From behind LeNae, a man emerged and, from the woods where Charlie was looking, a woman appeared. Charlie adjusted her grip on her knives; she could take out two with ease while Jack went after the third if it came down to it.
“We’re looking for help,” LeNae said. “We would have stayed hidden, but I recognized you and knew you weren’t one ofthem. We thought we could work together.”
Jack didn’t relax as he gazed at them.
“We’ll go,” LeNae said and started edging toward the woods.
“Wait,” Charlie said as she gazed at the three vampires. She didn’t know what was between this woman and Jack, but the woman was right, there was strength in numbers. “You know them?” she asked Jack.
“I knowher,” Jack replied. “And not well. She was tending bar the night they captured us.”
Charlie gazed at the woman before turning her attention to the other two. Dirt streaked all their faces, their torn clothes hung loosely on them, and their shadowed eyes radiated exhaustion, but they were vampires, and if they’d survived this long, they were also fighters.
“We’re not looking to join up with others,” Jack told LeNae.
“Jack—” Charlie started.
“I don’t know her,” Jack said.
“I didn’t know you well either,” Charlie reminded him. “Mal never knew anyone he took in before he did. Sometimes you have to go on faith, and we can always use the help.”
“There’s more of you?” LeNae asked, unable to keep the excitement from her voice.
Jack ignored her as he focused on Charlie. “Do you really want to bring them with us?”
“We can’t turn down help.”
At any other time, Jack would have agreed with her, but she was his mate, and the idea of putting her at risk by trusting people he didn’t know made the demon in him want to tear these woods apart. Taking a deep breath, he tried to regain control of himself, but it was Charlie’s hand on his arm that helped settle him.
“We don’t know if we can trust them,” he said.
“They’re some of the hunted. We’re all facing the same obstacles on this island, and we all want these bastards to pay.”
“That we do,” the man said. “I’m Clifford.”
Short and stocky, Clifford had brown hair and eyes the same shade. He gave them a wan smile as he nodded a greeting. He appeared unassuming and almost childlike with his cherubic face, but if he’d made it this far in the hunt, then Charlie knew his looks were deceiving.
“And I’m Kirha,” the woman said.
Tall and thin, Kirha’s dark skin was the color of mocha, and her short black hair curled around her pretty face. Though there was kindness in her deep brown eyes, there was also a fierceness Charlie recognized. Kirha wouldn’t take shit from anyone, and she was someone Charlie welcomed on their side.
“I’m Charlie,” she said, “and this is Jack.”
Their questioning gazes went from her to Jack and back again, but Charlie had already made up her mind.
“Come on,” she said. “We have a safe place you can hide.”
Or at least she hoped they did. She’d refused to let herself think that the cave-in might have alerted the Savages to their presence belowground, but now that they were so close, it was all she could think about.
* * *
“Mommy!”
Dylan ran into her so hard that he knocked Charlie back a step as he flung his arms around her waist. She didn’t have a chance to hug him back before his sobs shook her and his tears wet her shirt.
Tears sprang into her eyes as she hugged him against her. She couldn’t recall the last time he’d called her mommy. Even before they came to the island, he’d started outgrowing the word, and once they were here, he’d worked to forge himself into a young man in this horrific place.
And now her proud, strong, sometimes shy son was clinging to her and sobbing like he never had before. His anguish only made her more determined to see every Savage on this island dead and rotting.
