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BEING FACED WITH THE possibility of death was about the only thing that could have driven Katrina from New Orleans. Vampires were unstoppable at night, but they were rendered completely vulnerable when the sun went down.
Her fear of Mark and his team was so strong that she forced us to sprint at top speed for several hours. I soon learned that using up so much energy roused my hunger. I’d darted into my bedroom to grab my backpack before leaving, but I couldn’t eat the cookies while they were watching me.
“I have to stop,” Candice moaned after our fifth hour of running. Katrina flicked her a glance that was filled with contempt and actually increased her pace.
We were all gaunt, exhausted and starving by the time we stopped an hour later. I wasn’t sure where we were, but we were far to the north of Louisiana and had entered snow country.
“Can we please feed now?” Benjamin asked. He’d expended so much energy that he was actually shivering. I was hungry, but not to the same extent that the others were. The cold didn’t bother me at all.
Katrina nodded at the lights of a small town a short distance away. “We’ll choose a house that holds two or more humans. Their blood should be enough to replenish us.”
“That’s a bad idea,” I said and she rounded on me.
“You dare to question me?” Her eyes were wide with fury, but unlike her other servants, I didn’t quail from her anger. Fear was beyond me now. Any physical damage that she caused would heal in seconds.
“The TAK Squad will be able to track us if we kill any humans,” I pointed out. “They’ll be watching for any unexplained deaths or disappearances.”
“What the hell is the TAK Squad?” Orlando queried. His light accent was musical and might have been Jamaican.
“It stands for Track and Kill.”
“They’ll never be able to track us this far,” he scoffed, yet he looked worried.
“Two of us managed to track a nest down easily enough just a few days ago,” I said with a shrug.
Tiffany was aghast. “You hunted down vampires?” Her tone was almost accusing.
“It was my job,” I replied. “They left a trail of bodies that led us right to them. We waited until daylight, then dragged them out into the sun one by one.”
They all shuddered in horror, but a crafty smile stole across Katrina’s face. “It was a brilliant idea for me to make you one of us,” she said with smug satisfaction. “You know how Agent Steel operates and you’ll be able to keep us safe.” That calmed the others down a little.
“If we can’t feed on humans, what are we going to eat?” Kevin asked.
I pointed at a distant herd of cattle. “One cow should feed us all. We’ll have to dispose of the carcass when we’re done.”
“You expect us to survive on cow blood?” Pricilla said in disgust. “I’m not going to drink from an animal!”
I pulled my gun and pointed it at her face. “That’s fine. I’ll just kill you now and save Mark and his team the trouble of doing it later.”
“Alexis,” Katrina said in a menacing tone. I cocked an eyebrow at her. “Put the gun away. We all know you can’t use it. I have forbidden you to kill anyone unless I tell you to.”
Bowing to her wish rather than to her will, I slid the gun back into its holster. Pricilla smirked at me, but her grin died when Katrina gestured towards the cows. “Since you are so thirsty, Pricilla, you can take the first bite.”
The others watched in snide amusement as she crossed the road and leaped over the fence. Sneaking across the field like a thief, Pricilla reached the herd of sleeping cattle. She chose one on the fringes of the group and leaned in to bite it on the neck. The pain roused it and it started awake with a bellow of fright. Breaking into a run, it bolted across the field with the vampire clinging to it like a gigantic tick as she frantically drank its blood.
The others descended into shrill laughter at the spectacle. Even Katrina smiled sourly. I was the only one who found no hilarity in the scene.
The cow eventually came to a stop and shivered in terror as we approached it. Pricilla finally drank her fill and stepped back. Her weariness was gone and her face had lost its gauntness. She was covered in blood to her waist. The smell triggered our hunger and we fell on the hapless beast.
While I was hungry, I didn’t feel an uncontrollable need to feed. Since I already stood out too much from the others, I waded in and bit into the cow’s side. Blood pooled in my mouth and I swallowed it down. It tasted far better than I thought it would, but it didn’t give me the same rush that Reece’s blood always had. At least it replenished the energy that I’d used in sprinting so far in one night.
Drinking slowly rather than gulping it down, I waited for the others to drink their fill before I pulled away. Almost completely drained, the cow fell to its knees and toppled onto its side. There was no need to finish it off. It expired from blood loss and terror after a few more labored breaths.
“What are we going to do with it?” Benjamin asked. He swiped his mouth on his sleeve, smearing blood across his cheek. I pulled a handkerchief out of my pocket and wiped my lips. It came away with only a few smears of blood. The others didn’t make any attempt to clean their faces. They all looked well fed and were full of energy now.
“You heard Alexis,” Katrina said in a bored tone. “Get rid of it.”
“How?” Kevin queried. They turned to me for guidance.
“We’ll have to carry it into the woods and leave it for wild animals to eat,” I told them.
Katrina waved her hand, leaving the menial task up to us. Orlando and Kevin hefted the cow to their shoulders and followed me towards the distant woods. I kept going until we were several miles away from the farm. “This should be far enough,” I said at last. They dropped the carcass and trotted back towards their leader.
Pricilla was whispering to Katrina as we crossed the field. She didn’t realize that I could hear her. Apparently, my hearing was far more acute than theirs. “She’s dangerous,” she hissed. “You saw how fast she moved when she killed Royce. She would have killed me as well if you hadn’t stopped her. She feels no loyalty to our nest. I wouldn’t be surprised if she kills us all.”
“She can’t kill me,” Katrina reminded her slyly. “I suggest you try to stay on her good side in the future.”
My mother clearly enjoyed the rivalry that she thought was happening between us. What she didn’t realize was that I wasn’t trying to curry favor with her. I’d wanted my gun and Royce wouldn’t give it to me, so I’d taken it from him. Being emotionless meant I no longer had a conscience to hinder my actions.
“Where will we rest for the day?” Kevin asked when we joined them and resumed our journey to wherever Katrina was leading us. I suspected she had no idea where we were going. She’d only immigrated to the US because she’d fallen in love with my father. She’d only lived in one town before my father had been posted to New Orleans. I doubted she knew much about the country at all.
“I’m sure Alexis will be able to find somewhere suitable,” our master replied. That brought hostile glares from the others. I’d only been with them for two nights and I’d already attained a position of importance.
I searched for a location that was remote where we wouldn’t be disturbed during the day. An hour or so before dawn, we came to a farm that had seen better days. The outbuildings were shoddy and weathered and the main house wasn’t much better. “Wait here,” I said to the others. I loped across the overgrown yard that was covered in twelve inches of snow.
Sneaking up to a bedroom window, I peered inside to see an ancient woman asleep in her bed. I didn’t need to search the house to know there was no one else inside. I’d have been able to hear them breathing if anyone else had been there.
A cat lay curled up on the bed beside her. Sensing me, the animal came awake and hissed. I backed away before it could wake its owner. I’d seen what I needed and returned to the others. “We should be safe for the day if we stay in one of these outbuildings,” I reported. It was doubtful the elderly human would venture outside in these snowy conditions.
Katrina gestured for me to lead the way. A quick examination of the buildings made it easy to choose one. The barn was the only structure that didn’t have any boards missing from the walls or roof. The few windows were so thickly encrusted with grime that the sun wouldn’t be able to penetrate inside.
The door was reluctant to open, but I forced the rusty hinges to comply. Rats fled into the shadows, sensing that we were predators. A quick glance around revealed that the barn was empty. Any hay that had been stored here had long ago turned to dust. It had been decades since the barn had housed livestock. As I’d already guessed, there were no recent signs that the old woman had entered the building.
A ladder leading up to the loft was far too rickety to hold our weight. Katrina leaped upwards and determined that the area was clear of vermin. The rest of her servants joined her, but I had no desire to mingle with them and remained below. Choosing a stall at the far end of the barn, I curled up on my side and used my backpack as a pillow. Again, my sleep was shallow and dreamless. I suspected my ability to dream had died along with my emotions.
