The air burst out of her lungs, but she couldn’t let it slow her; if she did, she’d die. While still trying to catch her breath, she delivered a left hook to his face that would have made her boxing coach proud.
She tried to leap up again, but the vamp dove forward and encircled his arms around her waist. Elena aimed the stake at his heart, but he knocked her hand aside with the speed of lightning striking a tree.
Logan wrestled to keep the feisty hunter from killing him while also trying to break free of her before the others jumped into the fray. He was trying not to injure her, but she was like trying to wrestle a cat into a bath; all claws and pissed-off attitude with a whole lot of “I will tear your eyes out.”
When Elena lunged at him, he’d been anticipating the move, but he hadn’t expected her forehead to smash his nose. He almost grabbed his nose as blood poured from it. If he did that, he couldn’t stop her next attack as she swung at him again. It was as if she’d somehow sprouted more arms and was suddenly an octopus, but he managed to catch her fist in his hand.
The vamp clamped his hand around hers. Elena tried to rip it away, but she’d have a better chance of bending steel. When glass shattered, her head twisted toward the noise as the vamp’s hunter friend used her father’s desk chair to bash out the window.
“Logan!” Asher shouted. “Let’s go!”
More gunfire erupted as the argument over whether or not to capture the hunter and vampire ended between Juan and Mateo. Juan didn’t want these two imprisoned or killed, but he also couldn’t let them escape when they didn’t know who killed her father.
As far as she was concerned, even if there were no bite marks on her father’s body, this bastard did it. Of course, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave his mark on her dad. Vampires were evil monsters, but they weren’t idiots.
Elena lunged for the vamp again. But as she was going after him, she realized she’d made a mistake. She hadn’t expected him to lurch toward her at the same time.
As more gunfire erupted, the vampire ripped the stake away from her and lodged his shoulder in her gut. He lifted her easily off the ground. Hanging upside down and still struggling to catch her breath, it took Elena a second to realize what was happening… She’d become his shield.
Shouts to stop firing filled the air, but more shots rang out. Either those with the guns didn’t hear them, or they didn’t care. Some considered her a traitor for leaving after all, and it wasn’t like she was fully one of them anymore.
As glass, possessions, and wood shot into the air around her, she realized the hunters weren’t shooting at them anymore. They were shooting all around them, and while there was still a chance they might be accidentally hit, they weren’t trying to kill her too. At this point, they were hoping he dropped her.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen as he jumped out the window to land beside his hunter friend. Elena tried to brace herself to see better as she planted her hands on the small of his back and lifted her head.
She didn’t have a stake anymore, but she still had her hands, and she fisted them together and hammered them into his back. The vamp grunted, and to her frustration, it was the only reaction he gave.
Squirming, she tried to break free of the arm locked around her waist, but he didn’t give her an inch.
“What are you doing?” Asher demanded of Logan.
“Escaping,” Logan said as he started running beside his friend.
He ignored the fingers digging into his flesh, followed by the powerful blows Elena delivered to his back. She was small, but she was strong and inflicting a lot of damage to his kidneys and spine.
When her fingers dug into the bullet hole in his shoulder, he nearly let her go. Gritting his teeth, he ignored the flames licking at his skin as she twisted her fingers deeper. She was strong andruthless. This was a girl who played to win, but since she might be their only chance of making it out of here, he wasn’t going to let her go.
“What are you doing withher?” Asher asked.
“Hopefully, using her to get us out of here.”
“They’re still firing at you.”
“But only one of them hit me, and it was before I had her. They’ll keep us alive if we have her.”
The look in Asher’s eyes said he didn’t like having a hostage, but he didn’t protest any further. Neither of them wanted a hostage, and he especially would have preferred one who wasn’t determined to dig the bullet out of his shoulder blade, but they’d both prefer to live.
They could figure out who killed Alejandro and try to repair their relationship with these hunters later, but they couldn’t do either of those things from a prison cell or a pine box.
As they sprinted down the compacted, dirt road toward the large gate at the end, more hunters emerged from their homes. Most of them were women left behind when their husbands went out to hunt or were called out after discovering Alejandro’s body.
The gunfire had drawn the women out, but they didn’t leave their porches, and more than a few scurried back into their homes when they saw him and Asher coming. This was one of many nights when they’d been allowed into the compound. Alejandro had given the women on the compound more freedom, but they mostly stayed away from him and Asher. They’d also stayed away from him and Declan.
“How are we going to get over the gate?” Asher panted as he ran.
“I can jump it,” Logan said.
“I can’t.”
