A Chase of Prey (A Shade of Vampire #11)(20)

“Neither of them speak English, so you can talk to me,” Phillipe continued, lighting up a cigarette.

I choked as he blew smoke into my face.

“You call that thing back there your husband. What is it?”

I kept my eyes determinedly on the floor.

Phillipe’s hand shot down to my thigh. Drawing up the hem of my dress to reveal my skin, he stabbed his burning cigarette into my flesh. I cried out, despite trying to keep silent for Caleb’s sake, as the fiery end seared through my skin. He lifted his hand five seconds later, leaving a round black burn. I groaned, afraid to even touch it lest it caused more damage. Tears of pain leaked down my cheeks.

“I’m not a patient man.”

I glowered at him. There had never been a time when I’d wished that I was a vampire more than then. I would have torn through his throat and enjoyed every moment of it.

“Do you need me to repeat my question?”

“No,” I spat, my voice hoarse. Clenching my jaw against the pain, I tried to steady my voice, drawing deep long breaths. “His name is Caleb. He is a man, just like you.”

Philippe raised a brow, staring at me in disbelief.

“He has fangs and claws. Crazy strength and speed.”

Clearly, they’d never come across vampires before. The vast majority of humans were still wholly unaware of the existence of vampires. Humans who did witness vampires usually never made it out alive. And our humans at The Shade would never betray us by letting the world know about the existence of vampires.

I had to avoid telling them that he was a vampire. If they decided to sell their story to the media, news would spread everywhere. I suspected that the only reason Rhys hadn’t caught us yet was because he didn’t know exactly where we were.

I breathed in deeply, steeling myself for Philippe’s response. “It’s amazing what adrenaline can do. As for his claws and teeth, you see… my husband has a mental illness.”

It was the only thing I could think of as an excuse. Unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy the humor of returning Caleb’s insult. The situation was too dire for me to think about anything other than surviving for the next few hours.

“What?”

“He studied Romanian folklore in college, and became obsessed with vampires. He’s undergone severe body modifications since then. He saw specialist surgeons. He grew out his nails, takes supplements to keep them strong, and he files them sharp. As for his teeth, they’re also surgically modified. Lengthened, then sharpened. He never goes in the sun either. He’s been trying to resemble a vampire for the past three years, having more and more surgeries done. And he drinks animal blood, though sometimes he asks to try my own blood… He plans to have even more surgeries done this summer. I-I don’t know what’s caused it. He’s very closed about it. But sometimes I wonder if he’s trying to escape something in his life, whether something happened in his childhood and this is his way of trying to deal with it.” I paused, trying to force tears into my eyes. “Other times, I wonder if it’s our marriage. Maybe I make him unhappy, since he only started doing this to himself after we got engaged…” I made my voice crack and covered my eyes with my hands, pretending to break down sobbing.

I hoped that this tangent would distract Phillipe from asking too many questions about Caleb’s transformation. Like which hospital he went to, and what kind of surgeon would perform such drastic operations on a mentally unstable man.

Phillipe frowned and muttered, “What a nutcase.”

He looked at Guillerme and began speaking with him animatedly in Portuguese. I wished I could understand what they were saying. Some words were similar to Spanish—which I understood since I had studied it at school—but I couldn’t follow the conversation.

I wondered where we were going and how they would get Caleb out of the truck. They couldn’t just keep him in there forever. I comforted myself with the fact that when they did eventually open up the doors, Caleb would spring on them, and no number of bullets could stop him from tearing through their throats. These weren’t hunters after all, with special UV bullets. I hoped that it was now just a matter of time.

Miguel joined Guillerme and Phillipe’s conversation. Phillipe finally turned to me, a broad smile deepening the lines in his face.

“How do you like the circus, Rose?”

Chapter 12: Rhys

I decided to save us time by vanishing us up segments of the highway, for even though we were faster on foot than any vehicle, there was no reason to exert our energy unnecessarily. The only reason I’d ridden Micah through the rainforest for most of the way was because it was part of his training. Carrying me on his back had reinforced my position as his master and helped make him submissive to me. Now that he seemed to have learned his lesson about disobeying me, riding him was no longer required.

The highway was long and winding, and for miles there was only one course that one could travel along, because the Amazon rainforest surrounded either side of the road. Still, I made sure that we stopped every few miles so Micah could confirm the scent was still there. The next few hours were tedious, stopping and starting, but eventually Micah led us off the main road and into a gas station.

“It’s getting strong again,” he mumbled. He led me across the parking lot and stopped in front of an area covered with splatters of blood.