Wanted: Undead or Alive

“I’ll look around,” he said quietly.

“All right. But don’t take too long. We have a lot of campgrounds to check out. I’ll get the horses ready.”

He gave the horses a wary look, then zipped around the meadow and nearby woods at vampire speed.

With a sigh, she rolled up her sleeping bag. She needed to stop freaking out whenever he was behind her. The attack had happened five years ago. Time to get over it. She attached her sleeping bag behind the saddle on the gelding. Phineas was an inexperienced rider, so she’d let him ride the gentler mare.

He zoomed toward her in a blur of movement, and she gripped the reins of the horses as they shied away. “Cut it out!” she fussed at him. “You’re scaring them.”

“Sorry.” He stopped abruptly, casting a worried look at the horses. “I found the spot where the attack happened.” He gestured toward a giant spruce. “The grass is crushed, and I found a few drops of human blood on the ground.”

Impressive. She hadn’t detected any blood, and her sense of smell was excellent, although not nearly as good as when she was in wolf form. “Can you tell if it’s Jason’s blood?”

Phineas winced. “The older Vamps probably could, but I’m not as experienced as them. I can’t tell if Corky was here, either.”

She nodded. He seemed embarrassed, but that only made him more attractive to her. Werewolf men, especially the Alphas, tended to be overconfident to the point of arrogance, and that had always annoyed her.

He retrieved a piece of paper from his jacket pocket and unfolded it. “I printed out a map that shows the location of campgrounds. Vampires would need a cabin or a cave to stay protected from sunlight.”

She patted the sheath attached to her belt. “I brought a good hunting knife. I’m ready for them.”

He lifted his hands. “Wait a minute, Wolfie-Girl. If there’s any fighting, you have to stay out of it.”

“I’m not going to leave you alone.”

“Your brother would kill me if I let anything happen to you.”

She scoffed. “So it’s just my brother you’re worried about?”

“What do you need to hear, Brynley? That I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you? That if I failed to protect you, the shame would kill me?”

Her eyes widened. “Is that true?”

“Yes! So stay the hell out of trouble, okay?”

“Okay.” She smiled, her cheeks flushing with heat. “Let’s go, bloodsucker.”

“After you, Snout-Face.” He handed her the map.

She pointed at a spot on the map. “We’ll head to this one first. It’s not too far.” She folded the map, stuffed it into her jacket pocket, then mounted her horse.

He stood still, eyeing the mare with an anxious look.

“Come on, city boy.” She bit her lip to keep from grinning. “Mount up.”

“I think that’s the one that tried to bite me.”

“That’s Molly. She’s as gentle as can be.”

“Until she sinks her teeth into you.”

Brynley snorted. “A vampire afraid of biting?”

“Hell yeah, if I’m on the wrong side of the bite.” He inched closer to the horse. “Do you just sort of jump on their back?”

“Put your foot in the stirrup. No, the other foot.” Brynley chuckled. “Unless you want to ride backwards.”

He put his left foot in, then hopped on his right foot as the horse shied away. “Whoa, Nelly!”

“It’s Molly.” Brynley gasped when Phineas suddenly teleported right onto the horse’s back.

With a frightened whinny, Molly reared up and dumped him on the ground.

“Ow. Damn.” He hefted himself to his feet and glared at the horse. “What did it do that for?”

“You frightened her.” Brynley dismounted and grabbed Molly’s reins. “Here. I’ll hold her still while you mount.”

He rubbed his rear, scowling at the horse. “She doesn’t like me.”

Brynley smiled as she patted Molly’s neck. “Poor Phineas. Must be hard, mounting a female who doesn’t like you.”

He glowered at her. “I wouldn’t know. They’ve always been willing.”

Her smile faded. How many women had been seduced by the Love Doctor’s sexy voice and handsome face? “I suppose you’ve had a whole herd of willing females? And you rode them like a cowboy?”

“If I did, would you be jealous?”

“No, more like nauseated.”

He snorted, then slipped his foot into the stirrup and mounted neatly. “How’s that?”

Gorgeous. She was sorely tempted to pull him to the ground and give him the ride of a lifetime. Make him forget about the herd of willing females he might have had in the past. Instead, she handed him the reins. “Hold them lightly. Molly won’t need a lot of direction.”

“She knows what she wants?” His hands brushed slightly against hers as he took the reins.

She swallowed hard. “We don’t always get what we want.” She hurried back to the gelding and mounted up.

This wasn’t so bad once you got used to it, Phineas thought. The trail was wide and smooth, and well lit with a nearly full moon and a million stars.

His horse was happy to follow Brynley’s gelding. And he was happy to watch her from behind. Her back was graceful and curved into a slim waist. Her long ponytail swayed from side to side.

The stars shone more brightly here than at home, and the sky seemed bigger. Even the Earth seemed bigger, more expansive without the cramped and crowded feel he was used to in the city. Here, he could easily believe that he and Brynley were the only two people on the planet.

It was a tempting fantasy—he and Brynley all alone with a moral obligation to repopulate the Earth. And no angry werewolf father to object. But in reality, his sperm was dead, and Brynley hated vampires. He was ninety- nine percent positive that she had spied on him when he’d gotten out of the shower, but of course, she’d found him easy to resist.

He took a deep breath. The air was definitely fresher here. No smoky scent of meat grilling at the local street vendor or stench of trash overflowing from a Dumpster.

At first, it seemed deathly quiet. No horns honking, no sirens, no throbbing bass from passing cars. But slowly, he became aware of different sounds. More subtle. A breeze ruffling the leaves, a twig snapping beneath a paw. The scenery appeared peaceful on the surface, but danger lurked in the dark depths of the forest. A different set of predators existed here—wolves, bears, mountain lions. But the predator that had attacked Jason Pritchard was one he knew well—a vampire.

Just like other predators, a vampire always left a trail. It was their need for blood, and their options were limited. They could order blood from Romatech, raid a blood bank, or drain animals dry. Or if they were Malcontents, they left human victims in their wake.

As Phineas relaxed into the swaying movement of the horse, he congratulated himself. This cowboy stuff wasn’t so hard after all. Brynley would have to stop calling him a city boy. Unfortunately, at that moment his horse decided to leave the path and turn right into the forest.

“What the hell?” He sat up. “Horse! What are you doing?”

Brynley glanced back over her shoulder. “Where are you going?”

“I don’t know.”

Brynley pulled to a stop. “Steer her back onto the path.”

“There’s no steering wheel!” He looked frantically about as his horse continued to walk into the forest. “How do I put this thing into reverse?”

Brynley’s laughter drifted toward him. Dammit, he couldn’t even see her now.

“She’s not a thing. She’s a mare,” Brynley yelled. “You have to let her know you’re in charge!”

“I thought I was!” Typical female. The mare had only let him think he was in charge.

“Pull on the reins,” Brynley called. She sounded closer, thank God.

He pulled hard, and the horse reared up, dumping him onto the ground. “Umph.” He fell back, hitting his head. Stars danced around the sky. “Damn.”