Chapter 15

    After getting out of town, Earl had his truck in the red all the way back to his rez. What he saw was enough to keep his foot down until he pulled up to the only place he could run to. Of course, he was always welcome at home at his parents. What they knew of their one wild wanderer of a son was that he never had a permanent residence in the city.
    They always told him that he could, if he wanted to, get a job at any of the oilfields. They would give a guy with his talents more money than he knew what to do with. Hell, anywhere in the city would too. Earl was a natural-born wrench turner. Knew how to take them all apart and put them back together. The times before heading out to the city on his own, he built himself a truck. Really, just dropped the engine and transmission in and bolted it together and was on his way, but even that was a lot for a seventeen year old kid.
    What drove his parents nuts was Earl's wandering nature. He never took an interest in anything that would dissolve into a career. He wanted to explore and see the things that there was to see. In the city, there was a lot of that. So he started getting home later and later. Then days would go by, then he finally just called home and said that he was going to be staying in the city. His parents had mixed feelings to say the least.
    They were worried that Earl was going to be another young man who fell into the life of crime. They were close, pretty right when it came to the morality of the whole situation. What really happened was the thing they knew their kid would probably fall into. He met a girl. Being parents who had their share of experiences, the girl was probably going to be bad news. On the phone calls home, Earl assured them that he was in a good place. No drugs or gangs or anything like that, but he sure did have something with this girl. So, Earl's folks eased up and let the man be.
    Earl's nature worked against him though. He wanted to know what happened to Bev. The stupidly admirable thing about Earl, the fear of what he saw that last night was nothing to not knowing what happened to Bev. She knew the phone number to his folks' place if she needed to call. She didn't. Earl kept checking the news, driving out above the low hills to get cell phone coverage. Nothing. He would park there for hours just waiting.
    During those times, he would start getting mad at Katrina and Dee. Not so much Miki, she was always nice to him, always buying him something to eat if he was hungry. But Katrina and Dee, if they could've just gotten some kind of life instead of wanting to hang out with that stupid group. Bev always called it the 'goth drinking club'. Which was about right to Earl. They never really did anything besides sit around and talk. Probably all gossip.
    One night Bev found Earl and she told him that they made her get a tattoo. Earl thought that was kind of cool though, he always wanted to get some kind of ink, but never got around to it. Then a while later, Bev was really pissed when she had to get a stupid f*****g brand or something. She made Earl look and tell her what it was. At the time it didn't look like anything so he couldn't say. It turned out to be the same shape as the tattoo.
    By that time, Earl was getting a creepy vibe about the people they were hanging out with. They started to talk to Earl, but he always kept them at arm's length. Then Bev just opened up and told Earl what they were really doing. It blew Earl's mind. She told Earl that he was right inside along with them even though he didn't have the markings. Since Bev had them, it meant he was in too. They didn't give Bev a choice, and they sure as hell didn't give him one. That was when bev showed him the last tattoo that surrounded the brand.
    Earl knew the old guy, he always hung out with Katrina, Dee, and Miki when they were around at one of the gatherings. Always laughed and he always gave them things. Earl wasn't sure, but he had an idea that the old bugger gave Katrina a car. A really nice car, four doors, but it had a European sports car look to it.
    That last night he saw him though, that changed everything. The stories he heard from Bev weren't really stories anymore. When he thought about it, he couldn't think of anything besides the guy laying on the ground screaming. Actually screaming, he thought he heard men scream before, but that poor guy. It smelled like blood and guts. Literally, he knew the smell of blood, and the guts. Earl could smell the s**t that the guy had in his intestines. The guy was dead before that stiff a*s guy came and told them to get the hell out of there.

    Earl pulled out his wallet, there was a few emergency bills left in there. Something Bev gave him, just in case. He decided he was going to at least drive by where he left her. If Katrina and Dee were home, he would march right in there and just take Bev back to the rez. To hell with their stupid club, they can cram it.
    The area where they lived was, as anybody who lived there would call it, affluent. To everybody else, it was snob hill. That, in itself, was the last thing people could call the area. There was nothing really hilly about it. It was just a small rise on the plateau, but it was surrounded with buildings that made it more like traveling in a canyon walled with glass. Earl turned and parked across from the hedge protected house and turned off his truck.
    The thing about the street was it seemed quieter than the rest of the city, noise was only for the main roads. There was nobody moving around in the house. Earl turned in his seat and looked back up the street, not knowing what he expected to see. Maybe see Katrina's car driving up and turning into the driveway. He knew that it wouldn't be long before a security vehicle would drive by. Or worse, a cop car. They would pull up behind him and make sure to be quiet about getting him out of the area. These people could afford peace and quiet and the peace of mind of not having him in the area.
    The radio was playing the news for the second time. Just to keep moving, instead of inviting attention that he didn't want, he would start his truck and go check the few places he knew that Bev would be. He hoped he would see Katrina's car parked at one of them. When he didn't see that, he went and parked in front of their place again. The day was running out, it would be getting dark soon. Earl pulled out is cell phone and checked it for the thousandth time. The radio was switching over from the regular day time guy to the night time crew.

    “You're the last, we need to head east.”
    Before Earl could turn and swear at the guy, somebody was sitting down and pulling the other door closed.
    “You.” Earl's fists clenched. “Where the hell is Bev?”
    “Safe.” The guy was sitting straight, but his head swiveled to look up and down the street. “And it's safer that you not know. You're lucky I'm the one who came by.”
    “I guess, as long as it's not that other f*****g maniac that you brought to the party.” Earl remembered seeing Ryn tearing open a knife wound.
    “Hmm, yes. Look, we need to leave. We're not safe. Even in the daylight.” Mimyr stared at Earl.
    “Is that dick, Ryn, really that dangerous? I thought you could control him?” Earl thought he knew these people, at least a little bit.
    For the first time, Mimyr's face changed. He actually looked shocked, he gave a small laugh. “No, the thing we're running from is,” Mimyr put his fingers up to his temple, then looked at his hand like it surprised him, “far worse. Now, let's get going. I can leave you here and take your truck, or you can come with us and live a little longer.”
    “Us?” Earl hoped he wasn't going to have to see the last person in the world he wanted to see.
    “Yes, Ryn.” Mimyr pointed at the keys and nodded.
    “If you think I'm letting that crazy f**k anywhere near me, you-” Before Earl could finish, Mimyr had his hand on the key and the truck started.
    “Last chance. You can stay if you want, but it's not going to help. Even though you don't have the mark, your name is already out there as being with Bev. You are practically family so that makes you Kin. You'll be hunted until you are dead.” Mimyr's voice was starting to change, his patience was running out.
    “What about Bev?”
    “Safe as we can make them. We would send you that way, but would you want to leave a trail to where they are? Why not lead the threat away?”
    “What the hell are you guys running from? I thought you guys could handle anything?”
    Mimyr pulled a point out from his pocket, a regular quarter, and held it between his index and finger. “See this?”
    Earl nodded. Mimyr crushed it like it was play dough, it fell apart between his fingers. What Earl knew about these people was only rumour to him. He tricked his mind into believing that Ryn was just insane. He picked up a shard of the destroyed coin, it had finger prints pressed into it on one side. That's what convinced him that everything was real. He was a part of some gang, a group, he was Kin even though he wasn't marked. Just seeing finger prints pressed into a shredded coin.
    “Imagine that kind of power being meaningless to the thing chasing us. You don't want it finding Bev, do you? It is on our trail and we can only try and hide. We head east.” Mimyr tapped the gear shift. “We need to go.”
    “Bev is west then.” Earl stated, no question.
    “Believe me, she is safe as anyone can make her. Even we are almost powerless there.”
    Earl wanted to ask why they couldn't go there too, but the way Mimyr looked. Normally stoic and wooden, his head kept jerking left and right. Earl decided it was best to put his foot down and try to get answers while they were on the road. Mimyr told Earl to head north, they had to pick up Ryn. When they pulled into a rest stop, Earl had to make Mimyr promise him something.
    “Hey, you have to promise me one thing.” Earl tookhold of Mimyr's sleeve before he got out of the truck.
    “Yes?”
    “You f*****g promise me, right here and now, on top of a hand shake, that you I'm not just a snack to you f***s.” Earl was dead serious, but it made Mimyr laugh.
    “I promise.” Mymir shook Earl's hand.
    The truck door closed and that was the time to get away if he wanted. Mimyr left the truck keys, but he believed him. This would be the best way to keep Bev as safe as he could. Maybe he could drop off these two and head back and see if he could head into BC to find her. He didn't like the thought of being the only human in a truck filled with vampires for too long. All he wanted to know was if he could get to Bev, they could keep all their vampire bullshit to themselves. It was nearly dark when they got back. He could barely see a the outline of their figures coming on the horizon.
    Earl pushed into the door when Ryn tried to slide over beside him, he popped open the driver's side door and hopped out. “No, no god damn way, I trust you, but not him. I'd rather see him riding in the back.”
    Ryn looked over at Mimyr and they shrugged and switched places.
    “Better?” Mimyr asked.
    “You shook my hand, promised. I know my life doesn't mean f**k all to you two, but you f*****g promised, remember that.”
    Ryn actually looked ashamed. While they were on the way back from where he was hiding, Mimyr told him the conditions. Ryn only seen the entire thing in his mind as dream like flashes. Still, he wasn't so far away from humanity that imagining seeing it like that would be nothing he would want to experience for the first time.
    “I apologize.” Ryn said in a quiet, solemn voice.
    “Whatever, you just tell me why we can't just follow Bev west.” Earl checked his mirror and pulled out onto the highway.
    “I would tell you what I could, but it's only repeated from what Ryn told me.” Mimyr sat with his arms folded, eyes forward on the road.
    “There is a safe zone in BC. Safe from us anyway. I used to live there, but had to move and left some of my good friends. They didn't tell me much, but I put parts together and know a little bit.” Ryn was looking out his window, whatever he did was shameful. “I ran that way first. Dangerous, but I had to try. I got past the border and a little while longer there was people herding me like a cow. I tried to tell them I was their friend. They did know me, but they told me that I couldn't stay. They said I chose a side they couldn't help. That they was neutral in our war. My friends I knew there were sad that they had to make me go.”
    “So why the f**k am I driving you guys east? I can go over there, right?” Earl thumped his fist on the dash.
    “Out in the open, too dangerous.” Ryn said looking into the mirror.
    “Yes, dangerous for people that might see us. Too easy to track us across the plains.” Mimyr piped up finally.
    “What?” Earl didn't understand.
    “Blood trails. Only have to look for stories of people dying or going missing. Quicker we get anywhere else, easier to disappear,” Ryn said.
    “That's why I can't just head into BC?” Earl was getting pissed off at not getting his answers he wanted.
    “The grey man will just follow the Kin. I heard he doesn't let them live. Can't let them live according to his code. What if he sees you and follows you?” Mimyr finally sounded unsure of the things he said.
    Earl just shrugged. “So? He can't get into BC, it's neutral.”
    “They will make a deal, they do it all the time, pull people out trying to hide there and deliver them. It's their way, how it worked for thousands of years.” Ryn didn't want to meet Earl's eyes.
    “Sounds like a bunch of f*****g a******s.”
    “They're good people, only doing what's right. If we just stay away, maybe Katrina and them can live their lives out in safety.” Ryn sighed.
    “Yeah, and what the f**k am I supposed to do during all this? Sit on my thumb and watch you a******s run and hide for the rest of my life?”
    “How about we buy your truck off you when we get far enough east. Send you on your way with as much money as you can carry, you can head to BC with a false name if you want. Not like your name is going to be tracked, but just to be safe. There you can live out your life with whoever you want. Stay there and you'll never have to see us again.” Mimyr's voice dripped with sarcasm, he finally had enough of getting sworn at by Earl.
    “Good deal.” The engine's rpms went up as they truck sped away into the night.