Hey Mr Bloodsucker, Sucks To Be You

Chapter 21

Mai ~*~

Cappie. Even if his skin was freezing cold, nothing like as warm as it had been when he'd been Human, it was reassuring to have him with me again.

Joanna had ordered a couple of cars to take the beaten-up remainder of her Clan back to their safe-ground, including me and Cappa. At first I'd turned down her offer, but she grew more and more insistent until I'd eventually given in, and she'd left me alone after that.

He was lying with his head in my lap, stretched out across the entire back seats. He was topless, but his shirt had been so torn it was more like a scrap of fabric than a shirt anyway, and it had been soaked in blood. I watched as the ground rushed by from the tinted windows, ignoring the looks the Spanish interrogator was shooting me from the wing-mirror, and smoothed Cappie's matted hair back from his face.

He was dead to the world.

"Mai." There was a long pause. "There's blood in the cooler in the footwell."

The passenger was watching me for my reaction. What the hell was with their fascination with us?

"Thank you." I said coldly, and made no move to get any.

How was I supposed to know they hadn't poisened it?

The Spanish man, who had told me his name was Robert, let out a small sigh and turned his attention back to driving. His passenger, and fair-haired guy with sharp blue eyes, had introduced himself as Christopher Pole, and had been shooting me amused glances for the last ten miles.  Cappie stirred his head in my lap, squinted, and opened his eyes.

"Mai." He muttered, rolling his eyes back shut. "It's good to see you."

I beamed and  bent down to kiss his lips, ignoring the people in the front. He tasted metallic, like blood, but it felt so good to kiss him again.

"It's good to see you too."

He turned his face to the roof of the car.

"Where are we?"

"In one of their leader's cars. Their taking us to a safe-ground."

"Huh." He slid his gaze to the driver. "Can we trust them?" He dropped his voice to a whisper.

I shared a look with him. A look was all it took for him to understand.

"Mmm." He mumbled. "Interesting."

He was totally out of it. I wasn't sure if Joanna had given him any drugs to ease the pain or if he was just confused from his days down in the basement, but either way he was acting far different from normal. I felt my stomach clench. I hope it's not permanent.

"Mai." He mumbled, calling my attention back. "You shouldn't have come to get me. You could've died."

"But I didn't." I said, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry, Cap. For everything they put you through. We tried to reach you, we did...."

"Shut up." He said through an exhausted smirk. "It's ok."

"You were hurt."

"It probably looked a lot worse than it was."

"Probably?"

"No reflection, Mai." He said through a quiet chuckle, reaching his hand up to take mine.

I grasped his injured and rapidly healing fingers, and put my other hand back over his forehead. Healing after such a long time being hurt must be painful, it was no wonder his body was in a hurry.

The journey after that took forever. Cappie managed to choke out snippets of conversation, exhaust himself and fall asleep again several more times before the Jeep swung into a wide carpark, shadowed by a huge white building that could only be Joanna's safe-ground.