Chapter Sixty-Three

Waverly.

She curled her arm around Sarah as they held each other tightly. The dim lighting did enough to see in front of them but not much more. Waverly almost preferred they couldn’t see. The storm shelter wasn't bad, but she was afraid some rabid vampire would rip the door off and kill them within seconds.

“Are you scared?” Sarah whispered.

“I’m terrified,” Waverly whispered.

Sarah nodded her head against her shoulder. “What if they don’t find Roderick?”

Waverly prayed he’d been blackmailed by his father, or was lurking in the woods somewhere close by. “He wouldn’t have left,” Waverly said into the silence. "He's your mate, Sarah."

Sarah sighed heavily. “I’m not too sure. What if he felt trapped with me around? He hardly spoke to me before he left—,”

“Sarah,” Waverly said, turning to face her. “This is not your fault. Roderick leaving had nothing to do with you. He’s drawn to you. You’re his mate. Even if you didn’t see eye-to-eye, he was just confused about how to move forward. Scared perhaps to commit."

Sarah rubbed her eyes with her fists and smiled half-heartedly at Waverly. “Well, if they do find him, I’m going to strangle him and then kiss ‘em.”

Waverly looked up at the pull-string swinging in the air. “That sounds about right. He may enjoy that, too.”

Sarah chuckled and brought both legs up to her chin. “I don’t hear anything up there. Maybe it was a fluke? A rando walking in the woods."

Waverly listened to the silence, but she knew something felt off. Whomever she saw in the woods was watching them. The ease of his movements screamed vampire. “Someone was out there,” Waverly said in confidence. "I just don't know his intentions."

Sarah rested her cheek on her knee and looked at Waverly. “Barbie is one lucky woman, you know that.”

Waverly burst out laughing and leaned her head back against the wall. That was one direction to take the conversation. “Well, considering her husband is a psychopath, I don’t know about that.”

“I’m talking about her mate, Alistair. I mean … someone get the firehose because that man is on freaking fire. He's older than my dad."

"Roderick is close behind," Waverly laughed.

"True," Sarah said.

Waverly closed her eyes. “He is good-looking. I think Barbie deserves a man that will stick up for her. One that takes mating seriously.”

“Definitely,” Sarah said.

Silence enveloped the shelter. Every few seconds Waverly could hear someone stir above them, and it sent chills down her spine.

She lifted the wooden stake in her hand and looked at it. “I don’t know if I can kill a vampire,” she admitted.

Sarah shoved her shoulder into hers. “Sure you can. If it’s two inches from your face, and going to kill you, I bet you can.”

Waverly smirked. “They’re strong. Could either of us force a stake into someone’s chest?”

Sarah shrugged. “Let’s hope we don’t have to—,”

The sound of wolves roaring and the thunder of feet above them made Waverly jump. It resembled what she assumed a stampede sounded like.

Sarah reached over and interlaced her fingers with Waverly’s. Neither of them dared to say a word. Drake asked them to stay quiet, and with the threat of death nearby, neither of them tested the theory.

Waverly tried to distinguish the different voices, but it sounded like a schoolyard. No way to tell who was yelling or asking for help.

She tightened her fingers around the stake. “It’s going to be fine,” Sarah whispered in her ear.

Waverly wanted to believe that. Someone thumped against the outside of the shelter, against the door, and both girls tucked tighter into a ball.

Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. Someone was getting close. There wasn’t anyway they didn’t know where they were. Their scents had been tossed around like candy. They were there to kill both of the girls. The thought terrified her. What would Drake tell her mother? Would they even tell her parents at all?

She shivered as another thud hit the door.

Seconds later the creak of the door echoed through the room. Waverly and Sarah both slid over and tucked down beside the small freezer in the corner of the shelter.

The person walking down the stairs seemed calm and not rabid, which she wasn’t sure which one sounded better. Sarah mumbled a prayer beneath her breath, while Waverly looked around the corner.

It was definitely a vampire. She could tell by the slender figure and the pale skin. “Come on out, girls. I won’t bite.”

His chuckle immobilized her.

He stepped over to the side of the freezer and bent down in front of them. Waverly memorized his face. She wasn’t sure why, but it felt like the right thing to do while looking death in the eyes.

The vampire appeared young by the look in his eyes. There wasn’t very much maturity about him like some of the others. His long chocolate hair was styled like someone out of a 90s boyband over his forehead.

His dark eyes were rimmed red, and his slender nose crooked from fighting. “Look-a-here,” he said, reaching out to touch Sarah’s cheek.

She pulled away and backed into Waverly. “Boss is going to be so happy that I found you so easily. Now,” he said, standing up. “Come on. I don’t want to hurt you until it’s time.”

It’s time? Time for what? What time?

Neither of them moved. He rolled his eyes and bent down to grab Sarah because she was the closest. She began to kick and scream, making him sling her over his shoulder swiftly.

Waverly mustered up what courage she had and launched at him. He pushed her across the room, knocking the breath from her lungs. She fell onto the ground, on all fours, and began to gasp for breath.

The world around her began to spin and she was sure he’d concaved her organs. “Oh, get up,” he said, kicking her in the stomach.

Sarah began to scream and kick wildly over his shoulder, but it did little to deter him. He gripped her arm and she felt her shoulder slide out of the socket.

A scream ripped from her. The pain caused red dots to blur her vision. The stake in her other hand nearly slipped from her fingers, but didn’t. She clasped it as he began to drag her toward the stairs.

With all of her might, she turned and shoved the stake into his chest with her good arm.

When he looked down and glared at her, she knew she didn’t have the strength to do it. He laughed, broke it off and hit her across the face with it.

She caught herself on the floor and watched as he pulled the rest from his chest while holding Sarah.

Panic formed in her stomach. Waverly tried to stand but a shadow cowered her to the ground. A wolf hunkered down into the stairwell of the shelter, growling and easing his way into the space. He looked uncomfortable going down because of his size, but he made it.

The vampire growled in frustration, tossed both of them to the side and faced off with the wolf.

Sarah crawled over and cradled Waverly to her side. “Are you okay?”

“I think my shoulder is dislocated,” she whispered.

The wolf leaped forward, sliding into the freezer, almost taking up the entire space. They wrestled for minutes until the wolf broke free, grabbed the vampire's head in his mouth and tore it from his shoulders, spitting it out into the corner of the room.

Waverly’s mouth dropped open in shock.

The wolf nudged Sarah with his snout to make sure he was dead. With shaky legs, she walked over and with all of her might slammed the stake into his chest. The vampire disappeared into ash on the floor. Waverly let out a deep breath she'd been holding, and cradled her face with her palms, feeling an electric zap of pain in her shoulder.

The wolf left them moments later with the sound of fighting and cries falling into the opened door.

Sarah dared a walk toward the stairs to shut the door, but Waverly stopped her. "Don't. Leave it open. They know we're here."

Sarah backed down the stairs and curled into a ball beside Waverly.

They'd wait for someone to save them, or for death to come knocking again.