Vengeance (The Captive #6)(78)
Dousing the rag, she popped open the basement window and tossed it inside before hurrying away. Her next stop was a home on the same road as the hotel. There were too many vampires gathered around to risk going any closer to the hotel.
Poking her head cautiously around the corner of one of the buildings, she looked toward the hotel. The crowd gathered around it had begun to disperse, but the highest concentration of white cloaked vampires remained around the building. Like bees protecting their queen.
Did that mean William wasn’t in there anymore? Or did it mean he was, and his punishment had been handed down, and their curiosity answered. Was he still alive? Tempest shook off that thought. She would know if he was dead, she was certain of it. He was still alive; she just didn’t know what was going on.
Keep going. It was what she’d promised him she would do. She couldn’t shake the inner tremor rattling her system as her worry for him ate at her. Ducking away, she hurried toward the back of the next building. She carefully broke out the glass of the latched basement window.
The acerbic scent of smoke had grown thicker on the air. Tilting her head back, she peered up at the increasingly cloudy night, but now puffs of dark gray smoke could be seen mingling with the lighter gray clouds. No cries of alarm or warning filled the air yet, but it was only a matter of minutes before someone noticed the smoke, and the flames finally broke free of the buildings.
She was about to douse the rag when a footstep sounded in the snow behind her. She pressed closer against the building, flattening herself to it as a white cloaked figure emerged from the shadows. “What are you doing?” the woman demanded.
Tempest’s mind spun as she tried to come up with a believable response. “Forgot my key.”
Lines creased the woman’s forehead when she frowned at her. “You’re not staying here.”
So much for believable. Turning away, she doused the rag with oil. There had been enough left to set at least three more homes on fire, but that wasn’t going to happen now. She lit the rag and tossed it into the basement with the rest of the oil before turning and fleeing down the side yard.
“Hey, stop! Stop her!” The woman’s shouts rang through the small side yard and reverberated between the buildings as she ran through the snow. She burst onto the street and fled across the crowded thoroughfare. “Stop her!”
Shoving past two vamps who turned to face the woman, she dashed in between a couple of homes. Putting her head down, her arms and legs pumped as she leapt through the snow toward the mountains two hundred feet away. Away from the bustle of the town, she could hear the footsteps and grunts of the vampires laboring to pursue her through the snow.
Turning to the left, she didn’t dare look back, as she headed for the mountains. Her legs burned from exertion, but she could feel the pulse of William’s blood within her veins, giving her a strength and speed she’d never experienced before.
Who knew vampire blood could be so powerful? It certainly boosted her in a way human blood never had. But then, perhaps that was why it had always been so taboo for vampires to feed from one another. Vampires might have turned on each other if they knew they could feel this strength from it. That may have been the reason, but she believed it was more likely taboo because it took a lot of trust for a vampire to share blood with another vampire. To let them know where they would be at all times, to always be able to find and track each other.
She never would have given anyone, other than William, such intimate knowledge of herself. Maybe it was her trust in him that had enabled her to feel more powerful now, and not his blood.
Without slowing, she turned sideways and plunged into the cave she knew was etched within the mountain’s face. Once inside, she was forced to slow as the rocks pressed so close against her they nearly touched the tip of her nose. She shuffled onward, her fingers scrabbling over the rock wall as she guided herself forward.
Behind her the grunts and shuffling feet of the vampires chasing her reverberated against the rocks encompassing them. These caves were in the mountain opposite of the one she’d used to escape this town, but she knew them well.
After fifty feet, the cave widened out. She turned and bolted across the open expanse before making a sharp left and turning sideways into another crevice. The crevice only went twenty feet back before coming to a dead stop, but the cave itself went on for another mile before dead-ending.
She hoped they would pass right by her hiding spot without noticing her. Opening her cloak, she tugged a stake free and gripped it firmly in her sweating palm. Her cheek pressed against the cool rock as she stared out at the gloomy cave. The echoing slap of her tracker’s feet on the rock floor reached her seconds before they burst into view. The light in here was dim, but her pursuers stood out in stark relief against the shadows surrounding them.
Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip, she became completely still as they ran onward. They didn’t glance in her direction before plunging into the murky depths of the cave. Tempest’s shoulders sagged, her fingers eased their death grip on her stake, but she didn’t have time to appreciate her brief reprieve. It wouldn’t take them long to arrive at the end of the cave and realize she wasn’t there.
Sliding free of her hiding spot, she ran toward the entrance of the cave. She turned sideways to go back out the entrance and plunged into the open again. What she saw there caused her to take a staggering step back. She collided with the mountain. The rock face bit into her skin, but she couldn’t move away from it. Her mouth dropped as she gazed at her hometown.