The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(59)

“Drew?” I called after a few minutes.

He stuck his head down. “It’s all clear. Come on.”

I turned to Alice. “Let’s get Oscar up first.”

“I agree.” She nodded. “Yeah, it will be easier for him if we help. Come on, Oscar.”

I extinguished my flame and then we helped him off the floor where he’d practically collapsed after Drew had released his hold. It took both of us to push him up the ladder and Drew pulled from the opening, once he could reach him, to get Oscar out of there.

Once he was safely at the top, I called out, “Drew, see if the phone works now.”

Alice and I climbed up and out.

“I already did. Our ride is coming.”

Above ground, darkness surrounded us. We were in the woods. How deep in the woods, I had no idea, but the thick forest of trees blocked out any moonlight we would have seen otherwise. I shivered against the chilly fall air and wished I had a jacket.

“How will they even know where we are?”

“I just told them to follow the road to your father’s and look for us on the way. You should be able to hear them, right?

I sighed. Crap, now everyone is depending on me. That’s the last thing I need.

Because the night was already upon us, vampires could come out. I was positive Trevor had either realized Alice wasn’t around, found out we had escaped with her, or both. He could put two and two together pretty quickly. “We have to go, you guys. It won’t be long before Trevor finds us.”

If it were possible to become any more scared, I was. Any head start we’d had on Trevor was pretty much gone. I lit the flame in my hand again, and we traipsed through the woods, over fallen logs, crunching leaves, pushing through tree branches. It was a given that Trevor, or any vampire, would hear us or smell us before they saw my little light.

“Drew, what time is it?”

I turned to see him glance at his watch. “Four fifteen in the morning,” he answered. “Man, I had no idea it was so late…er, early.”

Thank god, at least one thing is running in our favor.

We pressed on in search of the road. Oscar looked pretty ragged. Alice and Drew both had to help him. He was so pale he seemed to glow in the darkness. He mumbled phrases like: “Never should have listened… Don’t go into the water...” I was pretty sure he was hallucinating.

“Don’t worry, Oscar,” Alice whispered. I looked back and saw she was whispering in his ear and smoothing back his hair while they walked. She provided comfort for him, despite the fear shown in her eyes.

“The road can’t be much farther. I hear cars, so it can’t be that far away.”

“Are you sure it’s a car?” Drew asked me..

“I know what I heard, Drew.”

“Just asking, Chloe.” Tensions obviously were running high.

I swiped a branch out of my way, so I could pass. “I don’t know. Maybe we're going the wrong way.”

Suddenly, the leaves and branches stopped their crackle beneath their feet, signaling they had stopped. I looked back at them.

“It’s possible.” Drew turned in a circle and assessed the area. “There probably aren’t many cars on the road at this time of night. We’d have been lucky to hear one at all.”

Not knowing what step to take, we just stood there in silence for another moment. Only Oscar’s raspy breathing made any noise.

“Let’s just keep going the same way.” I tried to keep the frustration out of my voice. The last thing we needed was to be lost in the woods. I headed out in front to lead the way.

After about five minutes, I heard it more clearly. “A car!”

“I don’t hear anything,” Drew complained.

“But I can. Let’s go!” As fast as we could with Oscar in tow, we plowed through the forest.

“I hear it!” Alice exclaimed, when we saw headlights flash their bright light through the trees. I flexed my hand and extinguished my flame, and then I bolted for the road.

“Chloe, wait!” Drew must have released Oscar because I felt his arms wrap around my waist and lift me off the ground. “It might be Trevor or one of his vampires.”

Oh. That never occurred to me.

“Don’t move,” he ordered while the car passed. Then he whipped out the phone and dialed a number. “Yeah, it’s me. Where are you?” He grunted and then clicked off.

“Where are they?” Alice asked. I sensed the urgency in her voice. She, of all of us, knew Trevor best. I didn’t even want to think of the things he would do to her if we were caught.

“They aren’t far, hopefully. It’s hard to tell because we don’t even know where we are. We're going to have to take the chance of going out into the road.”

None of us wanted to go out there. The woods weren’t exactly safe, but they were safer.

“Come on.” Drew signaled us.

My heart pounded as we noisily crept out of the trees and onto the hard cement of the road. It felt good to be on the flat surface instead of fighting our way through the woods. If anything, it would be a lot easier to walk with Oscar.

Once again, we had to decide which way to go. Drew and I discussed which direction we thought we had come from and agreed to go left.

While we walked, Drew made another call. “Hey. We’re on the road now.” A pause. “Yeah, she’s fine. Just hurry up.” He clicked off and pocketed the phone.