She still looked dissatisfied, but to my relief, she headed back up the staircase.
I clutched the door handle and stepped back inside the room, slamming the door behind me.
My stomach lurched as I looked over the horrifying scene once again. I half expected Ben to be crouching over the girl, drawing out the very last drops of blood from her still-warm corpse. But no. He was sitting on the floor in the far corner of the room, his back against the wall, his head clutched in his hands, breathing heavily.
I hurried over to him and bent down to his level, gripping his shoulders.
“Ben,” I rasped. “We have to leave. If someone finds us…” I looked up at the ceiling. If there were any surveillance cameras in here, they were well hidden because I couldn’t spot any.
“Get up,” I urged.
When he looked at me, his green eyes seemed darker than usual. Much darker. They were practically black.
His mouth was no longer covered in blood. I could see that he’d wiped it against his sleeve. He stood up, slightly unsteady. His jaw clenched as he eyed the corpse nearest to us.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said. He reached for my wrist and closed his hand around it. The next thing I knew, he was pulling me into the reception area and out of the main exit of the guesthouse. When we arrived on the street outside, it was dark. He gathered me onto his back and lurched forward with speed that made my stomach flip.
I was still feeling overwhelmed at what I’d just witnessed Ben do. I’d known that he was a vampire, but I’d never witnessed such a harrowing scene, even during my stay at The Oasis. And Ben… although he had told me about his struggle around humans, I’d still thought he was different because of the way he’d treated me. Seeing his darkness so starkly before me was something that I was still trying to come to terms with.
As he ran, we were just a blur in the darkness. It was a good thing too. Although he was wearing black, which helped to camouflage the stains, his robe was drenched in blood. We were moving too fast to see, but I was certain that we were leaving traces of blood on the sidewalk.
My grip around Ben’s shoulders tightened.
“We have to stop and get you some new clothes,” I said.
He didn’t argue with me. I was sure that he was having the same thoughts about leaving a trail behind us. We stopped as we reached a night market and he placed me down on the ground.
Taking the backpack off my shoulders, I dug inside and reached for a few notes—enough for new clothes. I handed the backpack to Ben, who put it on his back. He stood behind me, one arm wrapped around my waist and the other holding my upper left arm as we walked forward. His position against me made me feel like a prisoner being escorted somewhere.
I didn’t tempt fate while stopping by a clothes store and made our visit quicker than I’d thought possible. I chose the robe within a matter of seconds, and then thrust the cash at the stall owner, not even waiting for the correct amount of change.
We rushed away from the market and arrived at a quiet road. We stopped at the doorway of an old building. Placing the backpack on the ground, he pulled off his robe, then removed his pants, stripping to his underwear. I was supposed to be keeping watch, but I was embarrassed to find my eyes roaming his ridiculously attractive physique.
I tore my eyes away as he stepped into his fresh pants and pulled on the new robe. Bundling up the old soiled clothes, he threw them into a trashcan at the side of the road and turned back to me.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “Let’s continue.”
“Where to now?” I asked.
“Now, we need to head for water. The Nile. Do you have any idea how to get there? Are we going to need to pick up a map?”
“I have a map,” I said, reaching into the backpack. I pulled it out and handed it to Ben.
He opened it up and looked at it. Although it was dark, and there were no streetlights where we were standing, we could both see all the details of the map clearly. My supernatural vision was yet another thing I was still getting used to.
We found our location on the map, then figured out the quickest route that involved passing by the least number of humans. Once we were confident in the plan, I climbed onto Ben’s back, the backpack once again fastened over my shoulders.
Then he ran nonstop, slowing down only occasionally to consult the map he had gripped in his hand to ensure that we were still going in the right direction.
Soon, the night air felt cooler and fresher. I sensed that we were approaching a body of water. When Ben stopped, we were standing in a dark harbor. A myriad of boats surrounded us. There were larger vessels—as large as cruise ships—as well as smaller ones like speedboats.