“And if you can’t bring him to my side, then you’ve at least been with him for a while, and I suspect you know more of his weaknesses than Joseph does.”
Killean opened his mouth to tell it Ronan had no weaknesses, but he wouldn’t reveal anything about Ronan to this creature. Besides, it would have been a lie, and he suspected this creature already knew that Ronan had one verybigweakness in the form of his mate.
Killean glanced at Simone as she glared at the phone. He had one huge weakness now too.
“Plus,” the creature said, “you’re an extremely powerful vampire, Killean. I sensed it when we passed in the hall. If the girl is your mate, then you’ll be even more powerful, and I like power. You can keep the girl, as she is if you come to me before tonight.”
Killean stared at the road as he contemplated a response that wouldn’t get them killed in the next hour. “And where would I go to find you?”
Simone shot him a look.
“I’ll call back with a location; answer when I do.”
The phone went dead, and only the hum of the tires punctuated the silence.
“I’d rather be dead than have either of us under thatthing’scontrol,” Simone finally said.
Killean winced at the mention of her death, but he wasn’t sure how to prevent it from happening. They were under a microscope right now. If he turned himself in, he would be handing himself over to become a monster, but they would keep Simone alive if only because they could use her to control him. To have her under the control of such a thing was unthinkable, but even more unthinkable was her death.
“Killean,” she said when he didn’t reply. She knew he didn’t want to be a puppet against Ronan, but he would do what he believed necessary to keep her alive. “I mean it, Killean.”
He shifted his knee and reclaimed the wheel with one of his barely healed hands. Even with the woman’s blood so fresh in him, he was weakening fast. When that thing came after them later, and it would, he wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight against it.
“If you turn yourself over because of me, I’ll never forgive you, and I’ll blame myself,” she said. “Besides, it won’t let me stay as I am, and we both know it.”
She was right. If he turned himself over, they would be allowed to live, but the vampires they were now would cease to exist. Though he would lay down his life for her, he couldn’t let them destroy her in such a way.
“Killean,” she said when he lifted the phone and punched in another number.
“I’m not calling them,” he assured her.
“Speak,” Saxon said after the third ring.
“It’s me, and we’ve got a problem.” Killean proceeded to fill him in on everything that had happened since they last spoke.
“Shit,” Saxon muttered when Killean finished. “Do you know the license plate number of that car?”
“Can you look in the glove box for the registration?” he asked Simone.
When she stared at him in confusion, he inwardly cursed the hunters for making her so vulnerable and asked her to pull the papers out. He spotted the registration as she sorted through everything. He had her hold it so he could read the plate number to Saxon.
“Maybe Declan can do something with it,” Saxon said. “Call you back at this number?”
“Yeah, and if you don’t hear from me again, it’s because we’re dead.”
Killean hung up before Saxon could reply and leaned back in his seat. The sun was sinking behind the horizon and his skin was burning at a slower rate, but this knowledge didn’t ease the turmoil churning within him.
Simone rested her hand on his knee and squeezed it.
Chapter Thirty-Four
When Saxon’snumber appeared on the screen again, Killean answered the phone. “Saxon,” he greeted.
“Sorry to disappoint, but this is your friendly, vampire, computer guru,” Declan said. “And like Mighty Mouse, I’m here to save the day.”
Killean almost rolled his eyes, but he was glad to hear Declan’s jovial tone no matter how out of place it was. “And how do you plan to do that?”
“With a few strokes of my magic fingers.”
