Chapter 3
Chapter Three
D eclan
As if they know we’ve spotted them, the line of black cars surges closer, cutting off a painter’s truck and a soccer mom in a blue minivan. In another half mile, they’ll be up our arses.
I try to focus, to see if I can make out any shapes beyond the illegally tinted glass, but I keep getting distracted. The wee goth chick in the front seat smells like a juicy hamburger with a side of chips. Just like me mam used to fry up. It’s driving my wolfie wild.
Her waving around a shotgun doesn’t help. It’s sexy as hell. “I got this.” She opens a window.
“Not so fast,” Parker hisses. His caution fecking annoys me, but in this case, it’s warranted.
“Ya can’t just go shooting off in public,” I tell Fiona. She bares her teeth at me. She’s got little canines, more blunt than sharp. What exactly would her animal be? Usually blunt teeth mean prey animal, but I don’t see her running and hiding like one. Then again, maybe all her bluster is because she’s scared as hell. There’s a heat to her scent, like someone poured pepper on a slice of Monterey Jack and put it on the burger patty.
Fecking delicious.
“They won’t take us alive,” she growls. With her shoulder-length black hair and dramatic eye-makeup, she looks like a warrior princess. A warrior princess with access to a Mac makeup counter.
“Hang on now, it’s not come to that–” Parker says. He guns the bus, increasing the speed and gliding into the far left lane. The SUVs follow. “Let’s just think this through.”
“Who the hell would know about this mission?” I ask.
“Fucking vampires,” Fiona snarls.
“That doesn’t make sense.” Parker cranes his head, checking the sun. “It’s still light out. They can’t come out in the sun…”
“Those windows are tinted, though,” Fiona says. “And if they chase us long enough, it’ll be dark.”
“Feck,” I mutter. She’s right. If they’re vampires, we’re in a race against time.
“Look out!” Laurie shouts. The closest SUV has sped up, flying towards us to butt our bumper.
“Hang on.” Parker grits his teeth and wrenches the wheel to the right to take the exit we just passed. The front wheels hit the strip of gravel between the highway and the ramp, and for a moment we’re all airborne. We come down with a hard thud. There’s a clunking sound, and I wince. Hope that wasn’t something essential.
Parker guns it up the off ramp. Beside me, Allison has bounced right into Laurie’s lap. She clings to him, and he to her.
“My hero,” she tells him, and he freezes, his eyes as big as dinner plates behind his Coke bottle lenses.
I grin and give him a surreptitious thumbs up.
“Ahem.” Fiona is glaring at me. Probably doesn’t like the sight of Laurie getting cozy with her friend.
I lean back and pat my lap. “There’s room enough for ya here, if you need savin.”
Her eyes take on a red tinge, like a demon from hell. I’ve never seen a shifter like that before.
“Fascinatin’,” I breathe, leaning forward.
She blinks, startled by my interest, and the evil light disappears. “You’re suicidal.”
“When it comes to you, I’ll throw myself on your claws, just to feel your touch. It’d be worth it.” We blink at each other. I’ve never said something so honest so early in the seduction process before, but when you’re being chased by vampires and facing the end, ya gotta give it everything ya got.
“Will you stop flirting and help me shake these yahoos?” Parker shouts. One of the SUVs has backed up on the highway to follow us up the exit. Its buddies are probably circling around to trap us.
“Take a left,” Fiona barks and guides us on a series of turns that I can barely follow. We end up on a single lane road, empty of cars.
“We’ll head into the mountains.”
I peer up at the peak. “Ya sure this bus can make it?”
“If not, we’ll have to go on foot,” Parker says.
“At least until I hot wire another bus,” I add without thinking.
“I knew it.” Parker slaps the steering wheel. I knew you stole it.”
“Borrowed without permission.”
“Same thing!”
“Take this right,” Fiona orders, and we’re off road again.
Another giant bump, and the radio comes on, blasting us with fuzz. We all scream and clutch our sensitive shifter ears. Like a foghorn two inches away. “Turn it off! Turn it off!” I yell.
“I’m trying,” Fiona’s fingers dance over the dials. It catches a country music station, and the guitars twang high enough to make my wolf whine.
“Not that!” I yelp. “Anything but that!”
Allison buries her face in Laurie’s shirt, her hands over her ears. Laurie covers her hands with his.
Another twist, and Nat King Cole’s smooth tones fill the van. “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.”
“Sweet relief.”
Allison and Laurie are still looking quite cozy on the seat beside me.
“Do ya celebrate Christmas?” I ask Allison. She nods.
“We celebrate watch-Elf-and-get-presents day,” Fiona says.
“Aye, lass, same ting. Christmas.”
She shakes her head and sends another wave of that delicious diner fry up scent my way. My fangs have sharpened enough to cut my tongue. I’d like to take a big bite outta her. I turn my head away to gulp some fresh air.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Ah, my lovely Fiona. Too many tings to tell ya.”
“Figures.”
In the hills, the radio station crackles and falls silent. Fiona messes with the dial halfheartedly but can’t find anything, so we listen to the rickety rattling of our van as it wheezes up the road.
“What happens if the vampires catch us?” Allison whispers.
“They won’t,” I say because it’s unthinkable.
“D-d-don’t worry. I’ll protect y-you,” Laurie whispers back. Allison seems to accept this, but Laurie gives me a desperate look.
The cars may or may not have vampires inside them, but if they do, once darkness falls, they’ll be a whole lot more powerful. And the sun is dropping lower and lower in the sky with every passing mile.
We need a plan, and we need it fast.
Allison
The little bus huffs and puffs up the mountain. We all lean forward, as if our weight will give it more momentum.
Laurie’s folded up next to me. He’s so tall, his knees poke up a foot over the seat. Every chance I get, I lean into his arm. A red flush spreads up his neck, but he never tells me to stop.
Some nights, when Fiona’s whimpering wakes me up, I lie in my sleeping bag and imagine being cradled in white feathers. It always makes me feel safe.
Now I realize who I was fantasizing about.
But there’s no time to dwell on that, not while we’re on the run.
“Get us as high as possible,” Fiona says.
“Working on it,” Parker grits out. There’s a long, low whine coming from under the bus’s carriage. Every now and again, I get a whiff of burnt oil and grinding gears.
“I can call us help,” I say.
“No cell service up here, lass,” Declan says.
“That’s not what she means by calling,” Fiona snaps back.
I tune them out, trying to figure out who I can call. What animal would help us best? Some coyotes, maybe a cougar. But the vampires can kill those animals as quickly as they can kill us, probably easier. It’d be cruel to call them to me and their doom.
The van is practically gasping for breath by the time it reaches an overlook halfway up the mountain.
“Stop here,” Fiona points.
Laurie reaches over me to unlatch the door and push it open.
“Give me a few minutes,” I tell them.
“Hurry, lass.”
“You think this will work?” I hear Parker ask.
“It’s the only idea we’ve got,” Declan replies.
The bus door slams, and Fiona stalks out after me, kicking up gravel with her Doc Martens.
“Think of the biggest, baddest predator you can imagine,” she tells me.
I nod and face the wind. I imagine my energy as a ball of white light, spreading out a few feet around my body. Then I focus it into a beam and cast it onto the wind.
It’s not my voice that does it or my spirit. It’s my scent.
I ask for help, and then I imagine a giant shadow forming out of the air. And then another. And another. Muscular beings churning with power. I imagine them solidifying into a wall around me and Fiona and everyone in the bus.
Tingles spread over my body. Beside me, Fiona sneezes, as she does when my scent gets particularly strong.
I imagine the shadow warriors melting into a strong, shimmering fortress. And I fill the tower with the feeling of safety. Again, I get that wintry scent, that sense of sinking into down pillows, feathers brushing against my face. My favorite feeling.
When I open my eyes, my arms are up, and Fiona is leaning against the bus, her eyes watering. She senses my energy, even if she doesn’t understand it.
Already, the brush a few yards from the road is rustling. There will be birds in there, and mice, and desert rats, jackrabbits. They’ll long to come to me, to answer my call. I send them a message: Stay. Peace.
The rustling subsides. I blow out a breath and turn to my audience.
Declan gives me a thumbs up. “Now that’s sometin’.”
Parker grimaces but bobs his head in agreement.
Fiona hovers at my elbow in case I wobble and fall over. Sometimes I expend too much energy and get dizzy. But today it was easy.
I slide into the backseat. Laurie looks at me with shining eyes. Like I’m his hero. And something in me relaxes. No matter how the others see me: an angel, a woo woo weirdo, Laurie doesn’t think I’m a freak.
Laurie
Fiona slides the back door closed and hops into the front seat. I can’t take my eyes off of Allison. She’s so beautiful with her glowing brown skin and tight curls in a soft halo around her head. Whatever she did out there, I felt it like a warm wave of light rushing over me. I felt something inside me shift. And now, I feel it again, with her here in the backseat beside me, her orange blossom scent surrounding me.
“Now what?” Parker asks.
“Now we drive. And hope this Scooby Doo van can make it over the mountain.”
“Hey, don’t be insultin’ this fine vehicle,” Declan says.
Fiona snorts. The sound is swallowed up by the rattle and clanging of the bus as it lurches back onto the road.
We ride in collective silence, as if talking will add weight that will break the struggling bus and send us rolling back the way we came.
We toil up one switchback and then another and find ourselves on an overlook facing west. The sun is low in the sky.
“Sunset,” Parker says grimly. “Vampire dawn.”
“Just keep driving,” Allison says. Even her voice is soothing. I want to fold her in my arms and secure her fully on my lap. Bury my face in her neck and kiss the scent off her soft skin.
But I don’t dare do any of that. Allison is the most beautiful woman in the world. And she’s smart and kind and powerful. My dream girl… or she would be if my dreams could conjure up someone as perfect as her.
And I’m me. A messed up shifter who can’t keep his animal calm. As awkward as I am tall. Scrawny and living in an old house with his two best friends, who are just as tormented as I am.
Who am I to even sit next to her? I can’t even look at her. She shines too bright.
But I can’t stop my body from responding to her. Need throbs through me. It’s the sweetest ache.
I grit my teeth and watch the sunset. We’re almost to the mountain summit when I make the mistake of looking down.
Two pairs of headlights are zig zagging up the road after us.
“C-c-company.” I grip Declan’s shoulder. He turns and sees what I see and starts cussing up a storm.
“Is it them?” Parker asks, his shoulders rigid, his eyes fixed on the road.
“Aye.”
Fiona cuddles her shotgun close. “What do we do?”
“Try to outrun them.” There’s a whirring whine as Parker presses on the gas pedal, followed by a loud clunk.
We all freeze.
The bus sputters and slows.
“Damn, damn, damn,” Parker joins in with Declan’s cussfest.
I give Allison an apologetic look. Not everybody is used to my buddy's creative use of the word “fecking.”
The bus rolls to a stop. We’re at the apex of the road, looking down.
“Hop out,” Parker says at the same time Declan says, “Right. Maybe we can push it down.”
We all pour out of the bus. With the oncoming night, the air has cooled. The wind whips at my hair, tears at Allison’s flowy skirt. It should smell fresh and clean, but instead it has a sour metal edge. Underneath, it smells like an old drain. The scent of fear and vampires.
Fiona’s stepped up on the bumper to get a view of our pursuers. “They’re coming on, and fast.”
“Come on.” Declan rushes to the back of the bus and throws himself against it.
“Wait,” Allison cries, pointing down the road in front of us. Two more pairs of headlights zoom up the mountain, headed straight to us. “We’re trapped.”
Now Fiona, Parker and Declan all cuss.
Allison wraps her arms around herself. She’s wearing a sweater and a coat, but the fabric of her skirt looks thin. I don’t think, I just curve my arm around her, stepping close to block the wind with my body.
“What do we do?” Allison asks.
And I’m helpless because with the enemy coming at us from both sides, there’s nothing I can do.
Scratch that. I could shift into my owl and wing to safety, carrying Allison and maybe Fiona along with me. But at the thought my owl burrows deep, beyond my reach.
Fiona’s enlisted Declan’s help boosting her up, so she can scramble onto a nearby boulder for a sniper’s perch. I’m not sure how she’s going to hold off vampires with a shotgun, but it’s better than sitting here waiting for death.
Parker stalks around the bus, clocking the enemies. “Laurie, can you–” he glances back, the light catching his eyes, so they flare opaque with glowing yellow. His animal is close to the surface.
But my owl is nowhere to be found. Parker’s thought of the same solution, and he’s asking me if I can shift and fly Allison out of there. I shake my head, gulping. There’s a boulder in my throat, making it hard to swallow. There’s a sensation of a burning band of silver closing around my neck, tightening. The collar I wore in the labs of Data X. Where they poked and prodded until my owl learned to hide.
“I c-c-c-” I try to say. I can’t . My owl has been braver but not lately. Not when I’m the only one who can save us. Save her.
“It’s okay,” Parker says. “Don’t force it.”
Allison huddles close. She tilts her face up to mine, but there’s no judgment in her gaze. My insides still twist. If I was better, braver, stronger, I could call on my owl, shift and do something. Instead, I’m shrinking in on myself. Allison’s in danger, and I’m less than worthless.
I’m sorry, I want to say, but I can’t even speak. And the moment passes.
There’s a distant thunk-thunk-thunk, and we all turn towards the setting sun.
“Is that–?” Allison shades her eyes.
“A helicopter,” Fiona confirms.
In the low light, the chopper glides over the land like an oversized dragonfly. It’s heading straight for us.
“Aww, shite,” Declan mutters. “Isnae enough they send their ground troops? They also send a bird?”
“Wait,” Parker says.
The closer the chopper gets, the clearer its outline becomes. And as wild as it is, it’s obvious–there’s someone hanging from the skids. Wearing….a short skirt?
The wind whips up further, dust and grit flying in a whirlwind caused by the helicopter’s whirling blades.
“Incoming,” Fiona shouts. It’s unclear whether she means the SUVs charging up the last switch back on the left or the right or the helicopter swooping overhead to reveal its cargo–two large figures in kilts, one in a snowy white pirate shirt and the other bare-chested.
“Yeeehaw!” the bare-chested one whoops, hanging from the skids. “Thunderbears are go!”
And he lets go of the skid, plummeting to the road, right in front of a pair of the oncoming SUVs.