by Amy Richie
“We’re leaving,” Gloria’s voice had grown as cold as her glare. She looked at Paris for the briefest of moments, but she glared at me until I squirmed uncomfortably. “This is your last chance,” she warned me through clenched teeth.
“Please, Lexi,” Melody implored. “You may never see us again.”
That wasn’t right though, I would see them again. “Enough of this,” Gloria snapped. “Sisters, we will leave now. It would be foolish to stay.”
They turned back to the water where they bent to collect the things they had left on the grass. Gloria shoved her knife back into her boot, not looking at me. Melody’s huge eyes watched me while she gathered a worn brown bag and attached it to her back. I never knew what they kept in the bag. They didn’t really need anything to survive except what they already had, but I rarely saw them without the bag. They never showed me what was in it.
There wasn’t anything else said as the sisters filed quickly out of sight. One second they were there and the next they weren’t. I knew they were fast, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. I had expected them to say goodbye to me, but maybe they were too mad that I hadn’t done what I was told. It was the first time in recent memory that I had disobeyed them.
Part of me wanted to call them back, to tell them I was sorry for being stupid. Gloria had told me since I was little that to disobey them would mean death. Was she right? What was going to happen to me now that I was on my own? I clamped my lips shut tight though, not allowing even a whimper to escape.
Chapter 32
I stood frozen to the spot for too many seconds after the sisters had already disappeared. What had I been thinking to just let them leave? Now it was too late, they were gone. No, I started to shake my head. I wanted them to leave me with Paris. This was the choice I had made. I took a deep breath, letting my shoulders rise and fall dramatically. Everything was going to be fine.
“So what now?” I asked without turning around. I thought Paris was still right behind me but when he answered, his voice was too far away.
“We can’t stay here,” he responded in a low voice.
Well, I already knew that. The wolves were still out there, even if they weren’t snapping at us just now, they were there. They could be watching us and now we were three vampires down. Paris was strong, though. Would they dare attack when he was guarding us?
Yes, I answered myself immediately. They had killed Owen and Addison when Paris was with them. We were sitting ducks out here by ourselves.
“We need to get far away from these woods,” I declared with a slight catch in my voice. I winced at the sound. Being away from the sisters was already making me feel vulnerable.
I clenched my hands together tightly, searching for a little calm. What was I afraid of anyways? I killed the white wolf all by myself. They hadn’t been able to that with a whole group of vampires. I squared my shoulders and let my hands fall again by my sides. I just needed to keep a calm head and I would be fine.
There was a slight pressure against my shoulder and my hand was grabbed by another hand—a slightly damp hand. I looked down to Miranda’s upturned face. She stared back, unblinking. “We’ll be alright,” she tried to say without shaking. I nodded.
I had stayed behind to help Miranda, not turn into a crying girl who didn’t know how to take care of herself. The sisters had taught me better than that. “We’ll be fine,” I told her. “The wolves will think twice before messing with us.”
Her shaking lips somehow let a small chuckle escape. “You did just kill their leader.”
“We don’t know if it was their leader.” I turned to Paris but he was looking down at the ground between his legs, still sitting where Miranda had left him.
“We’re going to Blakesly House,” he announced abruptly.
“Where is that?” Miranda wiped the remaining tears from her face and dragged me over to him.
“It’s not far from here.”
I snorted in an unattractive way. “The sisters said it was on the other side of England,” I argued.
“It is,” he said simply.
My eyes widened. “That’s far.” And we’d have to walk to get there. He wouldn’t be able to carry us both.
“My brother will be back soon. We won’t have to walk.” Once again, I got the impression that he could hear my thoughts.
I had almost forgotten his big bald brother that went back to Blakesly House for help. How could I forget that Damien may very well be on his way to us now? No wonder the sisters left in such a hurry. They hadn’t forgotten.
Miranda pulled me down beside her but it was hard to sit still. “When do you think they’ll be here?” I asked nervously.
He recognized my fear of them. “They’re coming to help.”
“To help you,” I accused.
“And you.” His eyes flickered over to include Miranda as well.
“So,” my eyes narrowed to slits, “if they are coming here, we don’t need to go to Blakesly House now.”
“Blakesly is the safest place for you two to be.” His tone was final but I wasn’t ready to accept his word a concrete plan.
“Yeah, but what will happen to us there?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted with a heavy sigh.
“Will she let me go back with the sisters?”
“Who’s she?” asked Miranda, looking from me to Paris and back again.
“Kiera. She’s like their boss.”
“She’s not our boss,” Paris intercepted but he smiled indulgently.
“But she does make the decisions.” Miranda nodded somberly. Whether she was the boss or not, Kiera would be the one deciding our fates for us. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to meet her.
“She won’t hurt you, she likes humans.”
Somehow that wasn’t very comforting. I didn’t have much choice though. I couldn’t really stay here by myself and the sisters were gone. I could just try to talk to this Kiera. I would tell her that I liked being with the sisters. That had been the plan from the beginning. This would stop the Letrells from coming after us again.
“I’m just not sure I want to meet Kiera,” I finished my thoughts out loud.
“Why did you stay here then?” he asked softly.
I clamped my lips shut tight. Even if I had been just thinking the same thing, what could I say? “I wanted to make sure Miranda was safe,” I said after a few moments of awkward silence. Paris kept his eyes on me, boring straight through me.
“You stayed for me?” Miranda moved closer to me, even though we were already touching.
“Of course. I promised to keep you safe.”
“You knew she was safe with me,” Paris argued.
“I just wanted to be sure,” I mumbled.
I thought Paris wanted me to stay with him. Maybe I had been wrong. Did he want me to stay with the sisters? It would have been nice for him to say so before they left. Now, I was stuck here. He wouldn’t leave me, would he? I shook my head quickly; no he wouldn’t let the wolves get me.
I let my gaze fall to the grass by my feet. What was I doing here? I felt different with Paris than I had ever felt with anyone else. He made me feel safe but also—wanted. I had always been a burden to the sisters, one they had to keep safe because of an order from Damien.
I looked back up, into Paris’s eyes. The way he stared at me made me squirm uncomfortably. Clear head, I needed to keep a clear head. “I’ll go with you to talk to Kiera.” I swallowed hard. “But then I’m leaving. I’ll find the sisters and…” I let my voice drift away as his eyes narrowed more and more. I ran my tongue across my bottom lip but refused to look away.
“It’ll be up to Kiera to decide that.” His gaze was steady, much steadier than my heart rate. I knew he could hear it, but I couldn’t get it to slow down. All those years of practice meant nothing when confronted by the dark stare of Paris Letrell.
“She’ll let me go, though.” I didn’t have any real conviction that that would happen, only ho
pe. Melody said that was what made me human, my hope.
Paris shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not sure what she wants with you.”
“You’ll just deliver me to her, not knowing if she just wants me for a midnight snack.”
He smiled then. “She’s worried about your safety.”
“The sisters won’t hurt me.”
Paris finally looked away. “Not intentionally.”
I didn’t have to ask what he meant by that. I knew how unsafe it looked for a human to be traveling with them. How many times had I almost been killed? How many times did they forget I needed food or rest? Bones broken, stitches needed to put me back together when they were careless. I wouldn’t trade it though. I needed to make Kiera see that I wanted to be with them, even if they were dangerous.
“I’m still alive,” I muttered. “That has to count for something.”
“I’m sure Kiera…” Miranda started to say something but changed her mind mid-sentence and clamped her lips shut again.
Paris turned to her, his expression going gentle. “Kiera doesn’t allow any of us to keep pets, but I know of others. They can take you in if that is the life you want.”
“Addison was good to me,” she replied in a low mumble. I had to lean forward just to hear her. “Not all of them are.” Tears gathered in her eyes and fell quickly down her cheeks.
“You could come with us,” I offered without thinking.
Her eyes lit up at the suggestion. “Really?”
Paris scowled at me. “You and I need to talk,” he snapped. He was up on his feet in less time than it took me to decide if I was going to talk to him or not.
“What about?’ I rose more slowly and faced him.
“Over here.” He took my arm roughly in own of his large hands and guided me a few feet away from Miranda. I was pretty sure she could still hear us if she tried but I was glad he didn’t go any further away.
“What do you want?” I hissed.
“You can’t make an offer like that,” he hissed right back.
“I… I was just…” I knew he was right but didn’t want to admit it.
“Even if Kiera allowed it, the sisters would never take her along. They don’t do pets.” He shuddered slightly as if the idea was repulsive.
“They take me.”
“You’re not a pet.”
“They keep me safe.”
“Because Damien makes them.”
I didn’t have anything to say to that. Instead of sputtering at him, I crossed my arms and fixed him with my best glare. “If we go to Blakesly House, she’ll trap us there.”
“There are worse fates.”
My eyebrows lowered on my forehead. “Will you be there?”
“I don’t stay there.”
“Ever?”
“Not if I can help it,” he smiled. His smile disappeared though when I didn’t return it. “You’re not being smart about this,” he said finally.
“I’m trying to be. I don’t want to give up…my…choices.”
He almost laughed but stopped himself. “You don’t have any choices.” He glared at me or a few more seconds and quickly returned to Miranda.
He knelt low and said something soft that made her smile. They both turned to watch me, standing there with my arms crossed and sputtering at no one. With nothing left to do, I sighed heavily and plopped back down in the grass—not as close to the other two as before.
Paris leaned back to sit closer to me than Miranda. What was he trying to do? “You made the right choice, to stay here.”
“I know,” I said miserably.
“Are you going to fight with me the entire way?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
He laughed at that, a rich sound that made me jump but smile in return. “But you wanted to stay with me.”
“To make sure…Miranda…” But it was getting hard to concentrate on words with Paris so close and staring so intensely. Maybe Liza had been right.
“Right about what?” he whispered.
Right about why I had stayed but I wasn’t saying that. “She told me it made you weak.”
“What?”
“Feelings, emotions.” My voice grew stronger when I turned away from him. “She told me that to care about people, it makes you weak. Maybe she was right.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah,” I breathed.
“I don’t think she was right,” Miranda spoke up from Paris’s other side. “I think she was just afraid to admit how much she cared about you.”
I didn’t want to laugh and hurt Miranda’s feelings, she had been through a lot in one day, but she couldn’t have been further off. She didn’t know anything about Liza. Liza didn’t care about me, she hated me. She only put up with me because she had to. She had saved me from the wolves, on more than one occasion, but because she had to. If it weren’t for Gloria, Liza would have left me to die a long time ago.
“We should just get going,” I said, jumping to my feet. “Blakesly House is far, no matter what Paris says.”
Chapter 33
Paris wasn’t able to carry both me and Miranda comfortably so we started at a fast walk along the stream. He was soon several feet ahead, shouting back at us to hurry up. “If you’re going to walk this slowly, I’ll have to carry you both,” he called.
I gritted my teeth and tried to urge Miranda to go faster. The ground by the stream was soft though, and we sunk into it several inches at a time, making it hard to walk very fast. “We need to get away from the water,” I yelled after a short while.
“You think we should go back into the woods?” Miranda questioned my request.
“We’ll be able to move faster,” I snarled, trying to wrench my foot from a particularly mushy part.
Paris, hearing my logic, started to lead us back into the woods. I was glad Miranda stayed close to me and was able to keep up when the pace was quickened. Soon, we were surrounded by trees again, which didn’t make me feel very safe. As long as we kept moving though…
I took a deep breath and pushed my hair out of my face. “Are you ok?” Paris asked, suddenly in my face.
I jumped back from him, tripping over my own feet and falling hard on the ground. “I was,” I growled. He reached down to help me back up but I ignored his hand and pushed myself back up to two legs. He chuckled lightly and led on.
“Try to keep up,” he called over his shoulder. He disappeared often among the trees, but I was used to traveling with the sisters. They never waited for me and sometimes they would disappear for hours at a time. Paris kept darting back to make sure we didn’t wonder off his path too far.
My eyes didn’t stray far from the ground beneath my feet, doing my best not to fall over anything. It wasn’t until I heard a low growl somewhere behind us that I looked up. My heart stuttered but I didn’t look behind us. I couldn’t scare Miranda more than she already was. Maybe it was just my imagination. Paris didn’t stop. He would hear something before I did.
We were safe with Paris, I tried to tell myself. A different part argued, though. Owen and Addison hadn’t been safe—even with a whole group of vampires, they had been killed. I swallowed hard and quickened my step, forcing Miranda into a fast trot.
Miranda kept tripping but I knew we couldn’t slow down. The wolves were still out there. Paris kept just out of sight, like he was trying to make us go faster. My pulse kept rhythm with our pounding footsteps.
Where was he taking us? The forest went on for miles; we would never be able to outrun them. Maybe Paris should have carried us, he was certainly strong enough. Just as I was about to call out, a loud growl sounded. Miranda squealed and gripped tighter onto my hand.
“Did you hear that?” Miranda gasped.
“It was nothing,” I called back. “Just…the wind.”
I turned to look behind us, fully expecting a huge grey wolf to jump out at us. I could already feel the massive jaw snapping shut on my arm. There was nothing there, though, only the tre
es staring back at us.
I caught a glimpse of Miranda staring back at me with wide eyes full of fear. She had every reason to be afraid, but the look was haunting. I turned away quickly. It was better to just keep going without looking back. Fear wasn’t going to help us now.
“Let’s just catch up to Paris,” I suggested firmly.
“But I heard them,” she panted. “They are right behind us.”
“Nothing is there,” I hissed back.
“Lexi.”
I held tight to her hand, not allowing her to fall back. Paris ran back to us and circled behind. Was he checking to be sure nothing was there? Did that mean he heard them, too? I clamped down hard on anything I would have said, painfully aware of Miranda clutching tightly to my hand. He didn’t stay with us, instead circling back around and disappearing from view.
They couldn’t be that close then, or he would have stayed closer. Even the sisters would have done that much.
There was sudden pull on my arm when Miranda fell to her knees. “Miranda,” I slid down next to her, checking quickly for signs of blood. There was a small cut on her arm, but otherwise she was ok.
“I’m fine,” she affirmed my quick assessment. She stood up on shaky legs only to fall right back down. “Ow,” she moaned.
“What? What is it?” Maybe her leg was broken, or her ankle. My hands hovered hesitantly over her leg. Should I touch her? What was it I had heard on the radio so many years ago? Don’t move someone who falls in case they are bleeding internally.
“I think it’s my ankle,” she said quietly.
The air left my lungs momentarily. “Is it broke?”
“I don’t think so.” She stood up again, this time staying on her feet. “I’m fine, I just tripped.” She looked behind us, fear contorting her mouth. “We should just…keep going.”
I nodded. She was right, but I wasn’t sure if she would be able to run. She was already having a hard time keeping up without a sore ankle. I took her hand tightly in mine; we would just have to hurry as much as possible.
We started at a fast walk but the shadows creeping around us soon had us jogging, then running full out after Paris and away from the low growls emitting from the trees around us. Where was he taking us? We couldn’t run all the way to Blakesly House. Maybe if we weren’t being chased, we would have a chance, but probably not even then. The only choice we had no was to run, though. If we stopped or even slowed down, we were goners.