Stealing Fire (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 5) (14 page)

Her eye caught on the glinting glass perfume bottles. Maybe she couldn’t mask her scent, but she could confuse their noses.

She grabbed a purple tear-shaped bottle and blue sphere. Sticking to the edges of the room, she tiptoed to the door, careful to avoid any possible noise.

When she reached the door, her heart felt as if it would beat out of her chest. They could’ve heard her. They could all be waiting on the other side of the door, ready to attack.

She shook her head. They probably weren’t waiting for her. If they truly wanted to attack, they wouldn’t wait. She wasn’t exactly threatening. Steeling her nerves, Ella turned the knob. She didn’t open it far. The hinges tended to squeak if they moved too much.

She peered through the few inches of hallway revealed. With the door opened, the sounds seemed even closer.
Now or never
.

She threw the two bottles, one right after the other; the old glass broke as it hit the hardwood floors. As quickly and silently as she could, she shut her door. She heard footsteps gather at the landing of the stairs, and she used the cover of the sound to make a run for it.

She grabbed her shoes with one hand and worked the window latch open with the other. She tried to hear whether anyone was at her door, but her heart made too much noise.

The bottles had hit right on target. Anyone who walked up those stairs to the third story would be covered in perfume vapors.

When the window finally opened, she didn’t have time to be afraid. She took one deep breath before she threw herself over the ledge.

––––––––

T
he good news was that she wasn’t dead. Ella hit the grass on her shoulder and hip, rolling on the impact. She took a second to get her bearings. She was on the side of the house. The cover of the woods was at least a hundred yards away.

She shuffled to her left, pushing aside prickly branches to make just enough room to shimmy behind a shrub up against the house. The thorns didn’t make it ideal, but it was better than nothing.

She knew the days had been getting cooler, but she hadn’t realized the nights had turned so cold. She hadn’t been allowed outside past dark since before Lucian.

Even with the shrub and house protecting her from the wind, the cold cut right through her T-shirt and pajama pants; her neck still throbbed from her vampire bite. She wasn’t looking to add to the number of holes in her neck.

She moved slowly and methodically as she put her tennis shoes on, trying not to rustle the bush at all. Once they were on, she sat back and listened, waiting for her window.

Just a few seconds. That’s all she would need to make it to the woods. The farther away she got, the harder she would be to find.

She tried her hardest but couldn’t hear anything except the crickets and the soft rushing of the water flowing under the bridge. She counted in her head as she tried to calm her frayed nerves.
One, two, three, four, five, four, three, two, one...

She bolted out from under the bush, trying to ignore the thorns that scraped her bare arm. She ran through the clearing, aiming straight for the bridge that led to the woods.

She didn’t even get halfway before something grabbed her arm. The momentum of her sprint caused her to flip painfully on her back.

She opened her eyes and stared up at the thing who grabbed her. Her breath caught at the sight and she started to inch away. Faster than she could see, he was on top of her. One claw-tipped hand wrapped around her throat, holding her in place but not squeezing, and one knee sat on each side of her waist.

The thing was probably two hundred fifty pounds of muscle. Every inch of skin exposed by his black Henley and dark cargo pants was covered in tattoos, some sort of detailed and intricate design she couldn’t make out in the dark. Judging from the smell of him, he’d gotten the brunt of her perfume attack.

“You leaving the party early?” he sneered.

“Not my scene,” she croaked out, wincing at her words.
Why couldn’t she just play nice and beg for her life like a normal person?
She’d begged Lucian in these same woods just days ago.

The man lifted a claw and stroked it down the side of her face. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I think this is exactly the kind of party for a girl like you.”

The claw stroked over his own fingers wrapped around her neck until it reached the delicate valley between her collarbones. “Why are you so important to the myotis?”

Ella frowned.
How did he know she was valuable but not know how?
Lucian said if they knew she could help them reproduce, they’d kill her on sight. Sometimes honesty wasn’t the best policy. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. These men kidnapped me. They said they’d kill my family if I didn’t stay with them. Please, just let me go home!”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I saw video of you at the hospital with their leader. You didn’t look that helpless to me.”

Ella tried to keep her face blank. “I was playing along! These things are monsters! I’ve seen what they become after dark,” she added in a whisper.

His claw abruptly left her neck and in less than a second, he grabbed her wrist and lifted her arm to his mouth.

Ella thrashed her head back and forth. “Please don’t do this!”

He smiled at her fear, and she felt the sickening feel of his arousal on her stomach.
The bastard was getting off on this.

“In a second, all my guys will be out here feeding on you. Do you think we should take turns or rip you apart at once?”

Ella didn’t know whether the fear had finally gotten to her or whether she was too drained. She couldn’t say anything. Her eyes stared down this new enemy, but she refused to let her fear show. Tamping down her shaking, she tightened her lips.

“Your friend tried to be brave too. Didn’t help him when I crushed his throat.”

Cade
. Ella felt as though her heart fell out of her chest. If Cade couldn’t fight off these things, she didn’t stand a chance. There was no myotis about to rescue her. Her only hope was gone.

His smile disappeared as she kept her face emotionless, refusing to let him see her pain. “Be that way. Let’s see if the taste of your blood will tell me if you’re human.”

He rubbed his face along her scratches, his tongue lapping up the small amounts of blood. He threw his head back as though savoring the taste. “That
is
different,” he whispered.

When he looked down again, his fangs were out. Ella closed her eyes and braced herself for the stinging pain. It never came.

The vampire thudded to the ground ten yards away from her, and Ella opened her eyes just in time to see the vampire rake his claws at this new opponent. The man ducked out of the way with only millimeters to spare. He grabbed the vampire’s arm and twisted upward in a quick jerking motion, the snapping sound clear even over the sounds of the forest.

The man moved, and moonlight shone on his face.
Lucian
. Ella frowned at the revelation.
Why would he be in human form?

The vampire ran at Lucian, but Lucian was ready. He held out a large branch and threw it at the vampire. The stake headed straight for the vampire’s heart, but he ducked aside at the last minute. The branch embedded in the vampire’s throat, causing him to instantly fall to the dirt. Blood bubbled up from the wound.

Ella pushed herself up as Lucian walked toward the incapacitated vampire. From behind them, Ella spotted three dark forms emerging from the front of the house. “Lucian,” she whispered.

His head whipped around to face her.

“They’re coming!”

He ran to her side, his speed making him look like a blur. “We need to get into the water.”

If the water was half as cold as the air was, she was about to enter her own personal hell. “Are you crazy?” she whispered even as she tried to keep pace with his super speed.

“Trust me,” he pleaded as he pulled her into the river.

She heard shouts in the distance right as the current pulled her under the surface. The cold was numbing and painful all at the same time. She felt as if she were being stabbed by needles on every square inch of skin while losing the ability to work her limbs.

She held her mouth shut, but the liquid still managed to sneak down her throat. She tried to pull herself to the surface, but the current was stronger than her.

But it wasn’t stronger than Lucian. He pulled her up until her head was clear, and she coughed as she caught her breath.

“Shh,” he whispered.

One of his arms wrapped tightly around her as he navigated the rushing waters, pulling her slowly to the other side of the riverbank.

She tried to kick her feet to help, but they felt as though they weighed a million pounds. Once Lucian was in shallow water, he lifted her, one arm under her knees and one under her shoulders.

Her teeth chattered as she looked at his beautiful face. He was in human form and he apparently couldn’t teleport. Something was terribly wrong.

“Relax.” He held her closer as he picked up the pace to a trot, her weight not seeming to slow him down at all. “I’ve got you. They can’t cross that river. I took out the bridge and the water is laced with silver. They will have to go a few miles upstream to find the clean water. They can still hear us and sniff us out, though.”

Ella glanced over to the scattered remnants of the bridge.
Hadn’t it been there as she jumped from her window? How could one man do so much damage so quickly?

Unless it was rigged. If the water was laced with silver, Lucian must’ve been prepared for a vampire attack. All he probably had to do was push a button.

“Most of them can’t sniff,” she said. “I doused the hallway in perfume.”

Lucian chuckled, but his breaths came faster. Ella furrowed her brows. She’d never heard Lucian out of breath from exertion. He’d always had so much control over himself.

Well, except when touching her. This was different, though. He’d seemed so sure of his ability to keep her safe, but this was the second time since she’d met him she’d almost died.

She ducked her head to his neck, his warmth the only thing keeping her sane. His pace was slow as he carefully considered every step.

She looked over his shoulder, listening for any sign that the vampires had found them again.

Just as Lucian leaped over a fallen tree, Ella spotted something glinting in the moonlight. Unable to form words, she curled her fingers in the collar of Lucian’s shirt and pulled. He stopped and looked down at her, following the direction of her gaze until he spotted it too.

Cade was sprawled on the ground, motionless and covered in blood. His beautiful, human face smashed almost to pieces, his thick hair plastered to his skull.

“Is he...” she croaked out.

“We need to keep moving.” Lucian kicked his speed up to a jog.

––––––––

H
e ran with her for miles. She lost any sense of time and direction as he bounded through the woods. The constant jostling and bumping had her already throbbing head hurting even more, and the night got even colder.

Lucian abruptly stopped and set her down on the ground. Ella tentatively stood and pushed away from his supportive weight, but her legs immediately started to buckle.

Lucian caught her before she fell.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

“You’re doing really good,” he murmured against her hair, which had thankfully dried off a little during the long run. He hadn’t said a word about Cade during their run. Neither had she.

What was there to say?

“What are we doing here?” she asked. It was best to keep focused on the “now” instead of what couldn’t be changed.

“There’s a small cave right over there. That’s our Ritz-Carlton for the night.”

Ella looked over the small opening no higher than her waist. “You’re joking, right? How do you know a bear doesn’t live there?”

“There isn’t a bear in there,” he assured her.

“Maybe not right now, but that doesn’t mean he won’t come back!”

“I might not be in peak condition, but I can take on a bear.”

Her eyes widened. “You can’t kill him! We’re the ones invading
his
home.”