I’d been at this for two hours and I’d already had to kill two of them because they were catching up with me. I was slowing down, getting weaker. I shoved half a hunk of protein bar in my mouth to keep my energy up and mentally checked in with Rab while I chewed.
‘How’s it going?’
‘Good, we’ve got half our people out. There was a bit of a close call with a scout in the woods, but we killed him before he could report back. The first wave of people have reached Paladin Village. Your parents, Astra, and the baby are with them.’
That was a huge relief.‘Okay, thanks. Check in the moment you’re all out, or if something goes wrong.’
‘Will do.’
I heard the snapping of a tree branch and ripped off the cuffs before taking off into the woods. The issue with wearing the cuffs was that I was basically human with them on, which was good for masking smell but bad for fighting or running fast. I could only outrun the vamps with them off, which led them to my general location eventually.
I can do this … just another hour or so, I thought as my muscles burned and strained to keep up with my superhuman movement. I was just heading west to cut across the stretch of woods that lay in that direction when I felt him.
Sawyer. His presence filled me up so strongly, so quickly, that I gasped, and an involuntary sob escaped me.
‘My love,’his voice boomed inside my head.‘I feel you for the first time in a year. I only have seconds. Tell me you’re alive and well.’
I burst into tears at the sudden adoration and completeness that filled me up at his words.‘I’m alive. I…’How did you tell someone you had a secret baby in the woods they didn’t know about?
You just did it…
‘I was pregnant before I left and didn’t know. We have a baby boy, Creek Curt Calloway-Hudson.’
Shock ripped through our bond as his feelings filtered into me for the first time in a year, and then a surge of joy and pride followed.‘Demi. A boy. That’s amazing, you’re amazing. I…’
He was silent, speechless as I would expect.
‘I’m coming to get you,’I said.‘I just need a few days to get everyone situated from the bunker to the Paladin Village, and then I’m coming.’
Panic seized our bond. ‘No, don’t. That’s what they want, they’re wait—’
His voice cut off, as did his presence, and I was left with such a sudden empty feeling it made me physically sick. I slowed my run, slapping the cuffs on as I burst into a puddle of tears. I continued to jog at human speed, but my mind raced frantically.
They’re wait … ing for me? To come get him? Is that what he was going to say before he was cut off? Whatever magic they did over our bond must have its limits because he’d been able to push through for a short moment. Which meant that maybe he could do it again now that he knew I was back. What if he’d been trying every few days for the past year? The thought shook me. There was no way I wasn’t going to bust him out of there. But if they were waiting for me to do that, I was more hesitant. I needed a plan. I needed to know more about Magic City Prison before I just went barging in there, right?
I chewed on my lip, my mind engrossed in thoughts of Sawyer and rescuing him, and kissing him, and his wonderful reaction to our son, when I felt the air whoosh past me. Reaching out, I tried to rip the cuff off so I could run super-fast, when a hand clamped over mine to stop me. The fingernails were painted red, and IknewI was about to look up into the eyes of the vampire queen.
“Oh, you have no idea how glad I am to know that you are still alive,” she purred as someone came up and grabbed me from behind. Strong arms yanked my hands behind me and held them tightly against my back, so tightly that I whimpered in pain.
Shit.
‘Rab, I’ve been caught. Plan B,’I told him. We’d been delighted to learn that with these cuffs I could still mentally speak.
‘On it,’he responded immediately.
We had decided that should I be caught, we would still go ahead and set off the grenades and create the diversion to hopefully buy me time to get away.
I yanked my arm quickly out of the grasp of the person who stood behind me and my wrist slipped free of the cuff.
“Hold her by the shoulders,” the queen snapped, her eyes going fully black. “I need these cuffs off to siphon her power.”The iron vise-like grip shifted to my shoulder and tightened. That’s when my fight or flight kicked in. I started to buck like a wild woman against the man who held me. Nothing like the wordsiphonto really set you off.
Pulling out a sleek back gun, the queen held it to the side of my temple and I froze, going completely still.
Fuck.
There were many things I felt confident outrunning or fighting against. A gun to the head was not one of them.
‘Now would be a great time for plan B,’I reiterated to Rab. Maybe with the distraction, I could get away from them and not get siphoned or my head blown off.
