Page 44 of Soulmates
“There’s an abandoned Nazi camp about a mile away.”
I give him my best“you’re shitting me” look. “No way.”
“I’m not lying. We’ll be up on the top of Pacific Palisades, and back during World War II, this crazy couple thought Germany was going to win and built a compound to support the Nazi war effort.”
I start to say something. Stop. Wonder if he’s gone crazy. Open my mouth to speak and give up again.
“There’s still one or two bunkers standing. I’ll point it out to you when we get there.”
I raise a finger. “You do that.”
After a while, we leave the freeway and crawl up the side of the hills above Santa Monica.I lose track of the turns, of the street names. When he finally stops, I can no longer see the eastern edge of the sky, because of the hills. We’re in front of a gated drive. He climbs out and presses a code into a touch pad. The gates slowly roll open.
The driveway is shorter than I expect, and from the outside in the dark, the house is at least as grand as the last safe house. Turning vampire must be good for the cash flow. He parks in front, and we both get out. I go around back to get our bags, and he presses a code into the touch pad by the front door.
“Dammit.” He cranks on the door handle. Nothing happens.
“Try it again.”
He does, but the door won’t open. “Jacques must have changed the code.”
Jacques again.I knew I didn’t like that guy. I toss my suitcase back into the SUV’s rear hatch. Trajan tries the code one more time, slamming the side of his hand on the door when it won’t open. “We can head back to the hotel, I guess.” I scan the sky. We’ve got another hour or so before sunrise. I think. I hope.
The driveway is a big loop. He pulls us forward, but the gate doesn’t open. Trajan gets out and keys in the code again. Still nothing. Through the gate’s poles, three pairs of headlightsin close successionwind up the road.
“Well, damn,” I say, mostly to myself.
“Yep. What do you bet they’re heading up here?”
Chapter Fifteen
I DON’T WANT to know who’s in those cars or why they’re headed in this direction. Every instinct in my bones is telling me to run. Run fast, and run far. We’ve got about an hour till the sun becomes a problem for my vampire companion, and a lot less time than that to get away.
“So you said something about a bunker?” It’s a struggle, but I keep my voice from cracking.
Trajan’s leaning in the driver’s side door, the dashboard lights outlining his profile. “They’ll track us.”
“Damn. I guess we better just sit here and wait for them to come get us, then.”
Despite my words, I climb out of the SUV and take a few steps along the fence. It’s about chin height. I could be over it and shifted before ol’ Tony makes up his damned mind.I crouch, preparing to leap.
“Wait.” He heads to the back of the SUV, shoves our gear out of the way, and lifts the hatch. Instead of a spare tire, there’s a small black bundle. He teases a pair of wires out of the end of it, twists them together, pushes a button, and sets the thing on the driver’s seat.
He meets my gaze, fierce and determined. “Now let’s go.”
I hoist myself up on the fence, gulping a twinge of jealousy when the vampire leaps over in one move. The ground underneath is hard and covered in brambles. Despite that, I kick off my Chuck Taylors and hand them to Trajan.
“Ouch.” I lift my foot off a thorn. “Hang on to these.”
“What are you doing?” He stares at my shoes like they might take off on their own.
I gulp hard because this is going to hurt. “Shifting. The wolf scent will blend more with the wild, and a vampire’s scent fades quickly. They’ll have more trouble tracking us that way.”
“Don’t.”
We don’t have time for an argument. I shift before he can come up with a bunch of bullshit rationalizations. And before I can talk myself out of it.
Because yeah, shifting back and forth this many times is killer.
