Alpha's Mate, Vampire's Slave

Episode 5

I could make a break for it. Maybe I should, but I don't. If it's true that these fantasy creatures can help Jack, then why would I run? Slowly, the shock of it fades. I saw the wolf--Alpa Ash--shift into a human. And it was horrifying, but very real. Made all the more real by the werewolf books I would sneak in between classes.

So I take a shaky breath and turn my aching head. Faith is still passed out in the backseat, her bruised face almost peaceful. A light snore trickles from her lips.

"Is she okay?" I ask. "She hasn't moved in a while."

"I used my sleep potion on her. I know I should've used it on you, but you seemed...hardier," Fenris says. I turn to look at him. His crystal eyes dance, lighting up a sweat-soaked face.

"Is that why you're asking me to push the car with you?" I can't shut up. Everything feels like a dream. "What about magic, if you're so fantastical?"

He snorts. "Gold is real. Do you use gold for everything?"

I open my mouth to argue, but I'm too tired and everything hurts. Hardy? No one has said anything like that about me. It's a weird compliment, especially since my family of girls were always praised for being dainty. Soft. Wife-material. We hardly have money, but we each get our own ball on our sixteenth birthday. A boy chosen for us by our father from a "good family."

I push the door open, rubbing the impressions of the rope in my wrists. It brings a strange flush of heat to my face, but it's quickly consumed by the pain in my throbbing head. I brush my fingers against the back of my head and feel the knot that's welled up there.

The morning sky is chill, and I feel the dew drops on the grass seeping through my sneakers. Close now, I can smell a foresty spiciness clinging to Fenris and his green tunic as he leans against the back of the car. I assess the car; it's a sixties' hunk of a machine that would make a teen boy drool. There was evidence of this from the inside, with the bucket seat and those stupid dice swinging from the rearview. It's boxy, black, and low. The hood is crumpled and waves gently in the morning breeze, like a sad, metal flag.

"How long is Faith going to be asleep?" I ask.

Fenris shrugs his strong shoulders. He exhales, a light whisp into the morning sky. I cross my aching arms over my chest, watching him. "This car doesn't move until you tell me."

"Three days."

"What? Why? Three days!" My heart squeezes with panic. Three days, alone, in this strange and scary new world. I don't know if I can do it.

"I was in a hurry. I didn't have hours to comb through the potion library. I think a 'thank you' is in order. Well, actually." He grunts, shoving his back against the car so hard I can hear the metal connect with his spine. It rolls about an inch forward. At least he'll probably be doing all the work. "Don't thank me yet. Can you push? Your fiance--"

"I'm aware." I brace myself against the back of the car. The chrome piping digs into my flesh. "You're not even going to look under the hood?"

"No need," he says. "We're almost there."

I don't argue with him. I don't have the energy. Everything hurts even more now that I'm in motion. My head pounds with every breath. Slowly, inch by inch, the car creeps forward in the grass. I don't see how we're 'almost there.' The cabin, with smoke trailing from its wide chimney, is at least a mile away. I point a trembling finger at the blooming smoke. With every heave of the car, I realize it looks more like a mansion than the simple cabin I first took it for. It's so tall it's at least several stories, easy, and still, I feel uneasy the closer we get to it.

"Is that where we're going?"

Fenris laughs. It doesn't sound musical or light. It sounds harsh. "No. The 'Pack House?'" He says it the way someone would say 'garbage heap.' It doesn't look like a garbage heap to me. "No. It's only a few feet ahead of us."

He has to be crazy. Nothing has changed. The distance is still rimmed with cool blue mountains, and the in the immediate foreground: grass. Just grass, only broken up by a few small purple flowers.

"What's your problem with each other?"

"What? Elves and werewolves?" He snorts. "Well, Alpha Ash is an asshole. But I suppose it's fair. His pack has been guarding the border between your realm and ours for centuries. Vampires, elves, dragonkin--"

"Dragonkin?"

He presses his mouth into a tight line, the tendons on his neck bulging. Bright red streaks burst across his pale cheeks.

"When us, I don't know what you humans would call us, fantastic beings? Freaks? When we enter your world, it causes a lot of..." He takes a big breath, and I press hard against the back of the car. It budges one more inch. I touch the cut on my brow from the light Fenris swung at me. It starts to bleed. "I don't want to use any big words---uh, let's say, when we enter your realm, it causes a lot of problems for you human types."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, was that rude?"

I stare at him. His mouth cuts into a mean smirk. "Can we carry on?"

I don't want to bicker; we're on a mission. We don't have time for this. I need my Jack. I need Faith to wake up. My heart twists when I think of their faces. I want us all to go home; I want to pretend this never happened. So I close my eyes, bite back the pain, and we push.

"You are strong. Almost at the border." He claps dust-coated hands.

"What border? All I see is grass."

He shakes his head sadly. "Definitely human."

He grunts. I push. The car rolls another inch. I close my eyes; my glasses are coated in sweat and blood, but the thought of wiping Jack's blood on my pants makes me want to puke. I focus all my concentration into my aching muscles. Then, the weight behind me disappears.

I stumble to the ground. My glasses tumble off my face. My hair tie finally slides free, and my gross, blood-soaked hair lashes my mouth. Fenris's strong hands pull me to my feet. He's hazy, a shape wobbling back and forth in my vision.

I whip my head over; the car is gone. My heart flutters frantically into my throat.

"Annabeth, you're not so bad for a human. And neither is your friend. For whatever happens to you, I'm sorry."

My mouth falls open. I try to jerk away, but I can't; he's too strong.

"And for what it's worth, I don't believe in keeping humans as pets. I'll argue for you to go to the school, but I can't make any promises."

The sound that I make is somewhere between a gasp and a scream. I should've made a break for it, I decide. How could I have been so stupid? Literally push Faith toward her doom? Believe him when he says he can bring life to the dead? I twist toward the misty clouds, searching the horizon for anything to escape toward. But he pulls me hard, and I'm yanked into the same abyss the car was.