Ethan! James called. Where the hell are you? I'm at the church where you told me you would be, and it's empty. I thought you were going to wait.
As carefully as he could, Ethan answered mentally, guarding every thought from Lilith and keeping his face impassive, so she wouldn't be able to tell by looking at him.
I couldn't. Something came up, James. There's going to be a slight delay. There's something I have to do first.
Ethan glanced sideways at Lilith, and she met his eyes and smiled. God, she would never forgive him if she knew. But he felt justified in this small deception. She was wrong about James. Dead wrong.
Something you have to do? James asked. What? What are you up to, little brother?
I can't discuss it now, James. I'm going to ask you to trust me. I just need a little time. A few days, at most, and
You still don't trust me, James accused. God, I can't tell you how much that hurts me, Ethan. I'm your brother.
It's not that I don't trust you. I do, but
If you trusted me, you'd tell me what's going on. What are you up to, Ethan? Is it risky?
Swallowing hard, Ethan glanced at Lilith. She was walking along beside him with an expression of bliss on her face. And he wasn't so dense that he didn't know why. She was relieved that he'd agreed to her terms, that he'd insisted on coming with her. She trusted him.
And he trusted his brother. And he couldn't let her rob him of his only family. It was too much to ask. He was risking his life for her. Shouldn't that be enough?
We're going back to The Farm, James. We're going to try to rescue the other captives.
There was no reply.
James? Are you there?
Nothing.
James! Are you all right?
Still no reply. A sickening feeling began writhing in Ethan's stomach. He had an awful feeling that he knew why his brother had broken off contact once he'd gleaned the information he'd been seeking.
The information Ethan had promised not to give.
Again, he looked at Lilith.
She stopped walking, her smile blossoming wider as she met his gaze, her own adoring and utterly trusting.
"Thank you, Ethan," she whispered. "Believe me, I know that mere words aren't enough, but somehow, on the other side of this, I promise you, I'll find some way to repay you. This means well, it means everything to me. Just everything."
Oh, God, he thought, unable to hold her steady gaze. He lowered his head, focusing on the road ahead of him and the lights of the town coming into view just ahead. And all the while he prayed silently that she was wrong. That his brother was not, even now, betraying him.
"There's the village," Lilith said, spotting the cluster of lights and pointing.
"Part one of our mission is all but accomplished. Thank you, Ethan."
Ethan thought he might throw up. But he managed to paste a confident smile on his face and mutter,
"You're welcome."
Ethan scanned several parking lots, peering into one vehicle after another. At last he found keys stuffed under the visor of a dark green older model Ford Bronco. Four wheel drive and solid, with a powerful engine and plenty of room. It was exactly what they needed, equal to almost any challenge they might encounter. Any transportation-related challenge, at least. As perfect as it was for their driving needs, the vehicle couldn't wipe out a compound full of armed keepers, much less the vampire assassins who would be sent after him and Lilith in the unlikely event that they escaped alive.
Who was he kidding? The vampire assassins had likely already been dispatched. Just because they hadn't yet seen them, didn't mean they weren't out there, lurking in the night. And he and Lilith were running toward them, rather than away. It was insane.
This mission was suicide. His only hope, he decided, was to talk her out of it before they got themselves both killed. There had to be a way.
They got into the Bronco, and he put the keys into the switch and glanced toward the bar where the vehicle's owner was presumably spending his time. It was a small establishment housed in slab-sided wooden building with a neon sign in the window advertising a popular brand of beer. A wooden placard nailed above the door proclaimed it the Dirty Dog Bar & Grille. For the life of him, he couldn't find anything appealing about that name.
Lilith shot him a look. "What are you waiting for?"
"It's just what we need, but when we start it up, it'll be loud. The owner's going to hear it."
"There's music pouring from that place. He won't hear a thing."
"And if he does?"
"We're vampires, Ethan. What's he going to do?"
"Call the police, report it stolen. We can't afford that. We're being hunted, don't forget."
"Oh, for Pete's sake." She wrenched open the door and got out before he could have known what she was thinking, and even as he got out to go after her, she was marching up the steps of the Dirty Dog, pushing open its darkly stained door and stepping inside.
Ethan followed, but stopped in the doorway, wondering what on earth she intended, even as she strode boldly through the dimly lit barroom and straight to the jukebox, where she bent slightly to yank its power cord from the outlet in the wall behind it.
Then she straightened and turned to face the crowded room.
Dressed in her snug fitting jeans and tank top, with the green shirt dangling open, her hair long and curling, she made quite a picture, especially with the jukebox cord dangling from one hand.
Conversations stopped just as suddenly as the music had, and every eye turned toward her. Men who'd been sitting on stools in front of the polished hardwood bar stared at her. Couples sitting at small round tables set their glasses down, and those standing here and there around the plank floor turned toward her. No one said a word.
"Sorry to interrupt your evening," Lilith said, her voice confident and sexy as hellto Ethan, at least. "I need to speak with the owner of the green Ford Bronco in the parking lot."
People frowned, murmured to one another. Male eyes devoured her from head to toe. A big man slid from his barstool and said, "That would be me. Did you ding it or something?"
"Ding it?"
"Hit it? Dent it? What?"
She flashed him a brilliant smile. "Nothing like that. I want to borrow it."
His face split in a grin, and he glanced behind him at some other men. "She wants to borrow it. Hell, well, if that's all, I'll just hand over the keys."
A round of boisterous laughter burst from the patrons. Lilith only blinked and kept smiling. "No need.
You left them under the visor. I wanted to just take it, but my friend was reluctant."
The laughter died. The man's smile faded. He took three steps closer, bringing him to within a few feet of her. Ethan started forward from his spot in the doorway, but Lilith quickly held up a hand toward him.
"Are you freakin' crazy, lady? I'm not loaning you my truck."
"Yes, you are." She took a single step closer to the big man. Then she pressed her palm to his cheek, and Ethan could feel the intensity in her eyes as they bored into the man's. Her voice dropped to a mere whisper. "You trust me. We're old friends. You were only playing with me before. It's a running joke between us, my showing up to ask for favors. You know I'll return your truck unscathed and with my undying gratitude, and you want that more than you want to draw another breathwhich is also an option.
You won't worry about the Bronco. You won't give a second thought to this arrangement. It will all make perfect sense to you until I return your vehicleone week from today and just as good as new. I promise."
As she spoke, Ethan watched the man's face change. It seemed to lose all expression. His eyes emptied, and his jaw went lax. When she straightened away from him and met his gaze again, he only nodded.
"So it's okay if I borrow it, then?" she asked, louder now, for the benefit of his fellow drinkers.
"Yes. It's okay."
Ethan heard some of the others gasp, heard them speaking to one another softly. Finally one man spoke louder. "Have you lost your mind, Sam?"
Sam blinked and turned his head toward the other man. "She's an old friend. I was only playing with her before. It's a running joke between us."
"I'm an old friend," the man said. "How come I never heard of her?"
"She's an old friend," Sam repeated. Then, as if unable to do otherwise, he returned his attention to Lilith. "Take it. It's full of gas."
"Thank you, Sam. I'll see you in a week."
He smiled a little crookedly and stood exactly where he was as she turned, bent and plugged the jukebox in again. The music resumed as she walked to the door. Ethan stepped aside to let her pass.
"You're out of your mind, you know that?" he asked, following her.
She smiled at him as they hurried across the parking lot. "I remembered that I was trained in mind control techniques, the power of vampiric suggestion, back at The Farm. So were you, I bet. But it was only theory. I couldn't put it to the test, because I wasn't a vampire yet." She opened the passenger door.
"But you were right, Ethan, when you told me about it before. It really works."
"Apparently so." He was standing behind her as she climbed into the Bronco. She reached for the door, but before pulling it closed, she frowned at him. "Will you get in? We have work to do."
Indeed they did. And he was beginning to realize that finding a way to convince her to change her mind was going to be as big a challenge as the mission itself. He'd been thinking of her as a child, a newly transformed vampire, alone in the world, weak and uncertain. But he could see now that the old Lilith was alive and well inside her, and returning to the fore at a frightening pace.
Sighing, he went around to the driver's side, got behind the wheel and started the engine. The powerful machine roared to life, its deep, noisy growl providing little comfort. He backed carefully out of the parking space, planning his words carefully as turned on the headlights and began to drive.
"This bridge where you woke upone of them saw you there. They could still be watching for you."
"Yeah, I've thought about that. You were at The Farm. Don't you remember where it is? How to get there?"
He shook his head slowly. "No. The only thought I had that night was getting away. I ran, just like you did, and I never looked back."
She studied him, and he knew she was trying to see inside his mind, read his thoughts to determine if he were lying or not. And he was. He knew, more or less, how to get back to that place. But he blocked his thoughts from her, wondering whether she knew that, or if she just assumed she wasn't very good at mind-reading yet.
"You couldn't even get us into the general vicinity?" she asked. "I'm sure if we got close, we could sense the others. Couldn't we?"
"I don't think we could. There's some kind of barrier around the place. A forcefield or something like that. As soon as I was beyond the fence, I noticed it." That much, at least, was true.
"How could you know? You'd only just become a vampire."
"I'd been taught that vampires sense the presence of the Chosen. You were taught that too, weren't you?"
She nodded, saying nothing.
"I tried to feel that, to sense them, to see if I could tell whether my escape had been detected. And I felt nothing. Just emptiness. I wondered if they'd lied about that, but I've felt it since."
"I see," she said softly, probably not believing him. "Then I guess we'll just have to take our chances at the bridge and hope I can find my way back from there."
"There is another way."
She looked at him, and this time she knew what he was thinking, though he didn't think it was because she was reading his mind. "We're not contacting your brother. I don't trust him, Ethan. But I do trust you.
I trust you to keep your promise to me. I hope I'm not making a mistake."
I waited for Ethan to reply, to reassure me that I could trust him completely. But he didn't, and that worried me.
Still, he managed to get us to the bridge where I had awoken. He drove through the town that bordered his home, and I knew that being so close was difficult for him. He wanted to check on his horses, to see whether they'd made it back safely and see to their comfort if they had. But he never spoke those desires. It would do no good. We both knew we couldn't return there. So we drove on, through the little town, and when I saw the field through which I had run, I pointed. "There's another road on the far side of that field," I said. "That's the road that leads to the bridge."
He nodded. "Then we'll take the first left we find and hope for the best."
"Can't we just drive across the field?" I asked. "Wouldn't it be faster?"
"That would draw attention, Lilith. We need to remain undetected for as long as possible."
"It's the dead of night. Who would notice?"
"Why take the risk that anyone would?"
I sighed my frustration, but I knew he had a point. So he kept driving, and soon we found a road that went in the direction we wanted, so he took it, and we drove some more.
"It seems too far," I said. "We should have come to the road by now."
"You were running full bore, certain you were being pursued, Lilith. You're a vampire, don't forget. You could have covered miles in a very short time."
"I supposewait! There's a crossroads. Could that be it?"
"I don't know." He drove until we came to the stop sign where the two roads met. As we sat there, I looked left, then right.
"Which way?" he asked.
"Right I think."
He turned and drove. When I spotted the bridge looming ahead, I nearly bounced in my seat with exhilaration. "There!" I shouted. "There it is!"
"I see it," he said. I could feel him trying not to let any emotion come through in his tone. But damn, it felt as if he'd been hoping I wouldn't be able to find my way quite this easily.
Then again, we weren't at The Farm. Not yet, anyway.
"We found it, Ethan!" I said, unable to contain my excitement, despite knowing that he didn't share it.
"We found the bridge. I know we can find The Farm from here. I just know it."
I felt a wave of emotion from him, but it was brief. As if he slammed the doors on it the instant it began to flow. It didn't feel like what I was feeling. It wasn't excitement or triumph. Far from it.
"You're not happy about this, are you, Ethan?"
"I have a deep feeling that we're driving this borrowed Bronco straight to our deaths, Lilith. So no, I'm not happy about that."
"And yet you're doing it."
He didn't answer.
"Go straight from here, and then take the next possible left hand turn. I remember that much, at least."
He nodded and kept driving. He checked the mirrors often, and I did, too, but no one appeared to be following us. So far.
"You were wrong about them watching this place," I said. "No one's spotted us."
"They can hardly follow every vehicle that passes. They may not have known it was us."
"You have a very negative attitude, you know that?"
He sighed, and I sensed him frustration. "What's going to happen to them, Lilith?"
"To whom?" I asked, unable to follow his train of thought.
"These captives you're risking your life to save," he said. "What do you think they're going to do once they're free?"
"Live, I imagine."
"They all have implants, just as you had. If they didn't when you left, you can bet they do by now. They'll be tracked, followed. Hunted like animals."
"I'll tell them about the devices. They can get them removed."
"Half of them will be caught before they can do that."
"Then half will go free." I shook my head. "Or more, if they remove them quickly enough. And I intend to decimate that place. I intend to cripple the keepers, to buy the prisoners more time to get away."
"How?" The word burst from him as if driven.
I blinked and stared at him. "I don't know yet. I'll I'll think of something."
He lowered his head slightly but kept on driving.
"It's a long way from here," I told him. "I know we're going in the right direction, but..; I ran for a long time. Hours, I think."
"We only have a little more than an hour until dawn," he said. "We should start looking for a safe place to rest."
"But"
"We'll need time once we find The Farm, Lilith. Time to plan, time to carry out the attack, time to get the others to safety. Even if we were two minutes away now, it would be better to wait."
I sighed, rolled my eyes and tipped my head back until it hit the seat behind me. "All right All right. We'll find a place to rest."
"It's for the best," he said, and I felt the relief in his tone. He wasn't afraid; I didn't get any sense of fear from him. But he was in no hurry to face this battle, and I was beginning to fear he would rather try to stop me than help me as he'd promised to do.
"You don't have to do this, you know," I told him. "If you would rather part ways here, I would understand."
He shot me a look that roiled with emotions I couldn't begin to name. "I don't want to see you killed," he said slowly, and I sensed him choosing his words with great care. "I don't particularly want to die, either, but, Lilith, it's the thought of what could happen to you that's making me dread what's to come."
"Why?" I asked him, nearly shivering with suspense as I awaited his reply.
"I I'm not sure." He stared deeply into my eyes for a long moment, then tore his gaze away. "I just know that I don't want you hurt or killed, or tortured or captured and returned to that Hell, or"
"Stop," I said. "I'm afraid enough as it is."
"You are?" He sounded surprised. "You don't seem afraid. You seem like a warrior, eager for battle."
I shrugged. "I don't like to be afraid. I'm trying to refuse to let my fear control me. But don't confuse that with the idea that I'm fearless. I'm not. I know what could happen as well as you do."
"Then why do this?"
"Because it's what I want to do, what I'm compelled to do. If I didn't do it just because I'm afraid, that would be letting fear control me. And nothing controls me, Ethan. Nothing and no one. Never again."
He glanced sideways at me. "It's like you have something to prove. Or is it vengeance driving you?"
"Maybe it's both. Or maybe it's Justice, using me as her tool. I just know it has to be done, Ethan. I know that every time I close my eyes and see the lifeless face of the Wildborn I killed to gain my freedom. You know it, too. Someone has to do this. If not me, then who?"
He nodded. "I know."
"Look, there's a barn up ahead."
He looked and nodded. As he drove closer, he said, "It looks abandoned. There, across the road from it, that must have been a house once."
Now the "house" was little more than a crumbling foundation, with the worn black shingles of a peaked roof lying broken and cockeyed on the ground. The barn was in far better shape, but it too, showed signs of deterioration. He drove past it slowly, his sharp senses scanning the area just as mine were.
"No one's around," I said. "At least no one I can feel."
He nodded, turned the Bronco around and started back. "If we can get the door open, we can drive right inside, so the car won't be seen."
"You're good at this," I told him.
"I've been hiding for a long time."
"And now I'm taking you back to the people you've been hiding from." I thought just then that it might have been better for him if I'd never found him that first night of my new life.
His gaze snapped toward mine instantly, and he said, "Don't think that, Lilith. You were meant to find me."
I started, surprised that my thoughts had been so easily heard by him. "Do you really think that's true?"
"I do."
"So that you can help me rescue the others?" I asked.
"So that I can keep you alive."
