The Messenger

44

The report was deafening in the confined space of the house, but Daniel saw that Evan’s aim was true-Hawthorne crumpled to the floor. They hurried forward.

Although he was a fair shot himself, Daniel preferred not to use firearms. Gunshots were loud and messy. But looking at Tyler Hawthorne, whose eyes stared up, unseeing, Daniel couldn’t argue with their effectiveness. Hawthorne’s bloodstained fingers clutched weakly at his side. He strained to draw fading, burbling breaths. Evan had wisely aimed for his body-in the dark, a head would be a hard target to hit.

Hawthorne coughed softly once, blood pouring out over his chin and neck as he did, then closed his eyes. He didn’t draw another breath.

“Get the truck,” Evan ordered. “Hurry. We have to get our asses out of here before that damned dog comes after him.”

“Or the police,” Daniel said, stepping over Hawthorne’s body. “The girl is probably calling the cops right now.”

The truck was nearby, but Daniel ran as if the devil himself were after him, which, he thought, might not be far from the truth.

Amanda stifled a scream as she heard the gunfire, and fought an urge to run toward danger.

He can’t be killed. He can’t be killed.

But what if Adrian, with all his dabbling in the occult and centuries’ greater experience, knew some secret weakness of Tyler’s? Perhaps the bullets were coated with some poison or were made of silver or something. Wouldn’t it be just like Adrian to have had, from the very beginning, some way of killing Tyler? He wouldn’t leave the ability to reclaim his immortality to chance. He would make sure he could get his powers back from Tyler.

She saw a man run from the house, but he didn’t have Rebecca or Tyler with him. She forced herself to wait.

Then she saw a familiar truck roaring down the driveway, the one she had seen in the desert, the one that had struck Tyler. She fumbled the cell phone open and called Alex.

“Tyler?” Alex answered. “What the hell is going on? We just heard gunfire.”

“It’s Amanda. Um…thought I’d ring. Tyler said to tell you to let Shade loose.”

“Good, because just now, with the help of two of my biggest men, I barely managed to stop him from smashing through a window.” She yelled to a guard to let the dog loose.

“Also,” Amanda said, “no police. That’s really important.”

There was a brief silence, then Alex said, “Okay, but I can’t guarantee that someone else in the canyon didn’t already call them.”

“I know. Thanks. I have to go.”

She hung up, then watched in alarm as a tall man emerged from the house, carrying Tyler over his shoulder. The man hastily took Tyler’s lifeless body to the truck, then ran back toward the house.

No…dear God, please let him be all right! Let him live…

She heard a rustling sound behind her-Shade was running flat out, moving with amazing speed. He passed her as a black blur. She followed him as quickly as she could.

Evan dropped Hawthorne to the ground at the back of the big pickup truck and lifted the camper-shell door. He then lowered the tailgate and tossed Hawthorne in the back. He thought he heard Hawthorne groan-but that was impossible. He had felt for a pulse before taking him out of the house-the guy was dead.

Daniel hadn’t left the cab of the truck. Lot of help he had been with all of this. Evan shut the tailgate and hurried back into the house. Hell if he was going to leave any witnesses behind.

Amanda had just reached level ground when she saw Shade gather himself and leap over the tailgate of the truck. Slowly, the truck began to move.

“Stop!” she shouted, but the truck picked up speed.

Evan would be safe, Daniel thought, now that the dog was in the truck. Even with the camper door up, the dog wouldn’t leave Hawthorne, and although Evan probably wouldn’t figure out that Daniel had just saved his life, he’d find a way home. If Evan had done what he was supposed to do and climbed back into the truck, they could have driven off without the dog as a passenger.

Adrian would know what to do with the animal.

Adrian would protect Daniel from the dog.

Something within him argued that he was a fool to believe this was true.

He looked in the mirror and saw the girl running after the truck.

He sped up.