‘I could go home and see my friends. I could go to university …’
‘No.’
‘See my family …’
‘No …’
‘See Lily …’
Cool breath tickled my cheeks and mist gathered in my hands as his forehead met mine. His fingers weaved their way between my own and I could feel the damp air swirling between them.
‘I can’t deny you that.’ His eyes swept up to meet mine, grey, colourless, the dull shade of the sky an identical match. He closed them slowly, taking a long, low, raspy breath as he did. ‘I’ll regret this. Violet; Girly. Go home.’
I wrenched away from him. ‘W-what?’
‘Go home. Escape this life that you don’t want.’ His words barely came out a whisper, strained and uncertain.
‘But—’
‘Be human.’
He clutched desperately at my hand as he shakily brought it to his lips, planting a soft kiss on my knuckles. Giving it one last squeeze he placed it back at my side and let go, backing away.
‘Take good care of Lily. Look after her. Don’t let her go.’
His eyes looked glazed, like light shining upon a pond, and for the smallest of moments I wondered if they could be tears – but this was Kaspar. Kaspar would not waste his tears.
‘Just go before I change my mind! Go!’ He yelled, his eyes burning, ash then fire. His taut, gaunt face lit up as the first flash of lightning cut through the mist hanging low above the sea, thunder rumbling not a second behind. Like carefully aimed bullets the second blade set a tree about a mile off ablaze, drums crashing and beating to the rhythm of the storm.
Back-pedalling and stumbling over my own feet, I retreated, not taking my eyes away from his as he scrambled for the handle of the car.
I knew that neither of us had long and fear clutched at my heart, terrified of what the slayers could do to him. But knowing they were after me I weighed up my options: I could go with the slayers or I could make my own way home from wherever we were.
The words of the slayer about cocking his leg over me filled my mind and I knew which I would prefer; I would take a forest full of vampires over them.
Frenetic, my voice was whispering in my mind, calling hurry, hurry, with an urgency I couldn’t ignore. Staring at the trunks of the trees I prepared to delve between, I took one last glance back at Kaspar, frozen, watching me with an expression I had never seen him wear before.
As I met his gaze he turned away and began to slide into his car, the wind howling, whistling what I thought were the words, ‘Goodbye, Violet.’
The thunder rumbled and tears streaked my cheeks, smudging my make-up yet again, eyes sore from where I was rubbing them to see. Tyres screeched as two sets of glaring headlights rounded the corner, ensnaring me like a startled deer. My heart leapt into my mouth as I watched the two cars close in.
This isn’t the right time.
I whirled around and diving towards his car in a few short steps, I wrenched the passenger door open, just as he was firing the engine up. Falling into the seat I yanked the door closed behind me in time to hear Kaspar cursing loudly.
‘What the f**k?’
‘I can’t leave, I just can’t!’ I gasped, spinning around to see the two cars not fifty metres behind us. ‘Oh, my God, oh, my God, they’re right behind us!’
‘Okay, calm down, just put your seatbelt on,’ he instructed, thrusting the car into gear. I didn’t need telling twice and plugged the belt in as I was forced back into the seat, the car accelerating at a speed that had to be illegal. My neck hit the headrest with a sickly click and my hands gripped the edge of the seat like there was no tomorrow, which my mind was screaming at me there would not be if we ploughed into a tree at this speed.
Quit complaining! If you didn’t want to die you would of gone back home to Daddy! my voice screeched in an oddly high-pitched tone, telling me it was as freaked out as I was.
Kaspar’s eyes were constantly flicking between his mirrors, the road and me, alternating between anger, concentration and concern, and self-consciously I reached up to wipe my tears away, but decided I wouldn’t bother as we rounded another corner and my hands flew back to grip the seat.
‘We just need to get to the borders of Varnley. It’s only a couple of miles,’ he muttered, more to himself than me but I nodded anyway, unable to speak as we powered around a corner, tyres screaming and protesting as the dial inched towards a hundred – an impossible speed for a human to cope with on a normal, nice road, let alone a narrow, winding road with trees like concrete poles each side.
‘What cars are they driving?’ he demanded as we approached a horrific bend, twisted like a hairpin. Spinning the wheel to the right we drifted ungracefully around the corner, earning him a scream on my part as my door passed a tree with eighths of an inch to spare.
‘What cars?’ he repeated, straightening the wheel and causing me to slam into the door.
‘I don’t know, do I?’ I shrieked, barely even glancing in my mirror. ‘It’s bloody dark! Why does it matter anyway? Shouldn’t you be concentrating on the road?’
‘I want to know if we can outrun them,’ he explained, rather too calmly considering the situation. ‘I don’t want to ditch my baby unless I have to.’
‘Right, well …’ I spun in my seat, straining against the belt. ‘They’re black?’
‘Never mind,’ he grunted. ‘Just don’t panic.’
I barely had time to process those words before he had spun around in his seat and was glaring out of the back window, in the opposite direction of what we were speeding towards, hands steering of their own accord.
‘Oh, my f**king—’
The rest of my sentence was drowned out as the engine roared and the car spun out of control around the bend, straight towards the trunk of a gigantic tree.
I screeched as I hit the side of the door again as Kaspar straightened the wheel, thrusting the car up a gear, engine whining. My head throbbed from the impact but I did not dare take my hands off of the seat as I swallowed my guts back down.
‘Alfa Romeo. Two of them,’ Kaspar groaned, flicking his head so his fringe flew out of his eyes.
‘That’s bad?’
‘That’s bad.’
‘How bad?’
‘Very bad. We can’t outrun them. I guess we could keep driving until they broke down though,’ he joked dryly. Just as he spoke there was an almighty roar from right behind us and glancing in the mirror I realized one of the cars was gaining, fast. He pressed down on the throttle and we shot forwards but the car behind only did the same, continuing to close the gap.