Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Kyle appreciates Elias’s energy. Elias likely senses the kind of night Kyle has had, yet can only begin to imagine the true terror of it, and is trying to lighten the mood.
It’s exactly what Kyle needs right now.
“We could’ve fit even more people,” points out Elias.
Kyle glances over his shoulder at the others. After securing the bus, a number of the survivors opted to find their own ways to safety, among them being the bigger guy who was hell-bent on going straight to the cops. Only ten of the humans chose to come along, including 4 and her boyfriend, two teen boys, the freckly guy, Doctor Mei, an older lady and her friend, and an elderly man who hasn’t stopped praying.
The tenth human passenger is Nico, who picked the seat directly across the aisle, staying close to Kaleb and appearing just as invested in his wellbeing as Kyle himself.
How can Kyle even begin to imagine the life his brother has lived over the past quarter of a century? The friends he may have made among the other prisoners? The battles he has had to take on by himself? Despite his academic accomplishments, Kyle always saw his brother as someone who was looked after at all times of the day, with hovering parents, involved instructors, and no freedoms of a typical teenager. Kyle figures a life spent in a harsh dungeon would have destroyed his brother.
But what if the opposite is true? What if Kaleb has found a new strength inside of himself over the years? When he finally wakes up, will Kyle even recognize him?
“Can’t believe I’m sitting next to Kaleb’s real-life brother,” says Nico after a while. He and Kyle have already chatted quite a bit over the past hour they’ve been on the road. “This guy … there’s something special about him, real special. Kaleb and I are super tight. We had each other’s backs.”
Kyle glances at Nico. “You took good care of him?”
“Good care of him?” That makes Nico laugh. “He’s, like, almost forty. He’s the one who took care of me.” He looks Kyle over. “That makes it even stranger that you’re the older of you two. You look more my age.”
Kyle shrugs. “Side effect of immortality, I guess.”
“So you’re immortal?”
“Eventually,” answers Kyle.
Then he realizes that’s exactly how Tristan answered that, long ago, when Kyle was the one asking the questions.
Nico finds his answer funny. “Yeah,” he decides with a nod and a snap of his fingers, “I can see it. I see Kaleb in you. In the eyes, of course, but also in how you talk. Tell me …” He leans over the aisle, coming surprisingly close, demonstrating a level of trust Kyle wasn’t expecting. “Did he ever play violin for you? Like, as a kid? Was he always this cool?”
Kyle chuckles at the question. “Yeah,” he decides to say, despite all of the times Kaleb tramped into his bedroom griping about his lessons, hating the music and the tedium. He wonders about so many things himself, questions he wish he could ask Kaleb on this bus ride. Does he still love jewelry? Does he still like Kyle’s bad drawings of monsters? Would he want to see how much he has improved? “He’s always been … this cool.”
“I was gonna take him with me out to San Diego, get a job at my brother’s bakery. I sold him the life … hitting the beach, chilling out every day, scoping babes on the sand …” The way he stares ahead at the dark, open road, Kyle would think he’s seeing sunshine over gently rolling waves on the shore. “It was sharing dreams like that, man … that’s how we got by.”
Kyle listens with mounting fascination as Nico tells him all about their lives in the cells under the House of Vegasyn. How they had fun. Worked out together. Impromptu violin concerts in the commons. How he could always find Kaleb sitting at a desk surrounded by books in the library. Hearing about Kaleb’s life nearly brings Kyle to tears several times, amazed at how Kaleb’s spirit persisted through his time in the cells.
Nico also mentions the last time he saw Kaleb. “We were planning an escape. We made the attempt, at all costs. And the only one who was brave enough to speak up was this man right here.” Nico smiles proudly. His smile falters. “But if that night hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t be here right now. He wouldn’t have a lion’s claws drawn across his face.”
“I might not have learned he’s alive,” Kyle points out.
“And he’d never know you were alive, either.” Nico stares ahead through the dark windshield. “Being brave has a price … Just wish he wasn’t the one to pay it.”
All of the human prisoners were either victims or witnesses of vampire activity, stashed away from society to help preserve the secret of their existence.