Lost (3 page)

He paused, waiting again for her to object. She rose onto her toes and pushed his fangs into her neck.

Blood dribbled into his mouth. It tasted like she smelled, of vanilla and warmth, of comfort and love. She, he knew, had never been the child standing out in the cold looking in on that scene in the kitchen. She had been in the center of the room, dipping cookies in milk and feeling loved.

He should have hated her for it, but it only made her unexpected acceptance of him all the sweeter.

He plunged his fangs into her vein.

o0o

Pain shot through Rachel's neck, like two needles jamming into her flesh. She jerked, and a cry exploded from her lips. Then Cameron's tongue lapped at her skin, and the pain was gone, was replaced by need... the need to be near him, to cling to him.

She wriggled her body to get closer. Her breasts brushed his chest. Desire wrapped around her core and squeezed until her knees collapsed, and only Cameron's arms around her kept her from falling.

“What...?” This was no simple kiss. She knew that, but what she was thinking— that Cameron was biting her and she was enjoying it— that was impossible.

His mouth was pressed to her neck. She slid her hands up his chest and held on, willed him to keep doing whatever he was doing, not to stop, not to give her a chance to come out of this spell. Pleasure swelled inside her. Her eyes drifted closed, and she moaned. In the recesses of her mind, the knowledge that she shouldn't be doing this, that she should be hurrying to her friends' aid instead, flickered, but she couldn't make herself pull away.

She sighed and gave up the fight. Cameron murmured something against her neck. His breath was warm. His tongue lapped at her skin slowly, almost reverently, like she was an exotic ice cream that he wanted to savor. His hands stroked her sides, moved to the undersides of her breasts. She arched her back and rubbed her sex against his thigh.

She was lost. The world was dark. It was as if nothing existed outside the circle of Cameron's arms, and she wouldn't have had it any other way.

In the distance, something roared. The eerie, unearthly sound sliced through the cocoon of desire that had formed around Rachel. Her eyes flew open, and her hands dropped from Cameron's neck.

She glanced at the man who held her, immediately unsure whether to step away or move closer. What she had been doing, what she had been feeling... Shame warred with fear. What was happening to her?

There was another roar, this one louder... angry.

Cameron stared over her head, out into the darkness.

Shaking, she pressed her cheek against him. He pulled her closer, until her face was so tight against his chest she could hardly breathe.

Then he growled. The sound was almost as unnatural as the roar that had caused it.

Pinpricks of unease danced over her skin. She tried to step away, but Cameron's arm was like iron holding her in place.

“Dorian...” The name was a whisper.

She licked her lips and glanced to the side, but there was nothing to see, nothing but darkness. This Dorian could have been standing inches away, and she wouldn't have known it.

“What are you doing, Dorian? How far gone are you?”

“Cameron?” Her voice was shaking. She hated that, wished she could make her words come out strong, but any pretense of strength had disappeared long before.

He didn't answer her. He pushed her behind him instead.

Afraid he would step away and leave her alone in the darkness, she clutched at the back of his shirt.

He inhaled and for a second said nothing. Then he reached behind and found her hand. “We have to go.”

Rachel's knees locked, but Cameron didn't slow his steps. He jerked her along behind him.

And with nowhere else to go, no will to stay alone in the darkness, Rachel followed.

o0o

Dorian was close.

As Cameron pulled Rachel down the weed- and snow-dotted slope, he heard his brother moving, sniffing, hunting.

Hunting Rachel's friends, he guessed.

He stopped and pulled her close, so he could whisper in her ear. “Does this look familiar?” he asked.

She blinked. “It looks like everything looks... black.”

He bit back a curse. He'd forgotten she was mortal, couldn't see through the canyon's cursed perpetual night.

“Smell then, or feel. Does anything seem familiar?” he asked.

Uncertainty was written on her face, but she turned and stilled, seemed to be studying her surroundings with the senses she did have. When she spoke, there was hope in her voice. “Water. I heard water, like a stream, when I got out of the car.”

A stream. Cameron closed his eyes and listened. The sound of water tinkling over rocks sounded to his left. He grabbed Rachel's hand and kept going, faster this time.

He had little hope her friends were alive, had little hope he would reach his brother before he made the change from vampire to lost soul either, but he wasn't ready to give up on either.

He cared about both. Not just his original mission, saving Dorian—he cared about saving Rachel's friends too. He cared about saving her friends because he cared about Rachel.

The realization shook him.

Vampires didn't care about humans. Vampires didn't even care about other vampires, not like humans cared about their own kind. Cameron’s need to find his brother was driven more by duty than love, or that is what he had told himself.

A hundred feet farther, they found the car. It was lying on its side in the deepest part of a ravine. Ruts from the tires formed a line from the wreck to the road, easily within Cameron’s preternatural view.

The dark, the shock of the wreck, and the curse. The combination must have confused Rachel and sent her to the canyon’s clay and rock walls instead of returning to the road.

Cameron stepped into the ruts, Rachel by his side.

Her fingers tightened on his arm. Then, without warning, she broke from his hold and raced through the ruts, toward the smashed car. He ran after her, caught her by the arm, and hissed into her ear. “Don't run. Whatever you do. Don't run.”

If Dorian was here, if he had made the shift, running would activate his instincts. He could be on Rachel, destroy her before Cameron even sensed his brother was in the area.

“But they're....” She gestured in the direction of the broken and dented car.

Cameron wrapped his fingers around her wrist and guided her hand to a loop on his jeans. “Stay beside me. Don't let go unless I tell you to.”

The windshield and driver's side window of the compact car were missing, as were the roof and anyone who had been inside.

“How many of you were there?” Cameron asked, his voice grim. There was blood on the seats. It was dried now, but the scent still curled around him. If Dorian had been here when it was fresh... It would have called to him like warm cookies would a starving child. In his near-monster state, there was little hope Dorian could have just walked past this scene, and based on the condition Rachel had said her friends had been in when she left, there was less hope they got up and walked away on their own.

Rachel's fingers dug into his back. “Why? What can you see?” She stepped to the side. With a warning hiss, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

“I can't see. I still can't see.” Her voice was breaking. She was breaking.

Her body trembled against his, and her teeth chattered as if she was coated with ice. Cameron hadn't considered until now how the canyon's curse might affect humans. But it was obvious from Rachel's reaction that it did.

He needed to get her out of here.

She held out her hands, and before he could stop her, she had touched the jagged metal where the roof of the vehicle had been sheared away.

“Ow.”

He smelled the blood instantly. He jerked her back.

“What...?”

He slipped her finger into his mouth. On the hillside, he had been stupid. He had given into the pounding need to taste her, but he'd been smart too. He had carefully sealed her wound before releasing her from his arms.

Now, standing next to the evidence that his brother had slipped to the other side, he didn't need the sweet scent of her blood calling to him or Dorian.

And her blood was sweet. Despite the disturbing discovery Cameron had just made, desire swelled inside him. His canines, which he hadn't bothered to cover since their bite on the slope, ached.

His fingers tightened around her wrist, over the veins that lay so close to the surface there. He swirled his tongue over the gash in her finger, willing his saliva to close the wound even as his mind filled with images of sinking his fangs into the thin blue lines he knew ran just below her skin.

“It... oh.” A sigh, little more than a puff of air, left her lips.

He moved his attention to her wrist, allowed himself one simple kiss, before forcing himself to lower her hand.

She pulled her arm toward her body until her wrist was pressed against her breasts. After blowing out a breath, she asked, “What is it? What do you see? Why can't I see?”

She dug in her pocket as if searching for her missing phone.

He placed his hand on her arm. “Nothing. I see nothing. Your friends aren't in the car.”

Her eyes darted from side to side in her face. “They aren't...” A sigh left her body. “That's good, right? Someone found them and took them away. An ambulance or police.” She shook her head and pressed her palm to her forehead. “I should have just waited. They say that's the best thing to do.”

Cameron didn't know who “they” were, but he had no doubt Rachel leaving had one hundred percent been her best choice, the choice that had kept her alive. And now, he had to make another choice to keep her alive.

“I'll walk you to the road,” he said, grabbing her by the elbow and directing her back into the tire ruts.

She went with him willingly, almost cheerfully. As they walked, the dark turned to murky gray. He slipped his hand into his pocket and pushed the caps back onto his teeth. He glanced at her as he did. In the growing light, he could see her more clearly, see the gloss of her hair and the tiny bits of dried plants and dirt that clung to her clothing.

By the time they reached the road, the shadowy curse of the canyon felt a lifetime away.

It was early dawn. The sun had yet to rise, but Cameron could feel its threat looming.

He had to leave, and soon. He forced his fingers to loosen their hold on her arm and took a step back.

She turned instantly. “They aren't here. No one is here.”

He kept his voice calm and reassuring, pulled one more time on his vampire talents. “They've left. Someone picked them up, and someone will find you too. You'll be fine. Just follow the road, back the way you came.”

She glanced to the left, toward Crystal City. “It's a long way to town.”

“Not too long. You'll be fine.” He gave her a nudge.

Her eyes glazing over, she stared at him for a second. Then slowly, as if her feet had doubled in weight, she took a stumbling step forward.

The sky around them was lighter now. Cameron moved back until he was off the road, back within the realm of the canyon’s curse.

Rachel glanced over her shoulder, but he knew, standing where he was, she couldn't see him. He was shielded by the curse, engulfed in another world, one in which she didn't belong. Clinging to that thought, he turned and forced his body into a jog. Rachel was back in her world. Time for him to give up impossible, childlike daydreams and return to his.

Chapter Four

Rachel stumbled forward. The first signs of sun colored the horizon a dusky rose. Sometime in the night, rain had fallen. The road, black and shiny, curled around the hill. The world was quiet and peaceful.

She wanted to walk, and to keep walking. Everything would be okay if she kept walking.

Her foot sent something clattering off into the weeds. She stared after the sound. A shiny, silver disc winked at her from just beyond the road.

A hubcap. She frowned.

An ache began right between her eyes. She pressed her thumb to the spot. She couldn't remember where she was going... or even where she had been.

Her gaze drifted back to the hubcap.

Flashy and expensive-looking, like the ones on Nancy's car.

The atmosphere seemed to shift, like a blind had been lifted. The road wasn't quiet and peaceful. It was deserted and alone.

The temperature dropped too. Rachel shoved her hands into the pockets of her hoodie and hunched her shoulders against the sudden cold.

What the hell was she doing? Where did she think she was going? No phone. Deserted road. It could be days before someone came across her.

Except... if Nancy and the others had been rescued, they'd realize she was missing. They'd send someone back for her.

Hope flickered. She took another step, but something made her stop— an awareness. She glanced over her shoulder.

Cameron stood just off the road, watching her. He'd come back.

Relief, thick and hot, washed over her. She lifted her hand to wave him forward, but he was gone... disappeared.

The ache returned between her eyes.

She was imagining things, wanting things, and creating them in her mind.

She looked back at the highway.

The winding road led to town and safety, led to a world where everything would be okay.

Cameron disappeared. The memory of the vehicle and her friends' broken bodies disappeared. All that existed was the road and the knowledge that she should be walking down it.

She passed the hubcap. It shone like a beacon as she shuffled by. Her foot landed on a skid mark that bisected the road.

Something stirred in the brush.

Slowly, she looked up and stared into the face of a monster.

She opened her mouth and screamed.

o0o

Cameron didn't hear Rachel's scream. He felt it, like a stake piercing his heart. Panic wrapped around his body and jerked him around.

His feet flew across the ground he had just traveled. His nostrils flared as he ran, and his fangs grew heavy.

His body prepared for attack.