by Rachael Wade
“Well I knew you could be feisty, but I never saw this one coming.”
I looked around, and like a gallant soldier riding in on a white horse, there was Joel sailing toward me, ready to rescue me from yet another mess I managed to conjure up.
CHAPTER 17
Noble
“Joel?” I gasped, watched him fly over me and land on the edge of the fountain. He hopped down onto the grass and grabbed my arm, annoyed.
“Nice job, hon. What are ya tryin’ to do, get us all killed? Since when did you have a death wish?”
“What? I don’t, I—”
“Forget it, let’s go.”
“What about Gavin? And Gabe and Audrey—”
“You should’ve thought about that before you waltzed on over here.” Angry now, he stormed around the fountain toward another direction in the maze, dragging me behind him. “We’re going to run from here. I don’t want to risk anyone seeing us in flight. Come on.”
After swerving through a few more twists and turns, I immediately recognized the old, rounded wooden door through which I’d entered. There it sat, nestled at an angle upon a small green hill, facing the same dirt path that led to the maze. The maze Andrew had said we wouldn’t be needing.
“Oh, thank God,” I breathed, leaned on my knees to catch my breath.
“No time to rest, it’s not over yet, come on.” Joel yanked me by the arm again, forcing me upright. Only a few feet away now, we darted for the door and raced inside it, past the earthen hallway and over the checkered tile, until we stood directly underneath the hole that had dropped me into this godforsaken place.
“You ready?”
I gasped, “I’m not going back without Gavin—”
A loud rumble sounded from the end of the hallway and the door swung open, Gavin swooping out of it and toward us.
“Speak of the devil,” Joel mumbled.
Guards poured through after him, one after the other surrounding us, cornering us, their menacing stares striking from every direction. Gavin latched onto me and shoved me behind him, exchanged glances with Joel.
“Get her out of here,” Joel ordered, stepping in front of Gavin, guarding us.
“Not like this.”
“Damn it, Gavin. I mean it. Now.”
“We’re not leaving you,” I said, looked to Gavin for assurance.
He didn’t offer any. “Close your eyes,” he said, picked me up, ready to launch us upward. As he crouched down, I reached out and grabbed the back of Joel’s shirt. “Joel, please, no!”
“Take care of each other, you hear me?” he glanced back at me, positioned himself to fight as the guards, daggers in hand, smothered him. Gavin’s feet left the ground and I screamed, watched Joel’s compassionate, wise face drift into the swarms of vampires covering him like a pack of lions closing in on an animal’s carcass.
Soaring upward through the darkened hole, we crashed into a wall of water, the impact stinging my skin. I held my breath and opened my eyes as the water engulfed us, the same invisible force stringing us along farther and farther upward, to the surface. The water became clearer when we neared the bayou’s surface, and I searched for Gavin’s eyes, kept myself parallel with him as we ascended.
The angelic purple light danced across my skin as we sailed through it, our heads finally breaking the surface. I choked when I took in my first breath of air, clawed to pull myself out of the water, feeling like I was in quicksand. Gavin made his way out and reached for me, carried me to my trusty old Jeep that sat where I had left it. My sobs began as soon as I had enough breath to cry.
“It’s okay, love,” he panted. “Just breathe.”
“Joel’s dead because of me! Why did you leave him there?” I spat, coughed uncontrollably. He propped me up in the passenger seat and tossed a sweater over me, slammed the car door.
“Rest now. It’s not your fault. None of this is. The portal’s about to close so we’ll be safe soon, but we still have to move fast, just in case.” He slid into the driver’s seat and tried starting the car, only to hear a rebellious stalling groan from the engine. He tried again, turned the key desperately.
“Battery’s dead. Think I left the lights on,” I explained, quivering.
“I need you to keep up with me. We have to make it to the highway, all right?”
“Can’t you just fly us—?”
“No, I’m so sorry. I’m too weak.” He hung his head as he pulled the key from the ignition. “We’ll be all right as soon as we get to the highway, I promise.”
He pulled me from my seat, waited to make sure I could stand, then took my hand to lead me into the woods. The sun began to rise, warm orange light slowly filtering in through the trees from the horizon, the sounds of dawn surrounding us. We trudged on through and eventually made it to the highway, and my heart lightened at the sound of cars passing by.
“We’re safe for now, the portal’s closed,” Gavin said, his relief evident. “Last night was the last crescent moon for a while. It’ll give us some time to figure things out.” He let go of my hand and stepped closer to the highway, shot me a weary look. “I need you to trust me right now.” His chestnut eyes searched mine, pleading. Seeing him in the morning light, I began to worry. His face was gaunt and haggard, looked like he needed ten years of sleep.
“What do you mean?”
“Just please stay calm and trust me. I need to get us away from here.”
“I thought you just said we’re safe now.”
“We are. We’re safe from … them. But we still need distance.”
He stepped out into the road and flagged down a pickup truck, waved his hands to get the driver’s attention.
“Get out of the way man, what do ya think you’re doin’?” The husky voice came from the cab as the driver rolled his window down. He swerved around Gavin and plowed into the shoulder of the road, stopped. Glaring at us, he parked and got out, eyed me. “What’d ya do to this poor girl here, son?” He stalked toward Gavin, keeping his eyes on his truck.
“Nothing, sir. But we’re in trouble and we really need a ride. Please.”
“Did ya hurt this girl, son? Look at her, she’s all banged up! I’ll call the police if I have to, miss.” He nodded toward me and looked Gavin up and down. “Well now, you’re not looking too hot yourself, son.”
“Look, sir. We’re really sick and we need a ride. Can you please give us a lift to the hospital down the road?”
“Please, sir. He didn’t hurt me. I swear,” I chimed in, walked closer to stand with them while Gavin waited for the man’s answer, urgency in his eyes and looking worse by the minute.
I stepped in front of Gavin now, pleading with the man. “Someone stole our car and we got stuck out here in the rain, with no phone to call the cops. Please drop us off down the road. We mean you no harm.”
“Fine, miss. If you say so. Best you sit in the middle though.” He turned and gestured toward the truck. “I’ll be keepin’ my eyes on your friend, here.”
“Thank you so much.”
Gavin opened the passenger door and I climbed in, relieved to be sitting down again.
“Why are you sick, son? What’s happened to ya? You look like you got in a bad fight or somethin’.” The man made his way to the driver’s door. Gavin followed.
“It’s just been a rough night, that’s all,” Gavin said.
“Right.” The man pulled the door open and leaned forward to get in the cab, but Gavin stopped him, then snatched the keys from his hand.
“Hey. Give them back you no good—”
“Gavin,” I said, “what are you doing?”
“Stay put, Camille.” Then, to the man, “Sorry sir. Run. Get far away from here.”
“What do ya mean, run? Don’t you dare take my truck, son!” The man attempted to wrestle with Gavin as he shouted.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Gavin snapped as the man grabbed his shoulders, showed his fangs. He jumped in front of the man and hopped into the cab, loc
ked the doors instantly. The man stumbled backward, fear in his eyes, while Gavin started the engine and sped off.
“I can’t believe you!”
“I saved his life, Camille.”
“You what? You just scared the hell out of him and stole his car.”
“He’s safe this way.”
“Safe? No, I’m sorry. I don’t think leaving some poor man on the side of the road after you stole his car is keeping him safe.”
“I couldn’t ride in the truck with him. It would’ve ended badly.”
“He could’ve just dropped us off and we’d be on our way. Without being wanted for grand theft auto.”
“I would’ve killed him, Camille.” He hit the steering wheel. “I spared him, do you get that? I’m starving and weak. We wouldn’t have made it more than two minutes down the road.” He glanced in the rearview, squinted from the sunlight. “You haven’t seen me like this, you haven’t seen me this bad. I haven’t seen me this bad since … in a very long time. I’m sorry, but I need to feed and that guy would be dead right now if I let him drive us.”
I fought to understand, finally did. “That’s why you look so sick.”
“I only had enough strength to get us out of there because I used as much of your energy as I could, as quickly as possible.”
“Well, you pried all that undying-devotion talk out of me up in the tower and plowed through a stone wall.” I placed my hand over his, cracked my first smile in a while. “How about taking more of my energy right now? I’m sure it’d be enough to help you drive to the hospital.”
“You’re still a little dizzy, I can tell,” he shook his head. “It’s an unfortunate consequence of being drained so fast like that.” He returned a weak smile. “I won’t ever do that again. You have my word. Besides, energy won’t make me better right now. I need blood.”
“Well, for the record—whenever we’re in trouble like this, permission granted.” I squeezed his hand as we pulled off onto the next exit, rolled to a red light. “How is it that you’re able to be around me? I mean, if you could’ve killed that man back there.”
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I don’t even want to talk about it.” He laughed nervously, rolled down the window to let in fresh air.
“I’m sorry I ruined your plan. You knew what you were doing. And Joel. I’ll never forgive myself for Joel.” I glared at the light, waited for it to turn green.
“I told you, don’t you dare blame yourself for this. You’re the last one that should ever apologize for this, do you understand? You never would’ve been in this situation if I hadn’t come into your life in the first place. It was incredibly stupid and careless of me.”
Someone started to honk as we sat there at the green light. Gavin ignored it and turned to me. Cars whizzed around us, middle fingers and curse words flying.
“Don’t do this, love. What you just did was brave. Extremely reckless, but brave.” Exhausted, he smiled faintly and wiped my tears with his fingertips. “And Joel wanted to help you. I tried talking him out of it the minute I realized he was in Amaranth. I tried telling him to leave, but he wouldn’t listen.”
More tears came, blinded me. “Hours ago he was cooking, dancing in my kitchen to ‘Folsom Prison Blues.’ I would’ve been in this situation whether you came into my life or not.”
“How in the world do you figure that?”
“I would’ve found my way into yours.”
“After all of this, you still want me,” he whispered, kept his eyes on the steering wheel as he switched gears into park. “Come here.” He pulled me onto his lap with quaking arms.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Don’t worry. Too many witnesses.” He carefully inched his mouth closer to mine. As drained as I felt, kissing him was euphoric. I started to wonder if everything we just escaped was a bad dream. More horns honking reminded me it was real.
“I’ll say this, and we’ll never mention it again,” he said. “It’s not your fault. So just stop.”
He pulled away from me and sighed, let me crawl back into the passenger’s seat. As the pickup rolled into motion again, I felt guilty for being so happy to be with Gavin again, while our friends were still in Amaranth, still in danger.
“But what about Gabe and Audrey?” I mumbled, heartbroken at the thought of my best friends. “What happens to them now that we ditched them?”
“They’re safe for now.”
“How safe? How do you know?”
“They’re inside the exile gates, and they know they have to be careful.”
“But what about what happened to your parents? They don’t have the strength to protect themselves now that they’re mortal. Samira can hurt them regardless.”
“My parents trusted Samira, they let their guard down. Gabe and Audrey know they’re in danger, and they’ll do what they can to protect themselves. Gabe’s smart, he can handle himself. Besides, Samira knows I’ll be back.”
“If she hurts Audrey, I’ll just lose it—”
“She won’t. She’ll want to use her and Gabe for leverage. Keeping them alive will be more valuable to her. I promise you.” He squeezed my hand. “We’re going to make this right. I promise you. But right now we have to get off the road,” he hit the accelerator as he glanced at the clock, “before we get into any more trouble.”
“Are we really going to the hospital?”
“Not quite. To another friend’s house. So I can get my strength back and pick up some things. We’re almost there.”
What had happened since I parked my Jeep at the bayou’s shore barely seemed real now, but the exhaustion it had brought did. My eyes growing heavy, I yawned and rested my head on the seat. I barely felt the truck rolling to another stoplight, but I opened my eyes long enough to glance out the window. A cherub of a woman stood near a bus stop bench. She stared back with curious eyes.
“She reminds me of someone,” I muttered, gave her a good gander before I let my eyelids fall shut.
“Who does?”
“Never mind,” I murmured back, willingly giving in to a heavy, dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER 18
Vagabond
“Good to see you, Gav. You look like hell, ya know.”
“You too, man. Thanks.”
“And who’s this?”
“This is Camille. Camille, this is Josh. We go way back.”
“I’ve heard that one before.” I grinned, leaned forward to shake Josh’s hand. He led us into the cabin.
“I’ll give you guys a few minutes to get cleaned up,” he said, handing Gavin a glass of red slush. “Seriously, man. Drink up.” He made sure Gavin gulfed the fresh sustenance down before retreating to the kitchen.
“Much better,” Gavin said, then led me to a bedroom and shut the door. “I’m glad you got some sleep. You needed it.”
“Yeah, all twenty minutes of it.”
“You can sleep more soon, once we’re on the plane.”
“We’re getting on a plane?”
“I have a plan.”
“Oh, no.” I stretched out on the rustic, squeaky bed.
“We’re going to Paris, where we first met.”
I lifted up the comforter and wrapped myself in it, hoping I had some time to relax before we jumped on an airplane. “And what exactly are we going to do there? Shouldn’t we be hiding out for a while?”
“We’re going to. But we’re going to hide out around people. Lots and lots of people.” He tossed some clothes from the dresser drawers into a suitcase. “We’re going to see my sister, she can help us. We can crash there for a while and figure out our next move.”
“Your sister? I didn’t know you had a sister.”
His movements slowed, but only for an instant. “Yeah, she was the one I was visiting the day I met you in Paris. She knows about the plan. You’ll see.”
“Why can’t we just go back to my place? You said the portal was closed for a while.”
“It
is. But we’re not sure who, if anyone, came out after us. We still have to be careful until the next cycle.”
“Okay, whatever you say. I guess I’m in no huge rush to get back anyway. It’s not like I have a job waiting for me anymore, or fall classes I have to go to.…” I thought of Carol, how worried she must’ve been when I never returned from my break. She probably called the cops, reported me as a missing person. Though there were more troubling things to think about right now.
“This has gotten so out of hand.” He sat next to me, dropped his head in his hands.
I sat up and scooted next to him, wrapped my arms around his neck from behind. “It’s not the end of the world. I’ll deal with it after I stop worrying about an evil vampire queen hunting us down. Besides, right now I’d much rather focus on celebrating.”
“This is hardly a celebration.”
“Well, excuse me for being happy to be with you again.”
He swung me around to pull me close, wrung my still-wet hair with his hands. “You know I’m thrilled to be with you again, even if I look miserable and decrepit at the moment.” Pushing the hair away from my eyes, he leaned over and kissed my neck, then peered down at my clothes. “Here.” He stood up, and a moment later handed me a dry shirt and some sweatpants from the suitcase, then took clothes for himself.
“I just thought for sure you’d move on with your life,” he said. “Maybe wait for me, if I got lucky. I never thought it would come to this.”
“Neither one of us did.” I started changing, held back a smile as I watched him struggle to look away. “I had a say in this too, remember?”
“I should’ve stayed away. Period.”
“You’re so stubborn.”
“And you’re not?” He flashed a smile, stopped fighting the urge to look and reached out, pulled me closer to kiss me. My pulse thrummed in my chest. “You need a shower. You smell like swamp.” Smirking, he looked down at my arms, all splotchy from the mud and dirt.
“And you don’t? You smell like a sewer,” I nudged him, chuckling. He held up one of my arms and started kissing it, his laugh and warm breath tickling my skin. Making his way up to my collarbone, his mouth’s trail made me weak in the knees again. “Gavin …”