Chapter 5
Kiera
There were vans waiting to take them – wherever they were going.
Kiera stumbled over the thought. Every other heartbeat she remembered that she couldn't take the vegetables or the plumbing equipment back to her father and panic welled up in her throat so thick she could hardly breathe.
She'd talked herself down half a dozen times just while being taken to the vans and that was with the sound of Dave's screams still ringing in her ears.
Outside was an icy white horror. City streets were caked with ice. The snow slanted sideways and the temperature was dropping fast. The snow would stop again soon and everything would freeze up for the night.
In front of her, Katie slipped on the ramp leading into the transport, the same kind that was used to take cattle from one location to the next.
She went down hard, banging her knee, grunting in pain.
The vampire guarding them turned to look at her, starting to close in, and Kiera felt a new fear rip through her.
Kate was small and adorable and dangerously stupid when it came to reckless ideas.
The invader approaching her had the maddened look of the space vampires after dark.
A fast, desperate look up at the slate gray sky showed the sun wasn't coming back any time soon.
Another look around showed the soldier who had defended her, who had so weirdly touched her, and then decided to take her, was nowhere in sight.
There was no moderating influence, no one to stop this vampire from tearing Kate apart and swallowing every drop of her blood.
When she'd been a teenager her motto was it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
The alien approaching her sister looked like that.
Frantic, she looked around for a way to distract him. William, only a couple feet from her, caught her eye, lifted his chin, nodded once.
Trust me. How many groundings had she endured because she'd done just that?
Now she had no choice. She nodded in return.
"You little bitch! This is all your fault!" William roared and knocked into her with one shoulder.
Kiera wobbled on her feet, though he hadn't hit her that hard, and rammed him in return. "Go to hell, you big bully! I wasn't the one who thought rampaging through Chicago with those shitheads was a good idea!"
She saw him blink. No idea if she was talking about Stu and Diane or the existence of the Vampyren.
Just, bring it – and they were at it, sister and brother, shouting and threatening and pushing at each other. With an oath, the guard going after their sister turned away to make sure his unit leader's chosen female didn't get harmed in a fray that wasn't even his fault.
Rough hands dragged them apart. That did hurt. But it was worth it. Because he had stepped aside from Kate.
And because from the house came the slightly shorter of the Vampyren, the one who had held her.
She still shivered to see him. Whatever the pheromones were, they worked.
Even out here, even knowing what he'd done, she longed for his touch again.
Wanted to be close to him. Wanted to breathe in his scent and –
Stop.
She stopped. She breathed the relatively clean air of Chicago and glared as Diane and Stu were led kicking and screaming now away from the others, hustled into a different van, and driven away.
There was a brief meeting between their captors, raised voices and then the one called Sav threw his hands heavenward just like any frustrated human and stalked away.
When "Her" vampire came back toward them, Kiera noticed the way the bleak dim sun shone on his hair. Where the others were heavily bearded, he wore a light stubble along his sharp jawline. Where the others were black haired, his hair was tawny, glints of gold in it.
…did pheromones make you hallucinate?
She made herself look away but he came directly to her and took her chin in his hand. "Your siblings will be returned to your neighborhood."
Unwelcome tears sprang into her eyes.
"They'll be allowed to take what they have foraged. It is of no use to us."
She swallowed hard and it sounded loud.
He seemed to consider the next thing he was going to say, then must have made a decision. "Your other friend is dead."
Dave. Poor, fucking Dave.
Abruptly angry and loud again, he said, "We can do that to your entire family if you don't obey."
Before she could answer, before Will or Kate could think to say anything at all, he nodded to the others who shoved them into the van and slammed the ramp into the gate behind them.
The trucks started and pulled away.