The Immortal Hunter(72)

"Dani," she answered wearily.

"Well, Dani, my name is Hazel Parker and that is my husband, John." Hazel knelt beside her and added sensibly, "I have to tell you, dear, vampires aren't real. That man must have drugged you somehow before he brought you down here."

Dani closed her eyes. She wasn't terribly surprised they didn't believe it. She hadn't when Decker had told her, and he'd had fangs to flash. To Hazel and John, Leo must have just seemed your normal, everyday psychopath, she thought. Unless-

"Who tied you up?" Dani asked, suddenly.

Confusion flashed briefly on Hazel's face, but she said, "I tied John and then the young man tied me up."

"Why did you tie up John? Did Leo threaten you?"

"No," she admitted, her confusion deepening. "He didn't even tell me to do it, and I didn't want to... I just... did." Something like panic flickered in her eyes. "I tried to stop myself, but it was like someone else was controlling my body."

"Someone else was," Dani said firmly. "Leo. He's a vampire."

Hazel peered at her with uncertainty and then turned with relief as her husband hurried back into the room.

"I got it open," John announced, rushing to them. "I didn't think I would be able to. I nailed it shut a good twenty years ago, but the nails pulled out with a little elbow grease."

He paused to peer from his wife to Dani, and then set his mouth and bent to catch Dani's arm and lifted her. "Come on. He could be back any minute."

Dani resisted briefly, but her struggles were weak at best. She didn't seem to have any strength left in her body, and that was what made her give in and add what little strength she had to helping him get her to her feet. There was no way she could take Leo like this. If she stayed, he would simply bring her more innocents to feed on, and the way it was going, Dani feared she wouldn't be able to resist.

She would get out of the house with them and then send them next door to the enforcer house for help while she hid in the bushes or something. Then Decker and the others could come back and take care of her and Leo. It seemed like a good plan to Dani, and under John's urging, she took a faltering step forward, only to gasp and bend over as the movement made her pain increase again. Panting like a woman in labor, she stared at the floor and told herself she only had to get outside. Then they would drive off safely, leaving her-Dani stopped and glanced to John sharply, asking, "You don't drive a brown pickup, do you?"

"Yes," John answered, urging her forward another step. "Why?"

"Because that's what he was driving and is probably driving now," Dani told them miserably, ready to give up and find some way to force them to leave without her.

"Then we'll have to take his car," John said staunchly. "It's in the barn. I was out there putting away the new tractor when he drove it right in and-" John cut himself off abruptly, his mouth tightening at some unpleasant memory. "Come on, let's go, or we'll still all be standing here arguing when he gets back."

Dani bit her lip, but started to move again. She did her best to ignore the pain the activity sent shooting through her as they made their way to the cold room she'd examined earlier. She noticed the hammer and long nails lying abandoned on the concrete floor, and then raised her head to see that one of the boards of Styrofoam had been removed to reveal a stone wall with an old window in it.

The sight made her heart sink with despair. There was no way she was going to be able to get out through that in the shape she was in.

"You can do this, girl."

Dani turned her head toward the old farmer. Apparently her expression had given her away, but he wasn't giving up even if she was.

"We'll help you," he added when she began to shake her head, and then he snapped with impatience, "At least try, dammit! You might as well walk back into the next room and use one of my tools to slit your wrists if you won't try."

She ground her teeth together at those blunt words. He was right, and she could do this, or at least she could give it a damned good try. Dani had never been a quitter, firmly believing that the only failure was not trying. That belief had seen her through medical school and the grueling hours she'd worked as an intern afterward. She'd made it through all that; she could make it through this stupid window too, Dani told herself firmly. And if she didn't, it wouldn't be for lack of trying.

Relaxing a little, John helped her forward to stand in front of the window. They paused then, and John reached out and undid the rusty old hook-and-eye fastening. He swung the old-fashioned window out and up to slip the hook through a second eye in the low ceiling, holding the window out of their way.

The lower ledge of the window was about level with Dani's chin. It was about two feet wide and two feet high and was three quarters underground. She found herself looking out at a metal window well with grass poking up over the top and the star-filled night sky visible above it from where they stood.

"We'll need a chair or something to get out," Hazel said, and turned to rush out of the room.

Dani eyed the window and said unhappily, "I'm going to slow you down."

"We have a little time," John said with a shrug. "We're a good ways out in the country. It's half an hour to the nearest fast-food restaurant."