Page 61 of Wicked Fate

Behind us, the Accord swerved as another vampire lunged, claws raking a side mirror. Briar hit the brakes just enough to throw the woman vampire off balance, and Gage—still in wolf form—lunged out the back window just far enough to snap his jaws on the creature’s arm.

The vampire shrieked and tumbled across the road.

But we weren’t clear yet.

Another slammed into the driver’s side of my car, his face twisted with hate and disgust. He dug his claws into the window frame and yanked hard enough that the metal crunched under the pressure and the window itself cracked and buckled.

Ryker raised his gun and fired twice, putting two holes in the window.

Blood sprayed.

The vampire crumpled to the pavement with a wet thud, but more figures barreled from the trees.

A random red car appeared around a curve in the road, heading toward us. The sedan swerved, honking loudly, and was followed by a second vehicle.

The vampires froze before retreating. They vanished into the shadows of the woods like they’d never been there at all.

Now that we were free, I twisted the wheel and turned the car around, stepped hard on the gas, and followed the two vehicles. We needed to be around humans. The vampires wouldn’t risk getting more humans involved.Follow me, I linked to Briar.

I didn’t let off the gas until we were behind the other two vehicles.

I glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure Briar was right behind us, then asked, “Is everyone okay?”

A groan came from behind Sun, who turned in the middle seat to check on the witch in the back. “Yeah, I think we’re all okay, but that was close.”

Reid wheezed beside her. “Next time, maybe let’snottake the scenic route through hell.”

“I’m not okay.” Cassi shook her head. “All those witches...they had them down there in those horrible conditions.”

Was anyone else injured?Ryker linked with our pack.

Bruce started bleeding more, but other than that, we’re all okay,Kendric replied.

Ryker’s fingers flexed over his knee while tension and concern swirled within him.

The red car we’d followed turned off the main road and headed into town, but that no longer mattered. There were no vampires behind us.

“We can’t go back to the Sinclair land.” Ryker leaned his head back on the headrest. “That grenade blast would have alerted the vampires to where we came from. They’ll be prepared for our arrival.”

“They’ll be crawling over the whole damn area, including my lands,” Reid muttered. “Probably already are.”

Sun kept a hand touching the witch in the back to steady her. “Then where do we go? Because we can’t keep running forever, and our pack needs us after all our losses.”

Silence settled around us, the only sounds the rush of wind through my destroyed window, the whir of tires on the asphalt, and the rumble of the engine.

My mouth dried. Yet another impossible decision had to be made. There were no right answers, just a bunch of risks to calculate. “What if we go straight down the main road into Reid’s territory?”

Cassi snorted. “They probably wouldn’t expect that, but they’ll still have vampires lurking nearby just in case.”

“Exactly,” Ryker said, eyes narrowing. “They’ll assume we’ll circle back and try to sneak in like before.” Some of his tension ebbed, though worry still saturated the bond.

“Not a straight shot through the main, open road.” I swallowed hard.

Reid blew out a breath. “If we go that way, we’re going to need cover. If they realize what we’re doing, they’ll attack, but we should be able to make it through the perimeter before all the other vampires can catch up.”

“Your pack could be ready with weapons inside the perimeter line to help hold the vampires off if they attack the cars.” Ryker leaned toward me and continued, “They need to wait until we turn down the road so they don’t alert the vampires to our plan.”

“I’ll tell them now,” Reid confirmed.

---