I stood up. My anger at Gabe’s suffering bubbled into rage. Who did this guy think he was? My fox could outrun him. I knew every hollow in this county.
“Having trouble, little fox?” Max flashed his fangs at me again. “You still don’t get it, do you? No wonder shifters reproduce so quickly. Their brains lag behind.”
“You think I’m pregnant?” I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to stop my shaking. “That is impossible.” I looked from him to my friend writhing in the snow. “Gabe?”
“Something is different about you. You don’t smell the same.”
“For fuck’s sake, stop staying that!” I snapped.
“It’s true.” Max said. “Come with me or I’ll break your neck here. My mistress won’t be pleased with me, but I’m tired of your whining.”
His mistress.
Oh, fuck. Max was working with the succubus. Well, that made sense. And she thought I was pregnant? Not good at all. She was wrong, but either way, being wanted by a succubus is a very bad thing.
If I resisted, Max would kill me. If I went with him, the succubus would kill me. The only thing that would buy me was time. Time to shift into my fox, time for me to escape, or time for Evan to find me.
“We can’t leave Gabe here.”
“It takes a very long time for ghouls to freeze.”
I knelt next to Gabe. His face was scrunched in pain. I pressed my hand to his arm and mouthed “Get Evan” to him. A far as plans went, this one sucked.
Max drove the snowmachine toward the mountains. Even without my fox, the land breeze smelled piney. The blanket was better than nothing, but I was still getting pretty cold.
“Hey, you got another blanket around?” I asked into my helmet microphone. This vamp liked expensive toys.
“You should have a snowsuit on,” Max replied in my ear.
“Next time I’m abducted, I’ll try to dress more appropriately.”
Max slowed the snowmachine.
Uh-oh.Dread accumulated inside me. Had he decided to kill me anyway?
He got off his machine.
I did not. If he wanted to kill me, he was going to have to work at it.
Max pocketed the key and unzipped his one-piece snowsuit.
“What are you doing?”
“Wear this. You’ll be warmer.” He climbed out of the suit and handed it to me.
OK.Yes, I would be warmer, but he was going to die out here pretty quickly. Given the current situation, I wasn’t going to cry about it.
I shrugged into his suit without further discussion. If he got cold enough, I would stand a much better chance of escape. I zipped the suit up. It was too long but blissfully warm.
I climbed back on the machine, waiting for Max. If only he’d left the key in the ignition. I got none of the breaks my detectives did.
All thought was wiped from my brain. Max stood in snow swirling around his knees wearing a leather collar, assless chaps, thigh-high boots, and not much else.Thatwas what he was wearing under this snowsuit?
Before I could formulate any of the questions crowding my brain, a voice behind me said, “You’re late.”
Shit. This day just kept getting worse.
I turned around to find a familiar fur coat and hat. Their owner’s face was now visible to me. She looked like a Russian grandmother to a mobster.