Morganville (Justin Bieber)

Chapter 16

Another car turned the corner and whipped past us in a black blur, stopping at the curb where we'd been parked.

"What the hell?" Eve blurted, and slowed down. I turned to look back.

"It's a limo" I said. I didn't even think Morganville had a limo, but then I thought about funeral homes and funerals and got the chills. For all I knew, maybe Morganville had more limos than any city in Texas.

This one wasn't part of a procession, though. It was big and black and gleamed like the finish on a cockroach, and as the caddy inched along, I saw a uniform driver get out and walk around to the back.

"Who is it?" Eve asked. "Can you see?"

The driver handed out a woman. Small - not much taller than me, I guessed. Pale, with hair that glowed white or blond in the street lights. We were too far along for me to get a proper look, but I thought the woman looked sad and cold.

"She's not very tall - white hair? And kind of elegant?" I say.

Eve shrugged. "Nobody I've met, but most of the vamps don't mingle with the little people. Kind of like the Hiltons don't shop at Walmart" she says laughing to herself.

I snorted. As Eve turned the corner, I saw the woman standing in front of the door of the Common Grounds, and saw Oliver opening it for her. No sign of Brandon. I wondered if Oliver had already sent him out, or if he was making the vamp give us a head start.

"How does Oliver do this?" I asked. "I mean, why don't they just...?"

"Kill him? I wish I knew. He's got balls of platinum, for one thing" Eve said. "You saw how he did Brandon back there? Dissing him? Unbelievable. Anybody else would be dead by dawn. Oliver gets away with it"

Which made me even more curious as why. Or at least how. If Oliver could get away with it, maybe other people could too. Then again, maybe other people had already tried and ended up organ donors.

I turned back forward, lost in thought, as Eve sped through the silent streets. A police car prowled a side street, but somehow in Morganville I thought they weren't looking for criminals as potential victims.

At first, I thought I was tired and imagining things - that happened when you didn't sleep; you saw ghosts in mirrors and spooky faces at the window - but then I saw something moving fast through the glow of a street light. Something pale.

"They're following" Eve said grimly.

"Brandon?" I tried to scan the sides of the street, but Eve pressed the gas and went faster.

"Not Brandon. Then again, he doesn't have to get his fangs dirty personally-"

Fifty feet ahead, someone stepped in front of the car. We both screamed, and Eve stamped on the breaks. I pitched forward against the seat belt, which snapped right and grabbed so hard I just knew I was going to pass out from the pain as the acid burn on my back rubbed against the seat. But the pain flashed away, buried by fear, because the car was fishtailing to a stop on the dark street, and there was a vampire standing there, resting his hands on the hood. Grinning with way too many teeth.

"Ana!" Eve yelled. "Don't look at him! Don't look at him!"

Too late. I had, and felt something going soft in my head. The fear went away. So did all of my good sense. I reached for the lock on the door, but Eve reached across and grabbed my arm.

"No!" She screamed, and held on as she slammed the car into reverse and burnt rubber backwards. She didn't get far. Another vampire stepped out, blocking the street. This one was tall, ugly, and old. Same number of gleaming teeth.

"Oh god" I heard Eve say.

I kept fumbling for the lock on the door. Eve muttered something that would have definitely gotten me grounded at home, hit the brakes again, and said, "Ana, honey, this is going to hurt" and then she pushed me forward and slapped on my burn. Hard.

I screeched loud enough to deafen dogs three counties away, nearly fainted, and quit trying to get out of the car. Even the two vampires outside the car - who were all of a sudden right there at the doors - flinched and stepped back.

Eve gunned the engine. I was half fainting from the red hot throbbing agony in my back, heard noise like iron nails on a chalkboard, but then it stopped and we were moving, driving, flying through the night.

"Ana? Ana?" Eve was shaking me by my other shoulder, the one that didn't feel like I'd taken another acid bath. "Oh god, I'm sorry! It was just- he was going to make you open the door, and I couldn't- I'm sorry!"

Panic was still hot wire through my nerves, but I managed to nod a weak, sick smile. I understood. I'd always wondered how anybody could be stupid enough to open up a door to a scary bad thing in the movies. But now I knew. Sometimes, you didn't have a choice.

Eve was gasping for breath and crying furiously between. "I hate this!" She said and slammed her hand into the hard plastic steering wheel over and over. "I hate this town! I hate them!"

I got that. I was starting to really hate them, too.