1. Chapter 22

With Joanne behind the wheel of the cutlass supreme was staying at a respectable fifty-five miles an hour.  She was in perfect control of the vehicle, despite it’s over bearing size. “If we are going to make it to Arizona by tomorrow we should drive a little faster,” there was no respect in Mark’s request.  Mark it seemed was in a foul mood.  He had volunteered to be stuffed into the back, at the time he was being polite, but now, he regretted his decision. 

His back was cramped, and his legs were beginning to fall asleep.  There was more room in the middle than behind either seat, but his knees still pressed painfully against the hard plastic backs of the front seats.  Though he had been warned that the rear seating compartment had been pushed forward several inches, he had no idea it was going to be this small.  Joanne and Jenn had not in fact said word one

“There are cops ahead, and I have to wait for this person behind me,” Joanne glanced in the rearview mirror, “in a few moments this asshole with one headlight in my eyes is going to get impatient and try to pass us.”

“Why does this car need to pass us,” Mark was giving Joanne a sarcastic look. 

“Because he’s carrying a half a Kilo of Cocaine in that car.   When he passes us, the cops about a half mile ahead will stop him for his busted headlight.”

“I’m sure the drugs are well hidden,” Mark said again, being skeptical of the vampires powers.  They had been demonstrated to him before on a few occasions.  But still he was skeptical.  Every once and a while when he met her eyes, he lost all composure and he believed.  At those times he felt controlled, other times too.  But on such a level that he did not mind.  Sometimes he was freaked out by her prowess.  How could she knew how much Cocaine the person behind her had, let alone that they had it at all. 

“They are, but I’ll tell the cops where to find them,” Joanne smiled.  Suddenly Jenn’s face as well broke out in a smirk.

“You’re going to stop and tell them where to find the cocaine?” Mark was still skeptical.

“You would be surprised,” The voice came to Mark, not through his ears, but through his skull.  Just a voice inside his head.  Well not just a voice.

Her voice.  It was her voice, down to the very last detail.  It wounded like her right down to the minor French accent she carried.  Normally he could barely remember what people said, let alone the voice they had.  But this didn’t feel like a memory.   By the time Mark noticed Joanne’s stare she’d been looking at him through the rear view mirror for about thirty seconds.  “Did you say something?” Mark said, shifting his eyes from hers and looking at the center consol.  

“What are you talking about my dear boy?” Joanne said.  Jenn still had a smirk on her face.   

“But I heard you.  Like you were inside my head,” Mark was less skeptical, and more confused now.

“Did you now?” Again, there was that sense of hearing it, but no sound came though his ears.  While he was pondering this the truck behind them pulled out.

 

Once it got beside them mark was able to determine that it was a yellow Aztec.  The drive looked to be Spanish or at least to belong in California, he was a long way from home nonetheless.  His hair was slicked back with enough gel to hold it in any position.  The driver had a large bald spot on the back of his head, and was probably about forty pounds over weight.  His skin was dark, wrinkled and greasy.  His eyes were narrow and sly.  The SUV itself looked alright except for the fact that the rear end looked like it was chopped off about five feet short.  The tail lights were at the top.  From the side, the vehicle had an alright profile till it reached the tailgate.  Even the bumper looked stupid.  But the rest of the vehicle was ok.  The SUV pulled ahead and shifted back to the lane that the nineteen eighty luxury vehicle Mark was in.  The SUV was out of sight in a few moments, as it went over a rise. 

Mark had hardly shaken the trance when they came over the hill.  At the bottom under an over pass there were flashing blue and red lights.  The Yellow SUV was off to the side of the road.  One cop car behind it, another in front.  Even from the top of the hill Mark could see the officer standing by the drivers side door.   Mark was surprised, but at the same time he had expected it.  If there had been no cops there and no one was there to catch the man in the yellow Aztec he would have been more surprised.  But still the sight of the cop, and the accuracy of the vampires predictions unnerved him a great deal. 

He ripped his eyes from the beacons and caught Joanne’s glance in the rearview mirror.  “So, now do you see?” Mark really wanted out of the car, in fact his head spun.  He felt nauseous and cramped. 

“Let us get passed the cops then you can stop.  Nothing should distract them from their job,” Joanne’s voice was calm, collected and powerful.  Almost immediately Marks nausea and Closter phobia were gone.  Well not completely, trace amounts clung to him.  Like bugs on a hot night, the symptoms fluttered from here to there.  One little bit of it could distract him and cause him to enter another fit.  But the moment he started to freak out, something grabbed his attention.  He was not sure what.  Because it was like a fleeting shadow, merely took his attention away, and then was gone.  He would search for it for a few moments.  Which would keep the symptoms at bay.  Then they would return slightly, and a moment later so would the shadow. 

As they passed the cops Joanne looked at one of the cops, he returned her stare for a moment then turned back to the Aztec.  Mark felt something had happened there, but could not tell for the life of him what it was. 

For several minutes the shadow and nausea kept him distracted.  Till at last they pulled over another hill and the car was pulled over to the side of the road.  Jenn through herself from the vehicle, her smile gone; replaced by a look that was serious and foreboding.  Mark pushed the seat forward, he scrambled out of the car, and only got a few steps from it, barely into the ditch before he doubled over and his stomach released it’s contents.   Jenn and Joanne stood on the other side of the car, leaning up against the front fender. 

Within moments the smile returned to Jenn’s face, she looked pleasant.  The way her hair was ruffled and her skin was bone white.  Her eyes were the color of the night sky, with the mid-winters stars reflected in them.  There was a lot of snow in the fields out there, but there was almost none on the roads, save for at the very edge where pavement met long wild grass. 

Standing over his own stomach contents made Mark even more sick.  His stomach tried once more to purge itself, and only came up with bile.  With sickly and weak steps he climbed the two steps back to the car, put the front seat back to the correct position and sat sideways in it.   His elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.  He waited, the nausea had almost passed.  He simply felt weak now.  He spit onto the pavement.  It turned to slush almost right away and was frozen in about thirty seconds. 

Mark hadn’t even noticed the cold yet.  The night almost felt warm right now.  He wondered if perhaps he had caught a case of Hypothermia.  He was in a warm jacket, but it was open, and he wasn’t wearing and gloves, or a hat.  He only wore runners.  Mark couldn’t recall whither the heater in the car was on or not.  He sure didn’t remember it being on.  The car felt as warm as the night beyond it.   He would have pondered the thought a little longer had the sound of Jenn’s jacket rustling in front of him hadn’t broken the entrancement. 

Mark spit once more before looking up at her. 

Jenn was standing a step into the ditch, giving Mark comfortable breathing room.  She looked odd in the pale blue winter moon light.  Her skin so white it was blue, her lips were an odd purple color.  There was an illusion of bags under her eyes.  Her black hair only made her skin stand out more.  The black of her wardrobe as well had the same effect.  While  Jenn’s skin gave the impression that she was dead, her eyes held so much life.  They were the color of the ocean at it’s greatest depth, with small blotches of color that reminded Mark of the waters off some tropical beach, with their blue green sparkle.  They were like diamonds in her eyes, diamonds in the rough. 

“Did you want to sit in the front for a while?” her voice was pleasant.  Indeed much more so that it had been at the apartment.  When he replied he was still so entranced by her appearance that he hadn’t realized that he needed to stand in order to let her get into the back. 

Jenn took a step towards Mark.  She stood over him, he felt a little crowded, but it was a pleasant crowding.  He looked up at her.  She tuned her head down and looked into him.  Then she smiled and he stood.  He felt oddly rejuvenated.  Spry, chipper almost.  She bent the seat forward and crawled head first into the small back seat of the Oldsmobile.   

Mark waited patiently until she was settled before folding the seat back so he could sit down.  In fact she had to remind him to get into the car before he folded the seat back. 

Mark slid into the Oldsmobile.  The front seat was plush and comfortable.  It wasn’t anymore than about twenty miles down the road before Mark started feeling fatigued, and his eyes started closing.