He wasn’t alone.
More faint crack-cracks rang out, and another person moved through the woods in this direction—the Fire elemental. Through the trees, I could see the orange-red glow of her magic flickering all around her hand, since she was using her power as her own personal flashlight.
“Hugh?” she called out, heading this way. “What’s going on?”
The vampire got to his feet, tucked the fabric strip into his pocket, and stepped away from the canyon. He moved forward, meeting the Fire elemental halfway, about thirty feet from where I was still hiding. I squinted, but I couldn’t make out her features, just the burning glow still flickering on her hand.
“What happened?” she demanded.
“What do you think happened?” Hugh snapped. “Your idiot bodyguard stepped right off the side of a cliff. He’s lying at the bottom, squashed like a bug.”
“Are you sure he’s dead?” She started to walk past him.
Hugh stepped to the side, blocking her. “I’m sure. You’ve already lost one man out here. Call the others back, and let’s leave. I’m tired of tromping through the woods in the middle of the night. Trust me. There’s no one out here but us. I would have seen them.”
The Fire elemental huffed, not liking to be told what to do, but she set off in the opposite direction, heading back toward the mansion. I thought that the vampire would follow her, but instead he turned around, scanning the woods, his eyes narrowing to slits and his nose twitching, almost as if he were sniffing the air like a dog. I remembered what my mom had told me about vampires, about how the blood they drank gave them enhanced senses. He might be able to see me after all, maybe even smell me too, even here in the deep, dark woods. I held my breath, not daring to move a single muscle . . .
And that’s when I felt the spider crawl onto my hand.
Startled, I looked down. I didn’t know what kind of spider it was, but it was a big, black blob on my hand, moving slowly, feeling along my skin with its hairy, prickly legs, carefully exploring this strange new territory. It must have been building a web or maybe even had a nest in the leaves that I’d disturbed.
As much as I wanted to scream and fling it away, I ground my teeth again and let it crawl around, hoping that it wasn’t poisonous and that it wouldn’t bite me. After what seemed like forever, the spider walked down my hand, crawled out to the tip of my index finger, and slid back down onto the leaves. I snatched my hand off the ground and cradled it against my chest. I looked up, wondering if I was alone yet—
The vampire was staring straight at me.
I froze again, my heart hammering up into my throat. Our eyes locked across the distance. No doubt about it. He’d seen me. Any second now, he would shout that he’d found me, and I’d have to run away again, run, run, run for my life—
“Hugh!” the Fire elemental snapped, her silky voice echoing through the trees. “It was your idea to leave, so let’s go already!”
Instead of moving, he kept staring at me. I looked back at him, the two of us locked in a silent staring contest.
“Hugh!” she snapped again.
He looked at me a moment longer, then did the strangest thing. He pulled something out of his pants pocket and dropped it onto the ground. A second later, he turned and walked off into the woods.
I stayed frozen in place, still holding my breath, not daring to move a single muscle, thinking that it was some kind of trick. It had to be a trick, right? He wasn’t just going to leave and pretend he hadn’t seen me . . . was he? Why would he do that? Especially when the Fire elemental wanted to kill me just like she had the rest of my family?
But the seconds ticked by, and no one jumped out of the shadows at me. Not the vampire, not the Fire elemental, no one. But I still thought that it was a trick, so I started counting off the seconds in my head, waiting them out.
Five minutes passed. At least, that’s how long I thought it was, although I had no real way of knowing. Still, no one approached me, and the woods remained utterly, eerily quiet. So I finally felt safe enough to leave my hiding spot, creep forward, and see what the vampire had dropped.
A hundred-dollar bill.
Not just one but a whole stack of them all rolled up together.
I frowned. The vampire had seen me. I knew that he had. So why hadn’t he told the Fire elemental? And why leave this money behind? Was he . . . trying to help me? Why would he do that?
I didn’t know, but I wasn’t about to pass it up. I snatched the money off the ground. Then I got to my feet and headed back toward the dwindling bonfire of the mansion. My plan was the same as before. As soon as I was sure that everyone was gone, I’d walk down to the road and start heading toward the city. After I got to Ashland, well, I didn’t know where I would go or what I would do, but one thing was for sure. I couldn’t stay here any longer.
So I put my head down and started walking. I made it back to the mansion with no problems. The Fire elemental and her men were gone, along with Hugh, whoever he really was.
I let out a sigh of relief, stepped out of the woods, and headed for the road, forcing myself to keep moving forward instead of looking back at the ruins of my entire world. But I couldn’t escape it. Not with the ash still fluttering through the air like snow and the acrid stench of smoke coating everything, including me . . .
The stench woke me up. It was a harsh chemical odor but strangely comforting in a way, as though I’d sensed this same scent a hundred times before and associated it with a specific place. Someplace warm and inviting. Someplace safe. I drew in another breath, trying to figure out why it seemed so familiar. It almost smelled like some sort of . . . hair dye.
I relaxed. Owen and the others must have come back for me at the Rivera mansion. They must have fought their way through all those guards and pulled me out of there. I opened my eyes, fully expecting to see the warm, cozy confines of Jo-Jo’s beauty salon.
But what I woke up to was another nightmare.
I was tied to a chair, my wrists and ankles lashed so tightly to the wood that I couldn’t move them at all, no matter how hard I tried. And I definitely tried, straining and straining with all my might. I only stopped when the ropes started digging painfully into my skin, causing ugly burns, and I realized that I couldn’t escape them. At least, not this way.