Don't Forget Me (18 page)

High Voltage

S
hit, he’s back,”
Jason exclaimed, catching sight of a fleeting shadow among the trees that lined the road.

“Where?” Stella asked, spooked, her body tensing, almost forgetting to breathe.

“Look out!” cried Jason, seeing Vuk leap into the middle of the road. The vampire shot forward, his arms reaching for the steering wheel, his icy hands folding over hers to yank it first one way then the other to get back on the road again, only just missing the wolf.

“Jesus, that was
scary
,” she said, her knuckles turning white as she tensed her grip on the steering wheel, feeling the linger of his touch.

“Yeah…” he said, his breath quickening, his hand slowly moving up her arm, his fingers spreading lovingly around it.

“Why doesn’t he just let me
go
?” She felt Jason’s hand clasp her shoulder protectively.

“He can’t, his instincts won’t let him. I know exactly what he’s going through… Stella, listen, he’ll be back soon so I’m going to jump out of the car… Me and Aaron will overpower him. And you, your job is to be very, very,
very
careful.” His icy hands moved to her collarbone and circled the base of her neck.

“I’m sorry…” whispered the shadow at her side as he gently clasped her hand and brought it to his lips.

“What for?” she asked in puzzlement as she felt him close his mouth around her finger and suck its full length until she felt a sharp nip and his teeth rub gently along it.

“For this,” he said abruptly, suddenly piercing the tip of her finger with his canine, injecting a little of his poison into her. Then, frowning, he pushed his body hard against the back seat. Jason frowned and snatched his hand away, urging himself not to drink her blood. He was afraid that he would be unable to stop after just one taste.

“Oh God! J., you bit me!” Stella yanked her hand back instinctively, shocked and incredulous as she sucked the droplets of blood on her finger. Jason, who had almost lost control, averted his gaze and locked down his deepest, darkest impulses.

“I’m sorry, Stella. I can’t risk losing you, not again, I can’t lose you forever.” He wrapped his arms around her passionately, pressing lips now swollen with profound longing to the side of her face. This way, if she should meet her death that night, her life would continue as a vampire.

Vuk reappeared on the roadside. Jason threw open the car door and leaped out. With Aaron on the other side of the pickup, he ran alongside it. They veered to cut the werewolf off and ambush him. Enraged, his expression fierce and menacing, Vuk lashed out.

Stella saw Vuk fling Aaron to the side of the road then shove Jason practically under her tires. Swerving to miss him, the truck went into a screeching skid. Stella managed to bring it back into its lane, thanks to the help of Aaron, who flung himself onto the side of the vehicle, straightening it. Now free of his adversaries, Vuk slammed his shoulder into the truck and shattered the passenger seat window into a thousand pieces. Then, he gave the dashboard a mighty push and watched the car gather speed and narrowly miss a retaining wall at the edge of the road.

Stella fought desperately to regain control but it was useless. Her eyes turned the color of ice streaked with obscure gray shadows. She felt any hope of salvation desert her, and sensed the bleak, dark reflection of death

Then the inevitable happened.

The car hit the wall, reared up on its back wheels and fell back to the ground, landing on its flank and skidding along the tarmac until it smashed into one of the electricity poles on the far side of the road.

The front airbag inflated on impact to cushion the blow, the seat belt keeping her tightly locked into the seat, fragments of glass puncturing her like sharp, vicious needles.

Vuk loped after the car, calmly tracking the signs left by the devastating accident.

A sudden wrenching crack resounded through the air as the electricity pole broke in two, the top half falling with a loud clatter onto the hood of the pickup, crushing the bodywork and the engine, while also bringing down the electricity cables that linked it.

Jason sprang up from where he lay in the middle of the road and ran towards Stella. He felt a deep sense of guilt for having failed to protect Stella from Vuk. His knees almost gave way. Hearing no sound at all from inside the wreck, he shook his head in utter disbelief. He sensed Aaron approach.

“I did everything I could, Jason, I’m sorry,” he said, a mortified expression on his face as he turned to stare at Vuk closing in on the pickup.

“You deal with him, Aaron, I can’t be trusted not to kill him for this. I cannot be held responsible for my actions otherwise…” he said, his fury unleashing the threatening, relentless jaw-gnashing creature inside him.

“I’ll take real good care of him now, you’ll see. One second and peace and silence will descend once more.” Aaron said with chilling certainty.

“What are you going to do?” Jason asked. Vuk stopped next to the pickup, with his ears flattened back, his nose wrinkled and his fangs unfurled.

“You’ll see… Centuries of experience truly hone one’s creativity.” Aaron looked at the broken poles in the middle of the road and gave a piercing yell to distract Vuk. He picked up a branch that had snapped off one of the trees. Grasping it with both hands like a baseball bat, she cooped up the end of a broken electrical cable and hurled it onto a startled Vuk. The werewolf dropped to his knees, his muscles contracting as the electricity coursed through his body, giving him an electric shock that sent him keeling onto the tarmac like a dead weight.

“If I’d known that’s all it needed, I could’ve saved myself a whole lot of trouble before,” Aaron said ironically, resting the branch on his shoulder, a satisfied smile on his face. He looked at Vuk lying unconscious on the ground and said to Jason, “Just a tiny shock, that’s all”.

“A
tiny
shock, Aaron? Are you crazy, man? You’ve killed him! The only reason I asked you to handle it was so that I didn’t end up killing him myself, but now you’ve burned him to a crisp!

“Anyway, I think he’s just passed out,” said Aaron, looking back at Vuk. Jason shook his head and climbed onto the door of the wrecked pickup and cautiously angled his head into the window, looking down at Stella’s inert body. The intense smell of blood immediately lured him in, but he backed away, confused by the pleasure he felt. Aaron turned to his friend, trying to push the scene he surveyed in the driver’s seat to the back of his mind.

“I’m going to drag Vuk to the side of the road in case a car comes by. I wouldn’t want someone to mistake him for Bigfoot! Shit, he weighs a ton!” Aaron complained, letting the wolf crumple into a heap at the foot of a tree.

Upside Down

"S
tella!” Jason called
to the bleeding, unconscious girl. There were no signs of life. Time ground to a halt. An icy silence enveloped him.

He looked at her, saw the seatbelt pressing her to the driver’s seat. He hesitantly reached out to touch her neck and was relieved to find a slight but steady pulse.

“You don’t know how sorry I am, Stella… I failed to protect you.” He stroked her face and delicately probed her injuries, looking despairingly at the blood stains that patterned her clothes, the dashboard and the lateral airbag. He picked off some fragments of glass and tried to unlatch the seat belt, only to be defeated each time.

“No, no, not this too!” He took his head out of the window, his hand bashing the flank of the pickup.

“The seat belt’s blocked, I need something sharp to cut her free,” he explained, his state of agitation growing.

“Tried the glove compartment?”

“Not yet.” He leaned into the car again and opened the compartment but found nothing of help. Then he fumbled in the side pocket of the car door before climbing into the back
seat. But he saw nothing.

He approached Stella and penetrated her eyes. They were still closed against the moonlit gloom. He immersed himself in her dreams, exploring her deep, most intimate memories. He saw himself in front of Boston Public Library. It was pouring with rain. He saw her kissing Donn with intense passion under an umbrella and was struck speechless. In a flash, Stella realized that he had joined her in her dream and felt the pull of a real life in which she became almost one with him. Incredulous, she slowly opened her eyes, frowned and then saw his blurred figure shimmer before her eyes, making them glisten with emotion. But, unable to fight the weight of her eyelids, she couldn’t look at him for long. Sighing, she floated away into the impenetrable wall of dark oblivion that separated them once more. Jason leaned out of the pickup window slowly, a stunned expression on his face.

“Aaron, I looked everywhere, no sign of a knife,” he said in resignation.

“Well, one of the advantages of being a vampire, we always have something sharp with us…”

“Ok… Help me right the pickup.” They heaved and rocked until the truck turned over and bounced back down to right itself. They immediately yanked open the door on the driver’s side and ripped the side air bag out.

“Aaron, there’s too much blood here! If I start biting the seat belt I’m afraid I won’t be able to stop,” he said, gasping, looking at Stella lying helpless and bleeding before him.

“Jason, I know you can do it.”

“I’d be putting her in danger…”

“Danger always lurks,” Aaron said, placing a comforting hand on Jason’s shoulder.

Jason pressed his body taut against Stella’s and bent his head to just below Stella’s neck. Then, aroused by the scent of her blood and desperate to quench the parching thirst that was driving him wild, he formed his lips into a tight narrow line and brushed his mouth across her skin, euphorically grazing his teeth against the faint blue veins of her neck.

“Stop, Jason, stop it!” Aaron yelled. “Take any more of her blood and you’ll kill her. Jason, lock it down!” he urged, preparing to drag him off the girl if he saw him go to drink her blood.

Easing his body upwards, fighting the iron bar that seemed to hold him there, Jason pressed his knuckles to his mouth and backed away from the truck weakly, his breathing ragged.

“I can’t do it… Time’s running out, Aaron, you’ll have to do it. Aaron took a decisive step to the truck and leaned in over her.

“Gnawing a seatbelt must be the most bizarre thing I’ve done in my three hundred years of life. And that’s saying something…” His eyebrows shot up at the irony and his mouth twisted into a tight grin. Then he pulled Stella as close to him as the seatbelt would allow and started to shred the strap with his canine, his expression as fierce as his movements. Irritated by the synthetic odor of the seat belt he was grasping between his teeth, his dilated gray eyes drank in the dewy freshness of her skin as he resisted the seductive temptation of her sweet blood.

“This tastes worse than shit!” he exclaimed as his mouth filled with a strong, acrid taste that clashed violently with the inviting scent of the blood he inhaled uneasily, enchanted by her smooth, soft skin.

“Hell, it’s not supposed to be edible… Come on, Aaron, one last push,” Jason encouraged him.

Aaron slashed at the strap again, putting all his strength into ripping the damn thing apart, his head jerking as the belt sprang apart; Stella was now free. Closing his eyes to block the tantalizing sight of a blood-stained Stella, Aaron rested his head, lips parted, just above her breasts as he tried to regain self-control. Finally, he turned his gaze away from her as he stepped back from the door of the pickup.

In a flash, Jason grabbed the driver’s seat and pushed it back from the dashboard to free Stella’s legs. Cradling her in his arms, he tried to pull her gently out but felt something resist. Peering into the well he saw her foot wedged under a tear in the floor just under the accelerator pedal.

Like a Shield

"J
ason, there’s a
massive truck coming!” cried Aaron suddenly, hearing it bear down on them at high speed. “Jason! D’you hear me? What are you freaking dithering over, pass her to me!” Aaron screamed at him.

“I can’t! She’s stuck! Her foot’s jammed, I can’t get her out! Go, Aaron, you’ve already done more than your fair share… I’ll stay with her now,” he gasped, gently leaning her back on the seat.

“No, I won’t desert you!” Aaron cried, sliding into the pickup to reach down to Stella’s ankle to try to tug her foot free from the pedal, cursing at the twisted lump of metal and its refusal to budge no matter how hard he tried.

“Aaron, just get out of here will you, there’s no point both of us getting hurt… Anyway, she’s my business not yours.”

His friend ignored him and continued trying to prize open the metal with his hands but to no avail, his tension and haste just making things worse.

“Aaron, move!” At the last minute, Jason shoved him roughly to the side of the road, and closed the door of the pickup. Then he placed himself like a shield in front of her, his expression softening as he looked lovingly at her face. He turned towards the road. His face registered shock as he saw the headlights of the truck loom suddenly around a bend down the road.

The headlights speeding toward them illuminated their faces. Shocked and dazzled by the brilliance of the light, Stella opened her eyes and stared up at Jason, drinking in his hazy figure. She reached out to touch him hesitantly, and he turned towards Stella, capturing her gaze with his beautiful blue eyes. They were no longer turbid, nor were they now a soft or a burning red. She looked at him open-mouthed, unable to take her eyes from him. She had missed those eyes so much, those eyes she’d longed for almost to madness. Her heart leapt to her mouth, she was overcome with emotion as she felt herself once more surrounded by his strong, protecting embrace, beneath those deep blue, penetrating eyes.

“Don’t worry, Stella, it’ll be over in a flash. I’m right here beside you, hold on to me tight and there’ll be no need to fear anything, not the dark, not death, not the cold,” he murmured as he felt her struggle and pulled her reassuringly to him.

His icy breath caressed her neck and his nose nuzzled her skin, his nostrils flaring as he drank in her scent. His fingertips brushed her lips. His yearning was so overpowering that he stole a kiss. He sucked her lower lip and tasted the sweet blood as it filled his mouth. His instincts, his thirst awoke. Then, alerted by his perception, he turned his head to find his eyes glued to the glaring lights of the truck as it sped mercilessly toward them. Jason arched his body over Stella to shield her, determined to protect her from the collision.

The truck driver slammed on his brakes as soon as he saw the darkened pickup skewed across the road but then skidded wildly and lost control, his efforts to avoid it wasted.

Jason took the full force of the blow as the truck collided with the pickup. He tried to shield Stella from the shards of glass cascading into the front seat. Hearing the shriek of crunching metal around him, he turned his head slightly and saw that the truck had was skidding out of control after glancing off one of the majestic roadside trees.

The force of the impact propelled the pickup straight into Aaron.

“Aaron, move!” Jason screamed, but the pickup flung Aaron into the bushes.

“No, Aaron, no!” Jason shouted in a strangled voice.

The truck dragged the electricity pole off the hood of the pickup, stretching the cables still attached to the remaining poles to the max. Then, like an elastic band, the cables snapped and whipped through the windshield, instantly killing the driver. The truck continued its crazy driverless flight, veering into two other poles and pushing the pickup to the edge of the road where it crashed head-on into a tree. Then, the vehicle lumbered on, before losing momentum and shuddering to a halt.

Jason sailed through the windshield and landed in the dirt a few yards in front of the pickup, with his face on the ground. He could feel his mouth fill with the earthy taste of soil mixed with blood, this time his own as his lips bled from the gritty cuts. His muscles were powerless to heave him up, he even lacked the energy he needed to open his eyes properly. Stunned, he could only lie where he was, on the ground. An inert Stella flopped against the steering wheel, her face turned to the side and the driver’s window.

As dawn started to streak the sky pink and the moon began to dim, only the idling of the truck’s engine broke the eerie silence. Suddenly the sound of another engine heralded the arrival of Donn’s Bentley, who had been tracking the signal of Stella’s cell phone.

Spying Stella’s crooked, bloody body lying on the airbag that cushioned the steering wheel, Donn leaped from his car to run to her. He opened the door on the driver’s side in a flash. He reached down into the well and used all his inhuman force to widen the gap and release her foot from the metal trap. He slid his arms around the unconscious girl to lay her carefully back on the driver’s seat. He was alarmed at how much blood she had lost, how slow her heartbeat was. He took her in his arms, laying her gingerly on the backseat of his Bentley. Stella heard the roar of the engine and the car accelerating, she opened slowly her weary eyes but had to struggle not to let them close again. She turned her head slightly and saw it was Donn driving. He looked so lovely she thought it was a mirage, then she smelt the blood and felt it running down her face. She thought she was going to faint and looked upwards to the roof of the car. Suddenly everything went black and she lost consciousness. She tried several times to open her eyes, and when she managed it she looked anxiously towards Donn, who was driving recklessly along the I-93 towards Massachusetts General Hospital. He turned, looked at her tenderly and whispered softly, separating delicately each word: “My little babe”. Stella closed her eyes again to the sound of his velvety voice, she huddled up on the seat and drowsed off, imagining herself already between Donn’s powerful arms.