A Chase of Prey (A Shade of Vampire #11)(13)

“So if they are interested in this ‘confluence’, as you say, they actually have four more possible targets. Ben, Ariana, Jason… and baby Kiev,” I concluded.

“Maybe,” Mona said. “Since, at least so far, you say you haven’t noticed anything different about the twins, I can only assume that it’s their blood the witches are after.”

Chapter 8: Rose

“We need to stop,” I said firmly, after we’d been driving ten minutes and the gas station was out of view.

“Not yet,” Caleb replied through gritted teeth.

I stared at him in exasperation. “Caleb, you’ve got twenty bullet holes in your chest. You’re losing blood like it’s water.”

His seat was soaked in blood. Even though the seat was made of absorbent fabric, it had reached its limit and blood puddled beneath Caleb.

He exhaled deeply and shook his head. “We’ll stop once it’s dark.”

I stared out at the sky. That could be hours still. “Damn it, vampire. Stop the car now!” I slammed my fist against the dashboard.

He ignored my tantrum, and if anything he pressed down harder against the accelerator as we continued speeding north along the highway. I glared at him, but he refused to look at me.

Stubborn boy.

“If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for me,” I pleaded. “We need to do something about those wounds. If something happens to you—”

“These wounds are inconsequential.”

“What?”

“They’re not going to kill me.”

“But don’t they… hurt?” His face certainly looked strained. I couldn’t imagine that even a vampire wouldn’t feel such injuries.

“I’ve experienced worse.”

I guessed this was true, but that didn’t make me feel any better sitting here with him bleeding out.

“Besides, they will heal soon. I just drank a body dry of blood. My system just needs time to process it. If it doesn’t, perhaps I need more blood.” He jerked his head toward the corpses still in the back of the truck. “There’s enough in this vehicle to keep me going for a long time. If I drink enough, the bleeding will stop fast and the wounds will close… In any case, we don’t stop until night.”

I shuddered, unwilling to look at the mess behind us. Locking my eyes on the road ahead, I was thankful that the windows were tinted. Of course, we had a gaping hole in the roof, but unless a very tall vehicle passed close to us, nobody could see inside.

I sighed and slumped back in my chair, scowling. It was clear that there was no budging Caleb.

Now that things had calmed down a little, the panic and shock that had been coursing through my veins dissipating, I realized that I genuinely still needed to relieve myself. That was a good excuse to get us to stop.

“I need the toilet.”

Caleb breathed out in frustration. He swerved over to the side of the road, the tires skidding on the pavement, and stopped next to a ditch. I got out and looked around. I walked to the nearest patch of bushes and ducked behind them. My bladder felt close to bursting.

Finishing up, I walked back to the van. But I didn’t walk back to my side of the car. I walked up to Caleb’s door and knocked.

He rolled down the window and stared at me through Luis’ glasses, his eyebrows raised. If I wasn’t aware that a few inches below his face, behind the tinted glass, was a bloody mess of bullets lodged into skin, I would have thought there was nothing unusual about him, apart from his paleness.

“Will you really not let me look at those wounds now?”

He scowled. “Just get in the car.”

I sighed and returned to my seat. He accelerated forward the second I shut the door.

My mind drifted back to what had happened, playing the blurred scenes over in my mind and trying to make sense of them now I could think more clearly.

“Do you know who they were?”

“Traffickers. Drugs, humans… they’d probably trade anything.”

I shuddered, recalling how they all seemed to have been eyeing me in particular. I wondered whether their plan was to just kidnap me, or if they’d wanted to bring Caleb along too.

We passed the next few hours until sundown in silence. When Caleb finally pulled off the highway and down a muddy track as the sun started dipping behind the horizon, I breathed out in relief.

The stench of the corpses in the back was beginning to overwhelm me, and yet I knew we couldn’t throw them out until we stopped and Caleb had drained them. I looked over the vampire. Some of his wounds had closed over by now, albeit with the bullet still embedded beneath his flesh. Others were still moist with blood.

As we continued along the bumpy track, I was beginning to worry. The mud seemed to be getting softer and deeper the further we traveled. I supposed that we were planning on abandoning the vehicle anyway, so it wouldn’t matter even if we did get stuck. Caleb stopped the engine once we arrived at the bank of a stream.

“Are you thirsty?” he asked.

I paused, wetting my lips nervously. “Yes, but—”

He seemed to understand my hesitation. I’d had enough of Amazonian streams for more than one lifetime. He reached over and grabbed my water bottle, then made his way down to the water. Filling up the bottle, he placed it on the bank before wading in himself. Tearing off the remaining shreds of his shirt, he dipped underwater and washed himself. By the time he stood up again, his wounds looked much cleaner, the bloodstains gone.