Raised voices echoed from somewhere in the maze of tunnels, and Nicole’s pulse went into overdrive. “I can’t get you candy if I don’t get out.”
“Humans aren’t allowed to leave,” she repeated with such conviction that Nicole’s heart sank. “Hunter would kill them. But you helped me. I can help you get candy.” Lucy clapped her hands, and guilt pricked
Nicole’s conscience at Lucy’s pure, ecstatic joy. “I can show you a way out.”
“Lucy, I don’t want anyone to see me leave. Is that possible?”
“Uh-huh.” She cocked her head to study Nicole for a moment. “I don’t want Hunter to kill you. So you can see my secret entrance.”
Smiling, Nicole gently plucked the tissue from Lucy’s temple. “I’d like that. I don’t want Hunter to kill me, either.”
Lucy immediately ducked into a darkened, dusty hallway and led Nicole through a series of tunnels that grew progressively smaller and less used, until Nicole felt like Alice down the rabbit hole. Damned good thing she wasn’t claustrophobic, because they were eventually crawling in pitch blackness. Rocks bruised her knees, and her hair kept catching on dangling roots, but they finally broke out of the tunnel and into a thick copse of prickly bushes.
Nicole stood, grateful for the fresh—but cold—air and weak afternoon sunlight that permeated the green canopy overhead. She’d been inside the vampire compound all night and for most of the day. Damn, she was going to need food and meds soon.
Lucy stood up next to her. “You bring me candy now?”
“I’ll do my best.” A gust of wind rattled the tree branches and pierced the thin fabric of Nicole’s torn turtleneck. Shivering, she surveyed the landscape.
“Lucy, do you know which way I need to go to get to the nearest city?”
Lucy pointed at a pile of rocks in the distance.
“Follow the river.”
“I appreciate this.” Nicole touched the vampire’s arm lightly, part gesture of thanks, part apology for lying about the candy.
Lucy leaped at her so fast that by the time Nicole could open her mouth to scream, Lucy was engulfing her in a rib-crushing hug. “I like helping. I don’t get to help much ’cause I always mess up.” She pulled away, her lean frame going rigid, alertness screaming from every pore, reminding Nicole that Lucy might have the mind of a child, but she was still a vampire capable of things humans could only dream of. “You better go.
I think you better go quick.”
Oh, shit. “Why?”
“Because I hear trouble.” Lucy’s expression became pinched with worry. “Shouts. Calls to capture the human. They’re hunting for you, Candy Lady. Run.”
Lucy pushed Nicole in the direction she’d indicated.
“Run as fast as you can. I hate blood.”
Chapter 7
Riker burst out of the clan’s main entrance, Hunter and Myne on his heels.
“She’s mine,” he snarled. “When we get her, she’s fucking mine.”
He inhaled a breath that burned but was nothing like what he’d felt in the prey room. But how long would that last? Did he have forty-eight hours of excruciating pain to look forward to? And how the ever-living fuck had Nicole gotten Terese’s ring?
Myne sniffed the air, doing his bloodhound thing.
“I’m not catching her scent.” Frustration laced his tone. Myne hated failing at anything he considered Born Vampire . “Which way do you want me to go?”
“South,” Riker said. “If she’s looking for an easy path, that’s where she’ll go.” Total bullshit. The thinning forest to the south would make sense for a runner, but the city was to the west, and if Nicole had any sense of direction, she’d head that way. Which meant no one but Riker was taking that route. “I’ll roll west.”
Hunter spoke up. “You’re sure you’re okay? No one gets the drop on you like that.”
“I appreciate the humiliating reminder, chief,” Riker drawled. “But yeah, I’m fine.”
If Hunter knew Nicole had dosed Riker with a lethal agent, he’d drag Riker to Grant, their mad-scientist-slash-closest-thing-they-had-to-a-doctor and chain
Riker down if he had to. All Hunter and Myne knew was that she’d knocked him out somehow, and that’s how it was going to stay.
Hunter probably saw through Riker’s BS, but he didn’t press. “I’ll get a couple of your teams together to go wide on a search, and I’ll have everyone in the clan scouring the warren.”
There were miles of tunnels where Nicole could hide, but Riker’s gut said she was in the forest. “She’s out here.”