Whiteout (Aurora Sky (31 page)

“What are you going to do to me?” Ashley demanded.

I turned in the seat and stared into Ashley's icy blue eyes through the dim light.

“We're going to let you go. You just have to hang tight a little longer. We ca
n't free you immediately. The first thing you'd do is alert Agent Melcher. Even if you don't believe us, I want you to know everything we've said is true. Melcher is a vampire. He works closely with a recruiter named Jared, a vampire who targets candidates
with AB negative and positive blood. He harms them so the agency can step in and alter our natural physiology. We're all undead. You, me, Dante… every agent and informant ever recruited by the agency. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but there it is.”

See? Blurting it out wasn't really that difficult. I still didn't understand how Noel and Fane had managed to keep it from me. I figured it out pretty quickly myself. Didn't have to wait five or ten years to notice I wasn't aging.

Ashley's nostrils flared
. “That's insane.”

“No argument there.” When my reply was met with silence, I asked, “How long have you been with the agency?”

Ashley straightened her back, eyes remaining zeroed in on mine. “Couple months
,” she answered
.

Two months? That was weird. Noel t
old me she'd been the last AB positive experiment. Melcher knew the toxin didn't mix with their blood. Maybe it wasn't all about toxic blood. Maybe Melcher wanted recruits he could keep around as long as he wanted. He'd droned on about what an expensive in
vestment I'd been. We all were with our initial medical bills and training.
That expense would pay off far
better if we never aged. After witnessing him recruit a former target, I wouldn't put anything past him.

“Look, we don't have a lot of time,” I said.
“Have you noticed a decline in appetite? A loss of taste for solid foods? Ever experienced blood cravings? Sexual cravings?”

Ashley's cheeks flamed. I could be wrong, but from the glare on her face I guess
ed
it was more out of outrage than embarrassment.

“What happened?” I asked, trying to approach things from an alternate direction. “I mean, what sort of accident were you in to land you with the agency?”

Ashley sat against her seatback and pursed her lips.

“I was in a car accident,” I said conversationall
y, turning down the heat for volume control rather than feeling overly warm. “Only it was no accident. I later found out Melcher's minion, Jared, had rammed into me head
-
on. Uncanny number of us ABers getting into accidents, wouldn't you say
? Some are trul
y accidents. Like
Dante. He wiped out on his snowboard. Not on some ski slope either. He was dropped off on top of a mountain by helicopter. Headstrong, but his heart's in the right place.”

“Are you two together or something?” Ashley asked, narrowing her e
yes.

Her attitude was rich coming from someone whose assignment was obviously to date a vampire.

“No.”

“Then why did you run off together?”

I gathered my hair over my shoulder and twisted it. “We had no choice. He was kidnapped. In order to get him back I
had to trade Jared for Dante, which was fine by me. If everything had gone according to plan, Jared would be dead and we wouldn't be having this conversation. But Jared escaped and, before he did, I tried to shoot him. Well, actually, I did shoot him. Unf
ortunately, he loaded his gun with blanks.”

I stopped talking, curious to hear Ashley's response
, b
ut she sat back,
mouth shut
. Come on! I dropped a bombshell on her. She had to have some kind of reaction, even if it was to call me a no
-
good
,
dirty liar.

“
I've never met this man,” she said finally.

I waited for more, but she didn't continue. Really chatty
,
this one. At least I tried warning her, but she was about as tight lipped and unresponsive as Giselle. And I thought
blond
s were supposed to be bubbly.

W
ell, if she wasn't going to talk, I might as well turn the heat back up to full blast.

A light appeared to the right of the vehicle, a single beam moving toward us through the dark. As it neared, the hum from the machine's engine cut through the sound of t
he heater. Dante pulled up along the car and left the machine running while he dismounted and opened the
back door
of the car.

“Where are you taking me?” Ashley asked.

“Someplace safe,” Dante said. “Don't worry, it's only temporary.” Dante sounded a lot g
entler now that he wanted to bring her on board.

Good luck with that. Conversion didn't happen overnight. I got the feeling this one wouldn't budge.

“I'm going to free your ankles now,” Dante said, pulling a knife from his pack. “Hold still. I don't want
to cut you.”

Ashley ground her teeth together as though Dante's mere proximity was painful. While his head was bent slicing through the tape above her feet, I kept an eye on Ashley to make sure she didn't try and beat in his head with her fists. She met my
eye
s
and looked away
,
as though being caught considering just such an action.

Once finished, Dante backed out of the car and straightened to his full height. “Okay, let's head out.”

At least Ashley had enough sense to step outside without forcing us to dr
ag her out of the car. I joined them beside the snowmachine. Dante got on first. “Hop on back,” he said to Ashley, who scowled in response.

“How do you expect me to hold on with my wrists bound?” she asked.

“Put them over my head. You'll be extra secure,”
Dante replied, reaching a hand around his back to pat the seat behind him.

“Get on,” I said. “There's no sense standing around freezing our asses off.”

Ashley shot me the stink eye before hoisting her leg over the seat behind Dante. She'd been wise to put
leggings on beneath her dress, otherwise she literally would be freezing her ass off. She lifted her bound wrists and looped them over Dante's head, pausing around his neck.

“You're not going to try and choke me now are you?” Dante asked, amusement lacing
his words.

“Wouldn't dream of it,” Ashley answered sweetly.

Her arms slid down Dante's chest, resting above his hips.

“Be right back,” Dante said to me. He turned his head, calling out, “Hang on tight
,
” before twisting back the handle and zipping away.

I w
atched them until they disappeared from sight, a sinking feeling weighing down my gut. Tears pooled in my eyes. They froze just as suddenly. All I'd ever known was the bitter cold bite of winter. It lasted longer than any season should. There was no big, b
right future for me out there. No getting the guy. No happily ever after.

Fane and Noel would never know what had become of me. Neither would my mom or Gran. Mom would keep checking in with the neighbor from time to time as Dante had instructed her. There'
d be no news. I couldn't imagine her worry, the stress and fear of hiding out, keeping herself and Gran safe, and wondering how I was doing. Mom might have signed me over to the agency, but she had no clue how to navigate the trenches. I didn't want that k
ind of life for her, especially not when she'd finally let go of depression and guilt and made a new life for herself.

I was tired of hiding.

Screw that! I was getting myself out of this shithole. If Dante wanted to stick around, that was his choice.

I ha
d to get out of there. I had to get back to Fane. There wasn't anything more I could do. Dante was right. We needed someone on the inside. If Ashley didn't play ball, it was up to me to get to Noel and find someone who would. If anything, my leaving would
double our chances of success.

I wasn't about to hibernate in the mountains while the agency and their vampires for hire tracked us down like rabid wolves going after rabbits.

I marched over to Ashley's car, my determination soaring with each step, excitem
ent building inside me like a caged animal about to break free. Inside the car, I snatched the walkie-talkie and waited, heart pounding.

The hardest part would be telling Dante what I was going to do. My fingers itched to grab hold of the wheel and take of
f right away. The gas tank was half full. Probably not enough to get me back to Anchorage, but I didn't want to risk driving an informant's car all the way in anyway. I'd push it to Willow, ditch the car, and hitchhike from there.

Accepting a ride from a s
tranger didn't sound so scary when I'd done battle with the undead. Besides, I was the one with the gun and knife. If anything fishy happened, I had no problem stealing the vehicle at gunpoint.

Hey, go with what you know.

What I didn't know was how to hot
-
wire a car. Threatening a creeper with a gun I could do. Blood type didn't matter if the intentions were bad. I'd blast someone with O positive if they tried to hurt me.

As time passed, my stomach tightened. Could I really go through with it? Could I real
ly tell Dante I was leaving?

I didn't think I could. Then again, I couldn't go off into the wilderness with him either.

By the time the walkie-talkie crackled to life, I was about ready to vomit from stress and indecision.

“Sky, you there? Over.”

I lifted
the speaker to my lips. “I'm here… over.”

“Sorry, that took longer than I thought. Had to take it slow with the limited visibility and passenger. The informant is secure. I'm headed back. See you…”

“Dante!” I cried into the speaker, sending the radio into
an epileptic fit of static. I let go of the “talk” button.

Dante's voice returned. “Say again. Over.”

Radio gripped tight in my palm, I said, “Stay where you are. I'm going back to Anchorage. If Ashley doesn't cooperate, we're going to need Noel. Our chanc
es of success will be much better if we split up.”

I wasn't sure if Dante heard the last bit. The radio crackled and screeched when he tried to cut in.

“Dante, you're breaking up. I'm going to head out. Good luck. I'll see you once it's safe.”

More crackle
s came through. It didn't make parting any easier. There was so much left unspoken. It was an abrupt way to part, but I didn't see any other way.

Suddenly the static cleared and Dante's voice burst through. “Aurora, stay where you are. I'm on my way. I rep
eat, stay where you are. Over.”

The radio felt like a grenade in my hand about to explode. I wanted to chuck the thing out the window and get far, far away.

I held “talk” and said, “I won't be here. I'm sorry.” I released the button and turned off the radi
o.

My stomach sank. I'd spoken the words, cut the cord. Now it was time to fly free.

Except I wasn't free. My photo was printed on wanted
flyer
s
, and
the agency
was still
tracking me down. Only now I was all alone.