Darkness Falls (21 page)

I freeze, hearing the movement from behind me. My breath rises and falls, in and out. My muscles tense and then I hear the cry. I relax slightly, reaching for my knife, opening my mouth to tell Aiden to run. But he’s already running, but for me, not the exit.

“What are you do—”

He shoves me to the ground, whipping out his knife. The vampire stands, not too far off, fangs quivering, body trembling, eyes drowning in blood. I jump to my feet as Aiden takes a swing, but it hops back, nipping its teeth.

I draw out my knife, charging for it. But it attacks Aiden and knocks him to the ground.

I kick the vampire in the back and it tips its head, letting out a sharp cry. It snarls at Aiden, not wanting me. I grab its hair, its gooey flesh oozing between my fingers as I drag back its hostile body. Aiden scoots away, a trail of dust, and the vampire tries to run after him. I chase it, raising my knife as I ram my body into its back. We tumble to the ground and I plunge my knife deep into the middle of its back, making sure it pierces its heart, taking away its source of existence.

It crumbles to the ground and I watch as it jerks and twitches, finally deadening into nothing but a useless pile of bones.

We both breathe in relief, Aiden still on the ground, stunned to stillness.

After I collect myself, I find my voice again. “What were you thinking?” I scrape my knife on the heel of my boot, cleaning the blood away. “Going after it like that? Are you insane?”

“It was instinct.” He stands to his feet, trying to seem calm, but his heart is going wild. “The first thing that ran through my mind was to save you.”

“Okay, well as sweet as that is, next time, just run. It’ll make it easier.”

He nods, on board with this wonderful plan. “Sure. I can do that.” He stares at the dead vampire bones and then his gaze moves to the outside. “We should get going. We can still cover some ground before dark.”

I nod and we head out of the cave, leaving the dead vampire behind.

 “So what do we do when it gets dark?” I ask.

We’ve been walking for a while, and the night grows richer with each step. And after what happened in the cave, I grow more uneasy. Aiden seems to lack fighting skills. And speed.

“We keep going.” He points up at the tops of long line of rocks. “We’re going to climb up there and walk when it gets dark.”

I stare at the rocks warily. “But there are huge gaps between them.”

“You can jump, can’t you?” His eyebrow teases upward.

“Of course I can, but are you sure you don’t just want to hide out for the night?” I ask. “I mean, after what happened in the cave… ”

He speeds up, heading for the rocks. “Let’s never mention that again, okay. It was a stupid thing to do, but when I saw it behind you I just panicked, completely forgetting that you can handle it on your own.” He peeks over at me guilty and ashamed. “And if we walk through tonight then we should make it to the city before darkness falls tomorrow.” He gives a running jump and springs himself onto the side of a large, red boulder. “And if we walk up here, we’re less likely to come across vampires. They tend to stay on the ground.” He lets out a gruff as he begins to climb his way up.

I glance around at the silhouette of the land, wondering how much time we have left before everything dissolves. The sky is particularly ashy today and it makes it hard to tell. Then, as if answering my thoughts, I hear a shriek ripple the sky. It’s far away, but it’s enough to send me running without hesitation. I’m up on the side of the rock and climbing like my life depends on it, even though it doesn’t. But still, if the see me, they might come nosing around and that could lead them right to Aiden.

 I beat Aiden to the top, climbing up the hill like a lizard scurries across the dessert. I stick out my hand to help him over the edge. He shakes off my offer and with effort, rolls over onto the top.

Aiden lies on his back, catching his breath.

“Are you okay?” I ask. “You seem tired.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” His arms are over his head, skin scratched, dripping in sweat. “It’s just been a long couple of days, you know?”

I stare down at my arms, the lines and blood already concealed by the regrowth of my skin. And there’s no sweat or signs of exhaustion.

He’s up and on his feet and I can barely make out the outline of him as he takes off sprinting for the edge of the rock and springing himself across the gap, like he’s proving himself to me. He lands hard, but without falling. And I forget all about his exhaustion as the last of light disappears and other vampire screams erupt across the land.

The vampires bite at the night as we leap from one rock to another. Every now again, I glance down and see the figures of their starving bodies, scrounging the land for whatever they can find that possesses any amount of blood.

“Are you sure they never climb up here?” I ask and then fling my body over a large crack between two rocks, arms out, flying like a bird.

He follows right behind me, landing only a few inches back. “Sometimes they do, but not often. There not the best of climbers, you know.” He speeds up as we reach the end of the rock and flies across the gap.

“Yeah, in the city they seemed to stay on lower ground, which made them more of a pain in the ass.” I follow, putting less effort into my jump, yet still go farther. “They were always in the way.”

Aiden pauses to catch his breath.

“Maybe we should take a break,” I suggest.

He waves me off, standing up straight. “Just keep going.”

So we continue, running farther into the night as more vampires cry out.  Another gap and I don’t falter, soaring through the air and landing on the other side like a cat. Aiden follows, landing with a stumble and skidding onto his stomach. He curses under his breath, but jumps to his feet, shaking it off. The more jumps we make, the more his movements lag, like he’s draining of energy, but won’t admit it.

“Are you sure you don’t want to rest for the night?” I fake a panting breath. “I’m starting to get a little tired.”

He pauses, his hand grasping his side. “Let’s go a little further, and then take a break.” He sounds relieved.

I nod and launch myself into the night, flinging my body over the next gap, not realizing how wide it is until I’m halfway over. I land, tripping a little, but saving myself from a fall. I turn quickly, starting to shout at Aiden to stop, but he’s already airborne, arms flinging. I hold my breath as he lands, but he catches his boot on a rock and stumbles forward. His feet rip out from under him and I watch as he falls off the edge and vanishes into the night.

“Aiden,” I whisper, running to the ledge. “Aiden can you hear me?” The only answer I get is a herd of vampire shrieks, reverberating up the cliffs wall. I lie down on my stomach and peek over cautiously, hoping I don’t lead them to us. “Aiden,” My voice is soft, guarded. My stomach rolls as a crackle echoes from the land below. My hands grip tightly around the trim of the rock as I pull myself farther over, searching, hoping. “Aiden, please be alive.”

“Kayla.” The sound of his voice is a blanket of relief and my body trembles in a way I’ve never felt before. “I’m okay, just try and keep it down.”

A long pause and the sound of the vampires’ shrieks is maddening, almost driving me to the point that I fling myself over the edge, ready to take them all on and see if I can make them scurry.

But instead I whisper, “Can you get back up?”

Moments tick by.

“I think I’m stuck,” he finally hisses. “I caught on to the side of the rock before I hit the ground, but my foot is wedged between two rocks and it’s not budging.”

I squint through the dark. “I can’t see you. How far down are you?”

“Not too far, I don’t think” he says, keeping his voice quiet. “Look to your left a little.”

I follow his instruction and spot him, not too far below, just like he said. But it’s too dark to see the situation he’s in, just how badly he’s stuck. I shuck off my jacket and bag, so it won’t make noise when I move. Then I scoot my feet over the edge, turn, and back down, praying that the vampires don’t spot me—or worse, spot him. Gradually, I maneuver my way down to him. Instantly, I realize that he’s in a much worse situation than he let on. He’s dangling upside down, blood rushing to his head, stealing circulation from his legs. The only thing that’s keeping him from nose-diving to the ground—to the vampires—is his leg, which is wedged awkwardly between a fracture in the rock.

“Can you get yourself turned upward?” I ask, bracing myself on the rock beside him.

He tries to lift himself up and moans in pain. “I think my leg might be broken.”

I shift my weight silently. “Broken?”

“Yeah, bones broken,” he moans. “Never mind. I’ll explain later. Just help me get my leg unstuck.”

I scale up above him, positioning myself so that I can gently grab hold of his leg without falling to the ground. Warm liquid seeps through my fingers and drips down the back of my hand. “Are you bleeding?”

He responds with a groan.

“Why isn’t it healing?” I wonder.

He only groans again and I rush to free his leg, knowing if the vampires smell the blood, they’ll turn him into one of them. And even
I
won’t be able to stop them all.

“Okay, grab onto something,” I instruct, one hand on his bleeding leg, the other securing me from falling.

Rocks tumble to the ground. “There’s nothing to hold onto.”

I extend my leg down to him. “Okay, so hold onto my leg.”

“Are you crazy?” He says. “I’ll yank you down with me.”

“You’re underestimating my strength,” I say, hoping I’m not overestimating it.

A pause, then he gently takes my leg, his weak pulse beating through his fingertips. I inch my hand under his injured leg and carefully give it a soft tug. He yells out in pain and the sound carries for miles. This time I’m not as gentle. I yank on it and when it slips loose, the weight of him jolts me down. I clamber to snag my fingers onto the rock, my hands getting scraped raw as we tumble toward the ground.

Just before we hit bottom, I manage to hitch my fingers onto a rough ledge.  The force of the stop almost tears my body in half, my bones snapping, my muscles stretching. But I pull through, thrusting myself onto the ledge with every ounce of my strength, dragging Aiden up with me. He rolls onto his back, groaning.

“Are you okay?” I whisper, rushing to his side.

“I’m fine.” He turns onto his stomach and glances over the ledge. “I think we’re fine.”

He’s lying. I lie down, staring up at the cliff, wondering how in the world I’m going to get him back up to the top. He crawls over to me and lies breathlessly beside me, so we’re head to head, arm to arm, leg to leg. I don’t ask him what he saw over the ledge or what we should do. Because I know all we can do is wait until morning.

And hope none of them smell the blood before then.

I’m still awake when the sky starts to shift from black to gray and then vampires start to flee for the caves, out of sight, out of mind, at least for now.. The ash and smoke is growing thicker and seems to be traveling from the direction we’re heading, so that means the city has to be getting closer. Aiden’s fast asleep, curled up, his head resting on my lap. He’s not afraid of dying, but afraid I’m already dead. But his fear is twisted because his heart rate is steadily decreasing with every passing minute and his leg is bleeding, his skin turning a ghastly shade of white. I’ve been watching him for a while, waiting for the wound to heal. Whenever someone is hurt, they heal within a few minutes. So why isn’t he healing? I think about how exhausted he was while we were running and worry there might be something wrong with him.