Kiss of Death

The steady throb of the road was hypnotic, and since the windows were blacked out, there wasn’t much to see out there except some passing shadows. The vampires were mostly whispering among themselves, and she could feel their suppressed excitement. It was strange, but the vampires seemed to feel they’d been prisoners in Morganville, too—mostly prisoners of its strict rules of conduct, but Claire knew they hadn’t been allowed out of town freely any more than the human residents.

It was odd that the vampires would now be feeling that same freedom that she, Eve, Michael, and Shane had felt leaving the town borders. It seemed ... wrong.

“Eve?” Claire tried bumping Eve’s shoulder with her own. She did it often enough to finally pull Eve out of her staring trance and get her attention. “Hey. How you doing?”

“Fantastic,” Eve said. “Adventure of a lifetime.” She dropped her head back against the seat’s built-in pillow and closed her eyes. “Wake me for the massacre, okay? Don’t want to miss it.”

Claire had no idea what to say to that, so she just settled her own head back, closing her eyes, too. The road hiss became a kind of white noise in her head, and then ...

She was asleep.

When she woke up, the bus was pulling to a stop. Claire flinched, tried to lift her arms, and immediately was reminded that plastic handcuffs hurt as they cut into her skin. She took a deep breath and relaxed, deliberately, looking around. Eve was awake, too, her dark eyes narrow and glittering in the dimness. In the row ahead, Claire could see the back of Shane’s head as he tried to make sense of whatever was outside the window.

“Where are we?” Claire asked. Shane’s head shook.

“No idea,” he said. “Can’t really see a whole lot. It looks like maybe some little town, but I can’t tell.”

“They don’t need more, uh, supplies. No empty seats.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Shane said. There was nothing in his voice, but Claire knew he was feeling just as worried as she was about this development.

Morley brought the bus to a stop with a hiss of air brakes and a lurch, then opened the door and descended the steps. It was still daylight out there; the light spilling in from the opened accordion doors was milky white and intense.

None of the other vampires tried to follow. They just waited. Morley came back, stood at the front of the bus, and grinned. “Brothers and sisters,” he said, “I have stopped for gas. Feel free to snack while I attend to the fuel.”

“Oh no,” Eve whispered. “No no no.”

Claire tried to get her hands free, again. The plastic handcuffs cut deep, almost drawing blood, and she had to stop; the smell of blood wouldn’t be a good thing, just now.

The vampires were turning to look at those in the back of the bus, and their eyes were glowing.

Patience and Jacob Goldman weren’t among them. They were closer to the back, and they had their heads bent together, whispering. Patience seemed upset at something Jacob was saying, but he was insistent, and as the first vampire got up to get his snack, Jacob suddenly flashed out of his seat and stood in the way.

The vampire was a woman, nobody Claire had ever met; she looked older, and not very nice. She also didn’t like Jacob’s getting in her face, and she said something in a language Claire didn’t recognize. Jacob must have, because he spouted something right back.

Patience finally got out of her seat and stood nearby, clearly backing him up.

Jacob reached into his pocket and handed over two blood vials. He switched to English to say, “This will hold you for now. There’s no need for anyone to be killed, and you know what will happen if we allow feeding in here. Take it and sit down.”

“Who do you think you are, Amelie?” The woman bared her fangs in a mocking laugh. “I left Morganville to escape these stupid rules. Give me what I want, or I’ll take it.”

“The rules are not stupid,” Patience said. “The rules are sensible. If you want to alert humans to our presence and restart the bad old times, the times when we ran for our lives, owned nothing, were nothing—then wait until we have reached our destination. You can go off on your own and do what you will. But while Jacob and I are here, you will not feed directly from these people. I will not see them dead because you can’t control yourself.”

She sounded absolutely sure about what she was doing, and very matter-of-fact, as if only an idiot would argue with her. The other vampire frowned, thought about it, and then made a sound of frustration. She grabbed two vials from Jacob’s outstretched hand. “I’ll expect more,” she snapped. “You’d better start draining them. You have a lot of mouths to feed.”

Jacob ignored her. “Who else? I can give out four more....”

Four more vampires got up and accepted the vials. Jacob took out his medical kit and handed it to Patience. “I’ll stay here,” he said. “Draw the blood.”

“Yeah, don’t make any of them short ! one of the other vampires called, and there was a ripple of laughter.

“Enough,” Jacob said, and there was a hint of relaxed humor in his voice. “You’ll all get what you want. Just not now. And not here.”

He looked over his shoulder at Patience, who was strapping a tourniquet around the first human she’d found—a woman, this time. There was a little resistance, but not much, and Patience proved herself to be just as good at drawing blood as her brother. She filled ten more vials, which she handed over to Jacob for distribution as she moved on to the next donor.

So it went, even after Morley came back inside after fueling up the bus. He saw what was going on, and shook his head. “You can take the vampire out of Morganville ... ,” he said, and left the rest unsaid as he dropped into the driver’s seat. “Right, young ones, bloodbath later. First, we drive.”

Claire half hoped that the vamps would be done with lunch before Patience worked her way back to her row, but no such luck. However, she turned left, and started with Angry Guy, whose bug eyes and muffled shrieks seemed to make no impression on her at all. She did the blood draw quickly and easily, pocketed the vials, and moved on to Orange Cap, who’d lost his cap now and was crying wet, messy tears. His nose was dripping, too.

When Patience was finished tapping him, she turned to Claire. She looked at her for a long moment, then said, “I will not take your blood. Nor that of your friends. Not yet.”

Next to Claire, Eve let out a little sigh of relief. Shane, who’d been sitting tensely in the row ahead, relaxed as well.

Claire didn’t. “Why?”

“Because—we owe you a favor, I think. Let this be payment.” She started to move on to the next row.

“Wait,” Claire said. Patience’s dark, strange eyes returned to her face. “They’re going to kill us all. You don’t want that, you and Jacob.”

“Jacob and I are outnumbered,” Patience said softly. “I am sorry, but there is little we can do more than we are doing now. Forgive me.”

“There has to be something—” Claire bit her lip. Eve was paying attention now, and Shane, although Claire was trying to keep the whole conversation to a whisper. “Can’t you maybe let us loose? We promise, we won’t tell Morley.”

“Child, you have no idea what you’re saying,” Patience said, a little sadly. “He’ll catch you, and then Morley will find out what he wants to find out. He has no reason not to rip this information from you, and it would be suspicious enough that I haven’t drawn blood. He already thinks Jacob and I are too weak. You put us at risk, as well as yourselves.”

“So what’s our choice?” Eve hissed, leaning over as far as she could. “Getting fanged to death? No, thank you. Pass. If I’d wanted that kind of gruesome, horrible horror-movie ending, I could have stood on a street corner in Morganville and saved myself the trouble!”

Patience looked even more uncomfortable. “I can’t help you,” she said again. “I’m sorry.”

That was her final answer, apparently. Claire watched her continue on with her blood work, apparently satisfied that she’d done her good deed for the day.

“We’re screwed,” Shane said, in a matter-of-fact voice, and turned back, face forward. “Still want to go back