“Where are you? How soon can you get back? You can track her scent.”
“I’m at least two hours south. I won’t be able to make it there by daybreak. Where’s the scent-tracker from your team? Layman? Layton?”
“Too far away.” Dom was on his own.
He tossed the phone on the passenger seat and careened back down the driveway. Maybe he could pick up her scent or energy trail from her bike. He jumped out of the SUV and canvassed the scene. Adjacent to the Bonnie’s rear tire was a strip of fresh rubber on the pavement. Just beyond that was a pile of ash. Had she gotten off a shot and hit one of them with a silvie? It certainly wouldn’t surprise him, given her performance at the gun range. Had she injured the other one as well?
Buoyed by this revelation, he gripped the handlebars of her bike and concentrated on her presence. He filtered the scents, focused inward on her latent energy trail. But he picked up nothing. Just the foul stink of a newly dead Darkblood.
She was gone, and so was their blood bond.
After they’d bounced around on the floor of the Jeep for what seemed like forever, rough hands grabbed Mackenzie and yanked her out of the rig. She barely had time to look around before she and Corey were shoved toward an ominous concrete building with barred windows that reminded her of gaping black teeth. What the hell was this place?
When an icy blast of wind hit, the thin layer of sweat under her hair conducted the cold straight to her bones, and she shivered. Glancing around the darkness that surrounded them, she couldn’t see any other lights except the sickly yellow from inside. She got the sense they were in the middle of an open area surrounded by nothing but forest. Crickets chirped and a few wispy trees stood like skeleton sentries, but that was the only sign of life.
Inside wasn’t much better. Damp and musty, it was clear the place hadn’t been used in years. In between the sound of their scuffling steps, she heard the sound of dripping water as they walked down a dingy hallway.
Their captor turned away, but not before she saw the pained look on his face. He was holding his breath. Her blood. Damn. Her hands were smeared with blood and gravel. She wished she weren’t handcuffed so she could cram them into her pockets.
“Silver-tipped bullets?” he said. “Very clever. Your Guardian boyfriend help you with that?” When she didn’t answer, hesneered and leaned in close. She almost choked when she smelled the blood on his breath. Had he just killed someone? “Looks like your luck has just run out. M’lord will be thrilled to finally meet you.”
His gaze dropped to her neck as he spoke. She shrugged her hair forward and broke his trance.
“Do you know why a rancher has to shoot his own cows?” He was behind her now—thank God, she wasn’t breathing his air any longer. She walked faster, urging Corey forward. “Because when they smell the death of the butcher’s van, they run. Adrenaline from their fear makes the meat tough. But I say it makes it much sweeter.” He whispered the last word, drew it out longer on his tongue.
“Kenzie, what’s going on? What’s he talking about?” Corey sounded on the verge of hysteria.
“Shut the fuck up,” their captor barked, and Corey jumped.
Mackenzie took his handcuffed hands in hers as best she could, hoping that he found some measure of comfort in her touch.
They rode a battered elevator down to a lower level and the doors opened onto a long gray hallway. Only a few of the overhead lights worked and several of those flickered on and off, creating dark corners and eerie shadows on the walls. The hallway seemed more like a tunnel and they passed several other corridors that disappeared into blackness. What was it with vampires and tunnels anyway? Something scurried away as they passed, its toenails scrambling on the floor.
At the far end, a light shone from another hallway. Around the corner several ominous figures, outfitted in portable gas masks and dressed in hospital scrubs, flanked the doorway of a room, obviously awaiting their arrival. Their guard pushed them inside and her knees nearly buckled when she saw the metal gurneys, the overhead lights and the trays of medical tools.
What was she going to do now? Never in her life had she felt so hopeless, so incapable of handling things on her own. Being responsible for Corey, she should do something, but she could think of nothing. They were trapped and she had no idea what to do.
Was this what happened to her father? Will she and Corey suffer the same fate?
Please, Dom, she thought.Where are you?
She felt a restless stirring inside. Was it him? She called to him with her mind, searching for his thoughts, but he didn’t reply.
Maybe he was too far away. The sensation was weak, but it was definitely him she’d felt. Although it was nothing compared to what it had been, at least he was still inside of her somewhere. She tried to convey to him what little she knew of their location and hoped he’d be able to detect some of it. She tried not to think about the warmth and safety of his arms, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Well, look what we have here.”
Mackenzie spun around to see a gaunt man, his face hardly more than a skull with sallow skin pulled taut over bone. Although he was tall, his body appeared frail and his shoulders were rounded and hunched inward. Clasping his bony, ring-clad hands together, he appraised them like cattle going to market.
“Two members of the famous Shaw family. I’d say this is my lucky day.”
“Kenzie, who are these people?” Corey crowded into her. She positioned her body slightly in front of his.
“Haven’t you told him? Does he not know what we are?” The man’s eyes sparkled with twisted excitement. “About your family? About sweetbloods?”
“Shut up. Don’t listen to him, Corey.”
“What’s he talking about?” Corey’s voice cracked.
