I pushed the button.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Just a vamp in the woods
Once again, I was amazed at the silence of metal shutters. I could barely hear them as they peeled back and folded onto themselves, then slid into their housing at the side of each window.
Bright sunlight flooded the room. God’s sign of Grace. Either that, or His illumination of me prior to being burned to a crisp.
I stood there, eyes closed, but didn’t hear a sizzle. Nor did I feel any pain.
The next test came when I unlocked the door to the patio and slid it a little to the right. No sirens screamed. I didn’t hear any footsteps racing through the hall but I doubted I would. Maddock’s house was probably noise proof. The better to suck the blood of the unwilling.
Or chemically rape a woman.
Still, no one entered the room.
I peered outside and felt my heart drop to my ankles. All my hoping had been in vain. We were higher than the second floor. Much, much higher.
Stepping out onto the balcony, I looked around. In the distance I could see Randolph Air Force Base and the Taj Mahal, the nickname for its distinctive water tower located at the end of the main drag. I knew exactly where I was, about five miles from my home.
All my life I’d seen this house, marveled at its Spanish Colonial architecture. I’d wondered who lived in such a grand place perched on a hill. Now I knew just as I realized my escape was going to be even more perilous than I imagined.
What the hell. I had to try.
I grabbed the tie rope and threw it on the balcony.
I wish Maddock had smaller feet so I could have worn a pair of his Nikes, but I was going to have to climb barefoot. While I was wishing, I might as well wish for the ability to transform into a bird for real. That would come in handy right about now.
The earth undulated around the house, carefully landscaped to appear rustic and untamed. On the east side, a bluff rose up, cradling the back of the house. I took the rope and moved to the balcony on that side, knowing my chances of reaching the ground before I reached the end of the rope would be greater here.
At least the view was only of grass and earth and trees. No outbuildings were visible at the side of the house. Nor would anyone arriving for work see me.
I knotted the first tie on the balcony railing, reached for the end of my rope and tied it around my waist. After checking the knots again and a third time, I swung my leg over the balcony and sat there, straddling the iron railing.
Terrified isn’t quite the word I’d use. Nauseous? Yes. Shaky? Definitely. My knees were wobbling. My blood pressure, always normal until now, was rising. Silent killer, my ass. I could feel it.
I swung my other leg over, deliberately not looking down. However long the drop, I had to make it down the side of the house.
I would cross in front of two floors of windows on my way down. Hopefully, nobody would be working inside and see me. Hopefully, the shutters would be up on those windows and the inhabitants would be terrified of opening them, even if someone screamed directly outside their window.
Rule number two for escaping: no screaming.
My hands were clammy so I wiped them, one at a time, on Maddock’s altered sweatpants. Moving closer to the wall, I dropped one foot into the air, feeling the knot tighten in my hands.
I couldn’t do this.
I had to do this.
It’s called stepping out on faith and I did it, biting my lips to stifle my yelp as I twirled in the air, my hands sliding too fast on the silk ties. My stomach lurched so much that, if I’d eaten anything, it would have said hello again.
I closed my eyes as I slid down across the first window, then opened them to find myself facing a set of shutters. My stomach unclenched a little, enough for me to slide down a few more feet.
My hands were burning. I hadn’t thought about gloves, but I should have. I’m certain Maddock has a dozen or more pairs in that house sized closet of his.
But at least I wasn’t burning. The sun was warm on my face, warmer on my back, but I didn’t feel like I was blistering.
I braced my foot on the pediment above the lower window, looking down and into the room. I couldn’t see much because of the sun sparkling off the glass. I was going to have to chance it.
I lowered myself a few more feet, my bare feet braced against the adobe-like wall. Nothing like a little bare flesh to give you traction. I’m sure I was leaving bits of me on every surface.
I slid down more, my foot landing on the pane of glass. Oh, great. If I had been invisible before I wasn’t now.
I bounced off the glass, trying to rappel the rest of the way. Halfway down the window I looked up, to find myself face to face with a scowling middle aged woman. She glanced over her shoulder at someone, no doubt calling out the calvary.
I opted for a smile, a wave of two fingers and letting the silk of the ties abrade my palms as I slid down even faster.
My pulse was reaching stratospheric heights. My palms were bleeding. A lump in my throat was nearly choking me.
Beyond the window I had another problem.
I’d reached the end of the rope, but not the ground. Well, so much for planning. The rope slid tight under my arms. I couldn’t even jump until I cut myself free.
Unless I did, I was spinning here until I was caught.
As far as options, there weren’t many. The sweatpants I’d appropriated didn’t have any pockets and I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to tuck the manicure scissors somewhere on me. I couldn’t gnaw myself free although I was giving it some serious thought.
I had to do something quickly.
I could see myself falling, landing on something soft as a cloud. My arms were released. I could scamper up and run like the devil was after me which wasn’t a bad assessment of my situation.
When I opened my eyes, however, I was still a puppet dangling from a rope of ties.
Being a Dirugu wasn’t panning out.
Suddenly I fell, the descent so fast I barely had a chance to register it before I was rolling down the slope of the hill.
I looked up to see a half dozen ties still hanging from the balcony. Maybe I should surrender my Girl Scout knot tying badge.
I wrestled with the rope around my chest, not managing to loosen it, but not caring at this point. I had to get out of here. I gathered up the rest of the rope, wound it around my waist and edged around the building.
The woman was going to report me. In seconds there would be a hue and cry. My luck, they’d have bloodhounds.
Instead of heading toward the front of the house, I ran toward the woods, changing my mind the minute my bare feet hit the trail. The pine needles were like swords to the bottom of my bare feet.
I couldn’t walk in the undergrowth either. I had no choice but to backtrack. Below me and to the right was a garage filled with cars, all of them expensive. I could swear I saw a Silver Cloud Rolls Royce in one of the bays.
No one was around. Nobody ran from the house shouting there was an intruder, an escaped prisoner, or a demented woman headed their way. I crouched down and scurried across the grass and over the road like a cockroach, taking cover in a drainage ditch.
In my escape from Mattock’s house, I hadn’t thought about being exposed to the sun for so long. Once I was on the other side of the expressway, I checked for burns. My face felt hot, but other than a faint pinkness on my arms I looked, for lack of a better word, normal.
I glanced up at the sky, not the least surprised to see massive dark clouds scuttling toward me. A rainy day would protect my skin from burning, but it would make a gully of the drainage ditch.
Someone up there had a seriously sucky sense of humor.
The sound of a truck made me huddle against the slope of earth. Time stretches when you’re scared, elongates exponentially. I don’t know if it was a minute or ten, but it felt like an eternity. I didn’t hear the truck accelerate. Instead, it sounded like the driver was coasting al
ong the road slowly. No doubt looking for me.
I’d made it this far. I was going to make it the rest of the way or die trying.
Where did I go, though? Home? My townhouse was the first place Maddock would look for me. Nonnie wouldn’t give me sanctuary. Neither would my mother.
I heard footsteps and looked around for a weapon. I hefted a rock in my hand, something clunky with sharp edges and enough weight to do some damage.
As I was gearing myself up to act like David to my pursuer’s Goliath, the footsteps stopped.
When I heard the truck start up again, I crept down the ditch until it ran beneath the highway. I knew where I was. IH-35, a parking lot between San Antonio and Austin. I didn’t have any other choice but to cross it, thanking God it was so early. As it was, I was taking my life in my hands as I ran barefoot across the burning pavement.
Whenever a car came along, I ducked into the ditch beside the road. My feet were cut but they were healing quickly just as my palms had. My nose was getting a sunburn and creepy crawly things had managed to infiltrate the sweatpants and were biting the heck out of me. If I could heal so fast, why couldn’t I stop mosquito bites from driving me nuts?
I managed to loosen the rope ties around my waist, stepping out of the body noose and leaving the ties tucked into a culvert.
I would have given a week of my life for a cell phone. Scratch that. I would have given even more for someone to call. Still, I was heading for home like a carrier pigeon too tired to reason it out or care.
I’d barricade myself in my house with Mutt. I’d keep him safe and he’d protect me as well. I’d handle this entire situation one day at a time. Everything else would have to wait.
“Marcie!”
I stopped in my tracks. A second later I began to run, diving for the deep cover of the brush. Unfortunately, this ditch had standing water.
And bullfrogs.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Everything else paled in comparison
Something croaked too close to my ear.
I couldn’t move in the sucking mud. Planting both hands in the muck, I finally pulled myself free, collapsing on the bank.
I lay back, looking up to see Dan’s upside down face grinning at me.
“It’s not funny.”
“No,” he said. “It isn’t.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“I saw you,” he said. “I was getting a cup of coffee from Maria when she began to scream about a chupacabra crawling down the wall of the hacinda. You weren’t hard to follow.”
At least it had been Dan and not his employer.
He stood on the edge of the creek and stretched out his hand.
“I am not going back there.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Okay.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I came in this morning to quit.”
“Oh.”
He wiggled his hand at me. “Come on, we’ve got to get going.”
“If you could take me home, I’d be very grateful,” I said, grabbing his hand.
He hauled me up like I was a hundred pound halibut. Frankly, I felt a little fishy at the moment, being coated in mud and dripping.
“What were you doing there?”
I didn’t want to talk about it.
“Why did you leave like that? Down the…” His voice trailed off.
Down the wall? Over the balcony?
I didn’t want to talk about that, either. “Can you take me home?”
“No,” he said, leading me to his truck.
“I have to,” I said. “I have to get some clothes.” I looked down at myself. I was without panties, the sweatpants cleaving wetly to my nether regions.
I was miserable, tired, soggy and scared. I was also angry. I wanted my life back. My boring, endlessly same life. I wanted to go into work every morning and talk to my assistant about her boyfriend and mother. I wanted to talk to my friends about books. I wanted to date sporadically if not smartly, agonize over the possibility of falling in love. I wanted all of this and more and I was never going to have it.
“I’m going home,” I said, when he closed the door and got behind the wheel.
“He’ll find you.”
I knew that. I didn’t have any other place to go.
“Come and stay with me.”
I glanced over at him.
I didn’t know Dan. All I did know was he wasn’t a vampire. Right now that was a good enough recommendation.
“I have to go home and get my clothes,” I said. “And my dog.”
“Your dog?”
I nodded. “Love me, love my dog.”
“Since when do you have a dog?”
“Since the other day.”
“Are you going to tell me what happened?”
“I adopted a dog.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Not the dog. Maddock.”
“No.” I couldn’t.
As far as I was concerned, nobody was ever going to find out about last night. Shame didn’t even begin to describe it. I was more than ashamed. I was humiliated to the point even my bones wanted to curl up and hide.
“Where were you last night?” I asked.
“Maddock pulled me off, said he had someone else who would shadow you.”
I nodded. Just as I’d suspected.
“Is that why you quit?”
He didn’t say anything for a minute. “Maybe part of it.”
I wanted to ask if he suspected something, if he’d wanted to ride to my defense like a knight in shining armor. Instead, I kept quiet and blinked back my tears.
“It’s okay, Marcie.”
“I know,” I said, more to thank him for the thought than because I agreed. Nothing was right and I had to get it right soon.
I had to call Kenisha and let her know what I knew. Hera might have been responsible for one of the attempts on my life but not the other.
I thought the police should look through all of Maddock’s vehicles for traces of gunpowder residue. How long did it last? Up until this point in my life it hadn’t been one of those important things I needed to know. If things kept going the way they were, I should take an online course in criminology.
I could see Maddock’s mistress using a gun that night at the school. I could see her trying to eliminate me as competition, not because I was good looking or excessively charming. I had a womb, one Maddock had visions of filling. She didn’t want anything, or anyone, to mess with what she had.
But she hadn’t known about the sweater.
Dan swerved to avoid something in the road. Either a rabbit or a were-rabbit. Nothing looked the way it had before. Nothing in my life was remotely normal.
“Why did you quit?”
He sent me a quick look, then focused on the road.
“It was time.”
“Can you quit being a vampire?” I asked, staring out my window. If so, sign me up.
Maybe not. I wasn’t ready to die yet. I didn’t want to die before I’d fixed a couple of things about my life. But I wasn’t about to become a breeding receptacle for Maddock. If given the choice, I’d do myself in. Thanks to Vampire Orientation, I knew how to do it efficiently. I wouldn’t cut off an arm or a leg. I’d give myself a virus.
Dan didn’t say anything, leaving me to stare out the windshield, my mind going into a calm, almost contemplative state.
San Antonio has lush patches of green and hints of the desert. Right now we were heading through one of the cactus parts. I’d thought I was only about five miles from home but I had underestimated the distance.
“They’re not the mafia,” he said. “Vampires. They pay well, but they don’t expect loyalty. I think they look on humans as necessary evils.”
I nodded.
“Sorry,” he said, a moment later. “I keep forgetting you are one.”
I nodded again. “Yep. I am one.” I was kinda/sorta a vampire. I had fangs that didn’t work very well, but no special abilit
ies to speak of other than being a Mind Whisperer. Oh, and I could exist in the sun without screaming, “I’m burning! I’m burning!”
Big whoop.
Okay, so being able to walk in the sun made it possible for me to escape Maddock’s clutches, but for how long?
I wasn’t an impulsive person, per se. Dating Doug had been the most impulsive thing I’d ever done. Now I knew I’d been an assignment for Doug, something on his To Do list that needed to be checked off. What an idiot I’d been about Doug.
I’d been an idiot about Meng, too. If I hadn’t let my compassion get in the way of my good sense, I wouldn’t be in this predicament. My thoughts stopped in mid-whine. Yes, I would be, because maybe what happened wouldn’t have occurred last night. But it would have happened sooner or later.
I kept glancing in the side view mirror of Dan’s truck, but I didn’t see any cars chasing us.
I had to do something. I couldn’t wait for Maddock to find me and haul me back to his hacienda. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice and I’m a card carrying loon.
In my work life I’d been methodical, intense, focused and probably dogmatic. If I had something to do, I broke it down to its functions, accomplishing one thing at a time.
I needed to do that with this situation, too.
Maddock wanted me for my ability to bear children. I hadn’t told him about my two miscarriages. But at least I had the ability to get pregnant which none of the other female vampires did. Up until this point, I had no idea male vampires could produce sperm. It wasn’t a question I went around asking.
Hi, I’m Marcie, are you shooting blanks? If I didn’t get staked I’d probably get a set of fangs to the carotid.
At the very least, I should go on birth control pills.
Carrying a derringer wouldn’t be a bad idea, either, for those encounters of the penis kind. I could always shove it down Maddock’s shorts, pull the trigger and see if his regenerative powers extended to his dick.
I was not going to sit around and be a vessel waiting to be filled. I wasn’t a helpless woman-child all fluttery and female about a male.
The Fertile Vampire Page 20
