My Pleasure, Darling

29: Risk, part II

Felix rips the roads a new one. I don't know whether it's because he's a speed devil or whether till guy didn't call HURS, but either way, it doesn't seem like we're being followed.

I eat when I come to, and drink, and read Andrea a book. Then I give her the book and let her sound out the words to herself slowly. This keeps her more than busy and entertained. I make sure to applaud her at the end of every sentence. If anything, to give her the feeling of some kind of normalcy. She's less fussy today. I wonder if it's just sleeping in the car that makes her so upset.

I get it, kid. It would traumatize me too.

"Lois."

"Felix."

"Am I seeing the thing that I think that I'm seeing?"

I turn away from Andrea to the road, a bit slowly, so I nearly miss it. But it was unmistakable.

It was her face.

"I hope not, because I think I just saw it too."

"Shit."

"What did it say? I didn't have time to read."

"Have you seen this child? Missing. Reward 1000 Lon. And a number."

I am frozen, locked into place in the passenger's seat. "They can't have. We must have mis-seen. They'd know her face. They already claimed her body, they can't go around telling people she's still around. People would recognise her face-"

"It was drawn. Harder to recognise that way. Somebody could turn her in and never know who they were holding."

He's right. Humans aren't good at recognizing faces. Not the way vampires are, at the very least.

Everything in me wants to turn to Andrea. To check she is still there. To see her pretty face and look at her big pretty eyes and know, for a fact, that she is still safe with me. I don't dare. I'm scared I'll give myself away and she'll know we are talking about her. My tone is flippant, mostly to hide my anxiety. "You know, this is not the most ideal day I've ever had."

"Me neither."

It doesn't compute. There's another billboard, a bit smaller this time. Even though we are racing, it feels like it comes up to us in slow-motion, advancing horrifyingly. A pen-ink drawing of Princess Alexandria's face. Maybe changed just a little here and there – slightly different angle at the chin, and a few freckles, but unmistakably the little girl currently in our back seat.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CHILD? MISSING. REWARD: 1000L.

This is not a good day to be smuggling two vampires through the countryside.

"It's alright," he coos. "We're nearly in Inquidorn, we can disappear in the big city."

I whisper, because I think if I speak out loud, my voice will break, and with it, my resolve. "Felix, there's no way we'll get through Inquidorn."

"What then?" he snaps.

I don't answer. We both know what the only other option is. I can't say it out loud. I don't want to.

The signs for Inquidorn lower. First a hundred, then eighty, then sixty, then twenty-five.

I see something on the horizon when we pass the ten mark. My fists clench and my nails dig into my flesh. I don't even notice the pain.

Felix is a second behind me. "Shit." Before any of us have time to prepare, the car swerves right out of its lane. I think a car behind us has to brake suddenly to avoid a crash. We narrowly miss the barriers, driving off an exit to nowhere.