“All right. We should get food, too, for the three of you. It should be things you can open and eat right here in the car. I’m not sure when we’ll dare to settle somewhere.”
“I should be back at work on Monday.”
I looked at him, then looked away. “I know. I’m sorry. I don’t have any idea when this will be over.” He drove silently for a few minutes. We were, I realized, still headed southwest toward Arlington. Once
we arrived in Arlington, he seemed to know his way around. He took us straight to a supermarket where we could buy the food we needed. Once we were parked, we moved over to the larger car to talk with Celia and Brook.
“Don’t you need to sleep?” Brook asked me as soon as we got into the backseat. “Doesn’t the fact that it’s day bother you at all?”
“I’m tired,” I admitted. “You’re probably all tired.”
“But don’t you sleep during the day?” Celia asked. It occurred to me that they had been discussing me. Better that than terrifying themselves over the fact that several men had just tried to murder us.
“I prefer to sleep during the day,” I said, “but I don’t have to. I can sleep whenever I’m tired.”
Brook looked at Celia. “That’s why we’re not dead,” she said. “They came during the day, thinking that any Ina in the house would be asleep, completely unconscious.”
“Why didn’t it help her save her mothers?” Celia asked. Brook looked at me.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Have either of you ever heard of a community being destroyed the way my parents’ communities were? I mean, has it happened before anywhere else?”
Both women shook their heads. Brook said, “Not that I know of.”
“Maybe that’s it then.” I thought for a moment. “If no one was expecting trouble, probably no one was keeping watch. Why would they? I don’t know whether I usually slept during the day. My mothers did, so I probably did, too, just because it was more convenient to be up when they were. I’ll bet the symbionts had adapted to a nocturnal way of life just as symbionts had in Iosif’s community. But I don’t
know. That’s the trouble;I don’t know anything.” I looked at Brook. “You must have spent time at my mothers’ community. Wasn’t everyone nocturnal?”
“Pretty much,” she answered. “Your eldermothers had three or four symbionts who did research for them. They were often awake during the day. I guess it didn’t help.”
I looked at Celia. “Did Stefan always sleep during the day?”
“He said he got stupid if he didn’t sleep,” she answered. “He got sluggish and clumsy.”
“Iosif had to sleep,” Brook said. “He would go completely unconscious wherever he happened to be when the sun came up. And once he got to sleep, it was impossible to wake him up until after sundown.”
Wright put his arm around me. “You’re definitely the new, improved model,” he said.
I nodded. “I think maybe someone’s decided there shouldn’t be a new, improved model.”
“We were talking about that,” Brook said. “About how maybe this is all because someone doesn’t like the experimenting that your family was doing. Or someone envied your family for producing you and Stefan. I don’t know.”
“How could it be about her?” Wright wanted to know. “Those guys were human, not Ina.” “They may be symbionts,” Celia said.
“Or one of them might be a symbiont and the rest hirelings,” Brook added.
Wright frowned. “Maybe. But it seems to me they could just as easily be ordinary human beings who imagine they’re fighting vampires.”
“And who have focused only on my family,” I said.
“We don’t know that. Hell, we’re in the same boat you are, Shori. We don’t really know anything.”
I nodded and yawned. “We probably know more than we realize. I think we’ll be able to come up with at least a few answers after we’ve gotten some rest.”
“Why are we in this parking lot?” Brook asked.
“To get food for you,” I said. “After that, we’ll find a place to park in the woods. We can get some sleep in the cars. Later, when we’re rested, we’ll see what we can figure out.”
“I thought we would go to your house,” Celia said to Wright.
“His relatives’ home is too close by,” I said. “I don’t want them to get hurt or killed because someone’s after us—or after me. I don’t want that to happen to anyone. So no hotel for now.”
The two women exchanged another look, and this time I had no idea what they were thinking.
“Let’s go buy what we need,” Wright said. “Celia, while Brook and I shop for food, can you be Shori’s mother or her big sister? There’s a clothing store ...” He opened the glove compartment, found a pencil and a small wire-bound notebook. “Here’s the address,” he said, writing. “And here’s how to get there. I did some work here in Arlington last year. I remember the place. This clothing store is only a few blocks from here, and it’s a good place for buying cheap casual clothes. She needs a couple of pairs of jeans, shirts, a good hooded jacket, gloves, and sunglasses that will fit her face. Okay?”
Celia nodded. “No problem if you have money. I spent most of what Stefan gave me in Seattle. He’s going to—” She stopped, frowned, and looked away from us across the parking lot. She wiped at her eyes with her fingers but said nothing more.
After a moment, Wright got his wallet out of his pocket and put several twenties into her hand. “I see an
ATM over there,” he said. “I’ll get more—enough for a few days.”
“We need gas, too,” Brook said. She looked at me, then looked past me. “I have my checkbook and a credit card, but they’re both Iosif’s accounts. I don’t know whether using them will attract the attention
of the police—or of our enemies. I have enough money to fill our tank, but if this lasts, if we’re on the run for more than a few days, money is likely to become a problem.” There was an oddly false note in her voice, as though she were lying somehow. She smelled nervous, and I didn’t like the way she looked
past me rather than at me. I thought about it, and after a moment, I understood. “Money will not be a problem,” I said, “and you know it.”
Brook looked a little embarrassed. After a moment, she nodded. “I wasn’t sure you knew . . . what to do,” she said.
And Wright said, “What do you expect her to do?”
“Steal,” I said. “She expects me to be a very good thief. I will be. People will be happy to give me money once I’ve bitten them.”
He looked at me doubtfully, and I reached up to touch his stubbly chin. “You should get a razor, too,” I said.
“I don’t want you getting in trouble for stealing,” he said.
“I won’t.” I shrugged. “I don’t want to do it. I don’t feel good about doing it, but I’ll do what’s necessary to sustain us.” I glanced at Brook, feeling almost angry with her. “Ask me questions when you want to know things. Tell me whatever you believe I should know. Complain whenever you want to complain.
But don’t talk to other people when you mean your words for me, and speak the truth.” She shrugged. “All right.”
My anger ebbed away. “Let’s go buy what we need,” I said.
“Hang on a minute,” Wright said. He wrote something else in the wire-bound notebook. Then he tore out the page and handed it to Celia. “Those are my sizes. If you can, get me a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt.”