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It's the most ridiculous plan that they could have come up with. There's so much that can go wrong, no reason to really believe that it'll go right, and they haven't planned anything. It's the wrong way to go about things, even if they do decide to run, they don't have clothes, money, or any idea of where to go.
Cal puts a hand over hers, and suddenly Juliette can believe that all will be alright. She doesn't quite know how, not just yet, but she can believe that everything will work itself out.
“Let's just drive,” Cal says, as if it's simple.
The entire city is hunting monsters, Juliette has barely learned to deal with the fact that she has to feed now, and neither of their families will allow them to be together. It's anything but simple, but with Cal by her side, Juliette can't see anything wrong with this plan. They'll be together, that's what matters, that's the only thing that matters.
“Anywhere the road will lead us, as long as I’m with you,” Juliette says, and they do just that, leaving behind the only world that she knows.
Juliette is a Legacy, and her parents kept her safe, but now they are going out into the world, and there’s no one to protect her anymore, no one except for Cal, who knows exactly how the monsters hunters would hunt for someone like Juliette, because it’s her, because it’s what Cal would do. Out there, Juliette isn’t a Legacy, protected by the connections they made in the city, she’s just another vampire, another monster, a thing to be exterminated.
-
They drive until they’re out of the city, and then it occurs to her that their parents might come looking after them. Maybe she should have considered it sooner, but as she thinks of it now, she needs a way to stop them, so Juliette and Cal won’t be forced to go back. Or maybe they should go back, this was a stupid plan from the start, but she can’t stand the thought of being apart, whatever the cost.
“We should get rid of our phones. Maybe write down the numbers, in case we might need help, but my dad has contacts, he can use that to trace us,” Juliette says, looking out the window into the empty road.
That’s one thing that she never considered before, how big the world is, how many places they can have to hide. Even if they don’t leave the country, and she doesn’t see how they could, without help, there’s still a lot of empty space, and a long, long road ahead of them. They don’t ever have to stop, they can just drive around through smaller roads, keeping to themselves, going from city to city. Not even the Guild can find them like this, and the Legacies still might, if they were dedicated enough, but she doubts they’ll be, and just her parents aren’t enough to find them.
“It’s no use anyway to save numbers, the Guild makes us change them all the time,” Cal says, handing her the phone. “I think we’re on our own with this one.”
Juliette knows her home number by heart, and she doesn’t need anything else, even if she doesn’t actually think that she’ll call and ask them for help. She might be able to convince her parents to help Cal as well, but she can’t trust them not to try to separate them, so she can’t trust them at all. It hurts, knowing that the only people that she thought she could always trust aren’t on her corner anymore. Her sister is a murderer, beyond what she needs to feed, and her parents won’t give her the chance to make her own choices.
There’s still Ben. Her best friend through everything, and if he can accept that she’s a vampire, if he can see her feed and help her hide the body, then there’s nothing that he wouldn’t do for her, but that’s exactly the problem. She knows him too well, and he would ruin his life to try to help her, but he’s only human, and unlike Cal he has no training. It’s best if he keeps out of all of this. It hurts to leave him behind, but his number is also branded in her heart, and if she ever needs him, she knows that she can call.
“We are, but as long as I’m with you, I don’t need anything else,” Juliette says, grabbing Cal’s phone and her own as well.
She lowers the window and takes a deep breath before dropping them, watching as they smash against the road at a right speed, and it doesn't really matter if they're broken or not, because they won't be anywhere near this place.
“No turning back,” Cal says.
“No turning back,” Juliette agrees, putting a hand on her thigh.
-
Juliette must have slept at some point, because she frowns and presses her eyes against the sunlight, and they are still on the road. She blinks the sleep away, and adjusts herself on the seat. When she looks around, she can't recognize anything around them. The road is mostly empty, they only pass a car every few minutes, and there's nothing of note on either side. They aren't near a city, which is probably for the best.
“Where are we?” Juliette asks, rubbing her eyes.
“North. I'm not really paying attention where,” Cal says, and she sounds tired.
Juliette feels guilty. She shouldn't have been resting while Cal was driving alone all night. They should have probably found a place to stop, but it's still too early, they can't be far away enough to let their guard down now, and there's still the problem of money to consider. They only have what they were carrying, and that's not enough for a getaway.
“Let me drive for a bit, you should rest too,” Juliette says, because they shouldn't stop until at least that night.
Her sister would probably just rob her victims, if she was in this situation. But Juliette isn't her sister, and she doesn't want to kill anyone. Soon she'll have to feed, but now that she's in control of herself, rather than drunk or taken by fear, she can drink only what she needs without risking killing someone, and her bites disappear in seconds, so it would be like it never happened. They have to be careful not to leave that trail that someone might follow, but she knows better than to think that she can just keep herself from drinking and all would be fine. If she refuses to bite someone, she'll lose control, and then she might kill without meaning to, she could even kill Cal, and that Juliette would never allow.
Cal looks like she might protest, but then she sighs, and stops on the side of the road. She must be more tired than she seems.
They change places, and Cal settles with her head on the window, which isn't exactly comfortable, but they don't have many options.
“Wake me up if you find a place to eat. Something out of the way,” Cal says, already with her eyes closed.
That's a problem too, Juliette needs blood, Cal needs food, and they both need gas and a place to sleep. It's juvenile, thinking that this plan could work, but Juliette doesn't know what else to do. There's too much against them, and if love isn't what can survive every challenge, then she doesn't know what is.
-
In the end, they drive for three days before they stop in a motel by the side of the road. It’ll take most of the money that they have left, but they need a place where they can stop and regroup, they’re far away from home now, and to be quite honest, they could use a shower.
Juliette will have to feed soon, but she won’t do so in a place that they have to spend the night. Most of Elinor’s advice for her could actually work, although she wouldn’t take it as far as Elinor did. She can drink in bars, where it won’t be so noticeable, and people might not even realize what’s happening when it does, and blame any lingering sensations on alcohol and drugs. It’s dangerous for her, what goes through a human’s system and is in their blood can affect her, but she has Cal to pull her back, if she goes too hard.
She doesn’t want to think about it, but she’s afraid of what will happen when she finally has to do it. Cal saw her biting someone before, even draining him to death, but that was a horrible man who deserved it, and something that happened in the heat of the moment. This is more deliberate, but it’s still just a matter of survival.
By her own estimation, she can survive on about a liter a week. Not the most comfortable, but she can make due. Unfortunately, that’s far more than a single human might give, but even if it wasn’t, she wouldn’t ask this of Cal. It’s too dangerous, Juliette wants her too much, in too many ways for her to be sure that she can stop.
So they stop and make a plan, and she has to cave and call Ben from a paid phone. He has a couple of good ideas as to how to send them some money, which is a danger, but they don’t have much choice.
She resists the urge to ask Ben about her family, and he doesn’t volunteer anything, perhaps because he knows her so well, but she does ask about the people in town, and everything is still as bad as when they left.
She knows that they couldn’t have stayed, but living on the road isn’t exactly a good alternative, and she doesn’t know what to do. Everything is so complicated now, and yet she can’t wish that they had never met. She loves Cal too much for that.
-
It takes them about a dozen states until they can find a place that’s out of the way enough. An abandoned house in the woods, two hours from the nearest city, that they only find because Juliette is hungry enough that her senses are heightened, and she can smell death. Whoever lived there was alone, and had passed at least a couple of years ago, but she could still pick up on the smell.
There’s a truckstop with a cheap motel near the edge of the city where she sometimes goes to feed. Others, she goes into the city and looks for nightclubs. She’s always careful only to feed a little, and never to kill anyone.
Cal’s best skill is at being a hunter, and in the middle of nowhere, that’s surprisingly useful. It’s not exactly legal, but she has been selling deer to a couple of locals, which isn’t a lot of money, but they don’t need much. Better than Juliette robbing the people that she’s feeding from, although she still has to do that sometimes.
Maybe it’s not a good long term plan, and they both know that it’s dangerous to stay in one place for very long. They’ll have to hit the road again soon enough, because Juliette doubts that her parents will just accept that she’s gone, and Cal’s family, as well as all of the Guilt, are sure to be after them, probably convinced that Juliette has her under some sort of enchantment. It’s not a solution, but for now they have a place to stay where no one knows who or what they are, and there’s no one around to try to break them apart.
As hard as life is sure to be now, at least they are together, and they no longer have to shoulder the responsibilities of a life that they never chose. This is their choice, and they chose to be together, even if that means leaving everything behind.