Zara's Curse (Empire of Fangs) (13 page)

Twig sat on his father’s cot.
 
He told him he loved him and he was sorry for all the bad things that had happened.
 
He told him he was going to get him out of there.

James smiled a bit and handed his son the monopoly board.

“Jesus dad, enough with this thing already!”
 
Twig shouted, and threw it across the room.
 
His father laughed and kept on mumbling about the place of sleep.
 

“I’m sorry dad.
 
But we gotta go.
 
Any minute now this place is going to be crawling with cops or worse.”
 
Twig’s father grunted and sat up.
 
It took him quite a bit of effort to rise.
 
“The drugs…” he complained when he finally got his feet.
 
Twig grabbed his arms and supported him.
   
He began moving him to the door.

“Uh, Twig…” Zara said.
 
She held the monopoly board upside down.
 
On the back of it, an amazingly detailed map of downtown Denver was drawn.
 
One building was circled and had the words “weapons cache” written above it.

“Holy hell…” Twig whispered.

“Is this where I think it is?” Zara said nervously.

Twig squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Dad, tell me you didn’t stash the rest of the liquid sunlight in the Church.”

His father furrowed his brow and thought about the question.
 
“What better place to hide something from a vampire?” he said.

“He must have stashed it before it was converted to a night club,” Twig said with a sigh.
 
“Where exactly is it Dad?”

“The organ.
 
There’s a hidden compartment above the pedals,” he mumbled.
  

They went out into the hallway and made their way to the big hole in the wall where Vivian had exploded.
 
“Least we know the stuff works,” Twig said as they stepped through out onto a dirt path that wrapped around the building.
 
His father admired the hole in the wall.
 
“I missed a good one huh?”
 
Twig looked over at Zara who was shaking her head.
 

Suddenly a man’s voice yelled after them.
 
“Hey! You, what the hell are you doing?”
 

Zara looked back the big hole in the wall and saw a doctor waving a clipboard at them.
 
She stepped closer to him and he continued to yell and look about at the carnage with confusion.
 

She saw something, a flash of images, and was repulsed by them.
 
The man’s mind was full of ugly, disturbing things.
 
She wanted more than anything to bite into his neck, and drink until her bloodlust was quenched.
 
If it had to be someone, why not this man?

She looked at him sternly and said quietly so Twig could not hear: “You are going to write down everything you’ve done to these patients and go turn it in to the police.
 
You want to go do that now.”
 
The doctor blinked a few times, smiled and turned away.
 

“What was that about?” Twig asked as the three of them made their way around the building.
 

“Nothing… another little upside. Tell you one thing, I’m never going to pay retail for a pair of Jimmy Choo’s again.” As she walked, she felt herself wobbling a little. The energy she’d spent controlling the doctor left her sapped and woozy.
 

They snuck up to the Porsche, and Twig helped his father into the backseat, where he immediately fell asleep.

23.

Twig insisted on driving the Porsche.
 
He also insisted that they had to get rid of it.
 
“I hid my Scout a few blocks from the Caspari place.
 
It’s not exactly trading up but I have to get my stuff,” he said, while shifting into fourth.
 
Zara winced at the mention of the name Caspari.
 
It felt as if something was tearing inside of her.
 
Micah didn’t choose this life
, she thought.
 
It’s the only life he ever had, was it her right to take that from him?
 
She put that thought out of her head.
 
He hadn’t seemed to mind ruining her life.
 

“What about your dad?” Zara looked back at him. He was still out cold from whatever drugs they had pumped into him.
 
She watched his chest rise and fall.
 
She could almost see the blood coursing through his body.
 
She forced herself to look away.
 

“I dunno.”
 
Twig said.
 
His eyes seemed to search the highway for answers.
 

“Nobody will believe us, you know,” Zara said evenly.
 
“They will twist the evidence to make us both look like murderers.
 
They’ll say you have a history of mental illness.”

“Then we need our own evidence,” Twig said, shifting into fifth and whipping around a sluggish semi truck.

There was a long moment of silence before Twig’s father began rustling in the back and groaning.
 
“Where the hell?” He said, looking around confused.

“It’s okay dad.
 
We’re getting you somewhere safe,” Twig said.
 
He found it hard to say with any confidence.

“He’s not safe with us,” Zara said.
 
She was having enough of a time controlling her now raging bloodlust around Twig.
 

“Jennifer Lee,” his father suddenly mumbled.
 

Twig looked at the rear view mirror.
 
“Who?”

“My colleague from the institute.
 
She knows what they did.
 
We were…close before they did this.”

Twig took a deep breath.
 
“This wouldn’t be a psychotic delusion, would it dad?”

James Sollero coughed and then laughed.
 
“I might have been playing up the crazy just a little.
 
If Damon Caspari knew it was will alone that was keeping him out of my thoughts, maybe he would of kept trying.
 
I had to keep up the act.”

“And you tell me this now?” Twig asked.
 
He looked over at Zara who was staring listlessly out into the night.
 

“Take this off-ramp,” his father said, pointing to the side of the highway.

Twig veered off.
 

James directed his son down a few side streets and told him to pull into a long driveway that led to an old barn house that sat on a piece of land between two factories.
 
The house looked out of place in the long stretch of commercial space.
 
It was tall and was painted a shade of canary yellow.
 
A small space was plowed out for a garden out front, a patch of dirt waiting for seeds.
 
They pulled up to the front door.

Twig and Zara got out, and Zara gave James a hand, squeezing himself out of the back of the car.
 
James straightened up and dusted off his hospital scrubs.
 
His eyes were still at half-mast from the drugs.
 
He stumbled to the steps and Twig gave him a shoulder to lean on.
 

After one ring a porch light came on and a small Asian woman had opened the door.
 
She looked about 40 to Twig, and had intense, intelligent eyes.
 
She looked momentarily confused by their presence, but when James began to speak but the woman leapt to him and threw her arms around him.
 
She began to cry.
 

 
“They wouldn’t let me see you!” She cried out.
 
“And when I tried to get a lawyer they all turned me away.”

James shook his head and smiled at her, taking her face in his hands.
 
“It’s okay,” he said, and the two began to kiss.

Twig and Zara both looked around at the landscape, both a little uncomfortable.
 
“Um, so I’m guessing it’s cool he holes up with you for a bit?” Twig said finally, now admiring his hospital bracelet like it was made of solid gold.
 

The little woman laughed and told them she would take care of him.
 

James looked over at his son.
 
Then he looked from Zara to Jennifer.
 
“Can you two give me a moment?”

Jennifer nodded and went inside, taking James’ hand and kissing it before she left.
 
Zara went back to the car.
 
It was still running and she turned on the radio.
  
She played with Micah’s iPod.
 
She found a Death Cab for Cutie song and turned it up.
 

James looked up at the moon and then around the front yard.
 
“I’ve been thinking son.
 
Maybe you should let this go.”

Twig balked.
 
“Let it go?
 
Are you for real?”
 

James put a calming hand on Twig’s shoulder.
 
“You see what it’s gotten us?
 
Our family is in ruins because we got involved.
 
It’s been that way for centuries.
 
We’re drawn to them like moths to a flame, you know.
 
You can vanish, start over somewhere new.”

“You know I can’t…I won’t leave her,” Twig looked over at the car where Zara’s face was aglow with the light from the ipod.
 

“She is a pretty one.
 
You have your dad’s taste.”

The two laughed a bit.
 
“I would help you if I could, you know,” James said weakly.
 
“I’m having enough trouble just standing right now. As soon as I’m myself again…”

Twig nodded. “It’s okay dad.
 
You rest.
 
I suggest you get yourself a good fake ID.
 
Lay low for a while or leave the state entirely.”

James nodded in agreement.
 
“I will.
 
What about you though?”

“We get the weapons cache, then skip town. We head for the hills until the time is right.”
 
Twig gestured toward the Rocky Mountains poking up over the houses to the west.

 
“You need to hurry,” his father said with a sudden urgency.
 
“Get going.
 
I’ll be fine.
 
But there’s one other thing.
 
Something you don’t know about the weapons cache.
 
Something…important.”

24.

All along the sidewalk people were out again, whooping and falling over each other in large groups.
 
Twig drove cautiously down Broadway, keeping his eyes peeled for cops.
 
Zara looked at the partiers filing up to the bars, and a wave of disgust crested over her. “They are like animals,” she said, not noticing that she had said it out loud.

Twig gave her a look of concern and stepped on the gas a little harder.
 

Zara almost jumped out of her seat when her phone vibrated.
 
She pulled it free from her pocket and read the text.

I know what you’ve done, and it doesn’t matter.
 
You can still come back to me. Let yourself be happy.

She stared at the words and read them over and over, like a chant.
 
Twig grabbed the phone from her hands and tossed it out the window.
 
“He’s toying with you Zar, don’t let him play you.”

Zara nodded, but she was annoyed.
 
Does Twig think he is in charge of her now?
 
Does he also think her fate is his to determine?
 

They left the Porsche unlocked with the keys in the ignition in front of a 7-11 on Colfax, a street notorious for its crime and theft. A few loitering thugs raised an eyebrow at it as the two strolled away. “I give it ten minutes before someone snatches it,” Twig said.
 

They both ran to the Scout, a few blocks away.
 
Twig still wore his hospital smock and slippers, and people gave him a wide berth on the sidewalk.
 
It was late, the bars were all closing up, and raucous drunks were spilling out from their doors.
 
They got to the Scout and Twig crawled under the car.
 

“What are you doing?” Zara said impatiently.

“Spare key,” Twig replied before popping back out from under the car holding a little brass key in his hand.
 

He went to the back of the car and popped open the hatch.
 
There were several duffel bags of various colors.
 
He opened one and took out a handful of clothes.
 
“This may get a little graphic,” he said in a warning tone.
 
She sighed and turned her back to him.
 
Twig stripped and changed in the street, and a pack of drunken girls started whooping at him from across the street.

“Don’t get mad, it’s the only shirt I got in here,” Twig said, and when Zara turned around she saw he was wearing his “I’m with slutty” t-shirt.
 
He had a pair of tattered old jean shorts on, and another pair of docs.
 

“Well, if we need to destroy Abby too, all you will have to do is stand in front of her wearing
that
.”

Twig laughed and pulled out a belt that had several stakes holstered on it.
 
“I keep lots of spares,” he said.
 
“Seems to come in handy in this business.”

He handed her one of the stakes from his belt.
 
“Black Walnut.
 
Hard as a rock.
 
Sharp too.
 
One hard stab to his chest.
 
All it takes.
 
And you go back to normal.”

While Twig rifled through more of his bags Zara’s thoughts drifted.
 
Her past was starting to look like a tunnel. She saw Twig, who had never given up on saving her.
 
Even if she had to save him before he could return the favor.
 
She saw her father, who had sacrificed so much for her.
 
She also saw Micah too, and heard his sweet words echo in her head.

“Damon wears kevlar over his heart.
 
Micah might wear the same thing.
 
These stakes might not do the trick.
 
We need to get the liquid sunlight from the Church.”
 

Zara put her stake inside of her hoodie and zipped it up.
 
“I’m ready,” she said.
 
But the words felt hollow as they left her lips.