Prey Drive (29 page)

Selene led them to the vehicle.

“Is he coming with us?” she asked, gesturing toward Nathan while she climbed behind the wheel of the big SUV and slid her key into the ignition.

Joe looked over at Nathan and cocked his head to the side, silently appraising the man, deciding his fate. Nathan pushed his glasses up on his nose and swallowed hard. His eyes were wide. His mouth worked soundlessly, forming some silent plea. Joe nodded without saying a word and climbed into the vehicle. Nathan joined him on the backseat.

They drove out of the parking lot and back onto the freeway headed toward San Francisco. They had driven less than a mile when Joe heard muffled screams coming from the back of the SUV.

“Um … there’s somebody tied up back here.”

Joe looked at Selene and narrowed his eyes.

“It’s a present. For you.”

“Pull over,” he pointed to a small dirt road just off the freeway that led to a large thicket of shrubs and trees. “There. Pull over there.”

“We don’t have time. We need to get out of the state.”

“Pull over now, Selene. Now!”

She piloted the vehicle off the freeway and over to the copse of thick vegetation. Joe hopped out as soon as the vehicle stopped. He walked over to the back of the vehicle and raised the rear hatch. A nude woman lay in the back of the vehicle with duct tape wound tightly around her wrists, ankles, and mouth.

The woman had thick hips and thighs. Her breasts were enormous but looked artificial, too round, too firm, like the work of a surgeon. Her ass was large and round as well and clearly natural. It reminded him of Alicia’s. Joe’s breath caught in his lungs as he reached out and caressed her thighs, running a hand along her curves while she quivered and wept and screamed against the duct tape around her mouth.

“Shhhhhh,” Joe said. “It’ll be all right. No one’s going to hurt you.”

Joe rubbed her back, running his fingers down her spine and over her voluptuous ass.

“I got her for you. I knew she was your type,” Selene said.

And she was. Joe wanted her so bad, even with all the meat he’d consumed, Cindy’s flesh still digesting in his belly, he wanted more. He wanted to rend the woman’s curvaceous body to ribbons and gobble up every ounce of her. But it had to end somewhere. The killing had to stop sometime or it never would and there was still more killing that had to be done before he would be free. This woman’s death would be a needless indulgence, but he’d been deprived for so long in prison. Joe wanted to indulge every impulse, to greedily consume until he was beyond sated, glutted. He wanted to stuff himself full of flesh and blood, to fuck and kill until his senses were numb, but that was a step in the wrong direction.

The more he killed, the less human he became. Killing Belton, Cindy, even Mario, could be justified. Those murders had been necessary. But killing this woman would be for simple pleasure. Joe remembered something Alicia said to him years ago when she saw Frank roasting over a pit of hot charcoal:

“How the hell are you going to cure yourself if you keep giving in to the curse and killing people? Every time you eat somebody it’ll only get stronger and harder to quit.”

Alicia was right. Every time he killed, the desire to kill again grew stronger. He caressed the woman’s breasts, gently squeezing each one and pinching the gumdrop colored nipples. The monster strained against his prison issue briefs, hungry for her flesh. The woman trembled and her eyes welled with tears. She shook her head back and forth as tears traced the contours of her face.

“Let her go.”

“What?” Selene and Nathan asked in unison.

Joe grabbed one of Selene’s suitcases and pulled it out onto the ground. He opened it and rummaged through it for clothes.

“What are you doing?” Selene asked.

“I’m finding her something to wear.”

“You’re really just going to let her go? Right here? Wearing my fucking clothes?”

Joe paused and turned to look at Selene. She was pouting like a spoiled child.

“Yes.”

“Joseph, what’s wrong with you? Why are you acting like this? First you kill my driver and then you want to let this bitch go? I know you want her. I can see it in your eyes. So take her! Fuck her, kill her, eat her! Tear her the fuck apart! You know you want to. I want to see you do it. I want to watch you take her.”

Selene reached down and grabbed the woman by the hair, lifting her head so her face was pointed skyward. The woman was sobbing. Selene reached down and grabbed one of the woman’s massive breasts, squeezing it so hard her fingers left little red indentations. She let it drop then and grabbed the woman’s other tit, squeezing it even harder and shaking it. He had been wrong. They were real after all.

Joe’s erection throbbed painfully. He wanted the woman and Selene knew it. He imagined biting into those succulent mammary glands, chewing them slowly, devouring them bite by luscious bite. A shiver went through him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to chase the gruesome fantasies from his mind.

“No. It’s not right. I can’t. Just let her go.”

Selene looked around like she was in some sort of nightmare, trying to find a way to wake up.

“What? What? What the fuck is wrong with you, Joe? This isn’t you!”

“You don’t know what I am, Selene. And neither do I.” He thought about what he’d done to Cindy. He had told her he loved her one day then slaughtered her the next. He thought about what he’d done to Alicia, what he was planning to do to Nathan. It had to stop. “I don’t know what I am. I just know I can’t do this. Let her go.”

“Okay, then take me.”

“What? Don’t be crazy, Selene.”

“I’m not CRAZY!” Selene shouted. Her eyes were wild. There was a desperation there, but also a fire. Her soul was like an inferno blazing within her flesh. Joe wanted to tear his way to it, to devour that fire.

“I’m not eating you, Selene.”

Joe turned back to the captive, weeping in the back of the SUV. He peeled the tape from the woman’s legs and wrists and helped her out of the van. He handed her one of Selene’s dresses. She pulled the tape from her mouth, snatched the dress from Joe’s hand, and backed away, covering herself with both arms, trying to hide her nudity.

“You’re both fucking crazy! Help! Help!” She jabbed a finger at Selene. “You were going to kill me, you crazy bitch!”

“I still might,” Selene answered, stepping forward. The woman took several quick steps backwards and almost fell when her heels hit an indentation in the road.

“Get back in the car, Selene,” Joe said.

Selene began to weep.

“No! Why are you doing this? Why aren’t we killing this bitch? Why are we letting her go? Don’t you want me anymore? What’s wrong with you, Joseph?”

“We have to go.”

He turned, and shut the SUV’s hatch, then took the keys from Selene, and walked to the driver’s side. Joe climbed behind the wheel and started the engine. Even in the huge vehicle he looked enormous. Selene walked slowly around to the passenger side and slipped inside.

“You’re just going to leave me here on the side of the road? You crazy pieces of shit! I’m calling the police!” The woman shrieked in a voice full of anger and fear. She was struggling to slip into Selene’s dress without falling over or exposing any more of herself to passing vehicles.

They drove off, leaving the woman behind. Joe could see her running toward the freeway, waving her arms for someone to stop and help her. He stepped down hard on the accelerator, watching for police as he put as much distance as he could between himself and the woman Selene had kidnapped as a present for him.

Forty-Five 

“Tell me about the curse,” Selene said. They had been driving for several hours, only stopping to use the bathroom and refill the gas tank. Joe had changed clothes in a rest stop bathroom and washed all the blood from his face and hands as best he could. He left the blood-soaked clothes in a trashcan outside the restroom and climbed back into the car smelling like lemon hand soap. None of them had spoken much since leaving the naked woman by the side of the road.

Nathan had fallen asleep in the back of the SUV. He was curled up in a fetal position with both hands pressed together palm to palm as if in prayer and tucked under his cheek. He was sleeping like a baby despite all the horror and murder he’d seen today. He didn’t seem to have a care in the world.

Joe and Selene were taking turns driving. It was almost time to switch. Joe’s eyes were feeling heavy.

“It’s a disease.”

“So tell me about it,” Selene said. “What do you think it is?”

“Like I told you in my letters, I think it’s a genetic retro virus, like HIV. It carries DNA material with it from host to host. My guess is that whoever the original host was had something in his DNA, some genetic trait, that gets passed onto whoever the virus infects. A murder gene. So, instead of making you ill or killing you, this virus makes you kill.”

“So, it’s transmitted by body fluid like AIDS?” Selene asked.

“Blood, semen, maybe even saliva. I don’t know. I think it has to be transmitted violently, a bite, sex. Maybe it takes both. Maybe only blood does it or blood and semen combined. I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a combination of the emotional trauma of being assaulted and being infected with the virus that makes it happen. I’m not sure how it works, but I know it’s real. I can feel it inside me.”

“Do you know how you got it? I mean, have you figured out who patient zero for this thing is?”

Joe nodded.

“I thought I got it when Damon Trent attacked me when I was a kid. But I don’t think that anymore.”

“Because killing him didn’t cure you? That whole vampire/werewolf thing, right?” Selene asked.

The hulking serial killer nodded, obviously enthused by Selene’s interest in the topic. It was the first time he’d talked about it with anyone in years, except Professor Locke.

“If the myths are true, then killing the source of the original infection should have cured me.”

“But it didn’t.”

“No. But I think that’s because Damon Trent wasn’t the original source of the infection.”

“Your dad?”

Joe nodded.

“I think I was born with it. I think my father had it and his father before him. That’s why we have to go to San Francisco, to stop the disease at its source.”

Selene stared at Joe then rubbed his face. He kept his eyes fixed on the road.

“Joe?”

“Hmm?”

“What if the vampire legends have nothing to do with it? What if it is a disease like you said, but all the myths are wrong? What if killing your grandfather doesn’t do anything?”

Joe’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. He continued staring straight ahead.

“That won’t happen.”

“But if it is a disease, a virus like HIV, then there’s no reason to think there’s anything supernatural about it. You might need a doctor.”

“I went to a doctor. He couldn’t cure me. He wanted to keep me drugged up on ketamine.”

“Ketamine? Special K?”

“Yes.”

“Wow. Do you have any left?”

Joe shook his head, still without looking at her.

Selene looped an arm around Joe’s arm and snuggled up against him.

“I missed you, Joseph. Your letters were so beautiful. I couldn’t wait to see you.”

“I missed you too, Selene.”

“So, what’s going on with the guy in the back seat? Who is he?”

“That’s Nathan. He’s a fan. He helped me escape.”

Selene nodded.

“So, is he going to stay with us the whole trip?”

Joe shrugged.

“I don’t know, Selene. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

Selene let the matter drop and changed the subject.

“I’m sorry about what happened at the prison. I just wanted you so bad and when you didn’t give me what I wanted, I guess I got a little spoiled.”

“It’s okay.”

“So, whose blood was that all over you?”

Joe’s hands tightened on the steering wheel again.

“I had to kill someone to escape. Two people actually, guards.”

“That’s a lot of blood. I guess they didn’t go quietly.”

Joe shot her a warning look but Selene ignored it. She unzipped her shorts and pulled them down along with her panties. Then she pulled her shirt over her head and took that off as well. She put her hand between her legs and started fingering her clitoris.

“Tell me how you killed them. Tell me everything.”

Joe didn’t speak. He looked Selene over from head to toe. She had filled out so nicely, but he wanted to forget all about what he’d done to Cindy, his betrayal.

Selene slid her hand into his lap and unzipped his pants. She took his cock out and was only slightly surprised to see that it was covered in blood too.

“Oooh! This must be a good story.” Selene continued fingering herself. She was wet now. She slid two fingers into her pussy, fucking herself while still rubbing her clitoris with her thumb, then she withdrew her fingers and rubbed them on Joes lips. Her scent was feral, animal. She slid her fingers into Joe’s mouth and he sucked them clean. His cock immediately swelled. She began stroking his cock. It crackled with dry blood.

“I’m sorry. Let me moisten that for you.” She leaned down and dragged her tongue down one side of his cock and up the other, tasting Cindy’s blood.

“She was a sweet one, wasn’t she? I have to hear all about it.” She slid his erection between her lips and began bobbing her head up and down on it while swirling her tongue around the head. Joe let out a moan and tried his best to focus on the road.

Selene slid his cock out of her mouth and looked up at him.

“MMMmmm. Tell me how you killed them, Daddy.”

Joe hesitated. Selene flicked her tongue along the head of his cock.

“Tell me how you did it, Daddy.”

She was furiously masturbating now. Her voice was low and sultry.

“Uh, um. She was sucking my cock, just like you are now and then I cut her throat and peeled her face off and ate it.”

Selene moaned as if she was the one getting the blowjob. Imagining him eating some poor woman’s face was turning her on. Remembering the experience evoked a disturbing confusion of emotions within Joe—remorse, disgust, and intense sexual arousal. There seemed to be no confusion in Selene. She was panting like a hungry beast, moaning deep in her throat as she tried to suck the life out of Joe through his hard cock.