by Amelia Elias
Not to mention getting away from Diego and his vampire fetish.
Sian opened the bedroom door and glanced up and down the hall. Not wanting to run into James or Diego, she only left the room when she was sure the coast was clear. She hurried down the hall with her purse behind her back until she reached the top of the stairs, pausing to listen.
She heard voices downstairs, followed by the distinct sound of the front door opening and closing again. Gambling that both of them had gone out, Sian darted down the stairs, rushed past the den and kitchen and out the sliding doors to the back yard. She silently slid it closed, wincing at the click when the latch caught. In the silent dark, it sounded loud as a gunshot, but one tense minute passed and then another, and no one came to investigate.
She heard a car start and pull away and started around the side of the house. She wished she’d had a chance to grab some keys, but she’d never seen where Diego kept his. Besides, she wasn’t exactly sure how to open the gate. On foot she had a chance of scaling it, and Diego would definitely hear a car starting in his garage.
Sian reached the front of the house and crouched in the bushes for a long moment, making sure no one remained outside before dashing for the trees. Once there she didn’t dare slow down. Keeping to the shadows of the trees and making sure the twisting drive was always in sight, Sian fled as though the hounds of hell were on her heels.
A few minutes passed before she heard a loud bang and hit the ground, breathing hard. There was a noise of tires skidding in gravel and the thunk of a car door slamming. Belatedly Sian realized what she’d heard wasn’t a gunshot, but the sound of a tire blowing out. She eased to her feet and crept along the road until she saw the car.
James knelt beside one of the back tires, cursing as he worked to lift the car up on a jack. She backed up just as quietly. She would have to be twice as careful now that she knew James was still around, but she couldn’t let it stop her. Since her last escape attempt Diego had kept an incredibly tight watch on her. If he caught her again, she wouldn’t put it past him to tie her to him or something.
She had almost reached the gate when she heard the car approaching and ducked behind a tree an instant before the headlights washed over her. She hurried when the car passed and when James opened the gate and sped through she rushed through after him, praying he wouldn’t choose this moment to look in his rearview mirror.
The car sped off, though, and Sian breathed a sigh of relief. She started down the road, ready to flag down the first car she saw and beg a ride.
* * *
Chapter Eight
The house was too quiet.
Diego drummed his fingers on the desk, his anger growing the more he researched this latest company trying to take his land from him. He couldn’t find out a thing and he wondered abruptly how long he’d been at it. Surely Sian had to be done showering and dressing by now. He’d known women who took forever to accomplish the most basic tasks of dressing but Sian certainly wasn’t one of them.
He glanced at his watch—three hours had gone by since James had left. He stood and stretched muscles cramping from the extended time at the computer. Three hours and he hadn’t heard a thing from Sian. She should have come downstairs to eat something by now.
Diego closed his eyes and sent his senses through the house, scanning for her. He almost wasn’t surprised to find the house deserted. Sian had escaped right under his nose and he hadn’t even noticed.
He should never have underestimated his wildcat.
Less than a minute later, he was outside and airborne, an enormous hawk soaring through the night. The exhilaration he normally felt in this form didn’t touch him this time. Fear for Sian threatened to choke him. A scan with his senses showed she wasn’t on his land. He followed the road, using the great bird’s superior vision to look for her even as he kept scanning, fear goading him to greater speed. He caught her scent on the wind and circled down, hovering at last over a nondescript spot on the shoulder of the road. The bird’s sharp eyes picked out her footprints leading to this spot and abruptly vanishing.
She’d hitched a ride. She could be anywhere. His heart thudded in his chest. Anyone might have picked her up, and people who picked up hitchhikers in the middle of the night were rarely the trustworthy, Good Samaritan type.
Anything could happen to her, and he wasn’t there to keep her safe.
Diego wheeled in the air and raced toward the city, praying she’d headed in this direction and wishing bitterly that he’d taken her blood. Why hadn’t he done it the last time she’d run away?
But he knew exactly why he hadn’t done it. The terrified look in her eyes when he’d showed her his fangs still lived vividly in his memory and he would do anything never to see such fear on her face again. It was bad enough being mated to a woman who hadn’t wanted it any more than he had. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like if she were terrified of him. Sian had more fight in her than any mortal he’d ever known. The last thing he wanted was to see that warrior’s spirit crushed by fear.
At least he knew her scent. He transformed from the hawk to a turkey vulture. It wasn’t the most elegant of beasts but it possessed the most acute sense of smell of any animal on earth. He pushed the bird to its top limit of speed, his instincts starting to clamor again.
This time they were telling him to find her fast before it was too late.
* * *
Sian thanked the truck driver and hopped out, greatly relieved that the man who’d picked her up hadn’t wanted anything more from her than conversation. She’d heard way too many horror stories about hitchhiking to be comfortable doing it but at this point she’d had little choice. The driver had even refused her offer of payment for the ride.
“Keep your money, little missy,” he’d said, smiling at her in a fatherly way. “Use it for a taxi next time, all right? There’s crazies on these roads at night.”
She watched the rig pull away and walked toward the twenty-four hour variety store where she’d asked him to drop her. He’d been right about the crazies on the roads, but desperation had shifted her priorities a little. She’d gotten lucky this time.
Still, she had no intention of hitchhiking further tonight. Her gun was good protection, but she would rather not have to use it. No, she’d wait here at the shopping center until the used car dealerships opened in the morning. Five thousand in cash should get her something that would last as long as she needed it to, as long as she wasn’t picky.
And picky was just about the last thing on her mind.
Sian squinted for a moment against the bright florescent lights as she walked inside the store. After distracting the clerk from her phone call to ask where the ladies’ section was, Sian grabbed a pair of sweatpants, the only thing they had in her size, and a package of plain cotton panties. At the register she added a bottle of water and some jerky as her stomach growled and reminded her she hadn’t eaten yet.
The clerk finally hung up the phone and started scanning Sian’s things and dropping them into a plastic bag. “Can I use your restroom?” Sian asked the clerk, aching to get out of this miniskirt and into the sweatpants. They weren’t the most fashionable things in the world, but at least they’d cover her.
The clerk snapped her gum, giving her a bored look. “Restrooms are for employees only,” she said. “You can go to the pancake place around the corner if you want. Cut through the alley in back and go down two blocks.”
Sian started to argue but the thought of a real meal instead of jerky and water made her change her mind. She paid and walked out, going around the back as the clerk had recommended and eyeing the alley nervously.
She’d already tested her luck once tonight by hitching a ride. Was she really going to test it again by walking down a dark alley at one in the morning?
She looked around. There wasn’t any other way to get there unless she went all the way around the shopping center, and that would add at least a block to her walk. The alley wasn’t that dark,
either—one of those orange sodium lights illuminated the dumpsters beside the back door of the variety shop.
What was more dangerous—a long walk in plain sight down a highway at two a.m., or a short run down a well-lit alley?
The thought of pancakes spurred her on. If she took the shortcut she’d get there faster and she was starving. Sian slipped her hand into her purse, her fingers curling around the reassuring shape of her gun, and strode into the alley.
She’d made it almost halfway through before her instincts started screaming and she knew she’d made a mistake. She didn’t see or hear anything, but her gut tightened and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She drew the gun from her purse and quickened her pace as the sense of being watched grew stronger. “I have a gun,” she announced to the alley and whoever might be listening.
There was an unsettling laugh from behind her. Sian spun, bringing up her gun, but no one was there. She was halfway through now and nearing the dumpsters. She turned and resolutely strode forward again, making sure the gun was visible.
The laugh echoed down the alley again, this time sounding like it came from right behind her. Sian whirled again and again faced emptiness. “Keep away from me,” she said through clenched teeth. “This is a real gun and I won’t hesitate to use it.”
“Shoot if you want, Slayer’s whore,” a voice taunted from overhead. “It won’t do you any good.”
A shiver went up Sian’s spine as her head snapped up, searching in vain for the owner of the voice. What the hell was a Slayer? More laughter mocked her, this time echoing all around her. She couldn’t tell where it came from. Sian stopped and turned back the way she’d come. She hadn’t seen anyone when she’d entered the alley and she would have to be stupid to keep pressing on when there was clearly someone in the there with her. Footsteps sounded behind her and Sian quickened her pace. The mouth of the alley was only yards away.
A hand fell on her shoulder and she whirled, knocking it away and bringing her gun up again. Her skin crawled when she found no one behind her.
“Oh, she likes that gun,” the voice laughed.
“Maybe she’d like my gun,” another answered.
A shadow fell over her and she gasped, spinning around again, and the laughter echoed around her. “Spooks easy, doesn’t she?” a third voice said.
“Too easy for a Slayer’s whore, if you ask me,” the second voice replied with a hint of a growl. “Where’s the Slayer?”
“Poor little girl, all alone in the night,” the first one taunted. “Want someone to hold your hand and make the monsters go away?”
The third one gave a low, dirty laugh that was somehow more threatening than anything she’d heard before. Sian turned again and hurried for the parking lot at the end of the alley, truly terrified now and wishing she’d been less concerned with her stomach and taken the long route around the block.
She hoped it wouldn’t be the last mistake she ever made.
She had almost reached the parking lot when a man dropped in front of her. She jumped back, colliding with someone else and ducking away before he could grab her. Sian aimed her gun at the two huge men who had materialized from nowhere, wondering where the third was as she backed away. “Keep away from me,” she warned, her finger trembling on the trigger.
They laughed.
“Boo,” said a voice right behind her, and Sian was caught before she could move a muscle. She fought the arm around her with all her might but it was like trying to move a stone wall. One of the others came up and effortlessly twisted her gun out of her hand, throwing it carelessly over his shoulder.
“Slayer has good taste,” he said, surveying her critically. Sian’s skin crawled when his eyes moved over her breasts and his grin widened. “Very nice. I’ll have to send him my compliments after I thoroughly enjoy his little mate here.”
Sian drew in a breath to tell him exactly what he could do with his compliments when all hell broke loose.
A huge bird screamed as it dove into the alley, catching the man who’d been ogling her full in the face with its talons. The one holding her cursed viciously. Sian used his momentary lapse of attention to drive her elbow back into his ribs before dropping like a weight in his arms, throwing him off balance.
Something shiny whirled past her face and Sian stumbled as the man holding her collapsed. Before she could regain her balance, someone else grabbed her. She screamed, clawing at him.
Her wrists were captured in one large hand as her attacker’s other arm locked around her waist. “Stop it,” a familiar voice growled in her ear as she was steered behind one of the dumpsters and pushed down into a crouch there. “Don’t move, do you understand me? Stay here!”
Sian gasped as Diego spun away and disappeared back into the alley. How had he found her? She wrapped her arms around her legs, shaking and wondering why she was doing what he’d said instead of running down the alley and back to the highway. Wasn’t she trying to get away from him?
She heard a sudden scream and a vicious snarl. The scream cut off almost at once and she shivered, afraid to look around the edge of the dumpster. The snarls redoubled and there was a crash against the dumpster which made it shake and bang against the wall. Sian pressed her back against the wall, fighting the urge to cover her ears. Someone growled and someone else laughed, and there was the sound of metal on metal and a thick gurgle she didn’t want to think about too closely.
Suddenly the night was shattered by a gunshot.
Sian was on her feet in an instant, remembering how her attackers had taken her gun. She hadn’t even stepped around the dumpster, though, when Diego was back.
He caught her around the waist and walked her back to where he’d put her, breathing fast and clearly furious. “I told you not to move, damn it,” he growled. “Can’t you do one single thing I ask?”
The tightness in her chest eased with a rush of relief she didn’t want to examine. She started to ask him if he was hurt when she noticed his eyes.
They were too dark, the normally vivid green showing up black in the orange lights, his pupils elongated into cat-like slits.
Sian just stared, unable to breathe. She remembered the nightmare where he’d looked like this, where he’d claimed to be a vampire and showed her fangs too incredibly realistic to rationalize away.
Diego groaned and pulled her hard against him, burying his face in her hair and holding her tight as he let loose with a long and vehement string of Spanish.
“You scared me to death,” he whispered a few moments later when he’d finished cursing, and the pounding of his heart beneath her cheek convinced her of the truth of his words. “For God’s sake, Sian, what were you thinking, walking down a dark alley in the middle of the night?”
She let herself melt against him, her own fear slowly leaving her as his strength surrounded her. She’d imagined his eyes. It had to be imagination. “I was stupid,” she admitted before realizing she was clinging to him.
She wasn’t the clinging type. Embarrassed for acting like this, she tried to pull away. Diego didn’t let her, completely ignoring her not-so-subtle push against his chest. “We should call the police to come get those men,” she said, trying to fight her way back to reality again.
Reality was police and jails and statements given to a bored cop while drinking stale coffee. Reality was not Diego falling out of the sky in the nick of time with some kind of attack bird and saving her from rape and she didn’t want to think what else.
Reality was not vampires and weird eyes.
He laughed softly and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “The police wouldn’t know what to do with an Outcast,” he said gently. “Taking care of them is my job, Sian, and I’ve done it. Now you need to tell me who sent you back here.”
She wasn’t going to touch any of that, whatever the heck it meant. Sian pushed at his shoulders again, trying without luck to get him to release her. “Will you let go of me?” she finally asked in exasperation.
Die
go stroked her hair and kept his arm around her waist. “I don’t want you to look at me yet, querida. You wouldn’t like it. Now tell me who sent you back here.”
“Why?” she asked, wondering what exactly he thought she wouldn’t like. Her mind skittered away from the memory of her nightmare and the glimpse she’d gotten of his eyes a moment ago. “Are you hurt?”
He sighed, not answering her. She had the sudden and very disconcerting sensation of gentle fingers probing her mind. She shoved at him, terrified at the strange feeling.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, still unsuccessful in her attempts to break free of his embrace.
He growled and she went utterly still. She’d never heard anyone make such a feral sound. A shiver worked its way down her spine as she remembered the horrible noises of the fight while she’d hidden behind the dumpster. “The clerk set you up,” he said, his voice very low and very angry. “Stay here, Sian, while I take care of this.”
He released her abruptly and turned to stride away, but Sian caught his arm in both hands. “What are you talking about? She was only giving me directions to a restaurant! What are you going to do?”
“What I have to do.”
He didn’t look at her and she wasn’t quite brave enough to step around him and confront him face to face. “Answer me, damn it,” she demanded, refusing to let go of him.
His arm was tense under her fingers and she sensed the rage still boiling inside him. “She saw my mark on you and called them,” he finally replied in a voice that was little more than a snarl. “I can’t let that slide, Sian. If she’s not an Outcast herself, she’s at least working for them.”
“Stop talking in riddles, will you?” she snapped, exasperated. “She didn’t do anything but refuse to let me use her bathroom. What’s an Outcast, anyway?”
