Page 56 of Crimson Storm

Shane collapsed.

“No. Oh no.”

I crawled toward him while Kelly and Heather leapt from the buggy to subdue the agent. Each gripped one of his arms.

Shane writhed on the asphalt, which was becoming soaked with his blood. I had to hold my breath to suppress a surge of thirst.

“Where were you hit? Can you tell me? Can you speak?”

Moaning and gasping for breath, he didn’t answer, just shook his head, squinting in pain and clutching his mid-section.

“Abbi—we need to get out of here,” Heather said. “I hear sirens.”

“I hear them, too,” Kelly said. They both sounded terrified.

Sure enough, the wail of sirens filled the air. Lifting my head, I saw a police car speeding our way, lights flashing.

The agent barked a harsh laugh. “You’re screwed now. I called it in before you jumped me. You’re the escapees, aren’t you? Don’t matter if you run now—we’re going to get you sooner or later. And that bullet you took contains liquid platinum. It’s working its way through your veins toward your heart right now. You’ve got about five minutes left to live, little vamp—less if you run and speed up your heart rate.”

I looked over at Shane again, who was insensible with pain at this point, then back up at my friends.

“You two go. Run home. I can’t leave him to die here alone.”

“We can’t leaveyou,” Kelly said.

“Yes—you can. You have to. Go. Get to safety. You can’t help me. Tell Kannon what happened. Tell...”Reece“...them... I didn’t make it.”

“Abbi...” Heather whined. She and Kelly stood looking at me with anguished faces.

The car was nearly upon us. Any second now the officers would jump out, guns drawn, and my friends would be arrested.

“Go,” I repeated in a louder voice. “Go. Please. I love you.”

They disappeared into the darkness outside the checkpoint’s lights just before the squad car braked in front of me and Shane.

Two police officers got out of the car. They did indeed have their guns drawn, and both were shouting for me to lie down on my belly.

My leg was aching and ice cold now. Moving it was agony, but I complied. The instant I was down, one of them jerked my arms behind me and locked a pair of platinum handcuffs around my wrists.

“The other two ran off. Headed east.” The border agent sounded out of breath. “You might be able to catch them.”

One of the officers, who looked about fifty years old and about fifty pounds over his ideal weight, said, “They’re vampires. We can’t catch them. But we’ve gother, and she’s going to tell us where they went—and anything else we want to know, aren’t you sweetheart?”

He gave my injured thigh a little kick, causing me to cry out in pain.

“You might want to get her to a hospital if you want to question her,” the agent said. “I shot her with one of those new exploding rounds. She’s full of platinum, probably won’t last too much longer.”

“Dammit. All right. We’ll have to radio the trauma center, but it’s ninety miles away. Hopefully she won’t croak in the car.”

“Please help him,” I begged. Shane was unconscious now, and by the look and smell of things was losing blood at an alarming rate.

“We’ll consider it... as long as you’re cooperative,” the other, much younger, officer said. “What is he, your own personal blood donor?”

The two officers and the border agent all chuckled, which infuriated me.

“He’s my friend. I don’t drink from humans.”

“Sure you don’t,” the older officer said.

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