Beyond The Walls (NOW ON AMAZON!!!)

The Blood Cafe

Hadley turned and raced to catch up with the others. Teroi had led them to a building that would easily hold them all. He kicked the door in before ushering everyone inside.

"Make sure there's no one in there that shouldn't be," Hadley said to Teroi before handing him her machete then turning to run back the way she came.

She sprinted to where Ruqwik was. Ruqwik, the other vampire and Drew had only been out of her sight for a few seconds, but that was enough for everything to have changed. Hadley skid to a stop, sliding on loose gravel. The vampire that had grabbed Drew was on fire. Well, his headless corpse was. The head was positioned so that it was watching the body burn as life slowly drained from its eyes. Ruqwik's eyes were focussed on the blaze. Hadley rushed to where Drew lay on the ground, his eyes closed. She looked up at Ruqwik, a new layer of fear for the vampire imprinted on her.

Ruqwik hadn't needed to physically touch the vampire to kill it.

She'd just touched his mind.

"You painted quite the graphic image when youthreatened to do this to me back at the Barn," Ruqwik suddenly spoke up. Hereyes were still glued the fire, the red of her irises dancing in the light of theorange flames. She then turned slowly, facing Hadley. "Thought I might try itout."

Their eyes met and it took considerable effort for Hadley to look away, swearing to herself that the tingle she felt in places she didn't want to think about right then was just her being happy that the vampire who'd hurt Drew had gotten what he deserved. Hadley tried to control her breathing, bringing her focus back to the little boy.

"He's still breathing, but his pulse is weak," Hadley said, choosing to concentrate on Drew rather than the quagmire of pent-up emotion that was crawling up her throat and threatening to release itself in a hysterical scream. There was no time for hysteria. Maybe later. She shook off her harvest bag and pulled out her medical kit to field dress the jagged fang wounds on the boy's neck. Examining Drew grounded her. "He's in shock. He's lost a lot of blood."

In silence, Ruqwik watched Hadley work until she was done.

"The blood café? The building where you and Teroi took the others? Take him there. You'll find supplies that'll help," Ruqwik finally said.

Hadley looked at the vampire and was surprised to see clear green and blue rings at the edges of Ruqwik's eyes. Whatever she'd done to that other vampire had drained her. Fast. Her eyes were mostly still red, but the vampire would need to feed soon. Hadley hadn't even thought of that until then. How long would Ruq last without blood on this quest to the Wildlings? How would the vampire feed while in the woods without blood cafes or whatever other convenient ways vampires fed? And what was her preference in how she fed?

Because Hadley had pieced it together as they'd been walking through the Enclave. She'd been reading the posters that hang everywhere around them. Images of blood in fancy looking glasses or deep long cups with straws. Some posters described blood that was "pre-flavoured" with "uppers" and "downers", whatever that meant. And others focussed on the blood types available – from the lettered types, A, B, O, and all combinations in between, to those with and without the rhesus factors, as well as something called golden blood and so on. Vampires didn't just feed on humans. They made a drinking art of it. Made it convenient. That was all that humans were to them. Bags to hold their blood.

Hadley loathed that stark, unavoidable truth.

And the question still remained. With Ruq away from all this, how would she stay fed?

"Are you okay to carry him, or should I?" Ruqwik said, barrelling through Hadley's thoughts.

Hadley shook her head free of the disturbing thoughts. "No, it's fine. I've got him."