Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
“Wait, what?” exclaims one of the mortals, shaking. “They found us?” 4 clutches the seat in front of her, eyes wide. “Fuck no,” whimpers one of the teenage boys. “No, no, no,” moans the other teenager, his eyes welling up with tears.
Another loud slam against the ceiling.
The humans shout out, flinching away from the noise.
The whole bus veers right, then left, until Elias straightens it out again. “How the fuck are they doing that??” he shouts.
“Secure the windows!” cries the freckly one. “And doors!”
“It won’t make a difference,” says Raya calmly, staring up at the ceiling, as if seeing something no one else can. “The Feral can enter the bus whenever they please. They choose not to.”
“Why?” asks 4.
“Playing with their food?” suggests Raya too flippantly.
Kyle peers down at his brother, astonished he’s still asleep through all of this. The medication must be keeping him deeply sedated. If he was awake, how would he be reacting right now? Would he be strong? Unafraid? Even trapped in a cage with a lion, Kaleb’s first instinct was to approach it. He is brave. He is a new man born out of the timid boy Kyle once knew.
It wasn’t enough to break Kaleb free from the House of Vegasyn. Kyle has to see it through to the end, to ensure Kaleb stays alive, gets healthy, and becomes himself again. This long and trying night can’t be for nothing.
Another slam, from ahead.
Everyone turns forward, breathless.
On the windshield is the unmistakable figure of a vampire in a raspberry catsuit—La-La—his giddy eyes and grin in the center of a wind-tousled explosion of long white hair. One arm clings effortlessly to the glass somehow. The other is extended with his katana blade shimmering in the starlight.
Even with his hair flying in all directions, La-La’s beauty is mesmerizing, his face like the finely-sculpted work of a revered artist, impossibly smooth, unblemished, a perfect balance of features that draw the eye and inspire boundless intrigue.
But none of that beauty distracts from how dangerous Kyle knows La-La to be.
Elias, never having laid eyes upon this vampire before, lets out a holler of surprise. “What the fuck!” Then he starts to swing the wheel left to right in zigzags down the highway. “Off of the glass! Off, you fucker!”
Kyle knows better. La-La can’t just be shaken off the bus. He clings to it with ease, laughing. This is a game to him. A tornado would be a better match, if even that.
Kyle slides his brother’s head from his lap to the seat as he stands up. It’s then he realizes La-La is only looking at him, no one else. The twisted grin persists, dark raspberry eyes fixated on Kyle with a deep and unshakable obsession.
Through the glass, in a voice carried away by the wind and the roar of the engine, La-La says, “I once took seventeen days to drink a boy dry. I like my screaming snacks to last.”
Kyle hears every word.
So does Raya. “Who is this buffoon?” she asks indignantly. “Do you know this individual, Kyle?”
“La-La,” Kyle answers with no further explanation.
The very next instant, La-La takes flight, vanishing from the windshield. Kyle and Raya turn, eyes on the windows. The humans had also witnessed La-La’s departure, jumping out of their seats and looking warily in every direction for his return.
When there’s a slam from the side, everyone shouts, turns, and it’s at the sliding handicap door that La-La now clings outside with a manic grin and giddy eyes. “The final sip of the boy was the tastiest,” he says, nose pressed to the glass, “when the blood was sweetened with the relief of knowing the end was finally near.”
Raya struts up to the side door. “Are you quite done?” she asks La-La through the glass. “You do realize no one in this bus except for me and Kyle can hear you, right?”
Wildly flying white hair frames La-La’s delicate face as he erupts into hysterical laughter.
Then once again vanishes from sight.
“It’s our exit!” shouts Elias. “We’re almost there!”
Nico comes to the front. “Aren’t we just leading this crazy fucking vampire straight to your home? How’s that helping?”
“A pair of witches I know are conjuring an evil-repelling barrier around the town!” Elias shouts back. “We all should be safe once we’re within it!”
Nico appears unable to process any part of that sentence.
Raya, unusually flustered, is back to pacing the aisle, eyes darting everywhere as she listens for the vampire. “I cannot believe I am saying this, but what I wouldn’t do to have Mance here right now …”
“Do you see that??” shouts 4 from one of the windows.
Her boyfriend, less brave, joins her side. “Are those …?”
“Birds!” shouts Elias from the driver’s seat—and sounding unexpectedly happy about it. “A fuck lot of birds! It has to be a sign of Cade and Layna’s power working! Kyle, look!”