“Mind if I read that when you’re done with it?” She motioned toward the paper in Billy’s grasp.
He grinned and held the paper out to her. “I’m done.”
She took the paper, noting the relieved expression on his face. Earlier she drilled him relentlessly about the things Mateo told her last night. But he was obviously a loyal and staunch member of the so-called Clan Society, and while remaining polite and respectful, he had not divulged one single secret about the vampire clan he was so honored to serve.
She sunk into the plush leather couch and scanned the front page. Nothing was written here about Chloe. Maybe that was good news. She flipped the paper open to the second page and the heavy sense of dread settled back down in the pit of her stomach.
Missing Woman feared dead
Chloe Webster, 27, of Apache Junction, AZ, has been missing since Sunday night in the Superstition Mountains. Local search parties, including the Maricopa County and Pinal County Search and Rescue Agencies and members from the White Mountain Indian Reservation have conducted extensive searches on well-known hiking trails and camping sites in the recreational areas, as well as in the mountain ranges of the Superstitions. Webster’s vehicle was found Monday morning at a trailhead in the Superstition Wilderness Area.
That’s it? Dawn raged inwardly. Nothing about how Chloe had been an experienced hiker in that area? Nothing about how she had been searching for the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine for her entire life? Nothing about how many people had gone missing in those mountains throughout the course of history? Nothing about the vampire half-breeds who live in the secret caves somewhere up there on those daunting mountains, and who might have sucked Chloe’s body dry of all her blood or turned her into a baby-making sex slave?
Her heart thudded frantically against her ribcage. Is that what happened to Chloe and to all those other hikers and gold seekers who just disappeared into thin air on the Superstition Mountains? The legends she read about the evil spirits rumored to guard the hidden treasure came gushing back into her thoughts. She was beginning to understand how the legends had come to be, but perhaps the rumored ghosts or demons were actually vampires or dhampyres...like Mateo Two Moons and his brothers?
“Are you okay, Miss Mal—Dawn?” Billy asked.
His voice forced her back to reality. She was unaware she was crushing the newspaper into a tight wad in her fisted hand. She turned to look at him, but her vision was filled with images of her friend’s blood-drained body lying somewhere among the secret caves at the Blood Clan’s hidden lair.
“Maybe you should rest for a while,” he added. “You are as white as a sheet again.”
She nodded and raised her shaking hand up to wipe the sweat away from her brow. “What time will Mateo be back? I really need to talk to him.”
He glanced up at the clock on the wall shaped like a huge Native American drum. It was just a few minutes past noon. “He should be here shortly after sunset.”
“Of course,” she mumbled. Vampires can’t be out in the sunlight. How stupid of her. “I’m not feeling so hot again. I think I’m going to lie down for a while, maybe try to take a nap.” She tossed the wadded up newspaper down on the coffee table and headed up the curved staircase without looking at Billy Torres again. She had at least seven hours before Mateo got here.
Once in the bedroom, she raced around the room, weighing her limited options. French doors opened onto small balcony outside of the loft bedroom. There were no stairs leading from the balcony to the ground, and the drop down had to be at least twenty feet. She drew in a deep breath and surveyed the ground below. Could she land that jump without breaking both her legs? Doubtful.
The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs caused her nerves to shatter. She ran to the bed and plopped down on the mattress. Rolling onto her side she curled her body into a ball, closed her eyes, and tried to take deep even breaths as if she were asleep. The razor edges of her anxiety were making it difficult to breathe at all. Why was she freaking out like this? Billy said she wasn’t a prisoner here.
Maybe she should just tell him she had errands to run. That would be a natural thing to do, right? She could just say she needed to pick up something for dinner; check her mail; drop off some dry cleaning; find out if she was pregnant with a half-breed vampire, you know, typical stuff like that.
She realized she was holding her breath and if she exhaled now he would know she was faking sleep. Whether or not she was being held here against her will, she couldn’t ignore the panic making her insides quake.
She had her back to the doorway, so she had no way of knowing how long Billy stood there. But he was obviously making sure she really was taking a nap. Maybe it wasn’t something so threatening. He might just be checking to make sure she was okay. Regardless of why he had come up here, Dawn just wanted him to leave.
She forced herself to lie still as she slowly let the pent up breath escape from her parted lips. Finally, after what seemed an incredibly long time, she mustered up enough courage to slowly roll back over and check to see if he was still there. She was alone in the quiet bedroom, but she hadn’t heard him going back down the stairs. Was he lurking somewhere close by?
Cowboy up, Cupcake. That goofy phrase had always meant so much to her, mostly because Jeremy said it to her so many times throughout the years, even though he was usually making fun of her when he said those three silly words.
How she wished she could call her brother right now and ask for his help or advice or just to hear his voice. The yearning to talk to him and let his calm logic reassure her everything would be okay was so desperate it made her heart hurt, yet she knew it couldn’t happen regardless of how much she wanted it.
Jeremy had a way of getting her to talk about everything and anything, and she sure couldn’t tell him about the bizarre things going on with her the past week and a half. Nope…no way. She could not call Jeremy until all this lunacy was behind her. His other favorite quote, ‘If you’re not livin’ on the edge, your takin’ up space’, didn’t even begin to compare with what was going on in her life right now.
However, she was not going to accomplish anything until she could calm down and at least try to act like a rational person, in a totally irrational situation, and that was not going to be easy. She sat up precariously and waited for a few minutes before she scooted to the edge of the bed. Billy was nowhere to be seen. She tip-toed to the closet and peeked inside again. There were even shoes in her size. There wasn’t time to analyze how Mateo knew all this stuff about her. She grabbed the white running shoes and yanked the size tag off the side. Although, she was certain there would be some socks in of one the bureau drawers, there was no time to look. Her bare feet slipped easily into the shoes. She quickly laced them up.
Fortunately, she now had her cell phone in the back pocket of her jeans, but her purse was still downstairs on the table in the foyer by the front door. She really couldn’t leave here without that purse, because it contained her wallet and the keys to her truck. She took a huge deep breath. Her neck began to ache where Mateo had bitten her. It reminded her of why she needed to leave here now. She forced her feet to step forward.
The landing at the top of the stairs was visible from most of the lower floor. She had never felt more defenseless and exposed in her entire life. She wasn’t even sure why she was so afraid right now. Billy sure didn’t seem like a dangerous man. But she couldn’t forget he had taken a vow to protect the Blood Clan, which probably meant he would stop at nothing to fulfill that promise. Wow. She was really starting to sound like she believed this outrageous stuff.
There were no sounds coming from anywhere upstairs or downstairs. Dawn stepped down one stair. Still nothing. She inched down a couple more steps. Her heart was wreaking havoc in her chest. Billy might hear it pounding because it sounded like roaring thunder to her ears. One more step then another and another.
Now, she was standing at the bottom of the stairs, and thankfully, still no sign of her bodyg
uard. Her arms were stiff and her hands were clutched into fists so tight her nails were digging into her palms. She was only several feet from the front door. Her black leather purse was lying there on the long narrow table with the tiled top in southwestern colors of blue and coral. It was just a few more steps away.
She froze as her hand reached out to grab her purse. A phone was ringing. No. Her nerves splintered into a million pieces as her body erupted in a cold sweat.
“Hey. I was just going to call you.”
It took a moment before she realized it hadn’t been her phone ringing. Because, of course, she hadn’t thought to turn her cell off before she began her daring escape. Billy must be sitting at the little alcove in the kitchen. It was one of the few places not visible from the front entry. He was talking to whoever called him and he didn’t seem to be aware of her presence.
She grabbed her purse and reached out to the door knob on the front door. Her hand was sweating and shaking so profusely she was surprised she was able to turn the knob. The brown wood door opened with ease, and thankfully, with very little noise. She took a shaky step though the threshold.
She was outside, and Billy was still talking on his phone, but her ears were too filled with the deafening sound of her thrashing heartbeat to hear what he was saying. Carefully, she pulled the door shut.
There wasn’t time to think; she just started running blindly down the walkway, past the little playground where she had seen the young spiky haired mom swinging her baby girl, past people who were walking on the sidewalk, some of them walking dogs, or others driving down the streets in cars; all blissfully unaware of the unspeakable horrors that slept in the caves up on the nearby mountains.
She ran until she saw her little truck parked in front of her apartment, and until she was sure her lungs were going to burst. She didn’t stop running until she was sitting in the cab. Then she just started driving as blindly as she had been running. Sunset would be here all too soon.
Chapter Seventeen
Leaving Arizona…
Dawn pulled over and stared at the sign along the side of the deserted highway. It was illuminated only by the headlights of her truck. She knew she would soon be seeing a sign that would say, ‘Entering Colorado’, just a few yards farther down the road. The sun had gone down several hours ago and due to her decision to avoid the freeway it was taking longer to get to Colorado. If someone was looking for her, they would probably assume she would be on the interstate.
Someone? Mateo.
Just allowing his name to float through her mind caused such an ache in her breast she was sure her heart would cease to beat. How could she miss someone—something—that was not even real? But she couldn’t deny all the real feelings consuming her now.
As she had driven frantically out of Apache Junction and away from Mateo earlier today, she had been tormented with indecision almost as engulfing as her relentless fear. Everything that happened since the first time she went to the Superstitions with Chloe still seemed too outrageous to accept. But there were so many other things to consider that she couldn’t ignore.
The unbelievable events in the past few days made her wonder if it really could be possible all the spooky legends and scary fairy tales and myths from ancient times were based on real monsters, or dare she think it—real vampires? Maybe pretending they were just the figment of someone’s wild imagination was the only way for real ones to deal with the overwhelming horror of learning the truth.
She stared at the Leaving Arizona sign until it became a hazy blur in the rays of her headlights. Beyond it was endless darkness as if nothing else existed for her when she crossed that line.
Leaving Arizona. Leaving Mateo. Loving Mateo.
The pain in her breast burned hotter, expanding through her belly and extremities, up through the top of her head, until her entire being was raging with anguish too great for her to bear. She leaned over the steering wheel and let the persecuting sobs rack through her body. There was no stopping the glaring realization she wanted to go back to Mateo as desperately as she wanted to run as far away from him as possible. Neither option seemed plausible.
Crying was easy. She had done it for hours now. Making the decision to turn around and go back to Apache Junction was proving much harder. Had she continued to drive through the night, she would almost be back to her hometown in the western mountains of Colorado. But instead, she parked here for half of the night blubbering incoherently about not being able to live without Mateo, and wanting to be more than an incubator for vampire babies in caves somewhere up on the Superstitions forever.
Forever—was a very long time.
In the end, she realized she couldn’t leave without knowing what really happened to Chloe, or most of all, without knowing if there was a way to be with Mateo without becoming a sex slave—slash—baby maker. She couldn’t run from the way she felt about him no matter what her future entailed. The overwhelming love and deep desire she felt for this man—this dhampyre or vampire—was her entire life now. She had to be with him, and she had already been away from him for too long.
Exhausted from crying and thinking about unthinkable things for so long, Dawn remained hunched over her steering wheel as she tried to find the energy to drive back to Apache Junction. She didn’t notice the big dark truck that pulled up behind hers, or the man who walked up to her pickup, until he had opened her door and the overhead light broke through the blackness in the cab. Instinctively she threw her hands over her eyes to block the unexpected glare. Deep terror clutched her in its grip at the thought of being attacked by thugs on the side of the road.
Then his perfect face filled her vision and her world. The tremendous anxiety and cold empty feeling inside of her was replaced with love and relief in less than an instant.
“Mateo,” she choked through a lingering sob. “How did you find me?”
He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head in a slow motion. “I felt your tears. They led me to you.” He reached out and tenderly cupped his hand under her chin. “I will always find you, Udaya. You are my destiny and I am yours.”
Another sob shook through her body. “I love you so much. But I don’t want to be under your spell, living in a cave with no purpose other than to have abnormal babies.”
Mateo’s eyes closed for an instant. He drew in a sharp breath. “I don’t want that either. That’s why I came up with this crazy scheme to be with you in your world. I was hoping it would buy us some time so I could try to figure out another alternative. But it’s backfired on me.” He shrugged again and his shoulders hunched over.
A long strand of hair escaped from his ponytail and trailed along the side of his face down past his chest. Dawn’s fingers yearned to smooth the errant strand away from his cheek. Just the thought of touching him induced a profound yearning inside of her that shook visibly through her entire body.
“I realize now that I really blew it,” he continued. “This might have worked, for a while longer at least, if I had been able to resist biting you and starting the mating process. I just wanted you so badly, in every way, I lost all control. You will never know how sorry I truly am.”
“I’m trying so hard, but I don’t understand all of this, Mateo.
“I will tell you everything, but right now, we need to get back to Apache Junction before the sun comes up.”
There it was again—stabbing her smack in the middle of her heart and demolishing her fragile dreams once more. Cold hard reality. A dozen questions filled her mind about his immortal existence, but there wasn’t time for talking, because he would burn in Hell if the sunlight touched his immortal skin, right? Damn.
Her body suddenly felt as wasted as her mind right now, and she wondered how she was ever going to find the strength to drive back to Apache Junction.
“Billy will drive your truck back,” he stated as if he could read her thoughts. “You’re riding with me.”
She hadn’t noticed Billy Torres until now, but there he was, stan
ding right behind Mateo. It was hard to tell in the dim light whether he was pissed at her for sneaking away from him, or if he just felt bad at being such an inept bodyguard. Mateo pulled her gently from her truck. She glanced at Billy as they walked past him.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. He nodded his head but didn’t speak as he climbed into the driver seat of her truck.
Mateo remained silent when they settled into the cab of his much larger vehicle. The engine roared to life just as Joseph Red Feather’s mystical guitar music flowed through the air. For a moment, she was transported back to the night they shared their first romantic date. It had been just days since that perfect night, but so much had happened in such a short time, it felt more like a lifetime ago.
“Mateo, I—”
“Dawn, I—”
They both fell silent. He reached across the truck console and picked up her cold hand. A jolt of excitement, combined with the sharp edges of her nagging anxiety, raced through her body. Her hand shook. He squeezed tighter. She didn’t pull away.
“You told me the last time your hand was shaking this much you were seriously turned on. I don’t suppose I could be so lucky this time?” He gave a quick chuckle. “I could just pull on over to the side of the road right now.” His attempt at humor failed when she didn’t respond. More silence followed.
“Why did you stop?” he finally asked. “You could have been to your old home in Colorado by now.”
She shrugged and glanced at the spot on her thigh where their hands were entwined. His touch was so overpowering. She hated how she didn’t want him to turn loose of her ever again. She was already his love slave. Why would she even try to fight against it any longer? “You still would have found me, right?”
“Yes.”
“It’s that destiny thing, right?” Her hand convulsed in his tight embrace as another tremor shook through her body.
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