by Jade White
It didn’t take long for a group of people to come into view. A fire was burning beyond them, though nothing was being done with it. The group of people were beyond the trees – mostly standing around, it looked like, though some seemed to be hurrying back and forth among themselves. Kim knotted her brows together as the shapes grew sharper and she saw that there were no cars near them--nor had she passed any cars sitting on the side of the road. It should have given her pause, but Kim plowed ahead, only vaguely aware that she could be stumbling upon something dangerous or illegal. Or, quite possibly, both.
The feeling of unease grew much heavier as her car got within fifty yards of the group and she finally saw what was going on.
A group of adults – about fifteen of them--were standing in a wide circle in the sand, cheering and clapping their hands as two shirtless men in the center grappled with each other. They looked dirty and sweaty, but neither looked badly hurt, and no one was making a move to stop them. Kim halted her Fiat, mouth agape, as a wiry red-haired man struggled to escape the choke hold a burly blonde man had on him. The blonde’s arms were easily as big as the red-haired man's head, but he still seemed to be having trouble holding him.
The redhead finally slipped out of the blonde’s grasp and darted to the edge of the circle so quickly that Kim almost lost track of his motion; the blonde man followed immediately, his arms outstretched – nearly as fast, she noticed, but not fast enough. The crowd screamed. The red-haired man was on the other side of the circle by the time the blonde man realized he’d missed him.
They’re vampires, Kim realized. What the hell is this? Vampire fight club?
She watched as the blonde man took off running toward the red headed man. Halfway through the circle of vampires, he squatted and jumped; his jump took him higher than she expected, and far enough to drive both of his feet into the redhead’s stomach. Kim heard the crowd groan in unison at impact, and the blonde tumbled into a neat somersault and leapt gracefully to his feet again as the redhead writhed on the ground.
“Come on!” Kim heard a woman scream. “Finish him off, Dougie!”
The blonde – Dougie, apparently -- winked at someone in the circle, then turned back to his opponent to find him still on the hard, sandy ground. Kim saw him say something, then hold out a hand, as if to help him up. The redheaded man reached for it, but Dougie snapped his hand back and laughed raucously; he was soon joined by laughter from the rest of the group, their voices echoing across the desert. She could tell Dougie was a showman--she’d seen people like him in kickboxing class. They were always hares in a race that needed more than speed. He had his back turned again, and he was chatting easily with people in the crowd, flexing and strutting from one person to the next. The wind blew the smoke from the fire away from them, but Kim could still smell it on the air. In the circle, Dougie did a backflip.
Keep preening, big guy. Let’s see how you fare against the next opponent.
Another opponent didn’t step forward, though. While Dougie had been showing off, the redheaded man had climbed to his feet and snuck up behind him, his creeping movements unbelievably quick and graceful. The crowd didn’t made a sound as he came to a stop behind Dougie, wrapped his arms around his waist, and lifted him from the Earth. It looked like some kind of hug at first, but then he started spinning. Kim wondered what the goal of the spinning was -- just to disorient him so the redhead could make the final blow, perhaps? Were vampires more sensitive to dizziness?
The answer was made to clear to her the next second. The redhead’s arm opened and released Dougie, who went flying about sixty feet in the air, over the stand of ragged trees – and right into the hood of Kim’s car.
She screamed as the vampire crashed into her with a deafening crunch, flinging her arms up instinctively to protect herself in case the windshield shattered.
“Fuck!” Dougie shouted. “Ah, who put a goddamned car here?”
Kim did the only thing she could think of; she got out and rushed to the front of the Fiat, eyeing Dougie as he lay in the imprint his body had made in the metal. “Oh my God, are you okay? I’m sorry!”
His golden-flecked, nut-brown eyes regarded her warily as he extricated himself from the hood. “I’m okay, doll. I’m pretty sure your car sustained more damage than I did.”
He got to his feet, rubbing his back gingerly as he surveyed the car’s hood – now smoking and sparking. “I was gonna ask what you were doing here, but I think now I gotta ask how you’re going to leave.”
“Shit,” Kim said. What the hell was I thinking?
Her heart sank, and it must have showed on her face, because the vampire turned around and motioned for someone to come over.
“Don’t worry,” Dougie said, his voice sounding far kinder than it had been before. “We may look like wild animals, but we’re really vampires, and some of us even know a thing or two about engines. Do you mind if we take a look? I did break it,” he added, laughing.
Kim nodded, and Dougie winked as someone lifted the hood of her Fiat. She felt herself blush; even though her brain knew it was harmless flirting, her body responded to the irresistible charm most vampires seemed to ooze without even trying.
“So, what were you doing out here?” asked another vampire conversationally.
This one, a short, curvy woman with curly black hair, wasn’t smiling; she wasn’t angry or hostile either – her expression was carefully neutral, though her eyes were incredibly alert. Kim saw that some vampires were looking at her with interest, while others looked openly suspicious.
“I was just taking a drive,” Kim said truthfully. “I saw the smoke, but no houses, and I wanted to see what was going on.”
“Really?” the woman said dubiously. “You drove by yourself down a deserted path toward a fire, and didn’t turn around when you saw fighting? Why?”
Kim just shrugged, suddenly too nervous to talk. The female vampire looked annoyed, and her mouth opened again to ask another question – but someone spoke and cut her off.
“Kim!”
The tidal wave of joy that rose at the sound of Luke’s voice was diametrically opposed by the surge of anxiety that rushed to meet it. She turned slowly on the spot to find Luke standing just beyond the other vampires, all of whom were looking between the two of them with growing confusion. Even Dougie had stopped tinkering with the engine to watch them.
She started to move toward Luke, and the vampires parted automatically, closing their ranks again as she walked past. Luke was angry, she saw – but not surprised. He was wearing a short-sleeved white t-shirt, and Kim saw that there were streaks of dirt on it; he’d been fighting, but the rest of his body didn’t show any sign of it.
Luke wordlessly led her away from the group, almost a hundred yards away. He turned to her and opened his mouth, then closed it again. Kim watched him closely. He was agitated, but he still wasn’t showing any shock or surprise. She had the feeling she was about to get answers to questions she hadn’t even started forming yet. Luke took a deep breath and crossed his arms, looking her squarely in the eye and planting his feet in the soil.
“Do you know why you’re here?” he asked shortly.
Kim was surprised by the question, but even more surprising was the fact that she had at least part of the answer. “It’s you. It’s because you’re here. I showed up at that tailor shop when you were leaving, and I went to a grocery store where you were shopping a few weeks ago.”
Luke nodded. “But do you know why?”
Kim felt a ripple of annoyance. “I just told you.”
He sighed and put his hands over his face, waiting a few seconds before pulling them away to reveal his weary expression. “We’re bonded, Kim. That night, I...gave you more than a baby. Something in both of us liked the other so well that we have a metaphysical bond now, and our bodies want to be near each other.”
There was a loud thump behind them, and Kim turned to look. Her engine wasn’t smoking anymore, and someone had beaten the den
t out of the hood so that it only looked wrinkled instead of destroyed. One of the vampires working on her car called for a man named Anton; it turned out to be the wiry red headed man. He plunged his hands into the engine’s guts and started ushering other vampires out of the way. Some of the vampires were absorbed in the car repair, but others were clearly struggling to listen.
Kim turned back to Luke and blinked slowly, letting his explanation sink in. “So...I imprinted on you? And I’m following you around like some kind of...sick puppy?”
Luke’s expression softened when he saw Kim’s discomfort with the idea. “Not exactly.”
Kim scoffed. “So you’re saying this isn’t one-sided?”
“No, it isn’t,” he admitted, casting his eyes downward. He looked so defeated that she had to fight the impulse to embrace him. “It really isn’t. I do feel it, Kim. I just know what it most likely is.”
Kim narrowed her eyes at him, anger rising over her other emotions. “What does that mean?”
Luke was thrown by her sudden shift in tone. “I just mean that the bond is likely not permanent or even...meaningful. It’s more about sexual chemistry than anything, most likely.”
“Most likely?” Kim repeated angrily. Truthfully, a part of her knew he was right-- she knew that vampiric bonds were very often based in sex, and wore away over months or sometimes even days; a large portion of her mind, however, didn’t care if it the bond only lasted a few more hours. She was here now, and had been spending weeks gravitating toward him and then fighting to stay away. Kim was tired of fighting her feelings, no matter how unlikely a fairy tale ending seemed.
Luke put his hands in his pockets nervously. “Most likely. Or, maybe. Possibly. I could be wrong. It could be about our auras connecting, creating a romantic bond – but that normally happens either between a vampire and another supernatural creature, or after a vampire has bitten a human they’re close to at least once.”
“You mean turned them?” Kim asked.
“No,” Luke said, a flash of annoyance crossing his features. “You can bite a human without turning them. I thought you guys knew that by now.”
Her anger flared again. “Well, excuse me for not getting my PHD in vampirism before I screwed you,” Kim said, her voice rising. She knew she shouldn’t be this angry with him, but the knowledge didn’t do anything to stop her emotions. “You knew I was being drawn to you and you didn’t bother to tell me about it?”
Kim paused then, a realization dawning on her. “Hold on. Is that why you’ve been avoiding me? Right before I gave birth, you texted me and then fell off the face of the planet. Was it because you figured out there was a bond between us then?”
Luke was silent, but that gave her all the answer she needed.
Kim wanted to smack him and storm off, but she didn’t know how the other vampires would react – and they weren’t done with her car yet. She glanced over her shoulder, and a dozen heads swiveled back in the other direction. A few of the vampires moved toward the car to look as though they were helping, but the others just stood there, not bothering to pretend they hadn’t been listening.
She turned back to Luke, tight-lipped and shaking with anger. “How long were you going to let me twist in the fucking wind, Luke?”
He looked lost for a moment, then finally decided to take a step toward her – and another, and another, until he was close enough to touch her. Kim was unnerved by how quickly he’d moved, but her desire to be near to him overpowered her unease.
Luke’s eyes softened as he spoke. “I wanted to tell you, but I never found a good time. Then I saw you at Mack’s and you seemed so confused….” He sighed heavily, and his breath tickled Kim’s face. “I’m sorry. I guess I just wanted to avoid things getting complicated. I thought you would want that.”
Kim laughed, and it was slightly bitter. “I have your child, Luke. It’s a little too late to save us from complicated.”
He laughed, and it was a little higher and more strained than it had been the night they met. “You’re right. You’re right. If I’d spoken to you earlier, all of this would have been avoided.” He looked her in the eye again, remorse washing over his features. He reached out and squeezed her right hand. “I’m sorry, Kim.”
A shiver rolled down Kim’s spine that had nothing to do with the wind. Her mouth was dry when she spoke. “It’s all right.”
And, strangely, it was; even though she’d been boiling with rage a moment ago, now all she could think about was pulling Luke toward her and kissing him. It seemed like such a good idea that she was in the middle of doing it before she’d actually decided.
Luke’s arms encircled her waist automatically, and Kim clung to his shoulders as she pressed her lips to his. She felt him relax into her embrace and tighten his arms at the same time, lifting her body off the ground a little because of their difference in height. Kim didn’t feel herself leave the ground because her mind was whirling with joy, and all of her nerves were alight with an unquenchable thirst that had been awakened by Luke’s touch. Too soon, the kiss was over, and they were pulling away from each other, both breathless and wide-eyed.
“Wow,” Luke said.
Kim laughed hoarsely. “Where have I heard that before?”
The memory of their only night together passed between them as they gazed at each other. Luke’s eyes looked her up and down so slowly that it felt lewd. She wanted him to keep doing it, but was afraid the tension would get out of control.
“Hey,” a voice shouted. They both jumped and looked behind Kim, where the other vampires were peering over at them from her car. Many of them were suppressing laughter, but Kim couldn’t help but notice that a handful of them were wearing distrustful expressions.
It was Dougie who had spoken. “You wanna come try and get this thing back to civilization?”
“In a minute,” Luke said before Kim could answer.
She turned back to him. “So….what now?”
Luke smiled – the first warm, sincere smile he’d given her since they’d met. “Now we pick up those strings we cut off the night I got you pregnant. We’ll see where it goes.” He hesitated. “I still think it will turn out to be lust based--”
“Why?” Kim cut in, not caring that she sounded demanding. “Why do you think that?”
Luke was silent for a moment, his face unreadable until he spoke again. “Because in my experience, it always is.”
He took her hand and walked with her toward her car, ignoring the inquisitive looks some of the vampires were shooting them. Kim met their gazes boldly, trying not to show them how flustered she really was. The curly haired woman from earlier was looking at her with open interest, as was Dougie.
“We gonna be seeing you again, doll?” Dougie asked lightly as Kim slid into the driver’s seat. “You’re quite the firecracker. You didn’t even flinch when you got that nasty bruise.” He motioned to her right arm as he spoke.
“What?” Kim looked down at her arm. Sure enough, there was a purplish blotch the size and color of a plum on her forearm. She poked it, and a dull ache radiated from it.
“Wow,” Luke said as he bent down to look. “You didn’t feel that?”
“I must have gotten when Dougie hit my car,” she said wonderingly, still looking at the bruise. “I jumped and whacked my arm against the wheel, but didn’t really feel any pain.” She looked back at Luke. “Probably all the adrenaline coursing through me after stumbling upon Vampire Fight Club.”
Luke let out a hearty laugh, and Kim felt a pleasant tug in her chest as the sound hit her ears. “I like that name. We’re going to have to consider changing it.”
Kim grinned, feeling as though she were floating instead of sitting in her car. “Just make sure to give me credit, okay? And don’t forget to keep me updated on any other changes.”
Luke laughed again. “I think I’ve learned not to keep things from you by now. I’ll never keep you out of the loop again.”
Chapter Three
The Fiat wouldn’t start when Kim got behind the wheel.
“What’s wrong?” Luke ducked his head into the window after hearing Kim’s loud groan of defeat.
“I don’t know,” she said, eyeing the crowd of curious vampires in her rear view mirror. “Maybe it’s the starter?” She pushed her bangs back from her misty forehead. “I think I’m going to need to call a tow truck.”
“Nonsense,” Luke said firmly. Kim saw that his eyes were sparkling; they were friendly and warm in a way they hadn’t been since the night they met. “Did you pass any auto body shops on the way in?”
Kim frowned. “I think so. But wouldn’t you know? Didn’t you come the same way?”
Someone in the crowd behind them laughed; they could apparently still hear her even though she was back in the car. Luke shot a silencing look behind him.
“Not exactly,” he said. “I didn’t need to use roads, since I didn’t travel by car. I just ran right through.”
Kim blinked slowly. “Ran? Through the desert? Forty-five minutes outside of town?”
Luke nodded. “Vampire, remember? We’re much sturdier than humans. A few dozen miles is nothing to us.” He looked around him and then up at the sky. “I can push you to the shop. It’ll be a few minutes.”
Kim burst out laughing. “Okay, Luke. Now I know you’re messing with me.”
But Luke had already moved behind her car. Kim turned around in her seat and watched in disbelief as Luke placed both hands on her trunk, set his square jaw in a look of concentration, and started to push. The car started to roll forward quickly, as if Kim had actually managed to turn it on and put her foot on the gas; they were moving faster than she’d thought possible; by the time the car got near the first turn of the narrow path, the Fiat was moving at least fifteen miles an hour.