CHAPTER 40

I stood up rapidly and looked in the direction it was coming. I didn't know what to do. I glanced at Leon. He was hunched over a massive foot-long sandwich, shoving bites into his face like food might disappear in the next ten seconds and he'd have to face starvation. He was, indeed still talking between bites, something that was not only unappealing, but also impossible to understand.

I had a problem. I alone could easily avoid the oncoming vampire...

*Vampires*, my wolf corrected, *there are three*.

Well crap. I could easily avoid the oncoming vampires, slipping away where they couldn't sense me and then swing around and see if I couldn't figure out what exactly it was they were up to. But Leon...the kid was still talking, pointing out something or other about the park's structure, the end of a pickle fell out of his mouth.

"Get up, we've gotta go," I nudged him with a boot, putting enough urgency into the kick to startle him into blinking at me.

"What?" he frowned, "it's only eight if we leave now we'll be early and have to sit around the diner, and Alice gives me the creeps."

"Alice? The most motherly middle aged woman that had ever existed?"

He shrugged. "She's always trying to boss me around. Last time I was in there working she snuck up behind me and checked behind my ears for dirt."

Ha. Looks like she'd decided on a new project. I shook myself out of my amusement, because there were more serious things to think about. But the diner was the best place to be, there were always members of the organization hanging around, and I had a feeling we might need the backup. The vampires were visible now, and they'd definitely locked in on the sight of us. Their movements still human, but quick with focused determination.

"Forget your personal feelings, we've got to go. Now!"

He still didn't get the sense of pressing doom, so I hauled him up and started walking us away from the vampires, taking the most crowded paths until we reached the busy street where we'd parked the car. I pushed the button to start it.

"Get in," I growled. They'd been gaining on us steadily, moving faster than I'd been able to with Leon in tow. They broke through a group of about fifty tourists just as I slammed the car door in his face. He seemed startled to see them but fully confused at why we were making a break from what had to seem to him like full-blooded humans.

There were three of them, just like my wolf had sensed. Two women, if they could be called that, and a man. Each was dressed to human perfection, enough so that there was something off about their outfits, like they'd just been pulled off some high end store manikin. I wasn't sure why they were following me, but I certainly couldn't believe it was for anything good.

"Female," the man called. He wore an orange zip up sweater with a high woollen collar that looked a little like a bomber jacket, over artistically torn jeans. He was handsome, excessively so, with hair coiffed exactly like someone from a magazine. "This will go easier if you do not run."

Of course it would, it was always easy if the prey gave up at the beginning.

I remembered how quick the woman from the facility was. I was still standing outside the car, having shoved Leon into the back. They were about fifty yards away.

I sprinted for the drivers door and they dashed forward. I managed to get inside and almost close it entirely before there was a hand blocking it, curling around the metal and yanking. The door groaned and screeched before breaking off of the frame completely and I was left staring at a very angry looking trio of vampires beneath the cover of a car door, like it was being held overhand to stop the rain.

On the sidewalk people had stopped to stare. With my sensitive hearing I caught a few of them talking about movie promotions.

I stared at the vampires and they stared at me, for just a millisecond, before reaching a long fingered hand toward me.

I gunned the car. The shocked look on his face the last thing I saw before screaming out into traffic, causing the oncoming lane to swerve around me. I just missed a little toyota and pulled the civic into a lane where I wasn't likely to be made into a Raven pancake.

The car thundered and shook.

One of the vampires had caught us somehow and was on the roof.

"These guys aren't human," Leon commented helpfully from the back seat.

The roof of the civic buckled down toward me. I adjusted my rear-view mirror. One of the women, the one in the smart skirt and blazer set, was on top of us, punching the metal in heavy blows. How she'd managed to get up there without putting a hair out of place or staining or ripping the outfit was beyond me.

I swerved into the left lane, jerking the wheel hard enough that the woman slid around on the roof. She wrapped a hand around the frame where the door was now missing and poked her head over the side.
Shit.

I pulled into oncoming traffic again jumping the meridian. I watched her eyes get wide as I aimed for a semi barrelling toward us, pulling out of the way with only enough time, his horn blaring and the side of his truck scraping against us.

Unfortunately she pulled her hand out of the way in time. Hanging on by using the punctures she'd made in the roof with her fists.

"A little help?" I called into the back seat.

Leon startled, because he obviously hadn't thought of that, and pulled his gun out of its holster and shot at the car roof three times.

At least one of them hit because the woman screamed, but a peek at the rearview showed her still hanging tenaciously on.

Traffic had let up a little and I didn't have another semi to try to scrape her off with. I swung across lanes again and right up onto the sidewalk where some tables with umbrellas had been set up. I smashed through them, hoping the debris would pelt my unwanted passenger, but only managed to get scraped along my left arm by a flying chair for my troubles.

"You killed my sister," a head poked out above me again. "She marked you, there's nowhere you can run."

A shot rang out from the back seat and suddenly the head snapped back. Her body quickly followed, the momentum of the car throwing her to the side where she tumbled along the sidewalk like a piece of crumpled paper.

I got off the sidewalk in time to avoid a light post and blasted through a red light.

"I think the diner doesn't sound that bad," Leon told me.