Ciera opened her shining eyes at Mitch and smiled. "It works!"
Mitch picked her up and spun her around the small living room.
"You mustn't waste time getting to your destination," Nellie said, and motioned like she was shooing them out the door. "The spell will not last forever. You may have five days, and then again, you may only have five hours. I cannot be certain; I have never used this spell before." She handed Ciera a piece of paper with her address on it. In all the commotion, she hadn't forgotten about the extra two grand that Ciera had promised to send her if they made it to the end of their journey.
Ciera stuck the paper in her pocket, then grabbed Mitch's hand and pulled him out the door. "Thank you!" he shouted just before Ciera shut his door on the passenger side of the Tahoe.
She got in on the driver's side all giddy and full to the brim with excitement. There was no way for her family to locate them now. It was as if they had fallen off the face of the earth. The cops wouldn't recognize Mitch either, and that was a huge plus.
"Which direction are we headed now?" Mitch asked as she skirted through the twists and turns of the road in the woods.
"West to Nevada. You need to get some sleep. I will drive until sunrise, then you can take over. Nellie isn't sure how long the spell will last, and we need to get as close as possible before we lose our protection. We need to follow interstate 67 until we get to Beebe, then take 64 to Conway so we can get on Interstate 40. That will take us almost all the way to Nevada."
Mitch nodded and settled back in his seat, but sleep wouldn't come. He was too anxious to even close his eyes, much less fall asleep. He tried anyway, but every few minutes his eyes would open on their own to look at his surroundings. They were back on the interstate now, and he hadn't ever been any farther west than eastern Oklahoma. And even that had been to pick up a prisoner, so there hadn't been time for sightseeing.
Ciera cleared her throat and gave him a scolding look.
He smiled and looked sheepishly at her. "I'm sorry. I can't sleep. I'm too excited. When it is my turn to drive, I will fuel up on Red Bull. I slept all night last night when you were driving, then I fell asleep again while you were sleeping, and slept all day. I just can't sleep now, but I will be fine when it's my turn. I've gone thirty-two hours without sleep before."
She smiled at him. "You sound like a vampire."
He laced his fingers with hers without taking his eyes from her very different looking face. The woman he was looking at now was beautiful, but she was no comparison to Ciera. "Yeah…well maybe I will be someday."
She lost her smile and looked nervously back to the road.
"What's wrong? What did I say?"
She sighed, but looked out her window instead of at him. She didn't need for him to see her face right now. "You can't be a vampire, Mitch." She felt his hand stiffen in hers, and then he let go of it altogether. She closed her eyes briefly and regretted saying what she had. She risked a glance at him; he was staring out his own window. She could tell he was sulking. He looked back at her before she had the chance to look away.
"Why not?" he said, and was on the verge of becoming really pissed. "You know as well as I do that turning me is the only way we can be together forever. Wouldn't turning me get your family off your ass?"
"I don't know. I need to get you to safety…I'm not sure how much longer my forever will be," she said, and he went very still in his seat as he realized the very thing she didn't want him to. That she wouldn't be staying with him. She hadn't meant to say that last part out loud. She was only thinking it, and it had rolled off her tongue.
"You aren't staying…are you? You don't want to turn me because you don't want to be with me?" He paused for a few moments, but she didn't respond. "Damn it, Ciera, talk to me! Is it true? Are you just going to drop me off in this fantasy world, then go back to your family so they can slaughter you?"
She clenched her jaw. She didn't want to tell him, but she had already slipped up and said too much. He wasn't going to let it drop until she told him the truth or lied to him, and she wasn't going to lie to him again. "It's the only way to keep you safe."
"The hell it is! Stop the damn vehicle. If you aren't staying with me, then I have no reason to go."
"You can't want this life. It isn't a good one," Ciera pleaded for him to understand, but the look on his face was unyielding.
He took a few breaths to calm himself down, and then looked back at her. "I want to be with you, Ciera. If turning into a creature of the undead is the only way, then so be it."
"You don't know what you're asking me to do. You would regret it, and then I wouldn't be able to live with myself." Her tears had brimmed over, and slid down her new ivory cheeks. She wiped at them so they wouldn't give her away, but it had been too late; he had already seen them.
He relaxed in the seat again. The sight of her crying was too much. He couldn't stay mad at her if she cried. He couldn't stay mad at her when she kissed him either, and he wondered what other weakness she would throw on him next. He reached up and brushed at the next tear that fell, then spoke in a softer tone, "Were you actually going to give me your innocence and then just walk away from me knowing that I love you, and that I want to be with you forever?"
She thought for a minute, then nodded, sending another two tears to her lap. She sniffed. "I could live with that. I could live with knowing that the first man I ever gave myself to loved me. What I can't live with…is seeing your face when you've realized that you have made a mistake."
"Being with you isn't a mistake. Alice said that we are soulmates, and that we were meant to be together."
"You can't believe everything a psychic says, Mitch."
"Tell me you don't believe it. Tell me when I kiss you, that you don't feel it. Tell me you don't want me." He was quiet for a moment waiting on her response, and when she opened her mouth to speak he added, "Tell me you don't love me."
She closed her mouth and shook her head, but it was a long moment before she said anything. "It doesn't matter what I feel. I only want you to be happy, and I know that becoming like me is the wrong thing for you to do."
He noticed she was refusing to answer his question again - of whether she loved him or not. "I won't be happy without you."
Her eyes shot over to his. "You will." She looked nervously back to the road and gritted her teeth. She was giving away too much again.
"What are you not telling me?"
She shook her head. "Nothing. You know everything I know."
"You're lying. I don't know how I know that, but I do. Tell me what it is," he said, and there was hurt in his voice that she would lie to him, and nervousness there as well, because he was positive that he didn't want to hear the truth.
She shrugged and sighed in defeat. "There are very powerful witches that live in these places like Nevada and Michigan. They can erase me from your memory, and then you won't know I ever exis…"
"What!" he shouted, and he was unbuckled and completely turned around in his seat facing her. "No, Ciera, you can't do that to me! You can't take that away from me. I need to remember my first love. If you don't return the same feelings, it will be hard, but I can live with that. What I can't live without is the memory I have of you. I would go mad trying to figure out what I was missing."
"Okay…okay, Mitch. I promise that I won't have them take your memory away, but can we please talk about giving you immortality later? I need to think about it for a while."
He grinned as he buckled his seatbelt again. "If you gave me immortality now, we wouldn't have to be in such a hurry to get to Nevada. I can think of a few other things I would rather be doing with you besides riding in this vehicle."
Ciera didn't say anything as she looked at him. She only laced her fingers with his then raised his hand to kiss each of his knuckles.
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Chapter 26
Mitch had stuck to his word in not going to sleep. He had asked her questions about her family
and other vampires, and what it had been like to live so long. She had told him stories, most of them bad, like she was trying to scare him out of wanting to become like her. She hadn't talked much of happiness the whole way across Oklahoma and the top part of Texas. They were only about a hundred miles from the New Mexico state line, and the sun was about to show its ugly face.
He was beginning to hate the sun, so it wouldn't be a big deal to him when he didn't have to look at it anymore. He wasn't a morning person anyway, but that big ball of light kept him from seeing Ciera. He wasn't crazy about her new look. The woman was pretty and all, but it irritated him that she didn't have long, dark brown hair and slightly tanned skin. It really wouldn't matter at all to him what she looked like, because he knew in his heart that she was his, whether she believed they were soulmates or not.
If she left him when they got to "Vampire Land," he would just go after her. If the cops or her family got him, well, it had to be a better fate than living without her.
He rubbed his chest absentmindedly. Just the thought of living without her in his life hurt like hell.
Ciera pulled into an all night travel center and parked. Mitch got out and walked with her into the store. "I don't have to tell you to not use anything that can be traced to us, do I?" she whispered.
Mitch knew she was talking about checks, debit cards or credit cards, and he did know better. He shook his head as he walked to the endless variety of drinks, grabbed two Red Bulls and a coke, then walked over to where Ciera was standing in front of the hot food.
"What do you want to eat?" she asked. "If you say pizza, I swear I will tie you to the roof of the vehicle and only let you off when we get to our destination."
He snickered, then told the lady wearing the hair net that he wanted the breakfast platter. He looked back at Ciera with a smile. "Order what you want, honey. I got it this time."
She rolled her eyes as she looked back to the woman who was closing up Mitch's box. "I'll have the same, please."
She looked over at Mitch while she waited for the woman to fill her order. He was staring at a small television set that was hung behind the counter, with a look of sheer horror on his new face. He put his head down quickly and retrieved his wallet from his back pocket. Ciera walked over to him to see why he was so nervous, and when she looked up at the monitor she realized that it was a surveillance screen, and their bodies were standing on the far side of the counter. She looked swiftly back at Mitch. His necklace was still working. He still looked like the strange man that the spell had made him into. But looking back at the screen, he was the Mitch she had known for a little over four weeks. How was this possible? Their reflections had been just fine in Nellie's mirror, unless…unless the spell was wearing off and they were about to be exposed.
Mitch quickly paid the woman with shaking hands. She looked at him a little funny but didn't say anything except to have a nice day.
They walked as quickly as they could back to the vehicle. Mitch got in on the driver's side. If his features began to change back, he wouldn't be able to drive for long before someone identified him as one of America's Most Wanted.
She wouldn't be able to drive either, because to do that she would have to be invisible. Vehicles didn't drive themselves. Someone really needed to invent a car that could. It would make her life a hell of a lot easier, she thought.
He was breathing hard, and she stared at him. He still looked like the strange guy. She flipped the sun visor down and looked in the lighted mirror. She was still the red head with pale skin, but she hadn't been in the camera back at the store. The screen had shown her to be slightly tanned with long, dark brown hair. A look she'd had for over three centuries. How could the camera see them as anything but what they looked like on the surface?
Mitch was near hyperventilation, and when she touched his arm he jumped. "Calm down. Look in the rearview mirror. You are fine. I guess cameras see more than meets the eye."
He did as she said and looked in the mirror. She was right, he was still in disguise. He slowed his breathing, then took a big breath and let it out slowly. "That scared the hell out of me. What if we do change back before we get there? If anyone recognizes me, we are caught; well, I will be."
She shook her head, but he couldn't see it. She had already made herself invisible. The very tip of the big yellow ball of fire had peaked over a hill only seconds before. "I don't know. Just obey the traffic laws, and the next gas station you come to stop and fill up. We should have done that back there but I didn't think about it until now. The windows on this vehicle are tinted pretty dark. I don't think anyone would recognize you just driving by."
Mitch looked down at the fuel gage. He had a quarter tank of gas, but she was right, they needed to fill up as soon as possible in case the spell wore off. Mitch Foley wouldn't be able to get out and pump gas, but Mitch Foley in disguise could. He looked up just in time to see another exit sign. He took it and went straight for the Exxon just off of the exit ramp.
He parked by a pump and looked over to the empty seat. "How do I look?"
There was a giggle, and then Ciera spoke. "You look fine, now go pump gas."
He got out. It was a pre-pay pump unless you had a credit card to stick in the slot. He did, but using it was out of the question. He felt paranoid as he walked in the store. There were two people in front of him. The lady directly in front of him looked back at him and smiled, and then she turned back around.
He breathed in deep and slow, forcing his feet not to turn and run back out the door. I am fine, he told his brain. The woman moved up to the counter and told the pimpled-faced teenager behind the register that she needed forty dollars on pump number four. She laid the two twenties down, then turned and smiled at him again before walking out the door.
He shook his head as he moved up. He laid three twenties on the counter. "I need sixty on pump five, and if it doesn't hold all of it, you can have what it don't take. I don't have time to come back in."
The kid's face lit up. "No shit? Thanks, mister,"
"Don't thank me. I haven't pumped my gas yet, kid," he said as he jogged out the door.
When he got back to the Tahoe, he realized that the woman who wanted forty on pump four, was parked just on the other side of his pump. She was a very pretty lady, not a match on Ciera, but she cleaned up well and looked fit. She seemed to be having trouble with her pump, but he ignored it. He promised himself that he would do two good deeds tomorrow, if there was a tomorrow for him.
He flipped the gas lid open and unscrewed the cap, then slid the nozzle in place, flipped the lever on the pump and hit the button for regular unleaded gas. He squeezed the trigger and began pumping. The woman was still having trouble getting hers to start, and he wondered briefly why women didn't have to learn how to work a gas pump when taking their driving test.
He turned his back to her, but it was only a few seconds before he heard her voice behind him. "Excuse me." Shit! He turned around to face her and she smiled that award winning smile again. "Um, I think my pump is broken. Would you care to look at it to see if I'm doing something wrong? I usually don't have to pump my own gas." Well isn't that obvious, he thought. "I broke up with my boyfriend last night, and so I guess I will have to learn to do a lot of things on my own." She looked up at him through thick eyelashes. Any other time in the past, he would have been all over that signal she was obviously sending him, but at the moment it didn't do anything except irritate him.
He walked to her side of the pump and flipped the lever up. He motioned with his hand at the three buttons. "Pick the one you want and push it. It should work now."
She touched his arm, and he stopped and looked at her. "Thank you so much, Mr ...?"
Mitch heard his nozzle click off, and he pulled his arm away from her hand. "You're welcome." He walked back to his pump and squeezed the trigger a few more times to get all he could get. He was betting the guy in the store was watching and swearing at him to stop. The guy did end up getting $4
.06 out of the deal.
"Are you from around here?" the woman asked, and Mitch jumped as he slid the nozzle back in its cubby hole.
His heart was in his throat. Had he not been obvious enough in letting her know that he wasn't interested? He was guessing if she knew that he was wanted for twenty murders, whether he was guilty or not, she would have already squealed her tires out of there. "No, I'm only passing through." He opened his door and she moved closer.
"Well, I could give you my number for when you come back through here."
"Honey, who are you talking to?" Ciera's voice came from the back seat. She was right, the windows were tinted so dark that you couldn't see in the vehicle. Not that she could have been seen anyway.
He looked back to the woman who had gone as still as a rock. The look on her face was almost comical. "I'm coming, honey. There was a lady having trouble with her gas pump. She was only thanking me for showing her how to use it." The woman glanced at Mitch's left hand on the door of his Tahoe. He knew what she was seeing, or rather not seeing, no wedding band. For once in his life he wished he had one there. He shrugged. "I don't wear it. It could cause me to get my finger ripped off in the line of work I do."
She nodded slowly and swallowed hard. "Of course," She turned and almost fell over the concrete step the pump was sitting on. It took everything he had in him not to bust out laughing.
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Chapter 27
Ciera was laughing when Mitch shut his door.
He growled as he looked at the empty seat, then smiled. "Shut up."
"I guess there is one woman who finds you attractive," she said, and stifled another giggle.
He rolled his eyes at her. "And you don't?"
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