The Hellhound's Un-Christmas Miracle - Zoe Chant Page 0,49

out the window, his senses straining to pick up any trace of the alpha hellhound.

Nothing. The sky was clear, a tapestry of unfamiliar stars above the city lights. It should have been reassuring, but instead a prickle of dread crept up Fleance’s neck. He checked in with his hellhound, which growled unhappily.

“I believe you,” he said quietly.

“We have to go!” Sheena leaped off him and dashed to his suitcase. He blinked. The air around her was smudged…

The smoke alarm on the ceiling burst into screaming life and Fleance swore. Sheena didn’t react: she was busy pulling on clothes. Fleance joined her. Voices from further down the corridors filtered through the alarm’s shrieks. Shouts of surprise and complaint filled the hotel.

All at once the alarm cut out and was replaced by a robotic voice telling them to leave the room and gather in the car park.

“So much for staying put,” he remarked.

“We’re not staying.” She pulled out a shirt and tugged it on. “Forget what I said last night about not running,” she said, tying her sneakers. “He’s coming and when he finds me—we can’t still be in the city. He’ll burn it all down.”

Fleance believed her. He knew what that was like: to feel his alpha’s plans in his head, curdling the air he breathed. Caine kept his thoughts and his power to himself, but Parker had never seen the benefit in holding back when the alternative was putting the boot in.

“How far away is he?” he asked. “We shouldn’t react without thinking. What you said last night, about doing what he expects—”

“Fleance.” Sheena grabbed his arm. Her fingernails dug in, and he could feel her trembling down to her toes. “I can hear him. He wants the audience that he didn’t get yesterday. We need to go. Now.”

Fleance’s blood turned to ice. They were in the middle of town. It was still early enough that he couldn’t hear any cars on the street outside, but all that meant was that people would be trapped in their houses if Parker tried here what he had done in Silver Springs. And that was without a carpark full of hotel guests, huddled in the dark. The perfect audience for whatever Parker had in mind.

“Where?” he asked.

Sheena shook her head, her face twisting. “I don’t know! I don’t know this part of the country at all. If we were back home…” She pounded the wall so hard someone yelled something, muffled, from the other side. “I know back home you couldn’t go ten k’ without tripping over a farmer or someone on a camping trip or bike tour. It’s going to be the same here. There are too many people,” she anguished.

“It’s early,” Fleance countered, “and I think our definitions of ‘too many people’ might be different. If we get out of the main streets—”

“Any is too many.” She finished dressing and turned to him, her expression tortured. “He wants to hurt people, Fleance. I can feel it. I can feel what he wants to do.” She ran her hands down her face. “Maybe a national park. The tracks get closed off down south during winter. It’ll be the same here, right?”

He didn’t know. Worse, every time Sheena mentioned her home, the pit that had opened in his heart widened. It reminded him that strange as the geothermal land around her was to him, it wasn’t her territory, either. She had a home, a life, a whole world of places and people she loved. There was so much about her that Fleance didn’t know and now would never be able to learn. At least not beside her, free, souls entwined as they were meant to be.

Sheena grabbed the keys. “I don’t even know how far the closest trail is. I don’t know how much time we have.” Her eyes blazed and she bared her teeth in an uncharacteristic growl. “He’s toying with us.”

“That sounds like him.”

They raced down the stairs, past groups of confused and angry hotel guests. A security guard ushered them out through the foyer doors. There was already a small group gathered in front of the main building, but Fleance took Sheena’s hand and they slipped into the shadows and headed for his car.

The early morning air was lung-tighteningly cold. Fleance worried for Sheena’s bare legs until they reached his car and the ice on the door retreated at her touch. Her hand hadn’t been overly hot when they were running over here—she was still volatile, this close to her