Whiteout (Aurora Sky (37 page)

Stop!
I screamed in my head. It seemed as if they wouldn't stop coming, blazing relentlessly across the landscape like an army of hostile machines.

“I counted five,” Fane
whispered.

Five against t
hree until we made it to the lodge. Maybe more if they were carrying passengers with them.

Damnit!

Even if Fane and I sprinted the rest of the way through the snow
,
we'd be late to the party.
Maybe I should have stayed closer to the road, taken a shot at t
hem as they passed.

Right. Because hitting moving targets would be no problem at all, especially when potentially facing five or more vampires on snowmachines.

The only thing left to do was get to the lodge as fast as our legs could carry us.

I shoved my p
istol inside the holster and trudged through the snow, hustling as quickly as possible out of the forest and onto the snow
-
covered road. Fane kept pace as I set out at a steady jog over the fresh ski tracks. It was more of a shuffle, like trying to run thr
ough water, than an actual run.

The snow continued to fall heavily. I willed it to slow the group headed toward the lodge, toward Dante.

Wet flakes landed on my eyelashes.

Good. More. Stop them from going any
farther
or force them to travel at a snail's
pace. Hide the lodge in a blizzard of white.

The flakes came down thicker, faster. At first I thought it was my imagination, but everything around us had gone
completely
white. I couldn't see the forest anymore.

Fane and I hurried forward. It was tiring, b
ut we kept going, holding our words in to conserve energy.

The sounds of engines buzzing ahead spurred us on. As long as we could hear them, we weren't too far behind. Hopefully Dante would hear them in time to arm himself.

Snowflakes clung to Fane's jacke
t and hair, turning him into a walking snowman. I imagine
d
I looked the same—hair turning white.

Sometimes the engines hummed loud in our ears, like we were about to catch up to them. Other times they whined in the distance. And then they stopped altogethe
r and I feared we'd been left far behind.

I picked up my pace, Fane matching me.

By now everything around us had disappeared in the storm. As had we. Lost in the flurries. Nothing but snow and silence.

It was as though the entire world had vanished.

A
n exp
losive sound cracked through the air and set my heart pumping all over again.

Gunfire.

More rounds were fired.
The shots echoed across the mountains louder than the wind or pounding of my heart. Each sound could
have meant
death. The death of a vampire. T
he death of Dante.

A feeling of utter sickness filled me that I could be half
frozen in the storm mere minutes away while inside the lodge Dante took his last breath.

So close, yet too far.

 

 

 21

Blood And Bullets

 

I stopped to catch my breath and looked down at the tips of my black boots in the falling snow. A little to the left, I noticed ski tracks. Walking with determined steps, I followed them, Fane trailing behind, looking side to side with a tightening jaw.

The snow began to lighten up, alm
ost as though clearing with each step.

Suddenly I could see the lodge, as though a curtain had dropped. Five snowmachines without riders were parked
at
the front entrance.

I
took
out
my gun and pulled the safety back, stepping
carefully toward the machine
s. Heat radiated off the engines, warming the air around them. Keys had been left in the ignitions. The snow had been stomped down on the stairs up to the front door.
Maybe Giselle hadn't had time to set up the traps
,
because no one had been caught in them
, or maybe the intruders had gotten lucky. Another set of fresh tracks
skirt
ed the building toward
the side entrance.
At least we could follow them without worrying about traps snapping up through the snow into our ankles.

I looked at Fane and nodded toward the side. He nodded back,
indicating I take the lead
. I was, after all, the vampire hunter.

I hustled along the edge of the lodge. Fane fell back, as though covering me in case anyone came up behind us. As I rounded the c
orner, a streak of
blond
flew toward me. Ashley skidded and stopped, her eyes widening as they landed on my gun.

“What's going on inside?” I demanded.

Her chest rose and fell as though she hadn't had a chance to catch her breath.
Goose bumps
covered her ba
re arms. She still had on the black dress and leggings underneath.

Fane came
up beside me
,
gun lifted and ready, though not pointed at Ashley.
“Who's this?”
he demanded.

Ashley's eyes widened.

“This is Agent Scott, the informant,” I said.

“I figured as muc
h.” Fane lowered his gun. “Agent Scott, I'm with the agency. I came to bring Aurora and Dante home safely. What's the situation inside?”

Ashley gaped at Fane for several seconds as though attempting to assess whether he was sincere.

“Agent! What is the sit
uation?” Fane asked more forcefully.

My heart gave a leap
of excitement
at his tone.

Ashley's lip trembled before she opened her mouth to speak.
“After I was apprehended and brought to this location, Dante and the vampire, Giselle Morrel
, had a disagreemen
t.
He wanted my help getting back into the agen
cy, but that made Giselle angry,” Ashley said, speaking quickly.
“
She said that wasn't the agreement. This morning she informed Dante that she'd called a number on a wanted
flyer
and that vampires would be
on
site
within the hour.”

My fingers balled into fists. I knew we couldn't trust Giselle
.

Ashley's eyes had grown wide. “She seemed to believe
the one you called
Jared would be coming for a final showdown. I said we needed to get out of there as soon as possi
ble, but Giselle said it was too late. Dante was
n't happy
but seemed to agree that their chances were better sticking around fighting.”

“And then?” I asked impatiently.

“They just arrived, but everything happened so quickly. I heard yelling and a bunch of
guns firing. I heard Robert screaming my name. I thought my cover was blown, but he ran into the room where Dante had tied me to a chair and freed me. We were about to leave the room when your partner walked in and shot Robert in the leg. Robert yelled for
me to run, so I did. As soon as I fled, I heard more gunshots. I don't know who fired them.”

A lump formed in my throat. Dante better not be dead. “Go,” I said, my voice hardly above a whisper.

Ashley would be no use to us. She might as well leave before
she got
herself
shot.

Ashley looked from me to Fane.
His jaw tightened. “Proceed with caution. When you reach the highway, find a phone and c
all the agency. Give them our location and l
et them know
we're under attack
.”

Ashley swallowed and straightened her
back. “Yes, sir,” she said.

I still felt as though I'd stumbled into an alternate universe with Fane giving orders to an agency informant. The “yes, sir” part particularly accentuated the point.

Ashley hurried away from us.
An instant later, she vanished
around the corner. I crept forward, step by step, toward the side door
that led into one of the lodge's two side wings
. I was tempted to run wild like Ashley, but I didn't know what we were walking into.

An engine roared to life. The sound climaxed and sho
t forward, away from the lodge. It was followed by shouts and a shot ringing out. The engine continued to hum across the wintery landscape.

“Don't shoot! That's Alice,” a male voice shouted.

Fane and I exchanged glances before doubling back the way we'd fi
rst come in. I walked along the outer wall, pressing my back to it when I reached the corner and loo
ked around. A man in a ski jacket
had his
gun aimed at the receding snow
machine.

“Why is she fleeing?” he
asked.

“She's probably scared.” The second voice
came from the porch. I couldn't see who it was until he descended the stairs.

It was Zack.
Should have never let him go.

Zack joined his buddy, their words muffled when they turned their backs to me.

I turned to Fane and lifted my finger, mouthing, “Wait
here.”

Fane's eyes narrowed and he shook his head.

I nodded insistently.
He might be able to command Ashley, but not me. We had to take out the intruders one by one, starting with these two idiots standing out in the open. They were easy targets. I'd have
no trouble putting them down.

Fane
pointed at him
self then me then the two vamps, indicating we'd each take one.

My shoulders dropped. “Fine,” I whispered.

While the vampires were faced away from us, we raised our guns and crept toward them. As we neared,
I held my gun arm steady with my free hand and took aim, ready to take the shot as soon as I was within enough range to hit my target. Once I had Zack's buddy lined up in sight, I fired.

The vamp fell to the ground. He didn't twitch or try to get back up.
He didn't move at all.

Nice shot
, I thought, guilt twisting through my stomach a moment later at congratulating myself
about
ending a life, even one that should have ended years ago.
Survival of the fittest
, I reminded myself just as quickly. It was them o
r us. No
-
brainer.

Zack whipped around, his eyes as white and wide as full moons
during a lunar eclipse
. As soon as he saw me, Fane fired on him. Zack staggered
back
and clutched his stomach but didn't fall. He
started toward the front stairs, stopping sudd
enly when he stepped into one of Giselle'
s steel traps. There was a metallic
snap
followed by a
blood
-
cur
d
ling scream shrieked out across the snow
-
covered terrain.
I took aim and fired two shots in his direct
ion, bringing him down. I was doing Zack a kindn
ess by putting him out of his misery.

“Let's go,” I said as I turned and sprinted back the way we'
d come, racing around the lodge, making sure to place my feet in the tracks ahead.

The side door had been left ajar.
A steel trap was closed tight and tossed
aside a few feet from the door. Blood stained the snow. A shudder ran through my body. Guess Giselle's traps had served some good after all. Or maybe we'd be facing an extra angry vampire inside. He'd pried the trap off, but he had to be in a lot of pain.

I gave the door
a gentle nudge and entered the lodge, crouched, gun ready. Fane followed close behind. Having an extra gunman made me feel better about our odds.

Five snowmachines meant at least five vampires. There were four of us counting Dante, Giselle
, Fane, and me. Fane and I had already taken out two. Before we made it there'd been gunfire. If Dante and Giselle had managed to take out the other three, maybe we were already in the clear.

My stomach tightened knowing that was wishful thinking.
If they
had taken the vamps inside, they would have come outside after the other two, not left them lounging around in front of the lodge. I wasn't ready to consider what that meant
.