Whiteout (Aurora Sky (2 page)

“So what? We go in guns blazing?
” I asked. “Won't that attract even more unwanted attention? What if a neighbor hears?”

“You saw the fridge. Gunshots in these parts are as common as birdsong—more common
,
in fact.” Dante stood. “Follow my lead.”

He moved through the woods quickly. I jumpe
d up and followed. His master plan, it turned out, was to walk right up to the front door and throw it open.

A cry of alarm reached my eardrums before I'd cleared the threshold and joined Dante inside the cabin.

Two male vamps in their late twenties stood
on either side of a wood stove. One wore a
red
-
and
-
black
flannel shirt, the other had on a faded camouflage sweat
shirt
. On the floor in front of the stove sat a cast
-
iron kettle and two empty enamel mugs. What was this?
Teatime
in the country?

Dante's back
arched. He stretched the way one might after coming in from the cold to settle in for the night.

“How nice of you to get the fire going for us,” Dante said.

“Peter,” one of the vamps cried in accusation.

Ah, yes, Dante's suave alias at work once more. Pet
er Pan. Well, I wasn't playing Wendy ever again. I was my own woman—one with a gun.

I lifted my pistol and aimed it at the vamp in camo.

He sneered. “Whatcha plan on doing with that?”

“Whatcha think?” I said.

Dante approached the vamp in plaid, gun at hi
s side. “Told you I'd be back.”

The vamp in plaid glanced at his companion
,
who missed the look as his deprived eyes latched onto me. There was no mistaking his expression. He considered me weak and wanted nothing more than to do bodily harm.

Dante stopped
several feet from his prey.

The four of us faced each other, waiting for someone to make the first move. My heartbeat was oddly stable. I'd felt calmer
in these kinds of situations
since learning I was a vampire. That, and none of this had quite
registered yet. One moment Dante was missing, the next we were joined at the hip, back in action under our own free will.

If running for my life could be called free will.

The air stilled. Even the fire inside the wood stove was silent.

A sudden streak of
plaid leapt at Dante before he could fire off a shot.

I'd been ready for an attack, which made it all the more aggravating the split
-
second distraction was enough for
Camo Vamp
to come at me and knock the pistol out of my hand. At least I had time to deflect his fist by ducking as my gun hit the floor. I was in the perfect position to elbow him in the gut, followed by a knee to the groin. The
bloodsucking
redneck went from clutch
ing one to the other.

A shot blasted through the cabin. I instinctively crouched, my ears ringing. My steady heart raced with the roar that ripped through the room.

I looked over quickly. Dante stood, gun in hand, the plaid vampire motionless on the ground
.

I bent over to retrieve my gun. Before I had a chance to stand up, Dante took aim at
Camo Vamp
. A second bang cracked inside the cabin. Camo
Vamp
went from doubled over to dead in an instant.

Dante lifted the barrel of the gun to his lips and blew, grinn
ing wide as he holstered his weapon.

“Hope you don't mind,” he said, nodding to the dead vamp at my feet.

“By all means, if you have a clean shot, take it,” I said, failing to mask my irritation.

It wasn't
as if I wanted to smoke a vampire. Being stuck w
ith Dante and Giselle day in and day out was fraying my nerves. We were always together. Always on the move. Constantly looking over our shoulders. Turned out freedom wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Rather than respond to my comment, Dante pulled a wal
kie-talkie from his coat pocket and radioed Giselle.

“Mission complete. Site secure. Over.”

“Copy that,” Giselle transmitted in monotone. “
Giselle out
.”

I turned my back to Dante so he wouldn't see my scowl. Our lives were turning into a Sylvester Stallone
movie.

Man, did I miss Fane.

But until I could get in touch with him, I was stuck with Rambo and the Vulcan.

“Mind giving me a hand?” he asked.

When I spun around, Dante had his winter gloves back on. He crouched by the plaid vamp, pulling his limp arms
over his head.

I holstered my gun and bent beside the guy's legs. Disposal would have been so much easier if dead vampires turned to dust the way they did for Buffy. Luckily the vamp was lanky and not too heavy. Blood stained his plaid shirt.

My stomach g
urgled. It couldn't be stopped. Dead vampire blood was hardly my first choice, but the sight of it triggered an insatiable craving. I hadn't had much of an appetite since the onset of our misadventure, but I'd never had a hearty appetite to begin with. At
the moment my stomach said otherwise.

We could live on food or blood or both
,
so long as our bodies had nourishment in at least one of those forms. Blood had not been available until now, and I was practically salivating at the thought of a taste.

Dante
d
idn't seem
interested and apparently thought better of keeping the goons around long enough to give Giselle a choice.

I followed Dante's lead to the front door, outside, and around back. Despite walking backward, Dante moved at a brisk pace over
the dry sn
ow,
fallen trees
,
and patches of vegetation until we were a good twenty-five feet away from the cabin.

“This should work,” he said.

We dropped the body on the ground and headed back to dispose of the second one. Camo
Vamp
joined his buddy in the woods behi
nd the cabin.

Dante placed his hands on his hips. “Maybe some wild animals will come around and make a meal out of them. Would serve the suckers right.” Dante didn't look at me when he spoke. He glanced at the bodies laid side by side
,
dropped his arms
,
an
d headed for the cabin.

I jogged to catch up.

“How long are we staying at this place?” I asked.

“Not long.”

“How long is not long?”

“Maybe two or three nights,” he said.

“And then what?”

“We move on.”

“We can't run forever.”

Dante swung around, eyes zeroing in on mine. “I'm not running. I'm keeping
us
safe until we figure out a way to report Agent Melcher.”

“And who exactly would we report him to?”

“Sergeant Holmes.” Dante looked past me as though addressing an apparition amon
g the birch trees. He lifted his boot and shook the snow off, only to set it back down in the
crystallized
powder.

I rocked in place to keep warm. “Care to elaborate?”

“Holmes was my drill sergeant at boot camp. Good guy. No way he knows about activities o
n base. Holmes will straighten things out.”

My heart gave a flutter of hope. If there really was someone who could hold Melcher and Jared accountable
,
we could go home. Mom and Gran could come out of hiding. I coul
d request the release of Joss
and redeem m
yself with Fane.

“How do we contact him?” I asked eagerly.

Vapor expelled from Dante's lips as he heaved a sigh. “No idea. I don't know where t
he training grounds are located
,
and it
wasn't
like I can look the phone number up.”

“Melcher would have it,” I
said, perking up. “If we got in touch with Noel
,
we could have her look into it.”

“We cannot, under any circumstance, contact Harper,” Dante said, shutting me down. “They'll be watching her constantly.”

My heart dropped.

He folded his arms and stared down
the road. The sun had dropped below the mountains, leaving behind a far-reaching shadow that covered the cabin and surrounding woods.

A truck rumbled in the distance, making slow progress along the winter road.

The truck appeared around the next corner an
d continued cautiously over the final stretch of road.

Tommy sat up front beside Giselle. The moment he spotted Dante and me, he placed his front paws on the dashboard and touched his nose to the glass.

The truck stopped in front of us. Dante reached the p
assenger door as Giselle turned off the ignition.

“Hey, boy. You miss me?” Dante scratched the golden retriever behind his ears. “Go on and mark your territory. The place is ours now.”

Giselle slid out of the truck, pulling a duffel bag after her. Her eyes
flicked from the two four-wheelers to Dante.

“Did you run into trouble?” she asked.

“Nah,” he said, batting the air with his gloved hand. “Lucked out, in fact. Ran into a couple buddies of mine from the old days. Mission accomplished.”

Giselle stared at D
ante blankly before heading inside the cabin.

Dante stayed outside, eyes on Tommy as the dog roamed the property, exploring. Despite turning into a human popsicle stick the longer my body stood still, I lingered behind in the cold with Dante.

Some benefactor Giselle had turned out to be, more like a
tagalong
. Dante and I were the ones securing lodgings.

“Does Melcher know about this place?” I asked.

“Negative,” Dante said, keeping his attention on the surrounding copse. He searched the area wit
h his eyes as Tommy explored with his nose. “That's the beauty of being a free agent. In the field it's cut and dry. You only answer to yourself.” Dante smiled slightly. “Melcher was only interested in the end result, not the details.”

I sucked in a shudde
ring breath. Dante heard it and turned to me, head tilting, smile
still
on his lips.

“Relax. It took the US over ten years to track down Osama bin Laden, and he was the most wanted man on the planet. As long as we keep on the move and lay low, Melcher has
about as much chance of finding us as a snowflake in
hell
.”

My eyes
drifted down to the single gra
y snowflake stitched into the cream yarn of each pilfered mitten. I'd found them at the last place, not having any gear of my own to ward off the magnifying c
old.