The Fugitives, A Dystopian Vampire Novel: Book Four: The Superiors Series by Lena Hillbrand Page B

backpacks. I don’t need any Superior clothes. I just want my old ones.”
    “Then take them,” Draven said. “The house is yours as much as it is mine. And you don’t have to wear those stained old things. Get some new ones, whatever makes you comfortable.”
    “That’s what makes me comfortable.”
    “The door is open. I’ll be gone most of the night, so go in and take what you will, you don’t have to see me. If you want to leave while I’m gone…”
    “Where would I go?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. I thought since…you’re no longer happy…”
    “I’m happy,” Cali said, shaking her hair back and meeting his eye. “I’m fine. It’s great.”
    “Very well, then. I’m glad. So you don’t need anything? Food or…”
    “What are you eating?”
    “I’m eating.”
    “You look sick.”
    “Do you want me to send you back? I could drop you off…” He’d become so tongue-tied with her, but what could he say? Nothing that would erase what he’d done, his unpardonable sin against her.
    “No,” she said. “I don’t know why you think I’m not happy. This place is the best place I’ve ever lived.”
    The barren, dismal room depressed him. In it, Cali hardly seemed the same girl he’d caught cautiously examining the contents of his undershorts a week ago. Strong and detached, she showed none of the fumbling embarrassment of that night. The night he’d taken advantage of her so shamelessly.
    “You’re alright then? I don’t mind getting you things. I’ll be near stores.”
    “Are you going to find…another woman?” Cali darted a quick look at him and then away.
    Draven shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps. Unless…you don’t want me to.”
    “Why would I care?”
    “You wouldn’t,” Draven said, turning away. “I’ll be going, then.”
    “Draven?”
    “Yes?” He turned back, a foolish desire rising in him for her to say she did care, to tell him not to go, not to find someone. But she would never offer him the alternative.
    “Don’t you need to eat?”
    “Do you not think I can care for myself?”
    “No, of course. You’re right. Of course you can.”
    “Goodnight.”
    “Oh, wait…can you get me…” Cali shifted around, her face reddening. “Well, for my woman’s days…I need some things…”
    “Yes, I know what you need. I’ll bring them in the morning.”
    Cali gave him a small, relieved smile, like she was thankful for not having to name what she needed. She nodded and her lips bit off the smile. “Thanks.”
    “If you want anything in the house, I’ll be out, so find what things you require.”
    Before his hunger could overwhelm him, he turned to go. As he scaled the fence, dropped to the other side, and walked out of the neighborhood, his thoughts turned to Cali. She looked better already, better than when they’d arrived over a week ago. Color had seeped into her cheeks, the hollows around her eyes had filled in a bit, her eyes grown brighter, her movements less lethargic.
    He jumped the fence into a nicer neighborhood, cast his senses, and scanned the layout of the backyard. He fed on a sapien, then two more in another neighborhood. He had become an expert at quieting them, using just the right balance of soothing and threatening to ensure their obedience.
    For a moment, he wondered if the criminal he’d killed had used this same technique. Being a Second, Ander had likely loved his life more than Draven did his. Though Draven had often suffered the burden of guilt for what he had done, he’d never wondered before if Ander was simply a man, like himself. More like himself than he’d like to admit. After all, didn’t they share the same perversion, the attraction to humans?
    After eating, Draven worked his way into the business sector of Moines. There, he sat on the low wall surrounding a huge building and tried not to think about the night when he’d awakened to find his arms empty of the warm girl he’d fallen asleep holding, about the way