by Kaia Bennett
“Fuck.” Liam sighed and grabbed his jeans off the floor. He pulled them on with his back to the rest of the room and I noted his body. He could’ve been a swimmer, or baseball player with his tight, round ass and long torso. He had a beautiful back. I imagined for a second licking the length of his spine before biting the thick muscle of his shoulder. Biting hard enough to draw blood and make him whimper with need.
Just in case I wasn’t sure, I’m now officially sick.
Jesse slid out of bed, and as he did, a thought dawned on me.
The police. They were coming here and this motel cleaned up dead bodies. Maybe they were looking for me? Maybe we were still in New Jersey? And if we were, maybe I could stall a bit until I could escape and flag down help.
“How long do we have?” Jesse asked the woman.
“We’d like you to vacate in the next twenty minutes, please.”
Vaughn groaned and raised to a sitting position, like a vampire from an old horror movie.
Jesse gave the woman a gorgeous grin. “We’ll be out in ten.”
“Very good, sir. As a thank you for your cooperation, we’ve posted a credit for you. The next time you stay at any of our establishments, we’d like to offer you an extra night and a complimentary meal on the house.”
“Sweet!” Liam gave her a broad grin. “Can’t say no to free shit.”
That’s all people are to you? Free shit? Things you can kill on a whim?
The woman gave a smile so tight I thought her face would crack. “We look forward to seeing you in the future, gentlemen.”
With that, she spun on her heel. The bodyguards parted like the Red Sea and all three were gone a second later.
Jesse scratched his balls and flipped his hair out of the way as he searched for his clothes.
I still sat on the bed and watched Vaughn pull fresh clothes out of his duffel. Liam grabbed a toothbrush and popped the bristled head into his mouth.
I wanted to pull on clothes myself. I wanted to take a shower and scrub Jesse off of me, but I’d have settled for clothes. Only….
“I don’t have anything to wear. Liam took my clothes.”
The first thing I’d said in hours. Liam perked up at the sound of his name on my lips and I met the weak one’s eyes. He tilted his head, as if seeing me for the first time. Maybe he had. I should’ve been dead by now, an inconsequential snack, or dessert. Yet, I continued to draw breath, to take up space in their world.
“Yup.” Jesse pulled a fresh pair of jeans on—I guess vampires prefer to go commando—and rifled through his bag. He pulled out a black T-shirt, the fabric so worn it’d become almost gauzy. Cotton conformed to the muscles and angles of Jesse’s tall form. When he swept all that hair out of the collar, the strands fell down his back in a glossy curtain that shimmered against the faded shirt.
To Liam he said, “We’ll make a trip to the junkyard, then get a new car.” Jesse sighed and bit his bottom lip. “Should’ve made you get another car last night. The witch will slow us down.”
“So, what about my clothes?”
Jesse motioned to the clothes on the chair. “Wear those.”
He’d pointed to the dead girl’s clothes. The ones he’d slipped off her body in that unhurried pace. If not for me, would they have ripped them off of her, like they had my clothes in the woods? Had Jesse saved them for me, knowing Liam and Vaughn would kill her? Had the bastard planned to make me watch her murder before he dragged me back on the road?
“I’m not wearing them.”
Vaughn snorted. “She wants to go naked, Jesse. She can sit on my lap till we find her something to—”
“I’m not wearing the clothes of a girl you butchered! You sick fuck!”
Silence. All three paused in their packing and stared at me.
Jesse grinned. “You think we butchered her?” He laughed. A full belly laugh that made me ill because he looked so handsome when amused. “Vaughn! She thinks we butchered....” His voice dissolved into peals of laughter.
Liam laughed, but Vaughn’s face hadn’t changed. He still directed a murderous glare toward me.
“You should’ve seen the last guy, college girl.” Vaughn stalked toward the bed while I clutched the blanket and slid to the opposite edge. “We carved him up real nice. I think he begged for his mommy by the time I finished fuckin’ and cuttin’ him.”
I turned away, refusing to let Vaughn make me cry.
Vaughn took my lack of vigilance as a chance to get close to me, to whisper in my ear. He moved so fast. “Gets me hard again just thinking about the last time we butchered someone for real, witch.”
He licked my neck. I bolted off the bed, shuddering as I recalled the night in the woods. The tongue, the trail of wetness on my neck when I’d felt someone behind me, had been Vaughn. I stared at him pressing the flat of my back against the wall. Vaughn still sat in an easy crouch beside the bed, the balls of his feet propping him up. He licked his lips but his eyes held my attention, revealing the intentions of a glacial heart.
“You have a choice, Evie.” Jesse tossed the clothes at me. I caught them with one arm, still clutching the comforter with the other. “You can wear these, or Liam can go get your clothes. The ones covered in piss and blood, and chunks of puke. Your choice.”
A blaze of fury flushed my skin as he outlined my options.
Jesse said, “You got five minutes to get ready on your own or I’ll get Vaughn to help you.”
I swallowed and threw a skittish glance toward Vaughn. He looked me up and down like a butcher deciding where to slice first, then gave me a wicked grin before sauntering back to his pack.
Jesse made me watch the girl die and he’d made me come while watching. Now I had to wear her clothes, a dead girl’s second skin, or I could become a dead girl myself. More than that, Jesse stood between me and Vaughn’s tutorial on butchery. His intervention depended on how much I tugged at Jesse’s leash.
I closed my eyes. I remembered how much I’d wanted to die when I woke up after my abduction, the peace I’d imagined oblivion would bring. I remembered the roar of triumph in my head when the beast fed on my victory over Jesse. I remembered the screams of terror echoing in my mind when Vaughn bit my shoulder. I replayed the girl dying and coming. An endless loop of pain and pleasure until her body couldn’t take anymore.
Was there really a choice?
I dropped the comforter and slid a dead girl’s tights over my legs. No panties—one of them must have palmed them—but even if they’d been there, sharing her underwear would have been too much. Funny, since I’d already begun to share the ghost of her last moments in these clothes. The fear, the hope, the twist of desire in her gut even as she sensed she’d become prey. Before my capture I’d have written the feeling off as imagination. I slipped my arms through the straps of her bra and felt more than the tightness of the cups as my fuller breasts threatened to spill over. I felt more than the stretch of soft white cotton. I felt her, howling in the ether around me, calling out for mercy. I moved around in her phantom skin, trapped and searching for an escape.
Her dress fit tight and rode up in the back. What fell to mid-thigh on her, flirted with indecency on me. I bit my top lip and focused on filtering out her pain as I sat on the bed and pulled on her ankle boots. They pinched, but her slender feet had been a size eight to my eight-and-a-half. Finally, I pulled on her black leather jacket. When I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth Liam had just finished. He passed me with a devious smile on his face as he looked me up and down. Jesse and Vaughn stood side by side, Vaughn washing his face and scrubbing his teeth with an undercurrent of violence. Vaughn’s every movement whispered his intent to kill. Rage coiled within him like a snake.
I need to tame him next. Jesse’s in charge, but Vaughn is a danger to me.
He’d kill me soon if I didn’t tame him. In a way, he already had killed me. The ghost of the girl clawed around inside me. Her spirit seemed stuck in the moment, panicking as Vaughn’s feral g
aze ripped her to shreds.
Jesse brushed his teeth and spit. When he straightened, he met my gaze in the mirror and nodded to my toothbrush and hair tie. Last night felt like a lifetime ago, but this morning the few things I had to call my own remained where I’d left them. Like nothing at all had happened. Like the world hadn’t changed forever. With reluctance I slid between Jesse’s thick muscles and Vaughn’s lanky build. Vaughn spit at the precise moment I reached across the sink to grab my toothbrush. He splattered my forearm with paste and ropey spit. I recoiled in disgust.
My reflexes kicked in and I swiped my forearm across Vaughn’s face. The speed of my own movements startled me. I stepped away from him, my back flat against Jesse’s chest. The air around Vaughn’s red face vibrated with intent. He wanted to hit me. He wanted to spit in my mouth next and make me swallow. I could see the fantasy unfold in his livid expression. Jesse didn’t say anything, but he did chuckle and wrap a hand around my neck.
“She’s so cute and feisty. Like a puppy.” Jesse patted my hair to drive the point home.
“You should tighten the bitch’s leash before she gets kicked.”
Vaughn splashed water over his face, then threw a handful at Jesse and me. Mostly me. And though he laughed and smiled with Jesse, Vaughn pinned me with a glare that said, “Soon.”
Jesse shoved me away from him and followed Vaughn out of the bathroom. I suppressed the urge to cry in relief.
God what I wouldn’t do for some deodorant. Sweating like a sinner in church.
After I’d brushed my teeth, washed my face, and tied my curls into a ponytail, we filed out of the motel room, into the frigid air and then the putrid car. Just a day ago I’d woken in the backseat with a monster’s blood in my mouth before we parked in an eerie lot. Now, I watched from the backseat as the same motel bustled with movement.
We hadn’t been alone and the girl hadn’t been the only one to die last night.
I didn’t know why we couldn’t hear anything before now. Maybe the rooms are soundproofed? There were plenty of occupied rooms. Men and women, young and middle aged, groups of four or solitary travelers. They all filed out of the rooms and into crappy cars of their own, while teams of hazmat-clad people hurried inside with carts and cleaning supplies.
Customers fleeing in a muted panic. Worker bees cleaning up the mess. This didn’t look like a strange occurrence. It looked like protocol. They could’ve been checking in at an airport terminal or grocery shopping.
I’d been lucky, wearing borrowed clothes and breathing on borrowed time. Just another autumn morning, a mild inconvenience, nothing more.
Gray clouds dotted the sky, threatening to overwhelm the sunshine I’d been dying to feel on my face. Rain, or maybe snow, threatened overhead. I felt vindicated by the forecast after seeing the girl’s fate, all the death scrubbed clean from those silent rooms.
Fuck the sun. Today is a dark day. Brooding weather is the only funeral these people will have.
Vaughn took the wheel while Liam closed the trunk on their baggage. Jesse settled in beside me in the backseat, avoiding the drying puddle of puke on the floor mats, and watched the scene play out at the motel with mild curiosity. His legs took up so much room I had to huddle against the door to keep from banging knees with him. A flash of Liam’s green V-neck T-shirt passed by Jesse’s window, and I swallowed at Liam’s speed. The weakest in the bunch, but just a hint of his quick movements reminded me running would be out of the question. No way had Liam used this car to pick up the girl. Had he left another stolen car in this lot? Just another thing for “house keeping” to fetch?
As soon as Liam hopped into the passenger side, Vaughn squealed out of the parking lot. He rolled the windows all the way down to air out the car and let in the chill. I stared at the passing landscape in silence. The wind slapped my cheeks numb. Stray curls battered my face as we hurtled down another back road. I prayed the police would find some trace of me, but I feared everything would get wiped and bleached away. Every clue that I still lived, everything I owned, sat at Liam’s feet in the passenger seat.
We drove past farmland, surrounded by trees, about an hour later. There were a few more cars out here, but not enough to make a difference for me. I didn’t recognize where we were or see any road signs that revealed our location. Or maybe I just didn’t see them because I’d taken to closing my eyes and pretending.
I’m sitting in the backseat of Dad’s car, traveling to North Carolina, like I did every summer. The sun is heating my face and Grandma waits on the porch for us, just like she always used to do before she passed away.
Cold air dried the tears on my face, while rain mimicked their paths down my cheeks. I’d begun to shiver from the low temperature, but the memory of my grandmother warmed me. I could almost feel Grandma’s arms around me, her voice sweet as molasses as she cooed, “Hey Grandma’s babies!” in her thick southern accent.
I opened my eyes as we swerved onto another bumpy road, away from the minimal traffic we’d passed earlier. I had a feeling they’d designed this trip to be non-descript. I had a feeling clean motels, and wherever we headed next, weren’t meant to be survived. Maybe there were worse things than dying in a motel on this trip.
The car rocked and dipped as Vaughn sped past a dilapidated farmhouse and rusty silo towards the forest beyond. We disappeared into the trees. I turned back to watch the farmhouse fade from sight. A few minutes later a junkyard came into view, full of rusted metal, tires, tractor trailers, and run-down cars.
We’ll take a trip to the junkyard.
The old car kicked up dust and gravel as Vaughn pulled off the path and into the grass. He parked, and I followed their lead, exiting the car on creaky limbs. My captors grabbed their bags from the trunk. Liam hoisted a can of gasoline.
Liam pulled out the lighter Vaughn had given him the night before. Vaughn seemed to be the smoker in the bunch, but Liam lit up, taking a few drags before passing the unfiltered nicotine to Vaughn. Then Liam grabbed the can of gasoline and doused the car from roof to wheels. I sucked the intense fumes into my lungs, staring at my clothes on the passenger’s seat. They disgusted me, but I wanted them back. They’d been mine. My ID, my credit cards, my clothes.
My innocence.
“Wait!” I ran for the open window to grab something—anything—of mine. A sweater fiber, a piece of my jacket, or lint from my jeans. Anything that let me hold onto the lie that I’d been normal once. Jesse snaked an arm out and snagged me by the throat, yanking me against him—a vivid reminder of the hideous moment in the motel bathroom.
Vaughn blew a smoke ring as he tossed the lit cigarette into the open driver’s side window. Everything I’d been, every tangible thing I had left of my former life, caught fire. I felt like I watched myself tied to a stake and set alight. I stood, powerless to stop the flames that curled and charred my former self under the heat. All along my numb skin, the ghost of the girl whose name I never knew reminded me of my ungratefulness. I’d been lucky after all. I’d lived.
The car lit up like a torch as the vampires picked up their bags and began a trek in the direction we’d come, toward the farm. They didn’t look back, expecting me to follow like a good little puppy. Like a normal girl.
I stayed still, watching the flames. If the car exploded, could I bear death by fire? I searched around for a rusty shank that could pierce my innards.
I dreamt of a death that smelled like gasoline and burnt rubber, and even the blistering heat didn’t stop me from taking a step forward.
I don’t want to die.
A voice called my name. I stopped to listen. I shut my eyes tight and imagined the voice belonged to Nora, her teasing lilt daring me to race her into the ocean. We dove into salty sea water, straining our limbs toward the horizon. We swam in cool freedom and laughed because we were safe. We could always turn back for the shore.
Jesse’s voice held a power over me Nora’s couldn’t compete with.
“Evie. Come.”
The sound of the syllables on his tongue felt like a long lick inside my cunt. Jesse’s voice, just like his cock, had become a parasite burrowing into my welcoming, traitorous mind. We’d become linked by blood, by come, by our inhumanity. I wanted to live, and I did so because he allowed me to.
“Move your ass, witch!”
I opened my eyes and stared through the flames. Hot air wavered between us as Jesse called to me a third time through the smoke and the crackle of scorched metal.
I don’t want to die like this. Lost and forgotten in a barrel, burning in a pile in some junkyard. Rotting in a ditch.
I want to live, God. Forgive me, I know I should be long dead, but I want to live.
Overhead, the sky rumbled with thunder, the full force of the storm on its way.
9
We dashed up the rickety farmhouse steps, just as the heavens opened.
I saw a rat skitter into a corner. Random animal droppings littered the dusty floor. The smell of wood rot permeated the air. Disgusting.
I swiped at dust and cobwebs as we entered, hoping Liam—who’d peeled off from the group to find a new car—returned soon. Jesse had been right about me slowing them down. I’d grown faint with hunger, my fingers trembling and my stomach growling in protest from the walk. That hadn’t stopped me from eating chips in the rain and downing the bottled water in one go while stumbling down a muddy back road.
My stomach gurgled again, this time so loud we all heard the sound over the pounding rain outside and the leaks in the roof.
Jesse reached into his pack and tossed me a second bag of chips and bottle of water, which Liam had grabbed from the motel the night before. “Eat. It’s been days.”
Liam had stored my piss poor meal in the trunk, probably when he’d been out luring the girl to her death. If feeding me continued to be an afterthought, I might not need to worry about death by vampire.
