She came to with a start. Her whole body seemed to start aching at once and she let out a loud, low groan. She wasn't sure which part of her body hurt the most. The ache between her legs was strong but at the same time satisfying. Her neck however, was burning. She slowly brought her fingers to her neck and tried to feel out her wound gently. She hissed in pain. Her fingers were met with dried blood and two very sore puncture marks. She shook her head slowly as she remembered back to the night before.
Her thoughts slowly started coming together: the small things in Dwayne's behavior that had been odd or, as she thought about it now, frightening. The speed he had used last night, the small glimpse of yellow eyes, his strong grip, and finally, the complete snap of the wooden headboard.
She glanced up just to make sure she hadn't imagined Dwayne snapping the piece of furniture in half. Sure enough, the wood was broken and splintered. A piece of it was barely hanging on. She gulped as once again the image of his glowing yellow eyes entered her mind. And then she thought of another event, a much more frightening event.
The first time she had hit peak last night, she had latched onto his shoulder with her teeth. She had tasted blood. She was sure of it. But when she had looked, there had been no open wound, not even teeth marks.
She sat up slowly in bed, pulling the blanket with her to cover her exposed breasts. Her mind was racing a mile a minute. There was no way. Maybe all of her emotional turmoil had made her see things. It could have even been all the excitement. But she had seen everything with her own eyes. She had tasted the iron of blood in her mouth.
It was real. She was sure of it.
But how?
What the hell was going on? Was it just Dwayne? Was there something wrong with him? Maybe some sort of condition? No. What kind of condition made a person heal instantly or their eyes to glow yellow? She shook her head slowly.
Where was he anyway? Where was he now?
She swung the covers away from her body and shivered as the cold air hit her. Her forehead crinkled in thought as she walked around the bed to find her clothes. She slowly pulled them on and then wondered over into the main area of the cave. She found her watch sitting by her discarded book from last night. It was only three in the afternoon. She had woken up early. The boys usually slept until six at the earliest. Sometimes they didn't wake up until ten.
Wait. An idea slowly passed through her mind but she quickly shook it off. It was stupid, not to mention unbelievable. She just needed to take a deep breath and stop thinking about it. She would wait until Dwayne woke up and ask him about it. He would probably put her mind to rest about the whole situation. She really had been under a lot of stress last night between Sam and Michael.
Sam.
Her heart clenched. She hadn't seen Sam since that night. She missed him.
She missed him a lot.
She checked her watch again. If she hurried she could make it to the boardwalk and look around for him and get back home before the boys even knew she was gone. She nodded her head in a silent decision and moved back towards where her bed was in the cave. She quickly picked out some jeans and a shirt and threw them on. It was going to take her at least an hour to walk to the boardwalk but she could make it, she decided. Besides, if the boys did wake up, they would probably look for her on the boardwalk anyway.
She tied her Converse quickly and then headed straight for the mouth of the cave.
The boardwalk was pretty busy for a Thursday afternoon. She found herself trying to shuffle through the crowd as gently as possible. The sun was heavy and hot on her face as she moved down the boardwalk. There were a few places she thought of that Sam could be hanging around: the movie store where their mother worked, and the comic book store they had found after the first few days of living in Santa Carla. She headed towards the movie store first, hoping to slip by unnoticed by her mother.
Max's Video Store wasn't busy and she quickly tried to peak inside the video store. She could see some woman working behind the counter but there was no sign of her mother. All of the televisions in the store were on, playing some sort of music video. She signed heavily and took a step back. She hoped Sam would be at the comic book store or she would at least run into him on her way there. She took another step back before turning around. She bumped into someone in the process, someone small that she was sure she had almost knocked over. Her hands shot out to the steady the other person and when they were steadied, she looked up.
Her jaw immediately clenched and she took her hands away as if she'd been burned.
"Bekah," her mother said. Her voice was quiet and breathless but Bekah couldn't tell if it was from the bumped her mother had just taken or the shock of actually seeing her daughter.
When Bekah's only response was to narrow her eyes, her mother's arm shot out and grabbed ahold of Bekah's forearm. It was like she was afraid Bekah was going to run away before Lucy got a chance to talk to her.
And Bekah wished she had run away before her mother had managed to lock onto her.
"You've been gone for months Bekah." Her mother stepped closer to her and Bekah flinched away. "Where have you been? I've been worried sick."
Bekah snorted, something she had picked up from Marco when Paul had done something particularly dumb. "Don't lie. I haven't seen any missing posters with my face on it."
"You're eighteen, Bekah," her mother's voice sounded soothing but Bekah knew better. "You can do what you want Bekah but I just hoped that you would let me know you were ok."
"You could have asked Michael." Bekah snapped. "He knows where I've been staying." She tried to keep her glare hard despite the hurt look on her mother's face. "Listen," she said sternly, "I didn't come her to see you. I came here to find Sam. I haven't seen him in a while and I miss him." She tried to make her voice less hard in the hopes that her mother would tell her where Sam was.
"I don't think that's the best idea." Her mother cocked her head to the side and Bekah's glare returned as her mother's fingers dug into her bare skin.
"What are you talking about?" Bekah snapped back.
"Bekah, you ran away from home. Who knows whom you've been hanging around with. You probably spend every night on the boardwalk drinking. You have a history, Bekah, and now that you're on your own you can do anything you want. You're just going to be a bad influence on your younger brother."
Bekah reached down quickly and pried her mother's fingers off her arm. "I wouldn't have had to run away if you wouldn't stop blaming me for your husband's infidelity. My life now is of no concern to you but Sam is my little brother and I'm going to see him whether you like it or not."
She shoved past her mother again, seething, and heading down the boardwalk towards the comic book store. She was going to find Sam and spend some time with him. It was her duty as an older sister. Just because she had stopped talking to her mother and Michael didn't mean she was going to abandon Sam, too. She had promised him he wouldn't lose her.
She lengthened her steps to get there quickly. The sun would be going down soon and she needed to try and get back to the boys before they finally woke up.
The comic book store looked the same as it had when Sam had first found it. There were comic books on sale out in front of the shop. She weaved her way around them and into the store. She took her time glancing down each isle until finally she saw two familiar looking figures. The Frog brothers. They ran the place instead of their dead beat parents who were most likely brain fried from their hippie days.
"Hey!" She called out to them and rushed forward.
As they turned around and parted, Sam came into view and she sighed with relief. Her brother met her half way and she gripped him in an arm crushing hug.
"I've been trying to find you," Sam rushed. "You need to know something about those guys you've been living with." Sam was starting to lose his breath from talking so fast. "They're vampires."