Free Runaway Vampire by Lynsay Sands Page A

. . . everything about him was distracting and overwhelming. So much so that she was hoping that his followers were giving up and letting him go. If so, it meant she could soon be rid of him. A good thing, she assured herself, ignoring the disappointment that the thought of his leaving brought up in her.
    Her gaze slid to the rear camera view and she squinted as she noted that someone seemed to be leaning out of the passenger window of the pickup behind them. The image was all different shades of gray and she couldn’t be sure, but it almost looked like the person was aiming a gun at the RV. Not a gun, she thought in the next moment, more like a crossbow or something maybe.
    â€œDante,” she said with alarm, afraid they were perhaps with the van and were about to shoot out the tires on the RV or something.
    â€œWhat is it?” Dante asked, his voice growing nearer.
    Mary opened her mouth to answer, but then paused uncertainly. The person had slid back into the pickup and it was now dropping back too. The RV tires were all still intact as far as she could tell, so she gathered they hadn’t been shot out.
    â€œMary, the road!” Dante cried suddenly and she switched her gaze back to the road to see that in her distraction she’d been steering to the right, toward the shoulder of the road. In fact she was already on the white line. Heart jumping in alarm, she quickly steered back to the left. Once she had it straightened out in the center of the lane, she let her breath out on a slow sigh.
    Dante relaxed beside her and then leaned past her to set her phone back in the holder.
    â€œDid they get your brother out?” she asked quietly.
    â€œI do not know. Lucian did not answer,” Dante said unhappily. “I left a message for him to call me.”
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Mary asked with alarm when he dropped to his knees next to her again.
    â€œI am going to feed you,” he said firmly.
    â€œDante—” she began in a warning tone.
    â€œYou need to eat,” he interrupted sternly, picking up one half of her sandwich and turning toward her.
    â€œI will eat,” she said quickly. “You can take over driving at the next gas station.”
    â€œMary, we cannot stop,” he said solemnly. “It is too risky.”
    â€œYour friends have dropped back so far I can’t even see their lights anymore,” she countered, and then added, “We have to stop, Dante. We’re almost out of gas.”
    â€œWhat?” he asked with alarm and glanced to the gas gauge to see that it was nearly on empty.
    â€œWhy is it so low?” he asked, sounding shocked that she would let that happen.
    â€œBecause I didn’t get gas before leaving the truck stop as I intended,” Mary said dryly. “I didn’t get the chance. I wasn’t driving.”
    When he merely stared at her, worry on his face, she said, “They’ve dropped back. I think they’ve given up on us. For all we know they’ve pulled off the highway and turned back to head to the house where you were kept,” she pointed out.
    â€œBut what if they are just feigning giving up?” he asked with a frown. “They could just be letting us think they have given up in hopes that we’ll stop somewhere and they can catch us unawares.”
    Mary’s mouth tightened at the suggestion, and she glanced to the rear camera view, wishing it had telescoping abilities so that she could see if they were still back there or not. It didn’t, however, and after a moment she sighed and said, “We’ll have to take the risk. We need gas.”
    Cursing, Dante stood and set her sandwich back on her plate, then glanced around as if for a spare gas tank they might use.
    â€œAccording to the Garmin there’s a gas station not too far ahead. We should make it there,” she added hopefully and couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed untilnow that they were