Chapter Two
Romy hit the ground moments later, but that ground was nearly vertical and she tumbled over and over, sliding down the slope of a hill until she landed at the bottom with a thud.
After a stunned moment of lying flat on her back, pain radiating through her limbs, Romy scrambled up, slipping on the wet leaves.
She heard a growling sound way too close, and something that sounded like Get her.
Romy ran about twenty steps when someone grabbed her from behind.
“Don’t freak out,” a warm voice murmured in her ear. “I’m not a monster.”
She was freaking out, but something in the voice calmed her a tiny bit, kept the panic from kicking in.
“You okay? I just didn’t want you to scream,” he went on, barely above a whisper. “The monsters would hear it.”
She nodded slowly.
Her captor took his hand away, and she inhaled. He still held her, and she could feel every inch of what had to be a perfect body, all muscle. The way he had to dip his head to speak to her, he had to be a pretty big guy. With a nice voice.
Who could be kidnapping her right now, under the premise of saving her from fake vampires. Right. Focus.
He didn’t let her move. “One minute, angel,” he breathed. “They’re passing by.”
She held her breath.
And heard rustling, then footsteps, shuffling though the leaves.
“You sure you saw a girl?” one voice growled. She peeked and saw what she would swear in a court of law was a real, live werewolf.
“Yeah. Dressed in white. All alone. Perfect victim,” a second voice answered in a snarl. He also looked disturbingly wolfish.
Damn. These guys took their jobs seriously.
But for whatever reason, they didn’t see her—probably because the guy built like a tank was blocking their view. After a moment, the sounds faded, and the guy relaxed, letting her step away.
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just saw you coming toward me, with them after you, and I grabbed you to get you out of the way. Reflex.”
“No problem,” she said, turning around. “I think I would have been out of the game if they got me.” Whatever that meant. She hadn’t really paid attention to all the rules.
“You really okay?” the guy asked.
She nodded, just as she got her first full look at him. He was white, but his skin was definitely bronzed from the sun. Over six feet tall, with very short dark hair, and a face that belonged to a model… if models had meat on their bones.
Which he did. The drab army-style jacket he wore hid the outline of his physique, but she’d just been glued to him for a long minute, so she knew there was nothing wrong with his body.
“I’m Romy,” she said.
“Tanner,” he replied. “I’m trying hard not to drop a stupid line about did you fall from heaven, ’cause you look like an angel.”
Her costume. Right. “I didn’t fall from heaven,” she said, reverting to basic facts in her flustered state. “I fell down that hill over there.”
He looked over his shoulder to the hill. “That’s a big drop.”
“I mostly skidded.” She looked down to see streaks of red mud all over her formerly pristine dress. “I was told we were going to a party. No one said a word about running through the woods in the middle of the night.”
“Okay.”
“I just want to be clear. I own hiking gear. I could have dressed up like a sexy hiker. But no, I had to be a sexy angel.”
“There are worse things to be,” he said.
“Like a devil. That’s what my boyfriend is dressed as. He’s the one who pushed me down the hill.”
Tanner’s expression instantly went from amused to angry. “Wait, he did what?”
“To be fair, I think it was an accident. He did shove me into a zombie horde so he could escape, though.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I’m not super smart when it comes to dating. He’s the first guy who’s offered me as zombie bait, though.”
“If we come across him later, point him out,” Tanner said. “I’ll clear a path so you can kick his ass.”
Aww. That was kind of sweet.
“I really just want to get out of here,” she confessed. “This is so not my thing, and I can’t wait to leave. Do you want to maybe team up to get to the exit? Is that against the rules?”
“I don’t care about the rules,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re Team Get Out of Dodge. Deal?”
He offered a hand, and she took it, shaking like it was a business meeting.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he said with a laugh. “We’re joining forces, not selling a car. Do it like this.” He shifted her hand so the shake was more of a high-five grip. It did feel more macho.
“Better?”
“Way better.” He hadn’t let go of her hand yet.
“Great. Which way do you think we’re supposed to go?”
“Not sure,” he said, looking around.
“Did you get separated from your group?” she asked.
“Yeah. I don’t know if four guys counts as a group, but I got a little turned around and lost them. They’ll wait for me at the end.”
Romy wasn’t sure she could say the same of her group. “I should have smuggled my phone in. I’d pay a thousand for a ride out of here.”
He shook his head. “No dice. No smartphones or other devices work on the site. Did you see the sign at the front? They block the signals, so even sneaking a phone in doesn’t help. Being out of touch ups the horror factor, and that’s what this place is all about.”
“Did you hear about the people who disappeared?” she asked, remembering the news articles about the place that had popped up on every feed of every social media site all week long.
He snorted. “Marketing.”
“What if it’s not, though? I heard one girl has been missing for five days. Her family’s put up signs and offered a reward and stuff.”
“Really good guerrilla marketing, then,” Tanner said. He had a decided-but-soft Southern accent. “If there was a real problem, this place would be shut down in a heartbeat.”
“You’re pretty sure of yourself.”
Tanner nodded. “They want you to be scared,” he said. “That’s how places like this work. Psychology. The only way to win is not to play their stupid games.”
“You got dragged here too?”
“Yeah, my friends are into this kind of thing. I came along because why not. Beats sitting at home alone.”
“You’re not alone.”
“What?”
“There is no way you don’t have a girlfriend. I mean…” She stopped, embarrassed that she’d basically announced she thought he was hot.
He smiled. “I don’t. But go on. I like where this conversation is headed.”
“Well, it’s making me feel like an idiot, so let’s change the subject.”
Tanner was still grinning when he asked, “You said you hike?”
He’d been listening during her rant about her costume. “I do. Last weekend, I went up to Amnicola Falls with a student group. And I went to Sweetwater Creek before that. Anywhere, really. Except Stone Mountain, because Reasons.”
He tipped his head. “When you’re hiking up it, you can’t even see the… statues? Carvings? Whatever.”
“Yeah, but I know they’re there.” And they didn’t make her happy.
“Fair enough.” Tanner seemed content with that. “Onto brighter things. Let’s get out of here.”
They started walking, but didn’t get too far before he stopped. “Hold up. Take your wings off.”
“What’s wrong with my wings?”
“First, they’re super visible to the monsters. Second, you keep getting stuck in branches. Third, you won’t be able to wear the coat over them.”
As he spoke, he shrugged out of his drab green jacket, obviously intending to hand it to her once her wings were off.
“I can’t take your coat.”
“You’re freezing,” he said. “Don’t even pretend you’re not.”
She tried to take her wings off, but something seemed tangled. “Can you…?”
“Sure, turn around,” he said.
She turned and waited while he figured out how to loosen the ribbons that held the fancy wings on. He worked fast, she thought. Bet he’d be good at getting other things off too.
Even in the cold, dark woods, she got heated. Thank god he wouldn’t be able to notice.
“All done,” he said, pulling the wings off.
She slid into the oversize coat. It was like stepping into Christmas. The coat smelled like a fireplace and something else that was delicious, and she warmed up instantly. “Thanks,” she said. “I’ll give it back as soon I stop shivering.”
“No rush. Anxiety makes me overheat. Also, I spilled hot chocolate on that coat earlier, so you know, if you encounter sticky, it’s not a bad sticky.”
“Oh. Well, um, it smells good.”
“Aim to please.” He handed her back the wings.
Without his jacket, he looked very…normal. Still hot, but just in jeans and a plain T-shirt layered over a long-sleeve shirt. Everything was tight enough that she could see he was ripped.
“You went minimal with your costume,” she said to distract herself. “Just the jacket to make you into GI Joe?”
“I’m not in costume,” he said. “That’s in fact a legit army jacket. My jacket.”
“You’re in the army?” she asked.
“Was.” His expression cooled. “Not anymore. Hence the sitting around in my apartment.”
“Wait, so is this like a joke to you? Like a bad joke? Running around the woods dodging bad guys?”
“This is basically nothing like what happened to me. It’s not going to trigger a flashback or anything.”
“I didn’t mean that. Just that this must seem… silly. After you actually had to be, like, brave for real.”
“Hey, I got to save you from monsters. That was brave for real.”
“Yeah. Thanks for that, by the way.”
“No problem, angel.”
Wait, this guy was military. Better check if he was stable. “One thing. Who’d you vote for?”
He paused, gave her a new sort of look, then said, “Not that asshole. Now can we get the hell out of here?”
She nodded. “Sooner the better.”