Page 19 of Incandescence

The car slowed. “This your place?” the driver asked with a raised eyebrow and a closelipped smile.

Jesus, even this man felt bad for us. Little wonder. I stared out at the shabby house with a heavy heart. I didn’t hold out much hope that whoever lived there would be able to help us. It looked like someplace a junkie would reside.

Maya thanked them and the birthday boy reminded us to join them at the party, before they peeled away in a cloud of fumes and burned rubber. Maya coughed and adjusted her backpack before she looked up me with a serious expression. “Are you okay?”

I nodded and swiped a hand over my face. “Better than I’ve been in a very long time.”

We walked toward the front gate when she hissed sharply and bent over, clutching at her belly. “Fuck.”

I rubbed her back, about as powerless and useless as a two-legged dog. “It will pass soon.”

“So. You. Keep. Telling. Me.”

I waited patiently for her cramps to fade. Not even ten seconds later they did exactly that as she straightened and pushed back her shoulders. Though her face was a little pale, she managed a smile and croaked out, “Let’s talk to this doctor and see what he knows.”

I adjusted the backpack on my shoulders and led the way along the lopsided pathway before I rapped on the door. I wasn’t about to allow thoughts of the growing afternoon to enter my head.

“I saw a curtain flick in the window to the right,” Maya whispered. She cleared her throat and yelled, “Doctor Newry, we know you’re home! If you want us to leave you alone, then I suggest you open the door so we can talk.”

Another minute ticked by. I frowned, and resisted glancing behind us at the sky. It was my turn to negotiate. “We think you might be able to help us, maybe even save us from the vampire we escaped.”

I didn’t much care who heard my words. It was imperative the doctor answered his damn door.

Footsteps scuffled our way, and the rattle of at least three locks slid free before the door opened. A grizzly faced man peered out at us, his light blue eyes glittering shrewdly behind wire-framed glasses. “Either you’re both freakin’ mad, or you’re trying to get us killed.”

Chapter Eleven

Alexander

Istepped away fromMaya and closer to the doctor. “You’ve hardly kept things quiet. If you wanted to be all secretive about vampires, you wouldn’t have gone public.”

“Yeah, well, now that everyone thinks I’m a crazy old man, I don’t vocalize my ramblings anymore.”

Maya moved close beside me. “We believe you,” she said quietly. “We’re hoping you’ll believe us too, and that you’ll help us.”

The doctor pushed back his glasses. “And just how do you think I’ll be able to help?”

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