Eternally Bound - Book Three ✎

Chapter 6

"So where are you off to?" Jackson asked me as we wandered away from the clearing to let a now much cleaner Nia and Paul deal with the meat on the carcasses, but still within earshot if something were to happen. I saw Nia pull a smaller knife from somewhere on her body and began cutting into one of the deer. I reverted my attention back to Jackson.

"I am going east, to a place called Washington DC."

"The old capital, huh. That's quite the journey on two legs, even with vamp speed."

"It is important that I get there as soon as possible."

"Do you want to tell me why? Perhaps I can help?"

"Who says I need help?" I looked ahead, into the woods and avoided Jackson's questioning gaze.

"Nobody can go through life without a little help from others."

I shook my head at him. "Perhaps when we were humans, but we're vampires. We should be able to do anything."

Jackson sighed. "Oh, young one. You clearly have much to learn yet." He eyed me closely. "You never did tell me where your maker was. Is he or she, they, them, whoever, dead?"

"No. He's not dead. He is in DC so that's why I'm going there."

"That's a long way away from your maker at such a young age."

"What are you talking about?"

Jackson circled around me, picking a leaf from a low-hanging branch and gently pulled it apart. "Because new vampires are in some ways like babies. They need to be taught things if they want to survive or else, they will cause all kinds of havoc. Hell, even grown vamps need controlling otherwise this country would have looked even more shittier than it already does. That's why there are kings, though if you ask me, most of them just laze around and do shit nothing."

"Get to the point, will you?" I said, picking out some dirt underneath a fingernail. Jackson grinned.

"Our little group is heading east as well. Why don't you join us? I'm sure we can all benefit from that radiant personality of yours."

I knew that last part was a joke, but I kept my face blank.

"She would hate it," I stated, and Jackson chuckled.

"I know, that's half the fun."

I thought it over. There were definitely advantages of going along with them. Extra protection from Jackson, better hunting possibilities and whatever knowledge he might have to share. Travelling with Nia though would no doubt be just as fun as starving myself, but it was not enough for me to turn down the offer.

"I'll go with you," I told him, looking up at him as his lips split into a grin.

"Excellent. Let's go break the wonderful news. I can't wait to see Nia's face."

Indeed, Nia's face appeared to have set itself into a permanent scowl after Jackson told her and Paul the news that I were to be joining them on the road east. She had complained to Jackson, but he had waved her off, saying he'd deal with me if I did anything to them, which I had no doubt he would. She had been eyeing me with a stern sideways glance ever since we left the clearing and headed out on the road. I hadn't wanted to leave my motorbike behind, as I had grown quite fond of it, but without gas it was useless and Jackson said that since we were four people it made no sense anyway. We couldn't all fit on it. Besides, it would draw too much attention. I had honestly not cared about that after leaving Seattle. My focus was on getting to Washington DC as quickly as possible.

An image of Nox lying bloody, beaten and starved on a dirty floor entered my mind and I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to banish the image, but it had already etched itself into my skull. I'm coming for you, Nox. Hang in there, I thought to myself.

"Will we be walking the whole way?" I asked after a bit.

"Of course not," Jackson replied as if it was a silly question I had asked. "We have a van hidden further up the road. There is enough gas in the tank to get us to Spokane where we can get a refill and then we just head straight down route 90."

A van. They had a van. That would indeed be much quicker.

"You could have just said so from the start. Why make that fuss about my motorbike?"

Jackson shrugged, smiling. He did that a lot it seemed. "It was just for kicks, but man, I miss just being able to get on a plane. This trip could have just taken us four hours instead of days."

I frowned. "A plane? What is that?"

Jackson shook his head. "I keep forgetting none of you know about the good old days. An airplane was basically like a big car with wings that flew people places all over the world."

I looked up at the clear night sky lit up by the stars and the half moon. "People could fly?" That sounded absurd.

"People did a lot of things back then. They travelled the world, went to space, cloned sheep. It was an amazing time."

"Yeah, and just look at us now," Nia added surly. I glanced her way. She was keeping her distance to me, walking on the other side of the road.

"How many times do I have to say that I had nothing to do with that. There are so many of us out there who just wanted to live life like it was before. But no. The big shots had to go and publicly declare war and turn the world into some crappy dystopian fiction novel. This whole takeover can't last forever with the rate they're going at. Not unless they can develop fake human blood like on that tv-show, which by the way, no thank you. I prefer mine fresh. These kings, despite being there to maintain order, are nothing but trouble if you ask me. Sitting in their mansions feasting on humans while the majority of us have to make do with whatever we can find." Jackson paused in his rant, sighing deeply. "Sometimes it's not much different than back in the days of being rich or poor."

"I guess you don't like the vampire kings very much," I said, pleased to hear that I wasn't dealing with a loyal subject. That made this a whole lot easier.

"Did my sunny disposition give it away?"

"I don't know what that means," I simply replied. Jackson's reaction was to smile, widely. 

"Not helping," I added, but he just continued to smile. 

"The van is just up ahead," Paul announced and I turned to towards him. He was so quiet that I'd almost forgotten he was here, if it hadn't been for the rhythmic beating of his heart in my ears. He had barely spoken two words to me, but it suited me just fine. Had he been a chatter like Jackson I may have had to rethink my decision to join them. 

I just hoped they wouldn't kill me during the day.