Free Lost by Lori Devoti Page B

work. Can you take me to get help?”
    “No.” He waited, both to make sure his control was back in place and that she understood his response. When she didn't move, he continued walking.
    Behind him, footsteps sounded. Even on fresh snow and soft earth, the human couldn't conceal her movements.
    He growled and stopped again.
    “You can't leave me here. You can't leave them here.” Her voice was stronger, but with false bravery. She was scared, terrified. Little did she know, both emotions were dangerous, almost as alluring as fresh blood to his kind. He sniffed, realized the last clung to her too. She’d cut herself somehow, either in her wreck or her trip up the cliffside.
    Another reason to leave her behind.
    “I'll follow you,” she added.
    With a muted growl, he weighed his choices. He could kill her. He could make her stay behind and believe it was her idea. Or he could take her with him.
    Slowly, he pivoted. “How far?”
    He couldn't smell other humans, and if they were close and wounded, he should have been able to.
    Something in his stance must have alerted her. Her feet shuffled backward.
    “How far?” he repeated.
    “I don't know. Not too far...” She glanced toward the cliff that she had just scaled. “At least... It's down there, somewhere.”
    He strode to the edge and stared into the darkness, pulled in another breath, searching for a scent of his brother or her hurt and bleeding friends.
    Nothing.
    He sighed.
    “We can't go down that way, can we?” She stood six feet away, afraid of him or the edge. If she was smart, both.
    “No, you can't.” At least not alive. Even in the pitch darkness, he could see her, not as well as when she had opened her phone, but well enough. She was small with fair skin and hair streaked with pink. Her clothes weren't that different from his own— jeans, V-necked tee covered by a zip-up-the-front hoodie, but her outfit was just that, a well-planned ensemble designed to cling in key places, to reveal curves without screaming for attention. Expensive too, if he had to guess. Or it had been before her trip up the cliff. Now her knees were caked in mud, and her sweatshirt hung off one shoulder, torn at the seam.
    She opened her phone again and directed its glow toward him. He didn't move. Let her stare at him. He was under control now. Nothing she saw would give away what he was. Still, his hand slipped into his pocket and touched the dental caps tucked inside. When she turned off the phone, he took advantage of her momentary blindness to slip them onto his canines.
    With that, he realized he had made a decision. He couldn't leave her here alone. Not unless he wanted her to become bait in his hunt for his brother.
    And for whatever reason, he didn't.
    His tongue flicking over his cap-covered canines, he strode past her. “Let's get going. If we arrive before midnight, maybe there will be something to save.”

 
     
     
    Chapter Two
    Maybe there will be something to save.
    The words echoed through Rachel's head as she followed the enigmatic man.
    She had thought he was going to refuse to help her.
    Who did that? Who turned away from someone in such obvious need?
    She stumbled over a root or a rock, something solid and unyielding that lay in their path. The man didn't pause. She could hear him striding steady and sure down the steep hillside ahead of her like he was part goat.
    A shiver wracked her body. She felt hot and cold at the same time. She wanted to lie down and go to sleep, but she couldn't. The man would leave her behind, leave her here, alone.
    She didn't want to be alone. Being with him, unsure though he made her feel, was better than being alone.
    Concentrating, she picked up one foot and placed it in front of the other. Her body swayed to the side. She stumbled again but righted herself.
    It was dark here. Darker than dark.
    Feeling giddy, she giggled. Darker than dark . That made no sense. Nothing that had happened made sense. She'd scaled a stone and