the door, mentally ordering her hands to stop shaking so much.
She stood still for a moment with the door unlocked. She waited, in case they’d heard the faint click, as though she expected the lycans to burst through the unlocked door and pounce upon her.
Nothing. The silence hung as thick as the odor of death on the air. Tightening her single arm around Aimee, she turned the knob and opened the door. She scanned the hall before stepping out, grateful for the runner that deadened her steps.
She moved along the long corridor, easing on silent feet, hardly breathing, praying Aimee made no sounds and that she didn’t see her mother’s corpse.
The coppery scent of blood hit her before she even entered the main living area. Two lycans lay sprawled within the gory mess, their grotesque forms sated, blood glistening crimson on their gray and brown fur. She swallowed back a cry at the remains of Aimee’s mother flung about the room. There wasn’t much left of her. Hardly anything to tell that she had even been a person.
Forcing down the surge of bile that rose in her throat, Darby made her way carefully past the sleeping forms, her eyes darting everywhere, searching for a glimpse of car keys, all the while wondering: Where were the other three? Hopefully they were long gone from here, out for a midnight run or wreaking damage elsewhere.
Still, no sight of the keys. Would they have left them in the vehicle? Did they put them away somewhere?
She opened the front door without a sound. Still, she cast a glance over her shoulder, assuring herself the two lycans slept. Slipping outside, she hoped they didn’t feel the cold she let inside and awake. Once on the porch, she picked up her pace. She went for the car first. It would be easier to maneuver than the van.
Please be in the car, please be in the car.
If the keys weren’t there, they would have to hike it out on foot. At night, in this weather, God knows how they would manage. And then it occurred to her that would be just like in her vision. She couldn’t do that. No matter what, she couldn’t let it come to that.
Crouching beside the car, she spied the keys through the window. With a sharp exhale, she awkwardly opened the back door and secured Aimee on the soft leather of the backseat, buckling her at the waist and letting her slump to the side. As quietly as possible, she shut the car door and got behind the wheel. As she turned the ignition, the car rumbled to life with a quiet purr.
Yes.
Immediately, her eyes flew to the rearview mirror, expecting the sleeping lycans to pour outside after her, but nothing happened as she put the car in drive and rolled away. The road was clearly marked and she followed the path through the trees. Her breathing eased and elation filled her as she put more distance between them and the house.
The narrow road finally ended and they came to a two-lane country road. She hesitated, looking left and right, trying to gauge which one led back to town, wishing she knew the area better.
She turned right, detecting a faint pink tinge to the night sky in that direction and assuming it was the lights from town.
She pushed harder on the accelerator, anxious to reach town and people, safety from the beasts that prowled the moon-soaked night. The image of Niklas filled her mind then. She didn’t know why she thought of him just then except that she suspected he knew about these lycans—that he was here because of them. And that he’d kissed you and touched you and made you feel alive in a way that you haven’t felt in years. Maybe ever.
She shook her head. It didn’t mean anything. She wouldn’t find him waiting for her. So he’d fixed her window and replaced her heater. That didn’t mean anything. Those were just actions of a nice guy who felt sorry for her.
She followed the curve of the road, her hands clenched tightly on the steering wheel, excited in the knowledge that she’d escaped. That her vision hadn’t come to pass.
A shape suddenly jumped in the middle of the road. She cried out as the headlights briefly lit upon the bearlike creature. She swerved to avoid hitting the beast, even knowing it was no bear. She tried to right the vehicle but it was too late. She drove off the