Alex turned sharply back to Russell. His expressionwas closed, and there was concern in the depths of his eyes. She was positive he'd been able to read her mind and considered shifting the car into reverse and trying to crash her way back out through the first gate.
Russell nixed that idea by saying, "I wouldn't if I were you. You could get hurt."
Alex swallowed. The words had been softly spoken, but they sounded like a threat to her in that moment. Worse yet, there was now no denying that he could read her mind.
"Go ahead."
Alex glanced to the front to see that Francis had opened the second gate for her and now stood waiting for her to drive through.
"It isn't as bad as you think," Russell said quietly when she hesitated. When she glanced to him again, he added, "Go on up to the house and let someone explain things to you. Everything will be all right."
Swallowing, Alex hit the button to close the window and drove through the gate, her hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. That drive, short as it was, was the worst of her life ... because she suspected she was driving herself to her own doom.
Cale could have sobbed with relief when he finally reached the cooler. That relief just increased when he saw that it was already open, its contents spilled out onto the snow like precious rubies. Grabbing the nearest bag, he dragged it to his mouth and sank his teeth into it, waiting impatiently as it emptied, his thoughts on Alex and where she could have gone.
He should have explained everything before revealing his teeth, Cale berated himself. It must have been something of a shock when his fangs had suddenly appeared. However, he'd been in such need, and she had been bleeding, the smell and taste of the blood on her cut palms taunting him ... It had been a case of the lesser evil, suck on a bag of blood or give in to his desperation and bite Alex. Either one would have revealed what he was; but he was in no shape to woo and caress her so that she would be excited enough to open her mind and feel his pleasure rather than her own pain. His biting her then would have hurt, and while he would never deliberately hurt Alex, with the hunger on him as it had been, he hadn't trusted himself not to. Getting her to bring him the cooler of blood had seemed the only recourse.
If he'd been in a little better shape, Cale might have thought to have her leave the cooler and go for help so that he could feed without her seeing, but once he'd seen the cooler, he hadn't been able to think of anything but the sweet relief the blood would give him.
Cale ripped the now-empty bag from his teeth and dragged another over to replace it. He fed on four bags like that before worrying about anything else ... like the fact that he was presently lying at the side of the road where anyone might find him. And that within seconds the blood would hit his system, it would start to heal him, and he would be in so much pain he wouldn't be able to control himself. If a Good Samaritan should come by at that point, he was likely to rip into their throat without even being aware of what he was doing.
Sighing, he glanced around. There was nothing but the metal rail and a triangle of snow between the highway and the off-ramp on this side, but there was a small copse of trees starting about fifty feet from the road on the other. It seemed a long way away at that point, but Cale didn't feel he had much choice. It was that or risk hurting someone. He had already been incredibly lucky that no one had come along yet, he couldn't risk-
Cale's thoughts died as lights splashed over him. Raising his head, he saw that someone had turned onto the off-ramp and was slowing as they approached.
Chapter Fourteen
If Alex thought driving up to the house was bad, forcing herself to get out of the car and walk to the house was even worse, but she made herself do it. For one thing, Sam was in there, completely oblivious that the man she loved was a ravening vampire who was just making her think she loved him so that he could feed off of her like a parasite. She had to go in and warn her, and-if she could-get her out. Though Alex was starting to think that wasn't likely.
Pausing at the door, she took a moment to try to compose herself, and then finally raised her hand to knock. It wasn't exactly a loud rapping, it was more a timid tapping, but then she was scared out of her wits at that point ... and really had to pee, she realized unhappily, wondering why things like that always seemed to happen at the most inopportune times. Onegood boo would be enough to have her wetting herself at this point, and since she was entering a vampire lair, Alex suspected she was going to experience more than a boo ... which meant she was likely to experience humiliation on top of horror tonight, Alex realized, and was suddenly irritated. That irritation only grew as minutes passed without someone answering her summons. Geez, if she was going to be sacrificed on the blood altar of a bunch of neck suckers, the least they could do was not keep her waiting.
That last thought told Alex she was probably losing her grip on sanity. It just didn't seem all that sane to be angry that her would-be killers lacked promptness. Sighing, she shook her head and knocked again, but it still wasn't very loud. She just couldn't bring herself to pound as if she really wanted someone to come kill her. When another moment passed without the door opening, she hesitated, and then reached for the doorknob and turned it. Much to surprise, it wasn't locked.
She eased it open, feeling like some Victorian he**ine entering a haunted house ... or a vampire den, Alex thought dryly, and then muttered, "I may be about to die, but at least I haven't lost my sense of humor."
Wincing at how loud her voice sounded, she slid inside and then paused as a cacophony of sounds hit her ears: shrieks and shouts and the insistent ringing of a phone. She supposed the phone was Russell, trying to warn of her arrival. It sounded like no one was bothering to answer his call. She put that down to the fact that they probably couldn't hear it over the shriekingcoming from upstairs. It was loud and agonized ... and her sister, Alex realized with horror as she recognized Sam's voice in the tortured sound.
She started instinctively toward the stairs, but stopped abruptly as she heard other voices shouting, trying to be heard over Sam's screams.
"God damn it! Why isn't it working?!" That sounded like Mortimer, and he actually sounded a bit frantic, Alex noted with a frown.
"I don't know. We gave her the prescribed amount!" someone shouted back.
"Give her more!" Mortimer roared.
Alex bit her lip and glanced around, looking for a handy weapon. A cross, holy water, or garlic would have been nice, but of course there wasn't anything like that around. Spotting the light on in the kitchen, she hurried up the hall to it and straight to the wood block full of knives. She pulled out the two largest and turned back to the door, but then paused as she realized that they weren't likely to do her much good. Cale had taken a crap load of damage in the car accident and still been going. She needed a bazooka ... or a stake.
Alex shifted from foot to foot, trying to think what to do, and then began tugging kitchen drawers open, searching desperately until she came across a long, wooden spoon. Pulling it out, she took a moment to sharpen the end with one of the knives. It was a very bad job, rushed and, really, she only managed to make the tip slightly pointy, but it would have to do, Alex decided, as Sam's screams grew in volume. She would just have to plunge it in with a lot of force.
Slipping the makeshift stake into her back pocket, she started for the door again, but then paused as she recalled that vampires could read minds. She needed a plan, or they'd simply take control and make her hand over her weapons, Alex realized with dismay. A sneak attack would be best ... or some way to keep them from getting into her head.
Turning slowly, she scanned the kitchen, and then returned to the drawers. In the second or third drawer she'd opened she was sure she'd seen a box of-
"Ah ha!" she gasped as the food wraps were revealed in the first drawer she tried. Alex snatched out the aluminum foil, ripped off a huge sheet, and quickly tugged it over her head. She crunched the ends together under her chin so that it would stay, and then pulled the front forward until her entire forehead was covered. It left the back of her bare, however, and she quickly ripped off a second sheet and attached it to the other by crimping the edges together so that all of her head but her face from the eyes down was protected.
Alex felt an utter idiot in the thing, and didn't even have any idea if it would work, but she'd try anything at that point. Besides, it was what those science geeks always did in the movies to prevent space rays or whatever from penetrating their minds. There must be some science behind it. Perhaps it would keep her safe.
"I've lost my mind," Alex muttered, grabbing her knives again and stomping back across the kitchen. "I woke up this morning a boring little chef on planet earth, and somehow ended up in the Twilight Zone as a third-rate stand-in for Buffy the Vampire Slayer."