“Come on, baby,” I coaxed it. “Come on.”
Finally, it roared to life, and I tore out of the hotel parking lot. Through no conscious decision of my own, I found myself driving towards the parameter of the magical barrier around the city again. People were camped out in tents and caravans now. Some were simply lying on the ground in sleeping bags. I didn’t envy them. It was as cold as a witch’s tits out here tonight.
I stopped the van a good distance away and scanned the area, just sitting for a couple of minutes and trying to think. That was when I noticed something odd. Vehicles were coming through the barrier from the outside, but nobody could leave from the inside.
It all suddenly made sense. If people travelling into Tribane couldn’t get past the barrier, there would be havoc and the outside world’s attention would be on the city. The fact that people could get in but not out meant that there wouldn’t be any suspicion. Well, at least not until someone started noticing that those who travelled to the city never returned.
Eat your heart out, Hotel California.
A chill ran over me. People jumped up and down, waving their hands at the vehicles coming inside, urging them to go no farther, but the people on the outside seemingly couldn’t see in. It was all a part of the magic.
This needed to be stopped before things got even worse.
I started up the engine again and drove back in the direction of the city. This old wagon wasn’t going to last much longer, and I needed a mode of transport that I could rely on. There were dozens of vans at the DOH compound, so I headed in that direction.
There wasn’t a single whisper of life when I got there, and my gut sank. I’d been internalising the loss, trying not to feel the pain of losing something that was my entire reason for breathing for so long.
Everything was changed, I reminded myself, but all wasn’t lost. I could start again.
I held onto the sentiment because otherwise I wasn’t sure if I could keep going. Keep on fighting a battle that was no longer the same one I’d been fighting for so many years. The idea of peace chipped away at me. Ever since Alora told us about her vision, a sense of longing filled me.
A part of me wished to live in a world where there was no more fighting or killing.
Once I finally reached the entrance to the compound, I used my swipe card to get inside. The emptiness of the place echoed as I headed to the garage and picked out a van. I loaded it up with a couple of crates of stakes, several handguns, some new arrows for my bow, and lots and lots of bullets.
Once done, I leaned against the side of the van and exhaled. I was torn between the need to kill vampires and the urge to just live a normal life. I’d spent so many years on edge, always waiting for the next catastrophe, that I wasn’t sure I could ever be normal. What if there was peace? What sort of life did I want for myself in that world?
I was about to leave when something prickled at the back of my neck, some sixth sense telling me to watch out. Crouching low, I moved down the side of the van just as a dark-haired vamp appeared in front of me, fangs out and a smile on his face like all his Christmases had come at once.
So much for a normal life.
“Sorry, not tonight, Josephine,” I told him with a wink. “There’s a park down the street where I hear the rent boys do a booming business. You might want to try your luck there.”
The words barely left my mouth before the vamp hissed and lunged at me. Luckily, I’d holstered one of my guns while I loaded weapons into the van, and I shot him in the stomach before he had the chance to bite me. The bullet wouldn’t keep him down for long, but I didn’t need long. I just needed one moment of opportunity.
I pulled a stake from my pocket and slammed it straight into his heart. Damn, that felt good. Nothing like a bit of vamp-staking to blow off some steam.
Oh, but if only it were that easy. At least another five came crawling out of the woodwork, and I swore loudly.
“We thought you’d all been killed,” said a sharp-eyed female. “I guess there’s always one that gets away.” She licked her lips and stared at me like I was a prime piece of meat and she’d been starving for weeks.
“You don’t want to do that,” I warned her, aiming my gun at her head.
“Oh, really,” she purred. “And why is that?”
“Because I’ll blow your pretty head off. Now, kindly take a step back. I’ll get in my van and drive away. Pretend this never happened.”
She laughed at me as though amused. Fucking bitch. I hated vampire theatrics, and I’d witnessed plenty in my time. They had a bone to pick with slayers, and let’s face it, why wouldn’t they? It meant they were always very cat-like in killing us. They didn’t just end our lives. They wanted to play with us for a while, see us squirm before they crushed us.
Her laughter ceased, and she dove for me. It almost looked like she was flying for a second. I dropped to the ground and rolled out of her reach before putting a bullet in her head just like I’d threatened to do. I breathed heavily and swore again. That’s when I realised I’d been stupid, because while I focused on the lady vamp, I hadn’t been watching my back.
In this city, you always had to watch your back. I felt fangs sink into my neck before I saw him, a ginger-haired vampire with heavily muscled arms. His hand grasped my neck and squeezed.
“You don’t want to kill me,” I managed to sputter.
He grinned when he released my neck. “Sure, I don’t.” A trickle of my blood ran down his chin, and my stomach churned.
“No, really. Cristescu will be mighty pissed if he finds out I’m dead.” Only because he probably wanted to do the honours himself, but lying was the only way I was getting out of this.
The vampire’s grip loosened. “What did you just say?”
“Cristescu’s your new Personal Jesus, right? He’s a friend of mine. We go way back.”
“A friend?” the vampire asked, gaze narrowed.
“I helped him out when you all had him exiled,” I continued. “If you kill me, you’ll be the next one in the ground.”
I saw the cogs turning in the vampire’s head as he made his decision. “Fine,” he said, grabbing my wrists and pulling them behind my back. “I’ll take you to Cristescu, and we’ll see what he has to say. If you’re lying, I’ll torture you before I kill you.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” I quipped as he and his friends guided me away from the compound and into a garish canary yellow Ferrari, one vamp on either side of me to make sure I couldn’t escape. The vamp I’d shot in the head was still lying on the ground unconscious. I expected she’d be making her own way home when she came to.
“I see you boys like to ride in style,” I commented on the drive, earning myself a sharp punch to the jaw. Shit, that hurt. I wanted to rub where he hit me, but I couldn’t since the vamps had tied my arms behind my back with cable. I was going to have a real pretty bruise on my mug in the morning.
A couple of minutes of total and absolutely creepy silence passed before we turned onto the street where Cristescu had been living before he was exiled. It looked like he’d decided to take his residence of choice back now that he was a supervamp.
We came to a stop in front of the large, three-storey house, and I swallowed hard. Guess I wasn’t going to have the chance to wait until morning to see him after all. I could only hope that Tegan was there and that he’d listen to her when she told him not to kill me.