thought she could detect a certain telltale fluidity to the walk, but it was too far away to be sure. And
there was nothing else to give her a clue about what was going on.
It could be a human, she thought. Some warehouse owner going home after a night of balancing books.
But her instinct told her differently. The hair at the back of her neck was standing on end.
And then, as the truck began to cruise off, something happened that settled her doubts and sent her
flying down the street.
The back doors of the U-Haul opened just a bit, and a girl fell out. She was slender, and a streetlight
caught her blond hair. She landed on the rubble-strewn road and lay there for an instant as if dazed. Then
she jumped up, looked around wildly, and started running in Rashel's direction.
Chapter 7
By the time Rashel intercepted the girl, the truck was already braking to turn around. Someone was
shouting, "She's out! We lost one!"
"This way!" Rashel said, reaching toward the girl with one hand and gesturing with the other.
Up close, she could see that the girl was small, with disheveled blond hair falling over her forehead. Her
chest was heaving. Instead of looking grateful, she seemed terrified by Rashel's arrival. She stared at
Rashel a moment, then she tried to dart away.
Rashel snagged her in midlunge. 'Tm your friend! Come on! We've got to go between streets, where the
truck can't follow us."
The truck was finishing its turn. Headlights swept toward them. Rashel looped an arm around the girl's
waist and took off at a dead run.
The blond girl was carried along. She whimpered but she ran, too.
Rashel was heading for the area between two of the warehouses. She knew that if there really were
vampires in that truck, her only chance was to get herself and the blond girl to her car. The vampires
could run much faster than any human.
She'd picked these two warehouses because the chain-link fence behind them wasn't too high and had
no barbed wire at the top. As they reached it, Rashel gave the girl a little shove. "Climb!"
"I can't!" The girl was trembling and gasping. Rashel looked her over and realized that it was probably
the literal truth. The girl didn't look as if she'd ever climbed anything in her life. She was wearing what
seemed to be party clothes and high heels.
Rashel saw the truck's headlights in the street and heard the engine slowing.
"You have to!" she said. "Unless you want to go back with them." She interlocked her fingers, making a
step with her hands. "Here! Put your foot here and then just try to grab on when I bounce you up."
The girl looked too scared not to try. She put her foot in Rashel's hand-just as the headlights switched
off.
It was what Rashel had expected. The darkness was an advantage to the vampires; they could see much
better in it than humans. They were going to follow on foot.
Rashel took a breath, then heaved upward explosively as she exhaled. The blond girl went sailing toward
the top of the fence with a shriek.
A bare instant later, Rashel launched herself at the top of the fence, grabbed it, and swung her legs over.
She dropped to the ground almost noiselessly and held her arms up to the blond girl.
'Let go! I'll catch you."
The girl, who was clambering awkwardly over the top, looked over her shoulder. "I can't-"
"Do it!"
The girl dropped. Rashel broke her fall, set her on her feet, and grabbed her arm above the elbow.
"Come on!"
As they ran, Rashel scanned the buildings around them. She needed a corner, someplace where she
could get the girl behind her and safe. She could defend a corner-if there weren't more than two or three
vampires.
"How many of them are there?" she asked the girl.
"Huh?" The girl was gasping.
"How-many-are-there?"
"I don't know, and I can't run anymore!" The girl staggered to a halt and bent double, hands on her
knees, trying to get her breath back. "My legs... are just like jelly."
It was no use, Rashel realized in dismay. She couldn't expect this bit of blond fluff to out-sprint a
vampire. But if they stopped here in the open, they were dead. She cast a desperate look around.
Then she saw it. A Bostonian tradition-an abandoned car. In this city, if you got tired of your car you
just junked it on the nearest embankment. Rashel blessed the unknown benefactor who'd left this one.
Now, if only they could get in....
"This way!" She didn't wait for the girl to protest, but grabbed her and dragged her. "Come on, you can
do it! Make it to that car and you don't have to run anymore."
The words seemed to inspire the girl into a last effort. They reached the car and Rashel saw that one of
the back windows was broken out cleanly.
"In!"
The girl was small-boned and went through the window easily. Rashel dove after her. Then she shoved
her down into the leg space in front of the seat and hissed, "Don't make a sound."
She lay tensely, listening. She barely had time to breathe twice before she heard footsteps.
Soft footsteps, stealthy as a prowling tiger's. Vampire footsteps. Rashel held her breath and waited.
Closer, closer... Rashel could feel the other girl shaking. She watched the dark ceiling of the car and
tried to plan a defense if they were caught.
The footsteps were right outside now. She heard the grate of glass not ten feet from the car door.
Just please don't let them have a werewolf with them, she thought. Vampires might see and hear better