Page 41 of Envious Of Fire
Kyle sits in their car for a moment, listening to the engine. The radio crackles with a 90s hit he remembers was on a mix tape he made himself back in high school—a song he played for Tristan once that seemed to move him. Kyle closes his eyes andlets the music take him over for a moment, forgetting Lazarus, forgetting the visit from Jessica, forgetting Elias, forgetting his own sense of lonesomeness, and just thinking on his mortal life.
He pulls out of the driveway.
Then heads in the wrong direction.
Kyle is on the highway in minutes. The hum of the road drowns out the music. The night is around him on all sides like a blanket of nothing. His knuckles turn to bones as his grip on the wheel tightens, speeding down the road towards Vegas.
What motivates him now is pure madness.
He can’t go another second leaving Elias in that house by himself, undefended, with no answers for what has happened. He can’t allow Lazarus, or another of Them, or any other kind of yet-to-be-discovered terror to catch them by surprise. Kyle wants no more surprises. He wants answers. He wants—
“Go home.”
Kyle nearly runs off the road, corrects himself, wide-eyed, then glances to the left, to the right, into the rearview.
Then he sees the shape in the backseat. “W-Wendy?” Kyle chokes out. “How the fuck did you—?”
“Keep your eyes on the road,” she states in her eerie, childlike voice. “You could crash your boyfriend’s car. Then where would you be? Your human insurance will skyrocket.”
Kyle grips the wheel even tighter. “Why are you here?”
“To stop you. I sensed you heading our way. It is no good. Tristan would be upset if he knew you were going to him. Only trouble lies ahead if you continue. Please go home.”
He doesn’t slow down, doesn’t turn the car around, doesn’t heed Wendy’s creepily polite demand. “I’m not safe at home,” Kyle retorts. “None of us are.”
“Of course you are. As long as your secret remains, you are all safe. You have kept the secret for four days. Impressive. I hope you can keep it for four months. Then four years. Isthis nice?” she asks suddenly. “To set goalposts for you? Am I encouraging you? Is my voice sympathetic enough, or does it ring false? I am working on my ability to emulate human compassion. This is a task Tristan has given me.”
“How did you find me? Are you watching these roads?”
“I sensed you approaching Vegasyn, like I said.”
“Then why the hell didn’t you do anything when we were visited last night by one ofThem—capital T—Them?”
The words bring Wendy pause. “Them,” she recites, like a computer processing a new word. “I was not aware. You had a dangerous visitor?”
“Are you serious?” cries Kyle. “You appear in my car just because I’mdrivingin a certaindirection, yet our lives were in danger last night and you didn’t even fucking know?”
“I am as surprised as you are.” She pauses. “Surprised and annoyed. I wonder how this escaped our attention.”
“So what do I do when one of Them finds us again? What do I do when …” Kyle feels bile coming up when he utters the word. “… when anothervampirefinds their way to Nowhere? I am no match against one. They’re … fucking formidable.”
The silence from the backseat indicates Wendy is thinking it over. “Fine,” she says. “It will be handled. Go home please.”
Kyle blinks. That easily? “How will you handle it?” he asks.
“It is no concern of yours. Also, I said ‘please’.”
“The psycho vampire isn’t my only problem.” Kyle glances at the unsettling shadow of Wendy in the rearview. “Brock’s wife is sniffing around town. Persistently. She’s actively looking for him. She’s got a whole fuckingchurchbehind her apparently, and they are more than ready to send entire search parties out looking for her missing husband at her command.”
“That situation is known. It is also no concern. Please—”
“If you tell me to go home one more time …”
“You do not wish to remind yourself what my anger is like,”says Wendy with her steely apathy. “It is the only emotion that I understand. It is the most honest one. Do you recall attempting to use your heart gift on me? Would you like to try it again?”
Kyle’s foot eases. The car slows, slows, then finally stops, right in the middle of the road, nothing but darkness for miles in every direction.
“Go home,” says Wendy. “We will manage your problems. Stay where you forever belong: in the middle of Nowhere.”
