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Chapter 31 - The rescue plan

"What the fuck just happened?" Eleonora asked, her mouth open and eyes wide. She was sitting in her seat, looking and blinking at the spot where Trevor had been just a moment ago, and yet he wasn't there any more and the door hung open, making her disbelieve her eyes. Her confusion couldn't be more intimidating.

Meanwhile, Jackson slammed down the brake so hard that grey smoke came from under the tyres and a squeal of skidding was audible. The impact shot everybody forward, and Eleonora had to neutralise it by grabbing the front seat two-handed, while William did the same but with the dashboard.

When the car stopped for good, William rushed out of it as if his life depended on it. Eleonora got out after him, and tried to catch up with him but couldn't. He seemed to be in some kind of trance.

Her calls, "William, wait! Slow down! I can't walk that fast, dammit!" didn't help either. He was simply ignoring her.

William soon jogged down the same hill Trevor had, and managed not to stumble or trip. His expression took on new sharp features. He was flinging ahead with both his fists and teeth clenched, the snow crunching under the soles of his shoes and sticking to them. He couldn't believe Trevor had done something like this. How could he? After all they'd—he'd done for him? They had cared for him and looked after him. Maybe it was because he hadn't recently shown him enough of his love? However, he couldn't, no matter how much he wanted. Escaping from the vampires wasn't an easy job, and so it was causing him a lot of stress. Furthermore, in his opinion, it wasn't the right time for kisses and cuddles when the vampires wanted to kill them. There would be time for all this eventually, but not now.

For a moment he stopped. He squinted at the footprints in the snow, one footprint a few inches after the other, usually longer, as if dragged. They must have been Trevor's. He then sniffed the air to see if he could smell the brunet, and fortunately, he could—the distinct scent he'd grown to associate with him after the ritual. So finding him shouldn't be a problem. Rather, the problem was that Trevor wanted to escape in the first place. They weren't his oppressors; just the opposite, they wanted the best for him. William thought he had sacrificed his previous life to be with him, and yet he'd still escaped. He couldn't believe that, and it brought a new wave of fury.

"Trevor!" he shouted into the silent forest, but got no answer.

Only then did he shoot ahead in a sprint. The world seemed to be in slow-motion around him.

But dozens of steps later, one set of footsteps ended and a new one appeared. He stood there, looking at them as he unravelled the cause of this phenomenon. Soon it hit him that one set was definitely Trevor's until it stopped. And after taking some more steps, he saw tyre marks in the snow. Given their size and shape, they couldn't belong to any other vehicle than a van, and he knew it.

So it had to have been the vampires' van. They had Trevor, and their ambush had been closer than anyone could have expected. They had this all planned out. Or had it been just luck? William didn't care—the brunet wasn't there anyway, and he didn't know what to do now.

He didn't move, didn't blink, didn't breathe, didn't think, because he couldn't do any of these things. Something began to rise in his throat—trepidation, anger, bile, or despair. These emotions were boiling and mixing inside him. He felt as if an enormous hand from the sky was pressing him to the ground, and his body had to tense up to fight such force. Finally wrath took over.

He had to let those emotions out somehow, or else he would explode. And there was a tree nearby, probably only its closeness had attracted him to it. The tree appeared still young as it was rather slim. So he clenched a fist, swung his arm, and punched the tree on the level of his chest, thus making a hole in it. While his hand was still stuck inside the trunk, the snow fell down from its branches and a couple of branches did too; the tree had no leaves to lose though.