Page 44 of Until Forever Comes
I didn’t know why. I was on Ralph’s side on this one; to my mind, Ted seemed a fair bit too infatuated withmymate. I would have said so and let him know he didn’t stand a chance, but my good buddy Ralph seemed to have things under control. That, and I reckoned he’d kill me if I so much as opened my mouth and reminded him that I was still in the room.
Ralph snorted. “Oh, please. Why would I be jealous?”
There were lots of reasons, actually, but it didn’t seem the time or place to get into them. Besides, trying to explain something to Ralph was as useless as tits on a bull.
“I don’t know, and you know what? I don’t care. At this point I’m just trying to keep you alive long enough to see another sunset. It’s too late for us to go anywhere, but I can probably talk Miguel into letting us stay in one of the rooms upstairs just for today. I know he said you couldn’t come back here, but maybe if I—”
“He’s gone!” Ralph shouted furiously. “Why aren’t you listening to me? I got rid of him, so it doesn’t matter what he said. We can stay here as long as we want. I can stay here as long as I want.”
All right, now I had to admit I was getting a tad nervous. Not much, mind you, because I was certain I’d be able to feel it in my soul if my mate was gone, so I knew Ralph was mistaken. Still, hearing that sunrise was so near and not seeing Miguel in the room, well, it was cause for some concern. All in all, I decided that a bit of worry was a good thing because it distracted me just enough to keep me from laughing at the vampire in front of me, who seemed to be doing an impression of a toddler throwing a fit.
“What exactly do you mean, you got rid of him? You can’t get rid of Miguel. He’s four centuries old, did you know that?”
Not having any idea about the age of other vampires, I didn’t realize Miguel’s age was unusual. It must have been at least a bit out of the ordinary, though, because for the first time since he walked into the room, something other than haughty confidence crossed over Ralph’s face.
True to form, the vampire shook off any indication of common sense right quick. “Well, as soon as the sun rises, those centuries are coming to a close.”
“And why is that?” Ted asked, his voice taking on a high-pitched quality. “What’d you do, Ralph?”
The vampire shrugged. “We all came down here to buy land, and your buddy thinks he can just sweep in and take it all out from under us. He had no right to do that. I decided he needed to be taught a lesson.”
“You—” Ted gulped. “You and your three friends together barely have enough money to buy a tiny plot of land and you decided to teach him a lesson?”
“Well, you have enough, and you were going to let me stay with you, right? But then he ruined it all, so we tied him up outside.” Ralph looked very pleased with himself. “See? I told you I got rid of him.”
“You tied him up and you think it’ll hold him?” Ted asked. “Don’t you remember how he got out of the chains you used last time? You think he was mad then? When he gets out of the restraints this time, he’ll—”
“He’s not getting out of them this time! We used twice as many chains.”
“We?”
“Yeah. Me and Pedro and Anthony and Andre. Your friend Hector is a pussy, but we didn’t need him anyway. Because after I heard Miguel bought up all that land, I called in reinforcements. They’re all watching him now. Eight vampires. He’s hanging out a window and the chains are long enough to reach inside where they can hold onto them. So you see? I have it all handled. He’s not getting out of it this time. Just as soon as the sun rises, Miguel Rodriguez will burn.”
It all sounded pretty ominous, and I’ll confess that my heart might have sped up just a hair, but I had seen my mate’s strength firsthand, and I had faith that he’d come back to me. Ted, on the other hand, looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Well, that was, if vampires could have heart attacks, which I was fairly sure they couldn’t.
“It’s going to be a bloodbath,” Ted said under his breath in horror. He glared at Ralph. “What building? Where are they?”
“Why do you want to know? You won’t get there in time to save him.”
“I’m not trying to save him!” Ted shouted. “He’s strong enough to save himself.” It was comforting to hear Ted speak aloud what I knew deep in my soul. “I’m trying to save your idiot friends from him. You weren’t turned long ago, so you don’t understand how rare it is for a vampire to survive as long as he has. It doesn’t happen by accident. Miguel is strong, even more so now than he’s been in all the years I’ve known him. This plan you’ve hatched is going to backfire and—”
“It’s too late anyway,” Ralph said. “The sun is rising.”
Almost as if on cue, footsteps and shouting rent the air. We all turned toward the door to see two vampires dragging themselves in. Their clothes were hanging in shreds and soaked in blood, their exposed skin was covered in abrasions, and their expressions showed pure, unadulterated terror. It was like something out of a ghost story we used to tell each other as kids. I had to turn my head from the sight before I emptied the contents of my stomach on the bed. That would have been worse than the dirty shoes.
“What’s going on?” Ralph shouted.
One of the vampires, whom I was fairly sure I recognized from the warehouse interactions, though it was hard to tell with his face coated in blood and dirt and scratches, opened his mouth to answer, but instead, blood gurgled out and he clutched his own throat and collapsed. Ted immediately dropped to his knees and pressed his hands onto the largest gashes, trying to curb the bleeding.
Ralph turned to the other vampire. “Pedro?” he squeaked out, his voice quivering.
“They’re gone,” Pedro said.
“Who?”
“All of them.” Pedro’s eyes were wide. “He was killing all of them.” He shook his head as if hoping to shove out the memory. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” He gulped. “He… he somehow climbed up the chains and into the window. They were around his throat, he should have choked, but he didn’t. He just kept screaming something about his mate; it didn’t make sense.” He dragged his trembling fingers through his hair. “And then he got in and we tried to run, but he was too fast and there was screaming, so much screaming, and blood.” He paused for a few moments and gasped for air. “He pulled their hearts out of their chests with his bare hands, tore their heads off. Anthony and I were closest to the door, so we were able to get away.”
He looked up at Ralph, his face anguished. “Why?” His voice broke on the word. “Why did we have to do that? He’d been letting us stay with him, teaching us things. Everything was fine until you started fighting with him. And Hector told you it was a bad idea! Hetoldyou. But you wouldn’t listen and now….” Pedro’s legs seemed to give out from under him, and he curled up on the floor, shaking and crying.
