Catch

Chapter Twenty-Five

My cell phone signal disappeared as we reached the summit of the small mountain behind Tane’s mansion. The vastness of my stupidity engulfed me. I stood in the middle of the jungle at night with a vampire. My only weapon, a flashlight Gwen handed me before she went with Colby.

If I screamed bloody murder in the middle on the jungle with no one to hear, did I really make a sound?

Bel stared at the blanket of stars overhead. “Do you think vampires can go to heaven?”

I swung my flashlight around to face her. “I don’t know.” Something flapped overhead and I ducked. “I can hardly see where we’re going. Don’t wander too far.”

She came to stand next to me as I stared down the path winding down the other side of the mountain. “I won’t, Connie. I’ll protect you from the Tree People if I have to.”

My heart stopped. “Tree People?” I faced her. “No one ever mentioned Tree People, Bel.” My grip on the flash light tightened.

“Archios told me about them. They live in these jungles and prey upon vampires. It’s why we’re not supposed to cross through here.”

I blinked, not sure how to respond. “You do it anyway?”

She shrugged and walked ahead of me. “They’ve never caught me. I can run real fast.”

“What do they look like?” I aimed my flashlight into the trees.

“I haven’t seen one. When I hear them coming, I run.”

A shiver ran down my spine. “You do realize I can’t run as fast as you?” I hoped Archios concocted this story of Tree People to keep Bel at home.

“I know, but they don’t eat humans.” After twenty minutes of hiking down the mountain, Bel dropped the pace. “Hold on,” she said, voice low, eyes wide. “I hear them talking." Standing still, she cocked her head as if listening. "Good Lord, it’s the Tree People.” She spun around to face me. “I just know it’s them. They’re coming to get me.”

I heard it too, except it sounded like the wind whistling through the branches.

Without another word, Bel took off into the jungle, running flat out away from me.

I ran after her, crashing through the underbrush, following her zigzag path around trees. She was fast and I barely kept her within the scope of my flashlight. “Bel! Wait for me.” There were no Tree People, there were no Tree People, I kept chanting this in my head, but my heart shouted, the Tree People are going to get me.

Something snagged my t-shirt’s collar from behind, yet I pulled loose. I never bothered to look over my shoulder. “Feet don’t fail me now.” I kicked it into a gear I didn’t know existed and flew through the brush at a ground eating pace.

“They’ve got me.” Bel shrieked. “Help. They’re going to eat me.”

I found Bel not far ahead, floundering against a tree trunk. What looked like thin vines wrapped around her torso. I squinted in the dark and reached out to her. “Grab my hand.”

“I got it.”

With all my might, I played tug of war with the vines. They grew up into the branches above us and held Bel suspended off the ground.

“This is the end. I’m going to die. The Tree People got me,” she cried out.

I wrapped myself around Bel and applied my weight. With a sharp snap, the vines gave away and the soft jungle ground broke my fall. Too bad Bel fell on top of me. I tried to stand so I could fight, but she knocked the wind out of my lungs. Black spots danced in my vision and like a Weebles-Wobble I stood before what I assumed was a Tree Person.

Gazing up at a great Banyan tree, the wind blew its vine like tendrils. “It’s just a fucking tree, Bel.” I wheezed in a great gulp of air. “You’re not going to die. Not unless I choke you for having a total freak-out.”

Bel rose to her feet. “A tree?”

I grinned. I couldn’t help it. “Yep. No Tree People.” Draping my arm over her narrow shoulders, I used her for support. If I didn’t have the lives of my vampires depending on us, I would have sat down and laughed my ass off. “Lead the way, Bel. No more craziness. Got it?”

“I’m sorry, Connie. No more freak-outs.”

The jungle growth thinned as we crossed a small portion of Parque Ecologico.

According to Bel, Tane’s mansion existed on the park grounds before the land was sanctioned so they couldn’t make him move. I’m suspected Tane’s power influenced some of those decisions as well.

Ahead, bright lights of cars passed us at high speeds. Bel remained hidden in the foliage as I walked across the grass. I spun around. “How much farther?”

“Across the canal there is a neighborhood. The house is on one of those streets.” Bel joined me and flinched as someone honked. “I can’t get used to all the noise and lights of the city.”

What would I be like in a few centuries? I vowed to keep up with technology so I wouldn’t struggle like Bel. “Do you know the name of the street?’

“I can’t read.”

Her simple statement slapped me in the face. “How long have you been a vampire?”

“A long, long time, but I don’t count years anymore. I remember living on a farm, and I drove a cart pulled by an ox. A city then could be considered a village now.” She grabbed my hand and her eyes sparkled with excitement. “I remember when Tane brought Rurik home as a fledgling.”

“That was a few centuries ago. No one has taught you to read since then?”

“Archios tried, but I didn’t like it. So he reads to me instead every day before sunrise. He has the most marvelous voice.”

“How sweet.” Not. The more she spoke about their relationship, the more deranged it appeared. Archios seemed more father than husband; obviously they met each other’s needs. They’d been together for centuries. Who was I to judge? My stomach turned queasy. “The traffic is lessening. Let’s cross.”

We jogged across the four-lane highway and reached a canal.

I stared at the dark murky water and my determination solidified. “I’m not swimming.”

“Eww, no. There’s a bridge.” Bel looked in each direction as if trying to decide which way to go then looked at the stars. “It’s south of here.” She pointed to the right.

Retrieving my cell phone from my pocket, I checked the signal. Still nothing. I hoped as we got closer to the city it would return.

About a half mile walk from where we started by the canal I saw a row of lights that crossed the bridge. “How far to the building from here?” My knees wobbled like rubber.

I’d run from the cave to the mansion, the pool to my bedroom, then from the mansion to here.

“Do you want me to carry you?” She held out her arms.

A flashback from our swim and near drowning experience returned. She wouldn’t hurt me on purpose, though if she got excited or thought the Tree People were coming, she might squeeze me in half. “No thanks.”

I followed Bel across the bridge on numb legs. “Why do you think Archios is involved with Luckard? Why does he want the drug?” None of it made sense, but Bel might shed some light.

“What drug?” She skipped ahead of me.

I sighed. “Never mind.” A neighborhood lay to the left of our position. “Is the house in there?” I pointed.

She nodded and picked up the pace.

Something clicked in my head as if a dam broke and a flood of mind-blowing pain poured into my body. I never had a chance to even scream. Under a street lamp, I fell to my knees on the sidewalk, mouth open and eyes wide open, trying to pop from their sockets.

My chest…oh, my chest burned with pain. Something stabbed through me, ripping my flesh.

I reached out to Bel who skipped away, oblivious to my incapacitation. Tears dribbled from the corners of my eyes. I needed to breath, except the pain wouldn’t let me move.

“Rabbit?” With the mental question, the pain disappeared like a switch turned off.

I gasped and my lungs filled with sweet air as I lay on the ground, face pressed to the hard concrete of the sidewalk. Tremors twanged the muscles of my tense limbs from the remembered agony.

Whatever was left of my mental shield lay in tatters. I could sense Tane waiting, not trying to intrude. “What the hell was that?”

“Luckard inserting the last restraining bar through me. I’m sorry, the pain was too much and I’ve little control over my powers.”

Holy crap, and a truckload of it. The strain of shielding me from his torture vibrated through our connection. Why wasn’t he screaming and freaking-out? My respect for him grew three-fold. “I’m coming for you—for both of you.”

His weakened state from the drug allowed me a glimpse in his head. I sensed surprise and joy that I included him.

A touch on my shoulder drew me away. Bel squatted next to me. “Connie?”

“I’m okay. I tripped.” Rolling onto my side I sat, then heaved to my feet. “Lead the way.” Tane’s presence faded and I concentrated on building my mental shields stronger.

Around and around my thoughts went as I created a walled fortress with imaginary bricks.

Almost nothing had ever broken down those walls. Almost. The drug Archios wanted weakened them and the Nosferatu could shatter them with brute force. Just like Tane did a moment ago.

Funny how comfortable I’d become with him in my head. I rarely allowed Rurik in, only when he fed, which hadn’t been for nights.

“It’s that one.”

I stopped next to Bel, who pointed at a large white stucco house. The neighborhood appeared upper middle class. Well-kept properties spaced at regular intervals, a few new cars, nothing luxurious. The streets were quiet and dark, all the good humans tucked in their beds while the vampires tortured each other in the house next door.

I checked my cell for signal strength then called Colby. “We’re on Sonia Angel Jones off of Mario Alves, number three-twenty-one.”