Authors: Lynn Viehl
Frostfire (35 page)
“He’s in the cage.” He considered taking the innkeeper with them as collateral, but she would probably fight him every step of the way, and he needed to move quickly. “Where is Nathan?”
“He’s at the barricade, keeping watch with the others.” She gave him a speculative look. “They won’t let you drive out of here, and if you try to walk, you’ll freeze before you get halfway to Chamberlain.” She took out a key ring and held it out. “My snowmobile’s in the shed. There’s gas in the can next to it. Best fill up the tank first.”
“Why are you helping us?” Lilah asked.
“I tried keeping Mr. Peterson here when he didn’t want to stay.” She shrugged. “After years of fighting and sulking and hating, he left me anyway. So this time, I figure I’ll save everyone the misery.”
He took the keys. “Thank you.”
Annie nodded. “Go down the west side of the slope, and follow the creek out. They won’t be watching that.”
“Wait a second.” Lilah went over to Ethan, who lay on a pallet by the fire, and bent down to touch his wrist. When she returned, she said, “I couldn’t leave him that way.” She glanced at Annie. “He’ll wake up in a few minutes.”
The older woman smiled. “You’ve got a good heart, girl. You folks ever reconsider your place in the world, I hope you’ll come back to us.”
Lilah followed him out of the caves, where he stopped and listened, breathing in deeply to test the air.
“None of them are here,” he heard her say. “Walker, that woman in the park who shot me, who was she?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. He had a vague memory of other faces that he had recognized, but the transformation had distorted his mind, making it hard to know what had been real. “Can you make it down to the inn?”
She nodded, and took his hand. “I’m sorry about Samuel. I thought he was my friend.”
“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but us now.” He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. “Come. We have to hurry.”
She tried to keep up, but the effects of the drug lingered and made her clumsy, and halfway down the slope he picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. He found he could run as fast as the beasts, and slowed only when Lilah made a sound of protest.
“You’ll slip,” she predicted, breathless from the quick descent.
“No, I don’t think I will.” A part of him seemed confident that he was now as sure-footed as the werewolves. “And I will not let you fall.”
When they reached Annie’s shed, he put Lilah down and checked the street first before opening the door and dragging out the snowmobile.
“You’ve gotten a lot stronger, too,” Lilah said as she retrieved the gas can. She handed it to him, and wrapped her arms around her waist. “Walker, when I was alone with Paul, he told me something.”
“Paul is a liar.” He filled the snowmobile’s tank and tossed aside the empty can. “Can you drive this?”
She nodded and climbed on, scooting forward to make room for him on the seat. “These things go pretty fast,” she told him as she started the engine. In a louder voice she said, “Don’t let go of me.”
He encircled her with his arms. “Never,” he promised.
She drove the snowmobile down the snowbank and back into the woods, following a well-worn path to a frozen ribbon of water.
“This is the creek.” She steered the snowmobile to the top of the bank, and then turned toward the main road. “They might hear us, so be prepared for a sudden change of direction.”
The creek made a meandering path along the base of the pass, close enough to town for him to see the back of each building, but far enough away for the trees to give them cover. Lilah drove to the point where the creek ended in a small dam, and stopped, idling the engine as she looked down at the main road.
“The incline’s too steep,” she told him. “We’ll roll if we try to go down this way.” She glanced back. “We’ve got to go down to the turnoff. I think I can get around them.”
He took out the gun. “I will make sure that we do.”
Taske removed a bottle of whiskey from the liquor cabinet in the back of the car and regarded the two immortals sitting across from him. “I’d invite you to share in a drink, but I fear my meaning would be misconstrued.”
“We’re good, Sasquatch,” Nick said, squinting against the glare of the afternoon light. “Sunglasses, on the other hand, would be greatly appreciated.”
As Taske dug into his pocket, Valori plucked the whiskey bottle from his hand. “I could use a belt.” She opened it and took a long swallow, sighing before she handed it back to him.
“Grazie.”
“Grazie.”
“Prego.”
He took a sip, grimacing as his movements pulled at the gashes under the makeshift dressing Findley had applied over them. “Tell me, since I was assaulted by this rogue while he was unfortunately indisposed, do you think I’ll turn into the same sort of rampaging creature the next time the full moon rises?”
He took a sip, grimacing as his movements pulled at the gashes under the makeshift dressing Findley had applied over them. “Tell me, since I was assaulted by this rogue while he was unfortunately indisposed, do you think I’ll turn into the same sort of rampaging creature the next time the full moon rises?”
“A changeling cannot infect a human,” Gabriel told him. “They cannot even drink your blood without becoming ill.”
“I don’t think he’s a changeling, baby,” Nick muttered. To Taske, she said, “We have a doctor on staff. If things start to go hairy, she can probably help, although she only makes house calls at night.”
“Indeed.”
A vampire doctor.
Taske was impressed. “Why isn’t she helping your rogue?”
A vampire doctor.
Taske was impressed. “Why isn’t she helping your rogue?”
“That,” Gabriel said before Nick could reply, “is private Kyn business, Samuel.”
“I see.” Taske took out a glass, poured two fingers of whiskey into it, and offered it to Valori, who shook her head. “You’re not at all what I’ve always imagined. From the way humans have written about you, I was expecting something quite different. Anne Rice decadence combined with Bram Stoker moodiness, I suppose.”
“Oh, we have dress-up parties now and then,” Nick assured him. “We’d invite you to one, but someone would probably mistake you for the hors d’oeuvres.”
He chuckled. “Heaven forbid it.”
Findley eased the car off onto the shoulder and parked before lowering the privacy screen. “The turnoff is a quarter mile ahead, sir.”
“This is where we get out.” Nick turned to Valori. “You could stay in the car, you know. Gabriel and I have this covered.”
Valori took out the gun she’d retrieved in the park. “I would rather have your back, my lady.”
“All right. Samuel, when she comes to meet you, don’t get too close to her or the rogue. Leave us room, and get out of the way when we close in. When we’re finished, I’ll bring Lilah to the car.” Nick patted his shoulder, and then climbed out.
Gabriel followed, but Valori lingered for a moment.
“I have Findley,” he told her. “As you know, he is very protective, and very quick.”
“Don’t turn your back on Teresina, signore,” she advised, “or she will put a quick end to your pain.”
Lilah surveyed the barricade the townspeople had constructed across the entrance to the pass. They had parked every vehicle in the town across the gap, and piled barrels, crates, and even some furnishings on top of the cars. “No one’s driving through that.”
“There.” Walker leaned forward and pointed to the west end of the barricade, where a small strip of snow ran between the front end of an old pickup and the trees. “Can you make it through there?”
“I think so. Just don’t stick out your elbows.” She shifted into drive, and started down toward the barricade.
The sound of the snowmobile brought heads popping up from the town side of the barricade, and Lilah saw Nathan wave both arms over his head. He stopped waving, but then pushed his hands toward her in a shoving motion, over and over.
“Sorry, we’ll have to do the hokey pokey some other time.” As men came running toward them, she made a hard right turn and accelerated, speeding toward the gap.
“Lilah,” Walker said sharply, clutching her waist.
She saw the black SUVs converging on the other side of the barricade, and quickly changed direction, speeding toward the trees. She heard metallic pings and felt the snowmobile rock under her as men began shooting at them from the open windows of the SUVs. A bullet pierced the calf of her left leg, sending an arrow of white-hot pain up into her thigh.
Walker was torn away from her, and she braked, frantically steering around to see him lying on his back, blood spreading over his chest.
“Oh, no. Walker.”
Two men from the SUVs ran to him, grabbing his arms and dragging him away. Before she could reach them, they fired at her again, the bullets peppering the snowmobile and causing a black cloud of smoke to billow out from the engine. Lilah jumped off into the snow, hitting her shoulder and rolling into the trunk of a tree. An explosion sent a wave of hot air over her, and she realized the gas tank had erupted when the snowmobile smashed into one of the SUVs. As she rolled over, she saw the huge cloud of smoke and fuel raining fire down on the roof and hood of one of the SUVs.
Her right arm wouldn’t move, and hung at an odd angle, and she had to shove herself up with her left. She got her feet under her and clutched her arm as she staggered toward the blood in the snow.
Has to be alive. Has to be.
The woman from the park appeared in front of her, and this time pointed a real gun at Lilah. “I don’t need the extra baggage, thanks.” She fired.
Lilah felt the bullet slam into her head, and the world revolved slowly until her back crashed into the ground. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t breathe, and all she could feel was a warm wetness as it seeped down her scalp and dripped onto her neck.
Be a good girl, Lillian
, Evelyn Emerson whispered from the grave,
and you’ll get your reward.
, Evelyn Emerson whispered from the grave,
and you’ll get your reward.
Gunshots crackled in her ears as she closed her eyes, and then they fell silent as the heat coalesced in her heart. She had promised, she had sworn, she had gone without, she had been good. She had been so very good for so long.
And now, this was her reward.
Lilah’s head pulsed with heat as the holes in the front and back of her skull abruptly filled in and closed. The blood matting her hair dried instantly, and all around her body, the snow began to melt.
Lilah took her useless arm and held it out, barely feeling the wave of pain as the bones shifted back into place. Then she rose, planting her feet, and looked down to see a flattened slug pop out of the side of her bloodied calf. All the pain went away, consumed by the fire burning inside her.
Smoke hazed the air around her as she walked forward, and she felt her hair begin to rise all around her head. The strands that floated in front of her eyes glowed brighter and hotter than the fiery wreckage of the snowmobile.
She didn’t have to look over her shoulder at what came down from the trees to follow her. They came, alone and in pairs and in packs. The bears moved slowly, still drowsy from their long winter sleep, but their lumbering movements gradually picked up speed. The cougars padded across the snow, their heads erect and their large eyes unblinking. The winter white fur of the foxes and bobcats made them almost invisible, but the large pack of wild dogs had fur in a dozen colors, thanks to their complex ancestry of innumerable lost, abandoned, and runaway pets. Feral cats, some still wearing the ragged remains of collars, wove in and out of the legs of the larger predators, their jewellike eyes glittering with malice.
Lilah breathed in, feeling the minds her anger had summoned emptying of all thoughts as they absorbed hers. Two cougars came to crouch in the snow by her feet; one lifted its head against her hand as the other licked the blood from her leg. She stroked the big cat’s head as she waited for the rest to emerge from the forest.
“Lilah.” Nathan stopped just short of her, his eyes widening as he saw the cougars. “What is this? What are you doing?”
“You have your guardians.” She smiled as she reached into him. “I have mine.”
Nathan grabbed his head before he fell to the ground, writhing.
Lilah watched as her ability swept out over him and the other men of the town, and when the beasts came to her, their minds blank and their claws ready, she added them to the ranks.
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