She only had half a mouth left to answer, but she managed to hiss, “There is still Aleksei. You can never kill him.” My foot slammed down and crushed what was left of her face.
Meghan…
“How did you- where is-” I was stumbling behind a determined Aura, who was yanking me along as I held my other arm awkwardly against my bleeding abdomen. “Please, Aura-” This time I tripped over a rock and went down, tears of frustration running tracks through the dirt and blood on my face.
Groaning, Aura stopped, looking around me into the darkness, sweeping her gun back and forth. “Meghan, I’m sorry, I know you’re hurt. But I have to get you out of here. You know those two won’t be able to concentrate if they think we’re still out here, stumbling around in the woods.” She really did look guilty, so I was pretty sure I looked as shitty as I felt.
“I can … just gimme…” I could feel myself losing consciousness and I bit the inside of my mouth hard, the coppery taste flooding my tongue and making me want to vomit. But the pain kept me awake and I struggled upright again.
“You’re doing good,” Aura panted, “I’ll get you in the truck and you can rest. We’re almost safe.” Sure enough, there was Steve’s battered truck parked in the clearing and she helped my shaky ass up and onto the seat.
It hurt so much to get my seatbelt on, I was pretty sure a couple of my fingers were broken, but soon we were rattling out of the woods and back onto the road. “Where… where’r we going?” I managed, head falling against the glass with a thunk.
“My cabin,” Aura said, speeding slightly faster on the winding mountain road that was safe, but hey, what was, these days? “I’ve got a panic room built into it. Steve says no one - not even the vampires - can get in there.”
“So you do know he’s a vampire?” I blurted.
Looking at me as if I was possibly the most stupid person on the planet, she said, “Are you kidding? I just got you out of a thicket of vampires! But yes, I knew he was a vampire from my second night here on the mountain. But it’s not something you go blurting out to houseguests.”
Sliding to a stop in front of another cabin, she not-quite hauled me out of the truck. “C’mon, Meghan, I got you. Keep walking, just a little more, okay?” I tried to push my numb feet faster, they were cut and bloody from my little romp through the forest. Inside at least, it was blessedly warm as Aura dragged me through a kitchen and opened a metal door covered in a thin layer of pine and fashioned to look like the rest of the cabin.If I’d passed it on my own, I would have never known what the room really was.
“Once I engage these locks, nothing gets in,” she said confidently, settling me on the bed and racing back to the door.
“Not even those asshole bloodsuckers?” I managed, lying down with a moan.
Watching her monitor board light up, Aura looked deeply pleased with herself. “Not even those. Especially not those.” Everything around us flickered to life with a reassuring hum and I actually let myself relax. Just a little. A tiny bit.It was possible,I thought,that I might live through this night after all.
Just as my eyes drooped shut, I sniffed. “Do I smell smoke?”
Chapter 16: Betrayal
In which there are more fires. More death. More bloodshed. And betrayal.
Meghan…
“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
I was laughing, a wheezing rasp that sounded like maybe a couple of ribs were broken, which was not a surprise. Miles had not been gentle when he was beating me up, but James’ vicious ancient ex sent me across the clearing with one kick from those pointy-ass boots. God, I hoped he killed her. A lot. Killed her a lot.
I noticed that Aura was staring at me, medical kit in hand, and I realized I’d spoken out loud. “Sorry,” I said, “my attention span’s a bit off. So about that smoke….”
Kneeling by me, she shook her head, “It could be smoke from what’s left of that flash-bang firebomb the guys set up, it could be a lot of things. Let me get you patched up, okay?”
It felt so nice to just prop myself against the back of that little bed and watch my friend (maybe?) attach a neat line of butterfly strips against that gash on my abdomen. She explained their rescue in a low, calm voice as she continued to treat my wounds.
“James came back when he felt your bond thingie go off like a siren,” she caught my puzzled expression and shrugged. “Did you feel anything? Like a tingle? I get that sometimes with Steve.”
I remembered that determined little … something poking at my consciousness when those fanged assholes had me by the neck. “Maybe?”
Her smile alarmed me. “Good, you’re bonding.”
“Yeah, no,” I snorted, “it’s absolutely not that.”
Nonetheless, she explained how James tracked me down like a psychic bloodhound and how he’d brought “friends,” others who hated or feared Laurent and his sire and thought they were a danger to their people as a whole. How Steve threw a phosphorous flare into the bonfire that made it explode. How she got me out during the melee.
“I saw James stake that dick who was torturing you,” Aura said with deep satisfaction, “with a giant tree branch! I’ll bet that hurt like hell.”
“Good,” I croaked. I felt a thousand times better from that surge of spite, it warmed my heart like a holiday movie or fresh-baked cookies would for a normal person.
