Vengeance (The Captive #6)(58)

That realization caused him to reluctantly pull away from her and lower his forehead to hers. The honeyed taste of her kiss lingered on his lips, need throbbed through his body, but they had to get out of here. He brushed back strands of her dirt-darkened hair and tucked it behind her ear.

“We should go.” He couldn’t resist running his finger over her lips, still swollen from his kiss. He gave her another brief kiss before releasing her and stepping away. “I have to find somewhere to stash theses bodies.”

“I know a place,” she said.

He grabbed each body by the foot and dragged them into the shadowed recesses of a small side cave.





CHAPTER 20


Tempest couldn’t stop her fingers from fidgeting with the sleeves of her white cloak as she stood at the mouth of the cave with William. She was better cloaked than she’d been when she’d fled here before, but she felt far more nervous now than she had then. Maybe it was because William was with her, and she had more to lose; maybe it was because they’d made it this far without being caught and a part of her believed they couldn’t stay lucky for much longer. Whatever it was, she didn’t want to take one step out of this cave.

He’d been forced to take his bow and arrows off, there was no way to keep them hidden beneath his cloak, but he still had his bolts and crossbow secured discreetly to his waist. They both had stakes on them, but even knowing she was better prepared to face a threat now, she still couldn’t force herself to move.

The children, she reminded herself. Her gaze slid down the backs of the buildings facing them, but the orphanage was too far away to see from here.

“Stay by my side and walk as if you belong here. We’ll go to the orphanage first and see if we can get in there without being detected,” he said to her.

She almost grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him back when he stepped out of the cave, but she kept her hands at her sides. Throwing her shoulders back, she stepped into the windblown snow behind him. She kept her head up as they walked toward the back of the orphanage. Her eyes picked out the vampires patrolling the area as they continued onward.

There were so many of them; like ants, they seemed to be multiplying as they moved amongst the peaks and trails winding across the cliff faces. She was so focused on the mountains, she didn’t notice the white cloaked vampires approaching them until they were almost to them. Her deadened heart leapt into her throat; her flight instinct kicked into hyper-drive. She almost turned and bolted back toward the cave, but she forced herself to keep walking.

They had to see the panic on her face, in her eyes, she was certain of it, but the two men and a woman only gave them a brief nod as they walked by. Her neck felt like wood as she forced her head to bow in a greeting before continuing onward. It took everything she had not to look back at them, to keep her gaze focused straight ahead. They didn’t encounter anyone else as they neared the orphanage.

She stared at the building, unsure of how to approach it without drawing unwelcome attention to themselves. “That’s it,” she told him.

“Keep walking,” William said.

“But that’s it.”

“We have to make sure Kane and his cohorts aren’t in there,” he said as they moved past the orphanage.

They trudged through more of the backyards before he turned toward the right and headed for the main street. “William,” she whispered.

“It will be fine, stay by me.”

She went to fiddle with the cloak again, but managed to restrain herself from doing so. There were far more vampires in white cloaks here. Some of them were vampires she recognized from town. She kept her head down, her face turned away, hoping the night and the hood would keep her face mostly obscured from them.

At any other time they may have assumed she’d been drawn into the ranks of the soldiers who had invaded their town, but she was certain Kane and the others had put out word to keep an eye out for her after she’d escaped. If the vampire she’d pushed over the cliff had survived, his description of her would have been circulated through the town, and everyone would have realized she was also the one who had disappeared from the orphanage.

William walked close to the orphanage, his step far more casual than hers. She felt as if she had a beacon over her head screaming, imposter, but he moved as if he fit in here amongst these traitors and murderers who had turned them all into prisoners.

“What is the basement like?” he inquired.

“It’s mostly used for storage,” she replied. “No one goes down there often.”

“Are there windows?”

“One on each side of the building.”

“Can we climb through them?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” He made a right between the orphanage and the house beside it. She followed behind him as they made their way down the side yard dividing the two homes. They were almost to the end of the houses when he took hold of her arm and pulled her against the wall of the orphanage.

“Stay here,” he murmured to her before kneeling in the snow beside her.

Sheltered in between the two buildings, little snow had fallen into this area. Her eyes darted over the street and the vampires passing by as his hands ran over the edge of the window he’d knelt before. Footprints marred the snow around them, so their footprints wouldn’t be noticed by any passersby as unusual, she hoped.