She glanced around the empty, snow-covered driveway before turning toward the kitchen. He must have gone around to the back door which meant….
She spun around to gaze at the car. If she could get to the car while he was behind the cabin, she might be able to get out of here!
Unwilling to give herself time to think about the consequences of her actions, she threw open the door and plunged outside. Her feet skidded awkwardly on the porch, and she darted to the side in time to stop herself from running over the top of the handsome vampire sprawled face first across the porch. She squeaked when her ankle twisted, and she went down in a heap beside his motionless body.
When she scrambled away, her foot almost touched the blood seeping out from under him.No, no, no, no!
She lifted her foot and turned it toward her to make sure the blood hadn’t touched her skin. Her shoulders slumped when she didn’t see anything there, but she still wiped at her skin with the sleeve of her overly large sweater.
She lowered her foot and drew her legs against her chest while she took a second to steady herself; she’d beensoclose to touching his blood. When she felt a little more in control, she studied the vamp while she tried to see if he was alive or not. Then, his fingers twitched, and he released a low moan.
Elyse scrambled to her feet, dashed around the vamp, and rushed down the porch steps. The chill of the snow and the sharpness of the stones against her bare feet made her wince with every step, but she didn’t slow as she ran for the car. She barely glanced at the dented hood before flinging open the driver’s door.
She hadn’t let herself think about keys, but she smiled when she heard the beep indicating they were in the ignition. Tossing the chair leg onto the passenger seat, she climbed into the driver’s side and closed the door. The wind blowing through the broken window caused her to shiver as she rested her hand on the wheel.
It had been months since she was behind the wheel of a car and sitting in the driver’s seat, and it gave her a sense of freedom. Some strange, almost hysterical laugh issued from her as she grasped the key, but she couldn’t stop making the terrible noise.
And then she turned the key.
The car sounded like it was going to start before making an awful, grinding noise that caused her to flinch. Her gaze flew to the vamp sprawled across the porch, and she bit her lip as she waited for him to rise and come after her, but he didn’t move. Taking a deep breath, she focused on the ignition again.
“Please start,” she pleaded before turning the key.
This time, the car didn’t bother to pretend it was going to start as the grinding noise filled the air before the lights inside dimmed and the car died. It was useless, but she couldn’t stop herself from turning the key again.
Gurrr. Gurrr. Gurrr. Thunk.On thethunk, a puff of black smoke seeped out around the hood. Elyse sat and stared at the smoke as her emotions swung wildly back and forth between hopelessness and rage. And then, before she knew what she was doing, she started beating on the steering wheel while tears rolled down her face.
“Ahh!” She screamed as she gripped the wheel and yanked at it like a madwoman.
She didn’t recognize herself, but she didn’t care as all her well-maintained composure over thesehorrificmonths unraveled, and she allowed her anger and terror to burst free. For months, she refused to cry or let her captors see how much they were breaking her, but she couldn’t hold it back anymore.
She’d beensoclose! Freedom was at the tips of her fingers, and it had been cruelly ripped away, but then, she could never truly be free while these bastards held her father.
Finally, exhausted and feeling like an idiot, she reeled in her composure and lifted her head to look around. Hope wasn’t completely lost; her guards were dead. Or at least she assumed they were all dead, she didn’t know how many were actually out there, but no one had come out of the woods to stop her or finish off the other vamp.
Maybe she could still get away, but how?
She stared at the snow falling faster from the sky as it stuck to the window and the windshield. The only source of illumination was the light pouring from the cabin windows. Turning in her seat, she stared at what she could see of the driveway.
She’d been bound and gagged when they brought her here, so she had no idea whereherewas. For the first part of the journey, she’d been unconscious, and when she woke up, she’d faked being out to see if they would talk and she could learn something, but no one spoke throughout the drive.
For all she knew, she could be in Alaska and she could run down the driveway to discover nothing but miles of snow and unfamiliar terrain. But still, she had to try. She couldn’t sit here and wait for the vamp to wake up or for her captors to realize something was wrong and come for her. And they would come, she did not doubt that.
She lifted the chair leg off the seat and pushed the door open. Her breath sucked in when the wind hit her with enough force that it swayed her back into the car. Normally, she loved winter—when she was bundled up against the elements and had hot chocolate waiting for her. She wasn’t such a fan when she was barefoot with a too big sweater hanging off her shoulders and no hat or gloves.
She could end up with frostbite in every one of her extremities, but she made herself put one foot in front of the other. She bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out as the stones dug into her frozen feet while she jogged across the circle area of the driveway. Beyond that, the drive turned to asphalt, and she was able to run faster down the winding surface.
Her breaths plumed in the air as her feet sank into the thickening snow. Her skin felt like ice, and she’d lost the feeling in her hands and feet, but she didn’t stop. Shecouldn’tstop. Once free of here, she didn’t know what she would do. She’d have to steal a car before going to find her father, but at least she would be free to look for him.
If they discovered she was gone before she found him, they would make him pay, but this was the closest either of them had come to freedom since becoming prisoners, and she couldn’t let it go to waste. Elyse didn’t stop to think abouthowshe would steal a car or get her father free; if she did, she’d probably return to the cabin, curl up in a ball, and wait for them to come for her again.
She wouldnotbe a coward. But as she decided this, doubt crept in. What would they do to her dad if they discovered her gone before she found him? And how was she ever going to get him away from these monsters?
The doubts niggled at her mind, but if shedidn’tdo anything, then they were both as good as dead anyway, and she’d never expected those deaths to be pleasant.
Her chest and legs burned when she made it to the bottom of the drive. Her hopes shattered as she gazed up and down the deserted road. She hugged herself as the sweat froze on her body, and her chattering teeth drowned out the sound of her ragged breaths.
To her left, the road rose steeply while to her right, it descended. A layer of snow already coated the asphalt. She couldn’t see more than twenty feet down the road in either direction, but she saw enough to know there were no nearby homes.
