“Yes, sir.”
He gave his pupil one last baleful glare, then strode purposefully onto the pavement, while Zeke turned to signal everyone to keep moving. They shuffled forward, clearly relieved to be out of the tangled woods and dark, grasping trees. The road, crumbling and full of holes, was still treacherous, but it was easier than hacking through brush and tripping over rocks and branches.
I stayed off the pavement, however, slipping through brush and trees at the edge. Though it was still dark as pitch, it might’ve been too easy for Zeke to look back and see a silhouette following them down the open road. I could still hear him, though, as he and Darren dropped back the required twenty feet from the group to guard the rear. They were quiet at first, the only sounds being their feet on the uneven pavement, then Darren’s low voice drifted to me through the darkness.
“Your old man is sure kicking your ass lately,” he muttered. “That’s the first time since the Archers that he’s actually talked to you like a human being.”
“He was angry.” Zeke shrugged halfheartedly. “I endangered the entire group. If anything had happened, it would’ve been my fault.”
“You can’t blame yourself, Zeke. We all saw her, talked to her. She had us all fooled.”
My gut twisted and I narrowed my eyes, zeroing in on the conversation. The sound of the wind and creaking branches faded away as I concentrated solely on the boys in front of me. I heard Zeke’s sigh, imagined him stabbing his fingers through his hair.
“I should’ve seen it,” he muttered, dark loathing rolling off his voice. “There were so many signs, so many little things, now that I think about it. I just didn’t put it together. I never thought…she could be a vampire.” Zeke suddenly kicked a chunk of pavement, sending it crashing into the bushes. “God, Dare,” he muttered through clenched teeth, “what if she bit someone? Like Caleb. What if she had been feeding on those kids the whole time? If she had killed someone, if anything happened to them…because I was…” He trailed off, nearly choking on disgust, before murmuring, “I could never forgive myself.”
I felt cold and clenched my fists to stifle the anger rising up like a storm. Zeke should know me better, he should know I would have never…
I stopped, uncurling my hands. No, he shouldn’t. Why should he? I was a vampire, and those kids were the easiest form of prey. In his position, I would think the same.
Still, it hurt. To hear, again, what they really thought of me: a monster who preyed indiscriminately on the smallest and weakest. It hurt a lot more than I’d thought it would. I had struggled hard not to feed on any of them, especially Caleb and Bethany, and it was all for nothing.
But then, I had also sacrificed someone else, a stranger, in order not to feed on those I knew. So, maybe their fears were justified.
“Zeke.” Darren’s voice came again, hesitant, as if he feared people were listening. “You know I have no reason to doubt you. If you say she was a vampire, then I believe it. But…but she didn’t seem…that bad to me, you know?” He paused, as if shocked that he could have voiced such a thing, but continued. “I mean, I know what Jeb’s told us. I know he says they’re demons and there’s nothing human about them, but…I’ve never seen one before Allison. What if we’re wrong?”
“Stop it.” Zeke’s voice sent ice into my stomach. It was hard, dangerous, the same tone he’d used when facing down a vampire that night in the rain. “If Jeb heard you say that he’d kick you out before you could blink. If we start questioning everything we know, we’re lost, and I am not going to start doubting now. She was a vampire, and that was all I needed to know. I’m not going to put everyone in danger just because you became somewhat attached.”
Look who’s talking, I thought, just as Darren muttered the exact same thing. Zeke scowled at him. “What?”