I bent and scooped the two stakes up, tucking one into the top of my boot and tossing the other lightly in my hand, feeling the heat of the metal on my skin. “Rachel. Do you still have your stake?”
Through the smoke, I saw her nod and hold it up.
I flipped the second stake toward her so it buried into the ground at her feet.
“Here’s a backup. Just in case.” I turned back to the wreckage. A beat-up bag lay underneath a section of seats. With a tug, I pulled it out. Singed and battered, it had hooked onto the undercarriage of the seats. Inside the bag were Rachel’s notes, her destroyed laptop and a few other odds and ends. I shook my head.
“Rachel, you aren’t going to believe this.” I held the bag up so she could see it.
“No fucking way!” She ran to me and I handed her the bag. “How is this even possible?”
“It hooked onto the seat.”
A low groan brought my head around. Ivan was in a shit ton of pain—it all but rolled off him in waves. I sucked back the saliva pooling in my mouth at the thought of his wounds.
“Can’t you give him...some blood?” Rachel slung her bag over her shoulder.
“No. I haven’t fed in far too long now. If I give him any, I will be putting myself at risk.”
“Can’t have that, can we?” Antonio quipped. I turned to him, a slow anger building in my veins. Cazador he may be, but he wasn’t really one of us.
My steps took me to him like a magnet drawn to steel. I stopped only when I could feel Antonio’s breath on my face. “I would be able to help Ivan if I could feed.”
He took a step back and pulled a silver stake up. “You could try. I do not think you would like how I taste.”
I grinned. “Well, you can’t be that bad. Rachel seems to like your flavor.”
His jaw dropped and Rachel sucked in a sharp breath. Ivan grunted, and when I glanced his way, laughter sparkled in his eyes. I went to him and helped him stand.
“Come on, wolf.”
He slung an arm across my shoulders and gave me his weight.
It took me a few feet to realize we were the only ones moving. We slowly turned around. Rachel and Antonio seemed to be in some sort of stand-off. I blew out a sigh. We did not have time for this shit. “Rachel, you leading this circus?”
She shook herself and nodded. “Yeah.”
No snappy comeback. Damn, I must have struck a nerve. She got in front of me and Ivan, setting a brutal pace considering I was all but packing two hundred pounds of werewolf. I said nothing about slowing down. We needed cover, and we needed it fast. I called over my shoulder to Antonio. “Think you can cover our tracks?”
“Already done, bloodsucker. Some of us are professionals.”
Ivan let out a low growl that rumbled through me, but I tightened my hold on him until he stopped. “Not worth it. Right now, we can use all the help we can get.” I paused and raised my voice. “Besides, Antonio is a killer, just like you and me, Ivan.” Though Rachel’s stride didn’t falter, her head tipped ever so slightly to one side. Anyone else wouldn’t have noticed, but I knew her well enough by now to pick up on it. I could almost feel her interest as if it were inside my own head.
“He doesn’t even know you,” Ivan grumbled. “Doesn’t he get that we’re out to save the world?”
“Feeling dramatic tonight?” I glanced up at him, saw the intense and serious way he was looking at me, and dropped my eyes.
“Cazadors don’t get to know their prey. We kill them. End of story.” Ivan’s eyes were guarded, cluing me in that he’d already suspected. “It will mess with his head on more than one level if he realizes I’m not like the other vamps.” I shifted where my arm tucked around Ivan’s waist so I could grip his belt and use it as a handhold.
We walked for an hour before lights came into view. Not the kind of lights you would see in a city, but the flickering faint lights of a few candles lit in windows. “Rachel, your friend is here, in this village?”
“If it’s Shwan, then yes. If not, then it seems unlikely.”
She strode forward with impressive confidence. The village consisted of two streets set across one another, with homes and what looked like a few businesses scattered along the edges. Rachel dialed a number and lifted her cell phone to her ear.
After a minute, she nodded. “Baran, it’s Rachel. Listen, you aren’t going to believe this, but I’m in the area, somewhere south of Arbil, at these coordinates.” She rattled off the longitude and latitude on her phone. “We’re hoping for a place to crash. Somewhere people won’t be looking for us.” She shot a glance back at Antonio.