Аманда Хокинг - Flutter

Jack noticed, and he frowned at me and rolled down the window. The cold night air helped some, but there was nothing more that either of us could do.

Thanks to the ridiculous weather, the roads were slick, and Jack wasn’t keen on slowing down. When we came to a stop in front of the park, the car skidded sideways, and Jack jerked the wheel.

The Lexus lurched over the curb, and slid across the slush covered grass before finally coming to a stop like two inches away from hitting a tree.

“Is everyone okay?” Jack asked, looking around to make sure no one was injured or killed.

Bobby had hit his head on the back of my seat, but otherwise everyone was okay.

“You’re a really terrible driver,” I muttered, but I didn’t really have time to complain. I opened the door and stepped out of the car, instantly slipping in the grass. I grabbed onto the door just before I fell to the ground, but I wasn’t boding well for how I would do in battle.

“Careful,” Bobby said and started getting out of the car.

“No!” Jack shouted. He’d already gotten out and he pointed at Bobby. “You. Get back in the car.”

“What? No!” Bobby whined.

“No, if you come with, you’ll only hinder us,” Jack said. “Stay here so you don’t get us killed.” Bobby wanted to argue, but he had to realize that Jack had a valid point. Humans always slowed down vampires. It was just a fact.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Milo promised. Grudgingly, Bobby climbed back in the car, and Milo leaned in to give him a quick kiss.

“I love you!” Bobby said, but Milo was already hurrying after Jack and me. We had started down a winding pathway through the center of the park. It had been salted and sanded so it was much less treacherous than walking on the grass.

“Where is she?” Milo asked when he had jogged up to us.

“We don’t know,” Jack glanced over at me, hoping I’d have more information.

Milo was about to ask something logical, like how did we plan on finding her, but I shushed him. I was trying to get a read on her, but it was hard. Even late at night in bad weather, downtown Minneapolis still had tons of activity. It was hard to separate sounds. On top of that, there were so many people, and I was getting really hungry. I kept getting focused in on the wrong smells and sounds because they were far more appetizing than what I was looking for.

“Ugh.” I wrinkled my nose, catching onto something. It smelled dirty and not quite right.

“What?” Jack froze in his tracks and looked at me.

“I don’t know. I just smell something.” A cold wind came up, blowing it away, and I shook my head.

“It was probably the dog park. But it definitely wasn’t Jane.”

We walked a little further down the trail, but then I started noticing the smell again. It wasn’t even really a dirty smell so much as it smelled like dirt, like the ground and trees. A hint of pine, and something else, something familiar. It reminded me of when the fair came to town, and I always spent too much time feeding the goats in the petting zoo. It was almost how they smelled but different. I kept walking, and I had started following the scent, but nobody questioned me about it. Even when we started veering off the trail. If Jack and Milo noticed, they didn’t say anything to me.

Finally, too late, I placed it. I stopped dead in my tracks and my heart stopped in my chest.

“What?” Jack asked in a nervous whisper.

“Reindeer.” I could barely even say it aloud.

“What?” Milo asked incredulously, and even Jack gave me a confused look.

Neither of them understood what that meant, but I was scanning the trees frantically. I knew how fast they could move. They were probably here. We might even being surrounded already. I turned in a circle, slipping in the slush, and Jack caught me before I fell to the ground. The wind picked again, taking the scent away from me, and that was the only hint I had to where they might be. Thirst mixed with my panic, and the edge of my vision blurred red. My hands trembled, but I couldn’t say for sure if that was from hunger or fear.

“What’s going on?” Milo asked. He was looking around, trying to figure out what exactly had me so freaked. Jack still had his hand on my arm, steadying me, and the scent became stronger behind me, so I turned around.

On a bench only thirty yards from us, a vampire stood on a bench. I had just been looking at a few seconds ago, and nobody had been around, but here he was. His dark blue work jacket hung open, revealing his bare chest covered in dark hair. His jeans were filthy and ragged, and hadn’t been washed in months.

Despite the cold slush on the ground, he was barefoot. The wind blew his black hair across his face, but I could still see his black eyes staring right at me, giving me the same chill they had when I first saw him in Finland. It was Stellan, the lycan that wouldn’t speak English, and he’d already spotted us.

“I never should’ve brought you here,” I said, both to Jack and Milo. Letting them come along had been a death sentence, but I didn’t realize it until too late.

“What is going on?” Milo repeated, growing frustrated.

“Who is that?” Jack followed my line of vision, where I was staring at Stellan, and Milo turned to look at him too. He was by himself, and he didn’t look that threatening, but I knew more of them were nearby.

“Lycan.” I couldn’t look away from Stellan because I knew he would move as soon as I did, so I couldn’t see Jack’s reaction, but he instantly tensed.

“Go back to the car,” Jack commanded through gritted teeth. I thought of Bobby, sitting unguarded in the car, and I choked by vomit. He was a sitting duck, and they probably had already found him.

“No.” I glanced back at Milo. The car was a deathtrap, and I couldn’t have him going back there.

“Run, Milo.” I looked back at Stellan, but he was already gone, and my heart sank. We didn’t stand a chance.

Milo would never be able to outrun them.

“Get out of here!” Jack shouted. He had just seen Stellan’s disappearing act, and he was just starting to realize what we were up against. “Alice, Milo, get out of here!”

“No!” I grabbed his arm and looked up at him. “I’m not leaving you!” His eyes were conflicted and terrified. He wanted to protect me above all else, but we had probably already been ambushed. How could he protect us? “They want me anyway!”

“No, they don’t want you!” Jack shook his head and gritted his teeth. “They want Peter!

You’re just the thing that’s most important to him! They’re trying to flush him out.”

“How astute.” The voice on the phone interrupted us. He was only standing fifteen feet in front of us.

Shirtless, his upper body was pure muscle. His dark hair was pushed back from his face, revealing brown eyes, but they were so cold and empty. It was like looking at an evil doll. Just by looking at him, I knew he was Gunnar, the leader of the lycan. “What an adorable little pack you have.” He took a step towards us, his bare feet crunching in the grass, and Jack moved in front of me. Milo tried to step up next to him, but he held up his arm in front of him, blocking him. Gunnar laughed at his feeble attempts to protect us.

He was alone, so his comrades must be hidden amongst the trees around us.

“Where’s Jane?” I asked, barely keeping my voice even.

“Around here somewhere.” He glanced darkly around us, smirking arrogantly. “It’s so easy to misplace things in the city. That’s why I’ve always preferred the intimacy of the country.”

“We don’t know where Peter’s at,” Jack told him. “He doesn’t know we’re here.”

“I’m aware. I know he would never let a pathetic attempt like you out to greet us.” His expression changed, growing dark and angry, and rather terrifying. “There’s no sport in going after you, and Peter would never bore his guests.”