CHAPTER 1
It was just after eight o’clock and the roadside diner was bustling with people. It had been a long day of driving and Ashe was dead tired. She ate a burger and fries while Peter sat opposite her at the booth with a highway map unfolded in front of him.
He traced the lines of the highway with his finger. “If we backtrack a little then go east for a while, that should throw them off our trail.”
“How can you be sure there’s anyone after us?” Ashe asked. For the past few days, Peter had been convinced that a group of Landon’s people had been following them. Ashe didn’t blame him for feeling that way. It was only a matter of time before the remaining members of Landon’s clan found out that he, his father, and his two brothers had been killed by Peter and Mark’s men. But not yet, Ashe thought, not so soon after leaving the city. It wasn’t possible.
Peter looked up at her, and then past her over her shoulder as he tended to do a lot these days. “I saw him at the gas station yesterday, the one we stopped at around three.”
Ashe wanted to look over her shoulder as well but instead caught the man’s reflection in the windows lining the wall. He wore a baseball cap and a full beard. He could have been any of a number of long-haul truckers they had seen in the weeks they had been on the road.
“He doesn’t look familiar,” Ashe said.
“Trust me,” Peter replied.
The optimism they had both felt at starting their journey north had been since overshadowed by an almost constant feeling of foreboding. Landon’s clan was out there somewhere looking for revenge, and until Peter’s parents in Europe could figure out the extent of the threat, Peter and Ashe would have to lay low and bide their time. Ashe hated not knowing what was out there and feeling powerless to stop whatever was coming their way. But she knew that no matter what, Peter would be by her side and that reassurance gave her the strength to keep going.
Peter let Ashe finish her hamburger in silence and left some bills from his wallet on the table. He said nothing more about the man in the cap or his suspicions about being followed, but Ashe knew it was still nagging him.
They got back into the car and Ashe shivered as she waited for the heat to kick on. Peter was unaffected. He drove with that steely look in his eyes that told Ashe that his mind was miles away. He was thinking about something that troubled him. Ashe glanced away from him and turned to the window. It didn’t bother her that he was unreachable right now. They would connect again once they stopped somewhere for the night. It had become somewhat of a routine. Nestled in each other’s arms in some strange motel bed, they often talked until one or both of them fell asleep. In those moments, Ashe felt like they were two halves of a whole coming together again after a long time apart.
The countryside streamed by in an endless reel. There were few other cars on the highway. Long stretches went by without seeing another set of headlights. The stars shone much brighter out here than they were ever able to in the city as there was no light pollution to compete with, no haze of clouds to obscure their brilliance. The radio murmured quietly, a classic rock station that Ashe had found a couple towns back. The signal was getting stronger. They must be nearing a city.
“You see that car behind us?” Peter said suddenly, startling Ashe. She glanced up at the rearview mirror but didn’t see anything.
“I think it’s been following us for some time.”
Ashe sat up straighter in her seat, giving herself a better angle to see behind their car. She could just barely make out the glint of moonlight on metal in the distance behind them. She wouldn’t have noticed it had Peter not said anything. The car didn’t have its lights on.
Peter brushed a lock of hair from his brow, but the gesture didn’t have the same coolness it did when he usually did it. It was a gesture of nervousness, conveying to Ashe everything he hadn’t said to her in words just now. Peter must have been right about the man at the diner. Ashe could no longer doubt that they were being pursued.
She glanced at the mirror again. The car was getting closer.
“Don’t worry,” Peter said keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead. “They can’t do anything as long as we don’t stop. We’ll lose them in the next town.”
Ashe couldn't help but worry. She had no idea how far the next town was and the car was inching ever closer.
Peter didn’t increase his speed as the car caught up with them. Ashe could see the driver clearly now, his face looking red in the glare of their tail lights. She was surprised to see that it wasn’t the man from the diner. The man behind the wheel was no one she had ever seen before. He was clean-shaven and his hair was buzzed down. He could have been a police officer. But none of this did anything to assuage the fear that Ashe felt upon seeing him. She could feel in her gut that he meant them harm.
The driver turned on his high beams flooding their car with light and Ashe felt a jolt as they were hit from behind. Peter maintained control of the car and kept at an even speed. The car behind them remained inches from their back bumper threatening to hit them again.
“Lock your door,” Peter instructed.
“Why?” Ashe asked.
“He’s going to try to run us off the road,” Peter said. He reached across to Ashe’s seatbelt and gave it a strong tug to make sure it was secure.
“What are you going to do?” Ashe jammed the car lock into place just as the as the pursuing car moved to overtake their own.
“I’m going to let him,” Peter replied with a calmness that gave Ashe goose bumps.
She braced for impact as the car drew level with theirs. It swerved towards them, but Peter anticipated this and jerked the wheel in the same direction. The impact was lessened considerably as they swerved off the road, but it made no difference. Both cars smashed right into the base of an oak tree standing like a pillar off the side of the road.
Ashe had never been in a car accident before and couldn’t have imagined the violence of it. Her body slammed forward hard against her seatbelt, jerking backwards again almost immediately as the car came to a rest. She sat for a moment in the odd silence that followed, paralyzed by shock and unsure of what to do.
“Are you okay?” Peter asked her.
Her ribs hurt as she took shaken, gulping breaths. There were cracks in the glass of the front windshield, but there seemed to be no major damage to either the car or herself. “I—I think so,” she managed.
“That’s good. Stay here,” he told her getting out of the car.
Ashe unbuckled her seatbelt with shaking fingers and tried to open her door. She didn’t want to be left alone. But the door opened only a few inches before being stopped by something on the other side. It appeared that the other car had pinned her door closed.
She heard a scuffle outside and then low voices that she couldn’t quite make out. She wriggled across to the driver’s side and eased the door open. She needed to know what was happening out there.
“I could end you right now,” Peter growled in a tone that sent shivers up Ashe’s spine.
“I’d expect no less from one of Mark’s henchmen,” the man spat back.
“I work for no one,” Peter replied. “And besides, Mark’s dead.”
Ashe remembered Mark as the vampire who had helped Peter track down Landon and his family. He had also died fighting to save the people Landon had been feeding off of. Hearing his name again gave her a chill. Ashe opened the door a little wider and stepped out. If this had something to do with Landon, she had to know.
Peter had his back turned to her facing the driver of the other car. There was a black sheen of blood on the man’s lip.
The man looked toward the car catching sight of Ashe standing next to it. His expression twisted into something ugly. Ashe had seen such an expression before, in Penelope when she had caught the scent of Ashe’s blood. The man was a vampire.
Peter too sensed the change in the man and turned sharply towards Ashe. “Get back in the car,” he shouted at her. And then to the man, “You try to put a hand on her and I’ll tear you apart.”
The man hissed bearing his fangs, but stayed where he was. “You’re only asking for trouble keeping a human with you,” he said.
“You think I don’t know?” There was no humor in Peter’s tone. He was holding something behind his back—a jagged length of wood.
The man lunged, but Peter was faster. He caught the man around the throat with one hand and held up the stake with the other.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Peter warned.
The fight went out of the man’s eyes. Peter released him but kept his weapon at the ready.
“If I see you again, you’re dead,” Peter said.
The man shot Peter a look of pure hatred before getting into his car. It seemed he was not going to risk a fight with Peter.
Metal grated against metal as the man’s car backed away from the wreck. Peter stood with his arms crossed, watching until the man had disappeared down the road into the darkness of the night. Then he went over to Ashe and put his arms around her.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.
Ashe nodded. “What was that about?”
“Some vampire who apparently had a vendetta against Mark. He saw the car and thought we’d have some idea of where the owner was. I think he intended to kill Mark. Too bad Landon’s clan had already beaten him to it.”
Ashe saw regret in Peter’s eyes.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said suddenly, his face returning to its usual calm. “We can still get a few hours of sleep before dawn.”
“What about the car?” Ashe asked, looking at the cracked taillights and damaged windshield. There was also a long scar across the right side where the paint had been scraped off. The passenger side door was badly dented as well.
Peter shrugged. “Word will spread about Mark’s death. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about anyone else coming after us because of the car.”
Though that wasn’t what Ashe had meant by the question, she was comforted by Peter’s answer. Even if it had been a misunderstanding that had caused the altercation, she couldn’t shake the feeling of fear she had felt when the man had looked at her. In his eyes had been the burning hunger she knew all too well. Only Peter’s presence had saved her from a terrible fate.
The car creaked as Peter guided it back onto the road. They would have to stop somewhere tomorrow to get it repaired. Ashe knew that Peter would not be happy to be stuck in one place for more than a few hours, but Ashe herself was grateful for the break. Though they had only been on the road for a short time, she was tired of the constant moving. She already longed for a place to call home.
Ashe’s ribs ached as she stood by the motel bed. Peter eased her down and helped peel off her sweater. There was a raised red line across her side that was starting to purple.
“Take a deep breath,” Peter instructed her, pressing his fingers softly against the bruise. “Tell me if it hurts.”
Ashe did as she was told and felt no more discomfort than she had before. “I think I’m okay,” she replied.
“Take another breath, just to be sure,” Peter said, his hand moving further up towards the line of her bra.
Ashe took another breath. This one fluttered, though not from pain. Ashe wondered if Peter could feel the temperature rising in her body. His fingers circled around back and slid up under her bra strap. Though Ashe could not see it, the bruise must have extended that far. The intimacy of his touch incited a thrill in her that shook her to her toes. She longed to feel closer to Peter in a more physical way, but he always withdrew before things got too intimate. Maybe he didn’t want to pressure her into anything she wasn’t ready for.
“About what happened tonight...” Ashe started. She hoped Peter would acknowledge that the threat he had imagined was not real. Yes, they had been followed, but not by Landon’s clan. It had merely been a mistake, a misunderstanding. Maybe if Peter could relax a little, he might be more receptive to the signals Ashe was sending, the heat in her body and the fluttery way her breath escaped her lips.
“I know. You're going to tell me that I shouldn’t have worried so much,” Peter said. His fingers continued to explore her skin, tenderly testing for injury in places Ashe knew she had none. “It’s just, I’ve put you in so much danger and it would kill me if anything happened to you because of me. Maybe Landon’s clan isn’t a threat right now, but sooner or later it will be. Or maybe there will be another threat, something even worse. The only way to be sure no one can find us is to keep on our guard and keep moving.”
Ashe understood Peter’s feeling. After Landon, Penelope, and even Professor Sharp, had proven dangerous it only made sense that Peter would fear for Ashe in such a way. Still, she couldn’t live her whole life on the run just waiting for something terrible to happen.
She said, “But we’re running from a threat we don’t even know exists. Do you think my parents, or your sisters, are still on the road? They’ve probably already found new homes, new lives. We haven’t heard anything from your parents either. If the clans in Europe had found about Landon’s death your parents would have contacted us. Tonight, was a fluke. You have to believe that. Not everyone’s out to get us.”
“But they’re not the ones everyone’s after,” Peter said. The finality of his tone gave Ashe no room to argue. His fingers left Ashe’s skin, leaving a sense of longing in the places they had touched. He turned away from her and reclined back on the bed. “You should get some sleep,” he said.
She carefully lay down beside him, her body pressing against his.
Peter stared up at the ceiling, his mind starting on another one of its journeys away from her. Ashe sighed and clicked off the bedside lamp. Though she could feel him by her side, she felt alone. But she knew he was thinking over her words and she hoped that he would find sense in them.
“I love you, you know,” Peter whispered, placing a kiss on her forehead.
It was the last thing Ashe remembered before falling asleep.
A dark pallor hung over the streets as a spring storm amassed overhead, but the darkness did nothing to detract from the serene beauty of the town. Ashe could tell that this town was different from the others. Peter drove slowly, his eyes watching carefully for any signs of trouble. There had been none since the encounter with the vampire, but it didn't hurt to be too careful. Soon they would have to stop for gas, and to see to the repair of the car. The bare boughs of the trees lining the street looked fragmented through the cracked windshield as Ashe stared up at them. They reminded her of old illustrations in a version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow that she had read for one of Professor Sharp’s classes back when she was a student of his. The pang of nostalgia that accompanied the recollection made Ashe’s breath catch in her throat. She looked away from the trees, focusing instead on the buildings passing by.
Ashe couldn’t remember just how many towns they had gone through in their slow, zigzagging journey north. They only ever stopped for a day or two in one place, just long enough to sleep and to find Peter some food. Ashe herself could survive entirely on truck stop fare, but Peter was not so lucky. She wondered how her parents were doing, and if they had found a place to settle yet. She had not mustered up the courage to call, worried that hearing her mother’s voice would make her all the more homesick. Peter hadn’t put words to his own unease, if he had any, but she could feel it coming off of him like an aura sometimes. It made him quiet and sullen, thoughts churning in his head that Ashe would never know.
The car passed a rather large brick building with a clock set into its face. It looked almost like an old schoolhouse, except that it wasn't nearly well enough maintained to possibly house children. A flag hung above its main double doors and its lawn was ringed by ancient trees only just coming into their spring buds. Something about the place drew Ashe to it. She wished she could stop for a photograph or a quick sketch to remember it later.
“Wanna watch a movie?” Peter asked, nodding his head towards an old movie theater they were just passing on the left side. The marquee had no movie titles up and there were boards in the windows.
“I don’t think it’s open,” Ashe replied as it passed out of view. They could have communicated without words, but talking out loud required less effort. They also wanted to preserve the intimacy of their telepathic connection by not using it for mundane purposes.
Peter shrugged. “Too bad. You don’t see theaters like that every day. When do you think it was built? The thirties, forties?”
“You’re the expert on old things,” Ashe replied with a smile. “You tell me.”
“I’ll ask at the gas station,” Peter said pulling into one a little ways up the street.
Though not much more than scrap metal in appearance, Mark’s car was still chugging along despite the damage it had suffered in the crash. It seemed the man had taken good care of the places that mattered. Ashe got out of the car and stretched as Peter filled up the tank. She couldn’t see the brick building from where she was, but its image lingered in her mind. It could have been a government building or an old historical site. If they stopped here for a day or two for repairs, she might be able to convince Peter to indulge her in a little sightseeing.
She turned away from the road and walked towards the gas station. The door opened with that familiar clatter of bells that all small-town gas stations seemed to have. There was an elderly man working the register who smiled at Ashe in greeting. She smiled back and approached the counter where there was a rack of tourist pamphlets. Ashe started leafing through them, curious about the brick building she had seen.
“New to town, or passing by?” the man asked.
For some reason the question gave Ashe pause. “Passing by,” she finally said.
“Most people are,” the man reflected. “This town is too quiet for most folks. You’d think that would be a good thing, but I suppose not. The excitement of the big city must get into people’s blood, make them crave it like I crave my smokes.” The old man smiled in a modest way that made Ashe take a liking to him almost immediately.
“I wouldn’t mind some quiet, actually,” Ashe replied.
The conversation faded into a natural silence as Ashe continued to leaf through pamphlets. She found one containing coupons for fried chicken and another for an apple farm a few miles outside of town, but no mention of the building that had caught her attention.
She asked the gas station attendant, “I noticed a brick building while we were driving into town from the south. It’s got a clock on it and huge trees in front.”
“Ah,” the man said with a nod, “that’s the old library. It might be the oldest building in the town still standing. That, and the theater just down the street. But the theater’s been closed for years. Restoration’s in progress, only there’s not enough people to get the job done. It might be that I die long before I get to see another movie there.”
Library, Ashe noted with interest as the man began to reminisce about the town’s old days. One memory seemed to lead to another and Ashe had to politely interrupt the man to ask him if there was an auto repair shop in town.
“Ayuh,” he nodded. “Just down the street there. Closed on weekends, but it’s the only place we got.”
It was Friday, and with the state the car was in Ashe doubted it could all be repaired in an afternoon. She could see Peter outside looking restless as he leaned against the hood of the car and watched the road. She knew he was eager to get going, but the car needed to be fixed and Ashe needed a rest.
Ashe paid for the gas and went back outside. Peter wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed her below the ear. “Ready to go when you are,” he said.
Ashe leaned against him, comforted in his arms. “I was thinking we could get the car fixed up first. The man in the gas station said there’s a shop just down the street.”
“It’s barely noon,” Peter replied. “We can still get a couple hundred miles in before the day ends.”
“How far north do you plan to go?”
Peter frowned.
Ashe disentangled herself from his embrace. “Eventually we’ll have to find a place to stop, even if it’s only for a short time.”
“We’ll stop when we find somewhere safe,” Peter said.
Ashe knew that Peter was only being cautious because he loved her, but she couldn’t live on the road forever. Even with Landon dead, Peter was still afraid that something terrible would happen to Ashe if they didn't stop running. They still didn’t know if Landon’s clan, the Alilovics, knew of Landon’s death or the deaths of the others. They were running from a danger they couldn’t be sure existed.
“I was thinking that maybe it’s time to stop running,” Ashe said recalling what the elderly gas station attendant had said. The theater was looking for people to help work on the restoration. Peter was more than qualified, having the physical strength of a man three times his size and the inability to grow fatigued. The theater could be up and running in mere weeks with Peter’s help.
His face took on an apologetic frown that Ashe knew meant no.
Please, she thought. No one knows us here. It’s safe. We can start to build our life together. That’s what you want, isn’t it?
After not speaking to each other in this manner in a while, the connection Ashe felt upon doing so made her flush.
Peter replied. We just got here. We don’t know anything about this place.
The weekend, that’s all I’m asking. It would be the longest we’ve ever stayed in one place. If you want to leave after that, I won’t say anything. I’m tired, Peter. I’m not used to this life.
Peter’s expression softened and he smiled. “Okay. We’ll stay.”