Page 49 of The Vampire Always Rises
“I should let you off your leash and send you to follow them, but I don’t want you getting lost again,” I told the dog in between pants. “You’ll just have to ... whew, I need to take up jogging or something. You’ll just have to put up with slow me.”
Ellis disappeared around a large parked bus into the parking lot, and I set up a little chant of “don’t get away, don’t get away” before I dashed around the bus into the lot.
In front of me, a black car squealed to a halt. I didn’t have to see who was behind the tinted windows before the door opened. I knew full well it was Carlo, and that he’d just set up the most obvious trap in the world—and I’d fallen for it. I turned quickly, whipping out my phone to call Merrick, but the text message screen was still open.
“Get the phone,” a voice snarled from the car at the same time that Ellis warbled, “Run, Tempest, run!”
“Too late—ow! Stop pulling my hair. Hey, don’t delete my text message! And don’t you dare leave Kelso behind! He has abandonment issues!”
The man behind me—to my surprise, not Giovanni—was short and dark, but built like a bull. My struggles to get free meant nothing to him, not even when I tried some backward kicks to his shin. Kelso leaped around, barking wildly, evidently unsure of whether we were playing, but even that didn’t bother the man. He just tightened his grip on my hair until tears stunned my eyes, and dragged me backward into the car, where he threw me onto the floor of the backseat.
“No!” I screamed, and pushed myself up off the floor, only to be slammed down again by a heavy weight. One that panted and licked my ear.
“Kelso, get off of me—hey!” I struggled to my knees, and managed to get myself and Kelso onto the seat next to an indignant Ellis.
“How dare you!” he said, trying to open the car door. “Unlock this at once! We are American citizens, and—”
“Shut up,” Carlo said, pointing a very real gun at Ellis, who gasped and blanched.
Giovanni, I was unhappy to note, was behind the wheel of the car, his emotionless eyes moving from Carlo to the rearview mirror, and back to Carlo, his gaze never resting very long on any one thing.
“Look, I imagine you think something is happening that hasn’t actually happened,” I said when Carlo dismissed the third man, and got into the car. “But I can assure you that my friend here has nothing to do with Merrick.”
“So you admit you are working with him.” Carlo’s voice was silky smooth. It gave me the shivers, and not the good kind.
“Not at all. What you saw on the video screens was Merrick kidnapping me. I didn’t know who he was before that. Well, that’s not strictly true,” I said, my conscience prompting me into full disclosure. I blamed my time in the cult for my inability to lie. “But it’s the first time I met him.”
Carlo’s eyes narrowed until they were little slits of anger. “You came to my house under the guise of my cousin’s daughter, when all along you were trying to infiltrate my home for the Dark One?” His voice was as flat as Giovanni’s eyes. “I see the truth now. You are to be congratulated on your deception. You are quite the actress.”
“I’m not!” I objected. Ellis made a wordless noise of protest, and gripped my arm. “I’m a horrible actress. Just ask anyone! I didn’t know you were Victor until Merrick told me after he kidnapped me.”
“Victor,” Carlo said slowly, allowing the syllables to roll over his tongue. “Is that what the Dark One thinks? How very interesting.”
“You’re not him? Er ... Victor?” I shook my head. “Now I’m lost. If you’re not the big bad guy, then why did you kidnap us? Why did you show up at Merrick’s hotel? Why did you leave your house in such a hurry with pictures of Merrick and me plastered all over your video screens?”
Carlo turned around to face front, clearly done with the conversation.
“Where are you taking us?” Ellis asked, his voice a bit higher than normal. “We’re Americans! You can’t just abduct us like this.”
There was no answer from the front seat. I exchanged glances with Ellis, and tried my door, but it was locked.
Kelso curled up between us, his head resting on my lap.
I slumped back, wondering what plans Carlo had, and how we could escape.
We stopped about an hour later. Ellis was asleep next to me, slumped sideways, snoring, his face mashed against the window, where he was drooling slightly. Kelso was also sound asleep, although his ears and feet twitched as if he was chasing something in his dreams.
Only I was awake when we slowed down and pulled into a gas station. We were still in France, or so I assumed because we hadn’t passed over a border. I’d given up trying to get Carlo to talk to me, and instead made and discarded any number of escape plans.
I could knock down whoever opened the car door, and run away ... except that would leave Kelso and Ellis behind.
I could wake up Ellis, whisper the plan, and have a firm grip on Kelso’s leash when the car door was open, then burst out of it, knocking down whoever was there, and then fleeing. But still ... high heels and running did not equal good fleeing skills.
Could I go barefoot?
I looked at the gritty asphalt, and discarded that idea.
What if I hit Giovanni on the head with something while he was driving, and escaped that way?
