All the lingering aches and pains from my scuffle with the wild man and the slide down half a mountain disappeared with one of the last sips of whiskey. By the end of what Dragomir claimed was two days of work, I only tasted the liquor and only felt the buzz of a serious caffeine rush. The sensation flooded through me in a delicious wave, like the one time I took Adderall in grad school. I’d struggled with the moral implications of taking medication not prescribed for me; none of those qualms presented a roadblock when Dragomir offered the refilled bottle.
I staggered out of the lab to find the vampire standing over the kitchen table and poking through the ripped and stained remnants of my hiking clothes, my pack, and the rest of my gear. The samples I’d gathered for the TV show cluttered up a small pack, though they were all ruined; Dragomir instead replaced some of those slides with the items I’d prepared from his lab.
He didn’t look up as I paused in the arched doorway. “You will find additional samples in your refrigerator.”
“You know where I live,” I said slowly.
He gave me an all-too-familiar sideways look of exasperation. “Of course I do.”
“And you already put stuff inside my cabin. In the fridge.”
“Yes.” Dragomir wrapped two notebooks filled with my scribblings in a waterproof bag and tucked them into the pack. “And you did not even have to invite me to enter.”
My mouth twisted in irritation. That was damn inconvenient. None of the helpful myths about vampires ended up being true, which was total bullshit. An apex predator without apparent weaknesses – aside from sunlight and garlic – was just damn unfair. “Fantastic. I’ll get better locks.”
He chuckled, and though I still flinched, it didn’t make me cringe like his actual laugh. “I look forward to whatever challenge you may present.”
I didn’t like that. At all.
“So what’s the story, slick?” I gestured down at my lack of injuries. “How am I supposed to explain the last week? Alien abduction? A rip in the space-time continuum?”
“The world may view those as more likely than the reality,” he said. Dragomir smoothed a paper map across the table next to the dented and cracked emergency beacon. “This is where I found you; the last GPS coordinate your… friends have is here. You will say you fell down this slope and broke your leg, splinted it yourself, and spent the intervening time hiking out again along this trail, where they have not searched.”
My eyebrows arched as I studied the map. “But my leg isn’t broken.”
The silence stretched. I waited for another creepy laugh and his declaration that it was a great joke, but neither happened.
“Aw, man. That blows.” I sighed and rubbed my temples. “How far will I actually have to hike with a broken leg?”
“From here.” He traced the long path I’d allegedly taken and identified a small route, hardly more than a deer track, from a stream to a dirt road used by hunters and the park service. “Shortly after being injured, you attempted to send a text message to your friend. Lack of cell service prevented it from being received. It will go through when you reach the road; you can attempt to call for help but your phone battery is low.”
I frowned at my cell phone and its cracked screen. At least I had a small solar panel for charging electronics, even if it was useless deep in the forest. “Got it.”
Dragomir gestured for me to finish packing and retreated to observe from the other side of the room. “You cannot tell anyone about me, this place, or the true events of the last week.”
“No kidding,” I said under my breath. I ignored the blood stains, rips, and memories that permeated the backpack and some of my gear. I didn’t have the money to replace it. Maybe Dragomir could bankroll a new look. “Everyone already thinks I’m nuts. I’m sure as shit not going to show up raving about vampires.”
“See that you do not, else the consequences will be… dire.”
I rolled my eyes. “Easy with the melodrama.” His expression soured but I held up my hand to cut him off before his crazy train left the station. “Our deal – I’ve already started working on your solution. You search for evidence of Jamie and what happened to him. You save him if you find him. When I make progress or need more samples, I’ll set a light in the window of the cabin.”
He grumbled but didn’t object. “I expect to hear from you soon. Very soon. Show progress in a week, Ada.”
“Progress in a week? I’m not a miracle worker, man.” I made a face and tightened the straps on my pack with a vicious yank before I picked up my hiking clothes to change. “Not that you believe in those. I’ll do my best, but –”
“You’ll show progress.” His eyes flashed silver and a fang peeked out against his lower lip. “Or I will retrieve you to finish your experimentation here.”
As a prisoner and living blood donor, no doubt.
I’d come up with something in a week; I already had a few ideas for UV-resistant clothing and materials that could be fashioned into gloves and masks. He’d look like a nightmare but he wasn’t far from it in his natural state. With the right formula, it might even make him more normal or at least less the spawn of the uncanny valley.
I changed quickly into the stiff, unpleasantly fragrant hiking clothes and returned to the living room to swing the pack on my back. Before I could speak, his pupils turned vertical and caught me in his gaze. Dragomir’s fangs appeared as he smiled. “This might hurt a bit.”
I sucked in a breath to scream, but he moved too fast. Way too fast.