Hunted (15 page)

Lanie felt a fresh shard of terror slice through her.  He’d…he’d
followed
her to the park?  That feeling of eyes on her…all day she’d had that feeling of someone watching her…had it been…him?  Had this man been following her around town the entire day?

“I’m trying to help you,” the young man told her, his gaze burning into hers.  “After you were in the woods yesterday…you have to believe me.  I’m the good guy.” 

Lanie almost could not believe her own ears.  This man—who had her pressed up against the trunk of a tree, who had his hand held down over her mouth to keep her quiet, who she had found standing over a body in the darkness, who had admitted that the person he was standing over was…dead, who had also admitted to following her into the park—expected her to believe that he was the
good guy
?

Did
she believe he was the good guy?  She wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t trying to get away from him, was she? 

The young man’s head abruptly shot up and his gaze flew past Lanie, going off into the darkness behind her.  Every muscle in his body seemed to go rigid and his expression was suddenly as hard and cold as a stone slab. 

“You have to go!” he growled at her, dropping his hand from her mouth and taking a step away from her.  “Get back to the people over there!  Go!  Now!”

Stunned, Lanie let out a gasp, blinked, and then realized that she was looking at nothing but darkness.  The young man was…gone.  He was just suddenly…gone.  With another choked gasp, Lanie stumbled away from the tree, her gaze shooting around, trying to pinpoint the man through the gloom pressing in on her, but she couldn’t find him.  There wasn’t even a glimpse of him.  She shot a quick look toward the shape still lying on the ground several yards away, but he wasn’t there, either.

Pausing for only a second, Lanie spun on her heel and bolted back in the direction of the memorial service and the refuge of the crowd of people gathered there.

Maybe the young man wasn’t lying.  Maybe she could trust him because he’d had the perfect chance to slit her throat and leave her lying on the ground with the other girl, but he hadn’t.  He’d let her go and told her to run back to the people at the candle light vigil.  Would a killer do that?   Would a killer allow his victim to run away and get help? 

She didn’t know, but since he had allowed her to go free, she meant to make it back to her dad as fast as she could so he could come back to try and help the person she was leaving all alone out in the darkness.

Lanie was flying through the night, racing through the maze of trees, her feet hitting the ground hard and fast and her heartbeat keeping time with her footsteps.  She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, knowing that if she made it close enough, just close enough for someone to hear her scream, she would be fine.  Everything would be fine.

But, then the sound of heavy footsteps pounding the ground behind her fell on her ears and her heart plummeted into her stomach.  No!  Not again!  He’d told her to run!  He would not do this to her again!  She’d believed him! 

At the same instant that thought ended, a heavy weight crashed into Lanie, sending her toppling sideways through the air.  For a brief second, everything was all scrambled up, the trees and the ground traded places with where she knew the sky should be.  She was being whipped around so fast that her mind couldn’t keep up and the world was blotted out.  It was only for a second that she was lost in the blackness, though, and then her sight returned with all the suddenness of someone flipping a light switch and she found herself looking up at the…person who had her…lifted up into his arms.  A person she did not recognize, but a person who had such vivid, endlessly blue eyes…that suddenly…nothing else seemed to…matter. 

Not even the fact that this person was cradling her in his arms so that he could carry her away into the night.

Lanie knew that she should open her mouth to scream, and she tried.  She parted her lips and drew in a breath, but not a sound would come out.  She knew that she should fight, that she should try to get out of his arms, try and get free so that she could get back to her dad, and she tried.  She tried to force her body to move, to thrash and kick and claw, but her body would not obey. 

She couldn’t do anything but stare into those endless, gleaming blue eyes.  Anyone with eyes like those, with eyes so deep and vibrant and…mesmerizing, couldn’t possibly be bad.  Anyone with eyes like those couldn’t possibly want to hurt her.

The man with the glistening blue eyes gave her a reassuring smile and she only then noticed just how handsome he was.  He was pale, even in the darkness she could see how very pale he was.  He had chiseled features, a square jaw, broad forehead, high cheekbones.  His hair was blonde, so blonde that it was nearly white.  In the darkness, that nearly white hair almost seemed like a glowing halo around his head.  Yes.  A halo.  And the way he was smiling at her, so gently, so kindly, gave his handsome face an angelic sort of look.

This man was the most beautiful man she had ever seen.

No.  No, she was wrong.  There was another man, just one, who was even more beautiful.   A man with a ruggedly handsome face, sparkling green eyes, a stubble covered jaw, and a tangle of wheat colored hair.  That young man was far more beautiful than this pale, blue eyed person with the halo of white hair, this person who was…carrying her away through the night.

Just as that realization hit her, the fear that she should have been feeling during the few seconds she’d been in the man’s arms surged back over her, but it was too late.  The man suddenly bolted forward through the darkness, taking her with him.

Before she could open her mouth to scream, another sound rent the air.  It was an animal like snarl that seemed to come up from the very depths of hell, shaking Lanie’s insides and filling her soul with cold terror.  Just as her mind tossed up an image of something slavering and savage, a shape flew out of the night, crashing headlong into Lanie and the man carrying her.

Lanie felt the impact in every part of her body, felt the air leave her lungs, and then felt herself leave the arms that were holding her.  For a brief moment, she was hurdling through the air with her mind screaming at her to brace for the impact that was surely coming.  A breath later, she hit the ground hard enough to plunge her into total blackness.

With startling suddenness, Lanie’s body jerked itself into motion and she sat straight up, her gaze whipping about, searching the gloom for the pale man who’d been whisking her off into the night, searching for the shape that had come flying at them, but all around her the park was empty.  She was alone in the darkness.

Her mind reeling and her entire body numb, Lanie struggled to her feet, feeling the world spinning around her.  Taking only a brief second to steady herself, she bolted forward, confusion and desperation rising up to overwhelm her, the only thought in her mind of making it back to the safety of the crowd across the park, back to the safety of her dad’s arms. 

She managed to make it a few yards before she heard the sound of fast footsteps hitting the ground behind her.  Again!

A sob flew out of Lanie just as those footsteps reached her and hard hands seized her shoulders.  She was lifted off her feet and jerked backwards through the air with enough force to cause her organs to slam against her ribcage.  She felt herself being spun around and when the spinning abruptly stopped, she was stunned to find a strong arm wrapped tightly around her chest, holding her firmly against the hard wall of someone’s body.  It took her a several full moments to realize the arm that wasn’t wrapped around her was held straight out in front of her, and the hand at the end of that arm was clutching a small…crossbow?

“He’s coming!  Stay still!” the deep voice ordered in her ear and Lanie went rigid.

The arm around her tightened to the point where she felt her ribcage compressing and for a long minute, she stood, crushed against the man holding her, her mind stalled and her gaze glued to the crossbow that was pointed out into the darkness, a small piece of her awareness taking in the fact that it wasn’t an arrow loaded into the weapon, but…something else. 

The man holding the crossbow had said not to move, so she would not move.  She would do what he said because…she trusted this young man. 

The seconds began to tick by, with not a sound to be heard but Lanie’s ragged, choked breathing and the night winds playing through the tree tops.  Frozen, Lanie went from staring at the raised crossbow to staring into the darkness straight ahead, searching, terror washing over her in numbing waves as she expected to see some sort of monstrous beast running at them.  But, she saw nothing.  Not a sign of movement, not a flicker of a shadow out there among the trees.

And then suddenly, a sound fell on Lanie’s ears, one that at first she thought might be thunder in the distance, but it was quickly moving closer and closer still until she realized with a painful jolt that the noise wasn’t thunder in the sky, but footsteps on the ground, coming at them so fast that a shriek was torn from her throat. 

The shape that came swooping out of the night was on top of them before she blink, blocking out her view of the darkness, filling her vision with the startling image of a twisted face and grasping hands.  Before her shriek had even died away, the crossbow went off with a whoosh of air and a deafening roar exploded, shaking the ground beneath Lanie’s feet and within a split second that twisted face and those grasping hands coming at her lurched backward and then was…gone, melting into the shadows as quickly as it had come soaring out of them.

“Damn!” the young man swore in Lanie’s ear.  “Damn it!”  The arm crushing Lanie’s chest was suddenly loosened and she was whipped around to face the young man, who was looking at her with an expression of rage.  “Get back to your friends!  Go!”

Lanie nodded, but her mind was completely stalled at that point and her body refused to move.

“You have to get out of here!” he ordered, tightening his hand on her shoulder and giving her a little shake.  “You have to get home and you have to stay there!” he ordered, his gaze burning into hers.  “Go home and do not step outside your door until you hear from me!  Do you understand?”

Lanie nodded again, trying to remember to breathe, trying to remember that she was awake and not having some horrible nightmare.

“He can’t get to you if you stay inside your house,” the young man repeated, shooting a glance past Lanie and into the darkness.

Lanie nodded for the third time and finally managed to get her body to respond.  She turned away from the young man and took a couple of halting steps forward, but a hand on her arm stopped her short.

“Wait!” the young man bit out, whipping her back around to face him.  “I know your father is the sheriff, but you can’t tell him what happened here!  He can’t get involved in this!  Is that clear?  You saw it with your own eyes!  He has to stay out of it or he
will
get himself killed!”

Yes.  She had seen…
it
…with her own eyes. 

“Now, go!  Run!” the young man ordered roughly and that said, he bolted forward and within the blink of an eye, he was nowhere to be seen and Lanie was once again alone in the darkness.

After hesitating for only a moment, Lanie spun in the direction of the memorial service and her body took off at a dead run, her focus set on making it back to the safety of the candle light and the crowd of people gathered there.  Her heart was pounding in her ears and fear was licking at her insides like the flames of an out of control fire as she flew through the darkness, running faster than she had ever ran in her life, expecting to hear footsteps pounding after her and feel harsh hands grabbing at her.  That possibility caused her to burst forward, her legs pumping so fast it felt as though she was barely skimming the ground.

Her lungs were burning from strain and her muscles were screaming out from the effort of being forced to sustain a breakneck speed they weren’t used to, but she kept going.  She could not stop until she reached the safety of the people gathered across the park.

It seemed to take an eternity of running and running, an eternity of waiting to feel hands on her, ripping her backwards into the night, before the glow of the candle light finally came into view and when it did, even though her lungs were struggling for air, a sob burst out of her.  She was close.  So close!  Close enough that someone might hear her scream!  Only, she didn’t scream.  She kept running, her feet pounding the earth, her heart threatening to burst out of her chest.  She kept her attention on that golden glow of light, watching it grow in size, watching it until the shapes of people came into view.  She ran onward, ignoring her searing lungs and her throbbing muscles, running until she was just out of reach of that circle of golden light, until she was within only a few yards of the large crowd of people, people who would help her if she needed it, people who could hear her if she screamed.