yourself in to, do you?” Leaning in, she put her face to my ear and whispered. “She’ll be even more furious now. You just made this harder on everyone, including your precious friends. And sleeping with one of us? That’s suicide. Stupid girl.”
Shaking too hard to resist, I complied when she shoved me forward, hoisted me out the sliding door toward the woods.
Flying through the trees, she landed us in a remote area not far from the house, near a parked SUV. She opened the back door and slid me onto the backseat, shoving my head down and out of sight and growling, “Stay that way.” I looked around for a way out, plotted a way to untie my hands and reach for the door handle. Still, I knew any move I made wouldn’t be fast enough. I had to rely on Gavin, hope he’d notice my disappearance and be able to pick up my scent in time.
The woman began rambling as she started the SUV’s engine and sped away. “I hate her, you know. Curse the day I vowed to serve her. Sure, I’m a monster, but I don’t want to do her dirty work. I don’t enjoy chasing down mortals like you, you know. I can tell you’re a good one. You don’t mean any harm,” she jerked the wheel, flustered, “but you had to go and get nosey now, and look what I have to do. Stupid girl. Tsk, I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. Don’t you dare tell her what I just told you.”
She looked at me frantically through the rearview mirror. I made eye contact but broke it off, trying to remain calm. Whoever this woman was, she was taking me to Samira like a lamb to be slaughtered, and there was nothing I could do about it.
We drove for miles until nothing looked familiar anymore, and we finally reached a tiny motel somewhere outside of New Orleans. “Stay put,” she instructed, hurried inside the office to get the key. I laid still, peered up and out the side window, searched for passersby. There were none. I rubbed my face on my shoulder to wipe the tears and hair out of my eyes, then tried to lift my head higher, to get someone’s attention. Kicking at the door with my feet, I tried working the toe of my shoe underneath the groove of the door handle to maneuver it.
Rocking gently back and forth, I played with the handle, jumped when I saw a man’s shadow at the back window, looking in at me through the tinted glass. I could barely see his face, but it seemed like he could see me. He tried opening the door, stopped trying and pounded his fist through the window, and unlocked it from the inside. Glass shattered all around me and warm sunlight flooded in, momentarily blinding me. My eyes bulged when I saw Josh leaning in to rip the tape from my mouth.
“You just don’t get a break, do you? Are you all right?”
“I am now. Hurry, she’s coming!”
A shrill scream rang from the direction of the motel office as he helped me out of the car, and I saw the woman run away from the frightened desk clerk and toward us. The coldness I’d seen in her eyes now had dark vengeance added.
Gavin appeared from the corner of the motel, rushed to our side to meet her head on.
“Don’t do this, Marie,” he warned as she approached us. She crept forward, testing her boundaries. “There are two of us and one of you, and we’re in a public place,” he said. “You’re not taking Camille, do you understand?”
“No, you don’t understand. I’ll do what I have to. You know this is the only way she’ll leave my son be. Now get out of my way and give me the girl.”
“That’s all that I’m trying to do too, Marie. Please, think of what Arianna means to Joel. That’s what Camille means to me, and I don’t want to hurt you but I will if I have to.”
How did Gavin know this woman’s name? And why was he bringing up Joel and Arianna? It must be a small world in the vampire realm, I decided. Everybody knew everybody, apparently. Had the circumstances not been so bizarre and dangerous, it would have been kind of cute.
“I’m sorry Gavin, but I have to think of my son,” she said. “His safety and happiness with Arianna means too much