Phantom (Endlessly Book 3) (4 page)

5 BEATEN PATH

“Slow down,” Ash told me
as she gripped me tight. “It’s just beyond this hill.”

I could barely make it out in the dark, but I headed where she pointed me. The sooner she grabbed whatever she wanted, the quicker I could get her home and fed.

What would she be hiding from me,
I wondered.
What would be more important than her being fed?
She could hear these thoughts, but she never responded. I bounced down the hill and barely made out a clearing. What was so damn important that she had to come back here? I should have just dragged her ass home, then come back another day when she was stronger.

There was a
tapping of rain on the tent before I saw it. I stopped beside the shelter. Ash slid off my back and unzipped the tent. She looked back and forth, then stood and started franticly searching.

What’s the matter?
I asked.

“Gone,” she whispered.

I could feel her panic. Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something move behind a tree. I turned to look.

What was that?
I thought.

“Abigail!” Ashley called out.

Abigail? What? There’s someone out here with you?
I turned toward Ash and a small shadow slipped out from behind a tree. It approached us cautiously.

“I heard someone,” came a high feminine voice.

My eyes adjusted and my nose picked up the new stale smell. I felt my jaw drop. The little girl looked at me with pale eyes blending with her white vampire skin. Her dark hair hung in a mess to her shoulders. For a brief second I thought I was looking at a shorter version of… Verloren. The girl’s image in the moonlight conjured an odd distant memory.

I sat in the passenger seat of the Grand Prix and drummed the dash. It was late and the highway was deserted. The singer erupted with the song’s chorus; I mimicked him.

In my peripheral vision, a solid white hand grabbed the radio knob and turned the volume down.

“Hey!” I protested, glaring at Verloren.

His green-black hair fluttered in the breeze from the open windows. His pale blue eyes reflected t
he lights from the dash panel and a smirk played on his lips.

“Who sings that song?” he asked.

“From Atlantis.”

“Let’s keep it that way.”

“Fuck you; my singing isn’t that bad.”

Verloren laughed. I turned the volume back up and continued to serenade him.

As
h flinched at my mental image. “It’s okay, Abigail,” she said, reaching to the child. “This is Jason. He’s a werewolf. Remember I told you about them.”

The girl took Ash’s hand reluctantly, steering away from me. She clung to Ash, cowering into her side.

Ash chuckled. “He’s not going to hurt you, Abby.”

“I’m hungry,” the girl whispered. “I smell blood.”
Then she turned her pale eyes on me and looked at my bandaged arm.

“We’ll get you something soon,” Ash comforted her.

Ash… where did you find her? She’s just a baby,
I thought.

“I’m not a baby. I’m eleven,” Abigail countered.

Ash could let other people communicate through her mind, using it as a conference room for thoughts. When she did, it made her a hub for people to communicate wordlessly. Ash must have let the girl hear my thoughts.

Don’t let her hear me
, Ash. Block your thoughts from her.

“I didn’t. She read your mind herself,” Ashley answered.

How?
I asked, dumbfounded.

“Because I made her,” Ash said.

I just stared at her in shock.
You have some serious explaining to do.

Promising to return soon, we left Abby in the tent. The rain died down to a mist and the moon lit our path.

After we’d moved outside Abigail’s thought range, Ash turned to me
and spoke: “I know what you’re thinking…”

Ignoring formalities, I shifted back to my human form so I could rant. “What the hell
, Ash? She’s just a girl! That’s fucked up. Is it because of the way she looks?”

She turned away from my nudity, pulled off her pack, dug out my jeans, and threw them at me. I pulled
the wet pants over my soaked skin.

“I didn’t plan it! I would have never…! It just happened!” She stifled a sob.

“What the fuck were you thinking? She’ll never grow up. It’s… it’s obscene,” I growled, and pulled my muscles to keep from shifting.

Her head snapped toward my direction. “Don’t you think I know all of this? You want to talk about obscene… you don’t know how I found her.” Her face fell and a black tear rolled down her cheek.

She’d caught me off guard. The hurt and anger rippled through her, reflecting in me. I hated to see her in pain. I stepped closer, but she backed away.
No,
I thought.
I want to touch her, to hold her, to fuck her.

“I’m sorry,” I said, trying to clear my head. “What happened?”

“I smelled blood,” she whispered, looking up at the sky. “I made my way down to Portland. I was just kinda roaming, but trying to stay close to big cities so I could eat. I was in a really crappy part of town and it was late. I was hiding in the shadows, listening to people, trying to find the right person to rid the world of. You know how I am.”

She turned to look at me and the moon lit her painfully thin face. I saw the anguish in her eyes as she collected her thoughts.

“I knew what was happening, I could hear it in that monster’s head. I just didn’t know she was a child. I crept through a broken window. My hands were tingling like mad. He was probably dead as soon as I touched him, I was so furious. I pulled him off of her and snapped his neck. He had her all drugged up and out of her mind and… she was dying, Jason.” Ash looked away from me. She was crying again. “That sick fuck was cutting her while he raped her.” She took a deep breath and composed herself. “I was just going to kill her quickly and put her out of her misery, but she looked at me. I don’t think she really saw me, she was so out of it.” More tears spilled. “You know what I saw. The smell of the blood was too much, I was so hungry. I started to feed from her, but I couldn’t bring myself to kill her. If I did, I would have to smash her head… it would destroy her face. I knew I couldn’t do that… not when she looked so much like him. I figured it was too late anyway. She was going to die from her wounds and wake up like one of them and then I would have to destroy her. I filled her mind with things to comfort her from the pain. But she didn’t die. I watched as my bite healed and faded white quickly. Every wound on her slowly started to repair and fade white. Within a few days she had become what she is now.”

Ash wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “It made it that much harder to kill her. She looked so much more like him. Believe me, I feel horrible about it. I feel so bad it’s killing me. She’s a bigger reminder of what I don’t have than the apartment, his clothes, his music, or you…” She hesitated. “I keep her fed, but I can’t bring myself to eat. Not when I’m reminded of him every day. She makes me want to be with him more than ever.” Ash touched the stone necklace Verloren had given her. She chuckled. “She has fangs similar to mine and she doesn’t have the sensitive eyes. She inherited the mind reading from me.”

I struggled for the right words. “I don’t know what to say, Ashley. This is the reason you didn’t come home? Because of her? What were you planning… if you killed yourself who was going to take care of her then?”

“She may be a child, Jason, but she’s not stupid or weak. She can easily take care of herself.” She watched me. “I told her I was sick. I
showed her the way to the house and figured—”

“What about her virus? Does it create…?” I asked.

“No,” she interrupted. “Her virus doesn’t make zombies.”

I sighed. “I’m just not real sure how well this is going to go over.” I hesitated as I thought about the reaction from the rest of the house. “I need to get you both somewhere warm.”

“Just me,” Ash said as she shivered. “She’s warm-blooded. That’s how I’ve managed this long in the cold.”

I nodded to her and twirled my finger to tell her to look the other way. She read
my thoughts and turned so I could disrobe. We headed back toward the tent and Abigail met us outside.

“Grab your stuff,” Ash told the girl.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To a new home. It’s filled with really nice people. You’re going to like it there,” Ash said.

“Does he live there?” Abigail inclined her head toward me.

Yes,
I told her.

He doesn’t like me,
she told Ash, but I understood her clearly.

She’s still learning about blocking certain people out,
Ash told only me. Then she let me hear her response.
It’s not that Jason doesn’t like you, he’s just not used to kids and he’s scared of how people might treat you since you’re not an adult. He’s just worried for our safety. I’ve told you what I did to you wasn’t right. You were too young.

Abigail nodded and it started to mist again, typical, temperamental Washington weather.

“So are you ready to race a werewolf?” Ash asked Abigail.

“Heck, yeah!” The girl bounced a
round with a huge smile. Her fangs gleamed in the moonlight before a cloud passed by. Abby grabbed her backpack and pulled it on.

It reminded me of the two of us riding on Verloren’s Hayabusa. Ash buried her freezing face in my back. I was running fast enough for the mist to sting my face. I tore into the mud and struggled not to slip. I had to slow down whenever the clouds covered the moon.

Abby ran
mostly soundlessly beside me, giggling now and then. She was as stealthy as Ash.

After a while,
lights appeared in front of me and to the left. I ran in that direction. I wasn’t sure exactly where we were, or how far away from home I was. I could hear tires on wet pavement and I slowed down to a walk. Ash sat up on my back.

“Highway 101.” S
he shivered. “You need to head south. There isn’t much coverage around that town. Stay east and head south.”

But you need to eat,
I told her. I panted, trying to catch my breath.

Abb
y kicked at some stones and jumped up and down on a fallen log.

“Not here. There aren’t enough people. Besides it’s too late. You know how these small towns are. They shut up tighter than Fort Knox after ten pm. There is no way I would find anything without breaking into an innocent person’s home. I’ll
get something from the fridge. We’re only about twenty miles from home,” she said.

I don’t think we have any at home. It’s just the three gargoyles, Hania, Sarah
, and me. Coylene comes and goes. Since Fabi isn’t around to ride our asses, me and Sarah go out to eat.

“Gargoyles like Lex?” Abigail chirped.

Ashley laughed at her. “It is Lex.”

“Wow, I get to meet her?”

“You get to live with her, silly.” Ash turned back to me. “We’ll figure something out for food, but not here.” She clung to me again, trying to warm herself.

I did what she said and headed south to avoid the town. The cold rain let up, but there was still moisture in the air. Ash’s clothes were soaking wet and I wanted to get her home. I almost plowed down a herd of elk as I bolted through the trees. Abigail found that comical. After a while I cut over to the highway and headed due west. The moon made its appearance again and lit the way. None of it looked familiar, but I had to come across something. There were way too many large hills for me to be in the right place. Before I knew it I could hear the rush of the ocean. I edged over to the cliff.

Ashley perked up when I stopped. “Where are we?” Her teeth chattered as she spoke.

I looked around at the broken rocks and how the beach was arched.
Strawberry Bay. We’re too far north. Hang on; I’m going to stay along the edge of the coast until we get to the beach.
Nervously I asked her:
You going to be okay with that?
I knew how much the private beach reminded her of Verloren, but then again, she already had a constant reminder.

“How much further?” Abby asked.

The ocean air was a lot cooler and I started to worry about Ash’s body temperature dropping.

Yeah, I’m okay with the beach. Actually
, I wouldn’t mind seeing it again,
Ash thought.
We’ll be there before you know it, Abby.

I could feel the ache in her chest as she thought about him. She lay on my back. Along the shore I leapt from one jagged rock to another. The cold wind bit at my naked skin and I felt her tense and shiver. I heard ocean waves, my breathing, the scrape of my claws against the rocks, and gleeful screams from Abby as she leapt on the rocks. I felt cool drops of water on my back and knew
Ash was crying. Then it appeared. A few more large jumps and I was on the cliff where the beaten path wound down the cliffs to the beach. The opposite direction was the path leading home.