Rebels [Blood Magic, Book 4]

Chapter 4: Then We Were Four

As much as it would have improved our living situation, Keel and I decided we couldn't stay in my father's room. Arguments about comfort and sanity aside, it was still safer - given Ankor's newbie status topside - if we all continued to bunk together. That way if the sorcerers found us before Ephraim returned, we'd be able to put up a unified front. We'd still have this room as an escape. That would be enough, we somehow convinced ourselves.

And it was... for a time.

Things did become less tense, but I wasn't sure if that was because Keel had pulled himself together or because Ankor had slipped back into a role of complete submission and servitude. Not even arguing when Keel plucked the TV remote out of his hand and began flipping through the channels for something that interested him - usually a documentary or a news broadcast.

The more it happened, the less it seemed to be about Keel's interest in the TV or anything on it. He was doing it to punish Ankor. Totally juvenile. The motel room was turning us into children.

The one time I shot Ankor an apologetic look, he'd waved me off, saying, "I get it. It's fine. Could be much worse."

Apparently, he had the patience of a saint. Then again, he had the most to lose by getting on Keel's bad side. I often sat up while the vampires slept, wondering how long the three of us could keep wobbling along on this tightrope before we fell into the chasm.

And slowly, the tension returned. We came to exist in a state of constant unease. And soon the fragile peace began to fray, unable to hold fast against the tides of blood, hunger, grief, and paranoia. Every minute became a week, every day a year.

Keel took complete control of the TV, while Ankor made himself as small and unobtrusive as possible, and I combed through the pages of the bond magic book, adding ward after ward to this room and my father's old one below us. It was the only thing that made me feel like I was accomplishing something productive. And I did need to practice magic. Keel occasionally joined me. Sometimes he even got caught up in what we were doing, and things were good - almost like old times - for an hour or two. Then inevitably someone got hungry or he was reminded of Ankor's presence, and the sullen distance returned, only shoved aside when it was time to give the rest of us orders.

Keel determined when we ate, when he hunted, and when we'd discuss plans for the future - as it turned out, almost never. It was as if he was clinging to a buoy in the middle of the ocean and playing dictator was the only thing that was keeping him from drowning.

I tried to coax him back downstairs, but he always had an excuse, each more throwaway than the last. Even worse, his arms stopped finding me at night, and I wondered what happened to all that stuff he'd said about not losing me. Was it possible we were losing him? That soon consumed my every waking moment, making the whole of my world even smaller. But every time I tried to reach him, tried to push through the gloom that blanketed him like a funeral shroud, he shoved me away. Only allowing me close to drink, but even that had changed. Something in his blood had dulled, no longer leaving me sated and surging with power as it once had. The hunger pangs always returned too soon, joining the emotional ones that never left anymore.

If I closed my eyes, all I saw were the knots at each end of the tightrope coming loose from their bearings, and the three of us disappearing into darkness. Sometimes I thought it funny how we could survive so much just to be done in by a crappy motel room, but mostly I found it sad. So much for being the most powerful things in the world.

The days kept on drifting by like the leaves that fell from the trees and pooled in the parking lot, pushed to one side and then the other by the wind, but never raked up. It would snow soon, making it harder for Keel to cover his tracks. We didn't have any winter gear either. Nosferatu had a greater tolerance for cold, but I had no idea how much.