Nexus [COMPLETE]

49. Winston

August 2013

I could hear the whipping wind in my ears. It was a familiar, comforting rush. Besides the steady purr of the truck that I was nestled in the bed of, the world was pretty quiet. My head, however, was a different story. On one end of things, there was an ache that ran deep into my body - Domare's pain. His body was still healing from Michael's attack, but also something else. Something else had happened to him. Whatever it was, it hurt mightily, but I reveled in the fact that I could tell his body was still trying to heal itself. If nothing else, this pain meant that my vampire was alive for now.

The other half of my agony was mine to own. I couldn't see out of my left eye, and my head was pounding. The skin on one side of my face itched ferociously. I reached up with trembling fingers to trace that side of my cranium and felt the unfamiliar stretch and heat of swollen skin beneath the pads of my fingers. I couldn't however, bring myself to check and see if I even still had my left eye. My blood boiled beneath my skin. I had known the touch of Nexus once, and now it burned in my veins again, but my body wasn't even able to properly register all the pain. I must have been in shock.

I lay in the truck and stared at the tattered remains of the canvas covering the truck bed. Stars gleamed above it in an endless stretch of night sky. I wondered how long we had been riding, but lacked the strength to get up and learn the answer. I fell asleep eventually, all the pain between Domare and I dragging me back into its depths.

When next I woke, the world was bright, and Domare's body was curled around mine in the bed of the truck. We were still riding, and I wondered if we had ever stopped and how much time had passed.

"Winston?" Hazel's voice asked raspingly from where she lay on Domare's opposite side.

"Yes?"

She made a relieved sound. "How are you?"

"Alive," I said as loudly as I could, but my throat was parched and I ended up coughing for a spell, trying to cover my mouth with my hands. When I pulled them away, I saw the blood on my palms and grimaced.

"Don't speak," Hazel said tiredly. "Michael shot me with Nexus before you and Domare found me. Half a syringe in my arm."

I wanted to tell her that he had gotten me with it as well, but couldn't form the words.

"Domare is alive," she told me, as if I didn't already know. "He moves in this state, but he hasn't woken."

I hated the fact that my brain chose that moment to start working again. "How long have we been in this truck?" I forced out, coughing again after.

"A day and a half," she replied over my hacking.

"Need to switch to a-a car," I rasped. "Too...conspicuous."

"I'll tell Brucker," she said, a note of promise in her voice. "When we stop."

I turned on my side so I could see Domare's face, and when I finally could, I wished I hadn't. From head to toe, he was a bloody mess with torn skin that was barely healing.

"What h-happened?" the words escape my mouth in a hiss as I reached forward to wipe the blood from Domare's face. How are you alive? I thought at him, and was answered only with silence.

"He hit the cab when the explosion hit," said Hazel, sound groggier with each word.

I tried to look upward, at the cab, but pain after pain shot through my head. I just couldn't manage it.

"Poor Brucker," Hazel said sadly. "Clarice is gone, yet still he drives on."

A wave of sadness hit me, sadness and gratitude. If it hadn't been for Brucker, we never would have made it out of there alive. And he did it after his vampire died, I thought pitying. I couldn't have done that. I stared at Domare's blood-smeared face and felt my good eye start to water.