When she picked up the knife and pushed to her feet, Evie flinched. She crawled backwards until the ankle chain snapped taut. A pained whimper slipped past her lips.
Maya stopped. Even though she didn’twantto stop. She wanted to rush over there, grab Evie by the shoulders, and shake her until she explained exactly where Harper was and how many people were guarding her.
But that would only make things worse.
Moving slowly and with her hands raised, Maya limped closer. Other than trail her with her eyes, Evie didn’t move a muscle.
Her ankle was an angry red color. It was bleeding, too. A thin scarlet line had beaded on her skin, and the scent it produced brimmed with energy, as though infused with the sun itself.
To most vampires, it might be close to irresistible. But Maya had no reaction. There was no ache in her teeth, no hunger wanting to be filled.
Evie’s blood might be rare, but it didn’t hold a candle to the taste of paradise she’d experienced earlier that night.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” Maya crouched a few feet away. “But I need you to listen. I have to find Harper, now, and if I leave you here on your own, I’m fairly sure she’s going to kill me. So please. Will you let me take the restraints off?”
Evie stared at her, still frozen. She’d been fighting just a moment before, and now it looked like she had disappeared inside herself.
“Evie?” It took great effort to keep her voice calm. “Please say something. Or move. Anything to let me know you understand.”
Her eyes remained unfocused for another moment. Then they flicked between Maya’s, falling to her outstretched hands, and then down further. To her side.
Booker had ripped her shirt. Maya hadn’t even noticed, and the torn fabric bared part of her ribs. And the four lines of text tattooed there.
Evie took a sharp breath, shallow panting following. Fear still oozed off her body, but when her eyes found Maya’s again, resolve glinted behind the terror.
She extended her hands. They shook, but even as Maya touched her wrists, she didn’t pull away.
“Tell me what happened.” Maya pulled at the cuffs, breaking them off, before doing the same to the ankle chain.
“W-we woke up in here. T-tied up.” Evie stiffened when Maya held out her hand before taking it and letting herself be pulled upright. “Kieran came in, with a woman. They talked about a deal or something, but to me it seemed more like she was here to gloat. She knew who we were, too. And she said something about a storm. That it might give us time?”
Maya frowned. Róisín had been here?
The blizzard was still raging. It would be hard to drive in, if not impossible. If it hadn’t been there, Kieran might have fled by now.
“And Harper?” Maya asked, letting Evie lean against her. She winced every time her foot touched the floor.
“He took her away. In there.” She pointed at the door leading to the adjoining cabin. “When he left, he said he didn’t want to be disturbed.”
Ice formed in Maya’s stomach. “How long have they been gone?”
Evie’s jaw clenched. Fear returned to her eyes, even stronger than when she’d been staring at Maya just before.
“Almost an hour.”
Chapter 40
The ceiling was leaking.
An odd thing to focus on, perhaps. There were more important things to do than watch melted snow slowly drip onto the wooden floor, but Harper’s mind had fused on it. Counting every drop.
Seventy-two. Seventy-three. Seventy-four.
The building Kieran had pulled her into turned out to be his private quarters. An old cabin with a small kitchenette and a living room so packed with boxes that they had taken over the furniture. Based on the cursory glance she got when he pulled her through the room, most of them were filled with weapons.
Now they were in his bedroom. A rugged space with wooden furniture and decorated with mounted animal skulls. A large bed sat in the corner, and a desk was by the only window, outside of which the snowflakes flew in horizontal lines.
Kieran was staring out of it. He’d been walking in and out of the room at first, rearranging stuff elsewhere in the cabin, then talking to someone, then yelling and cursing.
