Free Vampire in the Woods (Merlin's Hoods Book 2) by Carl Waters Page B

anything like this. Geoff had been running from something—of that much she was certain. And he’d been terrified. His footprints were rushed and fearful. He’d been thinking of only one thing: escape. But no matter how she searched, she wasn’t able to find anything else.
    Nothing had been chasing him. Or if it was, it hadn’t been running along the ground, as any natural creature would have.
    Then the trail abruptly stopped. There was a fallen log there—something that would have looked like ideal shelter for a boy who didn’t know what was chasing him. But the rotted wood had been torn apart. More signs of fighting littered the ground … and then nothing. No matter how Angeline cast about, she couldn’t find a trace of Geoff leaving the sight, or any other footsteps.
    “I’m taking you two home,” she said suddenly. The men wouldn’t do her any good from this point on, she didn’t think. She needed to be quiet, to connect with nature, to figure exactly what had happened to the boy. And she now suspected—though she hadn’t thought of it before—that the vampires wouldn’t allow themselves to be discovered until she was alone.
    They wanted her, after all. And they wouldn’t let her find them until they thought they could defeat her.
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    A ngeline crouched down against the wall of the abandoned cottage, her heart racing. She’d been right when she thought that she wouldn’t be able to find the vampires until she was alone; the moment she’d left Piers and Louis at Piers’ cottage, she’d found a trail that didn’t belong in the woods. Something strangely light-footed, which had left almost no marks on the grass. Something that was … unnatural. She’d immediately started following the trail, and it had led her here.
    To an abandoned cottage in the woods, with four vampires inside. She hadn’t seen Geoffrey yet—hadn’t wanted to stay too long at the window—but she could hear the vampires speaking, and stayed as still as she could now, attempting to discern their plans.
    “She obviously cares for the people here,” one of them said—the one woman, as far as Angeline could tell. There was a slight, unpleasant hiss to her voice, and Angeline felt a chill crawl up her spine. “We’ll use the boy to draw her out. And then, we feed.”
    A murmur of assent from several others, but one man—the leader, Angeline thought, by his voice—interrupted their planning.
    “The boy matters not,” he hissed. “And you would do better to remember that. The Red Hood is the one we seek. We feed after we have done what we came here to do.”
    Angeline drew back into herself, her body shrinking as far as it could go. Her. They were talking about her. About using Geoffrey to draw her out. As bait. So that they could kill her. The master vampire, it seemed, had entered the forest. And found a way to force Angeline into action.
    Her hands tightened on the daggers at her belt, her nails biting into her own skin. Well, if that was how it was going to be … She smiled grimly. Draw her out, they might.
    But kill her? They obviously had no idea who she was. Or what she was capable of.

15
    F rom a distance , Angeline took a quick glance into the abandoned cottage through the dusty window. She could see Geoffrey in the corner of the room, crouched down against the wall and—from what she could see—shaking. Small wonder , she thought. The boy had probably been through more in the last few hours than he had in his entire life. He’d always been a cautious lad, and this must have been the last position he’d ever imagined for himself.
    Still, at least he was still alive. And conscious. Those were two marks in his favor. Because she would need him to be able to move, and quickly, once she started fighting the vampires. She needed to get him out of there and to safety; worrying about him during the coming battle wouldn’t be an option.
    First, she needed to get the vampires away from him. Before the master