Chapter 9

The four hour drive occurred mostly in silence, both Jake and Béla immersed in their own private, gloomy thoughts; Jake remembering a little about what had happened between them last night (Had he actually carried her, stark-raving naked, right through the bar and out the front door?) and some of the following things he’d done to her, afterward.

He was horribly ashamed of himself about what he’d done to her, and didn’t know how to even begin to apologize, although Béla was taking his treatment of her in an impossibly calm manner. Also, and in addition to all this emotional turmoil, he couldn’t even form words about what had actually set him off – the simple occurrence that had caused his mind to snap: when he’d removed the bandage the ER doctor had wrapped around his arm after Trishia had scratched him during their quarrel, the deep, long scratches had completely healed over, leaving three long, white lines where his healed skin wasn’t tanned yet. He couldn’t begin to process what that might even mean, in his mind.

As he thought about it, he remembered imaginary, fictional ‘facts’ learned from old vampire movies, specifically the exchange of blood between vampire and victim that supposedly caused a transformation of the victim into a soulless creature of the night, like the monster who’s blood he or she had been forced to ingest.

‘But, that’s all make believe, isn’t it? If she could make other vampires like herself, there’d be dozens of them – maybe thousands – running around all over the place!’

There was also the contradiction that he hadn’t drunk any of her blood. Had he? He tried to remember, then an image of licking a droplet of her blood from a tiny dart wound in her breast appeared, and he began to shake with mortal terror. He also remembered that the human body can absorb fluids directly through the skin. And his skin, especially his cock, had been immersed in Béla’s bloody, shot-up or knifed cunt dozens of times in his savage desire to fuck her ruined sexual organs before she could heal herself. He couldn’t begin to count the number of times his chest, belly and cock had been smeared with her blood over the few months he’d known her.

Béla sat, silent, her mind tightly closed to keep her emotional turmoil to herself as she watched the wild, almost alien landscape flow by; strange, almost unnatural black rocks that she had once believed was lava but was later told it wasn’t, floated by. These were caused by some sort of glacial activity, which she also didn’t really understand, although she’d seen her share of actual glaciers when she’d been carried off to help perpetuate the race of Norsemen whose raiding party she’d accidentally encountered some time back. Her ability to defend herself with a sword would’ve been better had she actually been wearing one at the time. As it was, she found herself simply picked up and carried off like a dozen other helpless women from the local village where she’d been staying.

The old pickup truck zoomed along through the bright morning sunshine flooding the cab – mostly on Béla’s side, but also through the windshield to warm Jake, as well. She could feel the turmoil roiling off Jake as he drove, his jaws clenched, his lips tight and strained. Jake was a rollercoaster of wild, raw emotions ever since he’d slapped her around and raped her last night, and Béla’s understanding of what his problem was seemed obviously incomplete. Whatever was wrong with him right now was so strong she couldn’t even find words to speak that might ease the tension between them. For her own peace of mind, she kept her mind shielded from his as best she could, waiting for Jake to broach the subject of whatever was bothering him.

Jake turned off the highway and they traveled the next ten miles climbing up High Point Road, twisting and turning in a series of switchbacks until the road abruptly ended into a copse of scrawny little trees and a single washed out path that continued upward.

The sun was already getting hot. Béla got out and looked around. There was the spot where Jake had hit her with the car, just a few weeks ago. It was one of the experiments she’d tried, to determine how much sensual overload she could actually take. She remembered that it was several days after being hit before she woke up.

“How did I get back to the cabin?” Béla asked, grateful to find something with which she might break their almost unbearable silence.

Jake was getting their backpacks out of the trunk. He looked around the cab toward Béla.

“What?” he asked, then he saw where she was looking. “Oh, I just tied a rope around your leg and dragged you,” he said, when he realized what she had asked.

“But that’s two miles!” she exclaimed, then realized he was actually teasing her, obviously grateful that they were talking again, even though the things that really needed to be said remained silent between them. “That was sweet of you. You could have just left me there,” she told him. ‘It wouldn’t be the first time I’d been left to rot at the side of a road... ‘

“I did,” said Jake, still joking with her, his mood lightening with almost every word, “but I had to come back.”

“Ha. Ha.” she teased back. “Felt guilty, did you?”

“No,” Jake laughed, trying to remain lighthearted, though they were getting dangerously close to things he wasn’t sure he wanted to discuss with her. “I was horny and needed something to jack off on.”

Jake had climbed into the back of the pickup to unload the bags they’d brought with them and now threw her backpack at her. She caught it, but he had thrown it so hard it knocked her down, bowling her right off her feet.

They took the trail up the mountain, bypassing the cabin they’d stayed in. After climbing for about an hour, Jake realized that it would be another two hours of hiking before they reached the place where Jake had been caught in the bear trap. He was fit, but he was no longer able to keep up with Béla, who hadn’t stopped climbing since they left the car.

“Do you have any idea where we’re going?” Jake asked breathlessly. ‘Woman on a mission!’ he thought to himself, feeling hot and tired, exhausted just from the effort of keeping up with her unreasonable pace.

Béla turned and looked back at him, suddenly concerned. Then she scampered back down to where he was standing. “Sorry, darling!” she said, kissing his sweaty cheek, “I didn’t even stop to think.”

“You didn’t stop, that’s for sure!” Jake panted, almost too winded to speak.

He sat down on a nearby rock and pulled out his water bottle. His clothes were soaked through with sweat. He drank half the bottle in one pull.

Béla dropped her backpack down beside her and pulled out her water bottle, took a sip and put it back. She wasn’t even damp from the intense climbing. She sat back, waiting patiently for Jake to recover. Then she reached down into her pack and pulled out a small plastic bottle.

“Catch!” she called out as she tossed it at him.

Jake caught it and turned it over in his hands, looking confused. There was a white cap on one end, a blue cap on the other, and it rattled like there were pills in it.

“What is it?” he asked her.

“The blue cap is salt, and the white cap is potassium,” she told him. “Take two salts and one potassium or you’ll get heat stroke.”

Jake opened the bottle and shook the pills out, repeating his actions for the other end.

“What about you?” he asked, holding the pills in his hand.

Béla just looked at him.

Jake shrugged and popped the three pills into his mouth, then took a deep pull from his bottle.

“Finish it,” she told him.

“What?” Jake asked, starting to sound annoyed.

“Drink the rest of your water,” Béla told him.

Jake tipped the bottle up and drained the small amount that was left, then raised his arm to toss the empty bottle over a bush.

“Put your bottle back in your pack. You’ll need it later,” Béla said, interrupting his throw.

“You know, you’re really bossy today!” Jake griped. But he stuffed the bottle back in his pack, just grateful that they were on speaking terms. After a few more minutes of rest, he stood up, stretching sore muscles, and said, “Okay, I feel better. Let’s go.”

Béla let him make that small decision to continue. She also let him lead so he could set their pace and she could watch him.

They took two more breaks before they reached the plateau where the old bear trap had been. Each time, Béla made Jake take salt and potassium and drink an entire bottle of water. It was now early afternoon and his entire supply of water was gone.

“Lunch time!” Jake said as they reached the flat.

He hadn’t stopped for lunch earlier because he knew Béla wanted to get here fast. He had never realized how physically fit she really was until today. He believed she could have climbed up here without taking any rest breaks. He didn’t know it, but, had she been alone, she could have stripped down and flown up here.

“What did you pack for lunch?” he asked her.

She opened her backpack and pulled out a plastic container containing a few slices of bread and a small, zippered ice pack. Opening it, she produced some packaged bologna and individually wrapped slices of white cheese.

Taking a pillowcase out of her backpack, she unfolded it and spread it out on the ground, then dumped the remaining contents of her ice pack – a tomato, several leaves of dark lettuce (separately wrapped) and a little sandwich bag containing some spices – on it.

Looking at the tomato, Jake remembered that she always got tomatoes whenever she could.

He chuckled to himself, remembering a similar conversation about sugar and coffee, along with her announcement that the smooth white stuff wasn’t as good as the original, brownish crystals, and coffee these days was almost too weak to drink.

“You going to make a salad?” he asked, somewhat sarcastically, knowing she had absolutely no abilities in the kitchen whatsoever.

Béla grinned and produced a small bottle of oil and a knife. She set them down on the pillowcase and pulled out a plastic bowl she’d used to pack her bathroom necessities in, grateful that she’d packed everything before she’d went into the club the previous night.

Smiling at Jake again, she set the bowl on the pillowcase. Two minutes later, she had a salad. She poured a little oil over it, sprinkled spices on it and handed the bowl to Jake. She sat back, looking smug, her legs folded under her.

Jake looked at the salad, then at Béla, smiling up at him.

“What do I eat it with?” he asked, politely.

“Fuck!” she exclaimed. Her face fell. “I didn’t bring anything!”

Jake held up his index finger, then pulled a couple of forks out of his backpack.

Béla laughed. “You knew I’d forget!” she accused him.

They ate quickly. Jake washed his very dry bologna and cheese sandwich down with water from Béla’s backpack because she also forgot packets of ketchup and mustard.

Now, she had the hiccups.

“Too much dry food too fast, babe,” admonished Jake. “Now it’s all balled up in your stomach and won’t go anywhere. Hiccups are your body’s effort to move stuck food.”

“(Hic!)” Béla replied, frowning with misery and unwilling to tell him that he was the reason her stomach was upset.

She also didn’t want to tell him she didn’t actually have a stomach, per se. The entire central part of her body was one big digestive system, capable of digesting almost anything it came in contact with. Her muscles and circulatory system were protected from it by an incredibly fast ability of her blood to clot when it came into contact with her digestive system’s acidic content.

“Here,” Jake said as he handed her his (her?) water bottle. She took a sip.

“Drink it all!” he told her, his gleeful grin telling her that he was also enjoying this brief, lighthearted respite from the previous gloom.

Glaring at him, and hiccuping, she raised the bottle to her lips and emptied it. Then she took the bottle in both hands and twisted it into two pieces, top and bottom. Smiling, she handed the plastic pieces back to him, and strutted away to begin repacking her backpack.

‘Why does she think she needs a gun to come up here?’ Jake thought as he looked at the water bottle’s torn remains. He tossed them onto the ground.

“You don’t get away that easy, little miss smart ass,” he called out to her.

When she turned around, he was taking off his shirt.

“There’s a completely usable blanket over there,” he suggested, indicating the pillowcase still lying on the ground.

“And leftover oil,” she informed him, getting into the mood. “And a nice, hot sun to cook us both as we roll around in the dust and dirt. So put your shirt back on!”

“Only if you take yours off,” Jake said, compromising with her.

Béla shrugged. “You do it,” she said and stood there while he unbuttoned her front. In less than a minute he had her completely naked. She looked magnificent in the bright sunlight.