I looked up at the sky. The sun was about to break above the horizon.
“Where—?”
“We’ve reached a town,” he whispered.
“Oh… Oh, thank God.” I attempted to stand. He pulled me back down.
“I need you to wait here,” he said. “Can you do that?”
“For how long?”
“Ten, fifteen minutes. Stay in the shadows of the trees. Make sure you’re not seen. All right?”
“O-okay.”
I crept further into one of the bushes and peeked through a gap in the leaves to watch Caleb run out onto the road and head in the direction of the market. I stood waiting behind the bush with bated breath, trying to make sense of where on earth we could be. Footsteps sounded on the concrete road a few feet away.
The voices of two men filled my ears. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but at least it sounded like a human language. We’re definitely on Earth, like Caleb said. But where? I supposed I’d have to wait for Caleb to return.
Although I didn’t have a watch, it felt like Caleb had kept his promise to return within fifteen minutes. He crept behind the bushes and dropped down next to me. He had a bulging plastic bag in his hand. He removed the contents one by one, placing some items on my lap, some on his own.
“How did you—?”
“Some early visitors to the market,” was all the explanation he offered.
“So you pickpocketed them,” I muttered. He nodded. I guessed it wasn’t difficult for vampires to pickpocket, given their superhuman speed and agility.
By the time he was finished, I was holding in my lap a ripe papaya, a liter of water, a toothbrush, toothpaste and a stiff cotton night gown. On his lap was a clear plastic bag filled with fresh fish, a black wallet and another black plastic bag.
He began tearing into the fish, draining all the blood and throwing the rest of it into the bushes. He must have been hungry. I attacked my bottle of water with similar urgency, swallowing half a liter in less than a minute. Then I turned to the papaya.
I wasn’t sure how to open it without making a mess of it. I looked at Caleb.
“Could you?”
He extended a claw and sliced the fruit into quarters. I began chewing into the sweet flesh hungrily and I had finished the whole thing in a few minutes. I eyed the toothbrush and the night gown.
“Now what?” I asked once he’d finished his fish blood.
He stood up and brushed himself down. Opening the wallet, he pulled out a wad of cash and began counting it.
I stared at the currency. “We’re in—”
“Brazil. On the borders of a city called Manaus.”
Brazil. Well, at least that explained the rainforest. The opening of the gate was in the heart of the Amazon.
Caleb’s eyes roamed my body.
“Put that dress on over your clothes,” he said.
I stared down at my clothes. He had a point. I looked like I’d just walked off the set of a slasher movie. I pulled the dress over my head and did my best to tie back my hair so it didn’t look quite so alarming.
I looked at Caleb. He hardly looked presentable. Shirtless, his chest was covered in bloodstains and grime from rushing through the jungle for hours. His hair was a tangled mess and his pants were ripped too. He was in just as bad a state as me.
“And what about you?”
He reached for the unopened black plastic bag and pulled out a pair of shorts and a crisp black shirt. He walked to a cluster of trees nearby and disappeared behind them. When he returned, he was fully dressed in the new clothes.
“All right,” he said. “Let’s go.” He gripped my arm and pulled me forward.
“Wait.” I tugged on him, pulling him back. “Bend down.”
He raised a brow but did as I’d requested. His head now level with my chest, I ran my fingers through his thick dark hair, attempting to tame it, picking out pieces of leaves and branches. I almost screamed as a small red spider scurried across my finger, burying itself closer to Caleb’s scalp. I picked up a stick from the ground and, fishing through his hair to find the creature again, I managed to brush it away.
“Caleb,” I whispered, my insides churning, “can you check my hair for spiders?”
He stood up and pulled my head toward him, his strong fingers tugging roughly on my long hair as he sifted through it.
“No spiders. Okay? We need to go.”
“Okay,” I said in relief.
I slipped my hand in his and, picking up the toothbrush and toothpaste, we left the tree-lined enclosure and walked onto the main road. I was glad that the dress was long enough to cover my feet because I wore no shoes.
Caleb led me directly across the quiet road and headed into the market area. We walked along a line of buildings until we reached a tall one with a sign above a double-doored entrance.
Hostel Amazonas.
Caleb wrapped an arm round my waist and held me close as we ascended the steps and entered into the lobby. There was a small reception desk in one corner where an elderly woman sat reading a paper. She looked up at us through her spectacles as we arrived at the desk.
Caleb picked up a leaflet from the counter and paged through it. He looked up at the woman.
“A private room, please.”
“Sala privada? Para dois?” the woman asked, holding up two fingers.
Caleb nodded and placed a few notes down on the counter.
She took the cash and counted it. “Uma noite,” she muttered. She handed us a key and pointed to the number engraved on it. “Vinte.”