“That’s okay. Thanks, though.”
Spencer added, “We’re good.” He coughed, hitting his chest. “We can keep going. No problem here.”
“Pretend we’re not human.”
The anchor stopped. It was all the way to the bottom of his feet, but Gavin knew what had to be done. He let go of the sword. He couldn’t plunge it into Davy. He couldn’t do that, not yet anyway, but she had to be handled. She stepped toward the humans and he moved behind her.
Spencer gave her a thumbs-up sign. “Really. We’re good. We’ll march all night.”
Cal nodded, his eyes gleaming from fear. “Yep. Me, too. All night.”
Davy shook her head. She said quietly, “No. I can help you. You’re human. I remember what that feels like. So much pain. So much misery. You feel worthless half the time and then struggle to even feel that much the other half. It’s a disease.”
“Oh God.” Spencer gulped. He backed away as Davy advanced. Cal was right with him. “Really. I like my humanity.”
Cal jerked his head up and down. “Me, too. Lots of pain. I live for that shit.”
“No, you don’t.” Davy let out a sigh. Sympathy laced it. “You were high when I met you. Both of you. You sought other planes of consciousness. No one does that if they’re happy. They seek to escape life. They seek to distract themselves. It’s why you went on your study abroad in the first place. I felt your reasons, in both of you. You wanted to get out of your home. You wanted to travel, seek new and exciting places to be. You were searching for yourself. That’s what you were doing. No, no.” She stopped in front of them. As they cowered, she seemed to grow in size. She didn’t move, but she was suddenly looming over them.
Gavin kept with her, moving as she did. She couldn’t know he was right behind her. He moved as silent as she did.
She paused, gazing at the humans for another second. “I used to want what you have. I wanted to cling to my humanity desperately, but I was wrong. It’s so much more freeing this way. There’s no sadness, no regret. You’ll see what I’m talking about. The others know. They understand.”
Spencer and Cal shrunk down. “Come on, Davy. Can we—please no . . .”
Spencer didn’t say a word. He saw what was coming and clasped his eyes shut. Sucking in a breath, he started to envision somewhere else, somewhere safe. He hoped to be there whenever this psycho bitch did whatever she was going to do.
Davy lifted her arms up. She closed her eyes, too, and started to say the words.
And Gavin moved.
His hands grasped both sides of her face, and as she stiffened in reflex, he snapped her neck. He let her fall. He didn’t catch her. This wasn’t a normal being. Another vampire and he knew they would have a few hours before they woke. This was Davy. She was something entirely else, and he had no idea how long she’d be out.
He turned to Tracey and Gregory, saying, “We have to go. Now.”
They both nodded, and in the blink of an eye, the vampires were gone. They snatched the humans with them.
Davy’s body was left on the ground.
Davy’s eyes snapped open, but she didn’t move from the ground. She remained there, staring at the sky, as she realized what happened.
“Well.” The Immortal sat next to her, her legs crisscrossed. “I can’t say that I didn’t think this was going to happen.”
Davy turned her head to the side. She knew only she could see The Immortal, dressed just as herself, but she didn’t care. In fact, as she remembered Gavin snapping her neck and the others were gone now, she didn’t care about that either.
In fact, she didn’t care to comment back to The Immortal so she remained there and looked back to the sky.
She used to care . . .
Why had she cared . . . What had she cared about?
It was nagging her, in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t remember. Humanity. That was what she had been talking to the humans about when Gavin broke her neck. Was that what it was? Was that what was missing from her now?
“I’m dead,” she spoke out loud, as much to herself as to The Immortal.
“Yep.” The Immortal sighed, sounding impatient. “You are. Welcome to the official world of Immortality.”
“My human body is dead.”
“And you’re still here. Still talking. Still breathing, well—” The Immortal leaned over and pressed her ear to Davy’s chest. She paused, then straightened back up. “—you don’t need breath anymore, but you’re still breathing because that’s what is natural to your body.”
“Like vampires.”