Miles kept his gaze focused on the sky as hereplied. “Once I learned some of the purebreds had escaped, andthat you were one of them, I thought you might eventually return toyour old home. I didn’t know it had burnt down at the time, or thata new home and new family lived there, but I decided it was stillworth a shot to monitor the property.
“I put a camera up and took control of thefamily. They were told to call me if anyone they didn’t know showedup there. The father had the boy call me when you arrived. Ichecked the camera and confirmed it was you. I told the boy to putthe tracking device I’d left with them on your vehicle.”
Horror curdled through her as she recalledKip running around the SUV and laughing. It had seemed so innocentat the time, but it had covered nefarious intentions. Mia’s headspun as she tried to process everything he was saying. “Why didn’tyou sell me to those vampires when I was younger?”
“I wasn’t that far gone when you were achild. There was still something decent in me then. There’s notanything left in me now,” Miles muttered and his eyes came back tohers. “Do you still like the stars?”
Mia’s breath caught in her throat at thereminder that he’d once been close enough to her family to knowthis about her. Unable to speak, she looked to David.
Though he’d been enjoying making Miles payin the beginning, David found no satisfaction in driving the stakethrough his heart. The man was broken and pitiful, a shadow of whathe should have been. Blood gurgled out of Miles’s mouth andtrickled down his chin; relief filled his gaze before his eyesrolled back in his head, and he went completely still.
David rose to his feet and wiped his handson his jeans before walking over to enfold Mia in his arms. Herhands fisted in his shirt. “Are you okay?” he asked as he smoothedher hair back from her forehead.
“Yes. I… I at least have answers now as tohow they found me, but I never would have guessed…. I have answers,and that’s all that matters. He’s dead and we have each other.”
“Always,” he vowed as he nuzzled her hair.“I have to get this place cleaned up, and we have to get out ofhere soon. We don’t know if they might have called other vampireshere too. I doubt they wanted to share their bounty, but we can’ttake that chance. I messaged Aiden. He’s gathering reinforcementsand coming for us, but we have to be long gone from this placebefore they could make it here from New York.”
Mia clung to him for a moment beforestepping out of the comfort of his arms. “Let’s do this,” she saidfirmly.
Together they gathered the bodies of thevampires. David took pictures of them and sent them to Aiden, soRonan would be able to see them. Ronan, or one of his men, may knowwho the other vamps were, what circles they ran in, or some otherinformation that would help them track down the vampires who werecontinuing to buy and sell purebreds. All Mia could remember aboutMiles was his first name, but Ronan may be able to come up withmore information about him.
They placed the vamps’ bodies inside thetiny cottage they’d rented for the night. When it came time to dealwith the humans’ remains, Mia stood by the Range Rover while Davidworked to obscure their bite wounds. She couldn’t bring herself tolook into the unseeing eyes of the humans who had been nothing morethan innocent bystanders.
David syphoned gas from the cars in theparking lot and doused the vampires’ bodies with it. The oldermotel had no security equipment, but he still removed his name fromthe blood-splattered guest registry while the dead clerk lay at hisfeet. After leaving the main office, he walked back to the cottagewith the vampires’ bodies in it, pulled out the matches he’ddiscovered in the office, and set the building on fire.
Flames were licking over the tiny buildingsthat were no longer cute to her when David stalked across theparking lot toward her. The slope of his shoulders and his pinchedface spoke of his exhaustion and sadness before he drew her intohis arms and held her against him.
“This is all my fault. I never should havereturned to that house,” she said. “We never should have stoppedhere for the night.”
“This isnotyour fault,” he said.“This istheirfault. Those vampires were weak and twisted.You never could have seen this coming. You never could have guessedit was an old friend of your father who turned you in and wouldknow where to possibly look for you again. There isnowayyou could have expected this.”
She melted against him as she absorbed hiswords. She knew they were true, but she still couldn’t help the tugof guilt pulling at her conscience.
“Be happy again, Mia,” he whispered in herear.
The ragged sorrow in his voice had herdigging her fingers into his back. “I will be,” she promised,though tears burned her eyes.
He gave her a big squeeze before releasingher and stepping back to open the door to the Rover. She slid intothe passenger seat and watched while the flames leapt higher intothe air as they consumed the tiny cottages. Her chest constrictedand she closed her eyes against the flames, but she could still seethe light of them dancing against her closed lids. No matter howmuch better she’d been doing, she couldn’t stand the sight of thoseflames.
Mia opened her eyes and focused on Davidwhen he opened the driver’s door. “I’m getting you out of hereright now,” he muttered, and jumped behind the wheel.
“I’m okay,” she murmured. “I’m okay.”
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “I knowyou are.”
David released her to start the Rover anddrove out of the parking lot. He called Aiden as he turned back theway they had come, heading toward New York. Aiden told him thatRonan would take the Rover to search it and find the trackingdevice. Someone was already on their way to speak with the familyat the farmhouse, but David doubted the family would rememberanything about their encounter with Miles. The family had simplybeen programmed to report to Miles when a stranger arrived, andmost likely to forget it afterward too.
David kept a white-knuckled grip on thewheel as he constantly searched for someone else following them.The rising sun did little to ease his stress. While they remainedin this vehicle, he wouldn’t relax. He felt as if eyes followed himevery step of the way, and he couldn’t be sure someone else wasn’tmonitoring the tracking device.
He would have found and gotten rid of thething, but Ronan wanted it untouched. David wasn’t going to arguewith him, not if it meant helping to finally put an end to thisshit with the purebreds. Far too many of his loved ones wereaffected by what was happening in the vampire world now.
On the side of Interstate 84, he pulled intoa rest area and parked behind a black Honda Civic. The driver’sdoor of the Civic opened and Aiden climbed out. Brian stepped outof the passenger side. David opened his door, exited the vehicle,and walked around the front of the SUV to help Mia out. He tuckedMia protectively against his side before walking over to meet Aidenand Brian.
“You two okay?” Aiden demanded, his greeneyes fierce as he scanned the parking lot.
“Yes,” David said.
Aiden glanced between the two of them beforenodding. “Brian’s going to take the Rover. I’m coming with you two.We’ll meet Lucien at another rest stop and switch vehicles againthere. After that we’ll meet Declan, then Killean, and then Ronanwould like to talk with you both. If anyone tracked you here andtries to follow us, we’ll lose them by the time we’re done.”
