“We’ll get everything ready before they get here,” Logan said.
* * *
Elena pacedby the window as she waited for Mateo to arrive. Logan had gone back to move their vehicle and hidden it at a truck stop where no one would notice it. He’d run back to the motel afterward.
The second key the clerk gave Logan belonged to the room next to the first one they entered. The doors between the rooms were now open. Logan stood in the doorway as he watched her with his arms crossed over his chest.
His eyes were hooded, but a flash of white ran around them when a car pulled into the lot. Its headlights bounced off the window and illuminated the brown drapes before fading. Elena hurried over and edged the curtain aside to look out at the newly arrived vehicle.
The first vehicle was not alone, and another pulled in behind it.
“Shit,” Elena murmured. “There’s more of them than we thought. They brought two vehicles.” And then her blood ran cold as reality set in. “Neither of you can do anything to stop this. You cannot start a war with another hunter faction when yours needs help.”
“We’re supposed to just let him take you?” Logan demanded.
For some reason, the idea of allowing Elena to walk over to that monster caused the demon within him to raise its ugly head. He couldn’t let her walk away and into the arms of a man who would most likely kill her once he finished with her.
Without thinking, Elena started chewing on her fingernails. It was a habit she broke as a child, but occasionally, she unwittingly found herself chomping on her nails again when she was stressed.
She wasn’t ready to sacrifice herself either. She was only twenty-six years old; she was a hunter woman and expected to live a while. She didn’t want to be married to a man she despised, especially since he might well kill her before their honeymoon ended.
“They don’t have to know you’re here,” Logan said. “You don’t have to go out there. We can keep you hidden.”
He’d made sure to change the clerk’s memories when he moved the SUV. The man had no recollection of either him or Asher. He would have preferred to remove Elena from the man’s memories, but if one of the hunters went into the office and woke the clerk to ask what room she was in, the clerk had to recall her being here.
Otherwise, they would know she was working with a vampire, and they couldn’t have that. They had to keep their presence hidden if they were to have any chance against their enemies.
He instructed the clerk to turn off the vacancy sign and all the lights and go to bed. He’d also told the man not to call the police if he heard anything tonight. He then went to the other motel occupant, knocked on their door, and told them the same thing before erasing himself from their minds.
If something went wrong here tonight, and he was pretty sure it would, at least the humans would be safe.
He’d also called Ronan again and told him there had been a change of plans. Ronan wasn’t exactly thrilled they were sticking around, but he hadn’t fought Logan on it, probably because he would have done the same thing if their roles were reversed.
If more Alliance members could have made it here in time, Logan had no doubt they would have had a small army here to greet the hunters, but they were too far away. Plus, they couldn’t send more help when they were desperate to combat the growing threat of the Savages.
They were on their own here, and they had to make it count.
Elena stared at the cars as they both came to a stop. Despite her excellent vision and the dim lights of the parking lot, she couldn’t see past the tint on the windows. If her mother and Mateo were in one of those vehicles, she couldn’t tell.
She almost pressed her face against the glass in the hopes of getting a better look, but giving away her presence in this room wouldn’t help them. So instead, she stepped to the side and watched as the front doors on the first vehicle opened and closed.
Javier and another man climbed out of the car. The man had his back to her, so she couldn’t see who it was, but his build was all wrong for Mateo.
The back doors opened next, and three more hunters climbed out, but she couldn’t tell who they were either. From the second car, three more hunters exited, but none of them looked like Mateo.
Where is he?
She continued to chomp on her nails like a starving woman turned loose on an all-you-can-eat buffet. Her fingers were already becoming raw, and she tasted blood, but she couldn’t stop.
“How many are there?” Logan asked.
“Eight, but I don’t see my mom or Mateo.”
And then, the passenger door of the second car opened and Mateo emerged. Elena stepped toward the window before catching herself and sliding back into the shadows. The hunters were looking around, but she didn’t think any of them had spotted her.
“He’s here,” she whispered. “But I still don’t see my mom.”
“So there’s nine of them?” Asher asked.
