A Shade of Vampire 11: A Chase of Prey (3 page)

I
’d become convinced
that the wolf was deliberately slowing us down. I didn’t know whether he had actually formed some attraction for Rose before I stole him away from The Shade, but as we arrived through the gate, he began moving through the rainforest at an excruciatingly slow pace.

I’d given him whiffs of both samples before we’d leapt through the crater. He knew exactly what the vampire and human girl smelled like. And I knew better than anyone that werewolves’ ability to smell was unparalleled. Even vampires’ ability to smell paled in comparison.

Werewolves could detect a scent for up to twenty-four hours after the target had left their location. It didn’t matter how briefly Caleb and Rose might have traveled through a place. If they’d been there, this wolf would know it. This also meant that we should never be more than a day behind the couple. After twenty-four hours, the scent would become weaker in an outdoor location, and after forty-eight, it would vanish completely. Indoor locations, of course, were a different matter. In any case, my plan was to catch up with them well before twelve hours had passed, while their trail was freshest.

But if we kept going at this speed, we might lose track of them altogether. I’d even fed Micah precious human meat before we left, knowing it would sharpen his senses and fuel him for the journey.

“Ungrateful beast,” I snarled, kicking his hind legs.

He growled at me and gnashed his teeth. He thought now that he was in his wolf form, he’d be stronger in defending himself against me.

He was in for a rude awakening.

Manifesting a knife, I caught hold of his tail and sliced it off in one swift motion. Blood gushed from the wound as he fell to the ground, howling and writhing like a dog.

Although his tail was of no particular use for my purposes, I regretted injuring the animal. I’d hoped that my first attempt at taming him might be enough, because I hadn’t wanted to do anything that might eat into his strength. I needed him to be swift and alert for the journey. I was dependent on him.

I grimaced at the thought.

A warlock dependent on a dumb brute.

Such a notion would have been sacrilege only a few thousand years ago. It just showed how much our own kind had brought us to ruin, and so quickly. I had suffered from the complacency of our authorities in The Sanctuary. I had been one of the later generations born after the Ancients had already passed on… except for the most tenacious of them.

If it hadn’t been for my aunt, Isolde, I never would have seen the light. I never would have had eyes to see the destruction we were causing ourselves by following The Sanctuary’s so-called leaders.

I scowled. It was thanks to them that I hadn’t yet mastered the ability to pinpoint a person’s location just by will alone, along with countless other powers the witches of our Ancients’ time simply took for granted. Powers that would have seemed elementary back then. It was painful to imagine how easy this task would have been if I hadn’t been brought up in such a pathetic, spineless society. One of the many reasons our mission was so important.

Our leaders in The Sanctuary were bringing us to ruin, creating shadows of our former selves. My blood boiled just thinking about all the propaganda they’d spread about the culture of our Ancients. They’d turned away potential revivalists before they’d had a chance to discover for themselves what the way of our Ancients truly was. The very Ancients who gave them life. Their own ancestors. It made me sick to my stomach.

I breathed deeply, trying to calm down and bring myself back to the present moment.

The time will come when our powers will rise above all others, when we will need nothing and no one. And it will be soon. Very soon.

Now I just need to focus on the task at hand… One step leads to another.

I looked down at the werewolf still whining on the ground.
Pathetic creature.
I tugged on his leash, forcing him to stand up.

“Move, dog.”

C
aleb swam
for another half hour before drifting back toward the bank. When we got out of the water, we climbed up a sandy slope, through a thicket of bushes, and found ourselves standing at the side of a busy highway. Vehicles whizzed past, leaving trails of dust and smoke.

I looked up at Caleb, who was still wearing the flap over his face. I could just about make out his eyes, squinting behind the thin mesh.

“Now what?” I said.

He took the wallet from me and sifted through its soggy contents. As much as I’d tried to keep it above water, the notes had deteriorated beyond recovery. We had some coins left, but not many. He didn’t seem to be concerned about the notes. He pulled out the leaflet that had been tucked into the wallet and unfolded it. That too was falling apart.

“More important than money now is a map. A road map…” His voice trailed off as he looked left and right, scanning the highway. His gaze fixed on a wooden hut in the distance. I climbed onto his back, replaced my hands over his brows to form a cover, and he raced along the road. It took longer than I’d expected to reach it. Due to the sun, Caleb wasn’t traveling at his usual speed.

He stopped ten feet away from the hut and set me down on the pavement. As we approached, I realized that it was a small truck stop. Bottled water, packets of nuts, potato chips and fresh loaves of bread lined the shelves, while the freezer was filled with ice cream. My stomach grumbled as I looked at the prices. The bread would be the cheapest and most filling. I looked at Caleb, who had picked up a map from a stand. Under the shelter of the stall now, he’d lowered his hood.

“This will do,” he said. I walked up to him and checked the price of the map.

The wallet stuck out of Caleb’s pocket, so I took it out and counted the coins. Yes, we had enough to not have to steal again. Just about.

I picked up a loaf of bread and a liter of water and placed them on the counter next to Caleb’s map.

The kiosk owner stubbed out his cigarette and took the coins Caleb handed him.

“Obrigado.”

I began chugging back the water and munching on the bread as we walked back along the road. I was silent for the next ten minutes. I finished the whole loaf and three quarters of the water. Caleb was still poring over the map. He was walking with his back facing the sun, so his hands wouldn’t get burned. It made the glare somewhat more bearable, I imagined.

“We should start heading north, toward Boa Vista.”

I peered at the map.

“But how? You can’t possibly run that far with the sun beating down on you like this. You can barely walk.”

“We’ll need to travel by vehicle. As soon as darkness falls, we’ll get off and I’ll run. We won’t get far by car compared to the distance I can travel by running at night, but we can’t just waste time during the day. We ought to start heading in the right direction. If I run non-stop tonight, we could be halfway across Venezuela by morning.”

“And then what are you thinking?”

“We need to make it to the coast, either in Panama or Colombia. Panama is closer to The Shade. If we make good progress tonight, we could well arrive at Panama Bay within three days. We’ll have to find a speedboat. That will leave us a few more days to navigate the seas back to The Shade. Assuming we don’t get lost in any jungles or have some other major disaster…”

“Hm. So how do we get a vehicle?” I frowned, looking up and down the busy road.

“This highway leads north. We’ll have to hitchhike.”

I stared at Caleb, his face masked, his body covered from head to foot in the long black suit. He looked like a bank robber. I couldn’t imagine anyone in their right mind stopping for us. Still, it didn’t look like we had much of a choice but to try.

I looked up and down the road again, squinting as a van came thundering past, blowing up a dust storm around us.

“Which side of the road do we stand on? Which way’s north?”

Caleb consulted the map again, then looked at the road sign towering above us. He pointed to the other side of the highway. I looked nervously at the velocity the vehicles were passing by, barely leaving a few seconds’ gap between them.

I climbed once again onto Caleb’s back and tried to help shelter his eyes from the blazing sun, which was almost at its peak in the sky by now.

He looked left and right, then lurched forward, knocking the breath right out of me. We reached the narrow partition in the center of the highway. Caleb waited another few seconds before darting forward and arriving safely on the other side.

He groaned again as he turned his back on the sun, covering his eyes with his hands.

I looked at the road again and my stomach sank as I thought about what we were about to attempt.

“Caleb,” I said, pointing to a shaded area ten feet back from the road. When he hesitated, I reached for his sleeve and tugged him.

“What?”

“You can’t seriously expect anyone to stop with you looking like that.”

He didn’t have anything to say to that.

“I’ll have to try pulling a car over by myself,” I said. “You should go and sit in the shade.”

At least he could take the suit off if he sat there. He didn’t argue with me and did as I’d requested, though his gaze didn’t leave me.

Of course, I’d never hitchhiked in my life. I’d seen it done in movies, however. I reached out an arm and stuck out a thumb. Caleb had removed his hood, so at least he looked a little less scary. Although his appearance was still a disadvantage, hitchhiking with a vampire certainly had its perks. I didn’t have to be as selective in choosing a driver, because Caleb wouldn’t have trouble protecting us.

As it turned out, we couldn’t afford to be selective. I stood for an hour with my hand outstretched. Nobody would stop. I spotted a police car hurtling toward us more than once. I ducked into the bushes with Caleb, paranoid that news might have spread about my stall robbery.

After an hour and a half, a car stopped with two men in the front seats. They seemed interested in giving me a ride. But as soon as I pointed to Caleb, they lost interest and sped off again.

Finally, during the third hour, as my arm drooped from exhaustion, a long red pickup truck pulled over. Its windows were tinted, so I couldn’t see inside. A tan man sporting dark sunglasses and a goatee in the driver’s seat rolled down his window and beckoned me over.

I approached cautiously, looking past his shoulder to see another man. Smoking a rolled-up cigarette, he was tattooed and muscular, just like the driver.

“Hello, sir,” I said to the driver. “Do you speak English?”

“English.” His voice was deep and gravelly. He exchanged glances with the man next to him in the passenger seat. “Yes, I speak English.”

I exhaled in relief. That was half the battle won right there.

I pointed to Caleb, who had stood up, pulled the suit over himself again—his hood only partially covering his face—and approached us. “My friend and I are hoping to catch a ride to Boa Vista. Where are you heading?”

His face dropped slightly, but he replied all the same.

“Venezuela. We will be passing through Boa Vista.”

I looked up at Caleb who was eyeing the men closely.

“Can you just give me a second?” I said, looking back at the driver.

He grunted. Caleb and I stepped back from the vehicle where we could talk out of earshot.

“They look dodgy as hell,” I whispered. “But with you dressed like this, I honestly don’t think we’ll find anyone better… I also don’t think I can hold an arm out for much longer.”

Caleb furrowed his brows, shooting a glance back at the vehicle. Although he looked uncomfortable, he nodded. “I suppose we have no choice.”

We walked back over to the men.

“Could we catch a ride?” I looked further into the vehicle through his open window. It was an eight-seater. There were six men inside in total, including the two men in the front seats. The back row seemed empty.

The driver frowned and exchanged a few words in Portuguese with the man next to him. They both chuckled. I wasn’t sure what was so funny, but was relieved when he looked back at me and nodded.

“Yes.” He turned to the man sitting next to him. “Julio, seat them in the back.” He reached out a hand to me. “Luis.”

I shook his rough hand. “Rose, and this is Caleb.”

Luis nodded in Caleb’s direction, but didn’t bother to shake his hand. Caleb and I walked over to Julio, who had already opened up the back door. We climbed in and sat down, Julio closing the door again behind us.

I didn’t like the way the men looked at us. At me. I nestled closer to Caleb, who placed an arm around me. I was glad that they were seated in separate rows. Hopefully soon they’d face forward and mind their own business.

The side door slammed shut as Julio got back in his seat. The engine rumbled and we lurched forward, merging back in with the traffic on the highway.

“So where are you from?” Luis called back over his shoulder.

I exchanged looks with Caleb.
No easy answer to that.

“California,” I said.

That, after all, had been my home for the first five years of my life before my parents moved us back to The Shade.

“And you two are brother and sister, or what?”

I thought I might as well stick with Caleb’s story, since we didn’t exactly look like siblings. “No, we’re newly married.”

“Ah, nice,” Luis said. “Very nice… What brings the two of you down here? Honeymoon?”

Caleb rolled his eyes.

“Yes,” I replied, trying to suppress a laugh. “Of sorts… What about you?”

“We are old friends, having a reunion. We too have also been on a holiday, of sorts.”

An ebony-skinned man sitting in front of me turned his head around and looked at Caleb. “I see you’re not a fan of the sun.”

“I prefer the shade,” Caleb replied, looking out of the window as the tarmac flew away beneath the wheels.

The man chuckled, then reached into his front shirt pocket. He pulled out two hand-rolled cigarettes and held them out to us.

“No. Thanks,” Caleb replied stiffly.

I shook my head as he offered one to me.

He mumbled something in Portuguese and faced forward again.

I took a sip of the remaining water I had left in my bottle. My throat felt so dry again. That bread had absorbed a lot of my moisture, and then I’d been standing in the heat of the sun for two hours. I wanted to drain every last drop. But I didn’t know how long it would be before more fresh water came my way, so I had to pace myself.

Caleb and I were silent for the next few hours. Other than the occasional joke in Portuguese, the other men were pretty silent too. I should have used this opportunity to catch up on some sleep, but I wasn’t comfortable sleeping in a van with six men, even with Caleb present.

I looked up at Caleb every now and then. His eyes were fixed out of the window. I wondered what he was thinking. It was hard to read his stony expression. I wasn’t sure whether he resented having to drag me along. Whether he regretted saving me from that cave. Maybe now that he found himself lumbered with me, he was just doing what he thought was his duty to return me home. But even though he was avoiding talking to me, he kept his arm around the back of my chair the whole time, keeping me within his reach. And something about that gesture gave me hope that perhaps there was more to why Caleb was doing this.

I hated to think how much he had risked for me. And I still wasn’t sure why. He’d skirted around the subject and refused to explain.

I also didn’t understand what he’d been doing on that island with Annora, and why she’d been unconscious on the ground… why Caleb had just left her there.

I reached for his left hand, which rested on his knee, and squeezed it.

Finally, he looked down at me, his eyes intense. My heart fluttered.

“What are you thinking about?” I whispered.

He inhaled deeply and breathed out, running a hand over his face.

“The journey.” He looked out of the window again.

“Which part of the journey?”

“All of it.”

“There’s one part of the journey I’m thinking about.” He didn’t respond, so I continued. “The part when you…” I paused, casting my eyes about the vehicle. We were too close to the men to speak freely. “When we reach home.”

His jaw tensed.

I wanted to talk details about The Shade, reassure him that everything would be okay. But there wasn’t enough privacy for that now. Instead I just leaned up and pressed my lips against his rough cheek. He swallowed hard, and if vampires could blush, Caleb did then.