The big man shifted gears and the truck switched lanes as a sign to Dallas flashed by. The sight of the white lettering on the green sign was a comfort. She was halfway to her Grandmama's. Then she could tell her grandmother goodbye and figure out what the hell she was going to do next.
***
The motel near Dallas' downtown was packed with families in transit after the long Easter weekend and a few big trucks sat idling in the parking lot. The night had cooled off quite a bit, but the heat coming off the highway rolled in waves over the asphalt parking lot. As she walked beside Rob toward the office, his whole body quivered. The man was not only impressive in height, but girth. He had barely spoken after their brief interchange and that had been fine with her.
She needed time to think and figure out what the hell was going on with her.
A part of her was afraid that her reaction to everything happening around her was wrong, that her transformation had altered something inside of her forever, that she was so changed she could not even fathom what it was that had died inside of her.
Lighting a cigarette she had bummed off Rob, she exhaled slowly. She didn't feel like slipping inside the building just yet. The night felt good. There was energy in the air. Maybe it was because they were so close to Deep Ellum, the Dallas hot spot for entertainment.
“Coming?”
Exhaling, she shook her head. “Nah, I'm going to take a moment out here, then I'll head in.” She gazed out over the Dallas skyline and smiled slightly. She always loved the way cities looked at night with their flashy lights and fancy glass buildings. It had been a far departure from the four block downtown of her small home town.
Rob hesitated, then nodded. “Okay. Well, catch you later.”
“Thanks for the ride,” she said with a wide smile. “I really appreciate it.”
The man abruptly smiled, his teeth flashing under his mustache.
“Was a pleasure.”
He turned and disappeared through the door that took him into the office. She could see him approaching the battered front desk through the window and turned away slowly to look down the highway.
Tucking one hand into her jeans pocket, Amaliya watched the cars speeding past the motel. If Professor Sumner was around, she couldn't feel him. But then again, maybe she could only feel him when he wanted her to. Frowning slightly, she took another deep drag on her cigarette and crouched down next to her bag. Pretending to take her money out of her bag, she actually took it out of her boot, then stood up.
A few more drags had her cigarette burning low. She exhaled slowly as she dropped the butt to the ground and ground it out.
“Night,” Rob said emerging from the office and moving past her, heading toward his truck to get his stuff.
“Night, Rob. Thanks again,” she said, then headed inside.
The very dark man behind the counter looked like he could be Indian or Pakistani. He was listening to exotic music she had never heard before. He eyeballed her thoughtfully as she approached and gave him a wide smile.
“I need a room,” she said.
Amaliya leaned against the counter on her elbows and looked up at him from under the brim of her hat.
“You got one,” he answered. He slid a little white envelope toward her with a card tucked inside.
“Thanks,” she said, and pulled out her wad of money. “How much?”
“Paid for by your boyfriend,” the man answered, and turned to fuss with his reservation cards.
“The big guy?”
“Yes, he paid for you. Said you are his girlfriend and need your own room to be respectful to your father.” He looked at her as if he didn't believe she could ever be respectful.
“Oh, well, thanks,” she said, and took the card.
Walking back out into the night, Amaliya felt as if maybe her luck was changing. First a good, clean ride into Dallas and now a free hotel room. She had yet to spend any of the money she had brought with her. Heaving her bag onto her back, she trudged up the stairs to the second floor. She started scanning doors for her hotel room number.
Her hearing seemed to be keener than before for she could clearly hear what was going on behind each door. When she heard two burly male voices urging each other on for hotter sex followed by a room with a family reading the Bible, she struggled not to burst out laughing.
Finding her room at the far end and tucked a little out of the way, she slipped the card into the slot on the electronic device on the door. The little light turned green and she shoved the door open. She sighed as a room, nearly identical to the one she had left Pete in, swung into view.
The door clicked shut behind her. She threw the bag on the first bed, walked over to the second queen size bed, and grabbed the comforter.
Yanking the ugly thing off the bed, Amaliya carried it to the vanity.
She frowned at the empty room in the mirror. She easily jumped onto the counter and worked at getting the comforter adjusted over the mirror. It was a little hard since it was bolted to the wall, but she managed to get it tucked around the corners. Jumping back down, she looked at the ugly bedspread covering the mirror with satisfaction.
She did not need to deal with staring into an empty mirror tonight.
Kicking off her boots, she sprawled on one of the beds and turned on the TV. Some late night news show was on and to her surprise, her old college was being shown in stock photos. But then again, how could she be surprised? She knew this was coming. Chewing on her thumbnail, she turned up the sound as video of body bags being carried out of the frat house filled the screen.
“Well, you know, man, they were in a secret room. That's just weird,”
a student was saying to a reporter.
“Did you know anyone who was killed?”
“No, no, but that one guy was like the football star. We're gonna lose all the games next season, that's for sure.”
“Did you hear rumors about a cult being on campus?”
“Satanists are everywhere, man. I saw it at my church camp. They had a video,” the guy said confidently.
Amaliya rolled her eyes.
“There is still no official word on the cause of death, but many speculate that this could have been a ritual killing. Whether or not the deceased were willing participants, remains to be determined.
Sources close to the investigation say that the room held evidence of-”
the female reporter hesitated “evidence of an orgy and drug use. The authorities and school officials ask that students call in to the number on the screen. They are still trying to estimate how many students may still be missing. As stated earlier, there is a report of an unmarked grave being discovered in the forest behind the school. The grave held the body of a young woman that has yet to be identified. Authorities are now searching the woods as a report of yet another grave being discovered has surfaced. This one was supposedly empty.”
“He killed another girl?” Amaliya blinked. “Shit.”
She rolled onto her back and killed the sound. So far she was safe from suspicion. The satanic cult theory would take awhile to disprove and she knew that people would cling to it like crazy. Satanists were easier to believe in than vampires. Slowly, she worked her socks off her feet using her toes as she lay on the bed staring at the ceiling. She almost felt angry and jealous that the Professor had killed another girl and just not her. She wondered why the other girl hadn't changed like she had.
Probably her bad luck...again.
“Well, fuck it,” she muttered, and slid off the bed. Shoving her jeans down over her hips, she pulled the covers down on the second queen size bed in the room. Dancing her way out of her pant legs, she collapsed on the bed and stared at her toes. Her toe nails were looking wicked sharp, too.
Grabbing her toiletry bag, she headed over to the vanity to brush her teeth and wash her face. Maybe both things were totally unnecessary now, but she felt the need to do something normal. She was leaning over the sink, scrubbing away when she heard the door open behind her. Whirling around, she was startled to see Rob standing in the doorway staring at her with his usual blank look. In utter silence, he shut the door and walked over and sat down on the bed she had turned down. Spitting out the toothpaste and quickly rinsing out her mouth, she tried to process his strange appearance in the room.
“Uh, Rob? What are you doing here?”
Sitting with his hands on his knees, he turned his head and looked at her calmly. “I paid for the room. They gave me a card.”
“Yeah, but why are you here?” She put her hands on her hips and tried not to be intimidated by the fact she was standing in her pink and black bikini underwear and AC/DC tank.
He slowly smiled. “You're a nice girl.”
She snorted slightly, and shook her head. “Okay, maybe, but why the hell are you in my hotel room?”
Shifting his massive weight, he adjusted himself and gave her a surprisingly sly expression. “You know.”
“Aw, fuck,” she said, and threw up her hands. “My luck so freaking sucks.”
“I think you need to get over here and get to sucking,” Rob said with a sure smile.
“Fuck you.”
“Get to it.”
She flipped him off and walked toward him. “Get out. Now!”
“Not until we're done,” he said firmly. His expression was fading from blank to incredibly forceful.
She moved past him, intending to open the door, and usher him out.
He snagged her wrist, yanked her off her feet, and onto his lap. He was suddenly all over her, his hands creeping under her shirt and down her panties. He was massive and his girth seemed to consume her smaller frame. She began to panic.
“Just don't fight and it will be okay,” he whispered in her ear and licked it.
Her elbow came up and hit him hard in the sternum as her anger flared. To her surprise, he fell back, stunned and gasping. Realizing she had the upper hand, she leaped to her feet and kicked his huge gut hard.
“Do not fuck with me, asshole.”
To her surprise, he kicked back, hitting her square in the stomach with his big boot, and knocked her back into the TV. If she had been a breathing mortal, she would have had the wind knocked out of her.
But she wasn't breathing and she wasn't mortal. As he sat up gasping, he reached for her, and she stood with her feet apart.
“I'm warning you,” she said in a low voice.
“Get on your knees,” he snarled, and unzipped his jeans. His face was flushed and angry.
Scowling, she drew her fist back and punched him square in the jaw.
His head rocked back as he let out a startled cry. Reaching down, she grabbed him by his belt buckle, and heaved him off the bed. Despite his massive weight, he came up easily. She whirled him around and reared back her fist. He was choking and foaming at the mouth as he tried to talk. Spitting out a few of his teeth, he reached desperately for her neck. Slamming her fist into his nose, she felt it break, then slide back into his meaty face. He hit the ground with a resounding thunk.
Licking the blood off her fingers, she stood over him, her gaze cold and cruel.
“Don't fuck with me,” she repeated.
Reaching down, she heaved the dying man up and bared long, terrible teeth, and drove them into his fatty neck.
“Sergio, I'm coming home,” her voice sounded shaky, even to her.
“You okay?” her cousin's rich voice asked, his West Texas accent thick and strong.
“Yeah, I'm just having a rough time right now,” she answered. She tried not to look at the mauled man on the floor of the hotel room.
“Yeah, I saw what went down at your college. Scary shit. Satanists doing stuff like that. Are you okay? Did you know anyone who died?”
Combing her fingers through the edges of her hair, she said, “Yeah, I knew someone.”
“Were they close to you?” Sergio's voice asked.
Tears in her eyes, she looked over at the ravaged body. “Yeah. She was. I'm coming to see Grandmama. The bus leaves Dallas at 9:45.
Can you pick me up around 11:30 in Eastland?”
“In the morning?”
“No, at night. I'm still...on my way.”
“Yeah, sure. I could get you then. Grandmama will still be up watching the late night talk shows. You know how she is about them,”
he said with a laugh. “But she said she missed you on Easter. More drama, huh?”
“You know how it is with our family.”
“You mean how our Aunt drove to East Texas with her floozy eighteen year old daughter to help take care of her dying sister and how said floozy cousin then slept with your Dad? The way that is?”
“Yep.” She wiped more tears away.
“Gotcha. I can't stand Kelly Ann either and she's family. Don't get me started on Aunt Mae.”
Despite herself, Amaliya laughed and held the phone closer. The voice of her cousin made her feel safer somehow. Safe from what though? The bogeyman wasn't outside the door. The monster was in the room and already living inside of her.
“I think she has less teeth now than before.”
“Maybe Kelly Ann is punching them out,” Sergio suggested. “You know, she's a lot like our dead Uncle.”
“Violent and stupid?”
“And ugly.”
“True dat,” Amaliya agreed.
She looked over at the body. It was amazing how little blood there was, but then again, she had drained him dry. She couldn't stay here any longer though. If Rob's truck stayed idling out in the parking lot, it would get hairy for her real quick. Especially if the sun was out.
“Okay, so I'll get you tomorrow night,” Sergio said, realizing the conversation was at an end.
“Thanks again,” she whispered.
“Hey, it's what family is for.”
“You always were my favorite,” she confessed.
“You say that to all the cousins,” he teased, then said in a more serious tone, “take care of yourself. Get some rest. I'll see you tomorrow.”
The loud buzzing that followed the click of the phone being set down made her sigh. She hung up the phone. It was probably stupid to call her cousin, but she had used what little remained of a phone card she had at the bottom of her bag. Hopefully, by the time the police traced it, she would have said goodbye to her grandmother and sworn her cousin to secrecy.