Chapter 33 Her Game
Her Game
Liam’s POV
“What happened? Why did you stop?” I asked the driver.
The driver looked at us in the mirror. He has stopped pretending to be something he is not. “This is my final destination.”
I tried to use my scent on him but it wasn’t working.
“I know what you’re trying to do, it won’t work on me… That place you want to go has all the people you are running away from.” He said and laughed out loud.
“Liam, what’s going on?” Dylan asked, curling his hands around me.
The driver opened the door and got out of the cab in the middle of an empty road and walked away into the dark at the edge of the street without looking back.
“What are we going to do? I suggest we go back to my apartment.” Dylan said.
“You don’t have to panic, we will get to your apartment.” I caressed his face.
“But how? We are in the middle of God-knows-where.”
I got out of the cab first and scanned the road in both directions, the abandoned buildings around and the dark spaces between them. Dylan came out behind me and stood at my shoulder and we both stood there.
“What are you thinking?” Dylan asked.
“I’m looking for a way to get us out of here. This is a road where vampires used to draw humans in the past.” I said.
“How do they do that? I know that vampires exist but in this modern world, how many of them would be waiting for human blood?” Dylan asked.
Immediately, we heard low growls from a distance. Dylan held me tighter.
“We need to get out of here.” I said. “But I need to cover your scent. These people had the intention of exposing you to danger. I wouldn’t let them create more problems for you.”
I got him off the road and against the wall of the nearest building and read the air around us and made sure nothing followed us from the cab. I went back to the road and released my powers, enough that my scent would cover that of Dylan’s. It was a risk to me because I might end up inviting a toxic vampire to myself but if I had to do this to protect Dylan, I must do it.
When I was done, I went back to him and carried him above my shoulder.
“Liam, what are you doing?” He asked while tapping my back slightly.
I opened my speed even though I was exhausted. It was just darkness, cold and the city blurring past us both sides and Dylan’s arms locked around my neck tightly. Within three minutes, we got to his apartment.
I put him down at the entrance and we both caught our breath. My legs nearly gave out as it felt the amount of energy I used, but I didn’t make it obvious that something was wrong with me because I didn’t want Dylan to be worried.
Then I noticed that his door was obviously open, but the handle was at an angle that was slightly off from how it used to be. Did a thief break in or something?
Dylan reached for the door.
“Wait, someone is inside your apartment” I stepped in front of him and pressed my awareness outward through the door and inside the apartment beyond it.
“I can smell human, the scent is familiar.” I said while trying to put my head around who it is. I let out a slow breath.
“It’s Vivian,” I said.
Dylan’s expression moved through several things quickly like surprise and shock. I pushed the door open.
She was on the couch in the position of someone who had been there long enough to get fully comfortable, legs curled under her, the television running a film she was clearly only half watching, a blanket pulled from somewhere across her lap. She looked up when we came in with the mild surprise of someone who had been expecting this eventually.
“Finally,” she said.
Dylan stood in the doorway. “What are you doing here?”
She sat up slightly and unwrapped herself from the blanket. “I called you about fifteen times but you didn’t pick up.” She looked between us in disgust. “I got bored of waiting for you to return my calls. I still have the key from when you gave it to me.” She looked at Dylan directly. “You never asked for it back.”
Dylan walked inside, I followed and closed the door. I stood near the kitchen entrance while he sat in the chair across from her and ran his hand through his hair and looked at the ceiling briefly the way he did when he was deciding how much of a thing to address and how much to let pass.
“Where have you guys been?” She asked with a terrible gaze.
“Partying, should we have invited you?” I asked and smiled.
“Since everybody is back, including those that I want to get lost.” She said while looking directly at me and cleared her throat.
“Let’s play a game… At least we will see who knows who best.“ she said.