"Like I told you earlier, I like the old you better," she said as he put the SUV in drive and opened his Red Bull. She had opened his box of food so he wouldn't have any trouble eating and driving. She had opened six of the little ketchup packets, and emptied them all in a neat little pile in the corner of the box for his hash rounds. He could definitely get used to her being around.
He watched in mock amazement as a hash round was dipped, and then raised up to his mouth. He shook his head and laughed softly as he took the bite.
"I'll feed you, you drive; eggs are next," she said.
Mitch pulled back onto the interstate, reached the speed limit and set the cruise control. If they got pulled over, he would be in a world of deep shit.
He drove and ate the food that was offered to him, while she talked more about her life as a vampire. He was completely fascinated by it all, and he thought about bringing up the subject of changing him again. He didn't for two reasons: one being that it was daylight and she couldn't do it now even if she wanted to. They would both fry. And the other reason was because he didn't want to fight with her if she said no. They were having a good time just talking to each other; he didn't want to ruin a good thing. Furthermore, he didn't know how long the transition would take, or if it would hurt.
They spent almost the whole day laughing and talking as he drove across New Mexico and into Arizona. It was no longer weird for him not to be able to see her beside him as they talked. He told her about his mother and about his nonexistent father with ease. He hadn't realized just how much he wanted to talk about all of it. Who would have thought that vampires could be therapists?
They didn't have to look at a map. Ciera was the map. They were just outside of Winslow, AZ, and neither of them had been paying any attention to their surroundings. They had been too caught up in conversation to notice the police cruiser on the Tahoe's bumper, until they heard the siren go off. Mitch quickly looked in his rearview mirror as Ciera looked out the back glass. Blue lights were streaming across the top of a state trooper's patrol car.
"Shit!" Ciera said, but the stream of profanities coming from Mitch's mouth was too much to follow. "Pull over," she said.
He shot her a disbelieving look. "If I pull over, I'm going to prison. This is a vehicle that belongs to a dead woman, her son is wanted for twenty murders, and I just so happen to have her son's wallet in my back pocket. How would you like me to explain that to the cop, Ciera?"
She huffed. "Just pull over and let me take care of it."
He shook his head, but slowed down and pulled the vehicle over on the shoulder of the road. He put it in park and started to reach for his wallet, but her hand fell on his.
"Leave it there. You won't need it," she said.
He just stared at the blank space where he knew she was. "It is standard protocol for you to give the police officer your driver's license, registration and proof of insurance when they stop you."
"Just sit there and don't say anything, Mitch. I will handle it."
"You aren't going to kill him are you?" he asked as he felt her move the top part of her body onto his lap.
"Not if I don't have to," she said, and laughed when his jaw fell.
"That's comforting to know," he said, then his window began to go down.
He glanced in his side mirror as the trooper stepped out of his cruiser. He had his hand on his weapon. It was still in its holster, but he could tell it was unsnapped and ready to be drawn if needed.
His heart was beating hard, and he could have sworn the damn thing was in his throat as the cop approached his vehicle.
Ciera spoke when the officer was only a few feet from the door, and it froze him in his tracks. Guess he wasn't expecting a woman's voice to come out of the vehicle. He was more than likely expecting to see Detective Mitch Foley behind the wheel, but he wasn't seeing that either. There was a blond-headed guy sitting behind the wheel that didn't match the description of the man's picture they had on the flyers. "What seems to be the problem, Officer? I know we weren't speeding."
Her hypnotic voice had him inching closer to the open window. He could hear her, but he couldn't see her, and something was telling his brain that he had to see her. And if there was a way his wife wouldn't find out, he wanted to see all of her. He peered into the cab of the Tahoe, but still he couldn't see her. "This vehicle is stolen," he said to the voice, paying no attention to the blond guy behind the wheel.
Mitch thought the Trooper looked to be in some type of daze.
Ciera laughed and moved a little closer to the officer's face. She looked deep in his eyes and said, "You have the wrong vehicle. You were so excited that you caught Mitch Foley, that you got the letters and numbers all mixed up on the license plate. You have already looked at the driver's license of the driver, and they belong to Kyle Douglas. You never heard a woman's voice in the vehicle, and you really need to get something to drink. You are sooo thirsty. Tell the man behind the wheel that you were mistaken, and that he is free to go. Oh, and you be sure to tell dispatch that you got the letters and numbers mixed up. We don't want to have this same mistake happen again up the road now, do we?"
"No," he shook his head and blinked a few times, then focused on Mitch. He licked his lips and opened his mouth a few times like his mouth was dry. He shook his head as if to clear it, then looked back at Mitch again. "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else Mr. Douglas. You have a safe trip."
Mitch nodded. "Will do, Officer."
Ciera rolled the window back up. The cop stood there another second like he was confused, then he walked back to his patrol car. "We need to ditch this vehicle as soon as we can," she said as she made her way back to her seat. "We are lucky that I'm getting better at compulsion. And we are damn lucky that I can do it while I'm invisible."
"You didn't know you could do that?" he said, aghast.
"Well, I was hoping I could," she said, nonchalantly.
He leaned his head back on the head rest and closed his eyes. "Jesus Christ."
"I would have killed him if it hadn't worked, Mitch. You can't go to jail, and trying that was better than about fifty of them chasing you until you wrecked the vehicle and killed yourself." She patted his leg with her hand. "C'mon, let's go find us a different vehicle; one that's real fast, just in case we get into a high speed chase with the road pigs. Flagstaff will be our best bet."
He looked to where she would be if he could see her. He knew he had a dumb look on his face, just like he knew that she was smiling at him. He shook his head and put the vehicle in gear. "All right…let's go steal another car," he said drearily, and she clapped her hands in excitement. "You know, you really are a bad influence on me." He felt her soft lips brush his cheek.
"I'm good for you and you know it," she said with a giggle.
"Yeah, like strychnine."
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Chapter 28
Mitch was sitting in the parked Tahoe watching Ciera at her best. He had to smile. The way she stole cars was very professional, actually more professional than a professional car thief would do it. He shook his head to himself. Was he really turning into one of the bad guys? He knew the answer to that one. It was yes; if he could be with Ciera, he would do just about anything and enjoy every minute of it.
She had chosen a Silver Mercedes-Benz SLK. He guessed she wasn't going for inconspicuous. It only took her a matter of seconds to get the door open, disarm the alarm, hotwire the thing and drive up beside him.
They had chosen to get a vehicle from a neighborhood where all the lights in the house were already off, rather than a restaurant where it wouldn't take long for the owner to realize that their new car was missing. It was dark, so maybe they would have a little extra time to get away before someone reported it stolen, and just maybe they would be hidden behind the wards the witches put on the place they were headed to by that time as well.
She rolled her window down. "You ready to go, slick? I was thinking about maybe stashing it at a Wa
l-Mart Supercenter parking lot. They stay open all night so it is less likely to be noticed there." He nodded, and she was rolling up her window and pulling away from him before he even had his engine started back up.
She waited at the stop sign for him to turn around and get behind her, and then she was driving toward the city lights. Surely this place had a Wal-Mart. Didn't all cities?
She spotted the big Wal-Mart sign not long after passing a string of gas stations and fast food restaurants. The Wal-Mart had a gas station as well, and she looked down at the gas gage. It was almost full, but it wouldn't hurt to top it off after she picked Mitch up. Arizona was a long state to drive across with very few gas stations along the way. It wouldn't be good if they got stranded out here in the middle of the desert.
She drove through the parking lanes and found an empty parking space about halfway up, on the food side of the store. She passed it and stopped so Mitch could park. She put her own car in park and got out. She needed to take the license plate off the back of the Tahoe. The cops would be looking for this model, but if there wasn't an Arkansas license plate on the back, they may pass it by without any further investigation.
She bent down to look at the screws holding it in place, and Mitch walked around and looked at her quizzically. It only took him a moment to realize her plan.
"My mother didn't carry tools. She sold insurance for a living," he said, and she could tell he was smiling by the tone of his voice. She found it humorous that he was getting used to the idea of Grand Theft Auto.
"I don't need tools." She took a firm hold of the bottom corners of the plate then briefly glanced around her before she gave it a firm tug. The screws broke in half, and the plate came off in her hands.
Mitch's eyes grew wide as he studied the piece of metal, and then to where it had been on the bumper. "Shiiit!"
Ciera stood up and walked back to the Mercedes. "C'mon, we need to get back on the road,"
Mitch opened the passenger side and looked at the limited space. He growled. "Couldn't you have stolen a Cadillac? How the hell am I even going to fit in this?"
"It's bigger than it looks, you big baby. Get in so we can go. I'll steal a Cadillac next time."
He growled again, then managed to squeeze all of him inside and shut the door. "I'm not a baby, I'm just claustrophobic. Why do you think my main means of transportation is a motorcycle? A six foot two inch, two hundred pound man does not fit well in a matchbox."
She giggled. "Well, I look good in it."
His mouth fell open as she took off. "Please tell me that is not why you picked this car."
She laughed again and pointed at the windows. "The tint on the windows is super dark, Mitch. That is why I picked this car."
He moaned and mumbled something. Ciera thought it sounded a whole lot like "That better be the reason."
She grinned and pulled into the gas station. She only laughed when Mitch shot her a, you've-got-to-be-joking look. "I can pump my own gas. I'm not going to make you crawl out of the car to do it."
He opened his door. "I need to use the restroom anyway. Go pre-pay and get us something to eat. I will pump the gas when I get back. I'm hungry, and I get grouchy when I'm hungry."
"Awe, you wouldn't help the nice lady pump her gas back in Texas," she said as she came around the car and kissed him firmly on the mouth. He grabbed her before she could pull away, and he deepened the kiss. When he finally did let her go, her head was reeling.
He was smiling at her when she opened her dazed eyes. "I wasn't interested in that nice lady. I am, however, interested in this beautiful, car stealing, blood drinking woman in my arms."
She lost the dazed look and gave him a blank stare.
"What?" he said.
She shook her head. "I don't think I got enough blood from you yesterday. Most of it was all over me and the bed. I need to feed again, and I don't need to do it from you. I don't know how much blood you lost, and it would be very dangerous for me to take from you again this soon."
He seemed to be thinking that thought through, then he nodded. "Try not to kill anyone. I would rather you get your fix now, than go through what I did last night, with you almost dying."
She smiled a little. "I won't have to kill anyone."
Mitch looked through the window of the store. There were two women, and he wondered which one would be under Ciera's hypnotic spell in just a few moments. He looked back at her, kissed her briefly, then took her hand in his and led her in the store.
Mitch stopped at the counter and told the woman that he didn't know how much the car would hold. He gave her sixty dollars and told her that the red head that just went into the bathroom would get a few things when she came out and get the rest of his change.
"Excuse me," Mitch heard Ciera voice coming from the restroom area, and he watched as the other store clerk turned toward her. "I can't get the paper towel dispenser to work. Can you help me?"
"That thing is always getting stuck," the woman said as she made her way to the bathroom.
She gave Mitch one last glance before following the woman.
He listened for the door to lock, and when he heard a faint click he smiled back at the cashier, then told her that he needed to use the restroom as well, that it was a long road ahead and he didn't want to have to stop again. He quickly went to the men's restroom and took care of his own business, and was back out before Ciera.
Mitch went straight to the car and began fueling up. The thing only held a little under fifteen dollars. He hung the nozzle back in the pump. He couldn't help but think about how long it was taking her. She should have been out by now, then he saw the woman that had helped her in the store, and right behind her was Ciera. He smiled and blew out his breath in relief, but something still didn't feel right as he watched her walk through the store gathering things.
His eyes got wide, and his heart pounded against his ribcage when he realized what was wrong. Ciera didn't have red hair anymore. She was the same brunette he had seen in his dreams. And from the looks of things, she was aware of it also, because she was hurrying through the store like a marathon runner.
Ciera grabbed drinks and food and was back at the counter. The woman was looking at her very strange, and Ciera could only imagine why. She had looked totally different when she'd walked in the store. The woman who had helped her in the restroom with the "paper towels" wasn't suspecting a thing, and she wouldn't remember a thing about them being here after her and Mitch left.
It looked as though the nice lady behind the cash register needed a little dose of compulsion. Ciera caught the woman's eyes with her own. "Ring these items up, and give me the change back from them and the gas on pump three. You never saw a me, or a red-headed woman, or a guy with blond hair tonight. And you didn't sell anyone any gas driving a Mercedes. Do you understand?"
The woman nodded slowly, then rang up the items without looking away from her. Ciera's smile was huge. She was getting so good at compulsion. She grabbed the change from the woman and ran out the door.
Mitch already had the engine started when she sat behind the wheel, so all she had to do was shove it in drive and get the hell out of there.
She glanced at Mitch. He was still in disguise, but she was guessing that it wouldn't last much longer. Maybe it was because she had consumed that woman's blood at the gas station. Maybe it had messed with the chemicals in her body to make her lose the spell. She didn't know. The only thing she did know was she was the old Ciera again, and Dane could tap into the old Ciera's mind.
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Chapter 29
Ciera had driven most of the night listening to Mitch's soft snoring. She had taken 93 at Kingman, and had crossed over the Hoover Dam and into Nevada less than an hour ago. Her problem now was they weren't just going to Las Vegas. 93 turned into 95 when they got to Vegas, and with some hop-skip-and-jumping through Vegas, they had to drive a little over three hundred more miles to Hawthorne on that road. The hidden place was somewhere in the
Gabbs Valley Range, a little outside of Hawthorne.
Ciera glanced at the clock on the silent radio. It was 1:34 a.m. and she was now seeing the bright lights of Vegas. It hadn't been the first time she had been to Vegas, but she was guessing that it was Mitch's first time. She didn't want to wake him up, he needed his sleep, but he would probably be pissed if she didn't.
"Mitch?" she said, almost too quietly. If he didn't wake up, she would just tell him that she tried to get him awake, but evidently he was sleeping too soundly.
He jumped and came awake instantly at the sound of her voice. "What's wrong?" he said in a panic.
She smiled. "Nothing, I just thought you would be mad if I didn't wake you up so you could see Vegas as we passed through, that's all. We won't be going down the main strip, but you will see plenty, I'm sure."
He rubbed at his eyes and yawned, and then looked out the windshield at the lit up sky. It really was breathtakingly beautiful. It was something he had always wanted to see. Of course, he had thought when he did see it that he would be playing Craps soon after, but it was all right. Maybe he would live long enough to come back someday.
"Thanks. I did want to see it. How much further do we have to go?" he asked as he yawned again.
"I don't want to say exactly because my family may be trying to find us, but we still have a while to go. You can go back to sleep once we get out of Vegas."
The road they'd been traveling was dark, but out of nowhere a set of headlights was coming up behind them very quickly. Ciera looked down at the speedometer. If she was speeding, she wasn't doing more than five over the limit, but this car was stolen. "Shit!"
"What?" Mitch asked, looking at her quizzically, then realized that her eyes had a reflected light around them from the rearview mirror. He looked out the small back glass, but the headlights didn't look like a police cruiser. They looked like a full sized truck's headlights. Then another vehicle came into view from behind that one, almost like it was going to pass the truck.
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