Dakota and her companions jogged up the stairs to the third floor. Aven was in front of her, Dallas behind. Aven looked at Dakota over his shoulder as he reviewed the plan. “We’re going to knock on Thorn’s door, and then it’s all you. You choose the next step.”
Dakota nodded. They’d been over this. Either she’d be able to hold in her disgust long enough to try and sweet-talk some information out of Thorn, or she’d be running back down these stairs like her hair was on fire.
She tried to quiet her excited mind and listen. Aven was talking again.
“This way,” Aven said, turning right at the top of the stairs and walking to the lone door on that side. He waited for Dakota and Dallas to reach it before knocking.
The buzzing inside Dakota got stronger. Why were they here? Was she supposed to do something? All she wanted to do was run. To snatch her Resonant from her jacket pocket and sink it into some poor sucker’s belly.
Thorn? Is that who she wanted to kill? But no. Dakota’s attention was the furthest thing from focused on whoever was behind that door. Her prey was outside.
The door opened, but Dakota was barely conscious of it. She heard a male voice say, “What the hell are you doing here?” Then louder, more alarmed, “What’s wrong with her?”
Somehow she knew the “her” was her. Dakota. She trembled with the effort of holding herself still. She glanced at Thorn’s face, saw what looked like genuine concern written there. A wave of nausea flowed through her body, but Dakota couldn’t tell where it came from.
It wasn’t enough to stop her, or even slow her down. Dakota took off running back the way they’d come, catching the post at the top of the stairwell and using it to slingshot herself down the stairs. She heard Aven behind her, calling her name, but she couldn’t listen to him.
She had blown the mission. Had run before she got a solid read on Thorn. But she still couldn’t stop herself. There was someone she had to find.
There was someone she had to kill.
* * *
Aven heard the click of Thorn’s door opening. He knew he should be watching their target’s face for Thorn’s immediate reaction, but the spike of emotion from Dakota standing next to him ripped Aven’s attention away.
Her glow changed first, getting brighter and more densely turquoise with every passing second. Was she switching-on? But Thorn wasn’t a vampire. They already knew that. Didn’t they?
Thorn said something, but Aven couldn’t take his eyes from Dakota. Her face contorted in fury, then whipped away. She sprinted toward the stairs.
Aven followed her lead. They’d deal with Thorn later.
But as he hit the stairs, Aven heard thundering feet behind him. Two sets.
He turned as he ran, pointing behind Dallas at Thorn and shouting, “Keep him away from her!” Dallas pivoted. Aven went back to running.
Aven heard Thorn shout behind him, arguing with Dallas, demanding to know, “Is she okay?”
She would be, if you weren’t around. But even Aven hadn’t expected Dakota’s reaction to Thorn to be this violent. Cora hadn’t run like this at the courthouse. Or lit up.
He hit the front door at full speed and looked around for Dakota in the fading light. There. Sprinting across the side street, into an alley that ran parallel to Shady Pines’ main drag. Aven ran as fast as he could, determined to gain on her.
Aven spoke to the deserted street. “Why didn’t she take her car?” That would have been the fastest way to get away from Thorn. But Dakota had run by her Mustang without even a glance. And she was still glowing. Almost like… oh, shit!
Dakota wasn’t running away from Thorn, she was running toward vampires. The alley she’d just turned down was on the same block as the one where Goldie had attacked a vampire’s limousine. Twice.
Aven ran faster.
* * *
Dakota turned down the alley, sprinting towards a fight she couldn’t lose. There were vampires around, but they wouldn’t be for long.
At the end of the alley was a white van with no side windows, like a service company might use. Or a serial killer. It idled behind a building that faced the main street and looked to be even higher-class than the one where Thorn was staying. Was everyone on this end of town loaded?
A door at the back of the building burst open and a crowd of women spilled into the darkening alley.
Most of them wore only underwear. A few were dressed in tank tops or loose t-shirts. None of them looked like they’d brushed their hair in days. But they were in high spirits, whooping it up, ignoring Dakota like she wasn't running full tilt in their direction. One of them put her hands in the air and yelled, “Spring Break, bitches! Woohoo! Cancun!”
A cultured male voice echoed behind the door. “That’s right, ladies. Better get on the boat, it’s about to leave!”
The women made a mad rush for the van, all of them clambering eagerly inside. Dakota aimed for the voice. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out her spear, muttering to herself, “Sorry, Cruise Director. Time for you to die.” The intensity in Dakota’s own voice frightened her. What was she becoming?
She heard a shout from inside the van and looked over. A man sat in the driver’s seat, waving his arms. Dakota almost turned, almost aimed for him instead, but the voice inside the door shouted, “I’m coming!”
She stuck to her original path.
Dakota raised her arm as she reached the door. A shadow moved on the other side.
The vampire turned the corner. Dakota stepped into his path.
She caught a glimpse of his face, frozen in horror, but she didn’t care. Dakota brought the spear down in the side of his neck. A flash of turquoise exploded in her vision. A surge of power blasted up her arm.
The vampire’s head bent at an unnatural angle, red light pouring from the wound in his neck. His mouth opened and the light streamed out of it, too, shading the doorway where they stood, almost blinding Dakota.
She yanked her spear free of the vampire’s drying, decrepit flesh. He fell to the floor, a collection of leathery skin and brittle bones inside his collapsed garments. His feet and lower legs blocked the door, hanging out into the alley.
Dakota didn’t care who saw them. She spun in a tight circle, ready for more. More killing, more of that red light and spectacular energy, more vampires dying on the point of her spear. Dakota’s arms throbbed with unspent power. She heard the squeal of tires and charged back out into the alley.
No! The bloodsucker with the van full of women was getting away, speeding down the alley the way Dakota had entered it.
Dakota cursed the murderous impulse that had kept her from the bigger threat. Now she had a much harder kill on her hands.
She took off running after the van, knowing she couldn’t catch it but unable to stop herself. Her magic pushed her hard, made her stronger and faster. It still wasn’t enough.
The van came to the end of the alley and turned, narrowly missing Aven as he appeared in front of it. He jumped back and landed on the ground.
The van pulled away from her, picking up speed. It passed within inches of Luxe’s bumper.
Dakota saw her next step. She didn’t even stop to open the Mustang’s door, just pulled her keys out of her pocket and jumped into the convertible, tossing her Resonant into the passenger seat. She cranked the engine and shoved the stick into gear, laying a thick layer of rubber on the street as she peeled out.
Chapter 41 - Herding Cats
Aven pushed up from the ground and started to follow Dakota, but she was faster than him. She jumped over Luxe’s door like a goddamned Duke of Hazard and had the car moving seconds later, before Aven had even cleared the alley.
Shit! He looked down the narrow space between buildings. A door stood propped open a couple hundred feet down. Sticking out of it, Aven could barely see expensive shoes and what looked like empty pants legs. She’d killed one already!
Hell. A Prowling switch in a high-speed car chase? He’d never hear the end
of this one, especially if it ended in a police chase . Aven spun in a circle, checking to make sure he was clear to shift. He had to get to Dakota.
Midway through his spin, Aven’s eyes fell on Thorn’s apartment building. Aven’s guts clenched. Thorn gunned a blue sedan into the street, going the same way as Dakota. He almost ran Dallas over but swerved at the last second, leaving them both in his dust.
Aven backed into a darkening shadow of the alley, praying there were no humans looking out the windows. He pointed at Dallas. “Call for backup. Use the Ingrav.”
Aven pushed into his eagle and, holy shit, he was bigger. His wingspan had stretched, had to be near eight feet now. A glance to one side and he knew the reason. Aven was glowing all the way down to his feather tips, the same turquoise color as Dakota. Heartbound. And his eagle had risen to the call.
Aven took a moment to adjust to his new bulk, to learn how his longer, stronger muscles felt. Once he had it, he shoved the cooling air out of his way and soared straight into the sky.
He reached cruising height in record time and turned back to the ground for a wider look. Aven’s sight was sharper now, too. He could still see the texture of the bricks of Thorn’s building, even at two hundred feet.
He zeroed in on Luxe in the fast-fading light, her cherry red body screaming down the street leading out of Shady Pines. Into the mountains. Thorn’s blue sedan followed her at a safe distance.
Aven pushed harder and flew ahead of them to the van Dakota chased, to see what was inside. He’d been too busy saving his ass to check it out before.
Aven swooped in low over the van, close enough to feel what was going on, dodging overhanging tree branches as he tuned his focus.
Joy came back at him. Goofy, free, girls-gone-wild kind of joy. That van felt like a party bus. But that didn’t make any sense!
Aven caught on. Of course it didn’t make sense. That was the point. The vampires were messing with them again. Whatever was in that van, it wasn’t what it vibed like. So Aven would ignore the vibe altogether. Only operate on what he could see, not what he felt.
He dropped back again, until he was over Dakota’s head, and sent her a message, hoping it wouldn’t make her swerve this time: You gonna save some for the rest of us?
Dakota’s voice came back in his head, more stoked than he’d ever heard her: No way, these are all mine.
No chance, witch. I’m on your tail. You do what you have to do.
Luxe’s engine revved, the distance between the mustang and the van closing quickly.
Aven caught a headwind and let it push him up for a wider view. Thorn was still pursuing Dakota. Thorn’s following you. I don’t think we can lose him, he told Dakota.
Three fast-moving shapes below them in the dark. Three cats. Dallas' practically-black jaguar, flanked by a dark clouded leopard on one side and a snow leopard on the other. Ryder and Shiloh. The three of them moved fast over the rocky, leaf-strewn terrain, bounding from boulder to flat ground, keeping pace with the cars on the road that eased around tight turns.
Aven sent another message to Dakota: Backup incoming. Dallas and the twins. His leg is holding.
Dakota’s tense voice came at him: The van is turning. Aven took a closer look and, sure enough, the white van took a turn that led up one side of a wide peak. But why go there? Why not follow the main road to the highway and get out of town?
Aven remembered. On the near side of this peak were off-limits caves, known to get washed out with every heavy rain. The caves were on The Cause’s short list of local places where a crowd of bloodsuckers could hide.
Charmed human women could screw everything up, if Dakota went hunting in the caves and they followed. Aven couldn’t put sleeper holds on all of them. And Dakota was as likely to stick them or shoot them as she was to save them, if they got between her and Undoing a vampire.
Aven needed to get a message to the cats, to any other shifter, so they could work together.
A message came to him from Dakota, far below: Maze says he’s got your six. And his toe is a lot better now, thanks.
Aven didn’t like the idea of Maze at his back, but he snapped himself out of it with a clack of his beak. He needed the help.
In front of Aven and far below, the van turned down a dirt road, kicking up a cloud of red dust behind it. They weren’t far from the caves now.
Luxe bounced and wobbled down the washed-out road. Thorn’s sedan eased into the cloud of dust she left. Three cats closed the distance.
They were about to get a crash course in crazy.
* * *
Ordinarily Dakota would curse the dust the van showered on her upholstery. All she could think about now was her next kill. She didn’t feel too out-of-control as long as she was locked into the hunt, a wicked relief, but it was game-on as soon as that van stopped.
The sunlight was almost gone. The sky turned a deeper blue and the shadows thickened. Green brush and brown, closely-spaced tree trunks sped by her side of the car. The right side of the road looked over broad, flat, grassy land with the occasional patch of bare rock.
A shock of white about fifty feet away caught her attention. Dakota thought she saw some kind of animal moving parallel to her car. Must be Dallas and the twins. Damn, they were fast.
The rocky ground rose in height next to the road, until Dakota could no longer see the sky out her passenger-side window. Something pulled at her from inside the stone. How many vampires could be waiting for her to Undo their pathetic lives?
The switch part of her wanted it to be dozens. Hundreds. The cop in her knew that would be a disaster. Her heart thudded loud in her chest. Aven sent telepathic details about the caves coming up at the end of the dusty road. From what he described, getting separated or lost would be easier than breathing. Dakota knew that everyone would be better off if nobody - vampire, shifter, switch, or human - set one foot inside them. She also knew that, if there were vampires in those caves, she wouldn't be able to stop herself.
The van pushed up another hill, the engine revving loud with the effort. Dakota shifted into third and caught up, her foot hovering over the clutch, ready for brake lights and a quick exit.
Bright red filled her vision. The van came to a hard stop in front of a large opening in the rocks beside it. Dakota yanked Luxe’s wheel to the right so her door aimed at the van, popping the gearshift in neutral and the hand brake on, not bothering to kill the engine.
She snatched her Resonant from the passenger seat and out she went, to meet the vampires.
Chapter 42 - Cat’s Eyes
Aven was right on top of Dakota when she stopped, bursting out of her convertible, Resonant in hand. She flicked her wrist to extend the spear's full length and started running at the van’s driver’s side.
The sliding door on the van opened and almost a dozen women spilled out, some of them dancing, all of them rowdy. Aven left them to Maze, the hawk swooping in and landing as a human in his clothes right in front of the scantily-clad leader. Ryder’s clouded leopard was aiming in that same direction, to back up the hawk. One complication handled.
He heard the thunk of anti-lock brakes behind him and turned to see Dallas and Shiloh silhouetted by the headlights of Thorn’s blue sedan. The two cats crouched in the road, growling deep in their throats, in a direct standoff with the metal beast and the man inside it.
Not only a man, Aven corrected himself. He’d be a hell of a lot more worried about Thorn seeing all this if they didn’t know he was some kind of shifter, too. At least they had that leverage on him. Now it was a matter of containment. Damage control.
It had only been seconds since Dakota jumped out of her car. By the time Aven looked again in her direction, she was bathed in red light, yanking her Resonant out of the driver’s gut. She flicked her wrist again, shortening her weapon, and pushed the already-rotting carcass to the ground.
Quick and deadly. Goddamn, she was magnificent.
Aven reached out one talon and scratched a circle in t
he ground, then used all his talons to make the slash marks that represented the switches and shifters who were bound to The Cause. A sparkle of blue appeared along the Ingrav’s lines, but Aven was already in motion, pushing off from the ground to fly after Dakota.
She was aiming for the caves.
Aven had known it was a long-shot that the only vampires they’d encounter on this hunt were the two on the front end of the human women’s relocation. Chances had always been good there were bloodsuckers at the caves, waiting to receive their live contraband. Aven wished he’d been wrong.
Dakota’s turquoise glow lit up the cave’s slanted entrance as she ran in and dropped out of sight almost immediately. No wonder they filled up with rain. Aven had never been inside the caves, but he’d heard Jameson speculate that they must contain the bodies of lost or washed-away hikers who’d never found their way out.
Unless that was vampires, too.
Aven shifted to human and sprinted at the cave, not sure its walls would accommodate his increased wingspan. He shouted for Dakota as he crossed the boundary into cool stone. The echo of her pounding footsteps and heavy breaths were the only reply.
He ran faster.
Within seconds he caught the faint light of Dakota’s glow on the tunnel in front of him. She stood at a sort of crossroads, where two other tunnels branched off, and was feeling her way along the damp rock wall. She turned to Aven with blind, furious eyes. “I can feel them. They’re in the caves, but I can’t see to run!”
Aven stepped past Dakota, grabbing her hand and putting it firmly on his back. “Push me where you need to go.” Dakota shoved him toward the center tunnel. Aven used her glow to walk the smoothest path. He couldn’t even scent vampire yet, but he trusted Dakota to know the way.
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