Chapter 14 The Getaway
THE GETAWAY
BAZ
Four and a half hours.
The problem with chaotic plans is that you’re most concentrated on the first part and often fail to give enough attention to all the pieces that fall after. They were asleep, right, okay. Where were the fucking keys? I shook out Orson’s pants in frustration and with no luck.
Right, okay, perfect. I shook out Nemo’s pants.
Nothing. Quickly, I gathered up my clothes and boots, then left the room.
I slipped on my gloves and stood there naked while I thought about where else to check.
Well, naked except for the gloves and Orson’s watch.
I turned my arm and glared at the clock hands—still four and a half hours.
With a thick swallow and a deep breath, I pushed down the desire to panic. Everything was going according to plan. Bree had drunk them, and they’d all passed out—exhausted from missing sleep, being on the run, and losing blood. Or in Bree’s case, drinking and fucking too much.
Of course, if anything at all went sideways right now—for instance, one of them waking up, or me not being able to find the keys—then I’d kill the three of them. Thank god it was just that and not something traumatic. Oh wait …
I put on the rest of my clothes and went to the kitchen.
Nothing was on the counters except empty Chinese takeout containers and empty blood bags.
The lingering scent of fried foods, sweet syrups, and iron hung in the air, reminding me of dinner.
It was nice having a meal outside the asylum with them all.
With delicate movements, I slid open one drawer after the next—careful not to create too much noise. The older wooden cabinetry kept jostling, threatening to shake silver utensils.
The three sleeping bodies in the room down the hall had preternatural hearing.
Way better than mine. For all I knew, it sounded like a cafeteria brawl about to startle them awake.
So, I slowed my efforts even further, leaning in as close as I could to catch the sound before they might.
Every second was rapidly eaten by the next as I drew out my searching to a sloth’s pace.
And after all that effort, nothing. I looked at the watch. Fifteen minutes gone. Shit. I needed all the time I could get. It wasn’t just about getting out of this house. It was about driving out of the woods, contacting Supra, and getting picked up before I started to kill everyone around me.
I wanted to be safely behind locked doors for the big hoo-rah. What would happen when time was up? Would it hurt? Would I unintentionally kill Supra before they could lock me safely away from everyone? One thing for sure, I had to be as far away from here as possible.
I dragged my fingers down my masked face with a muted groan.
Orson had driven. Plus, this was his cabin.
If I were Orson, where would I put the keys?
I chewed on my lip as I put myself in his shoes.
A vampire, a serial killer, a therapist …
liked things orderly. Well, unless it was sex.
So where would I put my keys? I stood there with a blank mind.
Wow, I was astonishingly terrible at empathy or mind-reading, whichever people-skill set it took to think like someone else.
The living room offered no clues. I looked over the couch, the coffee table, the dinner table, and chairs—there wasn’t much to see.
Quietly, I slid over to the couch and grabbed the cushions, failing to rip them off when I realized they were sewn in.
I blew out an annoyed breath and began to finger fuck the couch cushions, attempting to seduce its secrets out of it.
When I felt the rigid tip of metal, I went knuckle deep into its crack.
A moment later, I held my breath as I pulled out keys— Wait, no. It was loose change. Fuck.
I went back in, but five minutes later, all I had for my effort was a collection of coins and a satisfied couch.
I pocketed the money, hoping I could use it to make a phone call in one of those street booths.
I tried to remember where I’d seen them in movies.
There hadn’t been one at the grocery store or gas station.
Orson had dumped his own cell phone after the grocery store.
I gave the rest of the room a glance, but my eyes snagged on the front door.
Every minute in this house was stifling.
The urge to flee pressed on me. Each moment inside was a risk that could ruin my entire plan.
They’d never let me leave if they woke up.
However, I needed the keys, and the keys were likely in the house … weren’t they?
Before I knew it, I was across the room, my fingers wrapping around the front door’s knob.
I gave it a firm squeeze and then twisted it.
Night spilled in—fresh air, darkness, and the soft sounds of night birds and insects.
It felt motionless beyond the house. The third night outside Verfallen felt as odd as the first.
I stepped onto the porch, and the wooden beams creaked beneath my boots. Grimacing, I closed the door as slowly as possible. With utmost care, I stepped on every fucking creaking piece of wood on the deck, hissing curses in my head. Finally, I jumped off the top, skipping the steps entirely.
After straightening myself, I looked up.
The forest at night was vast in a way the halls of the asylum could never hope to achieve.
The tips of jagged tree tops framed the expanse of space.
Stars glittered silently above. My attention slid down, my eyes settling on the darkness of the treeline caging me in.
I tried to make shapes out of shadows, and the sensation of being watched pressed against my clothes.
For a moment, I waited motionlessly, wondering if Supra might already be here, waiting for the perfect moment to silently emerge from the trees and take me away from the people I cared about.
My heart beat hard in my chest as I imagined it. It was strange to be scared of the very thing I was willingly running towards, wasn’t it? I didn’t want to leave them just like I didn’t want to be untouchable.
But more than all of that, I didn’t want to kill Bree, Nemo, or Orson. So I had to give it all up. I had to be alone. Because, like it or not, I was born to be untouchable.
Supra never emerged despite the paranoid sensation of being watched.
The dirty white van waited just beyond the stone path, still promoting free candy in fading paint.
My fingers slid into the driver’s door handle.
A groaning screech of metal pierced the night air as the door opened.
I ground my teeth and stared at the cabin.
My heart pounded in my chest, and I considered running, but when a second went by with no one bursting from the house, I waited.
Another few seconds went by. I strained my ears and stood on the balls of my feet, ready to burst into open forest and fall off a cliff.
No one had come out of the house. However, I had a feeling my time was running very short now.
I threw myself into the van and pulled my mask off, unable to see through the eye holes to effectively look in the darkness.
Keys, keys, keys. Every second felt important now.
Did I hear something? I wasn’t sure. They might be up in the house right this minute, slowly coming to the realization I wasn’t inside. Shit.
Not in the cup holders, not on the dash.
God, what if I couldn’t find it? I looked at the watch.
Four hours. But what did that matter when I needed to leave this very minute?
Any second, they were going to come racing out of the house, and they wouldn’t let me get away.
They’d make me kill them because they couldn’t let me go.
If that didn’t show how much they wanted me with them, I didn’t know what did.
But I needed them to give up on me, and I needed the fucking keys.
I flipped down the visor, and the keys fell into my lap.
I picked them up and just stared. It hit me hard as I looked at the dangling metal.
I was never going to see them again. When they’d all been asleep in the bed together, I hadn’t thought about it being the last view I’d ever get.
They had been a vicious, slumbering puppy pile of over-sexed villains.
With a swallow, I slid the keys into the ignition and then took another moment to sit there, not turning it on.
Should I go back in and look at them one last time?
I knew I shouldn’t. Time was up, and it was now or never.
And as much as I didn’t want now, I couldn’t live with the repercussions of never.
I patted my pocket and then pulled out the two syringes and my mask.
The little notes were still on the vials.
I put the syringes away again, pulled on my mask, and shut the door.
When I twisted the key, the engine roared to life, silencing the forest. I couldn’t hesitate a moment longer.
It was time to leave forever. Hopefully, they’d forget me in time.
“I am not crying; the mask is irritating my eyes,” I growled at no one, slamming my foot on the gas. The engine roared and … I went nowhere.
“Well, fuck, that wasn’t right.” When making chaotic plans, sometimes you forget to thoroughly consider the next step while stressing over the current one.
Yes, I’ve got them all to pass out. Yes, I finally found the keys.
No, I did not understand driving perfectly.
But I’d watched Orson and seen it in movies.
I grabbed the lever and slammed my foot down again.
The engine roared, and the lever wouldn’t move. Shit. Shit. Shit.
When all the doors opened around me, I screamed.
It was embarrassing. Suddenly, Orson was shoving me out of the driver’s seat, Bree was climbing into the passenger seat, and Nemo was crawling in the back and slamming the sliding door closed with a thud.
Orson deposited me directly into the wolfman’s angry arms.
“What the fuck,” I spat, scrambling out of his hold and further into the back like a cornered animal.
“Look everyone, Baz got the van warm for us.” Orson winked at me in the rearview.
“But … I was …”
“Trying to leave?” Nemo asked. He looked at me like I was pathetic. “That was obvious.”
“Weren’t you all dead asleep?” I asked. Orson started to drive down the old forest road, heading back towards civilization.
“Bree drank while we were out getting food, booking plane tickets, and grabbing fake passports. She didn’t need those blood bags you drained.”
“The blood bags that … that I what?” I asked nervously, chuckling a little.
“Right,” Orson deadpanned. “Bree didn’t drink much from us. A little taste.”
“What was your plan exactly?” Nemo asked. I looked around at the others, and they waited in annoyance for my answer. They didn’t know about the notes from Supra then. I checked my watch.
“Doesn’t matter. Did you say plane tickets?” I asked. My eyes slid to the backdoors of the van.
“We’re leaving the country,” Bree said. She was refusing to look at me, clearly hurt that I’d tried to bolt. I swallowed thickly.
“How long does that take?” I asked.
“About two hours to the airport, if there’s no traffic,” Orson supplied.
Nemo’s gaze followed me as I shifted around the van.
He was crouched down and was ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.
The look shining in his dark eyes was focused.
Nemo wasn’t particularly fast, but he was big, and we were close.
It was going to be hard getting away. Impossible, maybe.
But I had to try. I wasn’t going to be willingly kidnapped by my lovers.
I launched at the back of the van, and Nemo tackled me to the ground.
My hands pressed against him, and I started to push my venom, then ripped my hands away in a panic.
Cold dread spread across me. What if I could kill him already?
I twisted away from him, desperately reaching to put distance between us.
“Let me go!” I yelled, but Nemo held down my shoulders, pinning me against the metal floor.
“You’re scared—” Nemo started.
“Of course, I’m fucking scared!” I yelled.
The van went deathly silent, shocked by my honesty.
“You’re forcing me to kill you all. How do you think that makes me feel?
” I then gave off a long string of expletives, perhaps some name-calling, and occasionally a few low blows.
Despite my cruel words, panicked curses, and bursting anger, they said nothing.
Nemo crawled off me at some point because it really didn’t matter; the point was clear, I wasn’t getting away while in this van.
I ripped off my mask, panting and still spitting mad.
“Ssseriously—” I cut myself off with wide eyes. I reached up and touched my tongue, feeling the deepened fork. I snapped my mouth shut and dropped my head in my hands with a groan.
“Imagine how nice it would have been if our lassst time together was fucking. Instead, we have fighting,” I said.
“I knew a girl who had her tongue split by a piercer,” Bree said. “She had to relearn how to pronounce some things, but eventually sounded the same as before.”
“Oh, great. Because that wasss my biggest concern.” I sat there wiggling my tongue in my mouth, practicing words as we drove.
After a while, I could hear cars around us and saw their headlights coming through the windshield.
It was a big road, with lots of vehicles. I could barely hear myself think.