Bound to the Vampire Chapter 5

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CHAPTER 5

Kayla

Kayla burst from the airplane hangar, heart pounding in her ears, body shaking from adrenaline. By some divine grace she didn’t deserve, a vampire—a real life actual vampire—saved her. Why? She had no clue, but she wasn’t going to start asking questions now.

Flickers of light from the highway caught her eye in the distance. If she could get back to civilization, she could get help. Yelps and howls echoed behind her.

From the sound of it, they’d sent dogs after her. A lot of them. Fear ruptured her gut. Kayla glanced over her shoulder to where she’d just been freed from. Although the mouth of the hangar was empty, the growls and howls were getting closer.

Jolting from staring at the open mouth of the hangar, she broke out into a sprint across the gravel lot, blazing into the adjacent airfield. Rocks and debris whipped at her ankles. Gravel cut the soles of her feet, which were probably going to be a bloody painful mess after the adrenaline wore off. That is, if she got out of this alive.

“Wait,” someone called behind her. His feet pressed into the gravel with a chattering crunch as he ran after her.

She surged forward, pumping her knees into her chest, thankful her dress had plenty of give even though it rode up her thighs the harder she ran.

The footsteps behind her quickened.

Shit.

“Girl,” the gruff voice said behind her.

Too close.

She chanced another glance.

Dark pools that were once his eyes sent another spike of adrenaline thrashing in her veins. The reason he freed her became abundantly clear—he wanted her for himself. She gulped, quickly whipping back around, hoping vampire speed was a myth.

It wasn’t.

In an instant, he stood in front of her and they collided.

“Ack,” she blurted out. Running into him was like diving head first into a street pole, and staggering backward only made her attempt to catch her balance fruitless. The ground rushed toward her butt, but the vampire grabbed her arms to steady her. She yanked from his grip once she found her footing. “Get off me.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked in a thick voice, deep like velvet. Her heart felt like a hammer against her ribs.

“Get away from me.” She backed away. The wrong way. There was another howl at her back.

This time the look over her shoulder betrayed several dogs—no, wolves—darting from the hangar behind her.

“We have to go.” He yanked her around and ran.

“The highway is that way.” She pointed over her shoulder and into the dark field. Beyond the floodlights from the hangar, she couldn’t see much between her and the lights in the distance. If she could get to them, she could escape.

“That way is not good.” He yanked her toward the front. Or what she thought was the front. She wasn’t sure if that was the way they’d brought her in.

“Why?”

Instead of answering, he tugged at her again, nearly pulling her arm from her socket as he ran.

After a few strides, it became very apparent there was no way she was going to keep pace with him. She tried to pull back, but a rush of air under her toes and a weightlessness disoriented her. He picked her up and cradled her to his chest. A very hard, very muscular chest that she should probably move her hands away from. But she couldn’t help their wandering ways as her fingers ghosted the buttons on his shirt.

Foremages, she needed to whip herself into shape. They had a pack of wolves after them and she was thinking about how good the hard ripples of his chest felt beneath his dress shirt. Had she completely lost her damn mind? With the night she was having, probably.

No one would blame her if she’d gone completely looney toon.

The vampire holding her didn’t seem to notice her lapse in judgment, he slowed and set her to her feet.

Several black SUVs were lined up against the building, gleaming like trophies under the moonlight.

Jackpot.

Cars were infinitely better than running on foot.

The howls behind them seemed to multiply.

“Come.” He pushed her in between a vehicle so she wouldn’t be seen. His body weaved in and out of several trucks, opening and closing the doors as he went, before he was back at her side, pulling her to the one he deemed worthy.

“Here.” He handed her a set of keys.

“What do you want me to do with these?”

“Work the vehicle.” He motioned to the truck.

“I can’t drive.”

“But you’re human.”

Like that solved everything. And technically she was a mage, but this hardly felt like the time to bring it up. “Yeah, one who can’t drive.”

He made a sound of annoyance but led her to the passenger door to get in. She jumped into the truck. A second later, he was in the driver seat staring at the steering wheel.

“What’s wrong?” She stared at him looking from the keys to the steering wheel in confusion.

“Where do I put these?”

“In the ignition.”

“Where’s that?”

“You don’t know how to drive?!” she screeched.

“Please stop making your voice do that. It’s grating.”

Excuse me? He was the one who carried her to a car he didn’t even know how to drive. She had to have the shittiest luck in all of the world.

 Stuck in a car with a vampire? Check.

No one knows how to drive said car even though they had a pack of angry wolves after them? Double check.

Chances of escape? Nil.

The raspy barking behind them confirmed her thoughts of doom. She looked in the rearview mirror. More bad luck stared back at her. The head of a very large, very scary wolf sniffed around the ground searching for them.

She flattened herself against the seat and ducked as best she could.

“Get down.” Her voice came out like a high-pitched squeak. She pointed behind her when the vampire looked at her. He checked the mirror for himself.

The dark pools of his eyes seemed to deepen. Seeing it caused a spike of adrenaline to shoot through her veins.

Foremages, she hoped she wasn’t jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire being in a car with a vampire. The thought clipped when the shadows of the prowling wolves came closer.

Her eyes flickered to the driver’s seat.

Please let him be good.

He was the only thing that stood between her and the painful death waiting for her in that cage in the warehouse. A death, she was going to go back to as soon as the wolves found them. They were closer now, two cars away and neither she nor her vampire knew how to work the getaway car.

Foremages, they were going to be caught. A small whimper tore from her throat.

“Calm down,” he said fiercely, his voice low. “They will hear you.”

That didn’t help.

“I will drive. Please guide me as to where I should put the key.”

At least in that, she wasn’t a complete dunderhead. She pulled it from his rough hands and pushed it into the ignition and turned it on. It roared to life.

“Cha!” A smile broadened his lips.

No, not cha. A wolf’s head popped up and turned to them. It stood its ground and growled.

Several other wolves dashed over, skidding to a halt behind the car, driving up a plume of dust in their wake. A vicious growl ripped from the biggest wolf, who she guessed was the alpha of the pack. Much larger than the others, with thicker lusher russet fur, the others seemed to fall behind it waiting for it to move. Its nose dipped, lips curling back as it snarled. The others followed.

With a yip, one of the wolves flanking him launched at the back of the car. Its nose hit the window with a hard thud. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Had it just nose-dived headfirst into the trunk? Another met the same mark.

What the hell?

What kind of animal ran full speed into the back of a truck?

Then, another one struck. With a howl, it hit the back windshield, cracking it. Spurts of blood remained on the glass when it slid to the ground. For a moment, she couldn’t see it. Until the black wolf stood and staggered backward onto its hind paws. How had it survived that? Shaking itself off, it poised for another launch.

She was in the worst nightmare of her life. The villain had been shot, stabbed and maimed and still found time to go Halloween on everyone’s ass and still keep coming.

The vampire put the car in gear.

“Hurry!” she screamed when it rushed them.

The vampire pushed his foot on the gas pedal.

The car engine revved, but did nothing. She looked down at the gear shift.

“Re-reverse!” she shouted at the vampire, who looked down at the box, with a questioning look on his face. By the foremages, how had she gotten into this mess? “The R, put the gear in R.”

His bewilderment didn’t end. She pointed at the lit red R on the gearbox. Finally, he understood, and moved the gearshift to the right place. Then, his foot hit the pedal. The car jerked.

“That’s the break.”

Another thud. This time, fissures spread across the window. They were going to break through.

“Oh my god, I’m going to die.”

“Girl, be helpful or shut your mouth,” he rushed out in annoyance.

He had a lot of nerve. She should have taken her chances in the airfield. At least out there, there wasn’t a pack of wolves beating their heads against the back windshield until it burst.

This time, he managed to get his foot on the right pedal. The car zoomed backward and into a launching wolf with a large boom and an agonizing howl.

Fuck, they hit one of them. She craned her neck to see. The other wolves scattered away from the truck, leaving one in the middle of the gravel lot. They killed a wolf. That had to be some kind of animal cruelty lawsuit waiting to happen.

“Is it dead?”

“With any favor from the gods,” the vampire ground out, watching the scene alongside her.

The alpha nudged at the wolf until he rose from the ground. Its front leg jutted out at an awkward angle, clearly broken. Then, it cracked and popped back into place. After a trial step, the wolf stood upright and growled at the back of their truck. Yep, Michael Meyers in action. Even maimed, it found a way to continue its reign of terror. All it needed was the creepy mask and the villain limp. Foremages, they were doomed.

The alpha nipped at its fur and it joined the reassembling wolves, then turned to face them again. Its front legs stretched like he was readying to launch again.

They weren’t going to stop.

“Go, go, go!”

The vampire’s heavy foot slammed on the pedal. The car lurched toward the launching wolf.

“Wrong way! Put it in drive,” she screeched. The wolf met the back glass with a crunch that left it shattering to tiny pieces. Another one poised. She pointed at the letter on the gearshift when the vampire didn’t move fast enough. “It’s the D. Hurry, it’s coming!”

He found the right gear, then put his foot on the gas. They both looked up. Several parked cars rushed toward their front bumper.

“Turn!”

He did, avoiding them by a hair. Finally, the car settled in the right speed in the right direction. The pack followed them, but lost ground as they gained speed. Her chest finally loosened.

“See.” He shrugged. “Easy.”

Yeah, if easy meant shaving at least ten years off her life due to fright because the vampire who freed her nearly got her killed, then sure, easy.

“Turn on the lights.”

He fiddled with the side controls as the car shot forward. A flash of the headlights revealed a person in front of them.

“Brake!”

The tires screeched. Jerking against the seatbelt, she couldn’t take her eyes off the hooded figure in front of them as the car stopped. The man’s face was covered in shadow, but telltale electric currents flashed across his irises.

This can’t be happening.

“Re-reverse,” she screamed as she jerked backward, pressing into the black leather seat.

“Who is that?” The vampire looked between her and the figure a few yards in front of them.

“He’s a syste.” Her voice wouldn’t go above a whisper.

“Not helpful.”

“Magic… He’s magic.”

As if he could hear her, the syste’s eyes glowed, then magic pooled from his arms and down through his hands as it slithered on the ground like snakes.

“What is that?”

“Reverse,” she screamed, forcing herself backward.

“Can’t do that.” He glanced back at the pack of wolves gaining ground.

“He’s going to kill us.”

“So are they.”

She looked at him, back at the mage’s magic slithering to the car, then toward the wolves. With several more joining the alpha, the pack became unbelievably large. They were caught in an impossible trap.

The vampire’s eyes glazed over the mirror before he nodded toward the mage. “Can magic stop a vehicle?”

“I-I don’t know.”

Vicious snarls ripped through the lot. The alpha set his gaze on the truck as it raced toward them. With a matching ferociousness, the entire pack charged.

“Looks like we’ll have to find out.”

The vampire pressed the gas and raced toward the mage at full speed.