Free Tempted by the Night by Colleen Gleason

They found us!
    Let’s go , he replied silently, and tugged her quickly into the truck…then scrambled through, pulling her out into the darkness.
    Out beyond the walls of safety.
    Out where orange eyes glowed in the shadows.

Chapter Seven
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    Luke could smell them. The creatures Lou Waxnicki called gangas .
    The sound of their mournful cries filtered through the night, and he couldn’t help but shiver deep inside. In the distance, perhaps only a half-mile away, he saw several pairs of glowing orange points moving closer with jerky but determined intent. The monsters’ eyes.
    He knew the horror of the creatures from being in their close proximity: the stench emanating from their destroyed bodies, the sight of the gray, rotting, sagging flesh, the horrible tone of their desperate moans.
    He’d nearly been carried off by one of them. A female monster, he thought…though Luke wasn’t certain what had given him that impression. Something about the way she moved, or her hair?
    And if a potty-mouthed woman with a bow and arrow hadn’t appeared from nowhere and nailed the creature with one of her weapons, he had no idea what would have become of him, because the zombies didn’t tear into blond people. They didn’t crack their skulls and devour their brains and flesh.
    They carried them off…to somewhere.
    â€œCome on,” he whispered, tugging Marisa behind him. “I left my pack over there.”
    The old mailbox wasn’t far from the enclosure, and it was tucked in the shadows of an old building with a veed-in roof and ivy that covered what remained of its brick walls. But they would have to move from the protective darkness spilled by the large oak tree and the nearby barrier and dash into broad moonlight in order to get to the hiding place.
    He kept a tight grip on her hand, still mentally berating himself for bringing her with him. But he couldn’t have left her behind for Ian Marck or Juniper to find. Yet he was damned sure it wasn’t any better an idea to have her outside the walls at night, with the zombies nearby.
    Something fell from the oak as he gauged the distance they’d have to run—a piece of bark—and landed on his shoulder. Luke glanced up, peering into the cluster of leaves and branches outlined against the dark blue sky. The hair lifted on the back of his neck. Was something up there?
    He couldn’t tell—there was no wind, yet the branches and leaves rustled lightly.
    Just fecking great. It would be his damned luck if they got past Ian Marck and avoided the zombies—only to be mauled by a wild cat lurking in the tree.
    And with that a possibility, he didn’t dare leave Marisa here in the shadow of the oak while he risked himself in the open. Damn.
    â€œCome on,” he said again, and pulled her after him as he dashed toward half a rusted-out car. As they dove into hiding behind the vehicle, Luke heard a soft metallic clang. It sounded just like the noise the truck door made when they climbed through the last segment of the secret passage.
    Feck. They’re on our trail. Adrenaline spiked through him, and he looked down at Marisa. She’d stilled, and her grip on his hand was tight as she turned back to see the place from where they’d emerged through the wall. But when she looked up at him from behind those sexy, nerdy glasses, her moonlit expression was remarkably calm.
    â€œMaybe the gangas will get them,” she muttered, squeezing between Luke and the rusty car as she tried to peer around for a better view.
    He gave a soft laugh and barely resisted pressing a good, solid kiss onto her soft lips. Later . The minute we’re out of this mess, he promised himself. “Let’s go. There.” He gestured to a random pile of rubble sprouting hairlike plugs of grass and a clump of daisies.
    But just as they were about to ease out into a swash of moonlight, two figures burst from the secret