“And the voice of an angel to boot. The pleasure, lovely Annika, is al mine.”
Annika continued to smile at Lucius, clearly flattered and enchanted by him, as most any woman would be.
“Now, wil you help us?” Bo asked.
Lucius smiled his most winsome smile, reluctantly dragging his eyes away from Annika.
“Of course I’l help you. I’m always,” he said, sliding his eyes back to Annika, “at your service.”
“Do you want to put some clothes on?” Bo asked irritably.
Lucius winked at Bo and then returned his gaze to Annika.
“Nah. I might find a real y tasty bite while I’m out and this wil just leave me with less to take off.”
He grinned rakishly at Annika and she had the good grace to at least blush. As I watched color flood her cheeks becomingly, I thought wryly that at least she was good for something. She’d answered my question about whether or not a vampire could blush. Apparently, we could.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Bo and I fol owed Lucius through the woods. Annika was by his side, as he was determined to entertain her with stories of his long, ful life as a vampire. To her credit, she managed to look as if she was hanging on his every word.
I wondered about her, about her motives and her true feelings for Bo. Was she just an opportunist, a girl who latched on to the nearest man? That didn’t real y make sense because she’d searched furiously and diligently for Bo. Was she trying to make Bo jealous by showing Lucius some attention? That could be it.
As we made our way slowly through the woods, I watched Annika to see if she glanced at Bo for his reaction, but I didn’t see her do it even once. She laughed and responded to Lucius in what appeared to be a very genuine manner. It was then that it occurred to me that Annika might just have fal en under Lucius’s charismatic spel . It was easy to see how that could happen. Lucius was something else after al .
After what seemed like an eternity of walking, Lucius stopped at the foot of a smal hil . He swept his arm out with a flourish and announced that we’d arrived.
“You stay here,” Bo said, directing his order to me. “I’l be back in a few minutes.”
“But you didn’t see what I saw. How wil you know where to find him without light?”
“He should answer me if I cal out, right?”
“Oh,” I said, feeling foolish. “I didn’t even think of that.”
Bo grinned, brushing a quick kiss across my lips.
“It’s okay. I did.”
With that, he turned and made his way into the darkened interior of the semi-hidden shaft.
Lucius and Annika continued to chatter, but I paid no attention to what they were saying, their flirting the furthest thing from my mind. With every minute that ticked by, I thought of more reasons why I shouldn’t have let Bo go in there alone. In fact, I had al but decided I was going in after him when he final y emerged, brushing cobwebs from his hair and shirt as he walked away from the yawning mouth of the mine.
Relief flooded me and, on its heels, concern that he seemed to be alone.
“No Devon?”
“No Devon.”
Bo turned to Lucius.
“Are there any more mines that you know of in this area?”
“Just one, but I know of two more down in Southmoore.”
Bo sighed.
“Wel , let’s start with this one and then we’l make our way south if we can’t find him here.”
“Do you have any idea how close this particular mine is?”
Lucius asked.
“No, but they only just took him, so I figure they couldn’t have gone far,” Bo surmised. “Unless, of course, your vision has yet to happen,” Bo said to me. “Maybe they’re stil traveling.”
A hopeless, helpless feeling overwhelmed me at his words. We real y were flying almost completely blind.
Cade’s abilities wouldn’t do us much good if we had no way of putting them in context or ascertaining some kind of time line.
Bo sighed.
“Let’s just hope they decided to keep him close.” Bo turned to Lucius. “Lead the way to number two.”
Lucius nodded and we struck out through the forest again, winding our way around hil s, climbing slight inclines and weaving our way through trees.
Lucius had been in the midst of a lighthearted account of his adventures in Paris over one hundred years ago when he stopped suddenly.
“Did you hear that?” he asked Bo.
Bo cocked his head and listened, as did I.
The soft huff of heavy breathing teased my ears. I tried to locate the sound, but it seemed to be echoing on al sides, as if we were surrounded by it. I scanned the dark forest, but saw no movement, nothing that looked amiss.
But then, like a bark in the night, I heard one sharp grunt and then it seemed that al hel broke loose in the woods.
The crunch of leaves and the snap of twigs erupted like a firestorm of activity, disturbing the stil ness. Then there was thunderous stomping, as if a herd of cattle was stampeding toward us.
Instinctively, Bo and Lucius put their backs to one another, pul ing Annika and me in close to them so that we had eyes on al sides. It was as I faced the black forest to the west that I saw the red eyes appear as tiny dots racing through the trees.
“Bo,” I whispered. “Something’s coming.”
“I know. I see it, too.”
I tore my eyes away from the ever-approaching red spots only to find that there were a dozen other pairs coming from al directions. The closer they got, the more I could hear.
Their hearts beat erratical y, their breathing labored and excited. They growled—slobbering, vicious, mad sounds that made the hair on my arms stand up.
“Bo, what are they?”
“I don’t know, just be ready to tear their heads off.”
At his words, I felt the rise of fear innervate my muscles.
They tensed, readying themselves for action, for a fight. I had no idea what kind of woodland creatures had glowing red eyes, but I felt sure it wasn’t anything that I should feel sorry about kil ing.
“Remember, Ridley, they can’t hurt you if they can’t get to your heart.”
Keep them away from my heart. They can’t hurt me.
Keep them away from my heart. They can’t hurt me, I reminded myself over and over as the stomping grew louder. It echoed through my head like stilettoes in an empty library.
It was with those thoughts in mind that I caught the first one as it hurled itself toward me. Its mouth closed around my forearm and held on tight. I used that to my advantage and turned to throw it to the ground. It struggled and squealed, gnawing furiously at my flesh, trying to tear its way through my arm. I pul ed my arm to one side, forcing its head in that direction, and I used my suddenly-extended fangs to rip its throat out.