Page 131 of Dawn Caravan
Metal pipes.
Broken glass.
Twisted plastic, curled and cracked.
“What was the plan?” He stood and tossed the remains of the refrigerator across the clearing. “Where did you hide? You always have a plan.”
If she had hidden, why hadn’t she come back yet? He felt something wet on his face. He blinked hard and looked around.
The burned carcass of the trailer was torn apart, scattered across the clearing. The trailer chassis slumped to the side, broken and jutting from the ashes like metal bones.
Vampires don’t leave bones.
“Fuck!” Ben gripped his hair and screamed, “This isn’t funny anymore. Justtell me where you are!”
He didn’t think about Radu and his caravan. He didn’t think about the job. He didn’t think about the humans who must have burned her trailer.
All he wanted was Tenzin. All he wanted was for her to be alive.
If she was so pissed at him she never spoke to him again, he’d be fine, he just needed her to bealive.
Be alive!
Ben fell to his knees, staring at the empty field of ashes.
Nothing.
No sound.
No life.
The air curled around him and cooled the tears on his face.
It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. Was this how she’d felt? Was there an empty gaping hole in the center of her chest where his life had been?
She can’t be gone.
She can’t be gone.
She was Tenzin. The idea of her not existing didn’t even make sense. She always had a plan. Shecouldn’tbe gone.
Silence.
The wind lifted him and turned him around. He felt the currents reaching beneath his clothes and pressing against his skin like gentle hands comforting him.
But Ben didn’t want the wind; he wanted her.
His amnis was wild, whipping the air around him, churning the ashes on the grass. Confused and broken, the wind lifted him and turned him, raising him from the earth to the sky. It whispered to his amnis.
I am here.
I am here.
I am here.
You are alive and I am here.
The air stilled and the clouds scattered, revealing a blanket of stars.
