The forest whizzed by as if it were being sucked down a funnel—a whirlpool of grey and black. Between screams, someone yelled her name. A dark figure in the back of the funnel appeared and disappeared.
Cold hands strangled her arms. The heels of her boots dragged through the dirt. Brush scraped and sliced the flesh on the back of her legs. Her hair flew in front of her face so that her vision was obscured.
She was lifted off the ground, hanging in the air, facing backwards, held up only by the two cold, iron-like clamps around her upper arms. Her feet slammed back onto the earth. She was dragged through the brush and lifted into the air again.
“Come on, you sow!” A man yelled.
Red shouted on her other side. “Shut up! I’m doin’ the best I can!” She wasn’t speaking with the child-like tone she had used at the cabin. Her voice was screechy and harsh.
Jo screamed for help.
“Shut up!” The man pressed his fingernails into Jo’s arm, breaking the skin. She yelped and tried to pull her arm free, but he squeezed tighter and pushed his nails deeper into her flesh. “Come on!” He shouted.
“Go to hell!” Red screamed and panted for air as she yanked on Jo’s arm.
Tree limbs swished and shrubbery snapped. At one point, she heard rushing water and saw the slats of a bridge beneath her, but it went by so fast. After a short while, she was dragged upwards, the back of her heels colliding with rocks. Branches slapped and stung her legs.
Movement stopped. Jo’s hair settled on her shoulders and she found herself looking down the side of a hill. At the bottom was a clearing that rolled up to a line of trees standing in the moonlit distance. Above it all was a starry black sky and the white half-moon hanging off-center and heading downward.
The hands that gripped her loosened. The blood surged back into her forearms. She was spun around, staring into total darkness. The air was ill-smelling, spoiled.
Jo jerked her arms from her captors. She tried to turn and run, but a hand shoved her forward into the black. Instantly, the frigid hands were back around her arms, squashing her flesh and driving her forward.
Her heart raced. God please help me! She trembled. Her stomach clenched. She tried to calm herself with a prayer and a scripture: though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…You are with me. She took a deep breath.
A vaporous light glowed up ahead, like a dull orange fog. Her captors pushed her toward it. The fog effect was dust, and the color from flames twitching in a fire pit. Warm, sour air wafted to her. She glanced around at the rocky, grey walls and the high, dark ceiling of a cave. The wood popped and the flames spat tiny sparks into the stale air. The swirls of smoke rose until they were sucked through a crack high in the wall. She brought her gaze back down. She observed two chairs that matched the ones at the service building and a pile of clothes not far from the fire. Mixed into them, the bottom half of a blue-checked sun dress stuck out. A tingle crawled up her back.
Something moved in the pitch blackness behind the fire, something she had seen before in the dark thickets of the forest: two shiny blue orbs—disembodied, floating in the black air. They drifted closer to the firelight. A gaunt, youthful face filled in around them and a young man walked out of the darkness into yellowish-orange light. Jo’s breath caught in her throat.
He walked around the fire, slowly, and stopped a few feet from her. Jo stared at the radiant blue rings in his eyes. The flesh underneath them was smoky red. This same red color painted his lower eyelids as if someone had swiped eye shadow across them. Black stubble bordered his jaw and darkened the skin over his mouth. His blue eyes glided over her body, from her face down to her feet, and back up. “Let her go,” he said. His voice was deep and sharp. It cut through the sick-smelling air like the edge of a steal blade.
The chilled hands let go. Her arms burned and tingled. She shook them and the blood flowed like needles through her veins.
“We made you a fire,” he said, gesturing at the fire pit. “Don’t have much use for one, ourselves.” He sneered, taking a step closer to her, looking her over once again.
Jo’s mind worked to plot an escape, but the vampire’s mannerism was distracting. She had expected him to be more animal than human. His politeness was off-putting.
“I’m Jon,” he introduced himself. “You know this one.” He flicked his fingers in Red’s direction. “And this is my associate, Morgan.” He nodded at the other vampire causing Jo to look at him, at the stringy brown hair slithering down his thin neck. His eyes and the skin around them, even his eyelids, were black. Against the corpselike pallor of his gaunt face, they looked like empty sockets. His expression was cold. He stood stiff and silent.
“And Reece—well…you haven’t formally met him.” His gaze honed in on her wounded cheek and he smirked. “He’s keeping dinner safe.” His lips thinned, like worms being stretched, into a wry grin. “I think it went well,” he said. His calm tone was disconcerting to Jo. “We had given up on your group, but then we got lucky.” He looked at Red with a twisted grin.
Jo took a deep breath and rubbed her bruised back. “Why didn’t you just come in and get us?” Her voice quavered.
His eyes narrowed. “Unfortunately, most of us need an invitation.”
“We didn’t invite you into that building,” Jo said coldly. “But you came in anyway.”
“It’s abandoned.” His dull black hair was stiff as he pushed it behind his shoulder.
“But she came in the cabin.” Jo pointed her eyes at Red.
“She is not completely one of us—yet.”
Jo eyed Red bitterly. “Is that why you tried to kill Mike?”
Red snarled. “I wasn’t going to kill him. I wanted to turn him.”
“Stupid girl.” The vampire scowled at Red. “You can’t turn anyone yet, idiot.”
“But I want him!”
“Shut up! I’ll decide if he stays.” He licked his lips with a dark red tongue. “There’s a lot of fine blood in those veins.”
Jo pinched her lips and glowered at him.
“I had other concerns about busting into that cabin.” He smirked at her. “You don’t understand what I mean, do you?” He circled her, looking her up and down. She kept still and only moved her eyes to watch him as he emerged from behind her. He stopped in front of her. It was almost impossible not to look at his eyes. “I can hear your heart pound,” he said in a hushed voice. He drew in a breath. “I smell the river.” He took a step closer. “It stinksss.”
Jo crinkled her nose at the odor of his rancid breath. She pulled her head back away from him. “So do you,” she blurted. “You should try bathing. But I guess you don’t like running water.” She could hear Ben’s snuffle in the back of her mind.
Amusement rolled across the vampire’s face. He pursed his dry lips. His hands went to his hips, pushing the sides of his jacket back and opening his shirt wider, revealing a young man’s body in the dark yellow light. He came even closer.
She blinked from his searing blue gaze and moved back, but he grabbed her arms and held them in his spindly fingers. Jo cringed at the touch of his cold, dry hands. She tried to pull her arms from his grip, but his strength was tremendous.
“Red said that you’re a coward. But, I see a speck of courage in those strangely colored…” His voice faltered. The tension in his features melted, eroding his cold demeanor. Abruptly, the brightness of his gaze diminished, turning a softer hue, like pale blue glass, like still, blue water. The icy pools beckoned her. Jo tried to turn her head. He grabbed her jaw. “No.” His hushed voice was desperate. His hand left her jaw and rose upwards. She flinched, but he only pushed her bangs away from her eye, his fingernails lightly scraping across her forehead. His other hand loosened its grip on her arm. “Is it you?” He whispered, his brow crinkling.
Jo’s lips stayed pressed together. She didn’t know how to answer him. She didn’t understand what his gaze was searching for, or what he thought he’d found.
The two others in the c
ave watched him, stiff as stone and silent. Their bewilderment was palpable.
“Jon, what the hell?” Morgan’s tone was angry and impatient.
The wood in the fire pit popped. Jo jumped and blinked rapidly. This brought the vampire out of his stupor and he shook his head. He let go of Jo and backed away, looking at her suspiciously, the blue rings smoldering. He turned away from her, shaking his head. Red and Morgan’s eyes were fixed on him.
Jo glanced at the tunnel leading out. Her adrenaline surged. She took off. She ran a few yards before Jon grabbed her and dragged her back to where she’d been standing. She shuddered as his bony hands once again wrapped around her arms.
“Just kill me! Get it over with!” She shouted.
He pushed her hard against the cave wall.
Jo’s back smarted with new pain. He walked to dark area of the wall, grasping something leaning against it. He brought the item into the light. Jo’s eyes widened at the sight of the object. Her legs shook uncontrollably. She closed her eyes. Just don’t let it hurt, God, please!
“It’s not for you,” the vampire said.
Jo opened her eyes. He held the long wooden scythe horizontally in both hands. The great curved blade at one end pointed to the earth, reflecting the orange firelight on the razor thin metal. He turned it upright with one hand, one end resting on the ground. It was almost as tall as he was. It was just a scythe. But in this place, held by this macabre creature, it was medieval, the promise of pain and death. She didn’t want to imagine what he was going to do with it.
“It’s for your friend.” The blue rings flickered.
Jo stared blankly at him. All she could think of was which friend.
“The watcher,” he said, as if the word burned his tongue.
Her brow crinkled. Watcher? She thought about her friends—wait—they were in the cabin—the vampire can’t get in. But they’re trapped inside. Keeping dinner safe.
He stepped closer to her and spoke in a low, ominous tone as if he knew what she was thinking. “Did I tell you about Reece?” He sneered. “He doesn’t need an invitation.” A chilling staccato chuckle came up from his throat.
Fear crushed Jo’s chest. She drew in a quick breath. “What do you want with me?”
He grinned with malice. “You’re going to be her first kill.” He nodded towards Red.
Red smirked triumphantly. Jo glared back at her.
“But first, you’re my bait.” He gazed at Jo with a venomous blue gleam that quickened her breaths.
“For what?”
“The watcher will come for you—and I will kill him. Then we will do…” Jon hunched his shoulders, “whatever we want to do.” A smile twisted on his lips. He was careful to avoid looking into her eyes.
“Let me kill her, now!” Red leapt at Jo.
“Get back!” Jon shouted. He pulled his hand back to slap her. Red slunk into the darkness. He tapped his fingernails on the scythe’s handle and looked down the cave exit. “So, where is he?” He turned his head to Morgan. “Go out and look around.”
Morgan hesitated.
“Do it!” Jon snarled.
The vampire obeyed, disappearing down the dark corridor.
Jon studied Jo with disgust on his face. He shook his head. “Red, get over here!”
Red scurried to his side.
“You must have made a mistake. He’s not coming after her.”
“But I saw him,” Red argued. “I told you about the river. He—”
“Never mind!” He ran a sharp fingernail down the side of Red’s face, carving a line that filled with blood. Red winced. So did Jo. “You know what to do,” he said in a low tone in her ear. Jo’s stomach turned as Jon licked the blood from Red’s wound. By the time his tongue had sopped up the blood, the slice was gone. Jo swallowed her revulsion.
His eyes cautiously lit on Jo’s. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and stepped closer to her. Jo wanted to back away, but had nowhere to go. Red’s blood stained the front of his teeth and the cracks in his lips. If only she had that aspen branch. She eyed the handle of the scythe. He followed her gaze and snickered. “Go for it,” he dared her.
“Leave my friends alone. Let them go, and I’ll stay here and do whatever you want.” She forced herself to walk towards him, shaking, uncertain of her next move, but the longer she kept him preoccupied, the closer it got to dawn. It sickened her, but she lifted her trembling hand and placed it on the filthy fabric of his jacket lapel. She forced her eyes up to his.
He grinned, his reddened teeth shining. “Ha! Girl, don’t’ think because you bewitched me once you can do it again.” His scaly hand wrapped around hers. Jo tried to pull it away, but he nearly crushed her hand in his. She cried out in pain. “I should eat you.” He snapped his teeth at her. Jo’s head jerked away from him. He looked at Red. “But I’ll give you the pleasure. Try not to make a mess.” He flung Jo’s hand back at her. He gripped the scythe and walked into the tunnel.
“Wait!” Jo yelled. Her mind raced. She had to stall him.
Jon looked back at her, the scythe blade curving out from behind his head, the fire’s light wavering on the polished steel. His freakish eyes burned blue; his malefic expression stopped her thoughts cold. She drew in a breath.
He vanished.
Chapter 27