Chapter Thirty
Aila
I feel… marvelous.
It is hard to describe. My new lease on life has removed all the negatives and honed the positives into a sharp edge.
Bullet hole in my torso? No biggie. Exit wound ripped through my back? That’s all good. The spirit that carried all my insecurities and worries everywhere I went is gone.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss it. I like to think I had a good soul. At least that was one thing Piers could never take away from me.
But from the time Theron’s vampire toxins crept through me—sealing my ruptured guts, healing my splattered organs, making my holes whole—my heart had to make the biggest decision of its life: hold onto my soul and die? or live forever in the void?
I chose the void.
I want to pace the world that lives beneath the skyquake until the sun turns black.
I want to be with Theron.
Did my soul cry as I allowed the poison to make its old home uninhabitable? My heart certainly wept as my soul left.
But my eyes did not. Not one single tear will I shed for my soul until Piers Jordan is dead.
Never again will he be able to do this to someone else.
“Take it slow,” Theron warns me. “Give your wounds time to heal.”
His blood inside me feels unreal. It has its own heartbeat within my pulse. My vampire lover has reinvigorated me with his cannibal desires. I want him to eat me out. And then I want to swallow everything he can give me. The sexual hunger refuses to diminish.
My tongue comes out like a serpent’s, tasting the salty air as it savors the hunger inside. Licking my lips brings me the savory tang of our mixed fluids.
And yes, I have fangs.
Standing in the forest together, I bring Theron’s head down and kiss him. We exchange fluids in one long, hungry embrace. Falling back, I pant with lust.
“I could fuck you so hard right now.”
“Heh. Yeah. Bloodlust makes you real thirsty, Aila. But let’s not forget we’re in the middle of a crisis here.
That man arrived with his alibi in tow. Quadbike’s been damaged so he can pretend he’s been walking back to the inn from Jerry Steele’s place.
He’s got a sweet li’l girlfriend and her kids to say that Piers is the closest thing God has got to an angel.
And, like you said, the gun’s long gone. ”
Running my fingers through my blood-encrusted hair, I can see every tiny flake of dried fluids as they un-clot and spiral away into the nighttime air.
I feel supremely confident.
“Am I the only one who read the indemnity form contract before coming here? It’s rock solid. Water tight. With everything tied up in a neat little bow. If something bad happens to Piers while he’s on Landslide, no lawyer is going to be able to find a way to get around it.”
“They will if that bad thing is for him to turn up with no blood in his system, Aila.”
“We have to find him before he can spin that breakdown story to Kelly.”
Theron growls. “The Riders will have a bead on him by now. He can’t be too far from Ben’s. I must have found you within seconds of him ducking out. But there’s no way Shadow will allow Piers to rejoin the other tourists at the inn, not while the Prez thinks the man stove Amelia’s head in.”
One more kiss for the road. Mmm. Theron tastes so good. Oh, wait. That’s my blood I’m tasting. I guess I made quite a mess. I hope Ben isn’t worried about finding gore all over the carpet.
“Let’s go find Shadow.”
A tall shadow looms out of the dark.
“I’m starting to see how you got your name.” I am trying to keep my mood light, but I am totally obsessed with finding Piers. The thought of feeding on his blood consumes me.
“I smell gunpowder.” That’s all Shadow says.
“Is that what that smell is? Ugh.”
Looking at Theron, Shadow shakes his head. “Jordan shot her?”
“Yep. Aila’s out for blood.”
Shadow makes a ruling at once. “I figure Aila’s owed some payback, sure.
” Turning to me, Shadow inspects my expression closely.
“Piers has started walking back to the inn. He double-backed so he could pretend to be looking for Kelly and the kids. He should have made it as far as Tempest’s house by now. ”
Theron whistles. “Dude’s fucking ice cold. Damn.”
Shadow scoffs. “Like you’re one to talk, but yeah. Dude’s a vengeful narcissist of note.”
Ignoring them, I want to clarify something first. “Tempest’s house. Where the sign is. The Dead Ride Fast sign?”
“Yeah.”
Theron helps me. “If Shadow and I go fetch the quadbike, do you think you could have him in the water by the time we get back?”
Shadow finishes the plan. “If you drain him, make sure to leave an injury to justify it. Remember, Kelly was panicked about Piers not coming to pick her up. Only he couldn’t, because he had a quadbike accident and drove himself into the creek. Agree?”
“Agree.”
The moon is rising high in the sky as I race to find my ex-boyfriend.
I gave you every chance to do the right thing, Piers. You could have walked away at any time over the last ten years, found a nice girl, gotten married, had some kids.
You could have lived your life forward instead of allowing it to poison you every time you looked back.
And then I see him.
I say nothing, standing there and waiting for him to look up and see me. He has his head down deep in thought, his hands in his pockets. He’s probably re-living the terrified scream I gave when I saw his knuckle turning white as he increased the pressure on the trigger.
I thought he was going to kill my mom. Hadn’t he already tried? But no, it was me he was after all along.
So now why am I trying to see things from his point of view?
Because it pleases me.
He’s suddenly aware of not being alone. Piers looks up. The moon is waning, a thin sliver of silver in the black sky.
He’s wondering why a female is standing in the middle of the road.
He’s thinking how much her outline reminds him of the corpse he left on the floor of Ben’s house. He is searching his memory for any of the tourists who might fit my particular physical description.
Fool.
He comes closer, sure in the fact that I am dead.
“Evening. Are you lost?”
He believes me to be one of the ornithologists. Or the yoga ladies.
I wait for him to come closer.
The recognition in his eyes is priceless. The shreds of my tank top blow in the chilly night breeze. My cutoff jeans are mottled with gore. He kicked me in the gut so hard, my intestines ruptured, and then he blew a hole through my liver for good measure.
I reek of congealed blood and intestinal fluids. My hair hangs in braids of dried coagulant. But I am alive.
“Jesus Christ!” Taking a step back, Piers looks around quickly for help. Not to help me, of course, but himself. He’s scared, unsure, and he wants to run. Welcome to my club, buddy boy.
“We’re all alone.” My voice comes out as a raspy snarl.
Taking another step back, he holds his hands palms out.
“Jesus, Aila, would you look at yourself?” He retches, swallows, and then, bending over, he heaves and spasms from the stench. Wiping his mouth, his voice shakes. “G-get back! Let me go get help. That’s what I was doing, you know. I swear. I mean, for Christ’s sake, Aila, look what you made me do.”
Growling, I launch myself at him. My strength is exhilarating. Fastening my mouth on his neck, I dig in my fangs. The blood is hot and so yummy. Too bad about its donor.
When he tries to scream, I dig my nails in around his throat and squeeze his vocal cords shut.
When the warm gush spurts down my throat, I am satisfied, but it doesn’t satisfy any sexual appetite. It will be a cold day in hell when I get turned on by this monster.
Piers starts to gurgle. A bubble of air gets sucked into my mouth as oxygen replaces the blood, like a malfunctioning soda fountain. Pushing him away from me, I get to my feet. Tilting my neck, I stare up at the stars.
And I howl a great cry of vengeance.
Shadow and Theron come carrying the ATV on their shoulders so the wheels don’t leave tracks. They don’t even bother looking at the limp creature at my feet.
“Make the quadbike tracks coming down the hill, crossing the road, and then into the creek, like he lost control.” I shout my instructions over my shoulder as I drag the body into the water.
“Don’t forget to take the key out of his pocket so we can put it back into the ignition!” Theron shouts.
Piers floats in the water, pockets of air caught in the billows of his clothes.
I look at the back of his head with analytical unconcern.
There’s a tree branch bobbing against the riverbank. Holding it above my head like a spear, I plunge the sharp wood through the body’s torso.
“Goodbye, Piers. You should have read that indemnity form on the ferry more closely. It’s there to protect the interests of vampires, after all…”