Blood Run (25 page)

Miller snorted. “Like Evans, you mean?”

“He’s more of an asshole than he is tough,” Peter said. Promise jumped, unaware that he’d gotten up. His tone was calm, but his face was shadowed and unreadable. He stood close to Snow, one hand on her back, just out of the lantern’s glow.

Miller started to speak and hesitated. She thought she’d seen something, a flicker of light, of fire…but it must have come from the lantern, reflecting in Peter’s eyes. She shivered nonetheless and turned her gaze to Promise.

“I wanted to tell you what happened in the Preserve, what happened to Riker…how much did you see? Before you took off?” Miller said.

“You were under that big, downed tree,” Promise began, and Miller nodded, sitting. “The one that was hanging so low over the road. We saw a woman–a vampire–half in and half out of the passenger side of the Humvee you were driving. She had a hold of Nancy, and you had Nancy’s arm and were pulling…” Promise swallowed and paused.

Peter took up the narrative for her. “Riker was struggling. It looked like his arms were pinned by the vampire’s body. Billet and Lu ran up, and Lu waved for us to run, but…we saw blood hit the windshield where Riker sat. A lot of blood. Then we got the horses turned around, and we ran.”

“She must have been right in the thick of that tree,” Miller said and glanced from Peter to Promise. “I think you were pretty lucky. That she didn’t go after you first as you went through.”

The color drained from Promise’s face. “We must have drawn her out, though,” she said, her voice stricken. “We caused her to…come out like that.”

Miller shrugged and brought her hands palm-up in a ‘maybe yes, maybe no’ gesture. “Would have been worse if it was the other way around…if the Humvees drew her out and you guys were behind us, you’d have been sunk,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter, anyway. What happened, happened.”

“What
did
happen? After we ran?” Peter asked.

Miller sighed, dropped her head into her hands, and rubbed her face. “I haven’t been up this late in a long time. Feels weird,” she said, then straightened. “We were going in, no problem, Nancy was crying a little, saying something about wishing her dog hadn’t run away, and Riker was turned toward her, listening…he was good like that. He’d put everything into what you were telling him, and–”

She broke off, and Promise put a hand on her arm. She had noted how Miller referred to Riker in the past tense, and she felt sickened and sad, but not really surprised.

Miller continued. “She–the vampire–came out of nowhere. I had just heard a rustling, coming from Riker’s side, and he must have noticed it, too. He was starting to turn back, and he had a look on his face, startled and then realizing…but the vampire was already past him by the time he got turned around. She was wedged in the window and grabbing at Nancy. I don’t know why she went after the girl, it was as if she knew that Nancy was vulnerable and–” she broke off again and glanced at Peter. “Do you think they know stuff like that? Can they reason? Because we’ve been assuming a certain level of stupidity and if that’s not the case, then…” she shook her head.

“I don’t know,” Peter said, and his voice held the tiniest shade of impatience. “I don’t speak for them. But yeah, depending on the severity of the disease…I think they might be able to figure more things out than we’ve given them credit for.”

Miller shook her head again then picked up the story. “She had a hold of Nancy’s head, and her other hand was under Nancy’s chin, and…her nails were…digging in. I could see where four crescents of blood were forming, and she was screaming, and Riker was struggling to get his arms up. But he was really pinned. I had Nancy’s other arm, and I was pulling, but I had nowhere to go. I couldn’t take a hand off the girl to open my door because the vampire would have ripped her right out of the truck. So I just held on, and then I saw Billet coming around, and I thought we had a chance. But then its nails, its claws, must have…they must have sunk right into the girl’s neck because all of a sudden I was covered…the whole inside of the cab, it seemed, was…covered in blood. I kept pulling, but Nancy’s arm went limp in my grip, and the vampire started to pull back. I think Lu had it by its feet at that point. It was snarling and snapping and…just before it got pulled clear, it turned and…it bit…it bit into Riker’s throat.” Miller closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, Promise saw that the horror had not yet lessened. Wouldn’t, most likely, for some time to come. Promise understood all at once how much Miller had loved Riker–how much history they must have had together–and she felt slightly ashamed at her own reaction to losing Riker. It seemed childish and melodramatic compared to how Miller must feel.

“Then it was gone,” Miller said. “Billet had pulled it clear, and Lu put a stake in it. But it was too late by then. Much too late. I jumped out of the Humvee and ran to Riker’s side. Nancy was still lying across his lap, and he was sitting back with his hand to his neck. He looked bad. He had lost so much blood, and he was ghostly pale. I pushed Lu and Billet aside and leaned in, trying to get my arms around him to pull him out. He whispered, ‘No,’ and then said, ‘Get going, there are more,’ and I didn’t understand what he was saying. I said, ‘You’re coming with us,’ and grabbed him again, but by then Billet was saying, ‘Holy shit, look at that,’ and I glanced behind me. There were at least five more. They were squatting in the darkest tangle of the tree, and their eyes were…glowing and…” She swallowed. “I leaned in again, I was just acting crazy, and started to pull Riker, and he said, ‘Stop, stop it and go, Kath, I’m already dead.’ His voice was almost gone. His eyes were closed, and his hand dropped away, and his neck was such a mess. Nothing could have fixed that. Then Lu was at my shoulder, and he said, ‘We have to go, Miller, we have to leave him,’ and I nodded…then we were in the Humvees, and the vampires were swaying, shifting around as though getting up their courage or something…Billet had already tossed the bags from our Humvee to Evans so we blasted out of there. Then we caught up with you two.” Her smile was brief and unhappy.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry that you lost him. He was a good person,” Promise said.

Miller nodded, but then straightened as if to show she needed no more consoling. “And now here we are,” Miller finished and wiped her eyes.

The three sat in brief silence as the lantern light danced on the capricious currents of air. Promise remembered how Ash had balked at the downed tree, and her guilt deepened. She wished she had done something.

“What do we do now?” Peter asked.

“Nothing has changed,” Miller said. “We go on, that’s all. We get you guys to the base in Jersey, and then we’re going home to Delaware. I don’t know what happens to us after that.”

“What about what happened at dinner?” Promise asked.

“What about it?” Miller asked, and there was a note of caution in her voice, a note of reserve. She would be honest with them up to a point, the tone said, but they were still just civilians, after all. They didn’t need to know everything.

“Evans was saying something about us…about leaving us behind,” Promise said.

Miller shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what he wants. I’m in charge. I let him talk it out of his system.”

Promise nodded. She had to take Miller at her word, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be even warier of Evans. His animosity toward her and Peter was too apparent for her to let her guard down.

Miller stood. “Well, so, now you know, and I’m going to bed. We’re going to try for fifteen miles tomorrow.”

“We’re not staying here?” Peter asked. “Isn’t it the norm to stay at an outpost for a day at least?”

Miller shrugged, but her eyes were veiled. She didn’t tell them that she been argued into leaving sooner than normal…Evans wanted to get to Jersey as fast as possible and get the ‘babysitting’, as he put it, over with.

“Well, we’re not going to leave at first light so everyone gets to sleep in,” Miller said. “Fifteen or so miles puts us at 81, and that isn’t a bad trek for the horses, is it?”

Peter shrugged. “I guess not, but they could use a rest, same as us,” he said. “Today was rough.”

“Tomorrow will be better. The rain has moved off, so it might even be warmer. You’ll see…when we get to 81, it’ll be like getting a second wind. Two days south from there and we’ll be in Pennsylvania,” Miller said. “That’s a third of the way there.”

Peter nodded, but he didn’t look convinced.

Promise felt a small, not entirely pleasant thrill at Miller’s words. The distance seemed too great. Even though she was the one traveling, she had the oddest sensation that Wereburg–and everything she knew–was slipping away from her while she stood, unmoving and abandoned.

~ ~ ~

Warm light on Promise’s face woke her, and she rolled over to find she was alone in the classroom. Peter must have taken the horses outside to let them stretch and limber up. She felt she could use some limbering, too, after a night in a sleeping bag on the floor. She stretched and got up.

She gathered what little they carried into a bag and shrugged into her coat. Then she went to find Peter.

~ ~ ~

By the end of that day, they’d reached Route 81. If they’d been intact, if they hadn’t lost two members of the group, then they might indeed have gotten the second wind Miller spoke of. But making camp in a small machine shop that afternoon was a desultory exercise, and very few words were exchanged.

During their sweep for vampires, Lu had discovered an interior metal staircase that went to the flat roof of the building. After settling the horses in, Peter and Promise went together to watch the sunset. It had become an uncommon sight.

The soldiers were already on the roof. When Evans saw Peter and Promise, he grumbled something they couldn’t hear.

“Go down, and keep an eye on the camp,” Miller said shortly, and Evans opened his mouth to protest. His eyes swept Billet and Lu, but they both stared back at him impassively. He finally left, cursing.

The five of them faced west, looking over the small town surrounded by woods. The sun was very orange, and the few clouds were painted heavily with reds and pinks and purples. “Tomorrow would be a nice day too,” Miller said and then admonished everyone not to stay on the roof too long, but Billet and Lu followed as she left.

The sun was almost gone behind the trees. To the east, the sky had become a deep, upside down, purple-blue ocean with stars glinting like phosphorescent sea creatures. With no ambient light from the town to block their glow, the stars were sharply white. The moon was surrounded by a yellowish corona.

Peter tilted his head back, eyes closed, and Promise was reminded of the days at the lake. It was just how people tilted their faces to the sun during a hot day, worshipful and glad of the heat. But Peter seemed relieved at the sun’s disappearance and strangely energized by the moon.

“Are you okay?” she asked, and it was a handful of nervous seconds before his eyes opened. He turned to her. The last rays of sun licked soft orange across his forehead and cheekbones, but his eyes were half-lidded and shadowed. A cold wind scuttled into her open coat and danced around her ribcage, making her shiver.

Peter’s head tilted, and he looked at her, vaguely bird-like. His stance was almost…she couldn’t quite bring herself to think it…almost predatory.

“Peter?” she asked, and her voiced squeaked, and that sound of weakness made her angry. “Peter!” she said, more sharply.

“Yes,” he said, not a question but an affirmation: yes, he was Peter. Yes, he was here. Yes. He opened his arms to her, and as the sun sank completely, she hesitated and checked his eyes, debating. Then she folded herself onto his chest.

She tilted her head up to see him better and instantly, his lips were on hers, hungry and demanding. He’d never kissed her like this. Never with such intensity, such desire. She felt herself heating up and melting, both at the same time, her body wanting to mold itself to his, supple and direct.

She tilted her head even further back as his lips traveled over her jaw. Each kiss was like a lick of wet fire, which cooled as his mouth traveled further down her neck. He paused at the pulse in her throat, and she felt the hard ridge of his teeth, skimming her skin lightly, and she gasped.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said, his mouth still at her neck. She both felt and heard the words he whispered. “I would never hurt you.”

His hands became more insistent, his kisses wilder, and she wanted the same thing he wanted. She wanted to let her knees buckle, to sink down with him. But then she stood back sharply, breaking contact. She didn’t want it like this, on a gravelly roof too far from everything she knew with a man who seemed suddenly unknown…unknowable. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.

“I can’t,” she said. “I just…I can’t.” She was near tears.

He reached for her and turned her so her back was against his chest. He folded his arms around her, and they rocked slightly, as if dancing. “It’s okay,” he said. “I can wait.”

She nodded and swallowed her tears. Hot snaps of fear and desire still sizzled and popped along her nerve endings, and the confusing combination was almost dizzying.

They slept the same way through the night, lying near the horses, her back to his front. Her dreams were of water and swimming. The lake, the sun on her face, diving deeply to the colder depths…gasping back into the light and heat like something primordial. Empty beach, hot sand grinding against the delicate undersides of her feet as she ran and ran, looking for her family.

Peter dreamed of running, too, but through a cold, nighttime forest bright with moon and stars. A dark passion whipped through him, filling him up and emptying him out at the same time.

Evans stirred and looked across the shop to the huddled bundle that was Promise and Peter. Resentment wound through him, and he shook his head. He wasn’t entirely sure why they made him so angry. He told himself it was their sense of entitlement, riding along on their horses like king and queen shit of turd mountain. But he’d seen how hard the riding was, and even though it took a toll on them both, they always took good care of the horses. He’d seen Promise go without the parts of her dinner that could be fed to Ash and Snow. So it couldn’t be that.