Chapter 21
Kaya
I’ve never been the holidaying kind, exactly. Sitting around and doing nothing does not come naturally to me.
I flew out to California, thinking the sun and beachy vibes would be good for me. Instead, I got annoyed by the people in their flip-flops and fake friendly smiles. It had to be fake, right? Nobody could be that friendly all the time? Or maybe they were stoned, that could be the only other reason.
I got myself a board and went surfing a few times but I got bored lying on the board, waiting for the waves to come in.
After a few days away, I called Josie, my friend at the agency and asked if I could see her. I’d been thinking about it and I didn’t want to ask over the phone.
“You want to come see me? Why?” she sounded very suspicious and I couldn’t blame her.
“I’m in the neighborhood, anyway,” I joked. The flight to Washington was not nearly as far now that I was in California. “I’d love to see you, seriously,” I said. “I’m going to lose my temper with these surfer dudes. I’m close to decking one of them.”
“Bro…” she teased me. “That is so uncool, man.”
We laughed and she agreed to meet me the next day.
I was glad to get out of the Golden State, which had held very little shine for me. Even though there were definitely less vampires, I still could not shake the feeling that I was being watched. I had booked rooms in a cheap motel and even though I stayed in most nights, I would occasionally slip out for pizza and a beer. One evening, I’d gone to a bar where I felt someone watching me all night long.
I looked over my shoulder constantly, jumping every time someone touched my shoulder. I’d thought maybe to hook up with someone to get the thought of Jack out of my mind but nobody came close to him.
These surfer boys looked like pretty toys compared to him. They didn’t have his intensity, his presence. I hoped this didn’t mean that I now had a taste for vampires. As an experiment, I let my eyes wander over the bar, checking out the men, so to speak. I caught someone’s eye, a tall, bearded fellow who was my type, macho, rugged, all testosterone. He didn’t have the pale vamp look but I knew by now that this could be deceptive too. He saw me looking and nodded in my direction. I lifted my beer to acknowledge him.
Minutes later, he came over, introduced himself and asked to buy me a beer.
I said yes and regretted it in the space of ten minutes.
He started telling me about his new fake fish product that tasted JUST LIKE fish but was really compressed lentil and onion. It sounded disgusting. He was all about saving the fish and the oceans, the pollution and the blah-blah. I stopped listening when he got into the details of drying the lentils and pressing them into fish shapes. Seriously.
I finished my beer and got up to go.
“Where are you going?” he asked me, clearly thinking we were onto something here.
“We’re done here,” I said and walked out of the bar.
The whole way back to the motel, I felt someone was behind me but even though I turned around a few times to check, I couldn’t see anyone. I knew there was a chance that I was imagining it. That is why I went to bed that evening, put out the light and lay there for a while until it was really quiet, then slipped out of bed, crawling along the floor and sidling up to the window to carefully peek outside.
It took me a while and it wasn’t what I expected but, finally, I found the shape on the other side of the street. I could make out the red eyes in the dark. Something was definitely watching the motel but was it threatening me or guarding me?
I got out my knife and quickly opened the door but as soon as I was out in the parking lot, the animal was gone. I crossed the street to where I’d seen it but there was nothing there.
The next day, I checked out early and made my way to the airport to get to Washington. I’d arranged to meet Josie for lunch at a place near the office. We knew each other back from when she’d worked at the agency, giving me assignments and processing my pay cheques. She was wheelchair-bound but that didn’t stop her from getting around and she refused anyone’s pity.
I liked her no-nonsense approach to life. She knew that life was unfair and shit. And so what.
I felt the same way.
When I arrived at the café, she was already there, looking just like she did last time I’d seen her five years ago. She had spiky hair, rings through her nose and lips, and a twinkle in both her eyes.
“What’s up, bitch?” she asked me.
I got right to it.
“I need to get my hands on occillite. Do you know what it is?”
“Woah, girl? Seriously?”
Of course she knew what occillite was but it was very scarce these days and most sources had dried up. People who had it tended to hide it in safe places.
I told her about the explosion and Simon and the time with Jack, and all she wanted to know was what the sex was like.
“Bloody good,” I said, and she slapped the table, laughing at my pun.
“But seriously, I need some big guns to help me in my next fight. Because there will be one and I’m not the girl I used to be.”
Josie said she would try to find the stuff for me.
“Another angle could be to track down this guy. Only name I have for him is Big G. That might be Greg. He is a Native American from Wak’aha’a. He came to Hawston and said he was going to try and disappear. The Wak’aha’a mined the stuff. The entire tribe was wiped out about the same time as my family was. I’m not sure if anyone else has found a way of making this stuff.”
“It would be worth a fortune,” said Josie thoughtfully. “Let me make some calls. I’ll get back to you.”
That evening, I got a call from Tina, asking me to come back. Princess was ill and asking for me. I got the next plane back, going straight to Tina’s house. I found Princess with a raging fever and mumbling incoherently. I took her to the hospital, where they admitted her and gave her something to break the fever.
“Something’s been going on in town for the last few weeks,” Tina told me. “I think it’s the water, so many people have been sick.”
I called Fuzz, he said he was down with the bug as well and wanted to know when I could work.
“I thought you could handle being without me,” I said, jokingly.
“Ha-ha,” he said weakly. As it turned out, Roberto was off sick too.
I spent the night with Princess in the hospital and the following day, she was released. After making sure she was tucked safely in bed, with some snacks and a movie on, I decided to check on the shop.
There were some cars booked in for small jobs, a fender repair and an oil leak, which took a bit longer to trace. Then I got a call from someone needing help with a flat tire.
The guy asked me to bring a tire and gave me directions to where he was stuck by the side of the road. I didn’t think twice. I took the workshop truck and headed out to his location.
It was late but not yet dark.
I found the truck, saw the flat tire and, as I was about to get out, saw a text from Tina. She asked me to look in on Princess. I got out, thinking about her, not paying attention to the man at the car.
“You called for help?” I asked without really looking at him.
“Sure did. Thanks for coming out so quickly,” he replied. “If you’ve got the tire, I can put it on myself,” he said.
I turned to take the tire out of the back of the truck and an instant too late, I saw the movement coming towards me. The man jumped on my back, the glint of the knife in his hand coming towards me.
I managed to twist out of his grip and punched him in the face but I had no weapons on me. I knew I couldn’t take weapons to the hospital, so I had not been armed that day. I needed them now.
I didn’t have much time, I had only my keys, so I took aim for his eyes, sticking one deep into his eye socket. He screamed in agony and I ran around to get back into the car to drive off but I wasn’t fast enough. He was at the window, clawing at me, when I saw someone or something rip him away from the car and throw him against a tree like a rag doll. The man slumped on the ground.
“Jack?”
I saw Jack walk over to the body on the ground and stick something into it, to make sure the guy was dead.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“What are you doing here?”
I had not seen him in almost two weeks. My heart was beating fast and I could barely breathe.
“I could feel you were in danger. I came as soon as I could. Fortunately, I wasn’t far.” He pointed in the direction of the castle, which was not far away.
“Who was that?” I asked, looking over at the man who had attacked me.
“I’m going to find out,” Jack said, darkly.
There was an awkward silence.
“Well, thanks for… that,” I said.
“Any time,” Jack said, smiling at me, that killer smile that I found so hard to resist. I quickly turned around and drove off, forcing myself not to look in the rearview mirror.
I couldn’t deny it, I still had feelings for him. Lots and lots of feelings I had no idea what to do with.