“You can do this,” Ian insisted.
“I can do this,” she repeated.
And then, before she could think twice aboutit, she raced across the roof and leapt over the wall with Ian ather side. Air rushed up around her, tore at her clothes and whippedher hair around her as empty space rushed up to meet her. Her legskicked in mid-air in some half-ass attempt to keep her in the airlonger. She prayed she would somehow make it to the other building,but she kept picturing herself free falling when she was halfwayacross the space.
It only took a second, but time slowed asshe breathlessly waited for her downward plunge to begin. Images ofher body bouncing off of the glass windows, breaking her bones, andshattering the glass filled her mind.
And then she was falling, but she refused tolook down, refused to know if she was going to splat onto theground and break every bone in her body. She could picture thepolice scurrying about her, trying to figure out how a human bugsplat could still be alive while she lay broken on the ground.
Instead of a freefall of forty-five floors,her feet connected with solid ground. Her momentum carried herforward a few staggering steps before she regained her balancecompletely. Exhilaration filled her; she let out a whoop of joy asshe stared at the solid roof beneath her feet.
Ian dragged her up against him and kissedher. “We have to keep going,” he whispered against her mouth whenhe pulled away.
Her celebration of the fact she’d almostflown was doused beneath the realization that they’d have to do itagain. Ian tugged on her hand, pulling her forward. She raced withhim across the rooftop and leapt across the next open space of onlytwenty feet. This time instead of being even, they plummeted a goodfifteen feet down to the smaller building. They ran over three morebuildings before finally coming across one a good ten storieshigher than the roofs they’d been jumping. Unless they somehowbecame Spider-Man, there was no way any of them were going to beable to make that leap.
“There’s a set of fire stairs over here!”Emma called from the other side of the building.
Paige hurried to join her; she looked overthe side of the building to the stairs below. “Aiden, Emma, you’rethe only ones not covered in blood. We need you to get us a truck,”Ronan commanded.
“Emma stays,” Ethan growled.
“Ethan…” Emma started.
“No, Brian can go with Aiden. He’ll have tostay in the shadows. You’re not leaving my side when there’s somuch going on down there, and possibly more vampires. Please, don’targue with me on this.”
The look on her face said Emma had beengearing up for a fight, but his use of the word please knocked itout of her. She bowed her head in acquiescence. Aiden and Brianjumped onto the stairs; Paige watched as they rapidly made theirway down and faded into the shadows of the alleyway beyond. Shedidn’t know where they were in the city, but judging by the dimmerlights and less noise, they had moved away from the main hustle andbustle of the strip.
Beside her, Ian dropped the body he’d beencarrying. He wrapped his arms around her. She ignored the bloodcoating him as she buried herself in his embrace and waited for theothers to come back.
CHAPTER 25
Ian drove the box truck Aiden and Brian had stolenout to the middle of the desert. The sun shone brightly from itsperch high in the sky when he pulled to the side of the road. Ronanand David already had the backdoor lifted up by the time he walkedaround to the back. Wordlessly, he helped the others drag thebodies from the truck and into the sunlight.
Smoke, rising from the dead bodies, driftedin curling tendrils toward the sky. The body on his shoulderheated; its skin sizzled and popped as the sun beat down upon fleshthat had been hidden from its rays for some time. The burning fleshheated his skin, but he ignored the sensation as they continuedacross the desert.
They carried the bodies off the road and hidthem behind an outcropping of rocks a mile away. Flesh curled andslipped off of the dead man’s back when Ian dumped him onto thesand. The man’s skin shriveled like a worm on the sidewalk in theAugust sun. Paige released her father’s body beside the one Ian hadjust discarded.
She folded her hands before her; her headbowed as she stared at the remains. The wounds on her face and herbroken ribs had healed, but her skin was still paler than he liked,and shadows lingered under her eyes. He wrapped his arm around hershoulders and pulled her against his side.
“The sun and animals will take care of theremains by tomorrow night,” Ronan said.
Paige’s hand rested on his stomach as heturned and walked with her back to the truck. “What about our stuffat the hotel? Are we going back to get it?” Emma inquired.
“It’s better we stay away from there,” Ronananswered. “My man will make sure no evidence of us remains thereand will get us back anything we need. I’ve arranged a place for usto stay tonight; my plane will take us out of here tomorrow.”
Paige didn’t ask why they weren’t leavingtoday, the vampire had his own plane, she was sure there was areason they had to stay. She climbed into the passenger seat of thetruck beside Ian and rode in silence back toward the city. Theydidn’t return to the main strip but followed Ronan’s instructionsto a large, stucco condo on the outskirts of the city.
Turning on the TV in the condo Ronan hadsomehow secured, Paige flipped through the channels until she founda news report. The first news story was about the robbery at thehotel. Drawn by the voice of the female reporter, and the headline,the others gathered around the TV. They listened as the reportertold the story, but at the end there was little the police knew,and no images had been captured on camera.
“That’s good,” Ian said.
“The authorities will run around in circleslike they normally do in cases they can’t quite explain,” Ronanreplied. “It will be buried and shoved aside by the end of nextweek.”
“Does it matter which room we take?” Ianinquired. He could feel Paige’s exhaustion in his mind, see it inthe slump of her shoulders.
“The room at the end is mine,” Ronanreplied. “It’s up to all of you after that. I’ll have some clothesdelivered today and placed outside your door for you.”
“Thank you,” Paige whispered. “foreverything.”
