“OH MY GOD! I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”
“M-me?” I wobbled on stiff legs toward the dilapidated building that used to be the Butler Falls lumber mill. My wet clothes hung heavily on me, and the cold wind was an icy lash across my face. If my teeth chattered any harder they would surely break. “You’re the one wh-who insisted on coming along.”
Jordan huffed as she caught up to me in three long strides, her short blond hair flattened wetly against her head. She passed me and pushed open the wooden door, which groaned loudly on its rusty hinges. By the time I entered the building she had shed her wet coat and pulled a small flashlight from the plastic bag she carried. She set the flashlight down on an overturned wooden barrel and began stripping off her clothes.
Shivering violently, I pulled off my own wet clothes. My numb fingers fumbled with the button of my jeans for thirty seconds before it finally came undone. Down to my bra and panties, I ripped open the plastic bag I had tucked inside my coat and pulled out dry clothes and sneakers. My breath fogged the air around me as I struggled to pull the jeans up my damp legs, and I nearly fell over from the effort.
Jordan swung her flashlight in my direction, momentarily blinding me. “You said you could keep us warm in the river, but you forgot to mention that I’d freeze my ass off when we got here.”
I sighed when my thick sweater settled over my body. It wasn’t as warm as a coat, but it was a vast improvement over wet clothes. I slipped on my dry socks and sneakers before I straightened up to answer her. “I said I could get us down the river, and here we are. Okay, I forgot one tiny detail. You have to admit it was a brilliant plan.”
“Bloody genius.” I couldn’t see her face behind the flashlight, but I knew she was wearing her signature smirk. “If we don’t die from exposure, this will go down as the most awesome getaway ever! I still can’t believe what you did back there. Or that we just rode that crazy river all the way to town and we’re still alive to talk about it. They’ll be talking about this one for years.”
“You know me, wild and unpredictable.” I picked up my plastic bag, which still contained a folded blue T-shirt, and tucked it into the waistband of my jeans under my sweater. From an inside pocket of my wet coat I pulled my sheathed silver dagger, which I also tucked inside my jeans. I didn’t have to ask Jordan if she had weapons on her. She probably wore a knife to bed.
“I’m starting to believe you’re capable of anything.” She lowered the flashlight. “Do you think they know we’re gone?”
I wrung the water from my ponytail and started for the door. “Yes – or they will soon enough. And you know the first place they’ll look is town. We need to get a move on before he… they get here.”
Jordan followed me outside. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near Nikolas when he realizes you gave him the slip. He’s going to lose it. I’m telling you now, if he catches up with us, I’m using you for a shield. He’ll be too focused on you to start raging at me.”
“Wow, what a friend.” I blew on my hands and rubbed them together before tucking them under my arms. Why hadn’t I thought to bring a pair of gloves? And a cap? Peering through the darkness, I saw the faint outline of a road to my left, and I started jogging in that direction.
Jordan ran beside me. “I happen to have a strong survival instinct, which is why you asked me to come with you.”
A laugh burst from me. “I didn’t ask you. You blackmailed me, remember?”
“I merely pointed out that you might have cool powers but you can’t fight for shit, and you’ll need someone with my skills out here.”
“You also said you’d tell Nikolas what I was planning if I didn’t let you come.”
She coughed. “Um, I wouldn’t really have done that. I just didn’t want to stay there with you gone and Liv…”
“I know.” We fell silent, neither of us ready to talk about Olivia. I’d known Olivia for only month, but her death had affected me deeply. I knew Jordan was grieving the loss of her friend even though she kept it inside.
The road was dark and the night was quiet except for the sound of our breath and our feet slapping the pavement. After five minutes, it felt like my hair was frozen to my scalp, but at least the exercise was warming the rest of my body. It was another five minutes before we hit the main road. Fear of being out in the open made us quicken our pace, and I was panting heavily by the time we reached the farmhouse belonging to the only person I knew in Butler Falls.
Jordan rang the doorbell and Derek Mason opened it to stare at us with wide eyes. “What happened to you two?” He ushered us inside and the wave of heat made my cold face tingle. “Where are your coats, and why is your hair wet?”
“Long story.” Jordan walked over to stand in front of the blazing fire in the living room. “I thought your friend Wes was going to be here.”
“He’ll be here at six. It’s only quarter ‘til.” Derek looked from Jordan to me like he wasn’t quite sure what to make of us. “You girls must be freezing. Do you want a blanket or something hot to drink? I can make some hot chocolate or tea.”
I gave him a grateful smile. “Hot chocolate would be awesome. And I wouldn’t mind a hair dryer if you have one.”
“Sure. There’s one in the bathroom at the end of the hall upstairs. I’ll put the kettle on.” Derek was a great host. I’d met him at a party here two weeks ago, and he had gone out of his way to make us feel at home. Of course, that was before his best friends showed up as newly-made vampires and tried to kill us. Thank God, Derek didn’t remember any of that. The Mohiri healers had used a drug to modify his memories, and he thought his bruises were from falling from the loft while giving Jordan and me a tour of the barn. I had no idea what story Tristan had come up with to account for Derek’s missing friends.
Within five minutes, Jordan and I were cradling mugs of steaming hot chocolate, and I was warm for the first time since I’d left the river. We sat in the living room where Jordan and Derek kept up a steady conversation, while I watched the clock and waited for Derek’s friend to arrive.
At five minutes after six, a knock came at the door, and I was so jittery I nearly spilled hot chocolate over me. A tall blond man in his early twenties let himself in. I recognized him from the party. Derek reintroduced us to Wes, and we wasted no time in getting down to business.
“You got the money I transferred this morning?” Jordan asked Wes.
“I did, thanks.” He reached inside his coat and pulled out some folded papers. “Here’s the title and registration. I filled the tank and checked the oil. She’s good to go.”
“Perfect.” I stood and carried my mug to the kitchen. “Thanks for taking care of this on such short notice, Wes. And thanks for the hot chocolate, Derek.”
Derek followed me. “You seem to be in a hurry. Is everything okay?”
I rinsed my cup and faced him. He looked genuinely concerned, and I tried to think of something to reassure him.
Jordan answered for me. “We’re supposed to meet some friends in Boise tonight.” The dazzling smile she turned on Derek made him forget whatever he was going to say, and he merely nodded instead. I hid my smile. Jordan was lethal in more ways than one.
Wes laughed. “Something tells me Boise better watch out.”
“You have no idea.” Jordan grinned and held up her hand. “Keys?”
He pulled a set from his pocket and handed them to her. “You do know how to drive a stick, right?”
She rolled her eyes. “Who doesn’t?”
I decided to keep silent on that subject.
Derek and Wes accompanied us outside where an older model white Ford Escort sat in the driveway. We thanked both men. Then I hurried to the car, hoping the heater worked well. Damn, it was cold outside tonight.
“Hold on a sec.” Derek ran inside and returned a minute later with two fleece jackets. “Here, take these before you freeze to death.”
I refused them because I doubted we’d be able to return them anytime soon, but he waved it off. “My mother keeps buying them for me, and I have more than I’ll ever use,” he argued.
“Thanks.” I pulled on one of the jackets and handed the other to Jordan. We slid into the front seats, waved to Derek and Wes, and pulled away.
“And we’re off!” Jordan let out a whoop and gave me a wide smile. “Next stop, Boise.”
“Let’s get out of town first and then we can celebrate.” I glanced around, expecting to feel a telltale brush against my mind at any second. Butler Falls was only five miles from Westhorne, and it wouldn’t take Nikolas long to get mobile and come after us. This was my only shot at leaving. If they caught me now, there would be no second chance. Nikolas would make sure of that.
Jordan and I were tense as we sped through town as fast as we could go without drawing attention to us. At one point, a dark SUV appeared behind us, and my heart leaped into my throat until the vehicle turned into a grocery store parking lot. By the time we reached the highway exit, my stomach was tied in painful knots and Jordan’s knuckles were white from clenching the steering wheel. We both released audible sighs when we merged onto the highway and picked up speed.
After we put a few miles behind us, Jordan began fiddling with the radio, and I turned up the heater to warm my cold feet. I missed my boots, but they had been too bulky to fit inside my coat with my change of clothes. Someone definitely would have noticed and our getaway would have been over before it had even started.
I still couldn’t believe we had pulled it off. Westhorne was going to be in an uproar when they realized Jordan and I were gone. I’d left letters explaining why I was leaving, though I didn’t expect them to placate the people who read them.
Nate had been through so much lately, and he was going to be very upset when he heard what I’d done. But I was doing this for him and everyone else I cared about. None of us was safe as long as the Master was alive. Our only connection to him was Madeline, and I was sure I could find her with David’s help. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe that.
Nate wasn’t the only one who would be upset. An ache settled in my chest when I thought about Nikolas. Already, I missed him and I wondered how long it would be before I saw him again. In the back of my mind, a sad voice whispered, Solmi. My Mori couldn’t understand why we were leaving Nikolas and his Mori behind. For once, I had no words of comfort for it.
I pictured Nikolas’s reaction when he discovered I was gone. I hadn’t talked to him since we had argued about his plans to take me away and hide me from the Master. He’d come to my room twice, but I wouldn’t open the door even though it had been so hard to feel him nearby and not go to him. Nikolas was astute, and he would have known I was planning something as soon as he’d seen my face.
He’d left me alone after that, but he’d made it clear that he knew me a little better than I’d accused him of. When I’d left my room to go to the menagerie, Niall and Seamus had materialized beside me and accompanied me there. They hadn’t left my side when I’d taken Hugo and Woolf out, though I could tell they were nervous around the hellhounds. On my way back to the main building we were met by Chris who took over babysitting duty. Nikolas might have been giving me space, but he hadn’t been taking any chances either.
Did he know I was gone? Had he already found the letter I’d left in his apartment? He was going to be furious. He wouldn’t agree with my reasons, but I’d had to try to explain them anyway, and to make sure he knew my leaving had nothing to do with our bond. If I’d believed I could have convinced him to work with me on this, I would have chosen that option in a heartbeat. But I’d seen his face when he said he was going to take me away, and there would be no compromising with him. Not on this.
“Ah, hell!”
“What is it?” My head whipped around, expecting to see a pair of headlights closing in on us.
“I forgot my damn sword.”
I stared at Jordan, willing my heart to settle back into a normal rhythm. “Your sword?”
“Yeah.” She let out a mournful sigh. “I’ll never find one as good as mine.”
“Jordan, we barely snuck away as it is. If anyone had seen you carrying a sword, they would have known something was up.”
“I know, but I still hate leaving it behind.”
“We’ll find you a new one.” I looked around. “How close are we?”
“About twenty minutes. I may have broken the speed limit a little.”
Soon the lights of Boise appeared in the distance, and before I knew it, Jordan was maneuvering the car through the busy city streets. She handled the car well for someone who had spent most of her life at a Mohiri stronghold. When I mentioned it, she smiled and said it was easy to get the boys in Butler Falls to let you drive their cars.
After half a dozen wrong turns and a stop at a 7-Eleven for gas and directions, we finally reached our destination. Jordan pulled up in front of St. John’s Cathedral, and I waved wildly at the two figures standing by the large door at the top of the steps. They jogged over to the car, and Jordan popped the trunk so they could stow away their large backpacks.
Roland climbed in behind me and rubbed his hands against his thighs. “What took you so long? We nearly froze our asses off.”
I turned in my seat to face them. “Why didn’t you go inside to get warm?”
Peter made a face. “We did, but sitting through one long mass is enough. We’ve been here for hours.”
“You poor things.” Jordan scoffed. “At least you didn’t have to climb out of a river, and then hike miles in this cold.”
Roland leaned forward. “What are you talking about?”
Jordan groaned. “Before we wow and amaze you guys, can someone tell me where we are going?”
“Salt Lake City,” I said.
The three of them stared at me.
“David has a friend there who is holding a laptop and some cell phones for me. We can stop over there on our way to Albuquerque.”
Jordan spoke first. “That has to be six hours away.”
“Almost five. I looked it up.”
“Sara, don’t you think it would be better to stay in Boise tonight and leave in the morning?” Roland asked.
“Boise is going to be crawling with Mohiri in an hour… if it isn’t already. I don’t know about you guys, but I’d rather not be here when that happens.”
“She’s right.” Jordan said. “They probably have a team here already, and the rest will come when they find out we’re gone.”
Roland rested his chin on the back of my seat. “He’s gonna lose it, isn’t he?”
I didn’t have to ask who “he” was. “Probably.”
His hand touched my shoulder. “It’s not too late to turn back.”
“No. I have to do this, but I understand if any of you have changed your mind.”
“We go where you go,” Roland stated with finality, and Jordan and Peter agreed.
“Salt Lake City, here we come.” Jordan put the car in drive and pulled away from the church.
Roland settled back in his seat. “So how did you girls manage to sneak away?”
Jordan and I exchanged smiles. Then she glanced over her shoulder at Roland. “It wasn’t easy. After you guys left, Sara acquired two personal bodyguards who wouldn’t let her out of their sight. Not hard to guess who gave them that job.”
“I’m surprised Nikolas was willing to let someone else watch you,” Roland said.
I looked down at my hands. “We weren’t exactly talking before I left.”
“Since when has that ever stopped him?”
Peter snorted. “You girls are here, so your bodyguards couldn’t have been that good.”
“You don’t know Seamus and Niall,” I said.
“Once we realized they were going to follow Sara everywhere, we had to get a little creative. Actually, it was all Sara’s idea.” Jordan chuckled. “She set a little trap for them, and they fell right into it.”
I took up the story. “Sahir takes care of the menagerie, but he was hurt during the attack and he has to stay in the medical ward for a few days. I went to the menagerie during dinner to feed Hugo, Woolf, and Minuet, and Jordan came along to help.”
“Of course. I’m such a good friend.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Seamus and Niall waited by the door while I fed everyone, and Jordan went into Sahir’s office where she could see us on the security monitors. I gave her a signal and she turned out the lights.”
“But can’t warriors see pretty well in the dark?” Roland asked.
“Yep. And the twins went right for Sara, which is what we wanted them to do.” Jordan snickered. “Then she zapped their Irish asses.”
Roland guffawed. “You didn’t.”
“It wasn’t much. I just needed to freeze them long enough for us to take their radios and lock them in Alex’s cage. They were already swearing up a storm by the time Jordan and I left the building. I figured no one would go to the menagerie looking for us for at least an hour. It’s not like Seamus and Niall will have to spend the night there.”
“Now comes the best part,” Jordan said. “Bet you’re thinking we snuck away through the woods, right? Not us. We jumped in the river.”
“Sure you did.” Peter scoffed. “Seriously, how did you get away?”
“We rode the river. I used my power to keep us warm and to get the water to take us where we wanted to go.” I’d gotten the idea from the night of the attack when Jordan and I had ridden the river to the stronghold to escape vampires.
Peter’s mouth fell open and Roland yelled, “Are you insane? You could have died!”
“I’m really good at controlling water. We were perfectly safe. Besides, Feeorin and Fiannar were with us the whole time.”
“What?” Jordan jerked the steering wheel and the car swerved a little before she corrected it. “What do you mean they were with us?”
“I think they like to watch over me. I saw them a few times along the way. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to freak out. Kelpies don’t have the best reputation.”
“With good reason! You couldn’t tell me after we left the river?”
“I was kind of preoccupied, trying not to freeze to death, and to get out of town. I guess it didn’t seem important compared to everything else.” I told Roland and Peter about meeting Derek and Wes and buying the car. “And here we are.”
“And here we are.” Roland looked excited and nervous at the same time.
“You have our stuff, right?” I asked, and he nodded. I’d known there was no way to sneak out with backpacks, so Jordan and I had given the boys our things to stuff inside their larger packs. Once we got to Salt Lake City, she and I could buy backpacks for ourselves.
“Jordan, you might want to step on it,” Roland said. “I have no desire to run into a Mohiri warrior after hearing about the stunt you two pulled. Something tells me they aren’t going to take it well.”
“Way ahead of you, Wolf Boy.”
I glanced at the speedometer and saw we were doing ninety. “Just don’t get pulled over.” She didn’t have a driver’s license or insurance. All we needed was some state trooper poking around and asking questions.
Once we hit the interstate, talk turned to Albuquerque and the chances of finding Madeline. Or more importantly, what I was going to do when I found her. Now that I was getting closer to confronting her, I didn’t know what I was going to say. It wasn’t going to be a sweet mother-daughter reunion. Madeline was a stranger to me, one with information I needed to keep the people I loved safe.
The conversation quieted after an hour or so, and I retreated into my thoughts. Now that we were safely away, guilt settled in. I hated to think of what Tristan and Nate would go through when they discovered what I’d done. Tristan was almost as protective as Nikolas. I promised myself I would call them as often as I could, though I knew that wasn’t going to alleviate their fears. I thought about calling Nikolas and swallowed hard. Already his absence was a hollow pain in my chest.
“Sara, wake up!”
“Huh?” I opened my eyes and sat up straight. “Sorry, didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
Roland leaned away from me. “You can sleep all you want as long as you don’t start glowing again.”
“What?”
“You were lit up like a giant glow stick,” Jordan said, not taking her eyes off the road. “It’s kind of hard to remain inconspicuous when they can see you from the space station. Does that happen a lot?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think so.” I held up my hands, but they looked normal. “A month ago I was having little episodes where my power acted up. I thought I was done with them once I learned to control my power. It must be starting again.”
Roland whistled. “If that was a little episode, I don’t want to see a big one.”
“I didn’t glow before, so this must be something new.” My teeth worried my lower lip. I was pretty sure glowing wasn’t normal even for an undine. Aine had said my power would grow, but not when it would stop, and I had no idea what to expect next.
Roland’s hand squeezed my shoulder. “We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.”
It was well after midnight when we reached Salt Lake City. I wasn’t the only one who let out a big sigh. It had been a long day for all of us, and a five-hour car ride would tire anyone.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m beat.” Roland yawned loudly. “What do you say we find a motel and catch some Zs?”
Peter stretched. “Sounds good to me.”
“I have to go to David’s friend’s place first to get the stuff he’s holding for me,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck.
Jordan shot me a glance. “Now? It’s awfully late to be making a house call.”
“David said his friend, Kelvan, sleeps during the day. If we don’t go now, we won’t be able to see him until tomorrow night, and I don’t want to spend two nights here.”
“Fine, but I have to find a gas station first. My bladder is about to burst.”
“Same here,” Peter added.
I pulled a folded piece of paper from the back pocket of my jeans and studied the address I’d written on it. We were going to need a map, too. None of us knew our way around this city.
It didn’t take long to locate a gas station. The four of us went in search of the restrooms, and then I found a little souvenir rack up front that had a map of the city. I bought it along with bottles of water and some premade sandwiches from the cooler. Not exactly an ideal meal, but it would tide us over until breakfast. By the time I walked outside, Jordan had finished refueling the car. We devoured the sandwiches, and I realized it wasn’t going to be cheap to feed four large appetites. I decided to worry about that later and focus on finding David’s friend right now.
Peter chuckled when I spread out the map. “Why are you wasting time with that when we can look it up on our phones?”
“We don’t have any phones yet,” I said, tracing a route with my finger. “You two ditched yours, right?”
“Uh…”
My head snapped up and I spun in my seat to stare at him. “Please tell me you tossed your phones at the airport.”
Peter flushed. “We thought we should have phones on us in case we needed them.”
I groaned and rubbed my temple where a headache had started to form. “Peter, the Mohiri are very good at tracking people. How long do you think it’s going to take them to figure out we’re all together? We have to get rid of them now.”
“Are they really that good?” Roland asked.
“This is Nikolas we’re talking about,” Jordan told him. “What do you think?”
Roland pulled out his phone and held it up. “What do we do with them? Throw them in the trash?”
“No, they’d still track us.” Jordan lowered the map and looked around. A smile spread across her face. “Hand them over. I have an idea.”
Roland and Peter passed their phones to her, and she got out of the car. We watched her walk toward the gas pumps where an RV was parked. She disappeared behind it and returned a minute later without the phones. She wore a smug expression when she climbed into the car. Before I could ask what she’d done with the phones, she pointed at the RV pulling away from the pump.
A few seconds later I saw what she was grinning about. The rear of the RV was covered in stickers that said things like “Snow Birds” and “Beach Bound,” and the license plate was from Alberta. “Brilliant!”
“I hope Nikolas likes Florida.” Her smile grew. “See, I told you you’d need me on this trip.”
It took us a few minutes to locate Kelvan’s address on the map and for Jordan to figure out the best route to get there. Twenty minutes later, we pulled up outside a dingy four-story apartment building. Jordan cut off the engine, and I looked down the empty street that was dark in places because of missing streetlights. Garbage littered the street that was badly in need of repair, and graffiti covered some of the buildings.
“Not exactly welcoming, is it?” Roland muttered, and I silently agreed with him. “Are you sure this place is safe, Sara?”
“If David says we can trust his friend, I believe him.”
“What if it’s not his friend we have to worry about? For all we know there could be a dozen suckers hiding in that building.”
I tapped my chest. “Trust me, if there was a vampire close by, I’d know it.”
The four of us climbed out of the car, and Roland led the way into the poorly lit lobby on the main floor. A cluster of mailboxes lined one side of the hallway and two elevators took up the other side. I hit the elevator button and could hear the groan and creak of gears as the car slowly descended. From the sounds it was making, I wasn’t sure we shouldn’t take the stairs instead.
We got off on the fourth floor, which looked even more rundown than the lobby with stained carpet and peeling wallpaper that had probably been put up in the seventies. I led the way to apartment 410 and knocked briskly on the door.
I heard someone moving around inside the apartment and then the sounds of locks being undone on the door. One, two, three… four locks? This guy was seriously paranoid. The door cracked open and a male voice spoke. “Who are you?”
“I’m David’s friend, Sara. Are you Kelvan?”
The door opened another inch, but instead of admitting us, the man held up a cell phone and snapped a picture of me. Then the door shut in my face.
“Hey!” I yelled, knocking again. What the heck was that about?
After a minute of knocking, the door opened again and the man said, “Come in.”
I walked into the apartment, followed closely by the others, and the door shut behind us with a loud click. Immediately, my power flared up and static crackled through my hair. I whirled around and got my first look at our host, one word racing through my mind. Demon!
