Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) (6 page)

The restaurant appeared
to be clean which made me hopeful for the condition of the restroom.
It was bright white with three stalls, one of which was already
occupied when I went in. I quickly chose the one furthest from the
door and proceeded to wash my hands afterward. I looked into the
stainless steel mirror and was horrified by what I saw. My mahogany
colored skin had the imprint marks from the jacket that I used as a
pillow and I had major eye buggers. It was a good thing that I didn’t
know anyone around here, because I looked homeless. I washed my face
and put my dreadlocked hair back into a ponytail, took a deep breath
and turned to leave, running smack into someone.

I had heard the
occupant of the other stall flush and open the door, I just hadn’t
expected her to be standing directly behind me, but there she was.
And she was a lot sturdier than her 5’5” frame should be
because I should have knocked her down. Instead, she steadied me by
holding my elbow, looked up into my eyes and smiled.

“
Sorry
about that. You okay?” Tabitha asked sincerely.

“
Yeah,
I think so”, I replied, wondering more how I didn’t knock
her over than how she had found me. Somehow I knew that I didn’t
want to know.

I watched her as she
walked over to the sink to wash her hands. Her long blond hair was
pulled back into her usual high ponytail but was now caught in a long
braid. I still wondered how anyone could deal with that much hair. As
if she felt me looking at her, she met my gaze in the makeshift
mirror and smiled. I shot her my best “screw you” look
and made my way to the restaurant.

I didn’t realize
how hungry I was until I smelled the food. I was certain that it was
greasy and fattening and I couldn’t wait to order. The boys
from the bus were sitting at the counter so I took the first empty
booth that I came to and picked up a menu. I felt the bench on the
opposite side of the booth dip under someone’s weight and I
froze.

“
Do
you mind if I sit here?”

“
Make
yourself comfortable”, I said, trying to sound casual in the
presence of my former best friend. I didn’t know what her
agenda was.

“
So”,
she said from behind the menu she had picked up, “where are you
headed?”

“
Excuse
me?”

“
You
got off that bus, Cheyenne! Where are you going?”

She pointed out of the
window to the bus as if neither one of us knew what she was talking
about.

“
I’m
going to Las Vegas.”

“
Vegas?
Cheyenne, what for?”

I shrugged, trying to
figure out how to change the subject. I looked around the restaurant
and saw that the three boys at the counter were viciously glancing in
our direction. Tabitha followed my gaze. She smiled at the boy, but
it didn’t reach her eyes. The blue orbs were intense and
predatory. The twins bowed out of the staring contest but the boy
with the white hair held her gaze until our waitress appeared.

“
Cheyenne”,
she said, after the waitress left. “If you are trying to go
after your mom, it isn’t worth it.”

Not answering, I shook
off the feeling of abandonment before it led me to tears. She, of all
people, knew how much I wanted a family.

We sat in uncomfortable
silence while we ate and paid for our meals. We passed the counter
where the three boys were eating only to find it empty and headed to
the bus. I knew Tabitha hadn’t been on the bus before, so I was
surprised when she climbed on ahead of me and sat where the old lady
had been sitting. That reminded me. Where was that old lady? I
started to glance around to make sure we weren’t going to leave
her when the bus driver closed the doors and pulled off. This must
have been her stop.

I took my seat next to
Tabitha and put the old lady out of my mind. I’d come a long
way from my small New Mexico town and I was too weary and anxious to
be concerned about anyone else. I had no idea what I was going to do
once I arrived in Las Vegas or how I was going to find my bio-mom.
All that I knew for sure was that I had to get away.

As the seconds turned
into minutes, I noticed Tabitha looking over her shoulder and through
the opening between our seats toward the rear of the bus. She was
watching the three boys as if she was waiting for one of them to come
our way. When she realized that I was watching her, she stiffened and
sat up straight, fixing her ponytail as she did. Then she laid her
head against the window and closed her eyes.

I woke up with a start
and with a hand over my mouth.

“
Will
you stop?” asked a familiar voice, filling me with déjà
vu.

“
Great!”
I replied sarcastically. My heart was pumping so hard it felt like
it would jump out of my body.

“
Shhh,
Cheyenne”, Tabitha hissed. “The bus has stopped for gas
and we really need to get out of here!”

I felt Tabitha’s
weight shift as she looked over the back of the seat towards the rear
of the bus. She quietly grabbed my duffel bag from the overhead
compartment and pushed it into my arms. I sat as still as possible as
I heard the window being unlocked. Tabitha pushed on it until it was
opened wide enough for us to climb out and then she turned back to
me.

“
They’re
gone right now and we have to go, too.”

“
What
the hell is going on?” I whispered, a little shook up.

“
Just
hurry. We don’t have much time.” Tabitha looked me
straight in my eyes and asked me to do the impossible. “Trust
me”, she said.

She held out her hand
and I took it, surprising myself to no end. For the life of me I
didn’t know why I trusted this girl, but I did. She quietly
slid through the open window and then reached up for the duffel bag.
Once I dropped it into her arms I did my best to squeeze my 5’9”
frame through the same tiny opening. I finally dropped to the ground
with a thud and wondered how Tabitha had done it with so much quiet
grace.

As soon as I was on the
ground, Tabitha led me around the back of the bus away from the
lights of the gas station. Not too far from where we stood was a
steep hill separating us from the highway below. In complete
darkness, we started down the embankment toward the noise of traffic.
We climbed about 20 yards down and crouched behind a rock.

“
So…”
I started.

“
Look,”
Tabitha interrupted. “I will tell you everything once we get to
the house, I promise this time. What I will tell you now is this:
your life depends on us getting away from this gas station without
being heard or seen. Can you just trust me?”

Before I could answer
we heard noises from the bus. The driver had returned and was trying
to start the engine when someone started yelling. At first I didn’t
understand what the problem was until I heard a boy’s voice and
I froze.

“
Where
the hell is she? Did you check the bathroom and the store? What about
the Mc Donald’s over there?” The boy sounded furious.

“
Are
they looking for me?” I whispered.

“
Yes,
they are.”

I
began to run through all of the reasons my foster mom would have sold
me out and greed just didn’t seem like one of her virtues. I
had to force myself to remember what I heard her say to the boy with
the white hair and steeled my resolve. I started to stand up when I
heard a sound of footsteps just a few feet from where we sat. I froze
and looked towards Tabitha. She was digging around the ground
frantically looking for something.

Just as the footsteps
were getting louder and I began to panic, Tabitha grabbed my ponytail
in her hands and began rubbing something into my hair. It smelled
like…dog mess! OH. MY. GOODNESS. She just put dog crap in my
hair and now she was putting it into her own. I didn’t know if
I should be more horrified that I was being hunted or that I was
covered in crap! My decision was made for me when the footsteps
stopped on the other side of the rock.

“
Raphael,
where should we look?” asked an unfamiliar voice.

“
Everywhere!
She can’t have gone far. And she has to be with that blond
witch. I knew we should have killed her when we had the chance!”

Finally, the boy with
the white hair had a name; Raphael. I would know that smooth voice
anywhere, and right now he was about four feet away from me. He
looked like he was in charge of the other two. But why did they want
me and why in the world would they want to kill Tabitha. I turned
toward her and saw that her eyes reflected the light like a cat’s
eyes would. If not for the current danger that she was keeping me
from, I would have run from her. A slight smile crossed her face as
she tilted her chin just slightly and sniffed the air. The only thing
I could smell was the dog crap stuck in our hair so I decided to hold
my breath.

“
Call
it in,” said Raphael. “Grigor is going to be pissed.”

From our position I
could see the faint light of a cell phone as the screen turned on to
make a call. The threesome had started to walk away so I was unable
to hear the conversation but I had heard enough already. Since she
knew more about what was going on, I waited for Tabitha to move, but
she stayed still for a long time. We heard the bus pull away and
watched it head to the on ramp and continue northward.

“
They
will have left a scout somewhere in the vicinity so we have to be
careful. Nothing good comes out of carelessness”, she
whispered.

She gave me a motherly
pat on the shoulder before she turned and led me further down the
embankment. With great effort I continued down the embankment with
the grace of a two-legged elephant. I slipped and slid until I was
completely covered in whatever had been in the dirt. We reached the
side of the highway, jumped a six foot chain link fence, and crawled
out of a ditch before finally reaching asphalt.

While I was catching my
breath, it didn’t escape my notice that Tabitha wasn't even
slightly winded. A black SUV began to slow and it pulled onto the
shoulder of the road. As I started to run down the side of the
highway, Tabitha stopped me and motioned to the vehicle just as
Solomon exited the driver’s seat. I watched as he opened the
rear passenger door. My hesitation lasted only momentarily because I
turned to look back towards the embankment just in time to see
something moving swiftly down the side of the hill in our direction.
It was too large to be a dog but too small to be any other type of
animal. Just then the hill was lit up by the headlights of an
oncoming vehicle and I saw that the thing running at an extraordinary
speed was Raphael and he was looking right at me.

Turning on my heels, I
dove into the back seat of the car, pulling my feet in right as
Solomon slammed the door. The locks clicked into place at the same
time that Raphael hit the window…hard. The window was almost
shattered and Raphael had his fist cocked back to hit it again when
the SUV pulled onto the highway.

Someone was screaming
and it took a second to realize that it was me. I clasped my hands
over my mouth, closed my eyes and told myself to breath because this
just simply was not happening. I took mental stock of the events so
far: bio-mom sent for me, foster-mom tried to sell me, three boys
trying to catch me, best friend lying to me, and I may be related to
Efia and Jordan.

I removed my hands from
my face and opened my eyes. Tabitha was looking right at me with
concern as she handed me a bottle of water and a wet wipe. I
immediately began wiping the dirt, grime and tears from my face and
hands. I was handed a second wipe and a third when the job continued
to need them. We drove silently into the mountains for about 15
minutes before Solomon spoke.

“
Are
you going to be okay?” His voice was so smooth and so deep that
I felt it calm me all the way down to my toes. When Tabitha didn’t
answer him I saw that his eyes were on me.

“
Oh,
I’m fine.” All three of us knew I was lying, but what
else did they expect me to say?

The SUV pulled up to a
gatehouse where Solomon entered a code to gain access. There were
three sets of security gates to pass before we came to a circular
driveway in front of a huge four-story white house. The steps to the
double front doors were made of large white boulders held together
with cement. The window over the front door rose through all four
floors revealing a soft light from inside.

From the back seat of
the SUV the house looked massive. Giving me the opportunity to get my
bearings, neither Tabitha nor Solomon made a move to exit the
vehicle. They were so silent and unmoving that I almost forgot they
were there. I had so many thoughts and questions running around in my
head that I started to feel sick.

After a few minutes,
Solomon opened his door and got out. He opened Tabitha’s door
and then walked around and opened the door for me. I stepped down
onto the gravel driveway and took a deep breath of the clean mountain
air only to be reminded that I was still covered in dog mess.
Covering my mouth to keep from throwing up, I stared at the house.

Solomon had began to
walk ahead of us, taking the steps two at a time, and opened the
ancient pine door. Then, he stepped to the side and bowed slightly in
our direction.

“
Did
he just bow at you?” I turned and asked Tabitha.

“
No,
he bowed at you”, she said shortly, not very pleased at
Solomon’s behavior.

Solomon looked sincere
but I couldn't help but wonder what kind of cruel joke he was
playing. The longer I looked at him the more I began to realize that
he really thought I was ‘bow’ worthy and that worried me.
I had to get away from these two as soon as possible. The only
problem was that I had no idea where I was…oh, yeah, and that
someone was trying to hunt me down!