My stomach tightened. I wasn’t going to be able to eat any more. I set down my lunch. “That’s really what you want? To have to feed off of people’s blood?”
“I do. You don’t?” She leaned forward. “That was my theory. That you wanted them to change you.”
I shook my head, fast. “I don’t want anything to do with any of it. I only found out yesterday. I don’t want any more bites. I don’t want to be a vampire. I want to be free of this, and I want them free too.”
Her face fell. “Maci, you know…that isn’t going to happen. If the Great Ones dragged you into this, then you’re in it. The best you can hope for is to become a paramour, but you’re so young, I don’t think they would allow it yet. Which makes you one of us—the servants. Or I suppose they might…”
Charlotte stopped talking, but I filled in the blank. “Or they could kill me.”
“Yes.” She shrugged. “Maybe you’ll change your mind. I’d love to have you around. I mean, I’m only twenty years old. You and I are close in age. The others are older. I’d love to have a friend. I don’t have that many friends. Or any, really.”
I had the guys. They were definitely my friends. “I don’t have girlfriends.”
“Great, so when you come to your senses and you realize you want to embrace this gift you’ve been given, we’ll be besties. When we’re not working, we’ll watch movies and have fun. Unless they make me a paramour before then.”
Charlotte was weird, but then again, so was I. And it had been a really long time since any girls had been nice to me. “Okay. If somehow I am now a servant, I’d like very much for us to be friends.”
“Great.” She grinned.
Maybe someday, she’d tell me what she was trying to escape. It really was none of my business, but if this life seemed like the one to trade up for, then something was wrong. Lately, there had been so much airing of secrets, I had to remember people were entitled to theirs.
“So what’s your favorite food? Because I know the best places to go out for some. I mean, I’m almost never hungry anymore. But when I am, I love Thai. How about you?”
Looks like she decided we’re friends already.
Twelve
The rest of my school day was quiet. I enjoyed visiting with Charlotte, even if I knew she’d chosen to become the feeding tool for a vampire in exchange for doing chores and running errands. It didn’t seem at all equitable to me.
Ace’s car was right where I’d left it, and I figured out how to turn on the radio. It was fun to drive—the steering wheel was sensitive, and the car responded fast. I was grinning by the time I got to my trailer. A man near the entrance waved when I drove by. He’d lived there for years and was just about as out of it as my mother. If he thought it was weird to see me in a car that cost more than I’d probably ever make in a year, he didn’t indicate it. I wondered if he even noticed.
For that matter, did he know we lived surrounded by vampires? Did my mother know? Were they at all concerned about it? Did the vampires just avoid this part of town? Were they only willing to feed off the rich? Did their blood taste better?
I had so many questions, my brain was like a train headed for the station at too fast a speed. I might crash at any moment.
I parked the car before Ace’s vehicle took the brunt of my issues. I didn’t want to explain how I dinged it up. What was going to happen to their cars when they were changed? Fuck. There I went again.
The door to our trailer hung open. Really? Had my mother not even locked the door before she left? I’d be lucky if I had anything left. I sighed. Once again, I had to see what kind of mess she made. Did I even live there anymore?
I stepped inside and came up short.
No. It really couldn’t be him. The man my mother had tried to give me to sat on the couch. He drank a beer which he set down with a loud clunk when he saw me.
“Well, look who we have here. Mommy’s little girl.” He was drunk, slurring his words.
I took a step back. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for your mama.” He rose. Once again, I was struck by how badly he smelled and how much bigger than me he was. Fear moved through me, and he’d barely even said anything yet. “She owes me a lot of money. Where is that bitch mother of yours?”
I wasn’t an idiot. It might have taken me a second too long, but I turned and ran out of the trailer. My heart raced in my ears. I had to get out of there. No one was coming to rescue me this time.
No one would call me athletic, but I wasn’t horribly slow, either. I almost made it to the car before he caught me. Sheer size let him cover longer distances than me. Holding my arm in a vise grip, he glared at me. “I asked you a question, bitch.”
“I don’t know where she is. Once again, she’s skipped town.” Why the fuck did I come here? I didn’t need my stuff this badly. I could have just done without.
He stared at Ace’s car. “That’s a fancy ride. Looks like you’ve traded up. One of your rich boy toys give you that car?”
“I borrowed it. It’s not mine.” He pushed me back against it, his unclean body pinning me to the door. With weight alone, he kept me pinned.
“Ah, but they’ll have ten grand. I bet they have it in their pockets. How much would they give me for you? If I sent them, say, your pinkie, would they send me ten grand for it?”
This wasn’t going to end well. All my life, I’d been terrified of becoming a statistic, ending up like my mother. Dead because of this douchebag never hit my list of possible endings. I’d almost rather be taken out by the vampires. Almost. Maybe not.
As fast as I could, I raised my knee and jammed him in the balls. He made a sound like he wanted to vomit and gasped at the same time. I shoved at him, and he fell back two steps—enough that I could get past him. I ran for the woods. I was never supposed to go there. Mom’s fucking rules. Who cared now? I had to get there as fast as I could
I wasn’t so lucky. Even in his stumbling, he grabbed onto my leg. I fell forward, my head hitting the ground as I failed to catch myself. Right onto a rock, my forehead cracking like a dish breaking on the ground. Stars passed behind my eyes. I didn’t know what happened. I couldn’t see anything, but somehow, despite the world spinning, the man gripping my leg, and at the overall sense that I’d just been destroyed, I kicked backward, hitting him in the face.
Vision returned but only barely. Blood rushed into my eyes, coating my face like ice cream melting down a cone. I pulled away, and after crawling for a second, stumbled to my feet. Somehow, not at all sure how I could function or even think, I ran to the woods.
“You bitch!” he called after me.
The asshole was not going to let this go. I wasn’t okay. Nausea rushed through me, but I knew—somehow, even though I couldn’t think—I knew I couldn’t puke. He’d catch me if I did.
I ran forward, hoping the trees would hide me. Really, I had no idea where I was going. None whatsoever.
“I will bury your body so deep, no one will ever find you.”
He was too close. I tripped. A ledge.
Falling.