by JJ Jones
The car could have passed her, but it didn’t. It stayed behind her, his headlights nearly blinding her through her rear view until she remembered to shift it up just a bit to stop the light from shining directly into her eyes. She changed lanes, hoping to let the car ahead of her, but it followed her, closely mimicking her lane change. It worried her immensely, but she knew that she had to get some place safe. She started to speed up, knowing that there was a town in less than ten miles from her current location. She just had to make it. “This car wasn’t built for speed.” Dom cursed under her breath. She kept going forward, knowing that at this point she only had one option. She had to get to the town; she just hoped that her pursuer wasn’t going to do something drastic before she could get to safety.
Another mile passed. The car continued to follow her but wasn’t taking any action yet. Still it felt ominous. Dom was starting to get a little bit of hope, but it wasn’t going to last. The car behind her started to speed up. She tried to keep up, but it was obvious that the car behind her had more power. There was no way that she could stop him. She shifted lanes again, slowing down by tapping the brakes as she moved, hoping to get behind the vehicle. It worked and she felt a little better, knowing that the car was ahead of her and would be there for a little while. She hoped that the maneuver would by her enough time to get to the next town. The other car shifted in front of her, slamming down the brakes.
As the red lights shone into her eyes she felt the panic get a thousand times worse. She slammed on her brakes as well, trying to swerve around the car. Her vehicle skimmed the guardrail, a horrible grinding sound accompanying the sparks that were lighting up the dark. The noise was horrifying and deafening, but she couldn’t do anything about it. She was on the side of a mountain and she didn’t have anyplace safe.
When she recovered she reached into her purse, hoping that there would be a gun or some sort of rocket launcher hidden in one of the pockets. What she found was a disappointment. She pulled out a wooden stake. “What is this, a joke?” She asked herself the question, there was no one there who could answer her and she gripped the weapon, knowing that she didn’t have a whole lot of other options. “I’m not trained for this.” She groaned as she focused on keeping her car on the road.
The other vehicle appeared to have slowed down a little, giving her some space while it prepared for its next strike. She hoped that it would be the last she saw of it, but knew that it wasn’t going to be the case. She was going to have to do something. The other car came along side her. She looked over, but couldn’t see through the tinted windows. It was just too dark to be able to see anything. She cursed again as she saw his car inch closer to hers. She was being forced over to the side of the road. He was trying to stop her car but didn’t seem to want to hurt her. For a brief moment she wondered if it would be safer if she pulled over and tried to fight her attacker hand to hand, but remembering that the man was more than likely a vampire made her decide against it.
She slammed on her brakes and swerved over behind the vehicle. She hoped that this was going to work, but couldn’t make any guarantees. She risked it anyway, not seeing any other way to solve this quickly. She sped up, trying to put her pursuer on the defensive, but he seemed to be much more collected than she was. He tapped his brakes, rapidly slowing down; playing chicken with her. She cursed again, not knowing what she was going to do. She slowed down as well, trying to find a way to get around the other vehicle, but it had moved to the center of the road, blocking her path. This wasn’t looking good and it certainly didn’t look like she was going to make it to the next town unless something changed.
She prayed that another car would come from the opposite direction, giving her some time to reach safety, but it wasn’t in the cards. The vehicle continued to slow and Dom backed off a little bit. She needed to give the car in front of her some space, but it didn’t help. Once she had given the aggressor some space, he slammed on his brakes, swerving and blocking the entire road. Dominique could barely stop in time.
In a flash, the other driver had left their car. Dom identified it as an older model mustang shining a beautiful cherry red in her headlights. She didn’t have time to appreciate the beautiful vehicle however because her window was in the process of shattering. She tried to duck, to cover her face with her hands, but she didn’t have the time before the vampire’s arm shot into the car and grabbed her wrist. She felt the familiar tugging in her musculature and joint. That arm had already been grabbed and pulled by a vampire previously. It ached, and she could feel the ripping and tearing of the tendons in her arm. She knew that it would take time to heal. It hurt, but she forced the pain out of her mind. She had to focus on how to get away, if she couldn’t she didn’t know if she was going to survive.
She slipped the stake into her waistband covering it with her shirt as she was pulled out of the car. She knew that she was only going to get one shot at this and she had to wait until the last moment. He pulled her out of the car through the broken window. She could feel the shattered glass ripping into the flesh.
The vampire inhaled strongly, enjoying the smell of her blood. “It’s too bad I’m under orders not to have a late snack.” He placed her on her feet. “Are you going to walk or am I going to have to carry you to the car?” His voice was growling and angry, he didn’t like the thought that she had almost gotten the better of him.
She wanted to spit in his face, but knew that it wouldn’t help her situation at all. “I’ll walk.” Her voice held anger. She didn’t know how she was going to do it, but she couldn’t let herself get taken. She had to do something, but was waiting for the right moment. It was hard to force herself to wait, hoping that something was going to happen in order to change her life. The window for the right moments was closing quickly as he escorted her to his vehicle. He brought her around to the passenger’s side as lights started to show around the corner. The vampire looked up distracted, peering to see if they were going to have company. It might make his job a little more difficult if there were witnesses.
Dom took that moment to rip the stake out of her pants and thrust it into her captor’s chest. It was the first time that she had ever taken a life. She saw the car turn off of the highway before he could stumble onto the scene. The vampire’s eyes widened in surprise, shining bright red in the headlights. It was the moment just before his body fell limp that she would remember for the rest of her life. She had connected with his heart, she knew what that she had to do it, but it didn’t feel nice. She hadn’t really done anything like this before.
She stood in the center of the road shaking for a long moment. She knew that she had to make some decisions. Which car would be best for her to take? She didn’t know what to do. She stood there, unsure of the entire situation. She looked at the body at her feet and knew that no matter how much pain she was in, she couldn’t leave it in the center of the road. She dragged him off of the road, leaving him by the edge of the cliff. Then she climbed into the mustang, still shaking as she pulled it over to the side of the road. She thought that it would be best if she took the mustang, but wasn’t ready to let go of her car. She climbed into her seat and started the engine. The smoking was immediate. She pulled the car over to the side of the road behind the mustang and popped the hood open. The diagnosis was clear as soon as the smoke cleared. “Damn it.” She cursed again. It felt like she had been cursing a lot more than usual lately. “There’s a hole in the radiator.” She hadn’t seen him punch through the front of her car, but he must have found the time when she came to pull her out of the car.
That made her decision for her. She had to keep moving. She grabbed her bag and purse out of her car. Stopping for a moment to make sure that she had her CD case, she looked at the phone. Opening the contacts she could see that there was an in case of emergency number that was labeled. I.C.E. She smiled, and sent out a text with the closest mile marker. Telling whoever was on the other end of the line that she had to leave her car behind, but would contin
ue heading to meet up with Gregor. She had just climbed behind the driver’s seat of the mustang when she received a response. She looked at the screen and read the response. “We’ll take care of it. Keep moving.” It comforted her to know that there was someone on the other end of the line. She informed them of the vampire and they said not to worry. She started the engine and was on the move again. She worried that she had just stolen a car, but knew that she had some extenuating circumstances. The mustang had a nice stereo so she put on her CD, Billie Holliday once again and started to drive over the mountains. The encounter with the vampire had given her a strange solemn source of energy. Her mind raced over her situation as she drove, her mind forcing itself over the same thoughts, over and over they flowed through her head, running into each other and causing confusion. “Just keep going.” She ordered herself to focus on the road.
Chapter7
“How are you doing?” Gregor asked; his voice was filled with concerned. He had just heard about her fight with the vampire on the road.
“I’m doing as well as can be expected.” Dom sighed (she’d been doing that a lot lately).
“I’ll be with you soon. My flight leaves in three hours. I should be in Oklahoma within ten hours.”
“I know. I’ll make it there.”
“I hope so. Have you been followed since then?”
“I don’t think so.” Dom looked behind her, her nerves already frayed.
“I’m going to stay on the phone with you for a while.” Gregor told her.
Dom put him on speaker and laid the phone down on the seat next to her. “I would like that very much.” She admitted the fact even though she didn’t want to.
“I’m so sorry that this is happening to you.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“In some ways it is.” Gregor sighed, frustrated. He wanted to be there. He didn’t think it was right that she should have to suffer through this alone.
“No, you didn’t make these people attack. Blaming yourself is only blaming one of the victims. It’s ridiculous.” Dom was chastising him and her voice was growing louder, but she didn’t care. She was alone in the car and there was no one on this road to hear her.
“Dominique, I’ll get to you as soon as I can.” He promised her, changing the subject back to more important matters. “You won’t be alone for long. I promise.”
“Don’t promise things like that. We still have a long time where things can go wrong.”
“Don’t remind me of it.” Gregor’s voice held doom.
“I’ll make it. I don’t break that easy.” Dom’s voice was resolute. She knew that she had to be strong to finish this, but she would be with Gregor in a matter of hours.
“You are an exceptional woman, but these hours are going to feel like an eternity.”
Dom sighed, “I know.”
“I wish you would be some place safe. Do you think that you could get to an airport?”
“I think that staying on the road would be the safest thing for me. I’ve changed my route in order to hide a little better.”
“I know.”
“We keeping telling each other things that we know. Why do we keep doing that?” Dom was getting tired of acknowledging information that they already had. It felt wrong somehow.
“I don’t know.”
“Finally, something that we don’t know.” Dom’s joke wasn’t lost on Gregor.
She could hear the smile in the tiger’s voice. “I’m glad you made it through that fight.”
“I almost didn’t. I got lucky and managed to get him right in the heart with the stake that they had left in my purse.”
“They left a stake in your purse?” The question was posed with disbelief. “They really wanted you prepared for anything.”
“I don’t think that I’m prepared for everything, but there is a duffel bag that I haven’t completely searched yet.” She was honest about it. She had a feeling that the surprises that she was going to find weren’t over yet.
Dom continued to drive in her stolen mustang. Her nerves kept her awake as she counted the miles to her destination. It was taking too long for her to get where she needed to go. She was impatient, she had no idea what was going to happen and prayed, hoping not to get pulled over and be arrested for driving a stolen car.
She continued to drive, in silence, unwilling to let her guard down for another several hours before she had to stop for gas. She stepped into the gas station and walked immediately to the restroom. Looking in the mirror she could see the exhaustion starting to show in her eyes. “I hope I’m going to make it.” She talked to herself, trying to keep going, she had to keep moving, but she didn’t know how she was going to do it. She relieved herself and splashed water on her face before she spent a few minutes strolling through the aisles.
Her stomach growled as she passed the warmed hot dogs rolling on the rack. She knew that she had to get something to eat or she wasn’t going to finish the trip. Ignoring the hot dogs she walked to the drink refrigerator to peer inside. “Do I want something cold or hot?” She asked herself, trying to decide about her choice in caffeine. She knew that it wasn’t good to drink caffeinated drinks while pregnant, but at this point she didn’t think that one or two energy drinks was going to hurt her as much as falling asleep behind the wheel. “Cold, I think, cold would keep me awake more.”
She reached into the fridge and pulled out two icy cold bottles of soda and a can full of an energy drink. She sighed as she started to walk through the aisles again. She wanted to find something to eat, but nothing looked really appetizing. She forced herself to pick out a bag of chips and a microwave bean burrito. “They never have anything good for vegetarians.” She sighed as she put her burrito on the counter. “Where’s the microwave?” She asked the clerk.
“Over there.” The clerk looked upset with her question. She had obviously been very busy lately, watching whatever was going on with the small screen of the phone in her hand. Dom didn’t respond, paid for her purchases and walked over to put the burrito in to heat up. She opened one end to heat it up when the door jangled open. Dom jumped and looked over to see someone that didn’t look familiar. She watched the newcomer only to realize that it was just another person out driving in the middle of the night. The microwave beeped and she pulled out her meal. It didn’t smell very appetizing, but she climbed into the car with it anyway.
She opened up the duffel bag in the light and started to search through the clothes. Interspersed within the clothes she found several hundred more dollars, shoved into pockets of the pants. She smiled. The shifters were still looking after her and it meant a lot to her. She found a flashlight and another cell phone while she was searching. There was also a prepaid credit card with a post it note containing a pin number and a balance of a thousand dollars. It felt a little strange to look at these clothes, that were so different from what she usually wore, knowing that someone had shopped for items for her.
“On the road again.” She was talking to herself. “If I don’t stop this, people are going to think I’m going crazy.” She sighed and turned on the engine, not looking forward to the trip, even though she was already a third of the way through it. “Only seven more hours on the road.” She glanced down at the phone that was set to give her directions. She was in Clovis already and had no idea how she had gotten that far. “Oh right, I need gas.” She pulled to a pump and went back inside to pay for her gas.
The car rewarded her for filling up the tank with the roaring sound of the engine. She started to drive again, crossing into Texas with ease and staying on the highway all the way until she reached Amarillo. By the time she saw the city light she realized that she had needed to go to the bathroom for quite a while. She sighed and pulled into the closest gas station. Looking next to her in the seat she saw her empty bag of chips and the empty soda bottles rolling around on the floor. She gathered up the garbage and the uneaten burrito and dumped it into the trash can by the gas pump. She walked i
n and repeated her rounds from the convenience store in Clovis. It didn’t take her long to get back on the road with another bag of chips and a few more drinks beside her. Looking at the map she figured that her next stop was going to be in a small town half way to Oklahoma City, but she didn’t see any large places on the map. She sighed and kept driving.
The last five hours of her journey passed fairly uneventfully. She fought to remain awake in the tremendous boring of the Texas highway, but managed to drive there safely. Pulling into the airport in Oklahoma City she felt a large amount of relief. She pulled into short-term parking and stopped in a spot near the entrance. She felt lucky because another car had pulled out just as she came to the spot.
She sat behind the wheel, looking at the grand building. She knew that it would be safer for her to go inside, but was waiting, tired from her trip. Actually if she were willing to admit it to herself she was at a point beyond exhaustion. She needed to rest, but had no idea how much time it was going to take. She checked her phone, looking at the text with Gregor’s flight information. His plane was supposed to land in half an hour.
Her stomach growled for a hot meal and she decided that it was time to go inside. She checked the board and noticed that his flight was delayed. She sighed again, that same old tired sound, and walked into one of the restaurants to order something to eat and wait.
The meal was hot and fresh and helped her aching stomach to feel better. She waited; it felt like an eternity for Gregor’s plane to land, but it was only an hour. She finished eating and went to the reception area to wait for his arrival. She was tapping her foot as he came down, out of the terminal.