To be honest, he seemed like he was going to faint any minute. I thought he was about to nod in agreement when his steely reserve returned.
“I want you people off this property immediately,”
“Right you are, captain,” I said, saluting him.
I hopped back in the van and quickly gave everyone an update. The gates opened, and I pulled out of Emilia’s stately residence. What to do now though? The sky was darkening, and it would be night soon. I was tempted to go to Cristescu’s house and see Tegan, but then I thought better of it. I’d wait until the morning. That way, his army of vamps would be tucked safely into their coffins and I’d be able to talk to him man to man.
Hehe. Tucked safely into their coffins. That was a good one.
“Where are we going now?” Gabriel asked.
“Back to the hotel,” I answered. “Tomorrow we’re going to pay Tegan and Cristescu a little visit.”
Delilah chewed on her lip worriedly at the prospect of seeing her brother. I guessed she was anxious about how much he’d changed. That made two of us.
We ate at the diner again, and I was beginning to get used to the greasy spoon vibe of the place. When we all separated to go to our rooms, Alora flopped down onto the bed and curled up in a ball. I bent over her, hoping she was all right.
“Hey,” I murmured, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Please, just leave me alone for a while,” she requested quietly before pressing her face into the pillow. She clearly needed to have a cry about her parents being AWOL, so I left her to it. Sometimes we all needed a good cry to get it all out.
Yeah, I was secure enough in my masculinity to admit it.
To give Alora a little privacy, I turned on the television and went into the bathroom to shave. I brought some of my toiletries with me from the house, since something seriously needed to be done about the potential Gandalf beard I was cultivating.
Once finished, I peeked my head into the room to see Alora fast asleep on top of the covers. I went to kneel by the side of the bed, for some reason fascinated by the way her face looked in slumber. On instinct, I reached out to touch her before stopping myself. I didn’t want her waking up and getting freaked out by me being up so close and personal like a total lech. Okay, so maybe she wouldn’t be able to actually see me, but she’d definitely sense me, hear me breathing. Again, like a lech.
Deciding I needed to get out for a bit, I threw on my boots and jacket and headed for the minivan. I would’ve switched to my car when we went to the house, but there wouldn’t have been enough room for all six of us, especially since Ira was such a giant. The van’s engine sputtered a little and wouldn’t start.
“Come on, baby,” I coaxed it. “Come on.”
Finally, it roared to life, and I tore out of the hotel parking lot. Through no conscious decision of my own, I found myself driving towards the parameter of the magical barrier around the city again. People were camped out in tents and caravans now. Some were simply lying on the ground in sleeping bags. I didn’t envy them. It was as cold as a witch’s tits out here tonight.
I stopped the van a good distance away and scanned the area, just sitting for a couple of minutes and trying to think. That was when I noticed something odd. Vehicles were coming through the barrier from the outside, but nobody could leave from the inside.
It all suddenly made sense. If people travelling into Tribane couldn’t get past the barrier, there would be havoc and the outside world’s attention would be on the city. The fact that people could get in but not out meant that there wouldn’t be any suspicion. Well, at least not until someone started noticing that those who travelled to the city never returned.
Eat your heart out, Hotel California.
A chill ran over me. People jumped up and down, waving their hands at the vehicles coming inside, urging them to go no farther, but the people on the outside seemingly couldn’t see in. It was all a part of the magic.
This needed to be stopped before things got even worse.
I started up the engine again and drove back in the direction of the city. This old wagon wasn’t going to last much longer, and I needed a mode of transport that I could rely on. There were dozens of vans at the DOH compound, so I headed in that direction.
There wasn’t a single whisper of life when I got there, and my gut sank. I’d been internalising the loss, trying not to feel the pain of losing something that was my entire reason for breathing for so long.