CHAPTER 41

Kyle darted into the woods when a white van pulled to the side of the road. Another one raced past it and continued down the road. Blood oozed from the holes in his chest, his body ached from hitting the ground, and sticks and branches dug into his bare feet, but none of it slowed him. The trees were a blur as they whizzed past him.

Determined to make them pay for daring to touch Melanie, he circled to the back of the van. He’d ambush anyone who came out and drain them dry. He didn’t care they were human; their blood would help him heal faster and get to Melanie.

He was almost to the van when it accelerated. Dirt and rocks flew up from its spinning tires before they caught. The vehicle lurched forward with a squeal of tires and shot onto the pavement.

He skidded to a stop as his hopes for getting to Melanie vanished with the van. Turning, he sprinted back into the woods.

He ignored the slap of the tree branches as his wrath built to murderous levels. He’d gladly tear the limbs from every single person who had touched her. And not only would he tear those limbs off, but he would use them to bash in those bastards’ skulls.

He didn’t care if it was her father and Lucy’s mother; they were dead.

Despite the fury propelling him onward, the blood loss was getting to him by the time he arrived at the edge of the grocery store parking lot. There, he discovered Lucy standing by the wood line as red and blue lights flashed over her.

The helpless expression on her face caused him to slow. When he reached her side, he peered out through the trees and discovered police cruisers surrounding their SUV.

“Shit,” he hissed when police officers came toward them. The beams of their flashlights played across the ground as they approached the woods. He grasped Lucy’s arm and pulled her back. “We have to go.”

“Melanie,” she whispered.

“They have her.”

Then her eyes widened as she took in the damage the shotgun did to his chest. “What happened?”

“We have to go,” he said and pulled her away from the parking lot.

She glanced back at the approaching officers before turning and fleeing with him. They ran through the woods until blood loss caused him to stumble and nearly go down. She caught his arm to keep him from hitting the ground.

As much as he didn’t want to stop, he would have to take the time to feed and find a vehicle. They couldn’t run back to the facility, it would take far too long, and if he didn’t get some blood soon, not even his rage could keep him going.

When his legs would barely carry him anymore, he staggered to a halt. The beat of his heart was sluggish, and his head felt like cotton balls stuffed it. The blood seeping from his wounds had subsided to an ooze.

However, that seeping ooze wasn’t because the wounds were healing; they were, but not fast enough. No, he was bleeding less because not much blood remained in him.

It wasn’t until he rested his hand against a tree trunk that he saw the blood coating his fingers. It had run down from his chest to his arms, hands, and fingertips. It soaked the scrub pants.

There was no way he could get a vehicle in his condition. He wasn’t strong enough to gain control of someone’s mind or to take a car from them.

Lucy rested her hand on his arm. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I have to feed, and I need to find her,” he grated through his teeth.

“They’ll take her back to the facility.”

“I can’t let that happen.”

But he had no idea how to stop it. They had a big head start on him, and he wasn’t going to gain any ground anytime soon.

“Fuck!” he snarled and slammed his palm against the tree.

The blow swayed the trunk and rattled the leaves. He had to get his hands on a cell phone to call his family, but if he couldn’t walk into a store before, he definitely couldn’t enter one now, even if he did feed enough to heal and regain his strength.

And Lucy was still so new to her powers that she couldn’t accomplish much. Plus, though she looked better than him, her clothes were still bloody, and she was a mess.

He had to get it together, formulate a plan, and get to Melanie. But the lack of blood and his incessant need for his mate was clouding his judgment.

“I have to feed,” he said.

His legs wobbled when he shoved himself away from the tree and went in search of blood.

***

It was a good hour, and far more blood than he’d ever consumed, before his body expelled the last of the shotgun pellets and his legs no longer wobbled. Thankfully the weapon had been meant to deter and not to kill. The black and red color that seeped into his skin when he saw the SUV pulling out of the parking lot with Melanie had yet to retreat.

He suspected the color would remain until he had Melanie back. And he would get her back. He had to find a vehicle first, as well as get in touch with his family.

“Why does your skin turn colors?” Lucy asked.

He told her about purebreds, what happened to them when they were enraged, and about mates.

“And Melanie is your mate?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“So, this color thing won’t happen to me?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“I have to find a phone,” he said.

“And how do you plan to do that?” Lucy asked.

He had no idea, but it had to happen. “Let’s see if we can find a car.”

“Lead the way.”

They stayed parallel to the road as they ran through the woods together. He remembered seeing a couple of houses and apartment complexes on their way to the grocery store, and it wasn’t long before they came across the first house.

He was on the outskirts of a garage when a floodlight turned on and dogs started barking. Slipping back into the shadows, Kyle blended into the night and rejoined Lucy in the woods. They couldn’t have the cops arriving again.

They moved on to the next house, but there weren’t any cars in the driveway. At the third house, there were two cars parked outside; both were locked. When they arrived at the first apartment complex, he searched through four unlocked vehicles but didn’t locate any keys.

At the next apartment complex, he hit pay dirt when he discovered a set of keys tucked under the seat of a beat-up truck. He stepped away from the pickup and waved at Lucy as she closed the door on another car.

She ran over to join him and jumped into the passenger seat as he climbed behind the wheel and started the truck. He shifted into reverse and pulled out of the parking lot.

On the drive here, he’d been careful, and they’d taken the time to make pitstops, but he wouldn’t do either of those things tonight. If he got pulled over, he felt strong enough to change the memories of whatever police officer stopped them.

Lucy gripped the oh-shit handle over her head and braced her foot against the floor when he pushed the truck up to ninety miles an hour. It vibrated so much he was convinced it would rattle a few screws out, but he didn’t ease up on the gas.

“We’re not going to catch them before they get to the facility,” Lucy said.

“I know.”

She looked about to say more but closed her mouth and leaned back in the seat like she was trying to melt into it. It wasn’t until they were a good twenty miles down the road that he glanced at the gas gauge, and his heart sank. The truck only had a quarter of a tank left. There was no way it would get them back to the facility, and he couldn’t stop at a gas station.

He stared at the gauge as if he could will it to be more, but the needle kept moving lower. “The gas in this thing isn’t going to get us much farther,” he said.

“Of course it isn’t,” Lucy muttered. “Nothing else about this has been easy; why would it start now?”

He gripped the wheel so tight that even with the red and black color covering his skin, his knuckles turned white. He hunched forward as he resisted tearing the wheel from the truck and smashing it off the dashboard.

“Will her father kill her?” he asked.

“Before you, I would have said absolutely not. The man is a maniac, and so is my mother, but I didn’t think he would ever hurt Melanie. I also never thought he’d lock her away like he did and put her through the kind of interrogation he did, but I was wrong. I have no idea what either of them are capable of anymore.”

Kyle closed his eyes and took a deep breath as his fangs lengthened and bloodlust thrummed through his system. “I have to contact my family; we’re going to need help getting into that facility.”

“How do you plan on getting in there? If they’re here, then I’m going to assume they got the Savages back under control, the place is guarded, and the gate is either repaired or well on its way to being repaired.”

“I’ll tear that fence down with my bare hands if I have to.”

“They’re all heavily armed.”

“Their numbers had to have taken a hit from the Savages.”

“But obviously not enough of one.”

“Obviously not,” he muttered as he watched the gauge creeping closer to E. “We’re going to be walking soon.”

The words just left his mouth when headlights materialized on the horizon. Four more headlights followed the first set. The glow from those vehicles illuminated the country road and the yellow line running down the middle. Grassy fields filled with cows rolled past. Those cows were sound asleep, but the crickets and tree frogs continued their song.

He barreled past the vehicles and was starting to climb the next hill when what he saw in those vehicles registered. In the rearview mirror, red lights flashed as the first vehicle did a U-turn before racing after them. Kyle yanked the wheel to the side of the road and hit the brakes.

“What are you doing?” Lucy demanded.

“That’s my family,” he said.

He shifted the truck into park and jumped out. Lucy was climbing out of the pickup when the first SUV pulled up behind them. The headlights turned off to reveal Brian sitting behind the wheel with Abby beside him. Abby’s mouth hung open as she gazed at them.

Then a back door flew open, and Cassidy jumped out. She sprinted toward him and threw her arms around his neck. Kyle hugged her close as Dante, Abby, and Brian exited the SUV and approached.

More vehicles parked behind the first, and more doors opened and closed. Footsteps pounded against the ground as they ran across the grass and pavement.

Despite everything he’d endured, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he watched his siblings, their mates, his parents, and the Stooges running toward them.

They crushed him in a giant embrace that had them all grouped together like football players in a huddle. They ruffled his hair and clung to him as they slapped his back. His mother sobbed as she clasped his face and studied him like she’d never seen him before. He despised the tears in her eyes.

“What happened to you?” his mom demanded as she leaned back to survey him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” he said, “but I have to get to my mate.”

“Where is Melanie?” Cassidy asked.

“In Hell,” he answered honestly.