SHe can't leave.

Right.

Yes.

(Timeskip, or...?)

(Yeah)

When Alex woke, it wasn't quite dawn yet; through the car windows he could see that the sky was a pale, pure blue, hovering between night and day. He scraped his hand across his face and lay without moving for a moment.

She's already awake.

Unbidden, his father's death flashed in Alex's mind; he'd died gasping in agony on a hunt in northern California. Lost in his madness by then, Martin should never have gone on a hunt in the first place but had insisted, striding off on his own with a rifle. The subject had seen him and attacked before the rest even knew it was there, ripping Martin's life away. They had heard the struggle and come running, but they'd been too late; his father had died from a massive heart attack in minutes, clutching his chest and writhing on the ground. Then, just five months later, it was Jake's turn. And his mother's death, years earlier, was what had started everything.

She watches him out of the corner of her eye.

Anyway, none of this mattered, Alex reminded himself sharply. The important thing was getting them both to New Mexico and Cully. As far as he could tell, this girl wasn't dangerous to him.