Ruler [Blood Magic, Book 3]

Chapter 45: It Happened at the Drive-In

Fifteen minutes later we'd rolled through the gate, purchased a pair of tickets to the latest big-budget superhero flick, and pulled into a spot in the remotest corner of the lot. Anyone parked back here was in search of more salacious pursuits than discovering who or what was watching the film in the vehicle next to them.

Keel shut off the engine and set to surveying the place for threats, supernatural or otherwise. I followed his scan, attempting to do my own, but he proved much faster at discerning individual scents and sounds. I was still working my way through the barrage of sensory input when his shoulders  relaxed. No immediate danger.

He reached into the pocket of his jeans, wrestled a couple twenties free and slid the money across the seat at me. He'd obviously seen me eying the snack bar on the other side of the lot and was encouraging me to wander over. As our fingers connected, a piercing of wallop of bond stuff flew at me, just as it always did since the shooting, but here, topside, it struck me how utterly inhuman it was.

Keel mistook my reaction in a rare misread. "No one hunting a Nosferatu king and a renegade sorceress is going to come looking for them in a drive-in in Dearborn. We couldn't be in a safer place. Okay?"

I was still looking at our fingers, which continued to touch and flare their invisible sparks, the twenty-dollar bill stalled mid-pass.

"Okay," I said, claiming the money and reclaiming my hand. The bond's electricity faded.

But okay was not something I was feeling. Even less so when I opened the door of the van. Maybe it was because I'd lived with vampires for so long, or had become part Nosferatu myself, but being around so many humans - and god knows what else - made me edgy. Once again, I found myself reaching out with my senses, even though I had no idea what I was seeking and the smell of popcorn and cooling engines overrode almost everything.

"I'll be able to see you walk the entire way there and back," Keel reassured me. The temporary glitch in our non-verbal communication gone. "If you need me, I can be at your side in seconds."

"Okay," I said again, suddenly embarrassed by my lack of bravery in my world, and stepped down onto the gravel.

Walk across a parking lot. Big deal. You've done this a million times before. 

The terrain between the van and the concession stand stretched out in front of me like the surface of an alien planet after so many months of walking the concrete, marble and carpeted floors of the compound. My eyes drifted from person to person as I slid between the lines of parked cars. All these humans with normal lives full of jobs and kids and bills, or classes and tests and boyfriend/girlfriend drama, to them this was just an ordinary Thursday night out, but for me...

I slowed and glanced back at the van, Keel gave me a small wave from the driver's seat. For me, tonight was downright odd and exhilarating in its oddness and, to be honest, full of everything I didn't expect to be feeling less than twenty-four hours after Keel savaged a man. There was guilt for that, but the enormity of the drive-in screen and the thickening aroma of popcorn laid waste to it. For that, there would be more guilt later. No doubt it would return in the morning like a bad hangover, but tonight it died a death of blockbuster movies, fresh autumn air, and unexpected adventure. And green eyes, don't forget the green eyes.

I returned to the car with a bucket of popcorn, a Coke, and as much candy as I could manage and keep it under forty. Keel better not have been expecting change.

"Hungry?" he asked as I passed my purchased to him.

"Not this hungry, but the compound doesn't stock junk food. So, epic loot run."