There were more cars in the parking lot than I would have guessed, and none of them looked wrecked or broken down
. Instead, they looked like they had just been neatly parked inside the lines, but there were no people or even bloodsuckers anywhere in sight.
I slowed down as I approached the gas station in the middle of the travel plaza, but when I started to put it into park, I hesitated. The lights were on at the pumps, but the inside of the gas station itself was completely dark.
“Well, that doesn’t seem quite right,” I muttered.
“So are we stopping, or--” Catherine started.
“Hold on,” I cut her off.
I let Rhino come to a complete stop beside one of the pumps, but I didn’t shift her into park just yet. Instead, I just held my foot down on the brake, glanced over into the windows of the gas station out from the corner of my eye, and felt my heart start to pound inside my chest.
If it wasn’t for my blood-enhanced vision, I might have missed it completely, but inside the gas station, at least a dozen pairs of eyes stared back at me. Their lips were curled back into animal-like grins, and every one of them had sharp canines just ready to rip apart my women.
“Oh, fuck,” I growled.
I didn’t even think about it. I just slowly started to accelerate again, so I wouldn’t immediately burn through the fuel that was left inside our tank. When I got up to a decent speed, I pressed down a little harder on the gas pedal, and as Rhino roared to plow forward again, I glanced behind me and saw bloodsuckers start to spill out of the gas station that we had just left.
A few of them started to run after us, and Brianna shrieked until Neko elbowed her in the ribs. But even though they were fucking fast, the vamps gave up the chase after a few dozen yards and headed back to the gas station instead.
I still didn’t slow down until we were back on the interstate.
“Okay, so the travel plaza was a bad idea,” I said as I continued to check our side mirrors. “Sorry, Bree. It looks like you won’t get to enjoy Hersheypark or coffee from a travel plaza tonight.”
“I’m just glad you saw them,” the curvy blonde sighed. “They were totally just waiting to ambush us back there!”
“They won’t follow us, will they?” Lily asked.
“No, they’ve clearly got their ambush spot all planned out,” I said. “If they were going to follow us, they already would have. Besides, from the number of cars in the parking lot, I’d say they’ve been doing pretty well for themselves.”
“Do you think all the places with electricity are like that?” Erika asked. “Are they all vamp ambushes?”
“Let’s hope not,” I said with another glance at the fuel light, “because we’re about to have to stop somewhere to refuel, anyway.”
I guessed that we had less than ten miles left in the tank, and it might be closer to five, so at this point, we were mostly just driving on fumes and a prayer. I tried to keep Rhino’s pace as steady as I could, and every time we started on a downhill, I took my foot off the accelerator and just let her coast until I needed to get her up the next incline.
After a few more miles, another row of lights appeared off to the side of the interstate, but it didn’t look like they were just streetlights. They seemed to belong to actual buildings, but the angle of the highway to the road made it hard to tell what exactly the buildings were.
“Let’s try this shit again,” I announced and then pointed out the row of lights. “Looks like we’ll have to take the next exit, and then we’ll get back on right before 70 runs into 68.”
“Let’s just hope that there aren’t any vamps this time,” Brianna said.
“And that one of those buildings is a gas station,” Natalie said.
“Uh, hell, yes,” Catherine said. “If it has electricity, then I could actually turn the lights on in the bathroom, so I don’t just have to stumble my way around like I did in the car dealership.”
“You didn’t want to use a flashlight?” Natalie teased.
“Or like, your phone?” Lily asked.
“I forgot to grab a flashlight,” Catherine sighed, “and I’m trying to save my phone battery just in case we can use it later, thank you very much.”
“That’s a very noble sacrifice,” I said with a smirk.
After I pulled off onto the next exit and came around the turn, I was able to see what buildings still had power on this street. There was a McDonald’s with electricity, a Burger King, a car wash, and a gas station that looked like it had been around for at least sixty years.
“That’ll work,” I said. “At least, I hope so.”
I didn’t see anything that made me worry, so I pulled into the gas station and parked beside one of the pumps. The lights were on inside the station, so that was probably a good sign, and I didn’t see any other cars around that might belong to humans or vamps.
If everything went according to plan, I could refill Rhino and get a fuck-ton more diesel to take with us, so as long as nobody tried to sneak up and surprise us while we were stopped here, we might only have to stop one more time before we made it to Catherine’s uncle’s cabin.
“Um, how are we gonna get the pumps to work?” Lily whispered. “Don’t you have to, like, pay first?”
“Oh, I was just gonna use a credit card,” I laughed. “Money’s not real anymore, anyway.”
“Oh,” the beautiful Latina giggled. “Well, that makes sense.”
When I didn’t see any other signs of life around the gas station, I finally let Rhino’s engine turn off, but even then, I didn’t make a move. I just waited for any signs that we might not be alone, and only after we had sat there for a few minutes did I decide that it might actually be safe enough to step outside.
“You’ll just have to wait here for a minute,” I told the girls. “I want to check the inside of the gas station so I know it’s safe for you all first.”
“Do you need any backup?” Natalie asked.
“I’m okay, but if I shout, maybe come running,” I said with a smile.
“I will,” my gorgeous girlfriend replied.
The gas station was even smaller on the inside than it looked like from the outside, but that made it easier to check for any signs of life. There were no humans or corpses that I could find, and there were no traces of any bloodsuckers, so when I was sure that the gas station was clear, I headed back out to the truck to tell the girls the good news.
They all hopped out of Rhino with their handguns on their hips, since I didn’t think they’d be inside long enough to need their rifles. I left my own guns inside the car since I would only use them as a last resort, but I tucked Neko’s fire axe into the back of my belt.
I followed the girls inside the gas station so I could grab all the empty fuel cans that they had, and then, while they all took turns in the bathroom, I headed back out to refuel Rhino and fill up all the empty cans, too. There weren’t as many empty fuel cans as I’d hoped for, so I grabbed some out of the back of my truck. I might as well use them to fill up Rhino now, and then I could go ahead and refill the cans to use them again later.
While I filled up the armored truck, I glanced inside the gas station, but it looked like the girls were all still in the bathroom, so I just finished filling up Rhino, set one of the half-empty fuel cans down, and reached into my pocket for my credit card. I wrapped my fingers around the hard plastic, but just as I started to pull it out, I heard the unmistakable sound of car tires rolling down the road toward me.
But no engine noise.
“Shit.” I whirled toward the source of the sound and saw a Tesla without its lights on, and it was now only about a hundred yards away. It was too close for me to get the girls back into the truck, and if I tried to run or jumped back inside the truck to grab my guns, the driver of the Tesla would instantly be suspicious, and I would have to fight my way out of this.
And with the girls all still inside the gas station, that was too dangerous.
As the Tesla continued to crawl toward the gas station, I half-twisted so that the driver couldn’t see my mouth, but I stopped myself before I shouted t
o the girls. I wanted to warn them to stay inside and out of sight, but at this point, the Tesla was too close, and there was too much of a chance that the driver would be able to hear me shout as well.
It would be much better if the vampires inside the Tesla just assumed that I was alone.
I spilled a little bit of diesel out on the ground, so it would help mask the smell of the girls, and then I just hoped that the driver would stay the fuck out of the gas station. If he started to move toward the doors, I would have to take him out before he got inside, but maybe it wouldn’t come to that. Maybe we’d just have a little conversation, one vamp to another, and the Tesla driver wouldn’t be able to smell the girls, so he’d get back on the road before he caused any problems.
There was only one way to find out.
The Tesla rolled into the parking lot and stopped right behind Rhino. As I heard laughter from inside the car, I glanced at the gas station, but the girls were still out of sight, so I hoped they would stay that way. If any of them looked out and saw the Tesla, they should have the good sense to stay hidden, but for all our sakes, I hoped that they just stayed inside the bathroom until this was all over.
The doors of the Tesla finally opened, and out spilled three bloodsuckers who looked very much like they were on their way to a goddamn vamp frat party.
Chapter 6
“Well, well, well,” the first male vamp said as he swaggered toward me. “What do we have here?”
“Smells like just another bloodsucker,” the second male said, and when he sniffed the air, his nose wrinkled at the stench of diesel. “That’s a lot of gas cans you’ve got there. Going somewhere special?”
“Just fueling up for the road,” I snickered as I looked at the Tesla. “You boys need some gas, too?”
My heart was pounding in my chest.
“Nah, we’re all set,” the first vamp said. “We just wanted to see what a vamp is doing out here all alone like this.”
“That’s a mighty big truck for just you,” the third vamp said and then glanced over at the gas station. “You wouldn’t have any friends with you, would you?”
Vampire Lord | Book 5 | Vampire Lord 5: Conquering A Bloodthirsty Earth Page 8