For the Dead Travel Fast

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"Do you think she called in the troglodyte out there?" Castle hissed. He didn't like the look on her face, the way she was vibrating with tension. "No. Surely."

Kate pressed her hand against the swinging door that led to the lobby. "I… no? I think she was more interested in letting me know we weren't all that. Not eating us."

"I wonder what other normal vampires see in us. Remember the woman with the pet husband?"

Kate winced. "Okay, so evidence suggests not everyone is out to ravish you, and that they do know how to ask nicely. But."

"Right, no, not trusting it," he said, nodding. "Makes sense." He waited a heartbeat, let her listen at the door. "Are we… going or not?"

"Stick close," she said tersely. "But as I clear the lobby, grab those state maps, many as you can. We need to plan." She looked disgusted with herself. "We can't keep going at this haphazardly and expect to come away clean."

"I agree," he said.

It took less than six minutes. She swept the lobby with her weapon out while he grabbed maps and whatever he thought might be handy. She had to quickly holster her gun when two college-aged girls pulled up and began heading for the vending machines. He and Kate bypassed their vehicle just in case and were on the road in moments, none the worse for wear.

She was driving because he understood that she needed to do something with her hands, her brain, her buzzing energy, but he'd also had the idea that he might be going into phase again soon. Which seemed fast, but his head was pounding and the sweat was building up just under his scalp, itchy.

He opened the Nebraska state map over his lap and the dashboard. "Should we stop on the side of the road and both look it over, or you trust me as navigator?"

"I trust you," she said. "Just connect up the major cities, and let me know how long you think."

He ran his finger westward, though major city seemed something of a misnomer. "I believe it was called the Mormon Trail."

"What?"

"Twelve hundred miles from Illinois to Utah? Something like that." He counted under his breath, using the edge of his thumb nail to approximate the mileage. "Yeah, give or take three hundred—I have fat thumbs—it's about 1200 miles."

"Whew, okay." She was chewing on her lip. "So fourteen hours? Fifteen?"

"At your current rate of speed. Something like that."

"I'd like to do it all in one go. You think you can?"

"With enough supplies..."

"And no bathroom breaks," she added. "At least not where other people are."

"I can pee off the side of the road, I don't know about you—"

"I'll manage it."

He chuckled. She had a faint smile at least.

"But we do need to stop for real supplies," he warned her. "Water, at least, because we're both recovering here, Kate."

She rubbed the spot at her ribs. "Yeah, yes. Gatorade, and proteins, and heme iron."

"Where you think we're gonna find heme iron?" he said.

She sighed.

"I'm serious. Waterfowl, liver, that kind of thing. That's what the spooky blonde boy in the pamphlet says anyway."

"I hate that pamphlet," she muttered. But it lacked vitriol and she was signaling to pass a semi truck in the left lane, the real focus of her ire. "Brainstorm with me, Castle. We need better methods than just hopping out and wishing for good luck."

"I'd also like to understand how we've managed to hit on the exact same rest stops or gas stations that all the other vampires are using." He brightened, excitement warring with horror. "Do you think we all have the same instincts? Something about the look or smell of the place lures us in and we all—"

"No, Castle," she muttered. And when he thought that meant she considered his suggestion ludicrous, she rubbed at her ribs under the seat belt and sighed. "If it's that, we're doomed. I can't think like that. I can't let go of my individuality, my selfhood—or yours for that matter. We're not mindless; the vampire lichen doesn't have a hold over us. We still choose."

"I didn't think that, no," he said softly. And he wouldn't bring it up again, even if he privately thought it, at least not until they had the space to breathe freely and the leisure to wonder about themselves. Advertising worked on certain psychological principles; grocery stores put the necessities at the back of the store and separated far apart for a reason. But later. "Brainstorm, better than luck, okay. When we stop next, what is it we need most?"

"Water."

"Yes. Heme iron, like you said."

"And the pamphlet does say where to find it—remember?—liver, obviously, but also red meat and chicken—"

"And prunes and figs. And eggs. Oh, eggs, no wonder we both devoured those sausage and egg biscuits."

Kate cocked her head. "Huh."

"Look, a lot of that stuff can be found in a convenience store, if we pay attention. Not liver, no, don't make that face—"

"Castle, I will never be a pate girl."

"No, because you're a one-writer girl."

She snorted. "The two are not mutually exclusive."

"They could be. The golden goose, after all—"

"You're off track. What else? Lentils, beans, oysters, seafood—"

"Okay, okay, we obviously can't get seafood and lentils and stuff at a gas station. But eggs are in breakfast foods. Prunes and nuts and figs are often in trail mixes." He was encouraged by the faint smile on her face as she'd rebuked him. "So it's possible to find if we pay attention."

"The pamphlet also said to take Vitamin C with iron so that it absorbs better. So those orange juices or something fortified with Vitamin C. I think we can get that in a gas station as well."

"Hey, look at you being optimistic."

"Shut up, Castle." She glanced at him. "Are you not writing this down?"

He hastily snagged a pamphlet from the floorboard and dug a pen out of the glove box. "I am, I am." He didn't attempt lentils, but he wrote 'water' and 'eggs' at the top and then the others they might conceivably pick up at a convenience store. "And what about the supplements?"

"Dr Harris said I was doing myself more harm than good," she muttered. "But I think in an emergency, yeah, blasting myself with supplements might be the best we can do."

"And onion and garlic—we're going to have to find it somewhere, in order to change out the dressing on my wrist."

She sucked in a breath.

"Periodically," he warned. "You'll have to. Plus, we don't want to get to the state we were in before, where neither of us is in balance."

She squirmed in the seat; he knew she struggled with it, but he wasn't going to let her off the hook. She had to drink from him. She had to.

"Lots of water then," she said finally. "And something with electrolytes, because I don't know how many resources you're burning through during each phase. You're so thin." She glanced at him and away again. A grimace. "Shit. You're feverish right now, aren't you."

He sighed. "Yes. A bit. Not uncomfortably so. But."

"Soon? Or will you linger with a fever for the rest of the day?"

"If we're right about the phase number, it's going to linger, I think," he told her. "I was reading the files you took. I think each family antigen line goes through their own number, so we're a mystery."

"That's what it looked like," she said. Another cautious, anxious look thrown his way. "So we don't know, exactly, what's to come for you."

"Hopefully nothing comes for me," he joked. "Thus Great Salt Lake, where I can't be sniffed out."

Her head bobbed in agreement.

But he had to ask. "Um, if there are so many vampires that we're tripping over them everywhere we turn, and if they all know that newbies head for the smelliest body of water around... what's to prevent us from tripping over salivating, less-morally-upright vampires once we get there?"

Kate whimpered. "I don't know. I don't know, Castle. I don't—"

"Okay," he said quickly. "So we keep planning." She was pale, her hands gripped the steering wheel; he knew she felt responsible for him, for the vampire of things, but they were a team. Partners. He reached across the console and hooked his fingers under her seat belt, pulling it away from her wound where it must rub against the healing scar. "By the time we get to Utah, we'll have thought of something. It's not all on you, Kate. You're not alone."

She swallowed roughly, wouldn't look at him.

"Hey. Don't drown yourself in this. This is too good, too wonderful a gift." He ran the backs of his fingers against her stomach and side; he felt her shiver in response to his touch. "This is... the most intimate we've ever been, the way we feel when the blood is on the tongue, the way the scent of you makes me feel, and when your teeth are in my flesh, Kate… I wouldn't give it up for the world."

She shot him a look of pure arousal; it burned right down through his guts and made him wish they could stop here and now.

Instead she took his hand, laced their fingers, her eyes resolutely on the interstate once more. The traffic. Her breathing under his palm was a shock of pleasure he hadn't anticipated, as if his own body was attuned to hers, and every sign of health and movement was enough to send eddies of feeling through him.

He opened his mouth but she beat him to it. Her lips caressed the heel of his palm with a whispered I love you and then her bite came, gentle but piercing, welling two drops of blood which she immediately licked clean, closing him again.

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