Page 26 of Incandescence

I might not have been able to see her right then, but I knew without a doubt she didn’t look like a Charley. She looked more like a Lara Croft ready to take on the world. “Night, Charley,” I said to her soft little snores.

My smile widened. “You could call me Jake, except I’m not that man anymore.”

Chapter Fourteen

Maya

Iwoke with Alexanderwrapped around me, keeping my back warm, while goosebumps peppered my front from the damp cold. Even worse was the oppressive darkness that revealed no hint of night or day outside.

Yet somehow I felt safe with my lover’s arms around me. Not just any lover.Alexander.He made my last boyfriend—if Jeremy could even be called that—look like a young punk with fluff between his ears and the self-discipline of a gnat.

Jeremy wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in the nest. Alexander had endured forty-six years of hell on Earth.

Cold fingers of fear stilled my breath, before I inhaled jaggedly and blinked into the bleak gloom. Now we just had to stay alive and free from the vampire.

I strained my ears for any sound upstairs. The music had probably been long silenced.

Now nothing stirred and I reached for the flashlight and flicked it on, sensing Alexander wake even before I turned the light his way.

Though I was glad to hear no movement upstairs, I worried it was too quiet. Like maybe someone or something was waiting for us the moment we left the cellar and entered the house.

If the vampire didn’t get to us first, the humans would either kill us for seeing their drug lab, or take us to the vampire who’d compelled them to do so.

Alexander sat, looking instantly alert and awake. “Good morning, Charley.”

“Morning,” I said in return, somehow warm inside by him using my real name.

“We should go.”

I nodded, unwilling to ask his real name in return. “Yes.”While we still can.

We could lie in the dark and plan our next move for hours, but it wouldn’t make any difference. We had no way of knowing what we might face, if anything, and the longer we waited, the more likely we’d be caught. With any luck the partygoers would all be sleeping off their night of debauchery.

We dressed quickly before hauling our backpacks off the ground and heading up the steps. I tied my hair into a ponytail as Alexander carefully lifted the hatch. I sucked in the stale beer and cigarette scent that was somehow fresh in comparison to the drug-laden, unventilated air we’d been breathing, before I blinked against the weak morning light while trying to see or hear anything at all.

A raspy snore in the lounge room indicated at least one person was sleeping off their chosen poison. I followed Alexander out of the cellar before he carefully shut the hatch then held my hand as we moved with stealth through the house and toward the front door.

---