"You just Tasered me, Charles. Why should I believe you?" she returned.

"Because if you don't, there's a chance we're all going to be dead by morning."

She looked up at his glowing eyes. Jonny had gone to face Valon alone, and Charles was worried. She didn't quite know what to think of the loyal vamp disobeying his master, but if he were willing to guarantee Brandon's life, she was the last person to object.

And … her heart was already racing at the idea Jonny was in danger.

"Fine," she said softly.

"Much luck." Charles stretched for the Traveler, who touched him.

Before she could ask how they expected her to get to Jonny, the two winked out of existence.

Ashley cursed. She rolled towards the bushes he had indicated and closed her eyes. Branches and leaves scratched her exposed arms and face, and she groped around in the darkness for a weapon.

The rough leather of the sheath belonging to the knife that killed Czerno brushed her fingertips, and she wriggled closer.

"You are a good luck knife." She tugged it free and shifted into a kneeling position. Working the knife from its sheath, she managed to saw through the plastic zip ties Charles had used on her and yanked her arms free.

Urgency coursed through her, along with adrenaline. Ashley cut her ankles free, snatched the remaining weapons and stood.

The location she'd identified was somewhere around her, but to get there, she'd have to Travel. She'd risk having a seizure. She tested her body. She was sore already from fighting, tired and hungry. She needed time to heal. Jonny had patched her up to prevent another episode, but would it last if she forced the issue by Traveling?

What if I could save his life?

Ashley closed her eyes and drew a breath, rattled by the memory of what happened the last time she Traveled. It had been during the horrible year when she transitioned into her power, and she'd ended up confined to bed for two days.

"Jonny patched me," she whispered. She visualized the place on the map where Valon had wanted her to go and willed herself to be there.

The disorienting sense of the world tilting and melting then rematerializing made her breath catch in her throat. She opened her eyes cautiously, braced for an episode. Her insides were shaky but nothing like what she experienced pre-seizure. She grudgingly admitted how grateful she was for Jonny's ability, even if their interactions rarely ended on a good note.

The area around her had once been a front lawn, judging by the pile of rubble left over from the burnt down house nearby. Her senses picked up too much that left her gripping her knives: the scent of blood in the air, the odd tingling of her senses she recognized from her first confrontation with Valon.




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