Zone Zero: Redemption (Book 2 of 3)

Chapter 22

Alex empties his sixth blood bag and tosses it to the floor of the car as I offer him another. He is so thirsty that I don't think he has had anything for days. How he managed to hold his own against Cail even though he is half starved is beyond me.

He finishes the blood and sets it on the floor with the others that he has already devoured and stretches himself out along the back seat of the car we decided to borrow. Giselle is driving and looking nervous as hell as I am sitting in the front seat facing the back of the car.

Alex brings his arms to his face and covers it with them to block out any light that may been seen. He is trying to let sleep come to him and I choose not to take it away from him.

He must be exhausted after all he has gone through over the past few weeks.

I turn in my seat and face Giselle. She has been driving us to a safe house that she knows about so that we can all rest before god knows what happens next.

I guess we are on the run now. Fugitives from the crown.

Cail is the vampire King and will send many vampires to kill us so we must all go into hiding to keep from dying.

We have been driving for hours but Giselle says that it is still a long way away. I guess we need to put as much distance between us and Castle Corvinus as possible.

After a few more minutes of silence, a light snore drifts from the back seat and I know that Alex has finally fallen asleep. To say his snoring is a welcomed sound is an under exaggeration right now. Im just glad that he can finally rest free from torment and pain.

I take a peek at him and notice that his healing has kicked in and his wounds from the fight with Cail have almost completely faded. The greatest perk of being a vampire.

I pull my knees to my chest and look again at Giselle. She seems so worried and scared. Like she doesn't know what she is doing or what to do next.

I put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder and she sends me a small smile in appreciation.

"Thank you, Giselle. For everything."

She smiles again and catches my gaze for a moment.

"Don't worry about it. I just didn't want to see you hurt. You don't deserve any of what you went through because of Cail."

I close my eyes at the thought of what I was put through in my time at Cail's castle but find myself pushing the memories away. I don't want to think about being forced to fight and kill my own brother, or being killed myself and turned into a vampire. Or even having my memory erased and becoming Cail's personal pet.

A thousand showers will never wipe away the memory of Cail's touch on my skin and how I had to force myself into believing I wanted it.

My mind wonders again to Keavy for the hundredth time since I last saw her. I want to understand what I witnessed but I can't wrap my head around it. I guess i just don't know enough about her to even begin to comprehend. But the  again, maybe Giselle can help.

"Why did she do it?" I whisper softly.

"Hmm."

"Keavy. Why would she kill herself like that?"

Giselle takes in my words and lets them sink in fully before answering me. She definitely wants to word herself in the best possible way.

"I think she sacrificed herself to save Alex. She knew that Cail was eventually going to kill Alex and that he was being starved so I guess she wanted to help somehow. Maybe she even felt guilty for being the one to turn you guys in."

"Did Cail gloat to everyone that he was starving Alex in the dungeons?"

Giselle glances at me again in disbelief but then smiles slightly.

"You wouldn't know this because Cail had you under lock and key at the time but Keavy would visit Alex for hours on end every day. It infuriated Cail but she did it anyway. That was what Keavy was like. She did whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted to do it."

"But why would she visit him? She is the one that turned us in."

"Funny you should ask that. I asked her that very same question. She told me that no matter what, Alex is still her brother. Her twin. He saved her so she wanted to try and help him in any way possible. She thought that by turning you in, Cail would be kind and spare you. Even help you through the bond. She told me that what she saw of your bond," she pauses briefly and looks over to me once more. "Evie, that bond was so strong that it would have killed you in mere days. She thought she was saving you because she knew Cail would have you turned into a vampire. She knew nothing about Alex disobeying Cail's orders and releasing you. That I swear to you."

I look out into the darkness for a moment pondering my next thought.

"How do you know all this Giselle? She told you all of this because you asked?"

Giselles brows crease together as pain crosses her face.

"She was my friend. When Cail turned me, we became close. We would confide in each other about everything. She even told me about wanting to be alone before she told her brothers. She even kept in contact with me while she went off alone. She sent me a letter every week for years. And then one day, the letters stopped and I knew something had happened to her."

"That's when she was captured."

"Yeah. That's right."

"By my uncle." I add softly.

"Yes." She thinks hard about her next few words and then finally speaks them. "When I heard what Alex had done, I was happy for him. Shocked, but happy. He finally found someone to love. But when I heard who you were, I wanted to kill you myself just to send a message. Your Uncle has been at the head of so many killings of vampires. So many abductions. He keeps hundreds of them locked away like lab rats, injecting them with all different toxins. He almost caught me once. But I managed to escape luckily. That was before the world fell to shit though."

I gasp at her words. My uncle had been testing on vampires long before the fall of the zones. How did it go unnoticed for so long?

I shake my head at the thought and am glad that I left him to die. At least he won't be responsible for any more vampire deaths.

"I'm so sorry Giselle." I whisper, hugging my knees tighter into me.

She looks at me shocked to hear the words come out of my mouth.

"You have nothing to be sorry about. I should be sorry for wanting to kill you without knowing you. Just because you are related to that piece of scum doesn't mean you should be condemned to die."

I giggle at her calling Uncle James scum. I would have used a much more perverse word than that.