He curled his fingers in hers and pressed his forehead to hers. “Yes, by the grace of God and a fae and a lifetime’s worth of luck, you will.”
“We all will, thanks to you,” she said.
“Well actually it was thanks to a lot of people. I’ll tell you something, though.”
Because the twitch of his lip said he wanted her to, she asked, “What?”
“You are banned from mission planning for life.”
She gave a short bark of laughter. “Deal.”
Eyes sobering, he brought his other hand up to cradle her cheek, “I couldn’t take losing you again.”
Embry’s heart twisted as she thought of what she still had to do, even after everything he’d risked. She framed his face and laid her lips over his. His mouth was soft, reverential. Embry wanted to linger, to savor. But they’d had their night. It would have to be enough. She pulled back. “I love you.”
Over Gage’s shoulder, Embry caught sight of her father staring at them. He stood motionless, silent, a look of speculation in his eyes. Despite everything they’d been through, a part of her still felt eighteen and like she’d been caught doing the forbidden.
When Gage started to answer in kind, she cleared her throat and brushed a finger over his lips. “We need to go. We’re not out of danger yet. I guarantee this ventilation shaft lets out somewhere within the perimeter fencing of the base. We need to figure out where we are in relation to the guards they have posted. And you know they have to have doubled the guards to keep us from getting out—unless they’re just stupid and think we’ll stay stuck in that room.”
“I’m not willing to bank on them being stupid,” said Gage, getting to his feet. He tugged her to her feet. “Or that our luck will keep holding. Everybody up. We’ve gotta get moving. There’s only an hour or two until sunrise, and we need the dark.”
Whatever her father thought about she and Gage being involved was pushed aside as they picked a bearing and began herding their group of refugees down the mountain to the west. It was too quiet. Other than the shuffle of feet and the patter of loose stones as they rolled down the slope, there were none of the expected night noises of crickets, cicadas, or nocturnal predators. And there was no sound of soldiers.
Embry didn’t like it.
The perimeter fence, when they reached it, was unmanned. Because he could absorb the shock if it was live, Orrin wrapped his hand around the wire. He shook his head. “It’s dead. We can cut right through.”
“I’m not waiting to cut.” Having freshly fed, the vampire made short work of tearing through the fencing. Then she strode through as if stepping out on 5th Avenue.
The others hurried after her.
Embry hung back, hesitating.
“What’s wrong?” asked Gage, coming back for her.
She shook her head, unable to put her finger on it. “Something’s not right.” Turning, she scanned the mountainside looking for anything amiss.
Gage strode back to the gap in the fence. “Orrin, you take lead. Head west with the others. The nearest town is a good thirty miles from here. But I think there’s an Indian reservation closer than that as the crow flies. You might be able to get a lift there.”
“Aren’t you coming?” asked the fae.
“We’re doing some scouting first. Y’all go ahead. We’ll catch up.”
When he came back, Adan was with him.
“You sense something.” It wasn’t a question, and Embry appreciated that her father wasn’t dismissing her gut feeling.
“This is too easy,” she said. “We took out a lot of men, but not all of them, not by a long shot. Why aren’t they out here patrolling?”
“Let’s check the fence line a ways,” said Gage.
“Okay, we’ll split up—”
“No way in hell. We stay together.” She started to interrupt but Gage plowed on. “Non-negotiable, Ember. None of us goes anywhere alone.” He swung his gaze to Adan. “That includes you.”
Adan nodded in accession.
Working as a unit, they moved north, following the fence line for a good half-mile. Their sweep turned up nothing. Reversing, they backtracked, then headed south. A quarter mile from the hole in the fence, they found the first body. Dressed in fatigues, finger still clutching the trigger of his weapon, the soldier’s neck was cleanly broken. Judging from the tracks in the dirt, he hadn’t even put up a fight. A hundred yards further, they found another. This one was leaning against the fence, arms wrapped around his gun, head nodding as if he were just asleep.