The old highway was deserted; piles of dead leaves lay scattered across the dark road that stretched on for miles until it became lost in the distance. From its position at the top of the starry sky, the moon glowed, casting a silvery light and illuminating my surroundings.
The only sound to break the heavy silence of the night came from the roaring engine of the motorbike I rode.
There were still several hours until sunrise and I had the throttle twisted to maximum speed. I flew over the asphalt, kicking up leaves and dirt in my wake. My hair whipped behind me in the wind, but I hadn't bothered to tie it with something. I liked the exhilarating feeling it created within me. It gave me a sense of freedom, yet I was far from free.
I was on a mission.
A mission I didn't know if I would survive.
Last night I had left Seattle behind to begin my journey across the old continent of North America, towards the former capital city, Washington DC. This was where my maker, and now the man I knew I loved, had been sent as a captive of that evil son of a bitch, Shax. I hadn't known hatred until I'd met the former vampire king of Los Angeles. He who had kept me prisoner in his hotel because he wanted my powers for himself. Powers I still didn't quite understand, but was beginning to control better day by day. This blue energy I could conjure was the reason I was in this mess to begin with.
A gift from the father who had abandoned me as a child, whom I had just recently met again in Seattle, but had just as quickly been taken away from me again, this time by Seattle's vampire king, Pedro Lopez. I had not been lucky so far with the vampire kings I had met and I would be fine not meeting any more.
However, as I drove farther from the city, King Pedro was lying in two pieces in the ruins of his mansion. Unless the sun had already burnt the remains of his body. I hadn't seen exactly how that worked, not that I wanted to find out, and I knew that I wouldn't, at least not for a while. I supposed the only way for me to find out was if I was the one burning, and I was definitely not planning to do that any time soon. How about never?
The younger the vampire, the less time it could stay awake when the sun came up. That was what I had learnt in my brief time as a creature of the night. My maker, Nox, was able to stay awake for hours, if not most of the day whereas I, only a couple of months or so old in vamp years, still got tired as soon as the first rays of sunlight spilled over the horizon. It was a right pain in my ass, but there was nothing I could do about it. At least my internal clock warned me of the coming dawn so that I'd have time to find proper shelter for the day. An abandoned house, preferably with a basement or sometimes I'd have to bury myself in the ground, but I'd only done that with Nox. I always felt better rested waking up, nestled in his protective arms.
A hole in the road shook the bike, making the steering wheel rattle, forcing me to grip tighter on the handlebars. Despite having never ridden a motorcycle until last night, I thought I was doing quite a good job at it. I'd only crashed once when I'd first gotten on it, but after that I felt the balance between me and the bike and let it become a part of me. An extension of my limbs. However proud of myself I was with that, it was probably my superhuman vampire reflexes, which allowed me to stay upright as I drove through the night, putting Seattle further and further behind me.
I carefully lifted a hand and pushed my sunglasses further up on my nose. The tinted glass made everything in my vision a shade darker. I had bought them at one of the stalls in Seattle right before leaving. I'd gotten a lot of curious stares since being turned, all thanks to my powers that had turned my eyes a startling blue instead of the normal red. The sunglasses were great for keeping a low profile and I had seen many other vamps wearing them. I had no idea if any vampires, loyal to King Pedro or Shax, would be on the lookout for a dark-haired vampire girl with bright blue eyes, so why take the risk?
But then again, did it even matter in the end? Shax knew I was coming for him. He probably already knew King Pedro was dead. By taking Nox, the one person who had been with me through all of this, the man I had grown to love despite hating what I had become, Shax ensured I would come for him. Shax wouldn't want anyone killing me before he could get his hands on me first. He had taken some of my powers and I had no doubt in my mind that he wanted more.
Taking my eyes off the stretch of road ahead of me, I glanced down at my right hand, looking at the ring on my finger. When Nox had presented me with the gold ring, with the intricate braiding around the band, I had felt confused. He'd said he loved me and that was not something my brain had been able to process. I'd never loved anyone before, with the exception of my mother and father. I may have loved Dennis and Johan, but that had been more like brothers, except, shortly before we had run into the group of vampires that had changed my life, I'd thought maybe Dennis and I had something different. But with Nox, everything had been so different. I had learnt so much from him, especially after he had been forced to turn me. He'd taught me how to feed without killing, how arousing it could be to feed from a human. He had made love to me, which I enjoyed doing almost more than feeding, but most importantly, he had taught me how to love. So, in the end I had told myself it was all right, that it would be easier with him by my side, and after that night, I'd known within myself that I loved him back. That was what the ring represented – our love. Our bond. And I'd be damned if I wouldn't get another chance to tell him I loved him.
I drove past a weather-beaten road sign, slightly bent.
Ellensburg, 5 miles.
Insignificant.
I could see the outskirts of the city on my left, but I ignored it, continuing to drive. This road, route 90, as I'd been told it was called when it had been more frequently used, would take me to Washington DC. At least that was what the man had told me when I had asked for direction to the old capital. I had no idea how long it would take to get there, probably longer than usual seeing as I couldn't exactly drive all day long. I wasn't worried that Nox would be dead before I got there. They'd keep him alive for me. Torture him and any other sadistic things Shax could think of, but they would keep him alive.
I was told this road would take me through some other larger cities like Seattle, which were ideal for feeding. They would have blood hotels as well and if not, then I wouldn't mind the hunt. I needed to keep my strength up, which was why I was driving and not running.
The thought of feeding immediately sent a sharp throb through my throat, despite having fed well before leaving. I'd taken care of everything so that I'd be ready to leave as soon as I'd woken up. I could still hear the warm, flowing blood singing in my veins of the young man I'd fed on at the hotel. He may have been my last willing meal for a while.
It had been a little strange, feeding without Nox next to me, not that I hadn't done it before. On my brief night alone in Seattle I had fed on someone, I had ended up killing him and because I had shut off my emotions, my humanity, I hadn't felt anything other than joy and lust from his blood. One of the best and most freeing nights of my existence, only to be destroyed when I found out that the young man I had killed belonged to King Pedro.
Then all hell had broken loose.
I drove past several abandoned cars. Like the bike, they needed fuel to work, but by the rusted look on them, none of them had been driven in a long time.
Whenever I saw a bigger car, a van, my mind would always take me back to the night my whole life changed. When Nox had found me and my two best friends. They had been killed and I had been taken into a van and driven through the desert to Los Angeles where I had come face to face with King Shax. Finding out they had deliberately been looking for me made the guilt I still carried around from my friends' deaths that much worse. What my father had done all those years ago, the deal he had made with Shax, had caused my only friends their lives and despite having forgiven Nox for what he had to do under Shax's control, I still carried the burden with me and I knew I always would.
By the looks of the small round glass disc down in front of me, the bike still had well over half a tank of fuel left. I kept wondering how far it would take me. If it would leave me stranded somewhere and I would have to go the rest of the way on foot.
Fuel was hard to come by if you weren't in the bigger cities. And the prices were high. The only reason I could afford it was the stacks of cash I had taken from Pedro's mansion before leaving his body to rot. I had taken as much as I could find, shoving it into a dark green backpack I had found as well.
That backpack now contained everything I had; cash, some extra clothes and a worn and faded map of North America I had bought, with the route to Washington DC drawn on it. I owned nothing else, but then again, I didn't need anything else. Bags of blood would have been easier, with less stops and wasting time finding blood hotels or whatnot, but apparently, they were even harder to come by than fuel. Even so, I preferred it warm and fresh from the vein.
The thought of feeding with Nox again kept me going for the larger part of the night until the point where even my thighs ached for his hands to spread them apart, to devour me. The image of us together on a bed, covered in human blood, which we would then lick off each other nearly made me crash the bike as my body trembled and I had to blink repeatedly to get both my mind and body under control.
I reached inside myself and tugged on the bond that connected me with Nox. It was dead silent, as it had been ever since he'd been taken from me. Flown off in some machine. Apparently, the bond didn't work over larger distances as well as when you turned off your emotions. Or if you were dead, but I refused to let that be a reason why the bond was silent.
Nevertheless, I sent every possible reassuring thought through it, hoping against all odds that he'd feel it, to know that I was on my way to find him.
"Hang in there, Nox," I said to my lone surroundings, gunning the throttle. "I'm coming for you."