As her fingers curled around the keys, someone yelled, “Ari-el!”
The booming male voice came from the direction of the cave. Ariel jumped and clutched the keys to her chest. She pulled the door shut, then jammed the keys into the ignition.
Locking the doors, she tried to put on a seat belt, but the car didn’t have one. Hands shaking, she put the car in reverse, backed out of the hidden spot and turned the car onto the main road.
Gripping the steering wheel tight, she gunned the engine. The tires squealed, leaving the smell of burned rubber in her wake as the car shot forward.
Ariel cast a brief glance toward the cave’s entrance as she drove past. Jachin stood just out of the sunlight’s beams, watching her.
I’m done playing nice. His deep voice reverberated in her mind.
She shook her head to clear it as she returned her gaze to the road. The vampire had really gotten to her if she was hearing him speak in her thoughts.
A shudder rushed through her at the idea he’d make her pay if he ever caught up with her. Straightening her spine, she slammed the gas pedal to the floor.
Chapter 5
A s Ariel drove down the mountain’s curving road, the tension in her shoulders began to ease with the bright afternoon sun warming her face.
Now that she wasn’t threatened by vampires, she focused on steering the car around the hole in the road. Once she maneuvered past the broken up road, she pressed the pedal down and considered what she’d learned.
Humankind had created the vampires.
If what Jachin told her was true, what would the general public think if they knew their government was responsible for unleashing the vicious monsters on humanity?
Jachin had said that some of the vampires, the Sanguinas, were determined to move toward a different life when many of them became ill. Maybe all vampires weren’t menaces.
Gusts of wind accompanied the sunlight’s sudden disappearance, drawing her gaze to the sky. Dark clouds accumulated with rapid speed, blocking out the sun. Ariel’s heart jerked as the summer storm brewed overhead. She gripped the wheel tighter, mumbling, “This can’t be happening.”
From what she remembered in the history books…as long as the sunlight was blocked, vampires could come out.
As Ariel navigated the narrow, winding road for ten minutes, increasing paranoia wound her body into a tangled mass of nerves. Her neck ached and a tight knot had formed between her shoulder blades. Frantic for any sign of civilization, her gaze zeroed in on a new road sign up ahead.
Fifteen miles to New Paltz.
Almost there.
Ariel forced herself to relax, rationalizing that Jachin was on foot. Exhaling, she rolled her head from shoulder to shoulder to relieve the pent-up tension. New Paltz was a small town, but at least there was population around. She could call the NY police from there.
While she considered what she would say, an alarming thought occurred. What if the police didn’t believe her? As far as she knew, no one had seen proof that her kidnapper was a vampire. It would be just her luck if law enforcement discounted her story as some kind of publicity stunt to increase sales of her current and future books.
Her car’s sudden jarring and the sound of metal crunching metal yanked her out of her concerned musings. Ariel’s head snapped backward at the impact. Something had rammed into her car from behind.
Heart hammering, she tightened her damp hands around the steering wheel and jerked her gaze to the rearview mirror.
Three men were in a black sedan behind her. The blond vampire who’d launched the rocket on Jachin’s car was at the steering wheel. Her red brake lights accentuated the pure malice in his expression as he sped up and rammed into the back of her car once more.
Chest tight, her foot riding the brake, she bit back a scream and concentrated on the bend in the road ahead. Keeping the wheel as steady as she could, she maneuvered the curve, rounding the mountain and straightening out her car only to have it lurch forward again. Scraping metal and broken glass groaned and crashed in her ears.
She hunched her shoulders, wishing she could block out the horrific sounds, when something landed with a heavy thud on the hood of her car.
Her blood pressure skyrocketed at the sight of a man turning toward her windshield. He balanced on the car’s hood as easily as if he were riding a surfboard.
Ariel quickly glanced back toward the car behind her to discover the passenger was missing. A hysterical scream ripped from her throat as the sedan rode her bumper. While he forced her forward in a squeal of protesting brakes, burning rubber’s acrid smoke seeped into her enclosed car, stinging her nose and eyes.
The man on her car put one knee on the hood and smashed his fist straight through her windshield. She squeezed her eyes shut against the bits of flying glass that peppered her face with sharp stings.
Ariel opened her eyes too late to dodge the man’s groping hand. His fingers wrapped around her hair on top of her head, yanking hard. Tears blurred her vision and she screamed out at the excruciating pain.
“Pull over, bitch!”
Even as she sobbed, self-preservation kicked in. Jerking her car to the right toward the mountainside, she hoped the impact would knock the vampire off her car.
The side fender hit a jutting rock first. Metal crunched and creaked as the fender crumpled and the passenger door frame dented inward. Broken bits of rock and shrubbery exploded, cracking the side window, but the impact only caused the vampire to cinch his hand even tighter in her hair while he slammed his other fist through her driver’s-side window.
She turned her head to avoid more flying glass, causing shocking, white-blinding pain to lance through her skull where his fist remained. Ariel’s vision spotted and she wailed as she worked hard to keep the wheels on the road.
When her screams changed to silent cries, she blinked to try and refocus. Approaching another curve ahead in the road, she glanced past the vampire’s body. Her heart jerked at the thought he’d fly off her hood with the turn, pulling her full against the steering wheel and possibly tugging her through the windshield if she took the curve at her current speed.
She laid hard on the brakes. This time the pedal went all the way to the floor with ease. The resistance was completely gone.
God, no!
When her car rounded the curve, the wheels squealed and the vehicle elevated slightly on the two left tires. The vampire let out an infuriated growl. He bent low, his bloodshot brown eyes narrowing in hate. The wind blew his black spiky hair toward his head. “It would take very little effort to snap your puny neck right now. Do as I said or die.” His mouth twisted in a cruel sneer and he yanked her hair once more.
This time some strands ripped from her skull. “I can’t stop!” she yelped, pumping the useless brake pedal up and down to show him.
Realization that she was telling the truth dawned on the vampire’s face right before a heavy thump landed on the top of her car, denting the metal.
Ariel’s heart jerked at the sound. Damn it! Was it another vampire?
A loud pop preceded the squeal of tires sliding across asphalt. Ariel glanced past the vampire’s arm to the corner of her bent rearview mirror in time to see the car behind her swerve away, blown tire bits flying through the air.
The sedan veered out of control toward the edge of the road. The vehicle’s front bumper hopped against the guardrail while the driver tried to regain control. Sparks and an eerie fingernails-down-a-chalkboard screech announced its scraping path against the metal barrier before it sailed over the edge and straight down the side of the mountain.
Ariel breathed in gulps of air and kept her grip tight on the wheel, trying to keep her car from following the same fate, which wasn’t an easy task. The vampire holding her appeared to be trying to grab the person on the top of her car, and each time he did so, he used his hold on her head for additional leverage.
Pain engulfed her. She knew it centered on her head, but she felt it all over in
the series of hot and cold flashes. She blinked back her tears to see past the vampire to the road ahead of her, just as the hand on her head started to shake.
Veins of bright light lined the vampire’s cheeks and forehead, and she realized he was about to explode in a ball of fire just as the other vampires had back in the cave. As the brilliant light disintegrating his body from within rushed down his arm toward her head, panic reached an all-time high, making her light-headed.
“No, no, no, no, no!” Ariel screamed. She gripped the steering wheel with one hand and frantically slapped at the vampire’s hand still fisted in her hair in an effort to keep the flame from reaching her.
When the light became too bright, she held her breath, squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed hold of the steering wheel with both hands, praying she was on a straight length of road. Sudden warmth infused her face right before the tight grip on her hair disappeared.
Ariel jerked her eyes open as bits of warm, dark ash landed on her face and lips. Ewwww! A shiver of sheer disgust rippled up and down her spine at the gross realization the man’s cremated body was settling on her. She spit to dislodge the flakes of ash from her lips only to hear Jachin’s angry voice above her.
“Quit screwing around. Hit the brakes, woman!”
Ariel jumped at the sound of irritation lacing his tone. She wasn’t surprised it was Jachin, due to what happened to the vampire on her hood, but she resented his implication she was out for a joyride. Ooh, what I wouldn’t give to be able to slam these stupid brakes right now, she thought, but the sight of the curve ahead of her had her screaming instead. “The brakes are gone!”
Her heart leapt to her throat as she barreled toward the sharp curve, going faster and faster. She repositioned her hands on the wheel even though she knew she wasn’t going to be able to control the car around this curve. A screeching sound vibrated in her left ear as the driver’s-side door frame ripped from its hinges.
Before she could fathom what Jachin was doing, he reached inside, grabbed her left arm and jerked her out of the car. As Jachin and the vehicle careened over the road’s edge, Ariel landed on the roadside gravel—hard—momentum rolling her toward the steep drop-off.
Survival instincts on high, she grasped at bits of grass, dirt, rocks—anything to stop her fall. The smell of earth, asphalt, grass and blood flooded her senses, while her heightened emotions crammed her throat closed.
But her momentum worked against her.
She pitched sideways over the edge. Her body instantly shifted to a horrifying headfirst position straight toward the rocks and trees below.
Only then did an unholy shriek erupt from her throat.
Unwilling to witness her impending death, Ariel squeezed her eyes shut at the same time something yanked at her ankle, halting her descent.
At the sensation of fingers squeezing the bones in her ankle, her eyes snapped open. Jachin’s pulser gun flew past her. The weapon bounced off a rock, then tumbled a hundred more feet before shattering against a bed of rocks below.
Her stomach clenched at the sight of the gun exploding on impact and the car continuing its rolling path down the mountain, metal and glass crunching and shattering. And she was being held up over this steep drop by nothing more than a tight grip around her ankle!
Her scream’s pitch elevated to glass-shattering levels.
Stop screaming, Jachin’s command sounded as if it’d come from inside her head.
She gulped to take in much-needed air. Her heart slammed out of control, while blood rushed to her head in dizzying waves of pressure. “Pull me up!” she yelled.
“You will behave.”
He wanted to dictate her cooperation now? “Are you out of your ever-lovin’ mind?”
“Quite. Now answer.”
The dark sky above them chose that moment to open up, dumping its contents on them in cool, driving sheets. As her clothes quickly soaked through, she agreed in desperation, “Whatever you want.”
His fingers cinched in a bone-crushing vise. “Mean it,” he called above the pouring rain and claps of thunder.
She jerked when lightning flashed. “Fine. Just pull me up, you sadist!”
“You’re going to have to help me,” Jachin directed. “Reach up with your left hand and grasp as high up my forearm as you can. As soon as you do so, I’ll release your ankle and grasp your forearm in turn.”
The blood rushing to her head was starting to get to her, making her woozy. “I’m about to pass out and you want me to do yoga moves? No way. You’ll drop me!”
Trust me, Ariel. Listen only to my voice and focus on me, nothing else. The sensation of Jachin’s voice in her mind was so strong she wondered if she was on the verge of losing her sanity. Yet a surreal calmness washed over her at his words, along with a deep sense of certainty.
Ariel snorted the dripping rain out of her nose as she twisted and turned, using stomach muscles she didn’t know she had in order to reach Jachin’s wrist.
“Ready?” His dark eyes locked with hers.
She nodded at his calm tone, then let out a small yelp when the tight sensation around her ankle suddenly released.
Releasing a shallow breath of relief that Jachin now had a tight hold on her forearm, Ariel made the mistake of looking upward past Jachin. Anxiety made her chest constrict and her pulse ramp even higher. They were a good five feet below the road, and Jachin was holding on to the edge of a rock jutting out from the mountainside, his fingers gripping tight.
As rain pelted her face, she jerked her disbelieving gaze to his. “Please tell me your five fingers aren’t the only things holding us both up.”
He spoke in a calm tone. “We need to move quickly. My hold won’t last long in this rain. I’m going to pull you as high up my body as I can, but you’ll have to do the rest of the work.”
“What do you want me to do?” she asked as the rain began to slow to a steady, cool drizzle.
“You’re going to have to climb up my body until you can wrap your arms around my shoulders and your legs around my waist.”
Ariel shook her head at his plan. His arm was slippery from the rain. She had no friction to help her with the task he expected her to do.
His determined gaze drilled into her. “You’re well-muscled, Ariel. You can do this.”
His intense confidence managed to assure her. Taking a deep breath, she nodded.
Jachin began to pull her upward, hissing out through gritted teeth at the added stress on his fingers holding them up.
Ariel tried not to focus on the strain he was under. Instead she grabbed hold of his belt with her free hand and tried to redistribute some of her weight away from his arm as he pulled her higher.
“Bend your elbow to give you the height you need to reach my shoulder,” Jachin said in a strained voice.
With the strength of his hand giving her the leverage she needed, Ariel reached up with her right hand and clasped his shoulder. As soon as her right hand gained purchase, Ariel fisted her left hand into his T-shirt and strained to pull herself upward, hoping like hell the cotton material didn’t rip. Slowly she inched herself up his body until she was able to wrap her right arm around his shoulder and neck.
As soon as her legs folded around him, Jachin released her arm and quickly moved his freed hand to cup her rear to support her.
Once she’d wrapped both her arms around his neck, Ariel rested her head against Jachin’s shoulder and panted.
“Not bad…for a human,” Jachin said right before he released her rear and swung to the left to grab hold of another rock.
Ariel shifted with his movement and let out a scream.
Jachin’s shoulders hunched underneath her arms and he gritted out in obvious irritation, “My hearing is only supersonic if I still have it.”
“Sorry,” she whispered, right before he vaulted upward.
With her stomach in her throat, she slowly slit her eyes open to see they were standing on a ledge no wider than Jachin’s shoulders. The r
oad’s edge was another few feet straight above them. Before she could say a word, Jachin backed up to the ledge as far as his boots would allow, then bent his knees and jumped.
As soon as his feet landed on the graveled roadside, Ariel unhooked her legs from his waist and slid to the ground. Her knees gave way once her feet hit the wet asphalt. She landed hard on the pebbled pavement, panting.
While the rain came down in a slow patter, her chest hurt as if she’d just run a marathon. Blood’s metallic flavor bathed her mouth, surprising her. She must’ve bitten the inside of her cheek in her effort to remain quiet.
Jachin’s hand encircled her upper arm in an unforgiving grip. “Let’s go.”
She lifted tired eyes his way. “Can’t we rest for a second?”
Rain dripped off his straight nose, cutting a swift path down his angular cheekbones and making the scar on his neck stand out. His mouth set in an unforgiving hard line as he hauled her to her feet. “You’ve cost me my only weapon and precious time. You will not disobey me again.” His dark gaze bored into hers, challenging her to buck him.
Dusk was upon them as thunder boomed overhead. They stared each other down, each taking stock of the other’s mettle. She knew she’d run again if given the chance. He’d be a fool to think otherwise, yet one word she’d never assign to this vampire was fool. Without another word, he tugged her behind him as he headed toward the woods along the edge of the road.
From the moment they entered the woods, Jachin took off running. Ariel had little choice but to follow his brutal pace, thankful she’d maintained a strict running schedule every day.
Two hours and several miles higher into the mountains, where Jachin only stopped once to retrieve his backpack, Ariel couldn’t take the breakneck speed he’d set any longer. The rain had long stopped and she’d given up trying to pace herself. After the last thirty minutes of a straight uphill trail, she tugged away from Jachin’s grip and fell to the moss-covered ground in sheer exhaustion.
He turned and frowned at her, while the moonlight speared through the trees, illuminating his annoyed expression. At the moment, she was too tired to care. Leaning her back against a tall tree no wider than her waist, Ariel took deep breaths of air into her aching lungs. “If I don’t rest, you’ll be delivering a dead woman to your stupid vampire leader.”
Scions: Resurrection Page 7
