First and foremost let me apologize profusely for the unbelievably long wait between the previous chapter and this one. All I can offer by way of excuse is that life can be a cruel mistress indeed. Not long after I started working on this chapter, my computer crashed and took all of my work with It, because I am borderline computer illiterate and simple concepts such as anti virus and data back ups continually elude me. And seeing as I am still quite far from my ultimate goal of filthy, belligerently rich author / playboy, I only recently managed to scrape together enough cold hard cash to replace it. Now, since I’m sure you have other things in mind that don’t involve listening to me prattle on about my day to day woes, let us return to Darrick and Courtney, and their lighthearted romp across America…


It had been more than a month since I had stopped bothering to cover our trail, and the old bastard still hadn’t shown his face. Courtney, bless her naive little heart, rather optimistically believed that this meant we had permanently thrown him off our trail, and for most of the last week she had been sulking because I didn’t agree and had kept us on the move. To make matters worse, I had also begun to notice that Courtney’s psychological state was in a steady decline; and had been for some time now. She had started acting increasingly childish, and now her behavior was closer to that of a ten year old than it was to her actual age of fourteen… an extremely horny ten year old, mind you, but a ten year old nonetheless. At that very moment, in fact, I was having to deal with another of her bizarre stunts.

We were staying at the Marriott (ritzy, I know) and I had just stepped out of what I swear must have been the best and most relaxing shower I’ve ever taken in my seven hundred years of life when I came face to face with a brightly beaming Courtney hold a rather distressed little girl by the hair. Now, I would love nothing more than to say that my quick mind immediately jumped into action, churning out workable solutions to this little problem. Sadly, that was not the case. The unspeakably queer sight of a tiny, little slip of a girl dragging around another tiny, little slip of a girl by her curly blonde hair induced enough cognitive dissonance that all I could do was stumble over to the room’s single bed, sit down, and heave a long-suffering sigh. After taking a minute to collect my thoughts, I spoke.

“Courtney,” I said, somehow managing to keep my voice level despite the rage that had begun coursing through me, “who the fuck is that?”

“I found her when I went down to the lobby to get a drink,” Courtney replied, wide eyed with excitement, “Can we keep her?”

Well. That was creepy.

“I’m sorry. Did you just say that you want to keep her? She’s not a dog, Court, she’s a little girl that you have just kidnapped, and, might I add, in full view of security cameras and hotel guests alike.”

I don’t get it. Was I too lenient with her? Too strict? Did her time spent in Oxford’s tender care just decide to jump up and devour what was left of her mind out of nowhere? How in the hell did she get the idea that this was okay? (Not that I’m adverse to kidnapping little girls, mind you, but she could have at least done some planning beforehand.)

My scathing tone had deflated her enthusiasm somewhat, but, being the trooper that she is, she soldiered right along, saying, “Well you haven’t played with me at all lately, and I’ve always wanted a little sister. What’s the big deal, Dare?”

Good god, there were so many holes in her logic that I didn’t even know where to start, so I settled for pointing out what was, to me, the most important issue.

“Courtney, does the term Amber Alert mean anything to you?” I said, trying, and failing, to stay calm and rational, “We take her with us and within a day, every law enforcement agency in the country is going to be out looking for us.”

“So what?” she yelled, “That didn’t stop you from taking me did it?!”

“Shut your fucking mouth,” I growled back, “Oxford is the one who took you. I’m the one who saved you from that hell, and don’t you forget it.”

Courtney withered in the face of my ire, and began sobbing quietly, but I pressed on, saying, “If you don’t want to stay with me that’s fine. I’ll drop you right back on your parents’ doorstep. But bear in mind, princess, that once I do, Oxford will just kill me and then he’ll take you right back, and I won’t be around to rescue you next time.”

I could tell that this conversation was going nowhere fast, and I was pretty sure that the girl’s parents had noticed she was missing by now, so, at best, we had about ten minutes before the place was swarming with police. Deciding that placating Courtney was the quickest solution, I adopted a gentler tone and said, “Listen, Court, I get that you’re lonely and need someone to keep you company during the day, so I’ll tell you what: Once we’ve taken care of the old man for good, I promise that we will find you a little sister, but you have to let me plan it out next time. You can’t just grab the first one that catches your eye.”

Courtney, who was still sniffling at the idea of giving up her new toy, nodded obediently and released her hold on the little girl, who promptly bolted for the door to our room. Imagine her surprise when, in less time than it takes to blink, I appeared between her and her destination and grabbed her. Whether it was from built up stress combined with the shock of seeing me move so fast, or because she somehow sensed my complete otherness the girl, who had done nothing but cry quietly through my entire exchange with Courtney, began screaming and thrashing like she was on fire. I couldn’t have that so I spun her around and used one hand to clamp down hard on her nose and mouth, completely cutting off her air supply, while sticking the index finger of my other hand into my mouth and coating it generously in the narcotic venom my fangs secrete. Since the girl hadn’t been prepared for it, there wasn’t much oxygen already in her lungs when I cut off her air, and her face rapidly went from red to an odd shade of purple. When her struggles started to weaken I judged it safe to remove my hand because she wouldn’t be able to start screaming again until after the effects of almost suffocating had worn off.

When I let go the little girl sagged weakly to the floor, and I quickly wiped my venom coated finger across her lips, effectively sedating her. I then wrapped my arms around her and let my supercharged pheromones do their work while she regained her breath and calmed down.