“Stay, girl. Guard Lu.”
Lorde tapped her fuzzy tail against the pile of blankets she and Hado shared, but Lu huffed a soft laugh.
Lu had spent years keeping herself safe. Thanks to the attack, she was stronger than a human, and faster too. She was not a vampire, but had the same sharp hearing of one of those creatures, and had a slight aversion to long times in sunlight.
Didn’t stop me from worrying about her.
I hauled my ass up onto the edge of the truck bed, then swung my legs over the other side, trying not to grunt and groan at the stiffness in every joint and bone.
My feet were bare, the left one asleep. There was no chance I was going to stroll off into strange surroundings without my boots. I bent, fished my boots out from under the truck, leaving Lu’s boots and Abbi’s sneakers behind.
I shook out each boot—spiders and snakes were tricky jerks—then shoved my feet inside, not bothering to tie the laces.
I headed away from the truck toward the road instead of going deeper into the tree cover, the crunch of twigs and dry grasses crackling under my boots.
We’d fought monsters. Monster hunters too. I wasn’t foolish enough to think we were safe. Not while we searched for the spell book of the gods Cupid had asked us to find.
And now we had Abbi and Hado to keep safe too.
I glanced back at the truck, a blur of silver in the darkness, and realized the moon rabbit and her shadow had done more than wriggle into the scant space of our truck. They’d also found a way into my heart.
I was fond of Abbi. Fond enough, I was beginning to think of her as family. But anyone close to Lula and me were targets for those people and creatures who wanted us dead.
The breeze lifted and fell, just enough to drag goosebumps down my neck.
Monster hunters, monsters like the Hush, and gods. There were too damn many of all of them meddling in the business of the human world.
Including Cupid, who had offered us a deal. I could be flesh and blood, Lu and I could both be alive, if we would help him bring a few people together, and help him find that stolen spell book of the gods.
We’d said yes, though we’d put in our exit strategy. At any time, we could call off the deal. He had our word, but not our loyalty. Never that.
l didn’t trust gods. Didn’t trust him.
I stopped at the edge of the rutted dirt road. We weren’t too far off Route 66, but we’d pushed it a bit, wandering down a side road as far away from the old route as we dared.
Here under the open sky, it felt like I was an ocean away from any other living being.
I had lost sight of the truck, but I knew Lu was still awake, tracking the sound of my movements.
I inhaled, exhaled, and planted my hands on my hips, staring eastward, where the sky had begun to lighten.
What a life.
I didn’t think it was one we were going to continue for long. No, the right thing, the best thing, would be to tell Abbi to hop on back up to the moon and tell Hado to look after her.
Tell Cupid we were done searching for the spell book.
Working for a god would only get people I cared about killed, and I didn’t want any part of that. Our destiny, our future, only contained two things: finding the monsters who had attacked us near 100 years ago. And killing them.
The soft brush of wings above me drew my gaze, searching for the bird. It swooped down from the tree to my left, white, soft, feathers and a flash of gold eyes passing inches above my head, then off, out, down the road.
Owl, for certain. Screech owl? No, barn owl more likely.
I checked the trees for more, but when I glanced back down the road, a figure was walking my way.
She—I was almost sure it was a woman—had not been there a second ago. Yet she walked as if she had been hiking at this steady pace for hours.
I stepped back away from the road, into the darkness. There was no reason to draw attention to myself. No reason for her to know Lu and the others were just a little farther off in the field.
