by Adams, Nancy
They all left around dinnertime, and again we had a nice family dinner. Mom went all out, with a big turkey and all the trimmings of a Thanksgiving Dinner, and since it would have been out of character for Amber to refuse to pig out, I ate a lot more than I wanted to. It tasted great, don’t get me wrong, but the whole time I was enjoying the turkey, the stuffing, the gravy, the candied yams and everything else, I knew what was going to happen later, and I hated the idea.
But it was my last dinner at home, and Mom was fighting back tears. I ate.
More TV, and then it was bedtime. I’d already told the family that I wanted to leave very early, so I went up to my room at the same time as the girls. They wanted to sleep with me, but I begged off, saying I needed to get all the sleep I could because I had to drive all day the next day, and finally they hugged me and went on to bed. It wasn’t long before they were sleeping soundly.
I read two more books that night, and spent some time in the bathroom being grossed out, and then about four o’clock I went to take a shower. When I came out a little later, Mom was downstairs, and had a last breakfast waiting for me, a simple one of ham and eggs. I ate it, and drank some coffee with her and Daddy. She told me that Daddy had cried when they’d gone to bed the night before, and he said he had not, that it was her, and I hugged them both.
They walked outside with me, and hugged me again when I was ready to get in the van and drive out of their lives. I held it together for their sakes, smiling and talking about what a big adventure it would be, and how I’d try to come back for Christmas, and yes, I’d be sure to call every week!
I backed out of the driveway, waved and flashed my lights and started down the road, and that was when the tears came. I hadn’t cried like that since I was ten and my favorite dog got run over by a hay truck. I was still crying when I got to the intersection.
Horace
We watched, all five of us, as Amber came out of her parents’ house and got into the van she’d bought. We were in the woods, of course, right where we’d met up with her a couple evenings before. I had planned to come and take her to where we had holed up after we’d fed the night before—we went back to Harley’s for that, naturally—but Simone threw another fit about wanting to see her as soon as possible, and there just wasn’t any point in a fuss.
So there we were when she pulled up and stopped, and I saw the big alligator tears she was crying as I opened the door. I was about to say something, but Simone popped up and gave her a peck on the cheek, and damned if that wasn’t exactly what she needed. She pulled herself together while the rest climbed in and got settled, and we got on the road.
Chapter Fourteen
Amber
Just like the other time, the vampires came out of the woods. Horace took the front seat, and Simone hopped in the side door and knelt on the floor right beside me, then kissed my cheek. “I missed ya, ducklin!” she said, and something about her affectionate tone eased part of my grief. I sniffled and got it under control. The rest of the vampires climbed in behind her and took seats, and I drove on.
Horace patted my shoulder. “It’s hard, leaving your first life behind. As long as it’s been, I still remember it, and how much it hurt.” He indicated Simone. “I was gonna come alone and just take you to the rest, but Simone wanted to see you again and didn’t want to wait, so we all came.”
Simone hugged me. “I missed ya,” she said again, and then settled in the space between the seats. “We’re on the way, now, aren’t we? I like L.A., we haven’t been there for a few years.”
I glanced at her. “You’ve been there before?” I asked, but it was Horace who answered.
“Yeah,” he said. “We lived in Huntington Beach about thirty years back. It was alright, back then, not all built up like it is today, and we had it nice, or did until we had a run-in with another vamp. He was a killer, and was leaving bodies around, so I decided to try to teach him our ways. Didn’t work; he liked the whole evil-vampire thing, and enjoyed the killing—some of us do—so I told him to move on, get away from us. He said he would, but then he killed a couple of our neighbors, and hid the bodies in the brush behind our house. Coppers found ‘em and got a warrant to search our place—luckily it was after dark, by then—and found some of the victim’s things scattered around inside. Bastard had set us up; we had to split, and fast—but I put an end to that vamp before we went too far!"
I guess I looked at him in surprise. “You killed him?”
“Had to, Amber-luv. He’d have kept stalking us, and we’d have been forced back to his ways. We don’t like to kill, as I told you. Sometimes it happens, but we try to avoid it. As long as he was around, we couldn’t go back to our ways of living.”
“Just like Gilbert, that turned me,” Simone said. “Horace had to kill him, cuz he wouldn’t give up the killin’.”
I drove on, and a few minutes later I turned the van onto the interstate, but I was being quiet. Horace looked at me, and I got that feeling like he was reading my mind, again. Sure enough, a moment later he said, “What’s troubling you, Amber?”
I licked my lips. “Well—I’m just wondering how I fit in. You guys don’t like killing, and avoid it—but all my victims will die. Won’t I be putting you all at risk? I mean, sooner or later, someone’s gonna wonder why people disappear whenever I’m around, aren’t they?”
“Not necessarily. You’ll do your hunting at other places than our neighborhood, obviously, and you’ll always dispose of your remnants so as to keep anyone from knowing exactly what happened to them. Between those two, it won’t be easy to connect you to your meals. And of course, you’ll want to avoid anyone seeing you when you’re feeding. If you take a small amount of care, Amber, I think there’s not a lot to worry about.”
Rudy spoke up. “Hey, hey, I don’t mean to intrude, but you do realize the sun will be up soon, yes?”
I explained about the curtain, and Simone played with it to show them how well it cut out the light. Jen and Madeline laid out the seats, and when the first light began peeking over the edge of the world, the five of them all piled up on each other back there, and stopped breathing.
We were on our way. I followed I-57 North to I-64, and then headed west toward St. Louis, where I’d get on I-70, the road that went all the way to L.A. The van drove beautifully and had cruise control, so I set it and just sailed along.
Somewhere in the middle of Missouri I had to stop for gas, then used their restroom to get rid of breakfast. Horace had suggested I buy an occasional coffee or soft drink, to preserve the look of normalcy, so I grabbed a coke and a candy bar, and got back on the road.
Damn! Horace had been right—chocolate was fabulous!
The sun finally dropped behind the horizon around the time I got to the Colorado line, and I was glad to hear the vampires stirring in the back. Simone peeked around the curtain, saw that the sun was completely down, and hopped up front. A moment later, Horace pushed the curtain open, and they were all up.
“How are you feeling?” he asked me.
“I’m okay,” I said, snippy. “It’s all these other idiots on the road that are driving me nuts!"
Simone looked at me and her eyes were wide. Rudy said, “Oh, oh.”
Madeline mumbled, “Somebody’s gone a bit to the bitchy-bitchy.”
Jen just looked at me like I was a stranger and Horace laughed.
“How long have you been feeling hungry, Amber?”
I probably looked stupid about then. I’d been getting more and more agitated at the way people were passing me, or not passing, or driving slow in the fast lane, or whatever, but it had never dawned on me that there might be another reason for my mood. “Um—well, I guess maybe a couple hours. I hadn’t realized that’s what it was, but I think you’re right.”
He nodded. “I am, and we’ll need to do something about it soon. We all need a bit of blood ourselves, so let’s be looking for a place, a club or restaurant or something.”
We spotted a truck s
top just a few minutes later, one of those big ones where all the big-rig drivers sleep at night. I pulled into the part of the lot where cars went, and parked off to one side, away from the lights.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” Horace said. “Jen, Mad and Simone will go in and get a table. They’ll order coffee, and I’ll wager it won’t be long before they have a few truckers volunteering to be their dinners. Rudy and I will get a different table, and see what we can pick up—waitresses or something.” He pointed across the road at a big chain motel. “We’ll take our catches there, and meet you here at the van a half-hour before sunrise, but I’m afraid this leaves you learning to hunt on your own. Now, what I’d suggest is that you go somewhere else, on foot. Leave the van here, and go for a jog. There should be a town not far ahead, and odds on there’ll be a bar or club you can find. Don’t go in; just watch from a distance until you see someone leaving alone, and then make a point of stepping out on the road and hitching a ride. When he stops, he’s yours. Just be sure to clean up, and that means the car, too. If you can, find a lake or something and get rid of it. If not, crash it and burn it. Leave the body in it, if nothing else, and make sure the fire is good and hot.”
I swallowed, nervous but also excited. I haven’t mentioned it, but I’d spent a few minutes, now and then, in those long nights at home thinking about my first hunt, the first time I’d actually go out and find a victim myself—and now it was time! I was feeling a tingle of excitement, and so I nodded in agreement, and then remembered to grab the travel-size shampoo from my purse and stuff it in the pocket of my jeans.
Simone opened her door and was first out, followed quickly by the rest of us. I gave Horace the spare key to the van, and we locked it up tight.
“Wish me luck,” I said, and Simone grabbed me for a hug. “You’ll do good,” she said, “I know ya will!” She kissed me again, a peck on the lips, and I smiled. “Go get ya some dinner, ducklin!"
The three women went toward the truck stop, and Horace and Rudy stood there with me for another moment. I thought Horace would offer more tips, but Rudy said, “Amber, be careful. And try not to get too messy.” He smiled at me, and actually reached out and ruffled my hair, which shocked me! Up until then, Rudy hadn’t said much to me at all, and I wasn’t sure if he liked me being around or not.
“I’ll try,” I said, and then—because I couldn’t think of anything else to say—I began running off into the night. I kept the van between me and the truck stop until I had gone some distance, then got out on the service road that paralleled the Interstate. I remembered a sign a few miles back that said we were approaching the town of Kerrison, Colorado, and hurried to get close enough to look it over.
It was small. I mean, too small for my needs. I cut off the road and ran through woods to pass it by, and that only took a few moments, but then I saw lights hitting the sky up ahead and turned toward them. A few minutes later I found what I wanted: a little bar in the middle of nowhere. I stopped a quarter-mile away and watched.
There were only a few cars in the parking lot, and some of them looked like they were probably permanent, up on blocks or with hoods or doors missing. Only a couple looked like they might be able to run, and those were fairly new, but I didn’t care. Somewhere in there was my next meal, and I was getting hungry enough to have to remind myself not to go in and grab someone.
I didn’t have to wait long. About ten minutes after I found the place, a man staggered out the door and got into one of the cars. He fumbled with it for a moment, finally got it started, and pulled out onto the road. He was headed toward me, so I stepped out where he could see me, and stood there with my thumb out like I’d seen hitchhikers do on the highway entrance ramps.
He spotted me and stopped, just as I’d expected he would. He was an older man, in his forties,
I’d guess, and he smiled when I ran up to his open window, “Where you goin’, Sweet thing?” he asked.
“I’m just headed home, Sir,” I said sweetly. “My car broke down, and I had to walk a long way.”
“Well, you just hop on in, Baby,” he said, “and I’ll make sure you don’t have to walk no more.” The leer on his face told me that, in my former life, I’d never have gotten into that car; there was no doubt in my mind that he planned to make a pass at me, maybe even try to force it. I almost got angry, but Horace’s words came back to me, and I recalled how I’d teased the last guy before I ate him. What could it hurt to give this man a thrill, especially in light of what it was going to cost him?
I got in, and he got the car moving again. It was a big, new luxury car, a Lincoln, and he was drunk enough to be weaving all over the road.
“How far you goin’?” he asked, and I looked at him flirtatiously.
“All depends,” I said with a teasing look. “How far you want me to go?”
He lit up like a Christmas tree, then, and patted the seat beside. I smiled and slid closer to him, and he put his arm around my neck. I could feel the tips of his fingers barely brushing the side of my breast.
“Damn, Baby,” he said, “you sure are a foxy little thing.” He looked at me as if he was afraid he might be dreaming. “It feels pretty nice to have an arm around a little fox like you.”
“Want it to feel better?” I asked in my sultriest voice, and he actually licked his lips as he nodded. “Then take me somewhere real private, somewhere with no one around.” He smiled, said he knew just the place, and five minutes later we were parked on a dirt road, completely concealed from any other eyes.
I got out of the car, and he followed me. “I don’t like to do it in a car,” I said, and he smiled when I began taking off my shirt. I laid it on the hood of his car, and then took off my shoes, socks, jeans, down to my bra and panties. I was standing there almost naked on the grass under some big trees, and he was fumbling with his own clothes.
He had gotten a blanket out of his trunk and spread it on the ground, and was trying unsuccessfully to get his fingers to unbuckle his belt. I moved in and put my arms around him, tilting my face up for a kiss. “Relax,” I said. “We’ve got plenty of time.”
He lay down as I told him to, and I lay beside him and stroked his face. He was smiling, his hands still fumbling with his belt, but he forgot all about it when I started kissing him again. I remembered what Horace had said about trading sex for what I was taking from them, but kissing and a little touching was about as far as I felt I could go.
“You like kissing me?” I asked, and he smiled at me.
“Oh, yeah, baby, I love it!”
I rose up a bit and smiled down at him. “I’m glad,” I said, and then I bent down and took a bite out of his shoulder.
He must have been drunker than I thought, because it took a good ten seconds for him to realize what I’d done. He started screaming, then, and the thrill hit me again. I took another bite, and another, and even crawled on top of him so I could get a better bite from his other arm. He was flailing about, trying to buck me off, but I held on, and he was already growing weaker. I ate his chest muscles and more of his arm, and then I heard his heart.
Like the first two, I suddenly had to have that heart! I ripped it out and ate it while I looked into his eyes like before, sitting up on his legs by then, and I swallowed the last bite of it as he died. The thrill hit me, and I writhed in pleasure right there atop his mangled body.
When it subsided, I stood and began thinking about cleaning up.
Chapter Fifteen
Horace
The girls were a hit in the truck stop, all right. Every man in the place was watching them, and several were flirting openly. For once, Simone was the only one not getting as much attention as she wanted, because there were a couple of truckers there who thought she was too young for any of them, and so most of them were afraid to talk to her. There was one, though, a young guy who was a trainee driver, learning the ropes from an older bloke. Nobody said anything when she started turning her charms onto him, and he lit up like a streetlight whe
n she smiled at him and walked over to sit with him.
Mad and Jen didn’t have such problems, and each had her pick of men. I was delighted when one of the waitresses gave me a wink, and Rudy sat at the counter down a ways from me, talking to a driver from Oklahoma while he looked things over.
It wasn’t late, yet, only a little past eight, and my waitress didn’t get off work until eleven, so I ordered a rare steak and ate it slowly. I got it rare just because I’ve found that most women get hot for a man who eats his meat rare; the blood in it didn’t do a thing for me. By the time I finished it, Rudy was gone, and so were Simone and her trainee.
If I knew our Simone, that lad was going to learn something entirely new that night!
Mad left a few minutes later with a man who looked at her adoringly, and Jen sat and talked for another hour with a driver who told her about his kids, and how he’d lost his wife because of being on the road so much. She made all the right noises at all the right times, and when they finally left the cafe, he was holding her close to him. She was smiling, too.
Arleen, the waitress, kept my coffee cup full as she did her job, but she had too many customers to spend too much time with me. That was okay, I let my eyes tell her that I was interested, and she kept licking her lips whenever she looked my way. I think we understood each other quite well, so when the time came for her to leave work, we walked arm-in-arm to the motel, and she waited outside while I got a room. When I came out, she took the key from me and led the way up the outside stairs to the door of room two-oh-seven.
“I don’t want you to think I do this all the time,” she said, and I smiled.
“Don’t worry, luv,” I said. “You don’t look that type at all, but I’m awfully pleased you’re here with me.”