Survivor (14 page)

Cashern didn’t answer.  Instead, he addressed his
two minions.  “Take her just inside Leah’s border and toss her into the nearest
ditch.  I doubt anyone will find her before she starves.”  He laughed.  “She
sure as hell won’t walk back home.”

I squirmed furiously.  “You can’t do this,” I
screeched.  We were moving up the stairs now, and I caught glimpses of
Cashern’s hawkish face through my hair.

“I can and I will,” he said coldly.  “Leah says she
doesn’t know you, and doesn’t personally care for your welfare.  However, she
has decided that killing you would be construed as poaching on her territory,
the arrogant bitch.  She’ll send in her vampires in retaliation.  We don’t have
the numbers to stand up to her in a direct conflict.”  He shrugged.  “So we
send you back.”  His voice took on an innocent tone.  “If you happen to die of
natural causes within her borders that’s not really our fault, now is it?” 
There was no trace of red in his eyes, and without it, he almost looked weak.

I kicked and slammed my fists into my captor’s back.
 It had all the effect of hitting a brick wall.  Cashern pulled my hair aside
and regarded me for a moment.  “No hard feelings lamb, I just can’t let her get
off making decrees like that.  I have to make some impression or she’ll just
keep walking all over me.  I have to make her respect me.  I’m sure you
understand.” 

“Fucker!”  I screamed as loud as I could.  Of course,
there was no one around to hear me.  No one that cared anyway.  

I was thrown into a car.  It was some big, boat-like
number, good for hiding bodies.  Luckily, they put me in the back seat, not the
trunk.  We drove for a couple of hours in silence as I furiously tried to
figure out how the hell to get out of this.  Nothing came to mind.  Even if I
threw myself out of the car, it wasn’t exactly as if I could just run away.  I
cursed my useless body for the millionth time.

Finally, we pulled off onto a country road somewhere.
 We bumped along over gravel for a few minutes before one of the creeps piped
up.  “This is good enough.”  

The guy that was driving gave him a look, but he
shrugged and pulled over.  “If you say so.”

The vampires hauled me kicking and screaming out of
the back of the car and tossed me into the ditch beside the road like I was a
piece of trash.  I was crying by then.  Fall was coming, and the nights got
cold- especially if you were sleeping in a ditch out in the middle of nowhere
in a t-shirt and sandals.

As we drove, I had taken in the scenery by the
fading light of the sun.  There was nothing.  Miles and miles of nothing.  I
couldn’t crawl to safety.  I would struggle to crawl along the road as long as
I  could, hoping that someone just happened to drive by- and not run me over in
the process- but it was a long shot.

The vampires were moving back to their car when they
were ambushed.  Darkness was falling and I couldn’t make out much of what was
going on in the dusk.  I could tell there was fighting though.  Heavy duty
fighting.  It wasn’t the kind of crap you see on TV where guys are dancing
around each other shouting insults and making threatening promises.  This was
pretty much silent.  I heard the soft scuffling of feet, the sound of fists
striking flesh, and the occasional soft curse or muffled moan.  Then nothing.

I shrank down in my ditch, not knowing if I should
call attention to myself, not knowing who was out there or who had won.  I was
biting my lip in indecision when a shadow materialized at my side.  I shrieked
and tried to crawl away, but large hands grabbed me and scooped me up.  “You’re
safe now.”  Peter’s voice filled my head and I wrapped my arms around him in a
death grip.

“I knew you’d come for me,” I said in a pathetic
voice.  I just kept saying it.  I couldn’t seem to stop.  Maybe it was shock. 
Or maybe I was just still convincing myself that he actually
had
come
for me.  I hadn’t been so sure there at the end, no matter what I was rambling
now.

Peter wasn’t alone.  He and a couple of vampires
from the coven piled into the car Cashern’s vampires had recently vacated.  I
didn’t see any sign of the other vampires, but I didn’t look too hard.  It was
dark, and I didn’t really want to see.  This way I could just pretend they had
fled.  I didn’t really think they had run away, but I could hope.  “I’m sorry
we left it so long,” Peter said into the darkness.  “Leah was trying to figure
out just what the hell they were up to.”

We drove back to the coven house to drop off the
other vampires.  Then Peter drove me home in silence.  When we got to my
apartment, he shut the car off and just sat there, staring out the window.  I
jumped when he spoke.  “Melody, I’m so sorry for this.  For getting you
involved in my world.  There has to be more to this whole mess.  Cashern’s
actions were just chaotic, every time we spoke with him, he kept swinging from
one extreme to the next…” his voice trailed off and he made a visible effort to
pull his thoughts back to the present.  “I never should have gotten close to
you.”

I sighed.  “No, probably not.  I shouldn’t trust
strange men I meet on the subway either, but here we are.”  I was tired and
foggy, and not in the mood to deal with this right now.

Peter sighed.  “We shouldn’t see each other anymore.
 I’m just a danger to you.  And you are so vulnerable.”

I shook my head.  “Idiot.  Don’t say things like
that,” I said softly.  “If it wasn’t for you I would still be alone.  I’d be
sitting up there in that apartment right now still hating myself for all the
things I can’t change.”

I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened my door, waiting
patiently for him to come carry me upstairs.  “It’s worth all the crap that
just happened to be able to say I had an adventure.”

He scooped me up, giving a wry laugh.  “Some
adventure.”

I shrugged and snuggled into his arms.  “Whatever.”

“I’ll get you a new wheelchair tomorrow.  We need to
get you cleaned up, then we have to decide what your story is going to be.”

I craned my head back to look at him.  I was so
damned tired.  Tired, hungry, and sore.  “What do you mean story?”

He shouldered open the door and took me straight to
the shower.  “I mean we need to explain where you’ve been for the past four
days.  You can’t exactly tell everyone you were kidnapped by vampires.”

I let out a massive sigh.  “Oh…right.”  Tomorrow was
going to be a long day.

*****

I was sitting at the kitchen table staring at my
cornflakes when Chelsea decided to drop by.  Taz went to greet her for a few
seconds, then returned to his post under the table, resting his big head on my
knees.  Poor guy was a little clingy since I’d left him alone for days on end. 
My family had left several messages on my cell during my disappearance.  The
first message was my Mom.  She had been annoyed when she tried to stop in for a
visit and found that I wasn’t home.  The next was Chelsea telling me to call
Mom because she was sick of hearing her complain about how thoughtless I was.  The
third message was mom again, a day later, concerned because I hadn’t shown up
for our monthly dinner date.  After that, the messages were less angry and
increasingly worried.  I would have felt guilty, if I’d had any say in my
absence.

I had called them back first thing this morning.  Peter
wouldn’t let me call them last night because it would have aroused suspicion-
not to mention given my Mom a heart attack- if I called at three a.m. after
being out of touch for days.  So, I had called this morning.  I chickened out
and called Chelsea instead of my parents.  I didn’t have the energy to deal
with Mom’s freak out right now.  Being held captive by errant vampires was a
bit draining.  
Hardy har-har
.

Chelsea showed up at about ten, swooping into my
apartment in a haze of expensive perfume and smartly clicking heels.  She never
looked less than perfect, even at ten a.m. on a Sunday.  She draped her pink
trench coat over the back of one of the dining room chairs and patted her purposefully
messy, honey colored hair.  I noticed she’d had it highlighted again, and the
lighter strands were so pale they were almost platinum.  She looked like
sorority pin-up gone high class.  I rolled my eyes and awkwardly tucked my feet
under my wheelchair to hide the hole in the toe of my sock.  Geez.  After the
last few days, the last thing I wanted as a welcoming party was Princess
Chelsea.  Still, it was better than Mom.

She plopped down at the table and gave me a petulant
look.  “So what the hell have you been doing for the last three days?  Mom and
Dad are about to stroke out.”

I shrugged.  “Like I told you this morning, Peter
and I went out of town for a couple of days.  No big deal.  Geez.”

She scowled.  “And neither one of you thought- hey,
maybe I should let someone know where I’m going?”  She snorted.  “You have a
brain injury, what’s
his
excuse?”

I lifted my bowl and drank my milk before answering
her.  I nearly sloshed it everywhere, but it gave me time to formulate an
answer.  I might as well stick to my usual character.  What would she expect
from me?  Oh, right...“Fuck you Chelsea.  I’m not an idiot or a child.  I can
do whatever the hell I want to do.  I don’t need to ask permission for
anything.”

She rolled her eyes.  “You’re brain damaged, Mel.  You
need Mom and Dad to help you make decisions.  You know that.  How could you
just leave town without telling them?  And with some guy?”

I wheeled to the sink and tossed my bowl and spoon
in with a thunk, too tired to care about rinsing them out.  “Wow.  Thanks for
the vote of confidence.  And he’s not
some guy
.  It’s Peter.  You all
know him.  I’ve been seeing him for months now.”

Chelsea shook her head and gave me a sad, pitying
look.  “Come on Mel, what’s with this guy anyway?”

I spun around to face her.  “You mean why would he
waste his time with me?”

She sat back and gave a half shrug, not denying my
statement.  “
Look
at him Mel.  Jesus, he looks like a model and he
sounds like an English professor.  Why is he dating someone who can barely hold
down a job at the library?  What kind of a scam is he running?”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.  It was no
use screaming at her.  I’d been here before.  Well, not exactly here.  We
typically weren’t arguing about my dating beautiful, intelligent men- but the
script was similar.  I just wished for once she would see me.  I mean really
see
me.  Nope.  To Chelsea I wasn’t so much a person as an inconvenience.

“You’re just jealous that for once it’s not
beautiful, perfect, wonderful princess Chelsea getting all the attention.  God
forbid I have one good thing in my life.”

She glared at me for a solid minute.  I counted the
seconds as the little kitty clock above the sink ticked away in the silence.

 “You think I want this?”  Her voice was cold and
flat.  “I never asked to carry all their hopes and expectations.  I have to
live up to everything they wanted you to be.”  I started to speak, but she
stopped me, slamming her hands flat on the table with a bang that made me jump.
 “I’ve never had a chance to live my own life.  No, I have to live yours
instead.  Well, I don’t fucking
want
your life Melody.  So don’t you
ever talk to me about jealousy.”

She pushed her chair back and stood, getting her
things to go.  “It’s always poor little Melody, isn’t it?”  Her voice was
almost a whisper now.  “Poor little fucked up Mel.  Had her life taken away.  But
it wasn’t just your life that was fucked up.  Take a good look at everyone
around you once in a while.  We’re all suffering because of you.”

With that, she left, slamming the door behind her.  I
sighed.  At least now she could tell Mom that I was fine; that I was just being
my usual selfish self.  My eyes watered as I let the bite of her words sink in.
 I made everyone around me unhappy.  How dare she blame me for everything that
had happened?  How dare she complain about her perfect life when I was stuck.  Stuck
in this fucking chair, stuck in this little apartment, stuck with a job that
was nearly volunteer, never moving forward in anything because I was too damned
slow
.  She could leave.  Move on.  Get a great job and move to another
country if she wanted to.  I’d always be right here having people think they
needed to make all of my decisions for me.  I wish I
had
been out of
town with Peter.  Maybe on some romantic getaway.  Instead, I had been sitting
around in someone’s basement hoping they weren’t going to find my body in the
river come morning.  Talk about not having the life you want.

It was only a matter of minutes before my doorbell
rang again.  I pushed myself into motion, in no mood to forgive my arrogant,
selfish, spoiled, bitch of a sister.  “What?”  I jerked the door open, irate.

Haine blinked at me in surprise.  “Ah…I’m sorry to
bother you,”   he said quickly.  I bit back my anger and shooed him inside
without thinking about the consequences.  It would be just my luck for Chelsea
to come back at that moment.  Then I would have to explain Haine standing on my
doorstep.  I wasn’t in the fucking mood.

He glanced at me, his bright blue eyes full of
surprise, and then followed me inside.  I went to get a glass of water in an
attempt to calm down.  Being such a mess of emotions was not healthy when you
were in the presence of vampires.  I hadn’t missed the fact that Haine’s eyes
were a little lighter, a little more silvery, than they had been last time I
saw him.  “Can I get you something?”