Page 34 of Lucas
His eyes went wide.
“Don’t bother trying to avoid this. You have major injuries that are still leaking blood. You’re obviously too weak to do anything more than open your eyes, and the jury is still out on whether you can speak. We’ve spent too much time in one place, and I can’t move you anymore. You need to be able to walk. Or crawl. I’m not particular. But you will not fight me on this.”
With her lecture firmly stated, and his voice not strong enough to protest, she sliced her palm and held it against his mouth. He’d never wanted to take blood from her. A dangerous path indeed. But they were in survival mode, so he took what she offered.
The beast didn’t argue when her palm reached his lips. And it was the beast who suckled. At first, with hard, deep pulls, then slowing—the taste of her blood intoxicating. During it all, she ran her hand through his hair. Then he remembered nothing at all.
The next time he opened his eyes, the TV played a black and white movie, the volume set low. Ginger hunched over the table, a large to-go cup, most likely coffee, within easy reach. She stared at a travel map and occasionally scratched something down in a notebook. Every so often, she would peer through thesheer drapes at the parking lot—either daydreaming or watching for vampires. Probably both.
As if sensing eyes upon her, she turned to him, and that smile that seemed only for him lit her face. “Hello, sleepyhead.”
“Where are we?”
“In a small town about fifty miles west of Durham.” She stood and stretched. Her sweatshirt rose above the waistband of her leggings, giving him a view of her belly.
He groaned with frustration at not being able to hold her. At not being able to protect her.
She climbed onto the bed and knelt next to him, peering down with a questioning stare. “You seem better.”
He lifted his arm and managed to set it on her knee. “More motion than the last time I woke. How long was I out?”
“This time? About two hours.”
“Since the attack?”
“A couple of days. Do you want to try to sit up?”
After some effort, most of it supplied by Ginger, Lucas leaned against more pillows with a better view of the room.
“I’ll check your bandages in a couple of hours and feed you again.”
He opened his mouth then reconsidered when she planted her fists on her hips. Her eyes squinted with the same look his sister gave him when she was ready for a fight.
“Will you lie next to me?”
Her spirit changed instantly, and without another word, she settled herself next to him.
“How safe are we?” It was time for him to know how much trouble they were in.
“I found a tracker on the rental car. If the vamps are following it, they should be on their way to Idaho, but I imagine it didn’t take them long to figure out they got punked. I dumpedour duffel and everything in it and started over. I think we should get a different rental once we decide on our destination.”
“What happened in the parking lot?”
It took a moment before she spoke. When she did, everything spilled out so fast he had a hard time keeping up. He listened without questioning, from the moment she found him in the lot, to hiding the two dead vampires, getting him in the car, then covering their tracks and finding a cheap motel in a small town off the beaten track. This wasn’t the first time she amazed him. Her actions weren’t from Sergi’s or any other vampire’s playbook. They just didn’t think the same way as humans. Standard procedure when being chased by an opposing force with deadly intent would be to continually change cars and find the fastest route to an allied House, which, if driving, would be the interstate, not the back roads.
“What’s the map for?”
“You need blood donors or a healer. Preferably both. I figured New Orleans, but I don’t know what Houses might be between here and there that could help. I’ve been reviewing various routes. The smaller state roads are the best, but they take longer.”
“Have you contacted Sergi?”
She bit her lip. “I was worried someone might be able to trace the call, even with the new burner I got. And I didn’t want to give away our location.”
He nodded. Chances were slim anyone could trace the call, but that didn’t make it impossible. She was alone, and he was nothing but dead weight at the moment. He couldn’t fault her decision.
“You’re doing everything right. We’ll contact him once I’m mobile.”
She relaxed, and they sat in silence. He breathed in her essence, freshly washed with a soap scent he didn’t recognize.This moment reminded him of the occasional mornings he could sleep in. They would lay in bed together, talking about random things that didn’t mean much of anything, yet revealed a bit more of themselves to each other. And though he couldn’t move, this was the safest he’d felt since they’d arrived in Boston.
