The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,62

to Port Henry by the me she'd finished the third one, and Stephanie heaved an audible sigh as she scrunched up the empty bag and tossed it back into the still nearly full cooler.

"Feel better?" Drina asked, turning in her seat to smile tentatively at the girl.

"Yeah," Stephanie admi ed, sinking back in her seat with a sigh, and then, sounding embarrassed, she muttered, "Sorry if I was cranky."

Drina shook her head. "I should have kept better track of the time and thought to feed you sooner."

Stephanie smiled wryly. "Well, it's not like you're used to having kids around. Everyone in your family is old."

Harper glanced to Drina to see a cloud of worry cross her face and guessed this wasn't something she'd told the girl but another sign of Stephanie's skill at pulling informa on from their minds. It was growing increasingly obvious that Stephanie had some mad skills, beyond anything he'd encountered before. Turning back to the road, he saw that they were approaching the first set of stoplights on the way into Port Henry. He eased his foot down on the brakes . . . and then applied more force when nothing happened.

"What's wrong with the brakes?" Stephanie popped into view in the rearview mirror as she abruptly sat up. He had no idea how she knew, probably a stray thought from his mind, he supposed, but didn't have time to work it out.

"The brakes?" Drina asked with confusion.

"Hold on," Harper ground out, reaching for the emergency brakes and cursing when that had no effect. He tried to shut off the engine then, but knew it was too late; they were already flying into the intersec on on a red light . . . and a semi was roaring toward them from their right, unaware of their problem and rushing to make his green.

The next moment seemed to pass both with the speed of a heartbeat, and crawl by like a slow-mo on hour for Harper. He was vaguely aware of the girls' shou ng, of roaring Drina's name himself and reaching desperately for her, and then the truck barreled into the passenger side and the scream of tearing metal joined the chaos. Blood, pop, and glass exploded through the interior of the car, and they were slammed about, and then moving sideways, screeching up the road on burning rubber and then rims, propelled by the semi. That seemed to last forever, though it was probably only a minute or two before the semi driver managed to stop his vehicle, and consequently the car as well, and then everything went silent and still.

Chapter Ten

Harper opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling over his bed, then a vision of Drina covered in blood filled his mind, and he sat up abruptly.

"Settle down, boy. You're safe," Teddy Brunswick said, hefting himself out of a chair beside the bed. Harper stared at the man blankly, the crash replaying in his head; blood splashing, glass flying, and the smoke from burning rubber all filled his vision, accompanied by the sound track from hell. Shouts, screams, screeching metal, shrieking brakes, and then dead silence and stillness. He recalled being dizzy from hi ng his head. Barely holding on to consciousness, Harper had turned ins nc vely to Drina and moaned at what he'd found. Her bloodied body had appeared par ally encased in metal, and what wasn't - including her face - had been shredded by the flying glass.

"Drina?" he growled, shoving aside the memory along with the blankets that had been covering him, and shifting to get up.

"She's alive. You know you people don't die that easy," Teddy said grimly. Harper relaxed a fraction, but continued to his feet, asking, "And Stephanie?"

"They're both in their room being tended to by Beau and Tiny," Teddy assured him, reaching out to steady Harper when he swayed on his feet. "I'm thinking you need blood. Your head wound didn't look too bad, but you lost consciousness and have been out all night. Your nanos probably used up a fair amount repairing whatever damage was done."

"All night?" Harper muttered with surprise.

Teddy nodded. "I was surprised myself. Once we cleaned away the blood, there didn't seem much wrong with you compared to the girls, but the knock your head took must have caused some internal damage that needed repair or something. We fed you a couple of bags of blood, but didn't want to give you too much and cause other problems." He frowned,