She turned to the plane, and comforted with the knowledge she could see into it—and by assumption, Pope could see out and her—she dared move a little farther away. Just a little distance. There were a few cars parked near a building, but none looked like anything Sebastian might own. She hadn’t thought to watch him leave earlier and didn’t know what mode of transportation he might be using. Hell, for all she knew, the vampire bat theory still might hold water.
Why hadn’t he taken her to his meeting? If he was out there suffering and unable to get to her for help, she was going to be seriously pissed. Odd that she felt some sort of responsibility for him, but it remained. The fact that she wanted to spend hours in his arms, locked into one of his toe-curling kisses didn’t make it hard to want to be with him.
Alice kept walking, letting nature court her senses. She glanced back, realized there was no way she couldn’t be spotted from the plane and let her guard drop just a bit. Any person who approached would be visible from any direction they took. With the airplane’s engines turned off, the sound of a car would be an intrusion to all this quiet.
There was no danger here. Just the imaginings of an overactive mind that whispered about vampires and what they could do to silly little girls who allowed themselves to be bitten.
When the hair began to rise on the back of her neck, she went still, however. Nothing seemed amiss, no person or thing obviously out of place. But the sense of unease remained, as if another presence had managed to sneak up on her despite her wariness. She turned toward the plane, trying not to look as frantic as she suddenly felt.
It was as if one of Richard’s friends was stalking her now. She didn’t have to see or hear him to know the truth of it. How she’d been found way out here didn’t make sense, but she knew that feeling well.
Each step seemed to take longer than the last, none of them bringing her close enough to the plane for her comfort. Later, she might decide she’d indeed been silly. This sudden rush of panic and being stalked. With the newfound knowledge that some of the things that go bump in the night do exist, better silly than dead, however.
The low sound of thunder too close to have come from the sky made her stop in her tracks. Heart roaring, Alice struggled to pinpoint where it could have come from. The trees, maybe?
Not the trees.
Near the plane. Somehow the noise came too close from the sanctuary she sought. The not-thunder rumbled again, sending a riot of goose bumps across her crawling skin. Low. Menacing. All animal.
Throat drying, she stared into glowing eyes, her mind screaming at her to do only one thing. Run.
* * *
Goddamned lycans.
Bast couldn’t have been any more pissed. He pressed down on the accelerator, letting the racing car carry away some of his frustration.
They’d been the ones to ask for the meeting and not one of them had the fucking balls to show. He’d waited there for the full hour, even longer, never letting his mounting impatience show in his body language. Had they discovered him in an agitated state, who knew if someone would take exception to it.
And for what? Nothing.
He’d wasted two hours, plus an upcoming additional hour of flying time to be here. Time he could have utilized researching this illness that he’d managed to somehow keep at bay for the night. Hell, even a few hours with his men would have been more useful, going over some of the latest recon or reviewing plans for the Council’s foray into the public. Maybe he should have sent one of them in to meet the werewolves. Then it would have been their time wasted and not his.
But at least Alice waited for him now. Alice of the blue eyes and gentle nature. Whose kisses fueled him until he was consumed by her.
He hoped she had better luck with tracing his roots. So very different from the other born vampires. He’d aroused their suspicion from the moment he’d proven he could walk in the sunlight. Just like one of the vampires who had been turned—or “bred”; very unlike a born vampire. So far he hadn’t found a weakness by straddling the two races, but he was still young. That his birth had been witnessed by others saved him from being exterminated as an abomination. But if he gave them one excuse—just one little error in judgment—that proved he was defective, that his birth should never have been...