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Leanna and Gerrard pull up beside us in a battered black Jeep, which has blood spray all over the smashed windscreen.
“If I knew helping you would ruin my new boots, I’d have told you to go and screw yourself,” Leanna whinges.
There is no time to mess around. They are to take Nathan and Connor’s body off our hands, before we have to deal with Laurie. Having Nathan constantly calling me a prick, when all I can think of is getting to Elizabeth, is going to cause another death. His. I’ve been so close to ripping his head off. Even Dom, who seems to know Nathan well, warned him to stop with the violent insults.
Dom and Ben step out of the Land Rover for some breathing space. Patience with Nathan is wearing thin for us all. We’re still an hour’s drive away from the farmhouse on this small dark country lay-by, and with the lack of time and Nathan’s constant aggressive explosions, it’s beginning to feel like we’re losing the battle.
Nathan head-butts and spits on the back window, trying to get our attention. He may seem as though he’s desperate to save Elizabeth. But really it is blood he wants, and his old human feelings are trying to rationalise his crazed behaviour.
“Any more attacks?” I ask Leanna.
“No, it’s gone quiet, for now. This is the new blood then?” She bends to look down at Nathan who is thrashing around in the backseat. “He’s not going to come with us. He wants the girl called Liz.” She reads his mind, cringing. “Oh, I see. He’s an old flame of your new red.”
I don’t need this right now. “Look, just do what you can with him.”
Dom opens the back door warily, and Ben joins him in-case he needs back-up.
“I’m not fucking going anywhere!” Nathan kicks at Ben and Dom.
“Adrien, I’m not taking him,” Leanna says. “He needs blood, and I have all the covens up-in-arms over what’s happened tonight. I’ll take Connor for you and put him on ice. But I don’t have time to deal with him too.”
“You’ll take Nathan,” I growl, watching Ben lift Connor’s body out from the boot, as Dom fights to re-open the door to get Nathan out.
For a second I remain in a trance, watching as Gerrard carefully takes Connor’s body from Ben.
“Boss,” Dom yells at me. “What am I supposed to do here?”
I turn to the Land Rover, which is rocking due to Nathan lashing out his arms and legs. I’m not going to see the body of someone else I love being bundled into a car, because I’m wasting my time on him. I march to the back door and easily pull it away from Nathan’s grip.
I arch over, watching his eyes flicker and flash with blackness. His new fangs are now on show, and he wants to use them on me.
“Put your baby teeth away and shut the fuck up,” I yell. “You remember Elizabeth?”
“Yes,” he hisses, sucking in air.
“Well the more time I have to spend with you, the closer Laurie gets to her. So out of the fucking car!”
“Here Adrien.” I turn and look over my shoulder to see Leanna holding a blood bag. “Give it to him. It will take the edge off.”
I take the bag from her. “Then will you take him?”
“No,” she replies, walking back to the Jeep.
“Dammit!” I slam the palms of my hands down on the roof several times.
He has always been a problem between Elizabeth and me. Now he’s my problem full stop. Leanna is right not to take him. She has enough to deal with. And if I were her, I do the same.
“I told you, I’m not going anywhere,” Nathan yells once again. “Do you... do you not get it? I need to make sure she’s okay.” He gasps to fill his lungs. “I need to see her!”
“Adrien, we have a problem,” Ben calls out.
I hear the thud of many feet pounding on the tarmac, heading right toward us. Gerrard, Leanna, Dom, and Ben, stare down the long stretch of road as a dozen new bloods charge toward us.
“Go!” Leanna yells, her eyes black and back arched, ready to fight.
Gerrard flicks his head at me as Ben and Dom jump into the front, starting up the engine. I don’t have a damn choice now; Nathan is going to have to come with us.
“Here.” I toss the blood bag at him and leap into the back, slamming the door as we speed away from the fight. “I don’t want to hear your voice. One word and you’ll be locked in the goddamn trunk. Understand?” I listen to his wild slurping of blood, looking through the back window.
Leanna and Gerrard tussle with the new bloods, but I can no longer watch. I can’t help them. I have my own battle to fight.
***
IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW fast we’re travelling, it’s not fast enough. Each minute that goes by feels like an hour to me, and that feeling is lost to a vampire. We have no urgency because we have an abundant amount of time. But tonight that distant feeling has returned to me.
“So what’s the plan then with you and Liz? Marriage. Babies. Happy fucking times?” Nathan slurs his words, then vomits blood up onto his feet.
“You could have warned us!” Ben yells at him.
I shake my head at Nathan, rubbing my eyes. Hearing how much he hates me and that he disapproves. Listening to the truth through his vindictive words, is driving me insane.
“I always thought,” he says, wiping his mouth and snuffling nose, “that she would do good in life. She’s been saving herself you see. But now she’s throwing her life away on you.” He starts to snigger, intoxicated from his first feed. “How did you do it, get her into bed. Did you drug her, brainwash her. Or maybe you have a witch hidden in that shiny fuckin tower of yours.”
That’s enough of his voice. I grip his throat just tight enough so the fear appears on his face. He may have been turned, but he’s still weak. He needs blood, a ton of it, for the awakening to fully take hold.
I stare right into his pale face, and like a lion with prey in its jaws, I don’t want to let him go.
“You had your chance and you blew it,” I bark in his face.
“Ignore him,” Ben says over the headrest. “He’s only going to get worse.”
I dismiss Ben’s warning. “Elizabeth is too good for me, you are correct there. But you seriously think she would ever be with you again?” I adjust my finger grip on his windpipe. “I’ll save her tonight, and I’ll do what is right by her.” I shove his ass right up into the corner. “I’ll do better by her than what you ever did.” I bite down to stop my fangs emerging.
He chokes and coughs in my face. “Then if she... if she survives this. Leave her. Leave this fuckin country.”
I can’t do this, sit here any longer. “Stop the car.”
“We’re nearly there,” Dom says.
“Stop the goddamn car!”
Dom swerves, pulls up to a stop, and immediately I’m out in the night, flitting across the farmland. I’m faster, lighter, and more determined doing things this way. The old way. Flitting freely will get me to Elizabeth quicker, and ready me for the fight.