“I think we should go back,” Blake said, as they rounded a corner and the metro station came into view. “This isn’t—”
A roar of buzzing filled his mind all at once. Blake had only a second to clutch his head at the pain when his vision went white. He didn’t even get a chance to warn Elise before the demon took him.
Elise was startled when Blake grabbed his head as if his brains had just exploded. His one hand was still in her grip; but just as she smelled the sulfur, he yanked it away. And then ran like a proverbial bat out of hell.
She cursed herself as she chased him. With the demon controlling him, Blake was quick, streaking up the tunnel and into the station in barely the amount of time it took to blink.
But Elise had superhuman abilities as well, so she stayed close behind him. The demon burst through the station, knocking over anyone in its way. At 5:00 A.M., there weren’t many commuters, but enough to make exposing her real nature a risk. Elise kept her eyes and fangs under control, knowing her speed was bad enough, but at least that wouldn’t announce “vampire!” to the general public. She plowed through the people just as roughly as the demon had, not letting it gain any ground. Keep running, she thought coolly. Once we’re free of all these humans, I can quit playing nice.
The demon broke out of the metro station and darted onto the sidewalk, pumping Blake’s legs like pistons. Elise kept it just ahead of her, letting it think she wasn’t fast enough to over take it, until they reached a less-monitored part of the neighborhood. Then she sprang forward with all of her undead speed, tackling the demon from behind and bashing its head into the street.
Blake’s body went limp, the sweet smell of fresh blood replacing the previous stench of sulfur. Elise flipped Blake around, giving his injury a quick evaluation. No skull fracture. The surface wound on his forehead can be healed—and his nose was broken before, anyway.
She opened one of Blake’s eyes. No more swirling red. His skin lost that waxy-ashen look as well, and he didn’t smell like anything except blood and unwashed human. The demon was gone. For the moment.
Elise let her fangs out just enough to drag her thumb across one, welling up blood. Then Elise smeared her blood over the three-inch split in Blake’s skin, watching with satisfaction as the wound slowly closed like a magic zipper had formed in his flesh.
It wouldn’t do to feed Blake any of her blood. That would heal him more thoroughly, like getting rid of the concussion he no doubt had, but it would also make him stronger. The demon inside Blake was already pushing his body to limits no human should be able to sustain. Elise wasn’t about to add to that.
But now, what to do with Blake? She couldn’t just sling him over her shoulder and walk to the nearest pay phone; that would attract too much attention. Nor was she about to leave him there and risk the demon’s coming back while she was gone. If only it was a little later in the morning, then she could grab the first person walking by with a cell phone and hypnotize them into compliance while she called Mencheres.
Creaking drew Elise’s attention to the end of the street. A homeless woman slowly pushed a shopping cart overflowing with various items along the sidewalk. Elise smiled, then picked Blake up and tucked him under her arm like a football.
“Good morning,” she called out. “How much do you want for that shopping cart?”
Chapter Four
Blake awoke to a horrible smell. With that stink and everything being dark, for a moment, he thought he was in a garbage dump.
Then he heard her voice. “Quit squirming, people will notice.”
It took a second for him to recognize who spoke. It was the vampire, Elise. Blake blinked, his vision clearing enough to realize it was dark because something was over his face. Something that reeked of body odor and things he didn’t even want to name. Add that to a headache worse than he’d ever experienced, and Blake thought he might throw up.
But he was still with Elise, even after the demon had taken control of him.
“Did anyone get killed? Hurt?” Blake asked, dread spreading through him.
“No. Now quit talking.”
At those words, Blake didn’t care about her brusqueness, his cramped position with his knees mashed to his chest, the stink, or the throbbing in his head. The demon had taken control of him—but the vampire had kept it from harming anyone. For the first time in months, Blake felt a stirring of hope.
Whatever he was stuffed into vibrated. From the feel of it, Elise was pushing him along an uneven surface. It was hot, too, and with the reeking dark material covering him, hard to breathe.
Blake pulled the rancid material off him and looked around. They were in a cemetery, of all things, and from the looks of it, Elise had stuffed him into a shopping cart.
“A shopping cart?” Blake said. “Whose stuff is piled on top of me?”