The Night the Vampires Came

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Despite my paranoia — Patrice wasn't lying. As we arrived at the boardwalk, I immediately saw my dad's old dented car parked by an overturned garbage bin. Patrice waved at me as she came to a stop by the curb. I saw her put on a pair of violet sunglasses from her purse and then a pair of driving gloves.

"Sure, you want to go back to your friends?" Patrice asked. "With my clearance, I can make good time getting to the evacuation center."

Although that sounded tempting, I shook my head. I still didn't trust her. There was something about the way she smiled knowingly at me, as though she already knew the choice I would make, that made me uneasy.

"Thanks for the talk and for driving me here. I'm okay from here."

Patrice chuckled at me, her lipstick-stained teeth gleamed yellow as she did so. The glimmer reminded me of the last precious rays of sunlight slowly fading as the afternoon wore on. "Don't forget what I told you. Everyone here in Miami now is working for someone. Don't trust anyone, not even your friends."

I rolled my eyes and climbed out of her car. I slammed the van's old door behind me, and she sputtered away from the curb.

"Ailith!" Jack yelled when he caught sight of me. He ran over and caught me in a fierce hug. Holly followed not far behind. She was holding a bloody baseball bat in one hand. I noticed it was stained with black blood. At least my friends weren't out bashing people in the head for their Cheetos yet.

"You guys came across some trouble while I was gone?" I asked with a forced smile as I studied the two of them. Holly had rolled up her sleeves and was swinging the bat around as though she knew how to use it. Her brown hair was in a messy bun, and her unmade-up face was finally the same tanned color as the rest of her body.

"No, we scavenged that baseball bat from a body down on Martin Luther Blvd," Jack explained proudly as though this were a video game, and they were busy leveling up while I was gone. "I got my hands on a knife!"

"I found the knife," Holly interjected. "You Columbused it from me."

"Oh, screw you," Jack said. "It's called sharing. We should get going. It's going to be getting dark in about five hours."

"Y-yeah," I said and rubbed my cold elbows. I wished I had more than just a t-shirt on because even though the sun was still in the sky, I was already feeling the nighttime chill. I got into the car. "Mind if I ride in back this time? I hit my head pretty hard."

"Are you okay?" Holly asked. "Those science jerks by the beach told us they were taking you to see their medical team. We've been waiting here for you since then. I was worried they had kidnapped you to run their experiments on you."

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Holly approached me with a determined look in her eye. I expected her to come to punch me for being so reckless during that whole incident with Grace in her vampire form. Instead, Holly wrapped her arms around me and gave me the tightest hug I have ever had. It was as though she was trying to squeeze all the life out of me.

I immediately felt my cheeks grow red as the hug wore on. It was then that I was finally ashamed of myself for thinking the worst when my dad's car went missing. I breathed in deeply as I heard Holly close. Despite it all, she still smelled beautifully of cherries and Victoria's Secret hand lotion. I never liked the smell of either of those things until now as I stared into the nape of Holly's neck, at the black ends of her dyed hair. I liked it there, in her embrace. I felt as though I was seeing a side of Holly Xu few people ever got to see.