Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
With that, Lazarus speeds away.
Kyle shouts, “Wait!” then charges after him.
At once, the ground flies beneath his feet, as if they barely touch the floor, propelled by something deep inside him. It’s exhilarating and scary, the electricity in his muscles. Kyle feels unreal. It’s someone else’s body. Someone else’s legs. His heart pounds happily in his chest, yet each scrape of his feet against the cave floor is heard perfectly, every breath taking flight from his lips, every wisp of air sweeping past his ears, every echo of these sounds that somehow find their way back to him.
This is what it’s like to be a god.
The next thing Kyle knows is the wall of the cave—as he slams into it face-first.
“Ha!” cries Lazarus as Kyle falls back, bewildered, blinking tears out of his eyes. “Be careful, eager boy. You will drill a new tunnel into the stone with that strength.”
“What the actual fuck?” mutters Kyle, dizzy, staring down at his hands for some reason. Even after crashing into the wall, he sees both of his hands in crisp, perfect detail.
“You have to listen when you move quickly … listen and take in each breath with purpose. Breath is information. Breath is the space around you, the tunnel ahead of you. See with your air. Now hurry, I don’t have the time to teach you lessons every turn of the cave walls. Some things are best taught to ourselves. Mind your feet, too.”
Then Lazarus is off again.
Kyle hurries on, this time considerably slower. The first thought that enters his head is how little pain lingers from crashing into the wall at such a fast speed. Does that indicate a strength in his body, a weakness of the earth, or a numbness of his nerves in this strangely heightened state?
Is this what being a true vampire feels like?
Painlessness and power?
After what feels like mere seconds in the tunnels, Kyle is at once stopped at the mouth of the cave—a different mouth than the one in which they entered with the two stalactite fangs. “I’d say under an hour,” says Lazarus, squinting into the distance as he performs a quick calculation. “That’s what we’ve got before daybreak, fifty or so minutes.”
“So are we looking for this Drake person?” asks Kyle.
“Keep up.” Then Lazarus rushes over the sand.
Kyle hurries after him. Out here in the open, it’s far easier to navigate, no obstacles, only the dry air and the sand, which at this speed feels as soft as feathers on the soles, fluttering under Kyle with his every light step.
As the earth moves under his feet, the world opening up all around him—the sky, the distant mountains, the air—Kyle lets out a sudden, overjoyed laugh. He can’t stop smiling. Has he ever in his life felt this free before? This capable? Even during all those years with Tristan, he never knew such freedom. He’d even go as far to say that this is the most fun he has ever had in years. He’s like a child again, racing through the grass, yelling at the heavens with delirium, on the brink of giggles.
Nothing will ever compare to this feeling.
He doesn’t want it to end.
Kyle is quicker to react this time when he notices Lazarus come to a stop. It is behind a ledge of rock that they now lurk, over which they peer at the edge of a city.
Kyle blinks, amazed. Which city did they travel to so fast? They were miles from any sign of life just moments ago, he had thought. “Where are we?”
“Few will be on the streets at this hour,” says Lazarus, “and fewer will be awake.”
“Is this Flagstaff? This can’t possibly be Flagstaff.”
“The name doesn’t matter. Only what’s in it. We will have to utilize our stealth. We can’t be seen. Or at least I can’t.”
“Why can’t you?”
“You’re human in appearance. I am not.”
“Oh.” Kyle frowns. “And Drake …?”
“He’s like you. That’s why he plays the role of our bait.”
“Bait?”
“To lure out our dinner.” Lazarus glances at the sky. “He should’ve been back by now. Something’s wrong.”
The prickling presences of so many people in that nearby city flood Kyle’s brain, even from this distance. He hasn’t felt so overwhelmed by his Reach since last weekend when he was in Las Vegas. Is this secondary ability of his made even more powerful by the blood? Or has it simply sharpened due to his state of mind?
“Let’s move,” orders Lazarus, then hops the ledge of rock and speeds toward the city.
Kyle is like glue upon Lazarus’s heels. Seconds later, they are in front of some closed fast food joint, the parking lot dark, backs against a grey sedan parked by the curb. Another minute later, they’re under an overpass, nestled by a stone column, out of sight, a gas station in view. Then the two of them are flying through the shadows between buildings on a college campus.