The Chase

The Chase Ch. 25

Thad's P.O.V

I sat down beside Ginger who rested her head on my shoulder as she smiled slightly. I had smelled her lurking around the corner, so I knew she was enjoying this. Donovan still looked pissed off as he glared menacingly at the wall, but it wasn’t like I had liked it any more than he had. I was the one still had the uncomfortable taste of his blood in my mouth.

“Thad…” I looked to see what Ginger needed, but her eyes were tightly shut. How cute, I’d never heard her talking in her sleep before. I chuckled and smiled down her a bit, and I even saw Donovan hold back a slight smile out of the corner of my eye.

The rest of the day passed by pretty slowly for me, considering there wasn’t much I could do. I carefully listened out for danger while Ginger and Donovan slept. I felt a little bad for holding them back, but Ginger hadn’t seemed upset about it.

A little after noon, Donovan woke up, quickly followed by Ginger who stifled a huge yawn.

“I’m so hungry,” she groaned while falling flat on her back.

“Maybe you should eat something then,” I retorted with a smile, causing her send me a deadly look. Somebody’s not a morning person.  Well, afternoon person.

“I can’t believe we have to sit around here for six more hours!,” Donovan groaned as he pulled himself up off the group and walked over to Ginger who was deciding what was least important and best fit to eat in this situation. She settled on some type of meat that you eat from a can.

I don’t know, it smelled absolutely repulsive to me.

She fumbled with a knife, trying to pry it open, but I snatched it from her and tore the top off with my fangs. Donovan rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath that I actually heard but pretended not to.

For his remark, I watched as he struggled with his can until he finally got it open, and then gave him a smirk as he glared up at me.

“I don’t get it,” my eyes snapped back to Ginger who was staring us both down.

“Why can’t you guys just get along? Or at least not argue or act hateful to one another. It’s so stupid.”

I glanced down at the ground, almost feeling ashamed of the constant childish bickering Donovan and I were constantly in. Mostly around Ginger, at that.

“Why can’t you do it for me?” she finished, clearly exasperated. Donovan looked at the ground too, clearly looking for the right words to say. Finally, he walked over and plopped down in front of me. Ginger stared, well, more or less glared, on with her hands crossed tightly over her chest.

He cautiously extended his hand towards me.

“Truce?” he said while putting a little too much force into his smile.

“Truce,” I nodded while keeping a straight, hard face and staring down at the hand he still held in front of me.

“You’re supposed to shake it,” he said while laughing a little bit. I smiled; feeling slightly embarrassed, and shook his outstretched hand.

“You bloodsuckers don’t shake hands?” he asked quizzically. I shook my head no.

“Then what do you do to greet each other and stuff?” Ginger asked, butting into the conversation.

“Either try to kill them or avoid them killing you,” I joked bitterly, “Unless you’re friends with then you…” I scrunched my face up. I had never really thought about how I greeted the people I knew.

“Hug them or bow, depending on the situation.”

Donovan made no effort to hide his amusement as he laughed dramatically.

“So vampires don’t shake hands, but they hug?!” Ginger shot him a warning look and he quickly clamped his mouth shut. I shrugged at his comment. I had only had a couple of friends my age at the library anyway.

“Well then what do they do for fun?” Ginger changed the subject.

I kind of cringed at the question, not wanting to tell her the truth. Most of the time I went out with the guys, and we would bet on who could bring the best blood back. We hadn’t killed them, however. It was a strict rule Enoch always enforced. Most of us, including myself sometimes, hadn’t really cared about the humans; we just didn’t want to face punishment.

I wasn’t really that bad, was I? I tried to reason with myself while shaking my head clean of the memories.

“We would fight each other sometimes. Just playfully though, but will still left wounds on each other,” I finally said after Ginger started to notice my silence. She stared at me strangely and I looked away, shocked that was unable to meet her eyes.

There was something about the way that I felt and acted around her that me feel so…so human.