Page 4 of Wonder
What the hell was up with this guy? Hopefully there weren’t any more vampires in the woods to hear us, because I couldn’t stop my frown. “That was fucking disgusting.”
His smile vanished. “But effective. Mostly.” He made a face and let his hand fall to his side, revealing the hilt of a knife sticking out of his gut.
“Fuck!” I ran forward and dropped to my knees next to him. “What do you need? I have a first aid kit, but I don’t think....”
He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll heal eventually, but?—”
“Oh, right. Vampire.” I yanked off my overshirt and shoved my wrist in front of his face. When Shane had described the rogue vampires’ attack on the dryad grove in Marble Falls, he’d said Simon had needed to drink blood after expending energy fighting. It had to be the same when he was injured.
He pushed my arm away. “No. You’ll need your strength. Theluchd-òl folawill know Tormod is dead. One of them might come to find out what happened, and the remaining two will be packing up to leave.” His eyes lasered into mine. “If they get away, they’ll take one or more of the captives. You have to disable their van.” He jerked the knife out of his stomach with a grunt and dropped it at his side. “This has to end today.”
“Shit!” I wadded up my shirt and pressed down on the wound. Simon’s eyes had closed and he was even paler than before. His hair had fallen out of its bun and was spread over the grass in a halo around his head. Which was a fucking useless thing tonotice right now. “If I go deal with the van, who’ll fight off the vampire that’s coming?”
His eyes popped open. “I will. But I need to feed from Tormod’s body, if you would do me a favor and bring it over here.”
I looked over at the headless corpse and swallowed down the bile in my throat. “Um, any particular part you need to reach?”
He put his hand over mine on top of the shirt and smiled faintly. “Thigh or groin will have the most blood still.”
I couldn’t help but notice our magics resonating with each other like they were long-lost friends. I pulled my hand away. “Got it.”
I used the dead vampire’s mostly clean pants to drag him next to Simon. Then I picked up the knife, slick with Simon’s blood, and sliced away the fabric on the closest thigh and hip so he wouldn’t have to work to get to the skin. “Uh, do you need me to cut into him for you?”
His eyes crinkled as he smiled. “Kind of you to offer, but no, thanks. I’d appreciate it if you could hand me my mek’leth before you go.” He pointed and I saw the Klingon sword lying in the grass a few feet away. Right.
I went to get it, and when I brought it back to him, Simon had managed to sit up.
“What’s your name?”
“Oh!” I felt my face get hot, which was... weird. “Sorry, it’s Reno. Reno Torres. Um, Cal said he would text you to let you know I was coming.”
He shrugged. “Sorry. I had all my notifications turned off. I was only using my phone to track the van.” He smiled, which madehis face that much prettier, even with the blood spattered all over it. “I’m Simon, but you seem to know that already. Nice to meet you. Now, if you don’t mind, please go disable the van.”
Moving as quickly and stealthily as I could along the fence line of the property next door, I mulled over the biggest hurdle I was facing to disabling the van. I wasn’t a car guy. I didn’t spend my weekends cleaning carburetors or whatever it was Tucker was always doing that involved grease and rolling under the car. I preferred to spend my free time—at least when I had some—either kayaking in the bay or playing video games in air-conditioned comfort.
What I knew about disabling a vehicle was limited to what I’d learned from movies and TV shows. If I let the air out of the tires, the vampires could still drive away on the rims. I didn’t have any sugar to put in the gas tank, and I wasn’t sure where the distributor cap was, even if I could open the van’s hood without anyone noticing.
When I was even with the front of the house, I crouched down behind some of the neighbor’s shrubs and pulled out my phone to call Tucker.
“Hey, hang on.” I heard him speak to someone, then he came back on the line. “Everythin’ okay?”
I kept my voice as low as I could. Tucker’s shifter ears would hear me. “Not yet. Can you tell me how to disable a van? Silently, if possible. I don’t know if it’s locked.”
“Does it look old or new?”
I examined what I could see of it. “Old, I think.”
“If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to open the hood without needin’ the key.”
“You mean stick my fingers under the hood in front until I find the latch?”
“Exactly. Otherwise you’ll have to open the driver’s door and find the hood release button.”
That sounded time-consuming, and the van might be locked. Fuck. “Okay, say I get the hood open. What then?”
“Just open it far enough to stick your hand in there. Yank out any wires or hoses you can reach, and remove any caps or fuses you feel.”
Shit. “The van’s parked facing the house. I’m not sure I can get the hood open without them seeing or hearing.”
