Free Twilight Vendetta by MAGGIE SHAYNE Page A

Undead.”
    “Wow.” She blinked. “Wow. Where did you–”
    “Do you really want my life story, Emma?”
    “Yeah,” she said softly. “I really do.” And she wasn’t admitting it because he was making her.
    He stared down at her for a long moment. “Another time. For now, we have work to do.” He nodded toward the car. “The map.”
    “It’s in the Jeep.” The truth was she’d already marked out the search radius from memory. But she’d tucked the map into her bag. She was half afraid they’d ditch her the minute they knew where to look for those kids. They didn’t need her help to rescue them. But she needed their help to save her father.
    “The next thing we need is Internet. I can do some snooping on Google Earth and maybe get an idea from that.”
    “They’ll have blocked themselves from it.”
    She lifted her brows. “So you
do
know about the Internet.”
    “Yes, I know about the Internet. I haven’t been living in a cave.” He shrugged. “A castle in the mountains of Transylvania, but not a cave.”
    She smiled. He was funny, even charming when he wanted to be. For a moment she was lost in his eyes, but then she got hold of herself. Her father was missing. Abducted. She had to stay on point here. “So you’ve probably already figured out that if we find the places that are blocked from the satellite feed, then those are the places where we should start looking.”
    He nodded slowly. “You’re smart, for a human.”
    “Smart enough to know that the way to stop the crimes against your kind is through education, enlightenment, and understanding. Violence only creates more violence.”
    “Violence is the only thing your kind understands.”
    “Not all of us, Devlin. Not all of us.”
    Footsteps came, soundless, at least to Emma, until they were mere feet away. The others were returning, all together as one unit. Their eyes were brighter than before, and they seemed more energized. It was almost like being around a person who had used cocaine, she thought. They were on a kind of a high. She’d never really got to observe that sort of thing up close. Her mother hadn’t exposed her to any of that.
    They both carried plastic bags, with God only knew what inside. Tavia had Emma’s empty travel mug in her hand. It had been in the cup holder in the front seat. She held it out to Devlin. “I’ve brought you sustenance,” she said.
    Emma turned her back as he took the mug and downed its contents. She thought it would be rude to grimace and say “Ew” but that’s what she was thinking. That, and that she would never use that cup again if she lived to be as old as Devlin.
    “Let’s go,” he said. “We need to find a place with Internet.”
    “No, we don’t,” Emma told him, turning, at last. His eyes shone, and his skin had a rose tint it hadn’t possessed before. “I’ve got my iPad and a hot spot. I can connect from wherever we go, as long as there’s cell service.”
    “Is dere cell service on the island?” Tavia asked.
    Emma frowned. “Island?”
    Sighing, Devlin turned and pointed at the ocean. Emma moved to stand beside him, looking where his long forefinger was aiming, but seeing nothing. Dark sky, darker water. His body was close to hers, mere millimeters of space between them. She had to fight not to lean into him. He emitted a pull stronger than gravity to her.
    “It’s probably too far for your mortal eyes to see. But yes, I own an island.”
    She couldn’t see anything but fog out over the water, so she looked up at him, instead. “When did you have time to do that? You only jumped off the pirated ship–”
    His hands clasped her shoulders so suddenly that she never even saw them move, and it startled her, made her gasp. Then the way his eyes probed hers sent chills up and down her spine–and not the good kind. “How do you know about that?” he demanded.
    “I–the radio. Dad’s radio hacking. I told you, he was picking up DPI transmissions. It’s how I