Whiteout (Aurora Sky (11 page)

“I'm driving down from Fairbanks, but Arlo will be there. What's the girl's name?”

“Anna.” I smiled as I said
it. No more Wendy. I was going with Anna from
Frozen
. Dante could be my
backup/
sidekick
,
Kristoff.

“Okay,” Pierce said. “Arlo will be expecting her.”

Well, Arlo was in for an unexpected treat.

“Toodles,” I chirped into the phone. It sounded like something
a Pixie would say. I end
ed the
call and dropped the phone in my lap.

Giselle twisted in her seat and leaned into me. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Slight detour,” I answered.

“Now we're tal
king.” Dante sat up in the driver's seat
, eyes
shining
.

I kn
ew he'd be on board and, for once, his
obsessive
desire to hunt didn't bother me. Even Giselle seemed to realize it was
futile
to argue. She leaned back into her space, but not before crossing her arms in silent protest.

“We need to turn around,” I said.

D
ante glanced in the rearview mirror as he eased his foot over the brake. There wasn't anyone coming from either direction. Dante made a
U
-
turn
in the middle of the road. The sick pit in my stomach turned with the truck, lifting with conviction.

My shoulder
s and neck ached. They'd tensed up the moment Pierce mentioned the girls. Going after him wasn't enough to ease the stiffness out of my upper body. The best way to get the kinks out was by ending this
disgusting
bloodsucker
.  

“What's the
lowdown
?” Dante
asked.

“These vamps are accustomed to having girls delivered to them. From what the
deviant
said, something happened to the last girl. She might be dead.”

“We'll make sure that never happens again,” Dante said.

“This is a bad idea,” Giselle muttered.

“We h
ave a duty,” Dante responded.

They were both right. But whether I liked it or not, I was an experienced vampire hunter and these ones needed stopping before they hurt anyone else. I could no more turn my back on this than on a drowning child.

L
ike other mi
ssions, this felt
equal parts wrong and
right. The thought of ending murderous vampires from preying on girls gave me an unexpected thrill, like I really could make the world a better place. This is what we'd trained for and nothing boiled my blood more th
an women being turned into victims. I knew what it was like to be at a vampire's mercy. It was one of the worst feelings in the world.

Arlo and Pierce were the type of predators I had no problem taking out.

 

    
     

 

The drive to Arlo's cabin lasted roughly twenty minutes. Half of that time was spent jostling around on more dirt roads. You'd think I'd be used to it by now.

“Sportsman Road. This is it,” I said.

Dante took a right onto a gravel road worse than the one before. This one was filled with po
tholes. A
frozen
lake appeared through the skeletal trees. There were houses
farther
in, encroaching on the
icy
shoreline. Some had smoke rising from their chimneys and some looked vacant.

As we drove down the road, the properties became less distinguishab
le. Soon we were passing narrow driveways that led into a thicket of spruce trees and alders. The spruces became so dense we could no longer see the lake.

“Look for a rock with the numbers 1451,” I said.

Giselle stretched her neck toward the window. “There
,” she said at the same time my eyes landed on a boulder with the numbers spray
-
painted on it in orange.

I sat up in my seat. “
This is it
.
”

Dante passed the driveway, and he didn't stop the truck until rounding another bend
farther
down the road. Once the
drive with the reflective lights was out of sight, he put the truck in park. Dante looked at Giselle.

“Aurora and I will go in first. We'll take care of Arlo and wait for Pierce to show up. Once they're both disposed of, I'll radio you. Same as before. Sta
y out of sight.”

Giselle gave a curt nod before opening the door and stepping down. I slid out after her. While she walked around the front of the truck to the driver's side, I headed down the road. Dante caught up, jogging up beside me.

“Three down and an
other two this afternoon. We're on a roll. Who needs the agency?”

Dante bumped my shoulder with his when I didn't answer.

“This really isn't the kind of detour I had in mind,” I replied, cool air slipping down my throat as I spoke. “The plan was to lay low
. I know it has to be done, but I can't help thinking this is reckless.”

“No one will ever know.”

“Right. Dead vamps tell no tales,” I said with an eye roll.

Dante grinned deviously. “They also don't bite.”

My boots left faint imprints in the dusting of sn
ow along the gravel road. We'd backtracked south a bit, but the storm that had hit the fishing lodge earlier could easily work its way down at any moment. The entire state was
in the grip of an early
winter.

Dante and I walked side by side. I could sense h
im inching closer to me. A quick sideways glance confirmed he had a big
ol'
smile pasted
on
his lips.

“What?” I asked.

Dante's grin widened when he spoke. “I'm proud of you. At the beginning of the year you were a newbie recruit fumbling her way through he
r first mission. Now you're taking initiative, tracking down your own leads.”

“Excuse me? Fumbling! I killed Ivo and Patrick with no help from you. You weren't even there. You were off… fooling around,” I finished, wincing. I hadn't meant to bring up the f
ooling around part. It was irrelevant, but Dante clearly didn't see it that way.

It shouldn't have been possible
for his smile to get any wider
, but it did.

“Oh, I see,” he said, sounding way too delighted. “You weren't upset about the mission. You were je
alous.”

“No!” I hated how my voice sounded
as if
the opposite were true. I stopped in my tracks. Dante stopped with me, a look of challenge flashing across his face.

I put a hand on my hip. “I was angry and annoyed. You left me alone with killer vampires m
y first time in the field.”

Fane would have never
,
EVER put me through something like that.

My throat tightened.

Get over him. You'll never see Fane again. Time to move on. This is your life.

Shut up
,
I
snapped back at myself
.

Dante straightened. The smile
dissolved off his face. “Preparing you for active duty was my responsibility. This isn't the Girl Scouts
.
I'm not going to always be there to hold your hand.”

My nostrils flared. “You know what? I've got this. Give me the radio. You can go wait in the tru
ck with Giselle. I'll radio you when it's done.”

I held out my hand. As Dante stared at me, his shoulders began to sag. When he didn't hand the radio over, I started forward at a brisk clip down the road.

Fine, he could keep the damn radio. I'd walk in and
walk back out once I'd finished the job.

Dante hurried alongside me. I quickened my pace, but he closed in without hesitation. “I should have waited in the car,” Dante said
,
somewhat breathless, like he'd been holding the words in all along. “I should hav
e been on standby around the block, nearby—not gone back to the cabin with Janine.” He took my shoulder, stopping me
and
turning me until our eyes met. My breath hitched when I saw the sincerity in his eyes. “I should have waited out front.”

My lashes lowered as I looked at his fingers, which had slid across my upper arm. It had been so long since I'd felt close physical contact or compassion from someone. Warmth spread through my cheeks, unbidden. A rush of emotions flooded me. I couldn't dec
ide if I wanted to lean away or allow myself to be sucked
in by
Da
nte's apology.