AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was the truth though—and it hurt that she was alone once again, struggling with it. She wishedhewere there to help her sort through what it all meant. Despite all of his many flaws, one thing she’d already discovered about the man was that he was a surprisingly good listener.
Good Lord. Now you sound like a love-struck girl.
As hard as it was to admit, he’d gotten to her, and on a much deeper level than she’d ever imagined. How had it happened?
And how had Dmitri managed to so comprehensively get her to let her guard down so completely?
You know why. You just have to accept it. Remember?
Several things happened then in rapid succession. The radio squawked with a piercing grate so loud it hurt, and Stacy put her hands to her ears.
“What thefuck?” Vince grabbed the mic, keying it. “Nelson? Dale?”
At the precise moment he said it, a bright flash emanated from behind them. The headlights of the truck following them veered suddenly to the left, then winked out entirely, a muted crunching noise just barely audible immediately afterward.
“Holyshit!” Vince cried out as the headlights suddenly illuminated something in the road before them.
It was a man, dressed in a heavy, dark coat with a furred hood, immediately ahead. His eyes were a glowing, hellish red—and he wassmiling. When Stacy saw them, she screamed.
“Hold on!” Vince yanked the wheel, attempting to avoid the man, the truck jerking to the left, tires squealing, gravel and dirt flying up against the undercarriage of the truck as it skidded.
She saw stars as her head dashed against the passenger window with a bone-crunchingthud, pain exploding in her temple and jaw.
Then she was thrown forward, colliding with the dash, fire erupting at her left knee, her wrist twisting painfully, as the truck crashed into a pine tree just off the road’s shoulder.
When the vehicle came to rest, the headlights went out, the black night descending upon them instantly, like a suffocating funeral shroud.
Vince groaned a moment, grabbing at his right side, an acrid smell, vaguely like hot asphalt, filling the battered cab of their truck. Stacy could taste the metallic note of blood in her mouth.
Then he coughed, a flashlight illuminating the interior in a disorienting craze of light, the thick dust and smoke in the air highlighted by the bright beam. “S-stay here,” he said, his voice hoarse. The driver’s side door creaked open, and he stumbled out.
She tried her door, but it seemed to be jammed shut.
“Don’tmove, motherfucker!” Vince’s voice snarled out in the darkness. The deafening staccato of rapid-fire gunshots rang out, the flashes like a strobe light in the dark. She fought the urge to huddle in the footwell. Instead, remembering her training, she slid out of the now missing passenger side window.
She fell to the ground on her side, bits of gravel digging painfully into her shoulder and ribcage. The impact knocked the wind from her lungs, leaving her frozen momentarily in place, wheezing harshly.
She thought there was a gurgling scream somewhere off to the left, but her ears were ringing so badly, her head spinning, she wasn’t even sure where she was at that instant.
Get the fuck up, goddammit!
Forcing her body to move despite the near-panic of not being able to take a full breath, she rolled over onto her belly—only to see two booted feet before her.
A set of hard fingers twisted in her hair, her scalp screaming in pain as she was hauled to her feet.
Her heart was in her throat as she beheld the man who’d caused them to wreck. His skin was sallow, almost ashen, his canines long, needle-like, and incredibly sharp. The glow of his eyes was like looking inside a peephole to the flames of Hell itself.
Oh, dear God.
“Hello, omega. We’ve been looking for you.”
CHAPTER26
Stacy
She grunted and screamed against the strip of stinking cloth that had been forced between her teeth, the gag ensuring she made little noise as she was dragged by her hair into the gloom of the forest. Repeatedly she scrambled then slipped in the soft, wet soil, her captor never allowing her to actually get her feet under her.
It wasn’t so much that he stunk of rot, but it was anotherscent that was at once alien and profoundly unsettling, like the odd, off-putting note one might detect at the bottom of a long-dry, abandoned well.
