Page 88 of Fangs and Fudge

Gunther’s pocket buzzed. He slipped out his phone and read it.

Gunther: How?

Me: This can’t get back to Shepard. OK?

Gunther: Tell me.

Me: I need to get Sierra out of here. I have a way to get answers from her, but Shepard would never agree with my method. Can you help distract her guard while I get her out?

Gunther eyed Sierra. I knew no love was lost between the two of them, not after she’d drugged him and definitely not after learning she’d been working at Blur to collect information for the vampires.

Gunther: If you get busted, do you promise not to tell Shepard of my involvement? I’m already on thin ice with him.

Me: I promise.

Gunther: Deal. How do you want me to help?

Me: Have a “medical emergency.” I’ll tell the guard I’ll keep an eye on Sierra while he takes care of you.

Gunther nodded and pocketed his phone.

I quickly sent a text to Cross, asking for the address. He responded with the information almost immediately.

Vena, who’d been watching over my shoulder, went over to Sierra. I stood and slowly strolled toward them but paused halfway between Sierra and Gunther. When I glanced back at Gunther, he fell from his chair, shaking in convulsions.

“Gunther!” I yelled.

The guard saw Gunther on the ground and ran toward him. Clearly not medically trained, the guard scooped up the flailing wolf.

“Watch her,” he said.

I nodded, not believing how well that had played out.

As soon as they disappeared into the building, Vena pounced on Sierra, and I hurried over to help.

“What are you doing?” Sierra demanded.

“Taking you to Master,” I whispered.

She snorted. “I don’t believe you.”

“Why else would we get rid of the guard?” I asked. “You have one second to decide if you want to escape with us or not.”

Even with her dislike of us, the promise of an escape was too good to turn down.

We ran as fast as we could around the building, ducking below windows and bolting to the car.

Vena barely waited for our doors to close before gunning the car down the driveway. I hurried to fasten my seatbelt and grabbed our phones to turn off the tracking.

“We’re okay,” I said once we were on the main road and hidden in traffic. “They won’t be able to follow us now. Just in case, though, don’t go straight there.”

My phone buzzed in my hand almost immediately.

Shepard: I know what you did. Why did you take her, and where are you going? She’s dangerous, Everly.

“He’s not wrong,” Sierra said, reading over my shoulder. “Where are we going?”

“Since you were taken, Juicy, your master’s feeding den, was ransacked by Shepard and his people. They’ve been hunting down the vampires hard since then. Your master met with us at After Curfew a few days ago, but that’s under watch now too. So we’re headed to his new place,” I said.

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