Blaire
BLAIRE
“You’re a girl of many talents.” watched dubiously as Ellis tore open a panel near the steering wheel and sorted through the tangle of wires it revealed.
“Well, you live almost two centuries, you learn a thing or two,” Ellis muttered.
Roman gripped ’s waist, leaning into the vehicle. “So glad you’ve put your intelligence to good use, El,” he said, a hint of a smirk in his tone. “Good to know if I sold you to a gang, they’d be able to put you to work.”
“Just because you’re too moral for petty crime,” Ellis snarked. Roman responded by pulling the sun visor down. A set of keys tumbled out on Ellis’s head. She yelped, shooting her brother a murderous glare.
“Or maybe I’m just too smart for it,” he taunted, scooping up the keys and lifting into the cab. Ellis scooted across to the other side of the bench seat, leaving the middle for as Roman climbed into the driver’s seat.
“I don’t know how you two can be in such a good mood,” mumbled as Roman turned the key and the old truck rumbled to life. “We’re about to go off-roading through a dense forest, at night, trying to avoid a whole pack of raging, full-moon Skin Thieves, to find a secret government base where they’re holding people we care about against their will, and will probably shoot before they ask questions.”
Ellis inhaled deeply through her nose. “Ah, the sweet reek of adventure. Feels like it’s been too long since we had one, don’t you think?”
raised an incredulous eyebrow at the blonde Drinker. “Replace ‘adventure’ with ‘ordeal,’ and ‘too long’ with ‘it hasn’t stopped since Greenrock,’ and you might be getting a little closer to reality.”
Ellis opened her mouth to retort, but Roman shot her a stern, big-brother look.
“Let’s not be blasé about the level of danger we’re heading into.” He reached down, giving ’s leg a squeeze. She managed a wan smile in his direction.
“Can we please cease the banter and focus our energies on our goal?” Farida said sharply from the back seat. stiffened. She hadn’t heard her climb in. “We’ve already been delayed past moon rise thanks to those youngsters who insisted on playing football in the center of the village.”
As much as Farida was the last person she wanted to agree with right now, she did. What they were about to do felt so unutterably dangerous and yet so damn necessary that it felt wrong to joke about it.
She still didn’t know what the plan was when they got there. They had no idea what sort of fortifications this place would have. They didn’t even know what it looked like, aside from some drunken claims from the Skin Thieves Ellis had liquored up that it was like a Bond villain’s lair, built into a cliff face.
None of this made her want to laugh about it.
“Why we couldn’t just run, I still don’t know,” Ellis remarked as Roman pulled away from the mostly deserted village and onto a vehicle trail that led in the general direction of the Operation facility.
“We need to conserve ourselves,” Roman reminded her. Unspoken was the knowledge that whatever waited for them at the other end wasn’t something you faced at anything less than full strength.
They lapsed into a thoughtful, tense silence. Roman drove faster than was humanly possible along the narrow, rutted trail, dodging trees that loomed out of the darkness. They bounced on the ancient bench seat.
Even at the punishing pace Roman had set, they wouldn’t make it before morning. Not on these narrow trails. They’d have to stop and rest. They didn’t want to arrive in broad daylight. The cover of darkness was one of the only things they had in their favor, being much better adapted to see in the dark than humans.
But humans with access to military equipment? Night vision goggles? Drones and sniper rifles, missile launchers?
They won’t have time to use any of that on us , Roman spoke reassuringly inside her mind. He took one hand from the wheel, finding hers and winding their fingers together. We’ll be in and out with everyone before they even know we’ve arrived.
But how? she demanded silently. How much fucking power does one … whatever the hell she is … have?
“Stop!” Farida said suddenly. Roman crunched the brake, slamming an arm across ’s chest as they all jerked forward.
“What the hell, Far?” Ellis demanded, swiveling in her seat to glare.
“I think … I’m almost completely certain that something we need is in the forest, not far from here.”
gaped at her, uncomprehending.
“Back up, Roman,” Farida continued as if she was making complete sense. “There was a trail off to the left back about half a mile. We need to take it.”
“Why?” Ellis asked. Roman didn’t comment, just threw the shift into reverse. They rumbled backward. “What the fuck is out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“Jack.”