The Calling (Darkness Rising 2)

No--the window had been broken from the inside. A pop bottle lay on the sill, cola dripping down.

That had been Daniel's plan. Smash the windows. Then, after our captors raced around the front, thinking we were trying to escape, he'd run through the side door and pretend to be the last one out--that the rest of us had already made it to the woods while, really, we were hiding inside.

I leaped to my feet in time to see the side door swinging shut.

"Who--?" I began.

"Guys!" Hayley shouted outside. "Wait up! Please, don't leave me here."

Corey ran for the side door. Daniel caught him, hauling him back. Corey took a swing at him. Daniel ducked and wrenched Corey's arm behind his back.

"She did this for us," Daniel hissed. "Don't blow it or she's given herself up for nothing. She'll be okay. We'll get her back."

Corey hesitated. Then he dropped his chin, and let Daniel steer him toward the trapdoor. Sam and I followed. I won't say I didn't glance over at that side door. I won't say I didn't feel like a heartless bitch, listening to them chase Hayley, knowing they would catch her and hold her captive, like Nicole. But Daniel was right. She'd made this sacrifice for us, and she hadn't done it hoping we'd all be taken captive with her.

TWENTY

DANIEL OPENED THE trapdoor leading into the crawl space, then prodded us inside, whispering "Move, move!" Sam and I burrowed past the boxes. Corey was right behind us. Then the front door opened, bell jangling.

Daniel jumped in, still holding the broken latch, and closed the trapdoor as one set of footsteps circled the shop. They stopped at the storage room door. Daniel tensed, ready to leap if the trapdoor opened.

"Clear!" Moreno yelled.

The steps crossed the store. The bell sounded again.

"Get in farther," Daniel whispered. "We need to hide better."

"Didn't you hear him?" Corey whispered. "We're clear."

"They'll look outside some more. Then they'll come back in."

The guys shifted the boxes, then we crawled in behind them. It was far from an ideal hiding spot. The crawl space wasn't even three feet deep. Dirt floor. I didn't want to think about what else was alive--or dead--down here. I twisted around and stretched out on my stomach. Sam huddled beside me, hugging her knees.

The guys wiggled backward to us, as they moved the boxes and cases of beer, stacking them so we were hidden.

How long should we wait? That was the question. Finally Sam asked it out loud

"Until we think it's safe," I whispered.

"Then twenty minutes more," Daniel said. "To be sure."

When it finally seemed as if anyone searching for us had to be gone, I told Corey to check his watch. He was just doing that when I heard the sound of the front doorbells.

Footsteps followed. Still only one set. Again they circled the shop.

"Definitely empty," Moreno said. "They've got to be out there."

A voice came through his radio. Then the door bells jangled again.

"They're trying to use the dog." It was Antone. "But she's not cooperating. She just lays down and growls at anyone who touches her."

Good girl.

"Well, there's no one in here," Moreno said. "What we really need is the Enwright witch's sensing spell and a werewolf tracker."

"Preaching to the choir, buddy. I've been hounding head office for two days now. They finally agreed to send the witch. No chance on a werewolf, though."

The door to the back room opened.