A Shade of Vampire 11: A Chase of Prey Read Online Free Page A

breathed deeply, trying to calm down and bring myself back to the present moment.
    The time will come when our powers will rise above all others, when we will need nothing and no one. And it will be soon. Very soon.
    Now I just need to focus on the task at hand… One step leads to another.
    I looked down at the werewolf still whining on the ground. Pathetic creature. I tugged on his leash, forcing him to stand up.
    “Move, dog.”

Chapter 4: Rose
    C aleb swam for another half hour before drifting back toward the bank. When we got out of the water, we climbed up a sandy slope, through a thicket of bushes, and found ourselves standing at the side of a busy highway. Vehicles whizzed past, leaving trails of dust and smoke.
    I looked up at Caleb, who was still wearing the flap over his face. I could just about make out his eyes, squinting behind the thin mesh.
    “Now what?” I said.
    He took the wallet from me and sifted through its soggy contents. As much as I’d tried to keep it above water, the notes had deteriorated beyond recovery. We had some coins left, but not many. He didn’t seem to be concerned about the notes. He pulled out the leaflet that had been tucked into the wallet and unfolded it. That too was falling apart.
    “More important than money now is a map. A road map…” His voice trailed off as he looked left and right, scanning the highway. His gaze fixed on a wooden hut in the distance. I climbed onto his back, replaced my hands over his brows to form a cover, and he raced along the road. It took longer than I’d expected to reach it. Due to the sun, Caleb wasn’t traveling at his usual speed.
    He stopped ten feet away from the hut and set me down on the pavement. As we approached, I realized that it was a small truck stop. Bottled water, packets of nuts, potato chips and fresh loaves of bread lined the shelves, while the freezer was filled with ice cream. My stomach grumbled as I looked at the prices. The bread would be the cheapest and most filling. I looked at Caleb, who had picked up a map from a stand. Under the shelter of the stall now, he’d lowered his hood.
    “This will do,” he said. I walked up to him and checked the price of the map.
    The wallet stuck out of Caleb’s pocket, so I took it out and counted the coins. Yes, we had enough to not have to steal again. Just about.
    I picked up a loaf of bread and a liter of water and placed them on the counter next to Caleb’s map.
    The kiosk owner stubbed out his cigarette and took the coins Caleb handed him.
    “Obrigado.”
    I began chugging back the water and munching on the bread as we walked back along the road. I was silent for the next ten minutes. I finished the whole loaf and three quarters of the water. Caleb was still poring over the map. He was walking with his back facing the sun, so his hands wouldn’t get burned. It made the glare somewhat more bearable, I imagined.
    “We should start heading north, toward Boa Vista.”
    I peered at the map.
    “But how? You can’t possibly run that far with the sun beating down on you like this. You can barely walk.”
    “We’ll need to travel by vehicle. As soon as darkness falls, we’ll get off and I’ll run. We won’t get far by car compared to the distance I can travel by running at night, but we can’t just waste time during the day. We ought to start heading in the right direction. If I run non-stop tonight, we could be halfway across Venezuela by morning.”
    “And then what are you thinking?”
    “We need to make it to the coast, either in Panama or Colombia. Panama is closer to The Shade. If we make good progress tonight, we could well arrive at Panama Bay within three days. We’ll have to find a speedboat. That will leave us a few more days to navigate the seas back to The Shade. Assuming we don’t get lost in any jungles or have some other major disaster…”
    “Hm. So how do we get a vehicle?” I frowned, looking up and down the busy road.
    “This highway leads