Descended by Blood (10 page)

He pulled up in front of Kaitlynn’s house. She came running through the front door with a few bags busting at the seams. Her mom followed behind her to the Land Rover. I rolled down my window so she could talk to me.

“I’m so sorry for your loss. Please give my regards to your mom, okay?” Rhonda said as she grasped my shoulder right where the guy left his claw marks. I hissed through my teeth.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Rhonda said, backing up. “What happened?”

“Um, I tweaked it a little moving Jaren’s bed into his new place,” I lied.

“I hope it’s nothing serious.” Rhonda’s forehead wrinkled.

“It’s not. Just a little sore is all. I’ll be sure to tell my mom you send your condolences.” I was ready for her to go back inside. I looked to Kaitlynn in the back seat, wondering what she’d told her mom.

“You kids be careful, and Kaitlynn, I want you to call me daily,” Rhonda said as Jaren backed out of the driveway.

“What did you tell your mom about where you’re going?” I asked Kaitlynn.

“I told her your grandma died.”

I looked at her, astonished she would make up something like that.

“Well, what was I supposed to tell her?” She gave me a pointed look. “She asked me a million questions before she would let me go. I had to tell her something.”

“Good point,” Jaren mumbled as he turned off her street, then parked.

I faced Kaitlynn. “There’s something I have to tell you before we go too far.”

“Yeah, what’s going on? Are my mom and dad going to be okay? And what about David? Are we picking him up, too?” I looked over at Jaren, unsure about what to do with David.

He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment. “He hasn’t been around you very much, so I think he should be okay if we leave him here.”

“Why are we at risk? Brooke?” Kaitlynn asked, tugging on my sweater. “What is going on?”

I took a deep breath. “Here it goes. Remember that guy who sent the mountain lion to attack us?”

“I still don’t think he sent it after us, but whatever. Yeah, I remember him.”

“Well, he came to Jaren’s last night demanding that I had to go with him. When I said no, he tried to force me and we fought. He tried to kill Jaren, and then he tried to kill me, so I killed him.” I gave her the short version. I already knew she was going to be freaked out about what I was, and giving her a detailed image of me in action wouldn’t help my cause.

“We’re on the run?” she asked.

“So, you’re okay with what I just told you?” I asked her.

“Well, yeah. It was self-defense, right?”

I nodded.

“Then, yeah. I’ll always back you up. But I still don’t understand why you just didn’t call the cops.”

“Here’s where it gets complicated. The man I killed,” I said looking at her, hoping she wouldn’t hate me. “He was an honest-to-God, real vampire.”

Kaitlynn laughed.

“I laughed, too, when my mom first told me, and I witnessed his fangs, strength, and speed, so I know it’s hard to believe.”

“I’m sorry,” Kaitlynn said, trying to compose herself, “it just sounds so crazy.” She continued laughing.

I should get it out while she was still in denial. I hoped she wouldn’t believe what I was telling her, and we could act like it never happened. “I also found out that I’m half-vampire.”

Kaitlynn quit laughing.

My hands shook and felt clammy when I rubbed them together.

“You can’t be serious. No way.” She stared at me.

“It’s true,” Jaren said.

Kaitlynn turned and looked at him.

He arched his brows. “I was there.”

Kaitlynn looked at me.

My stomach turned. “Uh-huh.” I bit my bottom lip.

“But you don’t have fangs,” she reasoned.

“No, but I do have the strength and serious speed. I never needed it that bad until last night, so I never knew about it, I guess.” My stomach clenched tighter now than it had last night. I didn’t think that was possible, but I really couldn’t lose my best friend. And I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to know. “Do you hate me?”

“Hate you? No, we’re still besties. You being a half…,” she said, waving her hand in the air, “whatever would never change that.”

“Oh, man, I love you.” I was so relieved. I reached between the seats and Kaitlynn met me with a hug.

“I love you, too,” Kaitlynn said.

“All right, then, ladies. Shall we go?” Jaren asked. I gave Kaitlynn one last squeeze and let her go.

I looked at her to see if she was still on board.

She nodded that she was.

I smiled. “Then let’s go meet Mirko!”

* * *

After only a half an hour on the road, we had to stop at a gas station so Kaitlynn could have a bathroom break. Jaren parked the Land Rover and went into the convenience store to get some beef jerky.

I followed Kaitlynn to the restroom. There was no one in any of the other stalls, so I figured now was a good time to tell her about Jaren breaking up with me.

“It seems like you’re taking all of this better than Jaren is,” I said to Kaitlynn while I leaned against the sink.

“What do you mean? He doesn’t seem that freaked out about it to me,” she replied from behind the stall.

“Well, last night, after we found out about everything, he tells me he needs some time to think about us and broke up with me.”

“No!” Kaitlynn said.

“Yeah, which sucks because there isn’t anything I can do to fix the other half of what’s in my blood, you know?” I asked, wiping tears from my eyes. I needed to focus on something else and ended up scratching at my shoulder for the bazillionth time. My shoulder had been itching nonstop since we were barely outside of Lexington.

Kaitlynn came out of her stall. She pulled me into a hug. “I’m sorry Jaren’s being an idiot.” She pushed me back a little to assess the damage. “You seem to be handling this better than you did the Tiffany episode.”

“Oh, it hurts. I wanted to die last night. I just have so much other crap going on right now, too. And I don’t really have the option to bawl my eyes out over Jaren when we’re going across the country with him.” I gave her a half-smile, wiping more tears from my eyes.

Kaitlynn pulled me into a tight hug. When we drew apart, her hand slid across my shoulder.

I turned around and pulled my sweater up to check on the scratch. “Can you lift the bandage a little so I can see how it looks?”

Kaitlynn stepped around me to peel the tape back. “What happened?”

“Fight with a vampire,” I said, like it explained everything that was wrong with my life. Strange that it actually did.

I looked in the mirror at the raised, pink line. “What the…?” I asked, shocked. “These scratches looked like raw meat last night.” I looked Kaitlynn in her eyes through the mirror. “I have always healed fast, but never this fast.” I was more of a freak than I thought.

Kaitlynn shrugged. “So what? Fast healing. Who wouldn’t want that?”

I gawked at her while she washed her hands. She really thought my eerie, superhuman healing was no biggie.

She tossed her paper towel into the trash can and wrapped her arm around mine. We walked out to meet Jaren at the car for another half-hour drive stuffed with break-up awkwardness.

* * *

The drive to Lynchburg was beautiful. Early November was perfect timing to take a road trip through the Shenandoah Mountains. The ash trees were in full display of their yellow and maroon garnishes. But, the most brilliant displays of color were given to us by the aspen and maple trees.

When we reached Lynchburg, Jaren steered the Land Rover along Ward’s Road toward the small airport. I caught a glimpse of the runway as we drove past strip malls and big retailers. It appeared to be a small airport, and I feared the dinky, little plane we would be flying in. Garwin said we had to fly private because we couldn’t risk my name coming up in the NSA or the airline’s computer systems.

Garwin had told Jaren that Mirko would meet us in the airport’s parking lot near the road. And that’s where we sat, the Land Rover idling for half an hour.

“Where’s this Mirko guy?” Kaitlynn asked.

“Maybe we should call Garwin,” Jaren said and pulled out his cell phone.

A guy walked up and knocked on Jaren’s window. Jaren rolled it down.

“Brooke?” the guy asked, bending over a little so he could get a better look at me in the passenger seat.

“Who’s asking?” Jaren replied.

“I’m Mirko.” The guy spoke with a slight accent. He must have been only eighteen or nineteen, which surprised the crap out of me. I expected some middle-aged man, freshly retired from his stint as an army drill sergeant or something.

Mirko looked like he could’ve been military, but only because he was in lean, amazing shape, and his dark sable hair was cut short to his scalp. His ears stuck out a little, but in no way diminished his appearance. What struck me the most about him was his piercing, sienna brown eyes, which intensified under his straight, dark eyebrows—telling me he meant business.

“Do you mind getting out so I can see what I’m dealing with?” Mirko asked.

“Okay,” I drawled. Weird request, but I complied. Garwin said to do as Mirko asked, and Mirko was asking. We got out. I walked around the front of the Land Rover. The heat off the warm engine felt nice against my legs, counteracting the fall chill.

Jaren and Mirko shook hands. Jaren stood taller than Mirko, and his arms were bigger, but Mirko’s looked lean and chiseled.

Kaitlynn glanced over at me, and I knew we were thinking the same thing—Mirko’s hot! We smiled.

“You’re Brooke, and who’s this?” Mirko asked, pointing at Kaitlynn.

“Kaitlynn,” she said, looking happy that he noticed her.

Mirko turned back to Jaren. “First order of business: when someone comes to your window, don’t roll it down like that. Gives easy advantage to your attacker. Especially when you have a girl with you who’s a target.”

Jaren and Mirko both looked at me. Jaren blushed with embarrassment that he’d made such a mistake. Mirko’s eyes raked over me, sizing me up and figuring me out with his penetrating gaze.

“Right then. Let’s board the plane now.” Mirko pointed toward the terminal entrance.

“We need to get our bags,” I said.

We walked around to the back of the Land Rover and Jaren opened the rear door.

Mirko whistled. “Whoa, someone brought a lot more than the necessities.”

I laughed. I hadn’t expected this austere guy to have a sense of humor.

Kaitlynn blushed. “I had no idea what was going on, where we were going, or anything. I grabbed what I could.”

“That’s true. She didn’t even know vampires existed until this morning,” I said.

“Pijawikas or Zao Duhs. We don’t like to be called vampires. ‘Vampire’ denotes a parasite or a leech. We consider ourselves above that.” Mirko grabbed some of the bags from the pile.

“Wait,” I said, dropping my bags back onto the trunk’s floor board. “You’re a Pijawika?” I didn’t really want to be around any more of those things anytime soon.

“No, I’m a Zao Duh.” Mirko smiled.

“What’s a Tao Duh?” I asked.

He smirked at me as if I was born yesterday. “Zao Duh,” he emphasized. “You really don’t know anything about us?”

I responded with a blank stare. “Nothing comes to mind, no.”

“They’ve really sheltered you.”

My face soured.

“Wasn’t trying to offend you. I’m shocked, is all. Let’s get going, and I’ll explain it to you.”

I picked up my bags and followed Mirko and Jaren inside the terminal.

When we reached the desk for clearance onto the tarmac, a young man greeted us. “How can I help you folks?”

Mirko’s eyes met with the clerk’s, and the clerk’s face went blank. “Do you have any expected flights leaving or coming in within the next twenty minutes?” Mirko asked.

“We have a Cessna departing shortly,” the clerk responded, dry and clear.

“There’s been a Gulfstream 650 parked out on the airstrip. It was never here, and you never saw us,” Mirko commanded.

The clerk nodded his head.

“Great. Now delete the Gulfstream’s flight plan in your system.” The clerk typed on his keyboard with the same indifference he might have while browsing the Web.

What? Why was this guy listening to Mirko like that? “Isn’t that a federal offense?” I whispered to Mirko.

“Only if he gets caught. Which he won’t. I have people working on it. I’m just covering all the bases by having him delete it internally on their system.”

Kaitlynn and Jaren appeared as stunned as I felt. Mirko’s connections must have been deep.

The clerk looked up at Mirko, awaiting his next command.

Mirko stared into the clerk’s eyes. “We were never here.” He said as if he was burying it deep within the poor guy’s mind.

The clerk replied with a single, slow nod.

Mirko turned on his heels, shoes squeaking on the linoleum, making his way to the runway door. Kaitlynn and I picked up our bags and followed.

“Whoa. How did you do that?” I whispered to Mirko.

“Sanjam. It’s a form of hypnotism. Puts them in a dream state for mind control,” he explained, walking toward some vehicles that looked like official airplane service trucks.

Kaitlynn leaned in closer to hear. “All you did was talk to him. No counting down, no snapping your fingers. How’d you do it?”

Mirko spun around so he was facing us and walked backward. “It comes with the territory.” He flashed his fangs.

“Don’t do that!” I shuddered, squinting my eyes to clear the visual.

Mirko chuckled.

“No, really,” Jaren said, impatient. “How’d you do that? Did you do any permanent damage to him? How can you be sure he isn’t going to remember us?”

“Well, let’s see. How do you think Pijawikas and Zao Duhs get the substance we need?”

“You’re talking about blood, right?” Kaitlynn asked, appearing nearly as squeamish as I felt.

“That would be our preference, yes.”

Mirko walked up to a man near one of the vehicles. “Hey,” he called. The man turned, and I could tell the moment Mirko’s dream thing took effect.

“Drive us out to the planes,” Mirko told him, strolling toward the front passenger seat. Mirko didn’t hesitate. He knew the guy would do as he told him.