Dare (33 page)

I
didn’t know which way was out. Was there an out from this hell? I grabbed my neck as I ran through the woods, past trees, over fallen trunks, under low branches. It didn’t matter which direction; I had to keep running. The blood on my palm was sticky. I didn’t know how much I had lost.

There were women there. Girls that looked as if they went to The Grove. In the middle of all of it, they were the ones holding the knife to my throat. Their eyes were vacant. Almost hollow. If they heard me talking to them, they didn’t acknowledge it. Their motions were slow and seamless as if they were running through a program. When I saw them shift I told myself I was hallucinating, but the pain was real. The blood was real. All of it had been real.

For a slight second, I let myself rest against a tree, one of the tallest ones in the forest. I thought about how Silver had scaled a similar one. I almost vomited. I would never be able to unsee what I had found.

He had been right. There was a girl who could transform into a panther, only he had no idea how many there were like her. Once the fighting began I lost count of how many large cats were there.

I forced myself to keep running. There was light ahead. It was a streetlamp from the park.

A man was dead. My hands shook. I had witnessed a territorial shifter fight. I almost died. My collar was soaked with blood.

I started the ignition in my car, but I just stared at the beams the headlights made. Through the trees, blood was being shed. There was magic in this town deeper and darker than the stupid storytellers had ever imagined. Somehow, tonight I had turned from hunter to the hunted. I was in the middle of it, but on the outside.

I drove, turning too fast around the corners. Running red lights.

I slammed the front door behind me and latched the deadbolt.

My suitcase was under the bed. I pulled it out and started throwing clothes inside. It didn’t matter how many T-shirts or pairs of shorts.

I grabbed my phone and dialed Dare.

“Zac?”

It was hard to hear her.

“Hey, where are you?” I couldn’t talk fast enough. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. I’m with some friends. Are you ok?”

“No. I’m not. Tell me where you are. I’ll pick you up.” I threw my shaving kit on top and zipped up the sides.

“I’ll come to you. Just slow down.”

“I don’t know if I can wait that long.”

“Calm down. Just talk to me.” I heard parts of her words. The connection was garbled.

“That trip we talked about taking. You know the one I said I’d take you anywhere in the world? We’re leaving tonight.”

“Tonight?”

“Pack something. Nothing. I’ll buy you clothes. I don’t care. Can you be here in fifteen minutes?”

“Wait. Slow down. Graduation is tomorrow. I can’t just leave.”

“Dare, I’m leaving town. I don’t want to leave you here. I can’t leave you here. I’ll make it up to you. We can have a pretend graduation. You can wear your cap and gown for me. Shit, I’ll hand you a diploma. Just get over here. I’m not leaving without you.”

“This is happening tonight?” she asked. “You want me to leave with you?”

I couldn’t tell her I had found a man mauled and ripped apart, that my neck was still bleeding from knife and jaguar cuts. I couldn’t tell her on the phone that I almost died. It wasn’t that kind of call.

I wanted to reach through the phone and pull her to me. I wanted to run to my car, throw our bags in the back, and watch Sullen’s Grove fade in my rearview mirror.

“Fifteen minutes. I’ll wait that long.”

I shoved my phone in my back pocket. She had to come. She would be here.

I reached on the top shelf of my closet and pulled down a shoebox. I had a wad of cash rolled up under a stack of baseball cards. I tossed it in my messenger bag. I coiled the cords to my laptop and tucked all my chargers in the front pouch.

I looked around the house. I didn’t know when I’d be back, or if I’d come back at all. Tonight, I was taking the woman I loved and getting the hell out of this place.

Love. I hadn’t even told her yet. I was in love with her. Every part of me, loving every part of her. I didn’t need to almost die to realize that.

We could start over somewhere else. Maybe in a hut in Fiji. Or a little place on the beach in Mexico. As long as she was next to me, I didn’t care if we lived in a tent. But we had to get out of here. Away from the magic, away from the death, away from what was in the woods.

I was used to running. I needed to escape every time Blake’s memories invaded my new refuge. I’d let them pile up like dirty dishes then take off when there wasn’t room for one more plate. This was different.

I liked Sullen’s Grove. I liked the museum. I had started to put down roots, but none of that mattered if I ended up dead. Dare told me she hadn’t traveled. This was going to be an adjustment, but I would be there with her. We’d find the places that would give us both light. We’d keep searching until we were somewhere safe.

I couldn’t tell her on the phone we were never coming back to Sullen’s Grove.

I checked my watch. There were five minutes left on my deadline. I knew I would extend it. I wouldn’t leave her in this town.

The doorbell rang. I wondered if she couldn’t find the key under the mat.

“You didn’t have to—” I pulled open the door.

“Expecting someone else?”

“Who are you?” I sized him up. He had green eyes, dark hair. He was slightly shorter than me, but I could tell he was fit.

“Case Maddox. Mind if I come in for a minute? Wondered if we could talk about Dare.” He held the side of his arm as if he was hurt.

I opened the door.

I
was a queen. I wasn’t supposed to leave. I was supposed to stay and protect. Guide the others. Help them. Teach them. But I was exhausted. I had done nothing but fight. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My neck was scratched. I was lucky. It was barely a flesh wound.

But this was what the fight was about. I wanted control of my destiny, and without seeking it, destiny had fallen in my lap in the form of a tall, hot, blue-eyed vision. A vision I didn’t think I was ever allowed to have.

But there it was. Asking me to choose him. Telling me I was the one he wanted to run away with, the one he wanted to start a life with.

Could I do this? Could I be the girl who ran away and left everything behind? Could I actually tell the Nox I was running away? Queens weren’t supposed to fall in love. They weren’t going to believe this.

Vix stood in the doorway. She held another lamp. “We’re running low on oil down here.”

“I think we can go back to the house, don’t you? Back into the light.”

“You think that’s it? Case is going to give up?” She sat on my bed.

“They lost, Vix. They are in pieces. Tomorrow is graduation. He’s at home licking his wounds. He’ll move out of town and be on to wife number two in the morning. The Tribe will follow him.” I tied my hair up with a ribbon. The redness had faded around the stars.

They looked strong and defined. Like us.

“You look happy.”

I smiled. “I am. I have a secret.”

“Really? Spill it.” She stretched out on her stomach.

I might as well put it out there. This was actually happening. “Zac asked me to go away with him.”

“As in leave Sullen’s Grove?” She sat forward.

“Exactly that. And I’m going to go.”

“Wow. That’s huge. Huger than huge.”

“I know he’s probably all freaked out after what happened tonight, and the most important thing is that he’s ok. He’s alive. Case didn’t kill him. But he called and he wants to leave town tonight. I can help him through the next few days. You know, get over the shock of what he saw. And then, we can…”

“What? What are you going to do?”

I sat next to her on the bed. “I can’t describe what it felt like when I saw Tegan hold that knife to his throat and then Case…” I trailed off, pushing tears back. “If he had…if they had hurt him. Vix, I’m completely in love with him.” The tears rushed in anyway.

“Hey, that’s a good thing.”

I sniffed. “It is. And that’s why when he called, I knew what I had to say. Somehow in the middle of this madness I fell in love with him.” I paused. “Don’t hate me for leaving.”

“I could never hate you. You’ve done so much for us.”

“But, there’s still the Sloan, Tegan, and Eva issue. It’s not like I’m leaving and everything’s all tidied up. It’s a mess. And then there are the new Nox who might want to stay for a while. And I’ve been thinking we could recruit more. Not to help us against the Tribe, but to get the word out that we defeated them. There’s so much good we can do.”