Road Trip with Vampires: one star, would not recommend.

Sheer, absolute boredom

When she woke up, she was in a chair. Her handcuffs were gone, and she was in a different room.

Nix was sitting right next to her, drinking tea. Tethis blinked. Yes, she was drinking tea.

Something was wrong. Nix never drank tea.

On cue, she leaned forward and kissed Tethis on the cheek. 'Play along,' she whispered, before pulling back.

'What?'

But she had already settled back, stirring tea, visibly gagging as she forced it down.

Tethis blinked and took in the rest of the room. A lightbulb blinked at her from above. It was considerably less humid. She did a sweep of the room, starting from the left. 

There was Esther, sitting on the floor, holding a globe of lightning in her bare hands. Tethis blinked. Yes, that was lightning, all right. And the smell of burning hair. Esther dropped the globe, which vanished instantly, and plunged her hands into a nearby pitcher of orange juice.

That was enough to make Nix squeak and upend her cup of hot tea. A shiver ran up Tethis's spine. 

On the other side of the room, oblivious to the crimes committed against the pitcher of juice, Ilya typed furiously at a laptop. Noticing them watching, he made a sound like a balloon deflating and curled up on the ground, shoulders heaving, making disturbing sounds that seemed halfway between laughing and crying hysterically.

'Programming,' murmured Nix, spooning a dollop of blueberry jam into her remaining tea. 

'Aren't you, uh, playing along a bit too much?' hissed Tethis, motioning to the cup of blueberry jam-tea.

'No. I like this. Back off.' 

Tethis didn't know what to think at this point. 

A prickling on the back of her neck announced the arrival of the unnamed third vampire, who plunked a second cup of tea onto the table between Nix and Tethis. 

'Thanks, uh—'

A raspy voice spoke up. 'You can call me Zhenya.' 

Tethis jumped. The third vampire—Zhenya—nodded and headed for Ilya, offering him a hideous neon green sweater. He took it and resumed his sobbing.

'You don't need to lie down?'

Ilya sobbed harder.

'Understandable. Have a nice day.'

Zhenya went off to make more tea, leaving the rest of them behind.

Tethis looked from left to right. Esther's hands were stuck in the pitcher of juice, and she had resorted to freeing them with the help of her feet, which would take some time. Ilya was still having a mental breakdown from a malfunctioning code. The opportunity was too good to miss. If they ran fast enough—

'Don't even think about it,' hissed Nix. Tethis followed her gaze to the door, which was slightly ajar. There was no one behind it. Right?

She caught the glint of an eye in the darkness beyond and shivered. She had a feeling its owner was smiling very slightly, wanting to see how long it would be before they walked to their doom.

Nix lowered her voice and leaned closer. 'It's him  we have to watch out for. Zhenya. He's so far the most alert, and I'm getting army officer vibes.'

Tethis nodded cautiously. Nix kept her eye trained on Esther. 

'That one's a sorceress.'

'A sorceress?'