Willow opened her door, and Gus did the same. She watched as he made his way around the Mini Cooper and into the house. Willow slipped out the back door and closed it silently behind her.
Instead of fresh-cut grass and spring, the crisp air now carried the faint scent of rot. She didn’t know if that was because a Savage lurked nearby, or if so many of them had infiltrated the town that their fetid odor now filled the air.
She checked to make sure no one was around before jogging to the neighbor’s house and ringing the bell. The woman with the bags and children answered after almost a minute passed.
“Hi,” Willow greeted with a smile. “I’m friends with Gus, and he sent me over to see if you had a cup of sugar.”
She was pretty sure humans did stuff like this, or at least she’d seen it in TV shows before. The woman smiled at her before turning away from the door. “Of course, come on in.”
Willow checked over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching before following the woman into the house and closing the door. The woman led her out of the foyer and down a hall. They started to pass the living room where the kids were lying on their bellies watching TV.
Willow stopped the woman before they passed the living room. Though it made her skin crawl, she took control of all their minds and changed their memories of earlier. If any Savages came here, these people would never remember her and Declan.
Her stomach churned when she went back outside, and keeping all her senses on high alert, she went to all the houses where someone might have seen her or Declan. Apparently, the sugar thing was real, as none of them questioned her pretense for entering their homes.
She felt dirty when she finished, but also relieved. Not only would she and Declan be safer, but so would everyone she talked to. And where was Declan? She’d hoped he would be back by now, but there was still no sign of him. She buried her brief flare of panic. He would be fine; he was strong, fast, and ruthless. She didn’t have to worry about him.
Then why did she feel like screaming? She wasn’t stupid and was aware their relationship was different than any she ever had before, but she didn’t have time to sit down and analyze it. If they survived this, she could figure it out later, but until then, survival was the most important thing.
Thankfully, there were no streetlights on this road, so she stayed mostly hidden as she made her way back toward Gus’s house. The fresh air flowing across her heated skin tickled the hair on her nape as she ran.
She didn’t spot anything amid the homes as she slipped through a side yard. An unexpected feeling of unease filled her, and deciding to trust her instincts, she ducked behind an arborvitae next to the neighbor’s back porch. The plant’s crisp, almost pine scent filled her nose as she knelt behind it and searched the night.
A female Savage loped into view a minute later. The way the vamp’s head moved back and forth reminded Willow of a snake taking in its surroundings. The Savage moved a few feet away, but Willow waited to see if more of them would emerge.
When the creature was fifty feet away, and no other Savages arrived, Willow emerged from her hiding place. Moving with the stealth she was born with and the Alliance honed into a lethal weapon, she snuck up behind the Savage.
She placed her hand over the woman’s mouth and shoved the stake through her back. The weapon pierced her heart before she could do more than issue a startled, “Eh,” against Willow’s hand.
Willow released her, and the Savage crumpled to the ground. Willow glanced around to make sure no one witnessed what happened, before dragging the body into the woods and away from Gus’s house.
They would have to figure out something to do with the body tomorrow. They couldn’t have a blazing bonfire in the backyard when the sun hit it in the morning, but for now, it was out of the way.
Willow yanked the stake out of the creature’s back and scented the night as she searched the backyards. She didn’t smell rot on the air anymore. The woman must have been the only Savage nearby, which meant they didn’t know she and Declan were with Gus and his family.
At least something is going right tonight.
Willow ran through the woods and back toward Gus’s house. There may not be any Savages nearby anymore, but Declan was still out there, and she couldn’t leave him out here alone. She had no idea where he was, but he would come back this way, and she was going to make sure it was safe for him to return.
Crouching in the trees, she watched and sniffed the air before deciding it was safe to make her way into the open again. She sprinted across the backyard and into the shadows of the house.
Avoiding the light coming from the kitchen windows, she crept across the back of the house. She ran across the side yard and behind the arborvitae again before moving to the next yard, pausing to hide, and then sprinting onto the next.
This game of run, hide, run, and hide was nowhere near as much fun as when she used to play Ghost in the Graveyard with her siblings. She could easily recall the trill of laughter on the air as they raced for the base. Instead of being comforted by the memory, it sent a chill down her spine.
Would she ever see them again?
Willow shoved the melancholy possibility away as she searched for Declan. Shewouldsee her family and hug her nieces and nephews again. She wouldn’t die in Vermont at the hands of the Savages, and shewouldfind Declan.
She was almost to the end of the street when a shift in the breeze against her back alerted her to something coming up behind her. Gripping her stake, she waited until it was closer before spinning to face them. She was on a deadly downward arc with the stake when she realized it was Declan.
Jerking her arm back, she managed to avoid sinking the stake into his chest as he leapt back. He stared at her with a slightly offended look on his face that would have made her laugh under normal circumstances. Instead, her eyes ran over his face as she assured herself he was okay. A couple drops of blood stained his cheek, but she didn’t think it was his.
She almost threw herself into his arms but held back. Now wasn’t exactly the time for hugging. However, she hadn’t realized how scared she was for him until he was standing before her.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
“Do you go around trying to stake everyone?” he whispered.
