myself as I scanned the road, the woods on either side.
“Behind us, Anita, make sure they don’t cut us off.”
I did what he said, but I said, “We’re not really leaving, right?”
“We have to make it look good,” he said.
I couldn’t argue with that, but I didn’t want to leave our fellow police on their own in the shadow-filled woods. I did my best to keep an eye on everything as he backed up, at a speed that I wouldn’t have even attempted on this road, especially going backward. I put a hand on the headrest to steady myself and the MP5, because it would be a bitch to fall and accidentally shoot Edward. I’d never tried to aim and keep watch on this much area, while the vehicle I was in was speeding backward down a narrow road. My pulse was in my throat, and a little voice screamed in my head,
I saw movement to the right, but to aim I had to come to my knees in the seat. The seatbelt was around my legs and officially useless. I prayed that Edward wouldn’t have to slam on the brakes, and wrapped one arm around the headrest to help steady me and the gun. Whatever I’d seen was gone. There was nothing but trees, and the road, and a fallen tree in the middle of the road. It took me a blink to realize what I’d seen, and then I yelled, “Tree in the road!”
Edward slammed on the brakes. I clung to the seat desperately, no longer worried about shooting, just about not going through the windshield. The car skidded to a stop and we had that second of breathless silence while the blood roared in our ears, and the body feels too full of blood, as if the adrenaline makes everything feel like more.
Edward said, “That wasn’t there five minutes ago.”
“I know,” I said. I was back to aiming the gun again, trying to find something to shoot. “We’re boxed in, now what?” I asked, cheek snugged up against the MP5.
“It’s an ambush,” Edward said. “The best cover we have is the car, so we stay put. We make them force us out into the open.”
I undid my seatbelt so it didn’t tangle my legs as I sat back down. “They’ve used swords up to this point; let’s hope they don’t go all modern on our asses.”
“Agreed.” He got his phone out as he continued to scan the area. He answered my look. “I’m calling Tilford, because if this is a trap for you then it’s a trap for all of us, and you’re the only one they want alive.”
I realized he was right; they wanted me alive, and that was that. “Shit, Edward.”
“Yeah.” He spoke into his phone, “Tilford, it’s a trap. They’ve blocked the road that leads out.”
I heard Tilford’s voice a little louder this time, but still couldn’t quite make out the words.
“Wrecked a truck and pulled a dead tree across the road.” Edward listened and made small noises, and then he turned to me. “They’ve found a vampire dressed in full gear complete with mask. Newman has already staked him and they’re about to decapitate him.”
I shook my head. “They wouldn’t have left their masters alone and unprotected, Edward. They may want me, but not enough to risk their masters’ death.”
“Tilford, check the teeth,” Edward said.
Almost a yell from Tilford, but Edward said, “If there’s modern dentistry, then it’s not the vamps we’re looking for.”
I thought about that. “Not necessarily,” I said. “Chipped teeth might still happen, I don’t know for sure, but no cavities. Check for cavities.”
Edward repeated that. We waited for Tilford to do it. We kept the guns ready, but the lack of movement and the growing shadows were beginning to get on my nerves. I realized that they had us boxed in; all they had to do was wait for nightfall.
“Shit,” I said.
“What?” Edward asked me.
“They’re waiting for dark.”
He nodded, and then spoke to Tilford. “Four modern cavities; then it may be a vampire but it’s not one of the ones we’re looking for. It’s a decoy, Tilford.”
Edward hung up, and then said, “Tilford believes us.”
“What about the rest of them?”
“Not sure.”
“Edward, we can’t just sit here until it gets dark—then we’ll have not just the one or two wereanimals but both of their vampire masters. The odds are better now.”
“Are we heading to the other marshals?”
“More guns are better,” I said.
“They only want you alive, Anita. The rest of us are just hostages, or collateral damage.”
“If I go in the opposite direction of everyone else, they may not attack anyone but me.”
“You can’t fight them all by yourself, and you can’t walk out of here after full dark.”
I took a deep breath in and let it out slow. “I know.”
He studied my face for a moment. “Where you go, I go.”
“Yeah, but what about everyone else? Do we move toward them, or away? Do we hope the bad guys follow us, or risk that they’ll go to the other cops without us there to help them, and either slaughter them or take them as hostages to make me do what they want like they did with Karlton?”
“You’re overthinking this,” he said.
“Okay, then tell me what to think.”
I watched his eyes go distant, cold, and knew he’d shoved all the emotion away so he could make his decision based on nothing but facts. It was a nifty trick if you could pull it off. I’d never managed to be as dispassionate as Edward.
“I think they’ll follow you. So we lead them away.”
“Okay,” I said.
“We have to kill the wereanimals before the vampires rise,” he said.
“I know.”
“We have just over an hour before they rise.”
“I know,” I said.
We had a moment to look at each other and have a thousand things pass between us. There were no words, no need for them. Edward put his hand on the door handle; I did the same on my side. Edward counted down, “One, two, three.” We got out.
19
I WENT AROUND the SUV, walking sideways and sort of backward so I could watch my side of the woods. I was fighting to keep my eyes soft-focused, looking for movement only, shapes that were out of place. Edward’s hand found my back, and I knew without turning around that he was looking forward, probably with the FN P90 in one hand. The M4 was a two-handed gun. We eased into the woods like that with him forward, me watching our backs. The smell of pine was everywhere, the needles shifting under my jogging shoes. Movement across the road. I must have tensed, because Edward whispered, “What?”
“They’re coming.” They were black shapes in the trees. If they’d been willing to lose the long black cloaks they could have blended in better, but there was something about the way the cloth moved that wasn’t tree, or animal, but just out of place.
“How many?”
“Two.”
They were like those shapes you see from the corners of your eyes; if you looked directly at them, they wouldn’t be there, but looking obliquely they were always there, flitting through the trees as if the cloaks floated on their own. I got a flash of white from one of their masks, and that let me know that the next flash would be close
