Stealing Time (23 page)

Beginning to back away, Jack said, “There’s no time. I’ll tell you one more thing, though—guard your humans better. I’ve left a present for you in your car. I was supposed to bring her to Philippe, but I’m tired of being a good soldier.” In a blur of speed, Jack was gone.

I shook off the killing rage and ran to the car, my mind racing. Through the window, I saw Kate tied in the backseat.

I flung open the SUV’s door as James blocked Gage from coming closer.

“How did you find her?” I called into the night and heard a disembodied laugh receding into the distance. Jack’s voice floated on the night air.

“Ask her…”

When I leaned into the Range Rover and reached for the ropes binding her, Kate moaned and started thrashing, her eyes rolling as she stared…at
me.
I pulled back without touching her and realized that she had seen everything between Jack and us. We’d made no attempt to act human or to disguise what we were, and the sight would have terrified her. Especially combined with whatever she endured while held captive.

“Kate, it’s me.” I kept my voice low and soothing. The scent of her terror, the concentrated presence of prey in the small space, her frantic pulse, the heat of her so close, made my hands clench against the bloodlust. I had to turn my face toward the open car door and untainted air. It took a few tries before my fangs retracted and I could risk a reassuring smile. Judging from her increased pallor, the effort was unsuccessful.

“Evie, hurry,” James said, “we have to go now. There’s a lot of movement in the woods and it’s coming this way.”

I reached across the back seat, put the rifle in the cargo area, and covered it with a jacket. Kate’s eyes never left my face.

“I’m going to untie you. You’re safe now.” Because of the urgency, I simply tore the ropes apart between my hands, careful not to put any pressure on her fragile skin. Seeing my strength, she began to hyperventilate, making a deep
unh-unh-unh
sound. Her proximity in the backseat, the sound of her frantic heart and her breath on my face, fully roused the bloodlust and I had to lean completely out of the car to gulp fresh air.

“This really complicates things,” I muttered to James, panting. “But we can’t leave her here.”

“You’re right. She wouldn’t last the night. As well, she’s seen too much.”

“Okay. All right.” I struggled to think past the thirst. “Gage should sit in the front seat with you. I’ll take the back with Kate.”

James nodded and propelled Gage as I suggested, murmuring to him that he could ride in the car with a human and not harm her.

But could I?

I shoved this ghastly thought aside and climbed into the back so that Kate was behind James, while I sat behind Gage, thinking this would make it easier to block him if he lost control. I refused to consider what would happen if
I
was the one to lose it…

James opened the windows so that fresh air could circulate, keeping Kate’s delectable, human scent from condensing too much around us. Although his expression gave no sign, I sensed his inner effort and knew he was just more practiced at disguising his thirst—but it didn’t mean he burned any less.

We hit the narrow road with the lights off and James pushed the Range Rover to its limits, putting miles between us and the carnage in the clearing.

I tried to move slowly enough that I wouldn’t startle Kate further. “Are you hurt?” I asked, keeping my voice gentle. I could see deep circles under her eyes, the imprint that hard fingers had left on her arms, but there were no other obvious injuries. It was a mercy she wasn’t bleeding.

Kate was incapable of speech and, when I reached toward her, her heart rate climbed even higher. Alarmed, I wondered if she might be moments away from stroking out, her heart overcome by fear and adrenaline. The elevated respiration and pulse did horrifying…and delightful…things to my senses, to the thirst, and I shut my eyes tight and made myself turn my face away. Drawing deep breaths from the wind pouring through the open windows, I tried to not think about the prey sitting, helpless and terrified, inches from me.

Dammit!
Kate
…her name was Kate.

Struggling to keep my instincts from locking onto her, I resurrected images from college—Kate with her wet hair wrapped in a towel, her face painted white with the Noxzema she swore by. Kate practicing her tennis serve down the long dormitory halls, laughing maniacally at our dorm mates dodging across her field of fire. Kate hugging me as I cried at my grandmother’s funeral, the day after graduation.

“You’re doing very well,
ma mie,
” James murmured, too low for human ears to catch. “It will help us all if you can calm her, Evie. Speak to her. Will her to relax.”

I looked up to see that he was watching me in the rearview mirror. My eyes kept wanting to turn to Kate’s throat and the alluring throb of her pulse, just at the corner of her jaw. Wresting coherent thought away from the relentless instincts, I rasped subaudibly, “Can’t you do it?”

James understood that I struggled and took no offense at my sharp tone. “Not without pulling over and facing her.” He chuckled when I swore. “Besides, this is something you must learn to do.”

We hit a sudden bump in the road and the SUV rocked, making me brace against the seat to keep from swaying closer to Kate. When she saw that my hand was now inches from her, she scrabbled away to press against the door. The panicked movement roused my chase instinct and brought my gaze once more to her throat, the delicate golden flesh, the frantic thunder of her pulse.

I felt James’s concerned awareness and, desperate for something to distract myself, I said the first thing that popped into my mind. “Why didn’t Dracula have any friends?”

He gave a short laugh, like I’d surprised him. Always sharp, he said, “Let me guess. Because he was a pain in the neck?”

Gage’s voice sounded strangled. “She’s telling
jokes?
”

Crazy as it was, it was helping. I rested my forehead on the back of James’s seat. “What’s the best way to talk to Dracula?”

“Easy—long distance. Are you okay?

I sat back and nodded wearily. “Getting there.” The inner battle was a bit muted now, the effort to keep my fangs from extending not quite so immediate. Meeting his gaze in the rearview mirror, I said, “So. You want me to whammy her?”

This should be interesting—I could literally feel Kate’s terrified gaze locked on me. My joke-telling and our conversation had been at a volume humans can’t hear, but she would’ve seen our lips moving and, no doubt, had all kinds of terrifying ideas about the topic.

James said, “Yes. Look into her eyes and
want
her to relax.”

Taking a breath of the untainted wind, I focused on Kate and thought hard about calm and peacefulness. At normal volume, I told her, “You need to calm down. Just take a deep breath and relax.”

I gave a little mental push and was relieved to see her eyes gentle, gratified when she breathed deeply…and alarmed when her eyes closed and her head rolled back. “What did I do?” I cried, reaching toward her.

James chuckled from the front seat. “She’s asleep, Evie.”

“I did that?” I asked, shocked. “All I wanted her to do was relax. I didn’t mean for her to lose consciousness!”

Gage snickered, so I reached over and smacked his shoulder. Hard.

“Perhaps it’s for the best,” James said. “It will be easier for her being in our company this way.”

“Easier for us too.” With Kate’s slower respiration and calm, my thirst and the desire to strike had eased substantially. Embers still slow-cooked my throat and stomach, but I could handle this level of burn.

James nodded. That was when I saw him release his grip on the back of Gage’s neck and I realized that our young friend must have come close to losing it. Gage glanced over his shoulder at me, his eyes dark with shame.

I shrugged and gave him a small smile. I’d barely held it together, myself. Who was I to fuss at him?

There was a soft thud on the side of the SUV and Gage almost came out of his seat. James laughed and I heard the relief in his voice. “It’s just Leo.”

I looked to my right and saw our friend standing on the Range Rover’s running-board, his hands through the open window. He opened the back door and climbed in beside me, looking for all the world as if this were a common occurrence. Letting the wind slam the door closed, he said cheerfully, “Hello, my friends.”

The SUV never slowed.

“I thought you old guys aren’t supposed to be that fast,” I said to Leo, grinning.

He smiled. “There are exceptions to every rule, my dear.”

“It’s good to see you,” James said. “We were deeply concerned.”

“I have a few tricks up my sleeve, don’t you worry about me.” Looking over at Kate’s sleeping form, Leo’s eyebrows crept to his hairline. “What have we here?”

I sighed. “It’s complicated.”

As we reached the interstate highway, James turned the Range Rover’s headlights on and brought us down to a legal speed—none of us wished to be pulled over tonight of all nights.

The evening caught up with me and I sat forward to touch James’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry about Tom, about Philippe, your beautiful home…about
everything.
” Had I been able, my eyes would have filled with tears. It was unthinkable that Philippe, James’s only family, had betrayed him so viciously.

His hand covered mine. “Philippe will answer to me for Tom. He was a good man. And while the house held many memories, my
home,
Evie, is wherever you are. As for Philippe, I will tear him to shreds at the first opportunity and enjoy every moment.” James’s rage danced through my senses, but it didn’t hurt.

“How are you shielding?”

“It’s working?”

“Yes. I can feel that you are angry, but it doesn’t hurt.”

His eyes met mine in the mirror and I smiled to see a little of the pale-green sparkle returning. “I’m just thinking that I don’t want it to hurt you.”

“Huh.” I thought for a second. “Does my anger hurt you?”

James smiled minutely. “Yours is a formidable temper,
ma mie.
”

I winced. “Sorry. Maybe we could practice…?”

Leo cleared his throat. “Would one of you mind explaining that cryptic conversation?”

James said, “The old stories are true about sharing blood, at least in our case.”

“Indeed.” Leo’s eyebrows climbed to his hairline. “Now that is fascinating. Might I ask a few questions about how it works?”

“We’re still figuring that out ourselves, Leo. Maybe we could hold the discussion for another time?” I asked.

“Certainly, my dear.” He peered between James and me, a million questions in his gaze.

I asked James, “Where are we going?”

“I don’t have a ready answer. Right now, I’m just driving and trying to put some distance between us and the slayers.” He swore. “What was Philippe thinking? How could he betray us all to the slayers? To purposely start a war…It is inconceivable.”

“That is because you are a rational man, a good man,” Leo said. “Philippe is…something else entirely.”

I let my mind drift, listening only halfway to James and Leo talking. When there was a pause in their conversation, I said, “If Jack is to be believed, Philippe doesn’t know that much about me.”

“Yes, that is a blessing, if it’s true,” James responded.

“So let’s go to Dallas, to my house.”

“You have a house?” Gage asked and I whacked him again on principle. “Ow! It’s just that you’re not much older than me.”

I let that one pass. “It’s small, but comfortable.”

James’s voice was thoughtful. “Can it be traced to you? In case Jack lied? And what about Lilith? If she connected you with Kate, got your last name, knew you were from Dallas…?”

“The house was my grandmother’s, her last name was different from mine, and I never updated the paperwork when she died. Later, once I was working at the
Trib,
some of my shadier contacts gave me pointers for living outside the grid, so I’m pretty hard to track down.”

I sensed James’s relief. “We would be wise to park the SUV someplace discreet.”

“We’ll put it in my garage. I’ll park my car on the street.”

Clearly a car guy, Gage perked up. “What do you drive?”

“A Honda CR-V.”

“Oh.” I heard the lack of enthusiasm.

“Honda makes a very nice SUV,” James said firmly. I had to laugh—this was the guy who owned a Bugatti and a Porsche. Even the Range Rover cost about three times what my Honda did. I was having a hard time imagining him in my little four-wheel drive, but I appreciated his speaking up for my humble vehicle.

It was good to have even a short-term plan and we rode in companionable silence for a while before Leo asked, “Evie, what do you intend to do with your human?”

Before I could answer, James asked in a voice that was half-growl, “Are you asking as an Elder or as our friend?”

I turned to study Leo. “There’s a difference?”

Looking unhappy, he nodded. “Elders are required to uphold our laws and there is no more important law than keeping our existence secret from humans. Nonetheless, I ask as your friend.”

James relaxed and I let myself breathe again. “Out of curiosity, what would an Elder do in a situation like this?”

“For minor incidents, wiping the human’s memory would be reasonable. But for situations like ours,” Leo paused and I smiled at his choice of pronoun, “with days in captivity and ongoing exposure, even an Ancient could not adequately erase the human’s recall. Only making the human one of us or killing her would be acceptable.”

“That sucks,” Gage said from the front seat and I had to agree.

“
Ja.
Just so.” Leo’s pale gaze was kind. “So I ask again. What do you plan to do with your friend, my dear?”

“I have no idea.”

We pulled onto my street after the morning rush hour ended, which meant that none of my neighbors would be home since they either worked or were in school. It also postponed their eventual awareness that I was back and had guests.

I gave James directions to the alley that ran behind my house. Gage got out to open the manual garage door while I went inside and backed my car out. It was a testament to Honda’s workmanship that it started on the first try.
Take that, Gage!
With all the neighbors gone for the day, I got a prime parking space right in front—a huge relief since parking along the narrow street was normally difficult.

I walked around the house to meet everyone at the back door, and along the way, was pleased to see that my neighbor’s son had made good on his promise to mow my yard while I was gone. It was amazing that he’d continued to do it for so long, though, without any further involvement from me. While we were in town, I needed to think of some way to thank him. From a distance, of course.