Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Iwas lying on the floor of the van when I came to, feeling nothing but the soft touch of snowflakes on my cheek.
Glass crunched like a thousand tiny bones under my head, and its jagged shards were woven into my hair.
I wondered if I opened my eyes, I’d be looking down at myself, like an out-of-body experience.
The silence around me was deafening and scary.
Where’s Jude? Is he okay?
Garnering courage after my first thoughts since waking, I slowly peeked through my eyelids.
My brain pieced together the battered, vinyl seats of the van, and my body started shaking from the shock.
I lay there momentarily, collecting myself and trying to stabilize my breathing, wondering if Dogs were around before making any moves.
A high-pitched whistling wind was the only sound cutting through the otherwise still air around me.
Finally, I lifted my body, shaking bits of glass from my hair and clothes, the tiny, sharp shards bounced on the floor like deadly hail.
I placed a hand on the smooth seat, then contorted my body to see the front of the van, completely overturned.
In the driver’s seat sat Twelve, her bloodied head bashed against the broken window.
A thick brown tree branch extended from outside into the van, ending its descent through her temple.
Twelve’s face was ashen, her eyes vacant, the scarlet blood blooming on the snow visible through the shattered glass.
Hopelessness and fear washed over me. My throat tightened as my salivary glands surged, and I turned away, fighting the urge to be sick, silently praying Jude hadn’t suffered the same fate.
A massive tree branch ripped through the front seat, leaving behind a devastating scene of destruction, making it impossible to see Jude.
At least he wasn’t impaled, right?
Lifting my body from the floor, I pulled myself over the cold bark.
Straddling the tree, I leaned over and saw a man hanging outside the van by his seatbelt.
“Jude? I scrambled over the branch, the rough bark scraping my skin, with Arthur’s threat echoing in my head.
My heart was in my throat, silently willing him to say something stupid.
Anything. “Jude.” I stared at his face, the involuntary warmth of tears blurring my vision as I searched for the slightest flicker of life.
A pained moan escaped his lips. “Va-Vin? What happened?”
Relief flooded through my body. He was alive.
Kicking my foot over the side of the tree, I reached up and jumped to open the van door above me.
Finding a place for my feet on the worn leather headrests, I climbed to the open door, the cool night air hitting my face as I exited onto the side of the vehicle.
With the van completely overturned, I squeezed through the shattered glass to reach Jude’s door.
I noticed a jagged line of cracked glass snaking from the top of the window to the bottom, and without a second thought, I smashed my fist through it.
The glass shattered into a thousand pieces, and I dove headfirst through the gaping window.
I knew I needed to get him out of the seatbelt—the only thing that likely saved his life—and my fingers trailed along his body, feeling the frantic pulse of his heart beneath his skin.
I found the button, pressed it as hard as my fingers would allow, and unhooked the latch, grabbing his body before it fell over into the tree branch.
A grunt escaped my lips under the strain of his weight; however, I summoned every ounce of strength to heave him through the window.
Gravity was against me, but I needed to ensure Jude was alright.
I hoisted him out the window, his limp body a dead weight against my arms. My body slid against the freezing, metallic side of the van, and we tumbled together onto the cold, snowy ground. “Vincent?” Jude mumbled. “What happened? Where are we?”
He was stirring, and I let out a sigh of relief.
“We’re fine. We’ll be fine.” I was trying to sound reassuring, but I was anything but.
We’re in the middle of nowhere at night with the potential of a herd of Dogs to pounce on us at any moment.
If someone described this scenario to me, I’d have said without a doubt, we were doomed.
And maybe we were.
He grunted beside me and sat up from the snowy ground, holding his head in his hands. “I’m ok, just roughed up from the…crash?” His eyes, glazed with shock, focused on the mangled wreckage of the vehicle as his mind frantically pieced together the prior events.
“Let’s find shelter—it’s a total whiteout, and it’s getting colder by the minute.
” I squinted through the blustery night to try to see if there was a building nearby, but only white tendrils of wind and snow blew around us.
Jude put his hands on the ground, trying to lift himself to his feet. “Be careful!”
He shakily rose to his feet, his body swaying with each gust of wind. “I’m fine. Let’s start walking because we’ll freeze if we don’t move.”
He was right—he’d likely freeze. As a vampire, I knew I’d last longer than him.
I nodded, my hand finding its way to his waist, offering support as he wobbled slightly on his feet.
Together, we lumbered through the waist-high snow.
The biting cold stole the feeling from my feet in mere minutes, leaving them numb and prickly.
A fierce wind lashed our faces, each gust pushing us deeper into the inky darkness.
The ground sloped upward beneath my feet, but my attention was on Jude, desperate to find a safe haven.
“What’s that?” Jude asked, pointing straight ahead.
Outlined against the snowy darkness was a shadow of a small building. My body was shaking, so I knew he must have been absolutely frigid. With haste, we trudged on, in hope that the destination was somewhere we could stay for the night.
The building looked like a small barn, a simple wooden shack with a sagging roof and broken windows. Rotted wood and rusted nails barely held it together, but it was our salvation. The door opened inward, which was a relief; we didn’t have to fight it against the snow.
A frigid draft howled through the dilapidated building, carrying a nauseatingly stale odor.
I wasn’t sure it was a trick of my mind from not being pelted by snow anymore, but I swear warmth began to spread through my body.
Old hay lay strewn against the floor, some golden and others gray.
Four small stables faced each other while various farm equipment leaned against the side of the barn to our left and right.
“It’ll be a good place to protect us for the night.” Jude was gazing upward at the cobwebbed eaves that held the shack together.
“As long as it doesn’t collapse on us from the wind.
” I walked to the stables, rubbing my arms to generate warmth, and realized what the strong smell might have been.
Carcasses of animals lay long forgotten in three of them, their bones brittle and crumbling.
The fourth looked to be the cleanest—no bones or animal droppings were underneath the straw, although mice scurried from their home as we walked near.
“Let’s sleep here,” Jude suggested as he gazed at the stable. “Our bodies will generate heat, and we can create a nest with the hay as insulation while we sleep.”
Where I’d be sleeping never crossed my mind when agreeing to come on this adventure.
I didn’t expect to be sleeping in a stable like an animal.
Although judging by how the humans lived, I should’ve anticipated less, as this barn was nicer than what they’re used to.
My gaze drifted around the room until it landed on an empty burlap sack, its rough texture visible even from a distance, hanging limply from the wall.
My numb fingers fumbled with the cloth before I ripped it apart, spreading the ragged pieces across the hay.
Jude looked at me inquisitively, and I shrugged.
“I guess we could use this as a blanket?”
He smiled. That damn smile. “Works for me.”
I sat on the makeshift straw bed; it wasn’t particularly comfortable, but I could feel the heat collect in the nest around me.
My body ached and yearned for the comfort of my perfect bed.
I lay my head against the cradle, and a wave of fatigue overcame me.
I stifled a yawn, the chill seeping into my bones, and quickly pulled the scratchy wool bag over my body.
Jude’s warm body settled next to mine, his back pressed against me. I appreciated the respect he was giving me. I rubbed my legs together, thinking about Gabe and how I wished he were here to act upon my vampiric desires.
I kept my eyes shut, trying to fall asleep, but rest stayed just out of reach as my mind fixated on every subtle movement around me.
The wind howled, and every gust caused the old shack to groan and shudder, threatening to tear it apart.
From the other side of the ramshackle shack came the unsettling sound of metal chains, each link clanging against the next.
In the back of my mind, I knew one of us should be keeping watch, but we were too tired to care.
We put our faith in the shed to protect us from everything outside, yet every time I heard the rattle, I expected it to be a Dog that found its way inside.
One of the most annoying things keeping me from sleep was Jude’s incessant shivering.
My body was surprisingly warm, so I shimmied closer to Jude, lifting the sack to cover him. It only draped a sliver of his body, but the small amount of coverage seemed to quell his shaking.
He rolled over, and we came face to face. “Thanks for sharing with me.”
His warm breath felt nice against my cold nose, and his light blue eyes were glowing in the darkness. Before I could stop myself, a sudden urge washed over me, and I leaned in to kiss him.
What was I doing?