I open the door. His eyes widen when he sees me. “What on earth happened to you?” he asks.
I’ve almost forgotten what I look like.
“You went running last night, didn’t you?” he says. “What happened?”
I don’t invite him in, but he crosses the threshold and goes into the little galley kitchen, opening drawers and cupboards.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“We need to take care of those scratches before they get infected,” he says. “It looks like you took a pretty bad spill.”
“It could’ve been worse,” I say. “A lot worse.”
He finds a first-aid kit under the sink and sits me down at the little table. He uses a damp paper towel to clean the scratches on my face and my bare arms. His touch is gentle. “So,” he says, “are you going to tell me what happened?”
“Vampires.”
He’s opening a tube of ointment and pauses for a moment before continuing. “But you’re okay?”
“You don’t seem surprised.”
“I’m not.”
“So you believe me?”
“I believe you.”
“Why?”
He dabs some ointment on the cut on my face. “First, I know you wouldn’t lie to me. Second, you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.”
“Well, it’s certainly news to me. Who else knows about this? Have they been here all along? Why doesn’t anyone say anything?”
Alex doesn’t answer as he puts Band-Aids on the deeper scratches. I wait, and he bandages the scrapes on my legs as well. When he finally speaks, he surprises me.
“You want to get out of town for a while?” he asks. “I think we could both use a change of scenery.”
“When I tried to leave Lithia, you wouldn’t let me. Now, you want to take me away?”
“Just a day trip,” he says.
“Where?”
“The redwood forest,” he says.
“Are there vampires in the redwoods?”
He gives me a strange look, then says, “I’ll wait outside. Get dressed and meet me in the car.”
~
I’m so exhausted, I fall asleep soon after getting into Alex’s Subaru. Alex has that effect on me—not that he puts me to sleep but that he creates a space that makes me feel safe enough to close my eyes and relax.
When I wake up, we’re on a narrow two-lane highway, deep inside a forest. The trees around us block the clouds, or maybe we’re in the clouds—the small amount of sunlight that reaches us is brightened by a strange, ghostly mist.
“They call this the Redwood Highway,” Alex says, glancing over at me.
I respond by turning away, leaning my head against the window, watching the trees flash by.
“Kat? You asleep?”
“How can I sleep if you keep talking to me?”
“Okay, okay. I’ll stop talking.”
I turn back to him. “It’s not your talking that bothers me, it’s what you’re saying. And not saying. You’re showing me the sights when you should be asking me about the vampires I saw last night. Or, more specifically, how I escaped having the blood drained from my body. Do you even care?”
“Of course I care,” he says.
“Well, then, you’re a better actor than our vampire friend Roman. Because you don’t seem the least bit bothered.”
“I do want to talk,” he says. “Trust me, Kat. There’s a reason I want you to be here when we talk about this. It will all make sense then.”
“Nothing makes sense anymore.”
I stare sullenly out the window. The road ahead is getting darker, as if someone above is turning the dial of a dimmer switch. I look up, expecting thick rain clouds, but instead I see nothing but trees—enormous canopies of dark green pine needles. The sky has completely disappeared. I look back at the road, which has narrowed quite a lot, hemmed in by gigantic, prehistoric-looking tree trunks. They emerge from the earth like bark-covered missiles, with no end in sight, even as I try to glimpse their tops.
“Welcome to the redwoods,” Alex says.
I press my face against the window, trying to improve my view. “It’s like looking at a forest through a magnifying glass.”
“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?”
I’d been impressed with the trees in the hills of Lithia, but these trees are at least five times wider and taller. Ahead, the road curves around a tree trunk as wide as a mobile home. I see a turnout in the narrow road and ask Alex to pull over.
I get out of the car and walk up to one of the trees. The ground under my feet is thick with bark and pine needles, and it’s so spongy it’s like walking on a trampoline; I practically bounce. I reach out and touch the tree, its bark thick and damp from the mist. I clasp a section of bark and hold on as I arch my back and look up, following the trunk until it disappears into wisps of fog high above. Its top is completely hidden in the clouds, and I wonder what it must look like from above—a bunch of green treetops rising from a blanket of white, puffy clouds. I slowly walk around the tree trunk on the springy earth. Everything is lush and green, the air so thick I feel it clinging to my skin and hair.
Alex says gently, “We’re almost there, Kat.”
Reluctantly, I get back into the car. After another mile, the weaving blacktop road turns into a one-lane gravel road. Alex has to slow down to nearly a crawl, and about ten minutes later, the road changes again, this time yielding to soft dirt. Large ferns brush up against the sides of the Subaru like a car wash.
Finally, Alex stops, and I step out again. While we’d passed a couple of other cars back on the paved road, that was miles ago, and there is no one else here. We are all alone.
“Follow me,” Alex says.
He heads into thick brush, pushing large drooping ferns out of the way, holding them for me as though he’s holding doors open. I follow close behind, breathing deeply the whole time, not from exertion but from the cool, clean feel of the air, rich with oxygen.
I notice that we are not on a trail; we’re in the middle of this forest-jungle, and I wonder if he knows exactly where he’s going. I want to ask how much farther he’s taking me, but I actually don’t care if we have another ten miles to go. It’s so beautiful here I could walk forever. It’s like being in a cathedral of nature, ancient and sacred.
Then Alex stops and turns to me. “We’re here.”
I stop, too, listening to the sounds of the forest: faraway birds, the whisper of the trees, the slow dripping of moisture from the branches. “Where is here exactly?”
“Technically speaking, we’re in Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. Two miles from the California border. But I never really think of it by its formal name. For me, it’s home.”
I stare at him. “You were raised in the forest?”
He laughs. “In a manner of speaking. I brought you here to show you a friend of mine.”
“You’re serious? People really live out here?” It doesn’t seem possible, given that we’re now in a place with no roads. There aren’t even any trails. But at this point, I’m past being surprised by anything.
“No, no one lives here. And this friend isn’t a person. It’s a tree.”
“A tree?”
“Not just any tree,” he says. “Most trees here are two hundred to three hundred feet tall. The tallest on record is three hundred and seventy-nine feet. It’s named Hyperion.”
“Does your tree friend have a name, too?”
He smiles at me. “Very funny.”
I look around. “So where is this Hyperion?”
“Hyperion’s location is secret.”
“Why?”
“To protect it from tourists and the hordes who would try to climb it.” He smiles again. “But I know of a taller tree, one that nobody else knows about.”
“Where is it?”
“Right there.”
He points to the tree in front of us. I look up to see the top, but, like the others, it is hidden in clouds.
“This tree is four hundred feet tall,” Alex says. “Four hundred and one, to be exact. The tallest tree on the planet.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve climbed it. I’ve climbed most of these trees. This is where I come to relax. To get away from people.”
“You couldn’t have picked a better place.” It’s so beautiful here, so remote, that I’ve almost forgotten that there’s another world out there. That the other world, the one I live in, is apparently filled with vampires.
“Alex, why didn’t you tell me Roman was a vampire?”
“I did.”
“I mean, why didn’t you make me listen? And why didn’t you tell me there were more?”
“You didn’t want to hear it, Kat.”
“Roman’s friend Victor tried to kill me last night,” I say, eager to get the story out, to tell someone. “I thought it was all over. And then it seemed like Roman was going to kill me. But he didn’t. It’s almost like—he saved me.”
Alex is looking at me, his face serious, almost somber. “He probably did. But that doesn’t mean you’re safe.”
“Why?”
“It’s complicated.”
“What’s complicated about it? You just call the police and stop them.”
“So did you call the police?”
I go silent. I didn’t, and I can’t tell Alex why.
“You see, Kat? Everything is complicated.”
“Well, you should’ve been clearer with me. I thought you were just jealous of Roman. I didn’t know my life actually was in danger.”
“You still don’t know the whole story.”
“Seriously, Alex? I find out Roman and Victor are bloodthirsty vampires, and now you’re telling me there’s more?”
He nods, still looking very serious. “They’re not the only vampires in Lithia.”
“What?”
He opens his mouth, and I watch in horror as two fangs form, stalactite-like, and extend. My heart feels as though it’s stopped, and I back up, dead-ending into a tree.
“Kat, relax. It’s okay,” he says.
His words remind me of Victor’s, just before he came in for the kill—Don’t worry. It won’t hurt—and without a moment’s hesitation, I turn and start to run.
But I don’t know where I’m going. Unlike last night, there’s no trail, and I have no idea which way to turn. My legs are stiff and sore from yesterday, and my muscles are screaming in agony.
Then he is in front of me.
“Kat, it’s not what you think,” he says. I see his fangs, gleaming in the white mist.
I turn and run in the other direction. Again, he cuts me off.
This time, he’s faster than I am. He reaches out and takes me by the arms. I hear the sound of my voice ripping through my throat, my scream echoing among the redwoods, and then everything goes black.
Nineteen
I wake up, blinking the sun out of my eyes. As I adjust to the bright light, I see Alex on my right, kneeling over me, holding my arm firmly. My heart ramps up again, and I try to pull away from him.
“Easy, easy,” he says.
“What happened?”
“You fainted.”
“Where am I?” I’m struggling to take my arm back, to get away.
“You’re safe, Kat. I won’t hurt you. I would never hurt you.”
“But—you’re a vampire.” I look at him closely, trying to see his fangs. But they’ve retracted, and he looks like Alex again, regular old Alex. Did I dream it all up?
Then he confirms, “Yes, I’m a vampire. But I’m not like Roman. You’ll have to let me explain.”
I don’t want to hear his explanation, but he’s holding me so firmly I can’t escape. My only option is to let loose a scream that can be heard for miles and hope to catch the attention of some hikers or campers. So I open my mouth, take a deep breath—and that’s when I look around me.
And I see that we’re not on the ground.
We’re in a tree. But this is not just any tree. I’m stretched out across a thick branch that’s as wide as a park bench, and surrounding me are treetops in every direction. When I glance down, I see the tree trunk disappear into mist, and I feel as though I might faint again.
“It’s okay, Kat,” Alex says. “You’re safe up here. I won’t let you fall. I promise.”
“How did I get up here?”
“I carried you.”
“Carried me?”
“That’s right.”
“But how—” I stop, remembering his fangs. He brought me up here where I have no way to escape. Except to jump.
My body begins to tremble. “What are you going to do to me?”
“Nothing,” he says. “I’m just going to talk to you, that’s all.”
“Why can’t we talk on the ground?”
“Because you were running from me. Up here, you can’t go anywhere. I need you to listen to me.”
“I don’t know about you, but I find it really hard to focus when I’m scared out of my mind.”
“I told you, I won’t let you fall. You need to know the truth about me, Kat. Then I’ll take you back down and let you go, and you’ll never have to see me again if you don’t want to. I promise.”
I take a few deep breaths and tell myself that if he’d wanted to hurt me, he would have already. But then again, I thought the same about Roman. Is there no one I can trust?
I can’t even scoot away from Alex, as much as I want to. I’m too afraid of falling. I look around and feel as though I’m at the top of a mountain peak; in all directions, all I see are the tops of trees. I’m surprised to see that the tree we’re in rises another twenty or thirty feet above.
“This is the tree,” I say, remembering what he said just before he bared his fangs. “We’re in the tallest tree in the world?”
Alex nods. He stands up and holds out his hand. I take it, not so much because I forgive or trust him but because I know that holding onto him is the only certain way I won’t go flying off this branch.
“When I was born,” he says, “this tree was only a hundred feet tall.”
“Wow,” I say. “I didn’t know they grew that fast.”
“They don’t.” He pauses, then continues, “This tree is more than two thousand years old.”
“I don’t—” I stop when I realize what he’s talking about. “Oh. The vampire thing.”
He nods again. “When I come up here, I don’t feel quite so old.”
He looks wistful, but also a little peaceful. Nothing like the way Victor and Roman had looked at me last night. Like they were ready to devour me.
“What did you mean when you said you’re not like Roman?” I ask.
“I don’t live on blood.”
“What do you mean?” I ask. “I thought that was the only thing a vampire can eat.”
“Not me. Not anymore.”
“What do you live on, then?”
“You’re standing on it.”
I look down, then look back at him. “Trees?”
“The blood of trees.”
“The blood of—” It takes me a second to figure out what he’s talking about. But then Roman’s voice shoots through my mind: sapsucker. “Sap. You drink sap.”
“Yes, I live on sap.”
“I didn’t know vampires could do that.”
“As I told you, we’re adaptable.”
“You eat only from plants?”
“Exactly.” He smiles. “So you see why I could never hurt you.”
“A vegan vampire,” I say, amazed to hear these words coming from my own mouth. Amazed that such a thing exists. Mostly, I’m relieved. My instincts have been right, maybe not about Roman, but about Alex. I am safe with him.
“Yes, a vegan vampire,” Alex says.
“I’ve heard about vegetarian vampires,” I say, “the ones that eat animals, not humans.”
“Anyone who eats an animal, human or vampire, is not a vegetarian,” Alex says. “T
o be vegetarian is to spare all mammals, all birds, all fish. But then, you know that already.”
“Are you the only one?”
“There are others, but only a few. We have to keep a low profile, which is why I’ve waited so long to tell you. Many—vampires like Roman—believe it’s okay, even admirable, to kill a vegan vampire. We are lesser creatures in their eyes. And we threaten their existence.”
“So this is why you and Roman hate each other.”
Alex nods. “We don’t see eye to eye, to say the least. We’re in completely different worlds.”
“So why hasn’t he killed you yet?”
Alex shrugs. “As they say, keep friends close and your enemies closer. I think Roman and his type keep us around in case there’s ever a need for a scapegoat. In case they ever need someone to blame. I also think he’s worried. He tells himself that he can kill me easily—but what if he can’t? If he doesn’t try, he’ll never need to know that I’m stronger. He can just go on believing it.”
“So are you stronger?”
“I am now,” he says. “But I wasn’t so strong then. To be honest, I was close to ending my own life before I discovered the trees. Every time I took the life of a human, I was consumed with guilt. I couldn’t help doing it, of course—it’s the way I was made, and the instinct to live is so powerful. I always thought I had no choice. But it began to wear on me, all that death. I couldn’t help but think of those left behind, waiting, hopelessly waiting. And I began to wonder why my existence had to come at the expense of another. It was not just a matter of eating to live. I had removed human beings from the earth—people who were husbands and wives and parents and children—never to return. The weight of murder was growing too heavy on my shoulders. So I tried to limit myself to animals.”
“Did that work?”
“The guilt didn’t go away. Who’s to say a fawn doesn’t miss its mother, just because it’s a deer and not a human? Blood is blood in the end.”
“So what happened?”
“I starved myself, but that only made me weak. And in my weakest moments, my instinct returned, and I went back to my old ways again. So I was left with only one option.”
Out of Breath Page 13
