“We can’t keep running. It’ll be dawn soon.”
He brushed a kiss over the top of her head, so light she couldn’t sense the fleeting caress.
“Don’t tell me you’re concerned I might be sizzled into a pile of ash?”
“Of course I am,” she muttered. “I’m the only one allowed to make me a widow.”
His lips twitched. “I’m touched. Unfortunately, there aren’t many hotels in this area. Unless you know something I don’t?”
He leaped over a large boulder, briefly debating the possibility of taking the direct path over the edge of the cliff, only to instantly dismiss it. There might be caves they could use to wait out the daylight hours and the surging tide would hopefully wash away their trail, but Sally was only half demon and he wasn’t about to risk injuring her.
“Maybe.”
Not expecting a response to his teasing, Roke came to an abrupt halt to study her guarded expression.
“Are you going to share?”
She refused to meet his searching gaze. “My mother was paranoid to the point of obsession. Probably because she was hated by most people who met her.” She grimaced. “She has at least half a dozen safe houses in the area.”
Safe houses? Anger surged through him. “Why didn’t you mention them earlier?”
“I forgot about them.”
“No,” he snapped. Dammit. He’d known that she was hiding something from him earlier. Now it was obvious what she was plotting. “You intended to run from me as soon as the sun rose.”
She knew better than to try to lie, but a stubborn expression settled on her delicate face.
“I won’t be forced to go to your clan.”
“I told you . . .” He bit off his furious words. It was less than an hour before sunrise and they were on the run from a demon who could make the very air a weapon. Now wasn’t the time for this particular argument. “Which way?” he demanded through clenched fangs.
She kept her gaze averted. “Just keep heading south.”
In silence, he carried her down the steep bluff, entering the thick grove of trees. Sally shivered and he wrinkled his nose at the frost coating the underbrush and the sharp stones that cut into his moccasins.
He might be annoyed as hell with the female in his arms, but he couldn’t halt his instinctive concern. A vampire was impervious to the elements, but Sally was clearly uncomfortable in the chilled air.
“I don’t suppose your mother’s safe house is a penthouse suite at The Ritz-Carlton?”
She lifted her brows. “This from the vampire who lives in the middle of the desert?”
He shrugged, in no mood to admit his concern was for her welfare.
Sometimes she annoyed the shit out of him.
“I wouldn’t say no to a hot shower and a bottle of Remy Martin Louis XIII Black Pearl cognac.”
She grimaced. “Let’s just say that it has more of a Bear Grylls vibe to it.”
He swallowed a curse, silently reassuring himself that it would only be for a few hours. As soon as night arrived he intended to take her far away from this frigid, desolate spot.
“At least tell me that it’s sunproof.”
“You won’t roast. I promise.” She pointed toward an overgrown trail between the trees. “Follow that path.” They traveled over a mile before she pointed again. “There.”
Roke lowered Sally to her feet, frowning as he searched the small clearing.
“Is it an invisible safe house?”