In the end, thanks to childhood memories of watching Fast and Furious flooding back into his brain, Ethan finally managed to figure out which pedal was the brake and which one was the gas.
He followed Royce's instructions to the letter. Summer's Jeep Wrangler Rubicon shot forward like a rocket - at a speed worthy of a traffic ticket.
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!
Kitty's lamprey-tentacle tongues were severed with slick, wet snaps. But even after being ripped off, the tongue tips remained suctioned to the Jeep's windows. They were still alive - detached but squirming.
The Jeep had already left Kitty far behind.
Then suddenly, Autumn lunged across and grabbed the steering wheel from Ethan. She yanked it hard, spinning the wheel a full 180 degrees. Luckily, Ethan had just let off the gas and switched to the brake. The tires screeched across the asphalt, leaving angry black skid marks.
"You've gotta turn the car around right now! Our mission is to lure Kitty away, not escape from her!"
"Oh come on! Whyyyyy?!"
Ethan panted, still reeling from the whiplash-inducing turn. He genuinely hadn't expected to survive that maneuver.
"You were driving too fast, bro! The dog vanished off my livestream. Viewer count's dropping like crazy!"
"You idiot gorilla! That's not what I meant!"
Autumn snapped at Royce but didn't elaborate right away. Still, Ethan figured it out after driving a bit further.
Kitty hadn't strayed far from the mini apartment building. At first, after her rebirth as a Feral Vampire, she was the size of a calf. Now she was closer to a full-grown bull.
Her mouth was writhing with tangled, overlapping tongues. Each time she lost one, three more grew back in its place. Ethan couldn't even count how many she had anymore.
And if that wasn't disturbing enough… some of her tongues had started sprouting lumps - like pustules or grotesque decorations, as if she were leveling up in horror aesthetics.
Upon witnessing this grotesque evolution, Royce cheered, his livestream had just gotten a lot more exciting. Meanwhile, Autumn ducked all the way under the car seat to hide.
BAM!
A poor stray dog - dried up like a mummy - was hurled toward the Jeep by Kitty's tongue.
Turns out, the strange lumps on her tongues weren't tumors after all. They were the shriveled remains of unlucky cats and dogs - victims of Kitty's hunger. By draining the blood of the neighborhood's pets, Kitty had bulked up at an alarming rate.
She flung corpse after corpse - dogs, cats, even a few ornamental chickens from a neighbor's yard - onto the Jeep. Then, like a raging bull, she charged at the vehicle, eight glowing red eyes burning with bloodlust and insatiable hunger.
Ethan broke out in a cold sweat. He knew exactly what Kitty was after.
He spun the steering wheel and pulled a half-circle turn like a true street racer. Then he gunned the engine at a speed just fast enough to keep Kitty chasing them.
"So, where exactly are we luring her to, Autumn?"
Autumn leaned over and pointed at the map on the digital dashboard screen.
"Here! See that little red dot? That's our destination, we need to lure Kitty out of town and get her there!"
"Uh… it says 'Ancient Fortress.' What's there?"
"There's a Field Hospital set up there right now…"
"You still want to save her, Autumn?"
"There's no saving a Feral Vampire…"
Her voice was tinged with deep regret and sorrow.
"But there are experienced vampires at the fortress - people with the skill and weapons to take her down, bro!"
Royce chimed in urgently. He had half of his upper body sticking out of the sunroof, still gripping his selfie stick and filming Kitty racing after them.
Fortunately, it wasn't tourist season, so the town streets were empty. Ethan breathed a sigh of relief as they left the town center behind.
And clearly, the blood of a human was far more appetizing than that of ten dogs or cats. Especially when it belonged to a Bloodbound. Kitty was now fully focused on Ethan, sparing the animals she encountered along the way.
He could smell the salt and the scent of grouper thickening in the air. The Jeep had reached the coastal road.
Paradise Beach glimmered under the moonlight like a scene from a dream. But Ethan didn't dare take his eyes off the road. One wrong move and they'd all be tumbling into the cliffs.
Autumn was now seated properly in her seat again. She'd found a blindfold somewhere in the car and wrapped it over her eyes. Deprived of the view of Kitty's squirming tentacle-tongues, Autumn actually looked more confident.
"So how do you kill a Feral Vampire?"
Ethan was curious. He remembered Autumn once mentioning something about driving a stake through the heart of an Infected. He wasn't sure if the same method applied here.
"Normally, people wait until sunrise. Feral Vampires weaken significantly by then, especially those who've drunk a lot of blood. After that, the goal is to drain all of the Feral's blood."
"Drain all their blood? How do you even do that?"
"Usually, a Vampire like me would use our fangs to rip open the enemy's throat. The massive blood loss weakens them a lot. But that's still not enough. You have to rip their heart out of their chest and crush it completely, so it can't regenerate. Then finally, you dismember the body and burn everything to ash. That's the only surefire way to kill any Vampire, even those with royal blood."
"Ew, that's horrifying!"
"Vampires are incredibly resilient. Just staking the heart or chopping off the head isn't enough. After a while, the body parts will start to heal and reattach themselves. The process speeds up if they're given fresh human blood."
Autumn hesitated. A blush crept onto her cheeks. Her voice became small, almost a whisper.
"…That's why what you did to save me was so reckless! I told you to wait…"
"No! If I could turn back time, I'd still do the same thing!"
"Why, Ethan?"
Ethan didn't respond.
He'd lost 1500 milliliters of blood - flirted with death - become a Bloodbound (whatever that was supposed to mean) - and was now being chased through the night by a monstrous tentacle-mouthed Chihuahua. None of that sounded like something any normal 17-year-old boy would want.
But then, the image of Autumn - pale, fragile, nearly lifeless - flashed in his mind. It was enough to make his heart clench with a painful squeeze.
Ethan released his right hand from the steering wheel. Before he realized it, it had landed gently on Autumn's head. And… she didn't push him away.
"Yo, bro. You're slowing down. Pick up the pace. Kitty's closing in on us."
Royce's voice rang out from the roof of the car, shattering the rare moment of peace Ethan had just found.
Ethan pressed harder on the gas. But something was wrong. The Jeep began to sputter and shake violently. The engine let out an ominous gurgle. And then… it stopped.
The car rolled forward just a bit, then came to a complete stop, leaving the trio dumbfounded.
"Oh nooo! We're out of gas!"
Autumn yelped. She tore off her blindfold and pointed at the fuel gauge.
"Out! Everyone out! We'll have to run the rest of the way to the Field Hospital. It's just over a kilometer from here!"
Royce shouted, slamming the sunroof shut and sliding down into the back seat but still holding his selfie stick.
They fumbled to open the car doors.
But it was too late.
With one powerful leap, Kitty had caught up to the Jeep. Her horrifying tongue-ends, full of circular teeth like lampreys, latched onto the windshield with sickening suction.