When Darkness Comes (Guardians of Eternity #1)(39)

"Why Chicago?"

He tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "Because Viper can keep you protected while I try and find some means to trace the witches."

She jerked her head upward, her lips thinning into a line that should warn the most obtuse vampire she was not pleased.

"You're not thinking about going after them alone?"

Wise enough to sense trouble before it slapped him upside the head, Dante regarded her with a wary eye.

"I am the only one who knows their scent."

"Not the only one," she gritted. "There's something out there that is hunting them. Something that alreadyfound them once and gutted them like sushi. A trick I'm sure they would love to show you up close and personal."

"Graphic, but true," he conceded. "Which is why I need to get you to Viper."

She planted her hands on her hips. "And why you won't go after the witches alone."

"We can argue as we walk," he murmured, taking her hand and pulling her out of the cave. "It will make a nice change from your shrill complaints that I'm leading you in circles."

Abby took a moment to appreciate the faint breeze that stirred the air. It carried with it a scent she could only presume had something to do with nature. She had always made a point of never going anywhere that didn't have pavement and a Starbucks. It was rather strange to be surrounded by trees and stars.

Not strange enough, however, to make her forget that she was in the middle of correcting Dante's mistaken assumption that he could go about playing the Lone Ranger while she was around.

"There's not going to be an argument," she said in her best third-grade-teacher voice. "You're not going alone, and that's final."

He flashed a superior smile. "I'll admit you have stubbornness down to an art form, but I've had four centuries to perfect my own. You don't stand a chance."

Her smile was even more superior. "Four centuries is nothing. I'm a woman."

"So you are." His gaze made a lazy journey over her rumpled form. "A beautiful, glorious woman who purrs like a kitten when I stroke your—"

"Dante."

His lips twitched at her blush. "What? I like kittens."

She struggled to frown. 'You're just trying to distract me."

"Is it working?"

"I—" Abby came to an abrupt halt as a cold chill feathered over her skin.

In less than a heartbeat, Dante was at her side, his body coiled and prepared to strike. All he needed was a victim.

"What is it?"

"There's something out there," she muttered.

His head tilted up, his eyes closing. For a long moment he remained silent, then he gave a slow shake of his head.

"I sense nothing."

Any other night, Abby would have shrugged and admitted she must have been imagining things. A brief cold chill was hardly something to get twisted over.

This was not any other night, however, and while she might not be Mensa material, she wasn't entirely stupid. She wasn't about to ignore her instincts, which were making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

"I think it's the same thing that attacked us at Viper's."

He gave a low growl deep in his throat. A sound that did nothing to help with the prickles.

"Abominations," he hissed. "Where?"

"In front of us," she promptly retorted, and then less certainly she swiveled about. "And I think behind us."

Dante took a quick glance around before grasping her hand and tugging her deeper into the trees.

"This way."

Abby had no intention of arguing. Her stomach was already clenched with an icy dread, and her heart lodged somewhere in her throat. At the moment she was quite willing to run all the way back to Chicago if necessary.

Keeping low to avoid the branches that blocked their paths, they scurried through the dark. Dante with his usual elegant silence and Abby crashing behind him like a bull elephant with a tranquilizer stuck in its butt.

Her prickles continued despite their swift flight, at times becoming more pronounced and then oddly fading. She didn't need her instincts, however, to tell her they were being chased. The living dead were no longer making a secret of their presence, and they stumbled after them making even more racket than she did.

Panting and grimly ignoring the stitch that was ripping through her side, Abby briefly wondered how the corpses could move with such speed. For God's sake, they were dead, weren't they? Most of them no doubt killed from an overdose of meat, cigarettes, and beer.

They should be shuffling along like proper zombies, not blazing through the woods as if they were the freaking Kenyan track team.

Struggling to keep up with Dante's numbing pace, Abby was unprepared for him to come to a sudden halt. Slamming into his back, she was only kept upright by the arm he was quick enough to wrap about her waist.

"Damn," she grunted, sucking in deep gasps of air. "Why did you stop?"

The silver eyes glittered in the darkness, Ms features set in hard lines.

"I don't like this."

Abby shivered, glancing over her shoulder at the unmistakable sound of an advancing horde.

"I don't particularly care for it either, but it's a hell of a lot better than those things catching us."