Blood Candy (29 page)

She didn’t say anything.

“God damn it!” Blake said. “Where are
you?”

Blood lust.

“I should give myself up,” she said. “I can’t
take this anymore. This isn’t fair to Jimmy.”

“Wait! Don’t do that, Candy. Jesus, don’t you
understand? They’ll kill him regardless. If you go to them, they’ll
kill him anyway.”

“Thanks for nothing,” she said.

Static crackled in the phone as if it had been
dropped and then Blake’s frantic voice came back. “I’ll do anything
for you, Candy. I’m the one who failed you. I’m the one who stained
my family’s name. I’ll kill Rupert if I have to. Just tell me where
you are. I’ll kill him.”

His words and his promises were nothing. The
shapeshifters were already on their way to do that. Candy knew he
only wanted one thing. He didn’t care about anything else. There
was only his lust for her blood.

“I need you. I have to have you,” he said.
“You’re in my dreams. I can’t stop thinking about you. I’m going to
kill Rupert. I’ll do it for you. Where are you?”

Candy didn’t want to talk about those dreams,
didn’t want to think about them no matter how much she enjoyed
them. She wanted to hate Blake but she couldn’t. Every time her
heart beat she was reminded of the bond they shared, of her
undeniable love for him.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you too. I can’t begin to explain how
much.”

“Begin by getting Jimmy back.”

“Candy, I’d get him back if I could. All of
the vampires will be there; the Kingsleys, the Magister, the
vampires at the basketball game. There’s nothing my family can do
about it.”

Candy didn’t say anything. All of the vampires
would be there? Why? She thought back to the vampires at the
basketball game.

“What are you thinking?” he said during her
silence. “Stay out of this. Don’t go to them.”

Candy shook the wandering thoughts out of her
head. “It’s too late. Rupert and his family started this and the
lycans are going to finish it.”

“What? They’ll get slaughtered, Candy. Did you
hear what I just said? There’s going to be dozens of vampires
there.”

The implications finally registered. Candy
hung up the phone and ran into the house. “We have to stop The
Alpha!”

“What are you talking about?” Melvin
said.

“Blake just told me there’s going to be a
bunch of vampires there.”

Melvin stared at her. “How many?”

“I don’t know, a lot! All of the vampires that
were at the basketball game.”

“Shit,” Melvin said. “Shit! I don’t think even
The Alpha can take on that many.”

Felicia chewed her lip. Melvin took out his
phone and tried to call them. After trying three times he threw it
down on the table.

“No answer.” He paced alongside the table.
“They’re an hour ahead of us, but they had to meet up with Tinch’s
pack first. If we leave now, we may get there in time. Do you still
have the directions, Dave?”

Medium Dave nodded. Melvin glanced around at
everyone.

“We don’t have any other choice,” he said.
“The Alpha didn’t know there would be this many
vampires.”

“Let’s stop talking about it and go,” Candy
said.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Melvin slung a duffel bag full of supplies into
the back of the SUV with the rest of the Misfit’s gear. He and
Felicia had hastily changed clothes, putting on pairs of camo
trunks and heavy vests over long sleeve black shirts. Felicia had
another pair of the camouflage pants she let Candy borrow, which
were horribly tight. Candy called Blake while they checked to make
sure they had everything.

“We’re going to the Kingsley’s,” she told
him.

“That’s not—”

“I don’t care, Blake. Are you going to help us
or not?”

“Yes.”

“Can you be at Boston in a couple of
hours?”

“I’m on my way now,” he said. “I’m not far
from Springfield. I can turn around.”

“What are you doing in
Springfield?”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. “The bond
with you is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. It’s like I
know where you are, like I can see you. Like I can feel
you.”

That explained how Rupert had been able to
constantly track her down. Candy shared some kind of a bond with
them when they drank her blood. She didn’t want to reveal any of
this to the others, mainly because she was embarrassed.

“I’ll have Dave call and tell you where to
meet us,” she said.

“Wait—”

She hung up.

Candy explained the situation to Melvin. She
was sure he wouldn’t want anything to do with Blake, but he nodded
his agreement to whatever help they could get. Felicia didn’t
appear to like the idea at all, but she didn’t say anything. Melvin
sped the SUV out of the cul-de-sac and onto one of the
highways.

“How long until we get there?” Candy
asked.

“If traffic stays like this maybe an hour and
a half,” Melvin said. “Keep your eyes out for patrol cars. I think
I can beat Tinch and The Alpha there.”

The needle on the speedometer fluctuated
around eighty, spiking up to ninety when the road was clear. The
sky was already dark purple with fading streaks of red on the
horizon. There hadn’t ever been any hope of getting there before
nightfall. The Alpha’s plan right from the start was to bust heads
and take names later. If only the egomaniacal lunatic had listened
to her. Even if he had, what difference would that have made for
Jimmy? They were all low on options and she couldn’t get caught up
in a game of finger pointing. She asked Dave to set up a place to
meet Blake near Boston, then she closed her eyes for a
moment.

“
Go away with me,” Blake said.
“Let them solve their own problems.”

Blake gently stroked her hair from
where he sat next to her in the SUV. It didn’t seem to Candy that
there was anyone else in the car other than her and Blake, even
though they were both in the back seat and she heard the sound of
speeding tires against the asphalt.

Candy wanted to agree with him. She
didn’t want to do this.

“
No,” she said. “Jimmy’s in
danger. We need to help get him out of there.”

Blake kissed her cheek. Something
jostled her and she sat up.

“Is this it up here?” Melvin said.

The SUV bumped over several sets of train
tracks. Candy turned to see she was leaning against the car door.
Blake wasn’t there. His soothing voice still echoed in her tired
mind and she tried to shake it away. Ahead, she saw an industrial
complex against the dark sky where night had fallen like a curtain
over everything. They were near Boston.

“This is it,” Medium Dave said.

A car flashed its lights and Melvin turned
towards it. Candy saw Blake get out of a silver Mercedes. After
Melvin stopped the car, she got out and walked quickly over to
him.

“I’ve been so worried about you,” Blake said,
holding his arms out for her. Candy stopped short and crossed her
arms. “I missed you,” he murmured.

Blake had on a red leather jacket with zippers
all over it, along with fingerless black gloves. Candy stared at
him for a moment, wondering why he was dressed like
that.

“Are you alone?” she asked.

Blake looked hurt. “Of course I’m
alone.”

“Ride with us,” she said.

Blake turned his car off, pocketed the key and
followed her to the back seat of the SUV without question. Once
they were both in, Melvin turned the car around. Felicia gave Blake
a curious glance and then laughed, saying something about eighties
pop stars.

“Hey, Melvin? Felicia?” Blake said. Neither of
them responded. Medium Dave said hello from the cargo compartment
of the SUV.

“You can’t exactly blame them,” Candy said.
“Vampires have been a pain in the ass for them, and now for me, for
a long time.”

Blake’s eyes gleamed against the half moon
beyond the window he sat beside. “I know. I’m sorry. I wish it
wasn’t like this.”

“Well it is,” Felicia said. “Some help your
family was.”

Blake didn’t respond. His face softened and
the corners of his mouth pulled down, making him appear positively
tortured.

“I’m sorry. I’ll do anything to help,” he
said. “I can help get Jimmy out of there if that’s what you want.
But I don’t want you there if anything goes down,” he told Candy.
“It’s too dangerous. The same goes for your friends. Stay in the
car, find the rest of the shapeshifters and warn them. Let me
handle everything else.”

“I appreciate your concern, but I can take
care of myself,” Felicia said. “And Candy’s a big girl; she can
make her own decisions.”

Blake fell back into silence. Melvin drove
onto a highway that would take them to the Kingsley estate in about
fifteen minutes.

“I ask that you stay close to me,” Blake said.
“All of you.”

Felicia turned around in her seat and
assaulted him with her eyes. “Don’t pretend you care about anyone
other than yourself. And I don’t want to hear about your family’s
high moral standards. Once a vampire, always a vampire.”

Blake only lowered his head though his
gleaming eyes remained on Candy. The bite marks on her neck itched.
She wanted to kiss him. She wanted him to take her right there in
the back seat the way they had been so close to doing in her broken
dreams. She couldn’t look away from his silvery eyes.

“Did you dream about me?” she said, ignoring
Felicia’s groan. “You were there in my head, weren’t
you?”

Blake nodded. “Yes,” he said, and at this
Felicia turned in her seat to stare at them with curiosity. “It’s
strange,” he admitted. “I’ve never shared a bond. It’s because I
love you, Candy. I know it’s because I’ve never loved until
now.”

Felicia looked skeptical, but not nearly as
much as Candy. The same thing happened with Rupert, and Candy was
quick to point this out. “It’s because we love each other? What
about Rupert? I sure as hell don’t love him and he doesn’t love me.
He only wants my blood.”

Blake turned his face to the world speeding by
on the other side of the window. “I only know I love you,” he said
softly. “I don’t drink from people. I didn’t know it would be like
this. I’ve never felt this alive.”

“Great,” Felicia said. “You got the one
vampire who doesn’t drink from people hooked on human blood. So
much for that.”

“No,” Blake said. “It’s true we don’t take
blood from humans, at least not the way other vampires do, but we
can’t live only on synthetic and animal blood. We have to drink
human blood or eventually we wither and . . . I don’t know, maybe
die or fall into a coma or something. My mother prepares everything
for us. Once a month we drink real human blood from a bottle.
That’s all I’ve ever known.”

“So you’re like a vampire virgin? Or you
were?” Felicia said. Blake stared at her and then
nodded.

“I told you,” Medium Dave said.

“Weird,” Felicia said as she turned back
around. “You know, guys who get it the first time tend to fall
desperately for the girl who gave it up. They are the kind of guy a
girl can wrap around her finger.”

Candy didn’t know what to think about that and
so she didn’t give it much thought. Blake didn’t say anything
either.

Melvin took an exit ramp and a few minutes
later they were slowly driving through a high-end neighborhood.
Candy didn’t consider it much of a neighborhood since none of the
huge houses were close enough together to constitute anything
neighborly. After several miles along a road that went through
expansive fields dotted with gigantic, walled in houses, Blake told
Melvin to stop the car.

“We walk the rest of the way,” he said. “That
field there will take us to the wall surrounding the Kingsley
property.”

Melvin parked behind some trees. He grabbed
the duffle bag from the back of the SUV and started taking out what
looked like guns, though Candy could see they weren’t regular guns.
He handed one to Felicia and then offered one to Candy.

Blake raised a brow. “Paintball
guns?”

Melvin eyed him. “Want me to shoot you with
one?”

Blake laughed at the idea of being shot with a
paintball gun. “You don’t really think that will hurt me, do
you?”

In a display of his masculinity, Blake held
his red leather jacket open and puffed out his chest. He grinned
when Melvin raised the gun and took quick aim before firing a
single shot that echoed into the field. Blake’s smug attitude
suddenly turned into a maddening scream as he ripped off his jacket
and the shirt beneath, revealing an impossibly white chest with a
shallow, bloody wound steaming above his left breast.

“What the fuck!”

“Holy water balls, asshole.”

Felicia laughed as she loaded the pockets of
her vest and the utility belt she had strapped around her narrow
waist. Satisfied with the results of the paintball gun experiment,
Melvin did the same. He looked a little silly in his camos, holding
a gun while wearing those round glasses.