Page 29 of Zomromcom
“Very well.” Max looked down at Edie. “I know their decision distresses you, ma puce. But we can’t force them to find shelter, and we need to get back on the road. The sooner we alert the authorities, the sooner everyone will be safe.”
“Riley…” She drew a hitching breath and tried not to picture the entire troop of Girl Explorers sprawled lifeless and bloody across a shadow-soaked forest. “Please.”
“Don’t worry, Edie. We really will be fine. I promise you.” Riley stepped forward, and her hug was quick but warm. “Besides, we all have our hiking and tracking badges. We’ll catch up with you soon enough.”
“We have a car ,” Edie said slowly. “So…”
How exactly were the girls supposed to catch up with that ?
Riley and the rest of her troop simply smiled, and before Edie could protest further, they headed into the woods. As soon as they vanished behind the trees, Max’s hand on Edie’s back urged her toward the SUV.
When he opened the door for her, Edie sighed and boosted herself into the passenger seat.
As she situated herself comfortably, he lingered, with one hand braced on the SUV’s frame, one hand on the door itself.
He was forcing her to stay within the vehicle, an outside observer might conclude.
Eliminating her means of escape, like the canny predator he was.
But Edie knew better. Although he was probably tempted to handcuff her to his SUV after her impromptu roadside dash, this wasn’t about keeping her inside. This was about making sure any and all threats to her well-being remained safely outside .
Unable to resist, she planted a fond kiss on his nose before buckling up. “Thank you for offering to help the girls.”
“You were going to volunteer my assistance anyway. I just saved you the trouble.” Her door closed with a quiet thunk .
Then, before she could even blink, he’d sprinted around the hood, boosted himself into the driver’s seat, closed his own door, and hit the lock button.
“Before we get going, we need to consider what we just heard. If Riley’s unnamed witch is correct and the door through Wall Four is closed, we may not be able to leave the Zone. ”
“And we’ve now identified the culprits responsible for the breach. Demons.” She hesitated. “Assuming we can trust what we were told.”
Max’s lips thinned. “We don’t know anything about this very informative witch. Including whether she or Riley might have an agenda different from ours.”
“Yeah.” She slumped in her seat. “I hate that we can’t take anything at face value. You’re right, though. We don’t know either of them. They could have some kind of vendetta against demons.”
His forefinger tapped against the steering wheel. “Or Supernaturals in general.”
“If we manage to get past Wall Four and alert the authorities, whoever caused the breach will be in deep, deep shit. Like, Mariana Trench deep.” Her lip stung as she bit it slightly too hard. “I don’t want to point the finger at demons if they might not be at fault.”
“There would be government payback.” He swept an alert glance around their surroundings before speaking again. “Probably vigilante violence against demons by common humans too. Anti-Supernatural bigots have been looking for an excuse for over two decades.”
If something she told the government led to that kind of indiscriminate violence, she wasn’t certain she could live with herself. “We could simply fail to mention the possibility of demon involvement. Let officials discover it for themselves.”
“That might not be possible.” His eyes met hers, blue and solemn.
“The perpetrators have had ample time to clean up any tangible evidence at the breach site. Scent evidence may be the sole remaining indicator of demonic involvement. And while there’s still no good way to erase an olfactory signature, despite the efforts of various Supernatural species, it fades rapidly. ”
Fuck. “There might not be any traces left by the time authorities arrive.”
“Correct.” He exhaled slowly. “Even if the human government coordinates with SERC immediately and recruits the urgent assistance of an extremely high-level vampire to gather olfactory clues. We’re the only ones who can determine a species’ designation from scents too faint for even werewolves to detect. ”
“And the government may not contact SERC right away.” Bowing her head, she dug her fingertips into her temples. “Either because of bureaucratic delays or simple mistrust of their ostensible allies.”
“Correct again.” His strong fingers massaged the taut muscles of her neck. “I apologize, Edie. I didn’t consider scent evidence when we discussed inspecting the site this morning.”
Her poor brain was spinning. “You’re a high-level vampire. Right?”
He simply looked at her.
“Of course you are. Show-off.” She dismissed that question with a wave of her hand. “So you can gather that kind of evidence?”
He raised a single, judgmental brow. “Yes. Obviously.”
“Given your previous involvement with SERC, would any testimony you offered be considered reliable evidence?” Because if authorities wouldn’t trust his findings, there was no point wasting precious minutes or hours gathering clues at the breach location.
At that, he paused. “Probably. I left under”—another hesitation—“fraught circumstances, but my honesty was never in doubt. And like I said before, I still have a few contacts there.”
Her curiosity pricked at her, but there was no time to discuss what, precisely, fraught circumstances entailed. They had an immediate decision to make.
Further delays to their alert-the-authorities mission would only hone her impatience to a killing edge, but…
dammit. “I was wrong. We do need to inspect the breach ourselves and gather any remaining scent evidence there. It’ll cost us time we don’t have, but at least the main zombie pack has already crossed into Zone C.
We should be able to get to the site and back relatively quickly. ”
“Agreed,” he said.
His big, cool hand dropped from her nape and gently squeezed her knee. Then he reached for the gearshift, faced forward, and executed a quick U-turn on the access road. Soon enough, they were zipping back toward Wall Two while she devoured another cinnamon roll from her white bakery bag.
The SUV hurtled through the wall and onto the bridge just as she swallowed her last sticky-sweet bite.
The water below was more a blur than anything else, and the low barricade between the vehicle and the moat wasn’t even visible through her window, not from only a handsbreadth away.
He was driving absurdly fast, absurdly close to the concrete barrier.
That should probably make her nervous, shouldn’t it?
Somehow, though, she just couldn’t seem to get there.
At this point, only a fool would believe he didn’t care about her survival, no matter what edgelord nonsense he spouted.
He wouldn’t willingly endanger her. In fact, when it came to Max, she had another, much more salient concern jockeying for her attention: namely, what he might risk to keep her safe.
His own safety, definitely. His stupid sword-swinging stunt on the zombie-covered bridge had proven that. Would he risk his immortal life too?
Now, that possibility did scare her. More and more with every passing hour.
She didn’t want him in danger, and if he landed there anyway, she wanted to help him escape unscathed.
But if she didn’t understand his capabilities and vulnerabilities, didn’t grasp how his species functioned, she couldn’t assist or protect him as she needed to.
For her to become an asset rather than a liability as his companion, she required far, far more information.
Luckily, she knew just where to start digging. “I’m surprised that Riley was able to identify you as a vampire so quickly, black clothes or no black clothes. How did she know? What signs am I missing?”
With a slight jolt, the SUV cleared the bridge and reentered the main access road through Zone A. Max immediately eased the vehicle closer to the center of their lane and slowed slightly, his brow furrowed in seeming concentration.
“I was surprised too,” he said slowly. “Like most vampires, I am, of course, spectacularly hot—”
Edie feigned an enormous yawn.
“—and as a species, we do traditionally wear black clothing, due to countless centuries spent hiding our existence in darkness. But there are quite a few good-looking humans who wear black as well. Not as good-looking, clearly, but…”
This time, she regaled him with a loud retching noise, which he ignored as he contemplated her question.
“Supernaturals and Enhanced humans can reliably identify one another if given a few moments for study and consideration,” he finally said.
“The exact mechanism still isn’t clear. It might involve pheromones or sensory capacities not yet discovered by researchers.
But for whatever reason, almost all of us can do it.
The means of identification and level of specificity differ among various groups, though. ”
Unable to locate any unused wet towelettes, she wiped her sugar-crusted fingers on her coveralls. “What does that mean?”
“As I mentioned earlier, vampires can usually recognize every Supernatural species by scent, but most of us can’t be quite so specific with the Enhanced.
” His sideways glance lingered on her new stain before he shook his head and returned his attention to the road.
“When it comes to witches and oracles and so on, the average vampire can only say with certainty what they’re not. I.e., common humans or Supernaturals.”
“But you’re not an average vampire.”
He scoffed. “As should be more than evident by now.”
“So if Riley were either a Supernatural or Enhanced, you’d have known, and you’d have been able to pinpoint her exact designation by smell alone.”
“Correct.” Apparently unable to help himself, he reached into his console and plucked out a pristine wet-wipe packet, which he tossed in her lap.
“Different species have different identification mechanisms. Elves, for example, primarily recognize other Supernaturals and the Enhanced by appearance. They can typically see through glamours and distinguish visual differences that are too subtle for even vampires to detect.”
“Huh.” Edie cleaned her fingers and contemplated the new information. “That wet wipe was hiding from me, by the way.”
“Sure it was.”
In retaliation, she hummed the opening bars of the Gaston song, enjoying his pained expression and faint groan. Once she felt he’d suffered enough, though, she returned to the matter at hand.
“Okay. I get everything you’re saying.” Shifting in her seat, she angled her legs toward him. “But that still doesn’t explain how Riley identified you at first sight, and it doesn’t explain what happened with the other girls.”
His brows drew together. “What about the other girls?”
“Weren’t they common humans, like me?”
He answered without hesitation. “Yes.”
“Then why didn’t they look surprised when Riley announced you were a vampire?”
His mouth opened, then closed and stayed that way for a long while. By the time he finally responded, they weren’t too far away from their neighborhood and Cloverleaf Drive, where they’d begun their journey.
“I don’t know,” he said at last, each word emerging slowly. “But that’s an excellent question, Edie.”