Vampire Romance: AMBER - The Grue Series (Vampire Romance, Paranormal, The Grue Series Book 1)

by Adams, Nancy

  She came to me then, and let me put my arms around her, and I kissed her while I undressed her. She moaned as my hands found a lot of the little spots most men seem to ignore, and when her bloomers hit the floor at last, she stood there nervously, trying to cover her little bush as I looked at her.

  “Lovely,” I whispered, and took her hands and held them away from her body. She was probably about forty, and showed some of the sag that her age and occupation brought along, but she was still a desirable woman, and I wanted her to know it, so I looked long and hard. We made love, then, and I used all of my skills to give her the pleasures she so desperately craved.

  The third time she orgasmed, I bit her throat, and she cried happily as I suckled at the little wound.

  Amber

  I stuffed the body back into his clothes, then rolled it up in the blanket and put it into the back seat of the car. I kicked a lot of dirt around to cover up where the blood had seeped through, and then I climbed into the car, started it up and turned around. I had to fiddle around for a moment, to find the power seat controls and move the seat forward. He’d been over six feet, and I could barely reach the pedals.

  I had seen a small stream on the way there with him, about a half-mile back, and drove to it slowly so my clothes wouldn’t blow off the hood. I stopped and got out, listened carefully to be sure there were no people or vehicles anywhere nearby, and then grabbed the shampoo—I had set it on the hood beside my clothes—and stepped into the cold water to wash myself off. I stripped off my bloodied underclothes, ducked my head under and got thoroughly wet, then lathered up and took a fast bath.

  The stream turned pink and sudsy, but by the time I was finished it was running clear again. I got out of the water, stepping on some rocks to keep my feet from getting too muddy, and dried myself in my special way. When the steam stopped rising from my body, I got dressed again — suddenly remembering that I had forgotten to bring clean undies—and slid back into the Lincoln.

  I needed to find a place to dispose of the car and the body, and there were no convenient mine shafts around that I knew of. A lake had been Horace’s suggestion, but I didn’t know where one of those was, either. I made a mental note to myself to always remember to ask my victims where to find a lake or other convenient place to get rid of their bodies.

  Yeah, I know. I’m a monster! So sue me.

  I drove out onto the road and headed west, thinking I might see a sign for a lake or something. When I didn’t find anything like that, I decided to just go the fire route. I followed the road I was on, a small two-lane highway, for about a mile and found the spot I wanted, a heavily wooded area.

  I hated hurting the beautiful car, but there was no choice. I stopped, listened for any approaching traffic, then started it again and drove it into the trees at about eighty miles an hour.

  I managed to avoid hitting any big ones for several seconds, and then hit a big one head on. The jolt stunned me for a second, and my face hit the steering wheel but it didn’t hurt very much. I could see in the mirror that my nose had broken, and it was even bleeding a little, but Horace had said I would always heal perfectly, so I didn’t let myself worry about it. If it didn’t heal up right, I’d figure it out then.

  There was a box of tissues on the floorboard; it must have been under the seat, and slid out when the sudden stop occurred, so I grabbed a couple and wiped the blood from my nose away. It didn’t bleed anymore, so I climbed out of the car and looked around. I couldn’t see the road, so I figured I was far enough in.

  I carefully moved the body to the front seat, and then wriggled it out of the blanket, being careful not to get more blood on me; luckily he didn’t seem to have much left, so it wasn’t hard to do. I tossed the blanket back into the backseat, then moved the seat back to its previous position and went around to the front to look at where the hood had buckled.

  You don’t grow up on a farm without learning a little about vehicles, and I could see the fuel line. I reached in and pulled on it until it snapped; the pressure in the line made gas spray all over the engine and it hissed as it hit hot metal. I heated my hand; a moment later the gas that coated it burst into flame, and I used that to ignite the gas that covered the engine,

  The fire spread rapidly throughout the car, and within a couple of minutes it was a fireball. I was sure it would be consumed, and hopefully the body would be burned up enough that no one would be able to tell he’d been eaten, but as Horace had said about Ronnie, it was likely that it would be considered an animal attack, even if it was discovered.

  I jogged back to the road, and followed it to the interstate and the frontage road. It was a dark night by that time, and the cars on the interstate running alongside couldn’t see anything over where I was, so I poured on a little speed, and got off the road whenever I saw headlights coming toward me. I had made it back to the exit near where I’d fed when I heard sirens, and a couple minutes later I hid in the brush and watched two fire engines and an ambulance roaring back the way I’d come.

  I hoped nobody got hurt dealing with the fire. Being in the woods and all, I was sure it would be a good-sized blaze, but I’d picked a spot where there were breaks in the trees, so it shouldn’t be too hard to put out.

  It took me about twenty minutes to get back to the truck stop, but there was no sign of Horace or the others, I was confident they’d found themselves some playmates to drink from, but it meant I’d have to entertain myself for a few hours, ‘til it was time to meet up again, The only thing around was the truck stop, though, and so I checked my nose in the van’s side mirror—it was perfectly fine again, and I hadn’t felt anything since the initial impact—then I wandered inside, I’d need a restroom soon, anyway, so I got a table and ordered coffee when the waitress came over, but declined anything to eat. “I’m kinda on a special diet,” I told her, and she nodded as though she understood, then went to fetch my coffee,

  There was a little store there, and I got up and wandered around it for a few minutes. I hadn’t thought about being bored on the trip, and hadn’t thought to bring any books, so I was glad to see a rack of them. There were a lot of adventure books, like war stories and detective stuff, but I found one by that new guy, Stephen King, about a town that got taken over by vampires. It was a good-sized book, and I liked scary stories, so I bought it,

  And then I laughed at myself, because I had become a scary story.

  I sat at my table and read for a while, sipping my coffee slowly, I made a couple of trips to the ladies room, and each time I went, my belly got flatter. I started to worry that the waitress would notice, but she was too busy flirting with the truckers, so I relaxed.

  About midnight, when I’d been sitting there for more than three hours, the waitress began to hint that I needed to move along. I paid for my coffee, made one more stop in the ladies room to get rid of another couple pounds of fluid, then went on out to the van. I curled up in the back seat and went back into my book. No one could see me there, so I didn’t bother to turn on a light; I didn’t need one, after all, so why run the battery down?

  It was getting close to five-thirty AM when the sun’s light began to glow on the lower part of the eastern sky, and a few minutes later I heard familiar voices coming toward me. Horace and the others were crossing the parking lot, headed my way, so I climbed up to the driver’s seat to wait for them. I hit the power-lock button (nice option) to unlock the doors for them, and they all got in.

  Simone took her spot on the floorboard beside me, and grinned, “I think Amber had a good night, too,” she said, and I blushed.

  “It was—satisfying,” I said, and all five of them chuckled. I even laughed a little myself. “Everybody ready to go?” I asked, and they all answered that they were. Simone kissed my cheek, and climbed up onto the seats with the others, closing the curtain as she did so.

  I started the van and automatically glanced down at the gas gauge. It was below a half tank, and we were already stopped, so I thought I should go on a
nd fill up so that I wouldn’t be stopping again in a couple of hours; the van didn’t get the mileage my little Mustang got, and that was irritating, but I could deal with it. I pulled over to the gas pumps and got out.

  It took twelve gallons, a little over fifteen dollars worth of gas. I hung the pump nozzle up and went inside to pay for it.

  There was a woman and two little boys, probably around eight and nine, standing at the counter, and I could tell they’d all been crying. I stood there waiting my turn, and heard the woman say, “They’re saying he was pretty drunk when he left Cody’s, and he must have gotten lost trying to get home. He missed the curve over on Mitchell road, and went off into the trees going pretty fast. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, but they say it wouldn’t have mattered. It looks like the car exploded, and the fire would’ve killed him anyway.”

  My breath caught, and I looked at the boys again. Could this woman be talking about...? But of course she was; nothing else could make sense.

  The clerk saw me, and motioned for me to come on up to the register. Her own eyes were red, and I couldn’t stop myself. “Is there something wrong?” I asked.

  The clerk nodded. “My sister, here, her husband got killed during the night. Went out drinkin’, and got drunk and wrecked his car and burned up in it.”

  The boys started to cry out loud, and I felt sick inside. I handed over the money for the gas, turned to the other woman and said, “Was it their father?” She nodded, and I said I was so terribly sorry.

  She thought I was just being nice. She didn’t know I was apologizing for murdering her husband. I managed to walk out to the van and get in, and got us back on the road, but my mind was still in the truck stop, locked on those poor boys and their mother. For all I knew, they may not be able to survive without him, and then I’d have their fates on my conscience, too. It was horrible, the things that went through my mind, and I suddenly thought of Ronnie and my nameless meal number two. Did either of them have a wife, or children? Even kids by an ex would break my heart, because they’d never know what had happened to their daddy—he just never came to see them again, vanished out of their lives.

  How many lives might I have destroyed already? It dawned on me suddenly that I’d been crying ever since leaving that truck stop.

  I drove on autopilot, wondering how I was going to get through this. I wanted to wake Horace and make him tell me what to do, how to forgive myself. How could I have been so cold, so unfeeling, not to even wonder about the people who knew and loved my victims, people who would be hurt, perhaps even have their lives completely destroyed, all because I got hungry.

  At the moment, I was no danger to anyone, so the logical part of me insisted I calm down and try to think of something else. I was sated, and wouldn’t need to feed again for a couple of days, at least, so I’d have to find some way to cope with myself by then, or else—

  Or else I’d have to ask Horace to destroy me.

  God, I thought, what if something like me had happened to Daddy, and he’d just vanished? How would I have survived that? How would Molly or Angie, or even Mom survive that?

  It was a long drive across Colorado and Utah, even if I didn’t need to stop for lunch. I made a few stops for gas, and used the restroom each time, getting rid of the last of the unfortunate dead man and the remnants of sodas and candy bars. By the time I was past Salt Lake City, it was getting dim, and I was relieved when I heard the vampires waking a short while later.

  Simone was the first one to come up front, and she plopped in the shotgun seat.

  “How ya doin’, ducklin?” she asked, and I didn’t think I wanted to be honest with her, so I just smiled and said I was fine. She looked at me oddly, and her eyebrows went up a notch, but she didn’t question me. A moment later, Horace tapped her on the shoulder, and she moved back to the floor so he could take the seat.

  “Where are we?” he asked.

  “Passed Salt Lake City about an hour back,” I said. “We’re making pretty good time.”

  “Yeah, we are. You okay?”

  He was looking at me oddly, himself, and I got the feeling he knew something was wrong. I started to say I was fine, like I’d told Simone, but this was Horace, and somehow he’d already begun taking the Male Authority role in my life. I broke down and started to cry again.

  “I—when I went in to pay for the gas this morning, there was this woman and her kids in there—it was, y’know, the guy I—the guy I ate last night, it was his wife and his two little boys. I killed him, and they’re suffering for it.”

  Simone put a hand on my shoulder and rubbed it gently, and strangely, her touch seemed to help. She’d told me how she hated killing, so I thought that maybe she knew how I was feeling, at least to some degree.

  Horace looked at me for a moment in silence, and then said, “We’ve all been through this, Amber. It’s one of the reasons we try to avoid killing, because we do realize that there are people whose lives are affected by what we do. The problem is that we can’t always find another way, especially in times like we’ve had lately, when we’re not able to blend in.”

  “And for you, it’s different,” said Simone. “You don’t get to choose; it’s the livin’ part that you gotta eat, and there’s not no way they can live, after.”

  Horace smiled at her. “Simone puts it in simpler terms, but she’s right. You don’t have a choice; it’s part of who and what you are, now.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know—I don’t know if I can do it again, now. And if I can’t, then I don’t want to go crazy, so—so you’d have to stop me. You may have to destroy me.”

  Even as I said those words, I felt the fear of them rising inside me. I didn’t want to die; I wanted to live, and I had already accepted that my survival meant suffering for others. However, that was when I was only thinking of my victims. I hadn’t considered their families, or others whose lives theirs must have touched.

  How could I have failed to realize these things? How could I have not thought about the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, children of the people whose lives I would take?

  And yet—something inside me was fighting to survive, even then, some thoughts were building in me that said, Well hey, if this is how it has to be, then I’ll just have to learn to live with it!

  But could I? Could I come to terms with this part of myself, of my nature?

  “Horace,” I heard myself saying, “I’m not ready to give up yet—I mean, I knew I was killing people, all right? I just hadn’t thought through what else it would mean, but—I mean, I’ll probably be okay in a day or so. It’s just—if I can’t...”

  He smiled sadly at me. “Don’t worry, Amber. If you can’t bear it, I’ll do what I have to do.”

  I nodded, and managed to stop crying. Simone kept her hand on my shoulder, and leaned her face against the side of my seat.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Horace

  I wasn’t surprised at her regrets; frankly, I’d been expecting it. Seems it’s part of the acceptance process. Jen went through it, and Rudy, and there have been others I’ve turned who did. You seem to go a while just forcing yourself to accept, and then suddenly it really hits you that, at least sometimes, what you’re doing to survive is going to cost people their lives.

  And that’s hard to face, when you’re new and still have family and friends living. Amber was sure to come up against it, eventually, and when she did, I only worried about what would happen if she couldn’t cope.

  So when she asked, I promised her that if she could not, I’d do what was necessary. Would I have destroyed her? Of course I would have, because a mad grue was the most terrible thing you can imagine, worse than a man-eating tiger running amok in a crowd. When a grue goes mad, there’s no thought process, there’s no logic—they attack and bite, attack and bite, but they don’t always finish one person before starting on another. And they kill, indiscriminately, anyone who gets close enough. Just the existence of a grue would set the world on its
ear, if it ever became common knowledge.

  That’s not likely here in America, of course; the government here thinks it’s best for people not to know the truth about what stalks them, so they’d keep it hush-hush, I’m certain. After all, humans have known about my kind for millennia, and yet there are only a small number of special policemen who are ever told about us, trained to hunt us. They don’t want the public to know that monsters exist.

  Governmental authorities are big on secrets, especially secrets like us.

  Simone

  Me, I was scared when she said it. Seemed like all my life, all I ever really wanted was a little sister, and I’d finally got one. I dunno if I could handle it if she was suddenly gone. I know Horace thinks I got like a heart for Amber, but it wasn’t like that, not really.

  See, Mad and Jen, and Rudy, they was a lot stronger than me, and Horace, ah, he was like God, I mean, he never needed anyone or anything! Lotsa times I wondered why he put up with our lot, y’know?

  Me, though, I just—I needed someone who’d need me. And Amber did, she did, she needed me just the same as I needed her.

  I didn’t think I’d want to live if she was gone from the world. Where would I ever find another ducklin?

  Amber

  “Now, then,” Horace said, “there’s the matter of dinner for the rest of us. We’re doing well, and being back on our regular diet is comfortable, but we have to keep to it or things will get bad again. Seen any signs for a nightclub, or such?”

  I shook my head. “Not lately, not since we hit Utah, I think. There’s a town coming up, and I’ve seen a lot of signs for hotels and restaurants and such, so there might be something there.”

  “I wanna watch some TV,” Simone said. “Let’s get a hotel room, and watch TV after.”