Companions Of The Night Part 6

"You're so sentimental," she said "You really need to get ahold of yourself"

He caught her by the ponytail and yanked her back, spinning her to face him "You don't know anything," he said She remembered what it had felt like, in the computer room at Regina's house, when she had first realized he planned to kill her She'd been foolish to think of him as anything else If b< lets="" you="" hpt,="" she="" told="" herself,="" focus="" on="" what="" you="" saw="" then.="" think="" of="" him,="" always,="" that="" way="" and="" not="" as="" the="" sometimes="" charming,="" sometimes="" infuriating="" companion="" who="" chatted="" to="" help="" pa.s.s="" the="" time,="" or="" the="" open="" and="" reasonable,="" vampire="" who="" spoke="" frankly="" but="" with="" some="" embarra.s.sment="" about="" his="">

bloodl.u.s.t, as though it were a controllable disease, or even the avenging angel who was her family's only hope of survival, and certainly not-especially not-what he'd fooled her with twice already, the poor little waif who only needed to be held and comforted Whether those were pure fabrications or whether they were, in fact, facets of his personality, the only important one was the one she'd faced in the computer room, the one she faced now She could see the glint of his teeth in the moonlight, she all but felt his gaze on her throat She'd overstepped whatever bounds he'd set for her, and there was no use even trying to struggle He bent over her arched neck If she had a choice, if it was a matter of letting go orholding on, she was determined to die rather than become a vampire She felt his lips on her throat but where would that leave Dad and lan^ He kissed her, gently "If you don't like vampire games," he said softly, "don't play"

A moment later he released her, so suddenly she almost fell He tossed her the pillow, the bloodiest of the items, and gathered up the rest, indicating, again, the direction of the creek *f0

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

AT THE CREEK Ethan ripped open Regina's pillow, shaking out a cloud of down before tossing the empty piltowcase into the water He dropped the nightgown farther along, then left the creekbed, veering off through the underbrush They weren't backtrailing, and Kerry could only hope Ethan knew where he was going She had no sense of where they were in relation to the car And Ethan wasn't talking to her He hadn't said a word-besides "Give me the pillow"-since they'd left Re- gina's body at the clearing He was walking faster than she could comfortably keep up with, but she didn't want to hold on to his jacket the way she'd done earlier And she certainly ffl wasn't going to beg him to slow down when he could easily see for himself she was having trouble She tramped along behind him, snapping twigs, skidding down embankmentswith a flurry of dead leaves, uprooting plants when they climbed a steep incline, and puffing open-mouthed with the exertion She didn't dare let the distance between them grow to more than a few feet or she'd likely misjudge where he'd stepped and land in ground that was boggy rather than just wet The only way she could keep up was noisily, and if he didn't like it, he could say so He didn't say a thing She had a chance to catch her breath when Ethan stopped to set one of the sheets on the soggy kind of ground she'd been avoiding He picked up a rock. big enough that a normal man probably would have had a hard time budging it, and hurled it so that it landed on the sheet Both began to sink immediately Then they were back to walking Just when Kerry had begun to give up hope that they'd ever find their way out of the woods, they finally reached the road, the stolen Shadow just a few feet from where they'd emerged "What about . 7" She gestured vaguely to the other sheet, the comforter, and the quilt he was stilt carrying He threw them into the backseat, which she took as his subtle way of tcliing her not to worry, that they'd dispose of them later And, indeed, as they pa.s.sed through Spencer- port-once more heading toward Rochester-he flung the denim jacket out the window without even slowing down He still wasn't talking when they returned the Shadow and exchanged it for his original Skylark ll2 "It'd be interesting," she told him, "to be here when the customer and the mechanics start arguing about the mileage and the half-empty gas tank and all the mud"Still no answer, despite two attempts at conversation on her part SuUting, she figured Be Ukt that. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the window She expected that they'd turn around and head back to- ward Brockport, toward finally doing something about finding lan and Dad, but he continued on to Rochester They stopped at an observation point that looked out over the Erie Ca.n.a.l, where he weighted down the second sheet with a rock and threw it into the water He picked up a few extra rocks, which he tied up in the comforter, but they didn't get rid of that until they were pa.s.sing over the bridge that spanned Iron- dequoit Bay Kerry checked her wrist.w.a.tch It was past 5 00 The last several weeks, her alarm for school, set at 6 30, had gone off while it was still dark outside She estimated sunrise was about 7 00 Enough time to ditch the quilt and make it back to Brockport, if that was his intent Not that they could go back to the house he had identified as his uncle's Whoever had killed Regina had to know about it and could come during the day while he was helpless She stole a quick glance at Ethan She seriously doubted he planned to ask her to guard his sleep.

The thought of sleep made her eyes droop It had been so long since her few hours' worth of sleep Thursday night After all the running around and emotional strain of tonight, she was surprised, now that she thought about it, that she'd made it this long She stifled a yawn, and Ethan glanced at her Which was more than he'd done the last couple hours ti3 "Where are we going to spend the day?" she asked m the midst of a second, bigger yawn He seemed to be considering not answering, but he finally said, "Rochester subway system ""Rochester doesn't have a subway," she said.

"It did until the fifties," Ethan told her She thought this was good news, that he hadn't gotten confused with Buffalo-since at this point there probably wasn't enough time to get there before dawn But she couldn't be sure. She didn't even know what to hope for anymore, everything had gotten so muddled She asked, "So what happens to an old subway system?

Doesn't it get knocked down and filled in?"

"Most of it did," Ethan agreed "So this will be underground?"

"Yes"

"And really dark?"

'That's the point"

"I mean really, really dark?"

He looked at her but didn't answer.

Rats. she was thinking And a.s.sorted creepy-crawliwf things Creepy-crawling all over her while she couldn't even see them And the kind of people who lived in sewers and on park benches-not just eccentric people like Phyllis, the little old lady who came into the store with cans and bottles she collected for the refunds and who always wore her clothes backward so the CIA would get confused when they tried to follow her-but drug users and escaped convicts and perverts.

She remembered, for the first time in hours, the handcuffs, which would guarantee she'd be absolutely unable to defend herself Stop it. she told herself. Ethan would hardly choose toH4 sleep where there were humans about, not while he'd be unable to protect himself Rats and creepy-crawling things She tried to rea.s.sure herself that she could make noise to keep them away And hope the noise didn't attract the perverts Suddenly she wasn't the least bit sleepy Ethan pulled into the parking lot of a twenty-four-hour supermarket "Now what?" she asked miserably as he led her into the store "Flashlight," he told her And, when she looked up hope- fully, he added, "1 don't need you getting hysterical"

She didn't argue with him about it While he picked up two heavy-duty flashlights, the kind with six-volt lantern batteries, to last throughout the daylight hours, she took the opportunity to use the rest room She half suspected he might demand to accompany her, but whether he was beginning to trust her or was just reluctant to make a scene, he let her go on her own Just when she'd decided that it didn't make any difference what she hoped or thought, that she could never escape no matter how she tried But the situation hadn't changed Dad and lan were still missing, and Ethan was her best chance of finding them She relocated him in the video department, watching, of all things, 101 Dolmdhotis. But he had considered that she might not come back, she thought, determined to read human expression into his eyes, into the fact that he linked arms with her "In the movies," she pointed out to him, "a vampire could have turned into a bat or mist and followed me ""In the movies," Ethan countered, "La.s.sie never peed on the rug "

**5.

Arm in arm they approached the cash registers "Snack?"

he asked her After he'd been nice enough to provide for light and a bathroom stop, she was sure he was about to do something thoroughly reprehensible She had the awful feeling he was talking about the cas.h.i.+er In the bright lights of the store, she saw that he'd lost most of the color he'd had earlier in the evening Had he eaten-fed was the word he'd used- before she ran into him early in the evening? Probably not The realization hit her that the color she'd seen in his cheeks had probably been from drinking the blood of the laundry vampire hunters last night When she didn't answer, Ethan tossed a box of sugar doughnuts on the conveyor belt "All we've got back in the car is c.o.ke and chips," he reminded her But then, as they walked back outside, test she begin to think too kindly of him, he took her arm and whispered into her ear, as though they were conspirators together, "There were too many people"

Good, she wanted to say But was it good for her if he got too hungry?

Back on the road, she asked, "Why did you buy c.o.ke and chips? Can you eat som<>

"I entertain," Ethan said He looked over at her and gave a wicked grin. "Occasionally"

"I see Sort of like the old witch in 'Hansel and Cretcl.'"

"Sort of," Ethan agreed. "It works out especially well with college students I give them all the beer they can drink Theypa.s.s out" He gave her a quick glance, to make sure she understood "Etcetera "

She didn't like where she had led this, and switched di- rections "So where's this subway station?"

H6.

"It's not a station "

"Whatever" She leaned her head against the window The window was cold, but it was warm in the car, and dark, and she had already survived a lot longer than she had originally thought possible, and he hadn't killed anybody in her presence yet. and she only planned to close her eyes for a second but the next thing she knew there was a bright light, and she was lying down on the ground Ethan had hold of her wrist She was instantly awake enough to know that he was going to sink his teeth into her arm but not awake enough to ftght Then she felt the cold circlet of metal and heard a click She tried to sit but was brought up short because she was handcuffed to a solid-feeling section of track "You did that,"

she accused him "I did what?"

"You made me fall asleep"

"You were predisposed to anyway," he told her They were in a tunnel There was a lot of rubble but no garbage-probably meaning no people It was no doubt all for the best that while the glow of the flashlight he'd set by her was bright in their immediate area, she couldn't see very far The tunnel looked ready to be brought down by a goodsneeze He set the second flashlight, unlit, right by her hand, in case the first's battery wore down Her backpack and the bags from the two grocery stores were also within easy reach "You didn't want me seeing how to get in here," she said as he sal down cross-legged near her but not near enough for her to be able to reach H7.

He just smiled "Did you cany me?" It was a disconcerting thought, that he'd had her completely helpless Not that she wasn't com- pletely helpless in any case Had he bitten her while she'd been asleep? Would she know? She didn't think she felt weak She managed to refrain from touching her neck to check, but he seemed to guess what she was thinking anyway His smile flickered at the edge of genuine amus.e.m.e.nt "You didn't need me at all, did you?" she asked "What do you mean?"

"In the laundry When I thought 1 was rescuing you You could have just used your hypnotic vampire powers-"

'Too much adrenaline"

"I beg your pardon?"

He was having a hard time not laughing at her "I could have put the thought in their heads that they wanted to sleep, but they were too keyed up and would have resisted"

She sighed "Were you ever in any real danger from them^""Certainly," he answered cheerfully enough "But you probably could have escaped without me?"

Ethan made a point of pausing to consider, a mere po- liteness, she was sure "I wasn't incredibly worried yet," he admitted "But you had no way of knowing that And it was very kind of you to want to help "

"You're being too friendly," she told him "You're making me nervous"

"Good night, Kerry," he said with a laugh, lying down on the ground She started to lie down also, but she jumped when she realized Regina's wadded-up quilt was under her head Even f(8 though she couldn't see any blood, she shoved it away in disgust.

Ethan was watching "You might get cold," he said "Not that cold," she answered, though she could already feel the chill seeping into her "You're being silly " He closed his eyes and lay still for a moment, but then he took off his jacket and tossed it at her "What about you?" she asked, hardly able to keep her teeth from chattering He opened his eyes yet again "Vampires only feel the most extreme temperatures," he told her- "1 was wearing the jacket so as not to be conspicuous "

Kerry lay back down, wondering if her sleepiness was his effect or Just the last thirty hours catching up "What about tomorrow?" she asked She ignored the fact that she was beginning to think like a vampire, marking time by nightsrather than days "What's the plan?"

When he didn't answer, she looked and saw that his eyes were closed She checked her watch- 7 05 She knew that his heart did beat, although very slowly, during his waking hours Did it slow down even further, or even stop entirely, by day?

She felt asleep before she could figure it out 1*9.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

KERRY WOKE UP at about 10 00 A M , her back sore, her right arm-the shackled one-stiff, her toes numb, and the rest of her body aching with cold The tight was still on No creepy-crawl ies in sight, and Ethan hadn't twitched Finally she pulled the quilt to her Without looking closely, she spread it out just enough so she could lie on top It would protect her somewhat from the cold, hard ground Any blood, she tried to a.s.sure herself, would have been on the sheets and comforter Still, she was sure she'd never fall asleep again The second time she slept, she dreamed about R-egina making Ethan into a vampire She was aware enough to know 120.

that she was dreaming and that, anyway, he had already admitted this wasn't the way it had happened But she dreamed it the way he had described it He was lying by the side of the road. his head on Regina's lap His expression was frightened and brave and defiant all at once, the same as it had been at the laundry, the darkness of his hair accentuating the paleness of his skin. Regina, looking beautiful but cold and cruel, leaned over him She ripped his chin up, arching his neck, and set her lips against his throat She caressed his face and hair gently, but Kerry could see this was only so he wouldn't struggle as she drankhis blood Because it was a dream, Kerry could feel what Ethan felt, which was fear-how could it not be?-and shame, but also pleasure, which was the reason for the shame Kerry tried to wake herself up but couldn't His breathing came faster and taster, until, with a shudder of pain, it stopped entirely Then he opened his eyes With that, finally, Kerry woke It was only early afternoon, but she didn't dare sleep again The trouble was, awake, she kept thinking about her fam- ily Was Dad okay:? He wouldn't try anything brave and stupid, would he? And how about lan? Did kidnappers rou- tinely let little kids bring their stuffed koala bears with thenP And where was Mom when they needed heP Best to ml her mind with other thoughts, Kerry decided.

Any other thoughts The flashlight seemed to be getting dimmer, so she turned on the backup flashlight, turning off the first to conserve the battery in case they got desperate From her backpack she took out the book she was supposed to have read for literature cla.s.s. With Regina's quilt wrapped around her, munching on 121.

boxed sugar doughnuts and potato chips and sipping c.o.ke, which was as cold as if it had been refrigerated, she finished the story. She hadn't seen a major plot twist coming, and she automatically deducted fifteen points from her potential test score on the basis of an essay answer that made no sense in light of the way the story halt ended Eventually she got bored enough th-i she not only did her math homework, she started the n'.'rt unit's a.s.signment as welt Like I have much chance of nw malti'i; it back to school, she thought Ethan woke with a sigh at 4:35 Kerry would have been willing to bet that if she lookedit up in an almanac that would have been the exact moment the sun disappeared beneath the rim of the world She was about to say "Good morning," but that was ridiculous under the circ.u.mstances, and "Good evening" sounded too much like a cartoon version of a Transylvanian count. "Hi," she said.

Ethan sat up, exhibiting none of the slow, gingerly move- ments she had needed before she could move without stifmess He did give a little stretch, putting his arms around his knees See what a coupit hundred years' practice slecpiw) in graoeyard$ will do for your physique, she told herself "Still here," he commented. Hard to tell whether he was surprised.

She held up her arm to show it was still securely shackled to the track "I truly hope that wasn't a hards.h.i.+p," he said.

She had found she was most disinclined to believe him when he used words like honestly and lm(y, though in this instance she couldn't see what he had to gain by lying "1 was okay," she told him- Even in this light she could tell he was 122.

paler than last night, and she didn't want to say anything that might get him annoyed enough to see her as a meal Not that she estimated he'd need much of an excuse "What's the next step?" she asked.

He indicated her backpack. "Do you have a change of clothes in there?"

"My school clothes," she answered. "What I wore yester- day " She saw that the cuffs of her supermarket-uniform pants were muddy from their trek through the Bergen Swamp. How had Ethan managed to stay clean? When she sniffed at her blouse, she found that it stank of gasoline. Day-old clothes couldn't be worse than thatHe got the key from his pocket and came to unlock the handcuffs "Your hair is longer than yesterday," she said.

"Yeah." He sounded tired, or disgusted "Our bodies have a tendency to revert to the state they were in when we first became vampires. My hair was longer then I have to cut it every day, or in two days it's down to my shoulders"

That could (w rtcmtly, Kerry thought. People wore their hair all sorts of lengths nowadays- On the other hand, she knew the 1960s were famous for boys wearing long hair She'd seen movies set in the 1950s and was fairly certain short hair was in back then The only other times she was aware of men wearing long hair were during the Civil War and in colonial times- She really hoped Ethan was from no further back than the'60s She rummaged in her backpack and found a spare ponytail elastic for him.

"Thanks " This time he did sound surprised- His hair was just long enough that he was able to pull it back into a tight tail f23 Kerry thought it made him look like a drug pusher "You cut it yourself?" she asked "Barbers notice things like people coming in every day "

Perhaps in repayment for the elastic, Ethan started ma.s.saging her wrist to get all the feeling back into it The corpse coldness of his touch did more to stiffen her muscles than his attempt at being helpful relaxed them "I was lucky to be welt shaved at the time" he added uncommonly talkative "When vam- pires who have beards want to get nd of them, they have to shave two or three times a night"

'That's how your bodies heal" Kerry said, catching on'by going back to the way they were"

"Which makes it impossible to maintain either a tattoo or a permanent" Ethan let go of her hand "Not that I've had personal experience with either"

"So when you said that Regina made you a vampire to save your life even if that had been true, it couldn't have been true" She paused, considering whether this had come out making any sense at all Suddenly she wished she hadn't said it at all It was too vivid a reminder of her dream Ethan seemed to grasp what she'd meant "It couldn't have happened that way, no Vampire blood can heal vampires, and our saliva has healing properties, though hardly enough to cure the dying It's fwt enough so that if a vampire is careful where and how he bites, somebody might not even know he's been bitten "

Kerry touched her neck, wondering again if he'd taken some of her blood last night when he'd earned her in here Ethan grinned at her "Present company excluded, of course"

Only the paleness of his skin convinced her he was telling 124.

the tiuth "Do you plan to?" Stupid question Of course he'd deny it Take your blood? No " He sat back on his heels and looked at her appraisingly "Why? Are you intrigued? Do you want to know what it feels tike?"

"No," she told him in a voice that she hoped sounded more firm than panicked She tried to shove the sensations from the dream behind her "I Just want to know what to expect I figured you probably didn't have time Yesterday To"-it was hard to say and he wasn't Jumping in to helpher, though he must know what she meant-"feed Before we met"

"I didn't," he said When he didn't say anything else, she said, "I didn't think you did "

He flashed another smile at her "As with living as a human, there's more to being a vampire than feeding," he said "Surely you can survive a day without food? You prob- ably wouldn't like it, but you could do it"

"Without turning into a beast?" she asked "Ah," he said in an adult-to-a-child So-that's-what's-becn- wonying you? tone "That's after much longer than a day,"

he a.s.sured her "Besides, if I fed on you, I don't think you'd ever forgive me"

Kerry found it hard to believe he would really be con- cerned about that "And if I did something for which you didn't forgive me,"

he finished, "I could never trust you again " He stood, one of those disconcertingly fast movements that was hard to follow "Hurry up and get changed," he said There's no reason for both of us to go hungry "

125.

AFTER A CONSIDERABLE hike over nibble, they eventually came out at a spot near where the Cenesee ran into Lake Ontario Kerry was amazed to think of Ethan hauling her over all that the previous night, and how she'd slept through it They left behind Regina's quilt-"In case I ever decide to bring another date here," Ethan told her-but carried out Kerry's backpack and what was left of the groceries He took her to a Creek-style family restaurant because, he said, the Creeks generally served breakfast all the time, day and night"Why is that?" she asked "Are there a lot of Greek vam- pires?"

He Just smiled in that way that might mean she'd hit on something he wanted to hide, or that might mean she'd Just said something really dumb In the restaurant she came back from using the rest room to find Ethan sitting at their table reading a newspaper "Any- thing interesting?" she asked when he didn't put it away "Mmm-hmm," he said in the same distracted way her rather did at the breakfast table Thinking of her father made her eager to be doing something, and she found herself getting furious at Ethan's slow pace "Reading the personals for secret messages from your friends?"

He gave her a dirty look She wanted to shake him and scream. Do something' but suspected that if she annoyed him too much, he would start moving even more slowly Determined not to ask any more questions, figuring he wouldn't answer them anyway, she con- centrated on her cheese omelet When she finally looked up, she saw Ethan drinking from the gla.s.s of orange juice that was all he'd ordered "Are you really drinking that?" she asked 126.

"No, it's alt done with mirrors," he answered, still not looking up "I didn't think you could "

He did look at her then, peeved His glance darted about the practically deserted restaurant "Are you talking about that special diet my doctor has me on?" he asked tightly She nodded, delighted to be an irritation to him"I can have liquids," he told her She smiled brightly, but a second later he turned his attention back to the paper "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to read at the table?" she asked It got her wondering if his mother had known he was a vampire How would her own mother react if she knew what Kerry had done in the last twenty-four hours? If Kerry had been a disappointment before-and she had to have been, or Mom wouldn't have left-the opposite coast wouldn't be far enough should she find out about this Ethan brought Kerry back to the East Coast when he answered, "I figured it was ail right since I'm reading about you"

"What?" She grabbed for the paper, but he smacked her across the knuckles with it "What's it say?" she demanded, lowering her voice, suddenly convinced that people wen listening "' disappearance last night of Kerry Nowicki, sixteen, described as having brown hair, hazel eyes, standing about five feet, three inches, and weighing a hundred and twenty pounds "A hundred aunt twenty'" Kerry squeaked Ethan grinned at her outburst but shushed her "There's a picture"

He flashed the newspaper in front of her, and she winced 127.

It was from last year's school yearbook, taken shortly after her mother had left, when-in a fit of depression-she had let her friend Nellc talk her into a home perm last seen in a pink Jacket, white s.h.i.+rt, black pants,and purple ap.r.o.n-' "

Yeah, right, like she'd wear the ap.r.o.n out of the store She hoped they at least mentioned it was a uniform "Who reported me missing^"

He motioned her to wait and continued reading "'It is not clear whether Kerry ever amved home after leaving the store parking lot at about eight forty-five in the company of a young man named Eva.'"-he gave her a significant look-" 'described as being in his late teens or early twenties, having dark hair, dark eyes, and weanng a vinyl Jacket' Vmyl,"

he scoffed, rolling his blue eyes "Wonderful witnesses One of your friends describes you here as 'quiet but friendly' and always having 'a friendly word for everyone "Who said that?" Kerry asked "Craig McDougal, night manager"

"Oh, puke," Kerry said That doesn't sound very friendly "

"What do they say about lan and my father?"

Again he hushed her "What?" she said, seeing him frown "Ethan'"

"Sfcb "

She repeated his name in a whisper "What bus do you take?"

"What?"

"School bus Is your driver Cindy d.i.c.kerson^"

Kerry s.h.i.+vered "What happened'?""An accident that wasn't an accident, involving the bus f28 and a nineteen eighty-five white Skylark registered to Stephen Nowicki of Fawn Meadow Circle "