Chapter 19

Nadia had been asleep for 14 hours and, between the tv and constantly glancing out the windows, Andrea was driving herlself crazy. She'd swear she was wearing a path in the carpet from all the pacing; she couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, she couldn't even hold still for more than a few seconds. She was dying to pour ice water on Nadia to wake her up so she could stop panicing; but she knew that she would wake up on her own when she was ready. She could wait that long, even if it meant she had to keep having mini heartattacks whenever she heard something from outside. The tv made it obvious what Nadia had done and she need to know how worried she should be. Nadia wouldn't just walk in there without a plan, of that much Andrea was sure; but how good had that plan been? That of course was what had her so paniced. That was the only reason. It had nothing to do with the fact that her best friend had just killed over 600 people... No, it had nothing to do with that little fact. She sighed, she obviously feels insanely guilty about the whole thing. And they were prisoners. No, better than that, they were going to be killed anyway. It wasn't like she walked into a school and massacred a bunch of innocent kids. No matter how much she denied it or tried to talk herself out of it, her best friend had killed and that undeniably filled her with anxiety.

As if she could sense the panic rolling off her best friend, Nadia started to wake up. She expected to forget about what had happend for at least a few blissful drowsy seconds before it all came rushing back; but as usual, she had no such luck. Instead of the crippling guilt she had felt last night, she surprised by what she felt now. As if she were wrapped in some sort of protective seran wrap, she could feel the pressure of the guilt and pain but it couldn't break through like it had before.

"Finally!" Andrea huffed and plopped down on the couch. "What happened?" she glanced at the tv screen, "Okay, stupid question... Are you alright? How did you do it? Do they know it was you? Are they going to be coming here?"

Nadia raised her hand to stop her before she could get any more questions out. Andrea pressed her lips together as she watched her friend weakly pull herself into the sitting position. Nadia sighed as if it hurt her to do so, "They won't be coming here." Andrea relaxed and listened, "I'm fine," her jaw clenched in contradiction, "They have no possible way of knowing it was me; I wasn't myself...they didn't get me on camera and I wore gloves."

"How did you do it?" Andrea asked.

Nadia looked away from her and her face scrunched up like she was trying not to throw up, "I don't want to talk about it."

Andrea stared down at the couch, "What did you mean when you said you weren't yourself?"

Nadia sighed, "I took on the appearance of a guard."

"Oh," was all she could think to say. "How did you do it?"

It was the same question but the atmosphere of it gave it a completely different meaning, "...I...didn't do it..."

Andrea looked confused but then she understood, "Aidan."

Nadia nodded, "Aidan."

"You let her...?"

"Yeah. I couldn't have done it myself."

The obvious sincerity in her words made Andrea feel guilty for even thinking all the accusations that had passed through her head. "How did you come back?"

"She let me. She made sure I could handle it and then she stepped back."

Andrea could hear the softness in her words, "That was nice of her... I figured she'd take the body and run," she smirked.

Nadia rolled her eyes, "She felt different afterwards," she didn't want to talk about the exact moment she had felt the change. A shiver ran through her body and she rubbed her arm to soothe the chill. She smirked, "I can't believe she didn't have some smart ass response to that..."

"Would you quit poking and proding... I'm exhausted."

How you be exhausted? Nadia glanced at the clock, we got like fourteen hours of sleep.

"You got fourteen hours of sleep," Aidan corrected. "I was busy keeping the boogey man away," she sounded embarassed by what she'd admitted.

Andrea waited while Nadia continued her internal conversation.

You did something nice...for me, Nadia was a little shocked and fought to keep a smirk off her face.

"Don't flatter yourself, I knew neither of us would be able to get any sleep if I wasn't proactive. Plus you are no good to me if you resemble a zombie more than a human being."

Nadia couldn't fight the smirk any longer as she said, Uh huh, I'm sure that's all it was.

"Sorry to interrupt; but what is so funny?" Andrea asked.

Nadia smiled, "Sorry. I finally got Aidan's attention; it seems she was busy keeping my nightmares away." She bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud.

"How is that funny?"

Nadia laughed and it felt like a little bit of that pressure outside the seran wrap let up, "You'd just have to know her."

"I'd rather not," Andrea replied in a flat voice. That sobered Nadia immediately and she was instantly uncomfortable. "What's wrong?" Andrea asked.

"Nothing," Nadia lied. She knew what was wrong; Andrea's criticism had made Nadia defensive and she was trying to figure out why. Then she realized that her best friend had critized a part of her. Logic told her that what she felt was stupid; Aidan was demonic, of course Andrea wouldn't want to meet her. You wish you didn't know her. You're being stupid. She stood up as if the couch cushion had shocked her, "I'm gonna take a shower."

"O...kay," Andrea said as she watched her walk away.

Nadia shut herself off as she showered and got dressed. She gathered her things from around her room and packed them away in her bags. What she came here to do was done and she was starting to grow uncomfortable with her best friend; it was time to move on.

"So many to kill, so little time," Aidan mumbled.

Nadia's jaw clenched, Go back to sleep, but she could feel Aidan fade away again before she could finish thinking the words. She went through her room and the bathroom three times before she was satisfied that she had everything. Aidan's earlier words, you need her, ran through her head and she sighed and fell back on the bed. I do need her; but I can see the questions in her eyes and I can't answer them. She seemed to really understand the pressure and fear that I was under, why I have to do this; I should have known it was too good to be true. She's never been in love. She doesn't know what it is like to willingly sacrifice so much for someone. We always wondered what brought us so close together; we're nothing alike, maybe that's finally starting to show. The pain from that thougth wasn't stopped by the seran wrap; it ripped through her and brought on new tears. How do I even have any left? And what is making me so numb to what I felt last night? The fact that she seemed to be growing less and less horrified at what she had allowed done was making her nauseous.

She bolted upright and sat on the edge of the bed, I have to get out of here. She grabbed her bags and stood by her bedroom door debating on whether or not she wanted to face Andrea and say goodbye or chicken out and call her once she was already far away. Normally there would be no question, she'd have to say goodbye. But things had changed; as much as she might want to deny it, the look that was in Andrea's eyes this morning told her that much.

I'm not a chicken. I found my mom's beaten corpse, watched my grandpa bleed to death in front of me, killed a child murderer with an axe, killed a demon who also happened to be my aunt, and agreed to a deal with (for all intensive purposes) the devil. And, oh yeah, there's that whole being half demon thing too. I'm not a chicken; but I think I have earned the opportunity to use some of the chickening-out points that I've earned over the last 24 years.

She turned around, walked over to her window, and dropped her bags into the little bit of space between Andrea's apartment and the one next door and climbed out after them. The houses were so close together that she pressed her back against the nieghbor's house and her feet across to Andrea's apartment and carefully shimmied her way down until she let herself drop to the ground. She look up to where she had just came and thought to herself, I know one thing; the next place we go is going to be big and open. Like Montana or Wyoming or Colorado... She brushed off her hands, grabbed her bags, and headed out to her bike. As she came out from between the buildings, she was blinded by the sunlight, Some place where it rains a lot, lots of clouds. She smirked as she thought of spakling vampires and "one of the wettest places in the continental U.S." She didn't waste time getting the bike ready or saying goodbye to the apartment or California, except for a quick, good riddance.

After an hour on the road, Nadia pulled into a gas station and filled up. After she parked the bike in a far corner of the lot, she found her phone and punched in Andrea's number. Just before she hit "send," she chickened-out again and hit "end" instead. She sighed and sent a text message instead. At least it's not a post-it note, right? she smirked. She shook her head at herself for how generic the message was: Had 2 leave. Sorry. Call u when i get where im goin. Im ok.. Sorry.

She sent the message, I give her five minutes tops. She'll run upstairs, look for me, and when she doesn't find me she'll call. I hope she calls. She shook the possibilty of her not calling out of her head and realized Sam didn't know her new cell number. "Thanks a lot, Aidan," she grumbled to herself. She wasn't ready to talk to him but she didn't just want to send a text either; then she thought of what she used to do back at Stanford. She grabbed her iPod from her pocket, searched for the perfect song, and recorded the chorus on her phone. Then she sent "Friends" by Band of Skulls to Sam's phone and couldn't help chuckling as she pictured Sam listening to it. She didn't notice that she was crying until she felt the tickle on her cheek and quickly wiped it away before she started the bike and put her helmet back on. She glanced at her phone one last time but there was nothing new. As she shoved it in her pocket it rang and she pulled it back out, expecting Andrea. When she looked at the caller id, her breath caught in her throat as she read "Sam."

Once she got over the initial shock she realized that she really, really wanted to talk to him and she answered it before even thinking about it. "Sam!" it felt good to say his name.