Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Day 7

 Here's Day 7 of my NaNoWriMo novel. Again I'm disabling comments on these entries. Don't get me wrong, I love feedback and comments, in this case though they would only serve to distract me and cause me to second guess myself.  Finally, this novel is of course Copyright © 2012 Steven Lake & Engen Books. Word Count today: 1678


It had been a tough escape from the house, Evan had passed out and was a dead weight on Kenna’s shoulders as she made her way through the tree tops. She didn’t know where she was going originally, just that she had to get them away from the house and then find somewhere to let Evan rest up and heal. She knew that once Ryan turned and got used to his Vampire abilities that he’d be able to follow her trail and that’s when she decided to double back and find another way to go. By the time she got back to the house, everyone had gone from the grounds and the place was quiet again.

Kenna knew that she couldn’t continue to use the old house as a base of operations, it would be too obvious and too easy to find her again there. With Evan hurt, she’d be even more vulnerable during the day. She had to find somewhere else to go and hold up. She was trying to decide on the best course of action when she spotted Ryan’s car across the street.

“That’s perfect” she thought “I can take his car and get us some place safe. They’ve forgotten all about it for the time being and they’re sure to be looking elsewhere for us first. They’d never think that we’d get away in such a mundane manner.”

Sure, Kenna knew they’d trace the car eventually and that wherever it was found would be where Ryan and his partner would start looking for her. She had no plans of making it that easy however, and as soon as she found a new hideout, she’d ditch the car in some other remote location and make her way back by other means.

She finally decided on the last place that she had wanted to go. Back to where to had all started for her just over a year ago. On the west side of town, hidden among row houses and bungalows, was a block of brownstone houses Kenna had sworn never to return to. In one of these she had been made a Vampire. In one of these she had killed her sire. Now, as much as she loathed the place, she needed the security that it offered her in daylight and comfort it offered Evan as a place to recuperate.

The doors and windows had iron shutters on the inside that both blocked out the light and locked the house up as tight as any prison. Here they'd be safe, here the world could be locked out, here no prying eyes could see, here Evan could rest and here, Kenna was fighting not to be overwhelmed by terror. It wasn’t the memories of her maker, he was cruel and soulless, but what Vampire isn’t?

For all the new laws and ways that they were trying to fit back into society, Vampires were evil parasites who fed on the blood of humanity to survive. She wasn’t afraid when she pushed Zachariah into the fireplace in this very room, she wasn’t going to let the memory of him scare her now. No, what chilled Kenna to the core was the room hidden underneath the basement. The one with the circle etched into the floor around the ornamental mirror. She knew the way, but so far she hadn’t gone down there and had no intentions of going near it.

Zachariah had activated it just once that she’d seen, but that was enough. The circle glowed with power as the protective enchantments fought to keep the forces coming from the mirror at bay. A portal to another part of the universe had opened and had attracted the attention of ‘something’ on the other side. Kenna had found herself staring into nothing, a blackness that was empty but still made her skin crawl. It was as if what she was looking at was made up of nothing and was trying to draw her and everything else into it so that nothing would be everything that was left.

Kenna shook her head, pushing away the memories, and started at into the flames once more. The fire was warm, deadly if she got too close, but warm enough to take the chill from her bones and make her feel almost alive again, if only for a few minutes. Behind her, Evan moaned and Kenna looked his way. Maybe he was waking up... no he was still out cold. He was probably having bad dreams on top of whatever pain he was feeling as his bones and tissues knitted back together.

“It’s alright Evan, you sleep and get well. We’ll be alright here for a while. I ditched Ryan’s car down in the harbour and that’s miles in the wrong direction from here.” Kenna went to the his bedside and retrieved a cold washcloth from the basin on the night table. She’d been trying to keep him cool by placing it on his forehead, and she’d been talking to him while he slept. She hoped he could hear her and that her voice was a comfort and she also needed to hear a voice talking, even if it was just her own.

“We can stay here as long as is needed, Zachariah kept the fridge stocked with enough blood to last me a year or more, so I don’t need to risk hunting and giving our location away.” Kenna wrung out the washcloth and placed it back on Evan’s forehead. “and there’s enough food in storage that you can get your fill to eat as soon as you’re able and regain your strength. Once you’re better, we can start planning on what to do to take care of Ryan and his human friend Frank once and for all. We’ll show them they can’t nearly murder someone and get away with it. You’ll get the killing blow on Frank I promise and I’ll take back the wondrous gift I gave to Ryan. He hasn’t shown the proper appreciation for what I did for him, ungrateful little bastard. By the time we’re finished, they’ll be begging for us to release them into death!”

Kenna placed a hand on the top of Evan’s head and started off into the flames again, and as she got lost once more in their dance she said “They’ll pay for this, oh they’ll PAY!”

* * * * * *

“Shame about your car Ryan, they couldn’t salvage it for repair at all?” asked Frank as he sat down on one of the office couches.

“Nope, the salt water ruined almost everything. Even if it was fixable though I don’t think I’d want to. Knowing the amount of waste that goes into that harbour, I’d never be able to get the smell out of it, not completely.” said Ryan as he set the microwave.

“And no trace of Kenna or that Evan guy that we could use or follow either” mused Frank “They pulled one hell of a disappearing act.”

Ryan took his mug out of the microwave and walked over to the opposite couch. “We couldn’t get anything from the car and she could have gone anywhere from the harbour. I’ve spent the last month shaking down every low life we know and I’ve checked with every butcher in town, no on matching Kenna or Evan’s description has bought any blood from them.”

“Yeah and I checked all the feeding buildings, no one has seen a panther and they’ve all got notices to call us if they do.” said Frank as he reached for a bottle of Scotch and a tumbler from the sideboard. “Don’t worry Ryan, they’ll slip up, and when they do we’ll get them.”

“I know partner I know, I’m trying to be patient but the longer we’re forced to wait, the longer he has to heal. Even from your silver ammo he has to be almost back to a hundred percent by now.” Ryan downed the contents of his mug in one gulp and slammed it on the table so hard that the mug shattered into pieces and cracked the table.

“Sorry Frank, I still forget sometimes that I’m not quite human anymore.” said Ryan looking at the mess.

“No worries Ryan, the table can be fixed and we’ve got more mugs. You’re getting a little stir crazy and truth be told, so am I. If it wasn’t for the shooting range I’d be breaking mugs too. You need to find a way to let off some steam.” Frank reasoned looking at Ryan. He was a little pale, even for a Vampire and he was giving off waves of nervous energy that you could almost see.

“Maybe you could practice tree hopping, or rooftop hopping and just let yourself go to the feeling of freedom?” suggested Frank

“I tried that” replied Ryan “The police asked me to stop. They were getting too many calls about people jumping off buildings. They thought they had a rash of potential suicides on their hands until I heard it on the scanner one night and turned myself in.”

Frank smirked and tried to stop but couldn’t hold back his laughter. “I’m sorry Ryan,” he said as tears started running down his cheeks. “I heard that report too, I had no idea it was you.” He laughed some more and just set down his glass before spilling it.

“Man, you had them running in circles all over town. I know I shouldn’t laugh but I can just picture you going into headquarters and sheepishly explaining what was going on.” Frank grabbed his sides and gave himself over to a full on belly laugh.

“Yuck it up Frank, the desk Sargent wasn’t the least bit amused. They wanted to ticket me but there’s nothing on the books to call what I was doing a crime.... Oh SHUT UP!” Yelled Ryan as a smile started to form on his lips. It was no good, looking at Frank laughing at the situation caused Ryan to give over to a giggle fit as well.