“Oh, shit.” The raider panted, his face pale under a sheen of sweat. “What do you want, vampire?”
How interesting. He was terrified of the vampire but not shocked or surprised to see one. “Well, here’s the thing,” I went on conversationally. “I’ve heard rumors that your boss isn’t quite human. That he’s a lot like me.” I crouched down, smiling at him at eye level. “I want to know where he is, where his lair is located, what his territory is like. I don’t meet many vampires wandering about outside the cities these days. This ‘raider king’ has me curious. And you’re going to tell me about him.”
“Why?” the raider challenged, which took balls, I had to admit. “You lookin’ to join the ranks, bloodsucker? Become queen to his king?”
“What if I am?”
“Jackal don’t like to share.”
“Well, that’s not your problem now, is it?” I said and narrowed my eyes. “Where is he?”
“If I tell you, you won’t kill me?”
“No.” I smiled again, baring my fangs. “If you tell me, I won’t use you as my personal canteen until we reach Jackal’s territory. If you tell me, I won’t snap both your arms and other leg like twigs, drag you around until you’re a limp sack and dump you on the road for the rabids to find. If you tell me, the worst I’ll do is leave you here to die as you please. Actually, I’m feeling kind of hungry now…”
“Old Chicago!” the raider burst out. “Jackal staked his territory in the ruins of Old Chicago.” He pointed in a random direction. “Just keep following the highway east. The road ends at a city on the edge of a huge lake. You can’t miss it.”
“How far?”
“About a day if you’re riding. I dunno how fast you vamps can walk, but you’ll get there tomorrow by evening if you ride through the night.”
“Thank you,” I said, standing up. A quick glance at the raider’s bike showed the left side crumpled and dinged up pretty bad, but otherwise it seemed fine. “Now, I just need you to show me one more thing.”
*
ZEKE HAD FALLEN ASLEEP on the couch when I returned, lying on his back in an ungainly sprawl, one arm dangling off the side. In sleep, he looked younger than I remembered, the pain smoothed out of his face, his expression unguarded. It made me reluctant to wake him, but he stirred as soon as I entered the room, and his eyes shot open.
“I fell asleep?” he gasped and sat upright with a grimace, swinging his feet off the couch. “Why didn’t you wake me? How long was I out?”
“It’s a little past midnight,” I told him and tossed a backpack onto the couch, raising a cloud of dust. “That’s yours. There’s food, drink, medicine and other supplies, enough for several days. How’s the leg?”
“Hurts,” Zeke said, gritting his teeth as he rose, slowly, to his feet. “But I’ll live. I can walk out of here, anyway.” He drew the pack gingerly over his shoulders. “Did you find out where they took everyone?”
“Yeah.” I smiled faintly as he glanced up, his eyes flaring with hope. “Jackal’s territory is in the ruins of a city a day or two east of here. Old Chicago. That’s where they took the others.”
“A couple days east,” Zeke muttered, limping toward the door. I went to help him, but he stiffened and shook his head, so I backed off. “Then it’ll probably take us several days to get there. I don’t think I’ll be going very fast.”
“Not necessarily,” I said and pushed open the door. Zeke’s eyebrows shot up, and I grinned.
The motorcycle sat humming at the edge of the sidewalk, a little crumpled and dinged but none the worse for wear. “Took me a while to learn how to work the stupid thing,” I said as we hobbled down the steps and onto the street, “but I think I got it, more or less. Nice of our raider friends to let us borrow it, right?”
Zeke glanced up at me, relief and gratitude chasing away the hard-eyed suspicion, at least for the moment. In that breath, he looked like the Zeke I knew. Embarrassed, I plucked the helmet off the seat and tossed it at him, making him blink as he caught it.
“I don’t need it,” I said as he frowned in confusion. “But you might want to put it on—I’m still getting the hang of this. Hopefully I won’t run into any more walls.”
I swung a leg over the bike, gripping the handlebars, feeling the power that rumbled through the machine. I could definitely get used to this. Zeke hesitated, still holding the helmet, eyeing the motorcycle as if it might bite him. Then I realized it wasn’t the bike he was wary of.
It was me.