Cake (35 page)

I felt a sharp stabbing twinge in the corner of an eye and I winced. “We got to stop at a pharmacy first.”

“
Sir?”

“
I need to get some medical supplies for my eyes,” I told him. I really didn’t want Marcus spitting in them again. Sterile eye drops would work just fine for me from now on.

“
I can come back and get you some after I drop you off at home.”

I frowned. There was a little quiver of fear in his voice that hadn’t been there before.

“
Am I in danger, Darius?”

“
Master Marcus asked that I drive you straight to the manor, with no deviations.”

“
I’m going to take that to be a yes…
Darius, watch out!”

If you’ve ever been in a car accident, you’ll know what I mean when I say there are certain noises that are strangely familiar and oddly frightening at the same time. It was like that for me now as, my body slamming forward and hitting the partition hard as the other car slammed head on into us, I heard the sound of tearing metal on metal and the front windshield shattering. Within seconds I was already being tossed backwards and I felt the broken windshield glass land on my face and neck.

The whole back of the limo lifted up and then slammed back onto the street and I ended up landing hard on the carpeted floor. I was surprised I didn’t end up with a concussion. The smashing together of the two automobiles had totally knocked the wind of me.

My sunglasses were gone, and I could feel the shafts of the burning sun searing into the car. There was no protection for my eyes now. “Darius?” I called weakly. I could barely say anything as I lay on the floor.

“
Run, Xavier…Run!”

Hearing the desperation in his voice, I didn’t need telling twice. I scrambled to my knees, my fumbling fingers finding my lost glasses. I grabbed them up, shoving them on my face quickly as I glanced frantically outside the cab. I saw three assailants pouring out of the other car and running towards the left hand door of the limo, so I flipped on my ass and kicked at the right door just as it was being wrenched open, causing it to fly like a rocket into the thug behind it, who dropped like a sack of potatoes.

One down.

I jumped out of the car and I’d made about three steps into the searing sunlight when someone snagged the back of my sweater. I grabbed my glasses off my face, shut my eyes, and then bent over, shimming myself out of the oversize garment. Free again, I started racing away from the reaching hands, running blind until I could get the sunglasses back on again. It felt like I was trying to run the one hundred metre dash in the middle of Death Valley, equipped with grabby hands all around me. What the hell was going on? Was I their target or had they been after Darius? The answer to my question was made deadly clear when I heard three gunshots ring out past my ear.

Oh fuck, fuck, fuck!

I ran like a scared Roadrunner with Wily Coyote on my tail, or like a coyote with my tail on fire.

S
eventeen

Lost and Found

Stick to the shadows. Stay out of the sunlight. Don’t look back. These were the words I kept chanting to myself as I continued to run. When I had first gotten out of the crashed car, I had glanced back over my shoulder to see Darius laying half in, half out of the driver’s side of the very wrecked limo. There had been blood on his face.

Trying not to think about that, I turned a corner and sprinted down an alley as fast as I could go, pushing my sunglasses back on as I ran. Now I was a vampire, I discovered that I was a hell of a lot faster on my feet. But this new speed, combined with my messed-up depth perception, made cornering a tricky business, and I clipped the edge of the building I was running past with my shoulder. Fuck that hurt!

I motored down the back street, not really running with a plan, just more of hopping from shadow to shadow, trying to keep from being sucked dry by the sun’s rays. And all the while I could hear my pursuers racing behind me.

Something fell to the ground from just in front of me, and I glanced upwards to see someone jumping across the gaps in between the buildings. Well, wasn’t that just great! Not only were they following me on the ground, but one of them was apparently running over the rooftops.

Swinging a right at the next corner, I ran straight into a wide stream of sunlight, and I staggered and fell to my knees. Thankfully, because I had thick jeans on, I saved my skin from getting some serious scraping.

I quickly scrambled back to my feet. I couldn’t see properly, even though I still had my sunglasses on. It was just too bright. In front of me, I could hear the sounds of approaching traffic that I couldn’t make out clearly, and behind me, the assailants were coming up fast. With no other choice, I ran out into the traffic and played real-life Frogger.

Horns blared and a few tires screeched, but for the most part the traffic managed to avoid running my skinny ass over, though I got smacked on the arm by an extended mirror on a moving van and ended up crashing into the far curb, where it felt as if I’d crushed my sternum. Ow.

Get up. Get up. Get the fuck up now, I yelled at myself mentally.

I crawled up onto the sidewalk, still blinded by the piercing light, my energy just burning away. Then the sun suddenly darkened as a cloud passed overhead, and I was able to see again. Rolling over I sat up, cradling my arm for a second to see if it was broken and rubbing at my chest because it fucking hurt. Then, glancing back across the road, I saw what I immediately knew to be vampires. There were five males and two females, all staring at me through their thick sunglasses, and every single one of them looking like they wanted to tear me a new ass.

Stop running.

I was watching the group intently, and not a single one of them was moving their mouths talking to me, yet those words had sounded clearly in my head.

Stay where you are.

That touch…That had been the same brutal touch used on me back at Frederick’s store.

We just want to talk to you
.

The leader stepped forward. He was not what I expected, he was scruffy. All the vampires I had met so far were meticulously dressed and well groomed. But this gang of seven across the street looked like biker chicks, gang-bangers, and homeless, all mixed together. Still, this scruffy-looking, mixed pack had crashed the limo and maybe killed my driver/bodyguard. I knew to be weary of them.

“
Talk to me?” I shouted back across to them angrily. “Just like you talked to Darius?”

He made his choice.

How the hell did Darius make his choice? He chose to be involved in a head-on car smash? What the hell was going on?

“
What do you want?”

You. We need Lord Marcus to do something, and he refuses to hear us. You will be our incentive. If he does what we want, then you will be given back to him…mostly unharmed.

“
Mostly unharmed?” I was mostly alarmed.

We need to show that we mean business.

He was in my head. I could hear him loud and clear. Bubble, white bubble. How did I get that white bubble, like a force field, encircling the mind? Shit…The horde was moving forward into the traffic.

I scrambled to my feet and looked around. Running to the right would lead me downtown, but the core would be empty at this time of day. To the left of me there were tall scrapers, meaning bigger shadows, but no safe places to hide. Straight ahead it was then.

I ran out into the road again, only this time, because the sun was hidden behind a cloud, I could see and there were no mishaps. I angled away from the ones intent on chasing me, lucky in that a surge of heavy traffic kept them marooned on the curb I had just abandoned.

My feet hit the far sidewalk and the cloud drifted away, once again almost blocking my visible escape route with its bright light. I was going to owe Marcus one hell of a big reward for having made me pound on a treadmill for a year, because even thought I felt exhausted, I ran on. Relax, find your rhythm.

Sweet dreams are made of this. I couldn’t hear them behind me any more, but that didn’t mean I was going to stop running. I had no idea how far that mind-fuck thing reached, and I wasn’t about to stop to put it to the test. Squinting against the light, I checked the traffic and veered off in another direction. I was fucking lost. I had no clue where the manor was. Marcus had always nailed me to the limo seat as soon as we’d started moving, effectively stopping me from seeing the outside world as it passed by. Now, I couldn’t recognize anything. Crap, even a four-year-old knows their telephone number and address. I knew nothing about where I lived.

There was a park up ahead. I did a quick glance around, saw it was still clear, and crossed the street, disappearing into the greenery. Moving into the middle of the park, I ducked behind a tree and huddled beneath some shrubs, sitting forlornly in the dirt. Even though I was tired from running, I wasn’t breathing hard or even sweating, but I was thirsty. I had a feeling that it wasn’t water I was craving. You are in control here, not your body. Believe that. Believe it.

But even as I tried to convince myself, I felt that now familiar tingle in my mouth as I watched three teens skate up close to me on their blades. My eyes began to burn, and my fangs ached to be extended. I jumped to my feet, startling the skaters as I fled and ran out of the park.

I am in control. I am in control.

Fuck, who am I kidding? My vision was still messed up, and the hunger was getting stronger. I was either going to die out here, or I was going to grab someone and suck them dry. The need for blood pulsed in a regular rhythm that I couldn’t ignore. I had bound Marcus twice when I had drunk from him, though how the hell I’d done that, I don’t know. I did know that if I drank from someone off the street, chances are they would die as I didn’t have the skills to keep them alive.

My frantic mind, puzzling over what to do, finally threw me a life-line. What a minute? Frederick knew Marcus. That meant the shopkeeper probably had his address or phone number. Hell, I’d settle for the phone number. What was the name of Frederick’s store? Joker’s Wilde?

Running to the nearest phone booth I slapped at my pockets searching for some change, only to find them empty. Damn it!

Begging was a humiliating experience for me. I wanted a quarter, I got a dollar. I got a dime. I got pennies thrown at me. I got a flyer for a men’s shelter. I even got a proposition for sex. All I wanted was a fucking quarter! I was desperate enough to start foraging at the ground, looking for loose change that people had accidentally dropped.

“
Angel?” I looked up at the surprised voice, and saw the man in the suit from the day before. “Red Angel?”

I froze. “You remember me?” I asked incredulously. He shouldn’t remember me, right? Didn’t Claudius do his Jedi mind trick on him? It obviously hadn’t worked.

“
You were a sign from God. I would never forget you,” he answered, smiling at me. “What are you doing here, Angel?”

“
I’m lost.” My voice quavered. I wish I could say that it was intentional, but all I could think of was that the man had saved me once. Maybe he would do it again.

“
Where’s your Heart?”

At his question I went to touch my chest, and then I realized what he was referring to; Marcus. “We’ve been separated. I can’t find him.”

“
And your wings?”

“
They went away. I couldn’t, uh…walk among you with my wings showing. Can I drink from you again?” Way to blurt it out there.

He bowed his head toward me in assent. “I would be honored.”