Celis T. Rono - By That Which Bites Page 0,132
to take survivors and cattle by the hand and lead them to the tented picnic tables hidden behind the orchards. The little girl in a potato sack dress waved to Poe as a host mother ushered her inside the ranch house. The acknowledgement made Poe feel a little better.
“You’re not feeling sorry for yourself, are you?”
said Joseph who’d been watching his friend.
“No. It’s just sad that they fear me.”
“They’re kids, Poe. What do they know?”
“What about their parents? They act like I have the bubonic plague.”
Joseph draped an arm around her shoulder.
“They’ll change their tune soon enough once they get to experience your winning personality.”
“Afraid that won’t happen,” said Poe, smiling for the first time. “I’m leaving with Ed after breakfast. I heard he’s going back to the outskirts of downtown.”
“Are you crazy?” said Joseph, shaking his head.
“He’s going to scout. Very dangerous job.”
“I’m just hitching a ride. I need to go back for my dog.”
Lacking social skills to win people over and far too weary to kiss ass, Poe turned away from the sight of kids in PJs and watched a group of sun-immune vampires removing tracks from the ground. She hardly listened to Joseph’s protestations. After breakfast, she would be returning as close to downtown as possible.
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The notion gave her the chills, but she had Penny to think about.
(((
Nobody could understand Poe’s reasoning, and that was okay with her. She gave Morales a hug and kiss, and she reminded him to chuck the Magnum.
“And change your aftershave while you’re at it.”
As for Joseph, she punched him thuggishly in the stomach and followed up with a hug. The rest she shook hands with. Sainvire was nowhere to be found.
Megan walked her down to the tracks where a small cargo train waited. Ed, the tiny wonder, waved at them. Unlike the others, he was full of spark and energy as if he were hooked on nothing but battery acid. He was snapping tracks for the freight car. A mile ahead of him was a flying sun vamp that laid out yet more tracks. The vampire was supposed to drop the tracks and take them off like Gromit in The Wrong Trousers. The little man gave them their privacy. Poe looked away from her friend’s tired eyes lined with decade-long uncertainty.
“You’re not leaving because of me, are you?”
Megan asked, her voice breaking. “Because if you are, I won’t be able to sleep a wink for the rest of my life.”
“No, Megan. I’m going back for my dog,” Poe assured, patting her friend on the back. “I promised her I would. I owe Goss. It’s the least I can do.”
Megan kissed Poe’s dusty, swollen face and gave her one more hug.
Poe couldn’t help herself. She had to ask.
“Megan, did Rodrigo hurt you when you stayed with him?”
She was startled by the question, and her first impulse was to trace the bite marks on her neck. “No.
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Rodrigo didn’t really hurt me. It was mostly Gwendolyn,” she said, her eyes taking on a haunted, vacant look. “She couldn’t stand his affection for me.
They had a thing going fifty years back. She couldn’t cope, so she bit me proper to make me cattle after he’d rescued me from Trench. The worst I suffered was being trapped inside my body while those frosty-skinned bastards took advantage of me.”
Poe kissed her friend’s cheek and apologized for prying. Megan shrugged and said it was all in the past.
She watched Ed boost Poe up the train car. She stood there until the little train disappeared from sight.
Poe’s chest felt like a giant was sitting on it. To think, she had believed there were only a few people left in the whole world. And who would have known that some vampires could be good? And that she could be in love with one?
He didn’t even say goodbye to her. Not that they could really have had any sort of relationship with Megan sharing the same feelings for him. And he was so busy. His people would always come first.
Alone in the back of the open-air freight train with only her replenished pack and weapons, Poe wept for everyone she’d left behind. She knew that it would be next to a miracle if she ever saw them again. There was no need to return to the Central Valley. She would never fit in. “Nope. Me and Penny are heading for Sawtelle and Santa Monica,” she muttered. She had a longing to find her parents’ house and gaze at old photos. It would have to do.
She sniffed.
She searched for a tissue inside her pack and could only come up with an empty plastic container.
Then she was handed a linen handkerchief.
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“Thanks,” Poe said, blowing her nose. She only thought to look after her nose had been thoroughly expunged.
“Oh shit!” Poe coughed, and she pulled out a gun.
Behind her sat Sainvire, cross-legged. His black shirt and dark blue Dickies blended well in the shadows.
“What’s this I hear about you leaving?” he asked while playing with bits of alfalfa.
“Um. Yeah,” Poe answered. “I’m getting my dog.”
“We could get her for you in a few days.” He stretched out his long legs.
“No need.” She put up her hand. “I’ll get her.”
Suddenly she was pissed. Here she was in love for the first time with a vampire who could care less about this scarred, jag-haired, clip-eared girl, and she had nothing but resentment in her heart.
“I can’t blame you for being angry with me,” he said slowly. “I deserve whatever I get.”
Poe nodded. He was going to let her go.
“But I want you to know that I–”
“Alright, that’s enough,” Poe ordered briskly. “A lot of people are dead instead of me, but all turned out for the best. Now please get off this train so I can take a nap.”
He blinked. His hypnotic eyes were sorrowful. “I just wanted to say goodbye.”
“Goodbye,” she said, standing up, and the effort brought tiny beads of perspiration on the tip of her nose.
“I’m sorry, Poe.” He stood in one fluid movement. “I have responsibilities. I can never, in good conscience, leave my people again.”
“Me, too,” she whispered, not trusting her voice.
“Penny.”
“You can stay with me.”
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“No.”
“Then let’s at least shake.” He extended his hands.
Sighing, Poe held out hers, pretending to still be annoyed. In reality, she wanted to beg the master vampire to send one of his men to get Penny and have them live together until he tired of her. But she didn’t.
She took the man’s large hand and shook it as firmly as her mom had taught her.
She hoped that he would ignore the scratches on her hands and the dirt under her fingernails. But he never noticed because he was too intent on memorizing her face. Then he stared at the dark pools of her bruised eyes until Poe became weak at the knees.
For a second there, Poe thought that Sainvire was going to kiss her. Instead, he hugged her tightly, saying in a rough, aggrieved voice, “Till next we meet, Julia.”
He wiped her sweaty nose with an index finger then jumped out of the train with the feel of his cold hands still imprinted in hers.
Fin.
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