Whiteout (Aurora Sky (4 page)

“It's time to establish some ground rules,” Dante said. “No more drinking blood.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Anything else?”

“Kill anything that tries to kill you.” He grinned.

Giselle called Tommy inside. She returned to
the duffel bag and set a plastic bowl on the table. The kibble sounded like pebbles hitting the bowl as Giselle poured from a small bag of dog food. She set it on the floor. Tommy hurried over and began eating.

“I will refrain from drinking in your presen
ce if it makes you more comfortable,” Giselle said while watching Tommy eat.

“It would make me more comfortable if you didn't drink at all,” Dante said.

Giselle stared at him for several seconds.

“I'm going to bed,” I announced. My arms dropped to my sides
as I turned and walked away. I grabbed my green sleeping bag, backpack, and a flashlight from the pile beside the door.

Dante and Giselle said nothing as I headed into the bedroom.

It was early for bed. But what else was I going to do? Organize a game of
charades? Sing
“
Kumbaya
”
and roast marshmallows in front of the fire? I knew what I wouldn't be doing, hanging around listening to Simon Says.

I left the door open. Despite my anger, I didn't want to be shut inside the room alone. I also didn't want to be
on one of the bottom bunks if or when a third vamp showed up. The unoccupied top bunk against the right wall looked like the best out of the four options.

I pulled the thick comforter from its bag and tossed it on the top bunk. Usually I balled up a sweat
er to use as a pillow, and I always slept with a gun.

Down below, I undressed in the dark. I stripped down to my underwear and
T
-shirt. Using both hands, I reached behind me and unclasped my bra. I pulled the straps off under the shirt and pulled it free t
hrough the sleeves.

The first few nights on the run
,
I'd slept fully clothed. As the days wore on, I cared less and less if Giselle or Dante walked in and saw me in my underwear.

I folded my jeans and stuck them inside my backpack. I set my bra on top
then peeled off my socks and put them in the bag with everything else. Then I turned on the flashlight, aiming the beam at the wooden ladder. It creaked with each step.

When I was halfway up, I smoothed my sleeping bag out before climbing onto the bed. I e
ased into the sleeping bag, feet first, and zipped myself inside the plush cocoon.

This was always the hardest moment of my day. This was when I felt most cut off from the world. When I wished for a phone and a way to call Fane. If only I could hear his vo
ice. If only he could hear mine.

I
sank farther
inside the sleeping bag.

It would be a while before I fell asleep, but sleep would come. Even as my brain fought to torment me all night, the cool temperature eventually pulled me under. The cold had become a
constant bedfellow.

Fane had yet to visit me in my dreams. Instead, I brought him to me. I welcomed him inside my sleeping bag. I scooted to the edge of the bag to make room for him. I envisioned his legs entwined with mine, his arms holding me against h
is chest.

Zipped up tight together.

My breath steadied. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for everything to fade away. Eventually it did. The low voices from the main cabin drifted past my eardrums and dissolved like mist. I never heard Dante and Giselle
come to bed. I didn't hear anything until a low growl woke me sometime in the middle of the night.

My heart beat steadily from inside my soft cocoon.

I waited, listening.

Tommy growled again.

The bunk across the room creaked, followed by the click of a gu
n's safety coming off. Below me, a blade sang as it was unsheathed. That meant Giselle was my bunkmate. Big surprise. Dante obviously didn't want to sleep above or beneath me—even figuratively. Not after I chose Fane over him.

My hands slid along the bunk'
s edge until it came in contact with my gun. I shoved the
magazine
in place while lying on my back.

Weapons ready, an eerie silence settled inside the cabin.

My heart picked up speed as the seconds passed in silence.

Man, was I happy I'd chosen a top bunk.
I could pop up and take out an assailant before he had a chance to take three steps inside the room.

A zipper hissed open. The floorboards creaked heavily as Dante swung out of his bunk and stood up. He started out of the room.

I sat up. “Where are you go
ing?” I whispered.

He stopped and turned my way. All I could make out was a tall
,
dark form.

“Outside to look around,” he whispered back.

“I'm coming with you,” Giselle said. Her head appeared as she stepped out from under the bunk. She must not have been
zippered in. I could see she had on her skinny jeans and turtleneck. I was sure it had nothing to do with modesty. Giselle had probably been waiting for this moment all along—maybe even lying awake, ready to leap into action.

As my eyes adjusted, I saw tha
t Dante, too, had gone to bed in jeans and a
T
-shirt. Guess I was the only one who'd gotten comfortable. Well, I could shoot a renegade vamp in my underwear as easily as jeans.

Tommy's nails clicked over the floorboards.

Everyone was on their feet but me.
Giselle strode out of the room. As Dante rummaged around inside his pack, I swung my leg over the bunk's frame and descended, skipping the last two steps to jump down.

When I turned, Dante was in front of me. A hint of a smile played at the corners of his
lips as he looked me over. He had better not laugh at my Sasquatch legs. I hadn't had a shower in five days, let alone a shave.

Hopefully he couldn't see
the hair in the dark.
 

By the time his eyes traveled up to my face, his jaw tightened.

“Stay here
and shoot anything that tries to get inside.”

I acknowledged this with a quick nod before turning around and bending over to retrieve my jeans from inside my pack.

I could sense Dante hovering behind me until, abruptly, he walked out of the room. There was
some shuffling around by the front door as Dante and Giselle put on their boots.

“Tommy, come,” Dante said before the door opened and closed.

By this time I'd pulled on my jeans and socks. Gun in hand, I stalked out of the bunkroom and took my position ne
ar the front door.

My chest rose and fell steadily with each inhale and exhale as though in meditation. Zen and the art of killing.

The pistol dangled from my right hand, on standby against my thigh. Unless I heard movement outside the door, I wasn't going
to tire my arm aiming it. I backed up to the wall across from the door.

The minutes stretched on. The furniture and blunt objects along the shelves appeared sinister in the shadows. Staying inside didn't make me feel any safer. If anything, I was caged i
n. My ears wandered as much as my eyes. I listened for gunfire, voices, footsteps, anything.

Suddenly, the door inched open, stopped, and moved another inch, followed by another. Dante would never creep back in like that.

My body stiffened as I lifted the
pistol and took aim. Whoever was on the other side might as well open the door all the way
,
because there was no sneaking inside.

Several painstaking inches later, a tall, dark figure filled the center of the doorframe.

My heart fluttered with hope.

Fane
!
My mind screamed wishfully. He'd found me.

The threat in front of me tramped down the sudden fantasy of a middle
-
of
-
the
-
night Fane reunion.

Fane would never sneak in this way
,
and he'd never find me in these remote parts. I was on my own.

I kept still as
the figure paused at the threshold. I thought for sure he'd see me, but my body melded against the wall, as inanimate as the rustic furniture, suspended in place. Advantage
:
Aurora. The intruder had no movement to focus on. Whoever it was turned his back
to close the door.

Oh freaking joy. I was trapped inside with an intruder. Actually, he was the one trapped and unaware of
a
gun barrel following his shadow with the unyielding force of a magnet locked on its counterpart.

The figure stopped and seemed almo
st to sway in place.
A
click
was followed by a circle of light on the floor.

I pulled back the safety on my gun. The light bolted upward, into my face, blinding me. I shielded my eyes with my left hand.

Shit!

Advantage
:
intruder. I couldn't see
j
ack squat
beyond the explosion of light that zapped my pupils in its laser-like beam.

Despite my current state of blindness, I fired into the light. The shot rang out like a mini cannon, the blast ricocheting inside my eardrums with brutal force.

The beam of light
free-fell
toward the floor as a male voice hollered, “Son of a bitch!”

The flashlight clunked against the hardwood and went out, plunging the cabin, and everything inside, into a pit of darkness. There was no more deciphering a figure from furniture. I cou
ldn't see a thing besides
the
bright white spots that floated across my vision before fading to black.

How far away from me had the intruder been
when I fired? It couldn't have been more than three feet. I moved back several inches, but I must still
have b
een
facing him. I hadn't heard him drop to the floor, which meant I'd only wounded or missed him altogether. I listened for breathing, but it was difficult to hear above my own.

Advantage: no one.

Neither of us had
the upper hand
anymore.

 

 

 3

Intruder

 

Frenzied barking erupted outside. It grew louder until Tommy was right outside the door, banging and clawing at the wood to get inside.

The floorboards creaked.

“Don't move!” I had to yell to be heard over Tommy.

“Tommy, back
!
” Dante hollered a m
oment later.

The door flew open and crashed against the wall. Definitely Dante coming inside this time. He pointed his flashlight at the figure, lighting him up from behind. A second beam appeared when Giselle caught up. I scooped up the fallen flashlight,
adding a third beam. We looked like a team from
Ghostbusters
.

From inside the doorframe, Tommy snarled.

“Tommy, quiet,” Dante said.

A low, continuous growl followed Dante as he circled around to my side. With our flashlights aimed high, I got my first goo
d look at the intruder. His tall, lean form had messed with my mind. He even had a thick tuf
t
of hair on the top of his head.

Brown hair, not blond, I reminded myself, disappointed and relieved that I hadn't just shot at Fane.

It was my turn to shine the l
ight in his eyes. He squinted. His arms lifted, hands blocking the light glaring over his head, fingers free of weapons. The way he'd yelled, I expected him to be clutching an appendage, but he didn't appear to have taken a hit. Maybe he just startled easi
ly.

“Look,” he said
,
“I don't know who you are or why you're here. I
j
ust want my weed and then I'll let you use the cabin until you find someplace else to squat.”

“Ha
-
ha,” Dante replied. “We've got a comedian on our hands. You're not going anywhere.”

“How
did you arrive here?” Giselle asked. “We didn't see a vehicle outside.”

Our unexpected guest craned his head to look at Giselle. Her sword looked out of place in the Alaskan
bush
, or the twenty-first century
,
for that matter. She kept her flashlight pointed at his chest.

When no response followed, Dante bristled beside me. “Answer the question.”

He looked at Dante with blatant disregard. “Ran out of gas.”

Dante sniffed. “Sure you did. Probably saw our
tire
tra
cks in the snow and decided to creep in on us.”

“I'm not the one trespassing,” the man responded. For having screamed earlier, he sounded calm now. Maybe he'd lumbered in stoned and was drifting back into the zone. But the way he slinked inside the cabin a
ppeared more devious than blundering.

“Then why were you sneaking around?” I demanded, getting in on the interrogation.

When there's something strange in the backwoods, who you gonna call? Vamp busters!

It was official. I'd spent way too much time in the
bush with Dante.

“I should be asking you the same thing,” the man said. “However, I also recognize that you're the ones holding guns.”

“What about you?” Dante asked. “Got weapons?”

“Not on me.”

Dante leaned sideways. “Search him,” he said to Giselle.

Giselle walked over to the table and set her flashlight down, aimed on our captive
,
before taking up her place between him and the door. Tommy's growls had died down, but I didn't doubt that he stood guard outside the door. Giselle's free arm circled the i
ntruder's waist, sliding down to his pockets.

“Not shy, are you?”

The comment did nothing to slow Giselle's hand as it moved down his right leg. She didn't stop until she was crouched on the ground. There, her hand stilled momentarily. She pulled up the ma
n's pant leg, removing a revolver from an ankle holster. Giselle checked the other leg before straightening. Seeing her with a gun and a sword gave me a bitter sense of déjà vu from the time she ambushed Valerie
and me
in my home. At least this time we wer
e on the same side… sorta. It still didn't make me happy about teaming up with her.

“No weapons on you, huh?” Dante said with a malignant grin.

“Sorry, with all the excitement, I forgot I was carrying my piece.” He smiled.

“Yeah, I'll bet you did.” Dante's
body went rigid.

Our captive noticed the change in Dante's demeanor and swallowed his smile. Dante was on him in three steps.

“Open your mouth. Show me your teeth,” he demanded.

The man's hands shot out right before he pushed Dante into me. We hit the wal
l, luckily not the floor, but that didn't stop Dante's body from ramming against mine. Anger exploded inside me upon impact.

The man swirled around and lunged at Giselle. Before he could reach her, before Tommy had time to attack, the blast of a gunshot re
sounded off the log walls, a splintering crack that tore through my eardrums as Giselle fired on him with his own piece.

Through the ringing in my ears, I could make out Tommy's manic snarl. He shot forward like a golden missile and launched himself at the
vamp. The fanger fell backward and caused another loud thump to sound out when his body hit the floor. Tommy clamped his teeth over the guy's arm. He didn't fight Tommy off. He didn't move much at all, though his eyes stared up.

Quickly regaining his foot
ing, Dante strode over and crouched beside the man, thrusting two fingers against his neck. “Dead,” he announced.

Tommy released the arm as though coming to the same conclusion.

Dante turned his head to Giselle. “Nice shot.”

So Giselle's aim was better tha
n mine. But then again, she hadn't had to shoot blind.

Irritation flared up my spine of its own volition. I didn't care how long we were stuck together, I would never get used to the idea of Giselle being on our side.

Dante holstered his gun and pointed th
e flashlight down. He pulled the guy's lips apart and shone the light into his mouth. A set of pointy teeth flashed back. My stomach coiled into stiff, barbed knots. There was only one reason a vamp would file his teeth into sharp points
,
and it wasn't to
nibble on carrot sticks.

Dante stood and wiped his hands on his jeans. “You okay?” he asked, looking at me over his shoulder.

“Fine.”

“What happened?”

“He tried sneaking in through the front door.”

Dante turned full circle to face me. “And you missed?”

My
back straightened. “He blinded me with his flashlight.”

Rather than answer, Dante swiveled back to the body and leaned down, grabbing a leg. Giselle set the sword and gun on the table beside her flashlight before taking hold of the vamp's other leg. She an
d Dante dragged him out of the cabin.

Fine by me. Let those two handle body disposal. What the heck were we doing taking down vampires anyway? We were supposed to be on sabbatical, not seeking out a vamp house in the backwoods, thank you very much, Dante.
Way to lay low. When he said the place would be abandoned, I bet this
was
what he'd been hoping for all along.

Dante and Giselle soon returned with Tommy trotting in behind them. Dante swiped the palms of his hands back and forth. “That takes care of that.
We'll search the grounds for his vehicle at daylight. Until then, we should rest up.”

Yeah, sure, back to bed. No problem. And maybe in the morning I could whip us up a batch of blueberry pancakes with birch syrup.

I moved into the cabin's main room and l
it the kerosene lantern.

Dante looked over. “What are you doing?”

“You can go back to bed,” I said. “I may as well stay up. I'm wide awake.”

“So am I,” Giselle said.

Dante straightened his back. “Fine, but you should rest while you can. Tomorrow we're
taking a closer look around.” He looked from Giselle to me. “Go ahead and stay up the rest of the night if you want. I'm getting some shut
-eye
.”

He walked away and disappeared into the bunkroom.

I took a seat on the couch and let my eyes go out of focus as
I stared at the wall.

“I'll take watch,” Giselle said from my right.

“Don't worry about it,” I answered. “I went to bed early. I've had all the rest I'm going to get tonight.”

She hovered by my side. I wished she'd go back to bed. I didn't want company—ce
rtainly not Giselle Morrel's.

Finally her footsteps receded. I continued to stare straight ahead at nothing. Then I felt a nudge at my leg. I blinked and smiled when I noticed Tommy beside me, his brown irises reflecting in the lantern's glow.

“Good boy,”
I whispered, petting his soft coat.

I continued petting Tommy. My fingers ran through his fur, and my body relaxed into the couch. Eventually he lowered his whole body to the floor.

I lifted my legs and hugged them to my chest.

All movement and sound ins
ide the cabin ceased, and the temperature dropped as the fire died off.

“Fane,” I whispered into the silence.

The flame inside the lamp flickered as though touched by a sudden breath.

“I miss you so much.”

My eyes glazed over as though hypnotized by the p
inprick of light. I didn't sleep so much as fade into oblivion, a hazy dream state in which none of this was real.

I'd wake up in my old bed, in my old home. I'd go back in time to when Fane and I were together. Before the blackmail. Before Jared and Gise
lle. Before Dante's kidnapping. Before Valerie handed Joss over to the agency.