When the Savage tracking them vanished into a side yard, Declan snarled. He couldn’t let it report the vehicle they were in or their location. Declan released his control over Gus’s mind as he rested his hand on the door handle.
“I don’t have control over his mind anymore,” he said to Willow. “Take control of him and take him home. I’ll meet you there.”
Before she could respond, Declan threw open his door and leapt out of the truck. A scream of denial lodged in her throat as she lunged across the seat to watch him. He never missed a step as he raced after the Savage.
“Damn it.” She grabbed the door and swung it shut.
“What is going on?” Gus demanded.
Willow turned toward him as he pulled the truck to the side of the road and put it in park. “Keep going.”
“I think it’s best if you and your boyfriend aren’t around my family or me anymore,” he said with confidence, but his hands trembled on the steering wheel.
Willow buried the guilt rising inside her and resisted putting her hand on his shoulder. She hated everything about this; she’d joined the Alliance to protect people like Gus, not control them. He deserved better, but he also deserved to live.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured as she sent her power out to take control of him.
“Please get out.” He opened his mouth to say more, but Willow cut him off.
“Keep driving.”
His mouth closed, and his knuckles turned white as he gripped the wheel. Then, he put on his blinker and pulled away from the curb. Willow searched the side mirror for any sign of Declan, but he’d vanished. Her fingers bit into her thighs; he shouldn’t have gone after the Savage alone.
When Gus turned onto another street, she spotted his house halfway down the road. The lights blazing from the windows spilled across the porch and onto the lawn as Gus pulled into the driveway. He pulled in beside a Jeep Cherokee that wasn’t there earlier.
“Whose vehicle is that?” she asked.
“It’s Junior’s,” Gus said.
“Okay.” She was glad his son was home safe, even if he was a little annoying with his blatant staring. “Does your dad live here too?”
“No, he and my mom have a house two streets over.”
“Good. Pull into the garage.” If Declan couldn’t catch the Savage, at least they could keep the truck hidden for a little while.
Gus hit a button, and the door rattled as it lifted and settled into place. He drove into the garage, turned it off, and hit the button to lower the door. Willow took in the shelves lining the wall beside her and the tool bench in front of the truck. Tools, parts, and containers lined the shelves and counter. An old pile of lumber was pushed against the wall beside the bench.
“Go inside and lock the doors. Do not open them to anyone except for Declan or me,” she commanded. “Do not tell anyone else they can come in your house. Do you understand me?”
“I understand.” He sat staring at his house with a perplexed look on his face. “Is my family going to be okay?”
“I’m going to keep them protected,” she vowed. “Go inside.”
Willow opened her door, and Gus did the same. She watched as he made his way around the Mini Cooper and into the house. Willow slipped out the back door and closed it silently behind her.
Instead of fresh-cut grass and spring, the crisp air now carried the faint scent of rot. She didn’t know if that was because a Savage lurked nearby, or if so many of them had infiltrated the town that their fetid odor now filled the air.
She checked to make sure no one was around before jogging to the neighbor’s house and ringing the bell. The woman with the bags and children answered after almost a minute passed.
“Hi,” Willow greeted with a smile. “I’m friends with Gus, and he sent me over to see if you had a cup of sugar.”
She was pretty sure humans did stuff like this, or at least she’d seen it in TV shows before. The woman smiled at her before turning away from the door. “Of course, come on in.”
Willow checked over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching before following the woman into the house and closing the door. The woman led her out of the foyer and down a hall. They started to pass the living room where the kids were lying on their bellies watching TV.
Willow stopped the woman before they passed the living room. Though it made her skin crawl, she took control of all their minds and changed their memories of earlier. If any Savages came here, these people would never remember her and Declan.
Her stomach churned when she went back outside, and keeping all her senses on high alert, she went to all the houses where someone might have seen her or Declan. Apparently, the sugar thing was real, as none of them questioned her pretense for entering their homes.
She felt dirty when she finished, but also relieved. Not only would she and Declan be safer, but so would everyone she talked to. And where was Declan? She’d hoped he would be back by now, but there was still no sign of him. She buried her brief flare of panic. He would be fine; he was strong, fast, and ruthless. She didn’t have to worry about him.
Then why did she feel like screaming? She wasn’t stupid and was aware their relationship was different than any she ever had before, but she didn’t have time to sit down and analyze it. If they survived this, she could figure it out later, but until then, survival was the most important thing.
Thankfully, there were no streetlights on this road, so she stayed mostly hidden as she made her way back toward Gus’s house. The fresh air flowing across her heated skin tickled the hair on her nape as she ran.
She didn’t spot anything amid the homes as she slipped through a side yard. An unexpected feeling of unease filled her, and deciding to trust her instincts, she ducked behind an arborvitae next to the neighbor’s back porch. The plant’s crisp, almost pine scent filled her nose as she knelt behind it and searched the night.
A female Savage loped into view a minute later. The way the vamp’s head moved back and forth reminded Willow of a snake taking in its surroundings. The Savage moved a few feet away, but Willow waited to see if more of them would emerge.
When the creature was fifty feet away, and no other Savages arrived, Willow emerged from her hiding place. Moving with the stealth she was born with and the Alliance honed into a lethal weapon, she snuck up behind the Savage.
She placed her hand over the woman’s mouth and shoved the stake through her back. The weapon pierced her heart before she could do more than issue a startled, “Eh,” against Willow’s hand.
Willow released her, and the Savage crumpled to the ground. Willow glanced around to make sure no one witnessed what happened, before dragging the body into the woods and away from Gus’s house.
They would have to figure out something to do with the body tomorrow. They couldn’t have a blazing bonfire in the backyard when the sun hit it in the morning, but for now, it was out of the way.
Willow yanked the stake out of the creature’s back and scented the night as she searched the backyards. She didn’t smell rot on the air anymore. The woman must have been the only Savage nearby, which meant they didn’t know she and Declan were with Gus and his family.
At least something is going right tonight.
Willow ran through the woods and back toward Gus’s house. There may not be any Savages nearby anymore, but Declan was still out there, and she couldn’t leave him out here alone. She had no idea where he was, but he would come back this way, and she was going to make sure it was safe for him to return.
Crouching in the trees, she watched and sniffed the air before deciding it was safe to make her way into the open again. She sprinted across the backyard and into the shadows of the house.
Avoiding the light coming from the kitchen windows, she crept across the back of the house. She ran across the side yard and behind the arborvitae again before moving to the next yard, pausing to hide, and then sprinting onto the next.
This game of run, hide, run, and hide was nowhere near as much fun as when she used to play Ghost in the Graveyard with her siblings. She could easily recall the trill of laughter on the air as they raced for the base. Instead of being comforted by the memory, it sent a chill down her spine.
Would she ever see them again?
Willow shoved the melancholy possibility away as she searched for Declan. She would see her family and hug her nieces and nephews again. She wouldn’t die in Vermont at the hands of the Savages, and she would find Declan.
She was almost to the end of the street when a shift in the breeze against her back alerted her to something coming up behind her. Gripping her stake, she waited until it was closer before spinning to face them. She was on a deadly downward arc with the stake when she realized it was Declan.
Jerking her arm back, she managed to avoid sinking the stake into his chest as he leapt back. He stared at her with a slightly offended look on his face that would have made her laugh under normal circumstances. Instead, her eyes ran over his face as she assured herself he was okay. A couple drops of blood stained his cheek, but she didn’t think it was his.
She almost threw herself into his arms but held back. Now wasn’t exactly the time for hugging. However, she hadn’t realized how scared she was for him until he was standing before her.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
“Do you go around trying to stake everyone?” he whispered.
“Do you go around sneaking up on everyone?”
“I do tonight.”
And that was the truth of it, she decided. Tonight, there really were ghosts in the graveyard, except these ghosts were ravenous, violent monstrosities looking to destroy them.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked.
“Making sure there was no one out here who could ambush you on your way back to Gus’s.”
Declan glanced over her shoulder before clasping her elbow and pulling her into the shadows. They made their way carefully back through the yards and toward Gus’s.
“I killed the one following us in the truck,” he told her.
“You’re wearing his blood,” she said as they crouched near a rhododendron.
Declan thought he’d scrubbed the vamp’s blood from his face and hands before returning, but he must have missed some. He rubbed at the stubble lining his face but didn’t put much effort into removing it. They would be inside soon, and he could wash it off then. He was more concerned about getting her safely inside.
“I changed the memories of the neighbors who might have seen us and killed a Savage behind Gus’s house. I stashed its body in the woods, but I don’t know what we’re going to do with it in the morning.”
“Take me to it.”
Willow led him to the body; he lifted it and hefted it over his shoulder. “I tossed the body of the one I killed into a ditch. It should remain hidden until the sun hits it. There were no houses nearby, so no one will see the flames. I’ll take this one over there too.”
“I’m coming with you.”
Declan didn’t argue as he led the way through the woods, across more backyards, and to the ditch by the side of the road. If the Savages discovered the bodies before morning, they wouldn’t have any idea where they were.
If a human happened to find them, there was nothing he could do about it, but with the police under the Savage’s control, they would soon learn about the bodies and take care of them. He tossed the vamp over the side where it rolled down the hill and came to a stop a few feet away from the Savage he discarded earlier.
“Let’s get back to Gus’s,” he said.
They remained hidden as they returned to Gus’s house and entered the garage. Declan closed the door and locked it behind them.
“How many of them do you think are here?” Willow asked.
“I don’t know, but they have the perimeter of the town covered by humans and Savages. They must have been recruiting people all day.”
“How do you know that?”
“I tried getting close to the roadblock; that’s why it took me so long to return.”
Willow’s shoulders slumped. “So, we’re trapped here.”
Declan wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest. “We’ll figure out a way to get out of this.” He lowered his head and inhaled her floral scent. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Willow’s fingers dug into his back as she held him closer.