Twilight Vendetta (8 page)

God he was big. Bodybuilder big. And that skin. Dark for a vampire. Almost like he had a deep tan.

She got into the backseat of her own Jeep, sliding too close to a twenty-something man with carrot-colored hair and an angelic smile, despite the insane situation. Then the big vampire was squashing his bulk in beside her and closing the door. “Go, Tavia.”

Tavia
stomped the gas, popped the clutch, almost stalled it, and then managed to shift into second, grinding gears all the way.

“Jeeze, if you can’t drive, pull over and let me. You’re gonna wear out the clutch.”

“Who is dis girl, Devlin?” she asked, taking a corner too fast.

“
Dis
girl is the owner of
dis
Jeep, lady. And I’d like to know what the hell you’re doing with it.”

Tavia looked over her shoulder and Emma was struck. She had huge, expressive black eyes, and thick, dark brows in contrast to her pale skin. “We needed a vehicle. Dis one was parked a few blocks from your home, keys still inside.”

She took another turn too fast, and then seemed to relax a little. Emma figured she could sense that they were safe. Of course she could. She was a vampire. They were all vampires. She was getting what she wanted. She was walking with vampires. Well, riding with them, technically, but still. She sank back into her seat and told her muscles it was safe to unclench just a little.

“So your name is Devlin,” she said. “I’ve always wondered.”

He met her eyes, nodded just once. “That’s Bellamy, sitting next to you,” he said.

She turned and Bellamy smiled again. Light blue eyes like a summer sky. “Nice to meet you, Emma.” Then he slid a glance past her at Devlin. “This
is
Emma, right?”

Devlin ignored him. “Our fearless driver is Tavia,” he said.

Tavia didn’t look back this time, but she did mutter, “
salut.
”

“And that’s Andrew sitting beside her.”

“Hey, Emma,” said the too-thin blond male who’d been silent up till now. His hair was longish on one side, shaved on the other. He looked like a white supremacist, in her opinion.

“What happened back dere?” Tavia asked.

Devlin looked at Emma, waiting. She couldn’t hold his eyes. “They must’ve followed me from the shore. Or maybe they saw where my Jeep was parked last night and got the plate number. I don’t know.” She looked behind her, though they’d come too far to see anything. “They took my father.”

“Your fadere is vampire?” Tavia asked, wide eyed.

“No. No, and he’s not a BD either.”

“BD...ah, Chosen. He is not. But you are. And your mahder?”

She lowered her head. “She’s....” She looked at the people in the car. Not yet. Something inside her told her this was not the time. “She’s been gone a long time. Listen, we have to go after them. We have to find where they’re taking my father. If they realize he was trying to help you–”

“Help us.” Devlin all but spat the words, and she shot him a searching look.

“Yes. Help you. I told him about the attempted execution of two teenage vampires–or whatever they were–in the ocean, and he was trying to figure out where they had been taken.”

“And how would he do that, exactly?”

Devlin’s doubt was beginning to piss her off. “He’s a genius,” she said. “Literally, not figuratively. He’s a genius. He spent his life teaching physics, retired early, and now he spends all his free time advocating for vampire rights and playing around with his favorite hobby, ham radio. He’s designed some antennas that could darn near pull in a signal from Mars.”

“Wow,” Bellamy said. Andrew shot him a quelling look over the seat. Maybe they weren’t supposed to be impressed by mortal passengers.

Or was she a prisoner? It remained to be seen, she thought.

“Sometimes he’s able to pick up DPI communications. Last night he intercepted a conversation he’s pretty sure was happening between the same men I saw take your friends away. I knew exactly when they left the beach with those two kids, and he knew exactly when they arrived at their destination, because he heard them say so. At least we think that’s what they were referring to. You take that information, and the average speed the van likely traveled, and you can narrow down their location to within about a thirty to fifty mile radius. That’s what was on the map. Dad had marked out our search grid.”

“
Your
search grid?” Devlin asked.

“Yes, ours. We were going to start trying to figure out the most likely locations for a secret government prison tonight.”

He was quiet for a long moment, looking at her as if he didn’t quite believe her.

She heaved a heavy sigh.

Then he said, “Tavia, pull in at this convenience store.” Then he turned to Emma. “Do you have any money?”

Money, an overnight bag, a spare toothbrush, a few untraceable cell phones, and a first aid kit. Her Jeep was always her backup plan. “Yes, and I’m starved.”

“So are we all,” Andrew muttered, his tone rather bitchy, she thought.

She held Devlin’s eyes for one electric moment, then said, “There’s cash in the glove compartment. Help yourself.”

Andrew opened the glove compartment, fished out the roll of bills she kept in there for emergencies. She saw him noticing the pay as you go cell phones in there, but he said nothing and handed the cash over the back of the seat to her.

Emma peeled off a couple of twenties and handed them to Devlin, and he nodded, said, “Wait here,” and jumped out of the car, heading into the store.

“So tell me, Emma,” Tavia asked. “Why did you park your car tree blocks from your house?”

“In case I was followed,” she said. She didn’t see any reason to lie. “I figured if they knew what I saw, I’d be in trouble.”

“Apparently they did. And you are,” Andrew said.

“But don’t worry,” Bellamy said. “We’ll go after your father. Devlin isn’t as hard-hearted as he seems.”

Andrew and Tavia snorted in unison, which didn’t do much for her confidence.

Bellamy quickly added, “He just doesn’t trust humans. You can’t blame him, really, given everything that’s gone down since they found out we exist.”

She nodded. “I know. Believe me, I know. And I don’t blame him. But I’m not like that, and neither is my father.” She swallowed hard and said, “They called your friends Offspring.”

“Yes.” Tavia didn’t say more.

“They were shot, close range with high powered rifles,” Emma went on. “The men who shot them thought they were dead. They were sure of it.”

“So was Dev,” Bellamy said.

Him, she could talk to, Emma decided. He had the rounded cheeks of a child, a boyish personality and she sensed a soul to match. “They came back to life, somehow. They killed two of the goops. I heard their screams.”

Bellamy closed his eyes and gave an exaggerated shudder.

“What is goops?” Tavia asked.

“Those DPI thugs who dress in black riot gear and carry rifles. It’s what we call them.”

“We call dem crows,” she said, maybe sounding a little bit less hostile.

“What are they? Your two young friends?”

“We don’t even know for sure,” Bellamy said. “They’re the result of some kind of government science experiment. They took sperm and eggs from BD’s they’d jacked up on some kind of Jekyl and Hyde cocktail, and–”

“Why do not you tell her our life history while you are at it, Bell?” Tavia snapped.

He grimaced at Emma, a little sheepish, a little apologetic. “She’s on our side, Tav, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Time will tell,” she said.

Devlin was exiting the store. He had a small plastic bag in one hand, and he got into the car and closed the door, looking around him.

It was so odd to her to see a vampire walking into a convenience store and out again without incident that it felt surreal. But then he was fishing something out of the bag and handing it to her, and the scent reached her nostrils and her stomach growled.

A croissant with scrambled eggs and a cheese-like substance. Oh, joy, oh rapture. “I don’t suppose there’s any coffee in there?” she asked.

He pulled a cup out of the bag and handed that to her as well. Then he pulled out the last item, a map of the area. “Do you think you can recreate your father’s search grid?”

“Of course I can. Um, Andrew, there’s a pen in that glove box. Can you get if for me?” She took a big sip of the coffee, then frowned at Devlin. “How did you know how I like my coffee?”

Everyone in the car laughed except Emma. And then Bellamy leaned close and said, “You were wishing for it so loudly it was hard to carry on a conversation over it.”

She closed her eyes. “It’s been a long time since I had to worry about anyone reading my thoughts.”

“How long?” Devlin asked, looking at her.

She sighed, not wanting to talk about her mom. Not yet. Not with her only remaining parent missing and possibly in danger. Maybe knowing about her mother would make them trust her more. Or maybe realizing that she’d been searching for them for her own selfish reasons would ruin any chance she had of ever gaining their confidence.

“Thanks for breakfast,” she said. “I’m surprised they still had any at this hour.”

“I hope to heaven de rest of us are next, Devlin,” Tavia said as she pulled the Jeep back into the street and headed out. “If I do not have sustenance soon, I am going to stop dis car and feed on a pedestrian.”

They drove until they were near the ocean again. Devlin navigated until Tavia pulled the car into a wooded glen that overlooked the ocean, and shut off the engine and headlights.

Emma had finished her coffee, and was wishing for a refill. “What are we doing here?” she asked.

“They need to eat.” He nodded at his companions and the three of them jumped out of the car so eagerly you’d have thought they’d just arrived at Disneyland.

Emma watched them run back down the road, then looked at Devlin still sitting in the backseat beside her. She got stuck for a moment, staring at him— drinking him in, really. God, he was good looking. She wanted to touch him, but didn’t dare.

“What, exactly, are they going to eat?” she asked to distract herself from such thoughts.

“Don’t you mean who?”

“They can’t–you don’t just–Devlin, come on. Are they going to–”

“They’ll take only what they need. It’s forbidden among our kind to take the life of an innocent. Though frankly, I don’t know many mortals who fit that description these days. Do you?”

“Yes, I do, as a matter of fact. More than you know. Are you even aware of the efforts being made on your behalf?”

He made a noise like a horse blowing in anger. Then he got out of the car, walked to the edge of the cliff, and stared down at the ocean. She got out too and stood for a moment, just looking at him. So tall and powerful, standing between her and the Pacific, the starry sky above him like a backdrop. It was a photograph begging to be taken, a painting waiting to be put on canvas. If only she were a painter instead of a writer, she thought.

He turned and caught her staring, so she moved to stand beside him. “There are a lot of people protesting the mistreatment of vampires by our government.”

“And yet the mistreatment continues.”

“In secret, yes. But word is getting out. What happened to your two friends went out into the Twitterverse within hours, and it’s already gone viral.” She didn’t tell him she was the one who’d put it there, using one of her numerous and ever changing handles and the #ERFU hashtag. By the time she’d come around earlier tonight, the tweet had already been trending.

He frowned, sent her a look. “You’ll have to translate most of that sentence.”

“People are talking all over the Internet about two teenage vampires being executed by some goops.”

“Crows,” he said. “We call them crows.”

“Crows. Fine. So you do know what the Internet is, right?”

He held her eyes for a moment, then looked back down at the waves crashing to the rocky shore far below them. She got the feeling he’d understood everything she’d said. Then got distracted by the way the wind was moving his hair.

“There’s a movement afoot,” she said. “People are starting to protest, to complain. The media–”

“The media? Really, that’s going to be the salvation of vampire kind? The media? Where celebrity gossip gets more air time than mass murders?”

She tipped her head to one side, looking up at him. It was a little disconcerting, standing beside him. He was so much taller and so much bigger. His chest and shoulders strained the seams of the black polo shirt he wore, and his thighs were testing the strength of the denim of his jeans.

“You hate us all, don’t you?”

“I’ve got reason.”

She lowered her head. “I don’t doubt it.”

A quick glance his way revealed that her response had surprised him, at least a little bit. She drew a breath and asked, “So what do you think the salvation of your kind
is
going to be?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We have to organize and fight back. There’s no way humankind can win an all-out war against us.”

Emma widened her eyes. “Are you freakin’ kidding me? Of course there’s a way they can win. You go to war and you’ll be wiped out.”

His lips thinned. “We’re stronger. One fledgling vampire is equal to ten mortal men, and an ancient one, equal to fifty. We’re immortal.”