Page 92 of Pain

Facing forward again, we stepped into the copse of trees where the vampires attacked us that first day. I sniffed the air, turning my nose into the wind. I’d smell them if they were downwind too, just not as strong.

“Any sign of trouble, Lassie?” Maxar asked.

Growling, I glared at him. “No.”

With a smirk, Omaera laced her fingers through mine, giving them a squeeze. “I don’t smell or sense any danger either, Pooh Bear.”

With our nerves in our throats, we carefully navigated through the trees, using the torch Maxar conjured as our only source of light. The stars above were bright, but not so bright that we didn’t need the torch to keep us on the path.

The trees thinned out eventually, leading us to the flat sand, speckled with bulky shadows of small desert shrubs and the odd cactus standing like a sentry in the distance.

“Wait, didn’t we drive right to the edge of the oasis?” Omaera asked, making us all stop abruptly and glance around.

Now, I couldn’t actually remember. But it made sense. Being in Hell for so long fucked with my brain and had me questioning things. Maybe my memory got broiled a bit and was still recovering.

Maxar grunted and scratched at his chin. “That would make sense.”

“We did,” Drak said matter-of-factly.

“Then where is it?” Omaera asked. “Did we park on the other side?”

“No. We parked on the west side and that’s where we are now,” Drak replied.

Unease crawled through me.

“Fuck,” Maxar murmured. “Cops must have towed it or something.”

“So we walk?” Omaera asked, exhausted.

“We walk,” I answered.

“We’re not that far from the road,” Maxar said. “I’m sure we can flag down acar quickly.”

“I can smell the hot asphalt,” I said, continuing to keep my eyes, nose, and ears tuned into our surroundings.

A skittering of something to the left made us all freeze. Omaera held her breath.

Maxar swung his torch in the direction of the sound, but all that revealed itself was a little desert lizard, blinking big eyes at us before its tongue flew out to nab a mosquito in the air.

Omaera released her snagged breath, and we continued on our way.

“Wait, is that it up ahead?” Omaera asked, pointing toward a vehicle-shaped shadow about forty yards in front of us.

“Maybe we did park it here and walk to the oasis,” Maxar mused.

“No, we didn’t,” Drak argued. “We parked it on the west side of the trees.”

I rolled my eyes but didn’t face the vampire.

The relief I felt through Omaera made my heart hurt. She was so tired, and yet, a part of me knew not to get my hopes up about this vehicle up ahead. When Drak said we parked on the edge of the oasis, the memory of doing it returned to me.

As we drew closer, that relieved feeling in Omaera disappeared like a fart in the wind. It was the Ford we borrowed from the healer-mage all right, but it wasn’t alive anymore.

“Fuck,” Omaera breathed. “It’s been stripped down to its frame.”

“Motherfuckers,” Maxar grumbled.

I glanced at the vampire, who seemed to have suddenly become a mute, or at the very least, a mock-monk in a vow of silence.

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