No Life Kid 18

The doorknob was already half-bent the second he got his hand around it, indents already noticeable in the metal, when the hand clamped down hard on his shoulder.

Fingers dug into the leather of his coat, and instinct answered for him.

Zander whirled, the motion as violent as his thoughts as the world smeared into a streak of safe hotel beige. Fangs dropped free with a wet noise, tearing through his upper gums the same instant a hiss ripped free from his throat.

It was an ugly sound that didn’t belong anywhere near human vocal cords.

And clearly not human ears either, as Bella gasped across the room. The girl scrambled backwards, nearly forgetting she had a chair at her back till it almost tipped over against the wall with a thud.

Zander froze, blinking as his glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose, blue haze of his blood-lust receding just enough for him to focus on who had dared touch him.

It wasn’t Edward. It definitely wasn’t Jasper.

“Alexis…”

The drudge stood her ground, hand still on his shoulder, green eyes both flat and steady as she refused to even flinch. “Master…”

“What, Lex?” Fangs hanging low forced a sibilant whistle from him on the ‘x’ sound, Zander’s eyes twitching as he practically vibrated with the need to move. He had miles to burn still in front of him and a pale throat to tear open.

She didn’t answer with words as she simply held out her hand. Zander blinked down to see a slim green Motorola flip phone in her palm. And, right next to it, was a tiny square of simple white plastic. A SIM card? 

A second blink had Zander realize it was his SIM card, salvaged from the wreckage of his own phone currently scattered in several pieces across the carpet. The anger burning in his veins stuttered, brain clear enough for just a second for him to put two and two together.  Knew there’s a reason I kept her around.

“Oh…” Zander breathed out, snarl dropping away as he found himself searching for exactly what to say. “Uh… thank you.”

Elegant…

Shaking his head, Zander snatched both phone and card both from her palm. Without wasting a beat, he popped the plastic back off with his thumbnail, removing what was already there and sliding his SIM right into the now-empty slot. Clicking the battery and back into place, Zander shoved the phone into the pocket of his coat.

When his hand came back out, a matte-black debit card came with it. Alexis blinked as her white SIM and Zander’s card sat in her palm in exchange. “Buy another phone and drive back up to Forks soon as you can.”

“I understand, Master, but—”

“Or stay with the Cullens and come when they do, your choice.” He almost let out another hiss, anger bleeding in as he felt the shift. Zander bit down a shudder, fangs pressing into his bottom lip as all that rage mixed into something toxic. 

“I have to go.”

“But Master—!”

Zander was already down the hall by the time her words hit his ears, every inch of him a blur as several gray stairwells vanished and the emergency exit door burst him out into the blaze of the late-afternoon Arizona sun.

One gloved hand pressed down on his hat, every inch of him either under shade or hidden beneath cloth and leather. For a second, he took in a breath.

Concrete spiderwebbed, legs bent as all the force in his body focused down past the soles of his boots. A split-second later, he was gone.

Launched forward, his body moved in an explosion of force as the world stretched out and he moved past the limit of human perception. His coat snapped behind him, a blue sail caught in a violent hurricane of his own making.

Late afternoon baked the desert, heat radiating in waves that cooked asphalt to the point it looked like water. No matter what, Zander didn’t feel it.

…correction, he didn’t let himself feel it.

Interstate traffic was nothing, cars blurry little boxes parked on a gray ribbon as he ran along the shoulder.

Then off it.

He tore through the desert scrub, nothing but wasteland around him as he left double digits behind long ago in the parking lot and shot right past one-fifty the second he found the interstate. Zander wasn’t sure how fast he was going now, but it was enough to know the topsoil wasn’t a big fan of what his boots were doing to it with every stride.

Afternoon turned to evening as red rock and dead brush gave way to pine and then massive looming mountains. There was no going around and no point in trying. Zander leapt, his feet carrying him across gaping ravines, and his hands digging deep into sheer rock.

Gravity gave way to sheer force as he launched himself higher and higher.

The phone buzzed in his pocket, long and steady. 

Someone calling him over and over as he climbed and ran and climbed and ran.

It could have been anyone; Walter. Alexis. Edward, even.

Zander ignored it, not even looking down evening gave way to night as the temperature dove and the air grew colder. Wetter, too; the dry heat of the desert south gave way to the damp mist of the Pacific Northwest with all its pine needles, wet earth and rotting trees.

The phone kept buzzing still.

Every second wasted answering a phone was another second Jessica spent in the hands of a guy who had hunted for three hundred years. I’m gonna rip his arms off. Beat him to death with them.

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

Hours.

It took hours, the sun long past the horizon as the sky stood out in absolute black, before he got to where he needed to. Hours, and he still had hours till midnight.

Kai rushed up to the outskirts of Forks, his clothes soaked to the lining with rain and his boots caked to the top in mud. The town of three thousand slept peacefully, heavy cloud cover finally fading as the rain that had beat him over the head on the upper stretch of his run nowhere to be seen on the dry ground.

Slowing his pace, Zander let his senses flare out, nostrils sifting through the damp air as he pushed the net out as far as it would and could go.

Blue eyes widened — James — as he found the trail almost instantly.

Dusty leather, animal musk and blood so old it was ancient. A messy trail laid out, all from the unwashed scent of a nomad who wasn’t bothering to even try and hide.

He wants me to find him.

Zander followed the scent through the dark streets of the sleepy town, ghosting past businesses closed for the day and stalking through the yards of silent houses. The trail kept him moving and moving, until Zander realized he was a good bit out of the town itself; the abandoned logging district right in front of him just rusting away. 

One of the old mills rose from the darkness; three stories of splintered wood too exposed to the elements to bother staying in one piece up against oxidizing heavy machinery that hadn’t moved in at least six presidencies. 

James’s scent was strongest here, layered thick like a blanket. He’d been pacing around, moving from place to place, and the smell stunk as if he’d made it home. 

Three levels of rotted floorboards and old factory equipment for cover. Sightlines out the ass, and every single wall having at least two exits. He’s smart…

Zander pulled in another breath, sifting the air again. Dust. Rust. Oil and… vampire.

He frowned and sifted harder, eyes closed. Nothing.

No sugary spike of citrus and vanilla and sugar, no frantic flutter of a human heart. No, he smelled James. He smelled everything there was to smell around here, even down to the animal droppings.

But what he didn’t smell was Jessica.

Zander stood absolutely still, running the sensory check again.

No trace of her scent and definitely no indication she had ever been within a mile of this building. Just James, waiting alone in the damp shadows.

Oh. Zander let out a quiet breath as the word echoed in his head, head suddenly empty of anything else but relief as his shoulders dropped just a bit. He didn’t take her.

He’d probably never even come close to it, even. Jessica was probably safe at home, or at a friend’s house… yeah. She was probably sitting on her bed and angrily texting him a fifteenth time or something.

“Dickhead…”

The murmur slipped free aimed at the unseen tracker as Zander stepped out from the treeline, leaving stealth behind as he walked straight up to the main door of the mill. Without even a grunt, Zander raised his boot and kicked the door open.

Hinges screamed in protest, heavy wood splintering as the door banged loud against the interior wall. He walked into the mill, eyes tracking the maze of dead machines and timber pillars halfway to rotting. Shafts of pale moonbeams filtered through jagged skylights, pools of silver light settling on the ground.

The blond bastard waited in the center of it all, still in his scarecrow clothes.

Perched on top of a massive and long-dead conveyor belt, he had all the high ground he could want; sightlines to the front door, the back loading bay and the catwalks up high.

“Finally.”

The nomadic vampire’s voice drifted down, the sound a low American drawl that felt half-western and half-nowhere all at the same time. “I was beginning to wonder if you were just running in circles out there.”

“Let me guess…” Zander stood under the moonlight as he tipped his head up to look the blonde vampire in the eye. Hands in his pockets, it took all his effort not to let them twitch towards what was kept safe on the inside. “You never actually took her.”

“Very good,” James’ praise came thin, the amusement in his voice like he was already stalking the answer. The nomad started to pace, perfectly balanced on the edge of the platform as he stared down at Zander with his usual careful predator patience. “Your little pet is at a friend’s house. A delicious looking thing with glasses. Smells much better than your thing. I watched them through the window for a while. Very suburban, very domestic.”

Zander tilted his head, not bothering to react to the bait hook sent flying his way. 

“Your attachment to that human girl made this almost too easy.” James smirk widened just a little. “I’ve gone after vampires for centuries, same as humans. Never one stupid enough to feel genuine emotion for prey, though. But here’s what I don’t understand…” 

James stopped his pacing, tutting his tongue as he looked down at James. “I’ve seen you, the way you move. Your strength, your speed, no different than any of our kind. But you smell… wrong.”

“It’s this new cologne.” Zander smirked back. “I’ve been getting that all the time.”

“You smell like moving blood.” James didn’t even adress the joke. “Like a beating heart. As if you’re still somehow alive in there.”

“Is there a rest stop between here and the fuckin’ point?” 

“You fascinate me.” James hissed the word, red eyes unblinkiing. I’ve never encountered anything like you before. A vampire who eats human food. Walking among mortals without the constant hunger. And forming attachments with the prey.”

He leaned forward slightly, resting his hands on his knees. “I simply had to understand what you were before I killed you.”

Zander stared up at the man who had dragged him across states on a wild goose chase, the very same sparkler that had threatened the one piece of normalcy Zander had managed to claw out of this second life.

A slow, wide grin spread across Zander’s face, teeth too big for his mouth as they sharpened all at once. “Oh wow,… see, now I’m a little confused.”

James’s brow furrowed slightly. “And why’s that?”

Zander pulled his hands out of his coat pockets. He let the coat fall open, revealing the heavy silver cross resting against his black shirt.

“Cause I’m not sure if you’re trying to fight me,” Zander drawled, voice dripping with venom and boredom in equal measure, “or fuck me.”

James’s smirk returned, confusion sliding off his face like it was never there.

He lunged forward.