“What?” Lucien inquired.
“Turn him. We need every fighter we can get, and Logan’s a fighter.”
“He might not want to be a vampire,” Declan said.
Asher leaned over Logan’s unmoving form and clasped his face. He turned his friend’s head toward him. “Logan!” he shouted. “Logan!”
Elyse held her breath as the tension in the van ratcheted up. She wasn’t a vampire, but she smelled the blood as a growing pool of it spread beneath Logan. How did they withstand the temptation it offered?
She glanced at Saxon to find his shoulders hunched up, and his eyes narrowed. She squeezed his hand to give him some reassurance, but she didn’t know if it did any good.
“Logan!” Asher shouted.
A small grunt made her turn back as Logan’s eyelids fluttered. She couldn’t be sure from her position, but she believed they opened.
“If they don’t turn you, you’re going to die,” Asher said as he leaned over his friend. He rested his hand on Logan’s cheek. “Do you understand me?”
Logan did something that caused Asher to release a deep breath before asking. “Do you want them to change you?”
No one breathed as they waited for Logan’s response, and then Elyse saw the almost imperceptible nod of his head. Asher’s breath exploded from him, but Elyse still couldn’t breathe as he sat back and looked between the two vamps.
“I’ve never shared my blood before,” Lucien said.
“Neither have I,” Declan said.
They stared at each other before Declan bit into his wrist. On his knees, he scooted through the blood to get closer to Logan. “Remember, the change is far more painful and takes longer for hunters than humans.” He leaned over Logan and rested his wrist against the man’s mouth. “This is only the beginning of your misery.”
“We’re hunters,” Asher said. “All we’ve known is death and misery.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Elyse sensedthe strain in the vampires escalating with every passing mile, and she knew it was because of the dry puddle of blood beneath Logan. The hunter hadn’t moved for hours, and then, an hour ago, he’d spasmed like someone was sending bolts of electricity through his body.
His fingers clawed at the floor before his body bowed off the ground in a way that made it seem as if his back would shatter. He didn’t scream, but she could practically hear his silent wail of anguish resonating through the van.
She’d reached for Saxon’s hand again and clasped it in hers as she sought some escape from Logan’s suffering, but there was no avoiding this as it continued for a couple of hours. When he collapsed to the ground, Elyse waited for it to start all over again, but he remained unmoving.
She turned away to watch the countryside rolling past. The glow of the full moon reflected off the snow to illuminate the acres of fields they passed. In some of the pastures, cows and horses grazed, but many of them were empty. For a few hours they’d been out of the mountains, but now they started to rise out of the land again, and the moon faded in and out of them as their peaks touched the sky.
The hum of the tires and the occasional whimper from Logan were the only sounds as another hour passed. She tried to sleep, but when she closed her eyes, all she saw was Logan falling beneath the Savages in the snow.
She didn’t know how much more time passed before Saxon broke the silence. “We’re almost there.”
The knowledge she’d soon be out of this van should relieve her; instead, she felt tenser. Ronan, and whoever was with him, was already there, and she had no idea how they would react to her.
Declan spoke with Ronan a few hours ago and learned he’d commandeered a group of fishing and hunting cabins listed for rent. They’d brought a number of hunters and vampires with them to hopefully locate, and kill, the Savages.
Saxon turned onto a small dirt road and bumped over a series of ruts before pulling up in front of a log cabin. The ice-covered lake opposite the cabins reflected the glow of the lights coming from inside seven of them.
Shadows moved within the cabin they parked in front of, and then the door opened to reveal the man standing there. The light behind the man illuminated his silhouette and threw his face into shadow, but the power emanating from him told her it was Ronan.
He descended the steps and stalked toward the van as Saxon shut it off and opened the door. “Is everyone okay?” Ronan demanded.
“We’re alive,” Saxon said.
He glanced at Elyse and smiled before exiting the van and closing the door. She didn’t hear what Ronan said to him while the two of them walked around the front of the vehicle. Saxon opened her door as Declan slid open the back door.
Ronan’s burgundy-colored eyes met hers when he stopped behind Saxon. She took in his broad shoulders and dark brown hair while he inspected her. Elyse gulped as she took Saxon’s hand and let him help her out. Cramped from sitting for so long, her legs wobbled as she climbed down. They’d stopped to pee when they got gas and another time on the side of the road, but her bladder was begging for release again.
