Page 108 of Taste of Forever
“Well, at least he left my backpack here.” Heather lifted the pack from the floor, unzipped it, and pulled out a laptop. “I might have an old scan of the photo on here somewhere, but I don’t remember.”
“Keep looking for the actual photo,” I said. The sooner we were out of this room, out of this expired part of her life, the better. “You can look for a digital copy when we’re home.”
“’Kay,” Heather muttered distractedly, fingers moving up down the laptop’s touch pad.
“I mean it, Science Barbie.” I moved to the threshold of the attached bathroom and flicked on the light.
The laptop shut and I heard the zip of the backpack closing as I opened the medicine cabinet. “Yeah, yeah, Vampire Ken.”
I grinned to myself, watching her cross the room to pull open dresser drawers. Closing the cabinet, I turned around in the small bathroom. There was not much to it, just a pedestal sink, toilet, and shower shall. I peered into the small garbage can, which was mostly empty besides some wadded up tissue, a q-tip, and a band-aid wrapper. I nudged the can with my foot and noticed something shoved behind it.
It was two thin strips of black wood meeting to form a corner. I moved the trash can further out of the way and saw that it was a picture frame. Crouching low, I picked up the framed photo with my hands.
There was Heather as a child, beaming with wild, golden hair framing her face and one of her front teeth missing. She sat outside on a log between two human adults. They were clearly older, with gray hair, and lines around eyes and mouths. But their joy as they smiled for the camera was so palpable, I couldn’t help but smile back.
It was no wonder Heather treasured this photo. The love and happiness shone through the aged photo like a miniature sun in my hands.
“Heather,” I called. “Guess what I just found?”
“Oh my God! Did you really?”
I heard her footsteps approaching and turned, eager to show her my prize. But she never came to the doorway.
The next thing I heard was glass breaking. And then Heather screaming.
Forgetting all about the photo, I dropped it and darted into the bedroom. Someone, a human man dressed entirely in black, had one arm around Heather’s waist, the other covering her mouth as she thrashed and kicked. He was dragging her through the broken bedroom window.
I lunged for him, fangs bared in a snarl. It didn’t matter who he was. This human was dead. Behind a hooded mask, his eyes widened in alarm at my speed. I snatched Heather from his grip and kicked hard enough in the stomach to send him sailing across the patch of lawn outside the window.
Beyond him sat a dark van with no windows. So the government operativehadbeen lying in wait. Why hadn’t I heard a heartbeat?
It didn’t matter. He was here now and needed to be dealt with.
I retreated into the bedroom and carried Heather to the threshold of the bathroom before setting her on her feet. “Lock yourself inside. Don’t come out until I tell you it’s safe.”
Her panicked eyes snapped from me to just over my shoulder. “Laith, look out!”
I spun just in time to see another masked figure hop over the windowsill into the bedroom.
“Lock yourself in!” I repeated to Heather before rushing at him.
My focus was on the human’s assault rifle as I closed the distance between us. I grabbed control of the weapon and pointed it away. Droplets of moisture suddenly hit my face, as if the human had sprayed me with something in his other hand.
On impact, the droplets started to burn my face and eyes.
At first, I could ignore it and wrenched the rifle away from the human. But then the burning grew worse. It felt like acid eating through my skin with steadily increasing pain and intensity.
“What…the fuck?” In my shock, I gave in to the instinct to wipe my eyes, but that only made it worse. I lost the ability to see, my vision clouded with red.
“Huh.” I heard the human grunt. “That colloidal silver really worked.”
“Told you it would,” groaned another human. Probably the one I’d kicked. “Now grab the fucking girl.”
“No.” I growled out the single word, fighting through the burning pain and hazy vision to stop them.
I was too slow to react to the fuzzy image of the arm lifting and spraying me in the face again. Some of it hit my mouth and I choked at the burning on my tongue. My sudden gasping drew more of the silver substance down my windpipe, setting my throat on fire.
“Laith!” I heard Heather cry out. “No! Put me down!”
