A billion echoes, p.23
A Billion Echoes, page 23
Then Vance stepped out of the car. I could tell him from a look-alike anytime. None of them quite had his hawkish nose, his flawless skin, or the sense of pride and power that rolled off him like crashing waves. He pulled off his sunglasses, watching me with cold eyes.
"I see you packed," he said. "Excellent. I've come to collect you. You're too young to be alone."
I stood absolutely still, every muscle tense. Vance took a step toward me, and my body jerked reflexively.
"What's this?" he asked. "I know it was a lifetime ago, but don't you remember? We're friends."
It was a lifetime ago. But he was wrong. No matter what I'd thought back then, we'd never been friends.
Vance shook his head at me, holding out his hand. "Come." His voice was soft, like he was here to rescue me.
He was the one I needed rescuing from.
My knees shook, and I braced myself against the wall for support. I'd been a fool to run down this alley. I should have stayed in the sun. Burning would have been better than going with Vance.
But my skin flinched at the thought. The pain of dying from a sixth-degree sunburn would be overwhelming. I didn't have the will to destroy myself that way. Just like I'd been too weak to run from Vance that last time. I should have screamed. I should have fought. If I had, I wouldn't be here now.
My limbs refused to move, even to shrink away. Vance could kill me right here, do anything to me, and just like before, my traitor body was going to let him.
"You'll come with me, won't you April?" Vance asked. He stepped aside, motioning to the limo doors.
I avoided looking him in the eyes. The other corpses stood stiff around us, waiting for Vance's command. They'd follow him anywhere, do anything he said. Even Zeke was like that sometimes.
Everything in me screamed to struggle. To make up for the way I just lay there when he changed me. I could still feel the force of his cold grip. It came to me in flashes sometimes, when I was alone in the dark.
But once again, I couldn't move. I remained there, braced against the wall.
Vance came toward me, laid a hand on my shoulder, and pulled me forward. My feet stumbled a bit, carrying me toward the limo. I felt like my mind had unplugged from my body, and no matter how loudly my brain told it to run, it wouldn't go.
Then again, if he thought I was compliant, he wouldn't watch me as closely. That might be my only chance.
"Yes," I said. "I'll come."
I climbed into the limo, edging as far away from Vance as I could. Not that it would stop him from touching me. Not if he wanted to.
Vance sat next to the door, across from me. The limo started, pulling down the alley and out into the street, leaving his men behind.
"I'm sorry about Zeke," Vance said. "But he wanted to take you away from me. I couldn't let him do that. You'd both starve, out on your own."
I hugged my knees. We should have left before Vance decided to take an interest in me again. It didn't matter if I fought. Vance would always be faster and stronger than I was. Our bodies didn't deteriorate, but they also didn't grow or change. I'd passed my sixteenth birthday a month ago, but I'd be in my fifteen-year-old body for the rest of my undeath. I couldn't even cut my hair shorter; it'd regenerate to its shoulder-length crop, like the rest of my body did when it was injured. Vance was larger and fitter than me when he died, so I'd never be able to best him.
I closed my eyes. It was like that line from Tennyson's poem, my favorite one from my dad's old books: Thou madest man, he knows not why, he thinks he was not made to die. A stronger person would have ended it, and believed that what came after was better, but I couldn't. I was too afraid.
Faced with Vance, all I could manage to do was quiver.
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Patterson, Janci, A Billion Echoes
