Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
“While the car charges, let’s try to find the town’s energy source.”
With a slow nod, the familiar tug of curiosity inched through my mind, a persistent hum beneath the surface of my thoughts.
Why here? How is the entire town’s electricity still running after sixty-five years?
I wondered if we were walking into another nest of humans, but surely with the knowledge to create electricity, they wouldn’t be feral, right?
The untouched pristine snow settled like a thick, white blanket.
The skeletal branches of the trees clawed at the pale sky on either side of the street, and the brisk air painted my nose a rosy pink.
Shivering slightly, I crossed my arms tightly across my chest as we walked down the chilly street, only to feel Jude’s warm arm wrapped around my shoulders.
It was like we were in one of the cheesy Christmas movies that played on loop in Elysium during the winter because people love living in nostalgia.
Honestly, it always made me sick. Watching movies around the holidays was something my mom and I did—I haven’t watched one in sixty-five years.
With each step, the snow crunched underfoot, a delightful sound as we neared a hill.
The houses looked quaint and cozy, nestled side by side.
Many looked run-down and old, but the grandeur of their design was still evident.
They looked exactly as you’d picture small-town America: moderate porches with flagpoles that had tattered red, white, and blue colored cloth swaying in the wind.
Each house possessed a fence encircling its perimeter; some were broken or had fallen over due to age.
“Pretty cool place, huh?” Jude asked once he saw my head swivel, gazing at the residences around me. “I’d love to have a house of my own one day instead of sharing a room with hundreds of other people.”
“Yeah, I don’t know how you barbarians do that.” I bit my bottom lip. I didn’t mean it to sound like it did. It just came out.
I swear.
“We wouldn’t have to if the vampires didn’t kill us if they found out where we were hiding, but maybe you forgot that.”
My cheeks burned, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the temperature of the air or because I was embarrassed. I lifted my head, and his piercing blue eyes winked at me. “You’re messing with me?”
A sheepish grin stretched across his face, and he shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, but not really.”
A nervous laugh broke the tension between us as we cautiously began to retrace our steps. “I do agree with you, though,” I said, itching the underside of my arms. “I’d love to have my own space and have neighbors to make friends with. Back in Elysium, it’s just me.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Just you?”
I nodded. “I wasn’t allowed to leave my penthouse without authorization, which was rarely given.”
“So what happened the night I met you?”
A laugh escapes my mouth, remembering the delicious thrill of defying my father. “It was my birthday, and I snuck out.”
“Nice.” Jude bit his bottom lip and put his hand on my shoulder. “I guess we each have our own completely separate gripes, but we can agree that our own freedom and space are important.”
Before I agreed, a sharp tug on my arm shoved me downward onto the cold snow. I recoiled quickly, my heart pounding in my chest, to see what happened. Jude was next to me, kneeling with his head low.
A town square sat at the end of the road, an expansive area I assumed was once a small park with a church situated at its head.
Scattered around the area were small shops perfectly spaced between each other, but the most surprising was what was occupying the space in front of us: Dogs. Lots of them.
The Dogs lazily ambled across the open space, their paws crunching softly on the snow, surveying their surroundings as others basked in the warm sunlight.
If I didn’t know better, these looked like real animals, like deer, grazing in a meadow.
Two Dogs stood rigidly at attention, their watchful eyes scanning the area as if guarding something precious inside.
“Fuck! What do we do?” I mouthed to Jude. I knew any sound we made could alert them to our presence, and I’d rather not fight more than a dozen Dogs.
Clenching his fingers into a fist and extending his thumb, Jude mouthed words back to me. “Head back to the gas station?”
My head turned to the Dogs in front of the church. What could they be guarding? What is hiding in this town? My eyes pleaded with Jude as I reached out, my fingers tightening around his wrist. Together, we ran toward the nearest house.
“What are we doing?” His voice was barely a whisper.
“Let’s go to the church, something’s drawing me there.” It was as if this church was hiding in my memories, and the only way it would come to light was if I got to it. I couldn’t exactly describe the feeling, but it was familiar.
Jude gulped audibly. “Go to the building surrounded by Dogs? Being killed wasn’t on my to-do list today.”
“Maybe this is where we were traveling to all along. Maybe we found it ourselves?” My words lingered in the air as the realization that I may be correct weaseled its way into our minds. Why would the Dogs all be here guarding a specific building? Surely they aren’t God worshipping contraptions.
To say the least.
Jude nodded hesitantly, his grip tight on my hand as we dashed around the side of the house. A weathered red fence, the color bleached by sun and rain, sagged gently backward along the perimeter.
“What’s the plan?” Jude paused, eyeing the sledgehammer leaning against the weathered shed, before asking his question.
“Let’s make our way toward the church,” I answered, looking around. “I was hoping we could run through the back of each house to get closer.”
“Why can’t we?” Jude swung the hammer toward the fence, blasting a hole through its exterior. The wood was so old it barely made a sound as it crumbled under the impact.
I crouched low, feeling the damp earth against my knees as I duck-walked through the narrow hole. “I thought we’d be a bit more subtle.”
“Subtle isn’t part of my vocabulary.”
Most humans aren’t; they use their ego to blow things up and start wars. At least vampires were methodical.
I chose not to engage in his flirting at this moment because I knew he resented it when I made comments about how lowly I thought of humans.
My attention was drawn to the next house’s fence, which was newer than those around it.
It was resin, where most of the others were made of wood.
There was no way Jude’s sledgehammer would bust through it without attracting attention. “Any idea how to get to the next yard?”
Jude silently approached a swaying rope ladder, his eyes focused on the treehouse nestled high among the branches. I watched as a lime-green beanbag flew out the window, landing with a soft thud in the neighbor’s yard. Jude tumbled out right after it.
I gasped, my breath catching in my throat as he soared through the air, with a silent prayer on my lips, hoping he wouldn’t get hurt.
When did I start caring about someone else’s safety over my own?
Running to the fence, I put my cheek to its cold exterior.
“Jude?” I whispered. “Are you alright?” Not a sound reached me, only an unsettling quiet that made me fear he lay unconscious from the fall. “Jude?”
Two heavy, black cable wires flopped over the fence, narrowly missing my face. Jude’s hushed whisper carried on the breeze from the other side of the fence. “Tie these to a tree branch so you can get over here safely.”
“Are you okay?” I whispered back, taking the wires in my palm.
“I-I’ll be alright.” His tone wasn’t convincing. “I didn’t expect it to hurt as much as it did.”
With a grunt, I pulled the cold, damp cables across the yard and carefully climbed the ladder toward the treehouse.
Inside, mounds of untouched snow sat amongst discarded toys and half-read books.
I wrapped the thick steel cables tightly around the massive trunk, reaching through the treehouse’s center.
A metal baseball bat sat in the corner of the room, rusted and unusable.
I balanced the bat precariously on the two taut cables, my hands gripping either side before I pushed off from the treehouse, hurtling toward the next yard.
I soared through the air, and it took every ounce of my strength to keep from letting out a scream.
I knew I had to release my grip on the rope before I reached the end.
Otherwise, I’d collide with the tree Jude secured the other end to.
Once I passed the top of the fence, I released my fists, sinking into the soft, pillowy snow with a muffled thud as the bat clattered to the ground next to me.
Jude ran over to me, his face etched with worry, eyes wide with concern. “Vinny, are you okay?”
I instantly sprang to my feet to prove to him I was unharmed. “Good idea with the wires.”
“I can be smart sometimes.”
He winked at me, and I remembered when his flirting used to annoy me—and still sometimes does—but I’ve learned to find it endearing. Secretly, it made me melt. How could someone infuriate and infatuate me at the same time? What was this hold he had over me?
Behind the house, a stone pathway led to a pale-yellow storefront. Jude gave a quick wave, urging me to follow him through the small trail. “This leads to one of the shops in the village square.”
We walked down the path together, our footsteps muffled by the thick undergrowth that eventually forced us into a single-file line.
As we were hidden on the side of the shop, I saw what awaited us just outside the confines: an area filled with Dogs.
We held our breath, knowing even the slightest sound—a cough, a creak of our boots—could betray us and give away our position.
With hushed footsteps, we entered the small building to quietly devise our plan.