“We will. The border is long, and that’s not the only place to cross. We’ll leave the truck in a parking lot where no one will bother it and go on foot. It’ll be less conspicuous that way. We’re not going to give them any clues as to where we are. I’d rather avoid them completely if we can,” Marlon said.
“What do you think they are?” I asked again.
“I’m not sure, but they’re strong and fast, so we’ll try to get by them and be on our way.”
“I thought you didn’t need to eat as often?” I asked because he’d told me from the start he didn’t need much, but so far, he’d shown me his thirst was as strong as my own.
“I want to be as strong as I can be if we go up against them again. I have a bad feeling about this whole situation,” he said and stood from the bear. “Let’s take care of this and find a place to leave your truck.”
After disposing of the bear, we both used a nearby stream to clean up any blood that would be obvious. There was a chance someone could see us, and I didn’t want to draw attention by being covered in blood. We hurried back to the truck, and I drove toward the town we’d been in earlier, but instead of turning off the highway I kept going and turned toward another smaller town. “This should be good. It’s small, so hopefully no one cares about the truck being there, and we can slip across the border.”
I drove around town for a few minutes before finding a place to park next to a business that already had a fewcars parked at it. Marlon grabbed the backpack and slipped it on. “Let’s go, we have plenty of time left to cross the border and get to safety,” he said.
We took off running and headed to where the forest met the road. I had no clue where we were or where we’d end up, but I trusted Marlon. Running was so easy as a vampire, and the fact we never got tired was amazing, and something I didn’t understand. It went against everything I’d known my whole life, but now my life wasn’t the same. Marlon threw his arm out and stopped me as he came to a stop. I was about to ask why when he pressed a single finger to his lips, telling me to be quiet.
“You should not have let the vampires go. We could have used their blood,” a female voice said through the silence of the forest.
“We’ll find more,” a male said.
“You do realize their kind is rare?” the female said.
“We have the small one,” he said.
“He’ll need to feed before we take more blood from him or he may not survive,” she said.
“One less bloodsucker wouldn’t be a bad thing,” the male said.
“Do you not understand the power we get from their blood? Without them, I would cease to exist,” she said.
Marlon’s eyes met mine, but neither of us moved. A groan to the left of us got our attention. There was Elias, bound to a tree with rope and chains. His head hung forward as though he were unconscious, but something was wrong.
“Bring the small one. I will drink from him before I cast the next spell,” the female said.
“He doesn’t look like he’ll survive another bleeding,” the male whispered as he held Elias up by his hair.
“Then we will find a human for him to feed on,” she said.
Marlon met my eyes before he mouthed the word,witches. My eyes widened as I tried to understand how once more, he’d blown everything I thought I knew out of the water. Vampires weren’t the only creatures that were real.
Twenty-Six
Marlon
Witches. I remember hearing whispers of them when I was a child and being terrified without even knowing what they were. Once I was changed, I heard rumors that I dismissed as tales but maybe there was more to them than I realized. Blake tugged on my shirt to get my attention before mouthing that we needed to get out of here.
I nodded and as silent as a breath of wind we were gone. When I knew we were far enough away they wouldn’t be able to hear us, I stopped and pulled Blake into my arms. “This is bad. If witches are involved it’s worse than I thought.”
“We can’t leave Elias. You heard what they said. They’ll kill him,” Blake said, his voice full of urgency.
“Draining him won’t kill him. It’s what they did to me, but they’ll think he’s dead. It sounds like they know how tousea vampire, but they don’t actually know how we work,” I said, and hoped I was right. If they brought a human to Elias to feed from, they would not survive his hunger.
“Do you really think they’re using vampire blood to gain powers and live longer?” Blake asked.
I shook my head before answering. “I don’t know anything about their powers or what they can or cannot do. I only know that as long as I’ve walked this earth they have always been feared. Even by vampires.”
“What should we do? I don’t want to risk either of us saving Elias, but he wasn’t going along with them to hurt us. If I had to guess I’d say he was being controlled somehow or forced to help them. Would a vampire willingly let someone drain them?”
“No, maybe the spell the female spoke of has something to do with how they can lure a vampire in or control them.”
