Mollie staggered to her side and collapsed next to her. “Are you okay?” she whispered as she draped her arm around her sister’s shoulders and pulled her close.
“Ye-yes,” Aida murmured. “He ran so fast I got dizzy.”
Mollie pulled Aida closer as she studied the thick pines surrounding them, then Aida’s battered feet. Her bleeding had stopped, but dry blood crusted the soles of her feet, and a nasty scratch ran from her ankle to her calf. Releasing her, Mollie sat forward and scooped up some pine needles and earth.
“Probably not the best way to clean cuts, but we have to get the blood off you,” she said to Aida.
Aida unfolded her legs and plopped her feet before Mollie. Mollie winced at how battered they were, but using pine needles and dirt, she cleaned the blood off the best she could. While she worked, Doug and Mike scrubbed the blood from them too. Most of it was from others, but they’d both sustained injuries. Mollie had somehow managed to avoid any cuts and blood splatter.
“They were my friends,” Aida whispered. Her lower lip trembled, and tears shimmered in her eyes before she wiped them away. “The people in the basement with me; they were my friends. We were all each other had in there, you know?”
Mollie squeezed her sister’s calf as anger and sorrow swelled within her. She’d give anything to take away what Aida had endured and make her captors suffer, but she couldn’t do either of those things. She hadn’t felt this helpless since her mother was dying.
“I know. I’m sorry,” Mollie said. “We tried to save them.”
“Maybe some of them got away.”
“Maybe,” Mollie agreed, but looking in her sister’s eyes, she realized Aida also knew the truth; they probably would not survive.
She finished cleaning Aida and tossed the debris away. Another howl was followed by a shrieking scream that went on for what felt like hours but was at most only a minute. The eerie silence following the agony was even more unnerving.
Her gaze traveled to Mike when he stepped closer to them. His nostrils flared as his eyes turned red. Mollie held her breath and slipped the rifle off her shoulder while she waited for some monster to launch out of the shadows at them. Overhead, the small breeze caused the trees to creak as their limbs clicked together. Beneath the rays of the full moon hanging heavily in the sky, every shifting shadow felt ominous.
When her finger twitched on the trigger, she pulled it away. The last thing she needed was to fire a shot because she was so wound up. A snapping branch had her rising to her feet as she lifted the rifle to her shoulder.
She steadied her shaking hands but kept her finger away from the trigger; she didn’t trust herself not to fire on a squirrel right now. Doug edged closer to them, and Aida pushed herself to her feet.
Through the trees, Mike spotted a shadow slinking toward a target he couldn’t see, but he recognized the predatory gait of a vampire. He stepped closer to Mollie and, cupping her elbow, drew her against his side.
The shadow paused behind a large oak. If he could see it, then all the vamp had to do was look this way to see them. Then the vampire dashed forward and vanished. Mike expected a scream to follow, but none did.
Mike didn’t speak as he lifted Mollie and clasped her before him again. Her eyes were rimmed with dark circles when they met his, but her grip was strong on his shoulders, and her face was set in grim resolve as she slid her legs around his waist. Aida didn’t complain when Doug lifted her, and they started through the woods again.
Mike kept his senses attuned to the world around them as he slipped from one tree to another. They were almost to the lighthouse when the hairs on Mike’s nape rose; something was stalking them. Unwilling to let their enemy know it had been detected, Mike didn’t change his pace or react in any way. He glanced at the sky, noting the hint of gray on the far horizon, but full daybreak was nearly an hour away; there was still plenty of time for a Savage to hunt.
A subtle rise in Doug’s shoulders alerted him that his friend was also aware of their stalker. Mollie lifted her head from his shoulder when the lighthouse came into view.
Nothing will happen to you,he vowed.
When her eyes met his, a small smile curved the edge of her mouth. Gripping her nape, he drew her to him and kissed her deeply before bringing her ear to his lips.
“We’re being stalked,” he whispered. “Don’t let them know you’re aware of it.”
She stiffened against him but didn’t try to search for their enemy. If he said someone was out there, then someone was after them. Her fingers curled into his shoulders, and she held him closer.
“Hold on,” he murmured.
Her arms clamped around his neck as he took one more step before bursting into a run that whipped her hair around her face. Between the blur of the world and the hair battering her eyes and cheeks, she couldn’t see anything beyond Doug sprinting behind them with Aida in his arms.
Mike leapt over something and skidded to the side before thudding up a set of stairs. She realized they were in the lighthouse only when she saw the overturned chairs surrounding the kitchen table. Then they were rushing through the rest of the house. She glimpsed the slaughtered family before Mike took the stairs three at a time to the tower.
At the top of the stairs, Mike set her on her feet so abruptly she staggered back and almost crashed into the inner wall. Doug clambered through the doorway behind them and all but dropped Aida. Mollie caught her sister before she fell as something monstrous charged out of the stairwell.
The first creature crashed into Mike’s chest and knocked him into the half wall in the middle. Mollie gasped when the boards behind Mike groaned ominously. If they gave way, Mike would topple all the way to the first floor again, but they held steady beneath the weight of the two vampires. The second creature to come out of the stairwell went low at Doug’s legs and took him out at the knees.
Mollie couldn’t see the face of the vampire Mike battled, but a glint of red nails in the fading light of the moon told her exactly who stalked them this far. The vampire from the library healed far faster than she expected after the damage Mike inflicted on him, but though his nose remained crunched, his face had pushed out again.
Mollie shoved Aida behind her as fists pummeled flesh and the vampires grunted while they brawled. She dodged a flailing leg when Mike succeeded in pulling himself away from the boards. Lifting her rifle, she tried to aim at the Savage, but she couldn’t get an accurate shot off while he was battling Mike. With his hand on the Savage’s throat, Mike spun him around and smashed him off the boards.
